Metroid Prime: Renegade
Chapter 9
"Why did you need Aran?"
The words lingered in the stillness. Unaii shut his mouth as if surprised by his own audacity, reminding himself of the dark red bruises that lingered on his body.
Re-Kuluk's long, narrow fingers tapped on the smooth table pensively. The starship captain did not look so good himself. The burns from Samus Aran's cannon were still fresh on his face. He had aged considerably since they parted two years ago. Unaii had not even recognized Re-Kuluk, his own brother-in-law, when Re-Kuluk found Samus and Unaii.
Unaii watched that old face meticulously, unsure whether Re-Kuluk's temper had cooled or merely recessed. But Re-Kuluk's unusually listless expression offered no hints.
"For the same reason you need any bounty hunter," he said plainly. "To kill."
"You have a whole destroyer for killing," he said.
"Not for this kill."
Re-Kuluk's hand slid across the table, and he tapped a few keys. After a dim flicker of light, a hologram appeared between the two Zebesians: the rotating torso of a Zebesian with the strangest armor Unaii had ever seen. The polished, bright metal sparkled brightly with a radiant orange heart. Re-Kuluk's red Phazon armor, brilliant alone, seemed like lead next to diamond.
But the armor only caught Unaii's attention for a second; whoever this Zebesian was, his eyes shone an eerie silver instead of the standard amber.
"Ark-Magnus," Re-Kuluk spat, as if the name rose bile in his throat.
"Ark?" Unaii, unable to tear his gaze from the eyes, tensed at the clan named. He knew of a hundred clans, but had never heard a clan that went by the Zebesian word for "titan."
"I had never heard of it either," Re-Kuluk said. "I still do not know its origins."
Re-Kuluk punched a key violently. The hologram faded, leaving the room once again to the faint starlight.
"Deep space," Re-Kuluk explained. "They conquered the other clans and came to some sort of agreement with the Federation. There is peace now, but not for our people. They slave under the rule of Ark, in places far from the stars."
"How is this possible? I was on the hunt for two years, no more, and our species spans many light years."
"You do not know?" Re-Kuluk said.
Good question, Unaii thought. For the last two years, his universe had been the hunt for Samus Aran. Anything and everything else had been mere background noise to him. What knowledge he had of the new political organization of the known universe was limited to his brief, desperate collaboration with a squad of Republic ships who were also hunting for Aran. At the time, he had barely noticed the regime change.
The thought of it now, though, made him uncomfortable. He knew so little of the situation. Was the Republic so malevolent as Re-Kuluk had conjectured during their last meeting? The Republic, after all,had wanted to see the Hunter dead as badly as Unaii did.
But Unaii, recalling his bruises, concealed his skepticism. "I've been on the hunt, Re-Kuluk. Tell me, how did one clan manage to conquer them all?"
"Their weapons were magnificent," the surzak said. "They killed hundreds. Thousands. Great rays of light. Only the Federation could match them."
"Did they assault the Federation?"
"When it got in the way. But Ark-Magnus had little interest in the humans."
"Then how did they ally with them?"
As he said it, he again considered the absurdity of the situation. For petitioning for a cease-fire with humans, he had been considered a radical among other surzaks. For learning a little of human language, he had been considered insane. Achieving total peace, had had always assumed, would involve an incremental, meticulous process spanning many lifetimes. Yet in a mere two years, a new, mysterious clan had swept in and had forged not only peace, not only a pact, not only an alliance, but apparently a joint government – the Republic.
"Relations were already good," Re-Kuluk said. "The Federation sat and watched as Ark-Magnus and his kin ripped into our warriors. After conquering all the clans, Ark had spent and stretched its resources. It could not afford a war with the Federation, when our own kin remained mutinous and honorable."
Unaii noted Re-Kuluk's usage of the word "kin" to mean the Zebesians of the known galaxy rather than Re-Kuluk's own clan. Strange times, he thought.
