So... I fired G3Rain1. Not because he was doing a bad job (actually, I thought he was a great editor), but rather I felt I was more of a nuisance than anything, giving him a chapter to beta every five or so months. Well, I didn't want to disappoint anyone (except maybe myself) so I freed from this menial task - he had his own life to live, stories to write, chaps to beta read. I've also decided it would be better for me to release short chaps rather than try to write long ones... so yeah.
Hope you guys enjoy the sixth chapter of Escape, Fate!
Metroid Retribution: Escape
Chapter VI – Fate
The space pirate lunged at the orange huntress, rage devouring his eyes. He recklessly hacked at Samus, who swiftly evaded the attack. Twisting around, her right forearm leading the rest of her body, she shot thrice at the assailant. Two caught the pirate in the chest before he regained his balance and dodged the last ball. His eyes had acquired a steely, calculating look, as if Samus' shots had brought him back to his senses. The space pirate now warily strafed around her, and she tensed. She hated when her enemies weren't going berserk – that usually meant their wits were collected.
The pirate managed to prove her conjecture: no longer was he blindly angry, but rather cold and unreadable. Abruptly, he rushed towards Samus, and she could see he was aiming not at her as a whole, but her legs. She quickly brought back her foot, moments before the pirate dug his dagger into the ground. However, rather than following up with a tackle as Samus had expected, the space pirate lashed at her with an energy beam from its wrist and slashed diagonally, immediately taking out forty units of her current energy tank. Stunned for a second, Samus received a second hack from the pirate before intercepting shots from above halted his assault. He retrieved the dagger from the ground and whipped his arm around, throwing the knife. It flew through the air with a shrill, piercing sound and punctured the source of the icy blasts: Noxus' Judicator.
Cursing at the worsening circumstances, the pirate gave a guttural growl and – seemingly – scanned for ways to escape the situation. Samus quickly took advantage of the space pirate's distraction to counterattack, striking with a left hook and socking the side of the pirate's face. Before she could continue her attack the pirate took hold of her shoulders and kneed her in the gut. Tired of getting hurt by him, Samus morphed into a ball and boosted between his legs, laying a power bomb next to them. A second later she was standing triumphantly over the fallen space pirate, who was too weakened to fight.
The next thing she knew, fireballs were raining down on Samus. "Get out of here. He's our bounty," Spire's comment accompanying his shots.
Though she realized she was outnumbered, and thus outmatched, Samus felt she couldn't just leave without getting some answers. It couldn't possibly be by chance that she met up with these two again – on the same side.
And then the world went dark.
Valerie Davis and Samuel LeTania, seated as comfortably as possible in the largest available evacuation pod of the GFS Nemesis, readied themselves by reviewing the mission itinerary.
"Okay, so first thing we do when we land on Tivus is-"
"Yeah, I know," Sam interrupted. "Take note of environment, record readings of humidity and temperature, something related to climate, all the ordinary stuff those research scientists do."
Valerie glared at him. "Well then, so if you're so smart, why don't you recite the rest of our orders?"
"Eh, easy as pie. But how about I don't and say I did?"
Valerie just sighed as the escape pod prepared for launch.
Meanwhile, Daniel had just finished relaying his orders to the rest of the crew. To himself, he wondered what interest the admiral could have in the little-known planet of Tivus and why he wanted Dan to send two of his finest to do some reconnaissance activity, but shrugged the probing thought away as a subordinate asked him a question. He only hoped Sam and Val would be able to get to the Tetra galaxy and meet up with the task force safely.
Samus had absolutely no idea how much time had lapsed since the collapse when she finally awoke, but she figured it had been several hours based on how rested she felt. As she got up her legs ached, but Samus couldn't deny she felt energized. It was as if she had taken a relaxing nap on a silky soft bed, and then woken to the supple, melodious whine of a dog.
The first thing she noticed around her was the lack of the space pirate and the other hunters, which led her to believe they had taken it away as their bounty. Whether or not that actually concerned her was another question, but it caused her to hesitate on believing Adam's intel. She was starting to doubt if the Federation were the only ones on this planet.
However, she pushed aside the disturbing idea and began to exit the temple – it had been a waste of time after all.
Not sure if you guys have noticed, but I've kinda been losing interest in this story; hence, the lack of updates and shorter length. That'll change in the upcoming months, however!