"Millions of our Zebesians remained after the wars" Re-Kuluk continued, "and instead of mercifully exterminating them, Ark-Magnus formed a pact with the Federation. Coupled with a revolution in the Federation, the two factions merged into a singular but highly divisive government led by a High Chancellor – a human – and Ark-Magnus. Together, they have put the billions of remaining Zebesians into slavery."
The mention of slavery instantly crushed Unaii's hopes. The Republic had wanted Samus dead as bad as he did, true. But he'd side even with Re-Kuluk before tolerating a slave whip.
"It is true," Re-Kuluk said. "Our people toil in mining facilities, away from the stars their gods. Some clans were spared from such indecency -- obliterated."
Unaii could read the fate of his own clan in Re-Kuluk's eyes.
"I did not know there had been survivors," he said. He had assumed everybody but him had died when Zebes had been destroyed.
"Had you stayed, you would have died honorably alongside many of your warriors," Re-Kuluk said. "Instead, you sought vengeance and lost your honor."
Re-Kuluk's rebuke left Unaii unfazed. Sure, a faint spark of guilt tugged at his vitals, but it was a small price to pay for rebalancing the universe. For administering justice.
"What do you need me to do?" Unaii said.
"What the Hunter was supposed to do. Kill Ark-Magnus."
"And then what?"
"I don't care what you do after it is done," he said. "But, with Ark in panic over the loss of their surzak, I will take the initiative, free the Zebesians, and unite all of our brothers. Mathas, my brother."
Unaii looked up, surprised. Mathas. It was Unaii's own invention – stitched together with the Zebesian words for "no," "war," and "eternity."
"Mathas," Unaii quietly echoed.
"Have you not see what I have done, Unaii? Look around you. These Zebesians hail from all sectors from known space. If they can band together, why not the rest?"
It began to make sense to Unaii, then. Re-Kuluk had said before the destroyer ingested Unaii's ship that the empire would never die. Before Unaii left to find Samus Aran two years ago, Re-Kuluk had tried to conquer nearby clans, with limited success. His efforts gave him a small empire—the Zebesian Empire—that was doomed to fail even before Ark-Magnus' march of destruction; Zebesians are intensely loyal to their own individual surzaks. But the revolution had broken Zebesian loyalty. Ark-Magnus had scattered Zebesians across known space. There was no such thing as a clan anymore. No such thing as a surzak.
"You're going to use this an opportunity to rebuild the empire," Unaii said. "To achieve mathas."
Re-Kuluk gazed at Unaii, letting the Zebesian absorb the new revelation. "And you can use it to reclaim your honor, Unaii. Complete the first step. Kill Ark-Magnus."
Unaii shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Something about Re-Kuluk's plan didn't feel right to him. Re-Kuluk had built the former Zebesian Empire upon the blood and bones of those who resisted it. He had designed it not as an instrument for peace in the galaxy, but as a weapon against the Federation.
He had used that weapon so well that the Federation sent a bounty hunter to deal with the threat.
Unaii hesitated. The broken pieces of his planet floated aimlessly in his mind as they did in space.
--
"Admiral, our probes have detected warp signatures," Benson Torus said. "We have Re-Kuluk's course."
Admiral Petronus nodded apathetically. "Thank you, lieutenant."
Torus, sitting in his chair to her immediate right, raised an eyebrow. "We're not pursuing?"
"Lieutenant, we're already halfway to Kratosa Prime."
"But—"
"Thank you, lieutenant," she said curtly.
"Why are we—"
"Thank you, lieutenant," she said even more curtly, then smiled when Torus did not respond. It got easier every time.
A nearby ensign interrupted her peace. "Sir, we are getting a message in from Kratosa Prime."
She could guess what this was about. "Route it to my ready room," she said. She turned to Torus. He had raised another eyebrow. "The bridge is yours, lieutenant. Use it wisely."
She rose and began walking away.
"Why—"
"The bridge is your, lieutenant," she said before the doors swished shut behind her.
The unwelcoming face of her superior had commandeered an entire wall of the room. "How can I help you, Admiral Janus?"
"Patricia! How have you been?"
Petronus faked a blush. "Fine, just fine. What brings you to my ready room?"
"Ah. Well, I was just wondering why you changed course rather suddenly."
Petronus tried to look dejected. "Re-Kuluk slighted us. Ejected a whole warp core. Masked his signatures. The chase is over."
"Any sign of Samus?"
Petronus felt a rush shoot up her spine and had to suppress a smile. She loved lying – its challenge, its suspense, its power. "No. We found the rubble of her ship. She is likely dead, sir."
"Likely? That woman is the greatest security risk to the new order."
Petronus also loved playing dumb. "Why is that, sir?"
"Are you kidding me? Her Chozo armor is embedded into her biology. It's always on her, even when it's not. She is a living, breathing weapon that is always armed. Nobody even knows what she looks like. If she even got near the High Chancellor or Ark-Magnus…"
"Impossible," she said lightly. "When would she ever get the chance?"
"Let me tell you—that's the thing. Ark-Magnus has a penchant for public appearances. He thinks himself a god, invulnerable. That's probably because all of his people think similarly. The High Chancellor has to scramble just to keep up with him. Problem is, the High Chancellor is definitely not a god, and not every human is pleased with his new order."
"But Aran is a bounty hunter," she said. "She can be bought."
"That's precisely my point. Who's to say somebody else won't offer her a better deal?"
"She's never turned against her own kind," Petronus said. She had read Samus' file well enough.
"She's never been too chummy with it, either. No, though she's always sided with the winning team, Samus has always been a third party. Do you know she grew up with the Chozo? Anyway, there is no room for third parties in the new order. There is room only for followers, not renegades. Nobody that dangerous should be free or alive and not be our friend, even if she's not necessarily our enemy. Get it?"
"I think, sir. I think. Good thing that she's probably dead, sir."
"Well, you said you found rubble. Maybe that half-crazed Zebesian we found finally got what he always wanted."
--
"You'd better shut up, Benson, or I'll be sitting in your chair soon enough."
"There is something going on here, guys," he said to the other lieutenants on the bridge. "Does anyone know what that lifeform is that we picked up?"
"Some guys in security told me that it's a girl," one lieutenant said. "Told me she looks young. She looks tough."
"So why did we completely change directions after picking her up?" another said.
"We've been pursuing Re-Kuluk for months," Torus said. "His band of rebels is the number one priority of the high chancellor. So why are we still going home, when we've regained his scent?"
"The girl could know something about the rebels."
Silence. They could hear Admiral Petronus' muffled voice from the adjacent room.
"Can anyone tell me why we haven't caught Re-Kuluk yet?" Torus said.
"Well, he knows what he's doing. The warp core stunt shows it."
"No Zebesian – no human – is resourceful enough to evade us that long, when we have a faster ship," Torus said. "No, it seems that every time we get somewhere, Kuluk is already long gone."
"What are you suggesting?"
"He's warned. Someone on this ship."
"We should tell the captain."
"No," Torus said. "She might… I'll look into it. No need to worry her unless we're sure."
Torus looked around at the other lieutenants. He was never any good at lying to people.
"You'd better watch yourself, Benson," said one of the older lieutenants. "If you're not careful, you're going to wind up with a frozen ass on a moon somewhere."
"What?" Torus said.
"Last time somebody went up against Petronus, she marooned the poor kid on a moon. Not pretty."
"Why didn't she just send the him to the brig?"
"Where've you been? She doesn't solve problems. She terminates them."
The lieutenants chuckled.
--
"No, Re-Kuluk. I will not help you rebuild your empire."
"It should be easy. I have seen what devastation your new device can wreak," he said, referring to Unaii's antimatter arm cannon.
"No."
Re-Kuluk's hand, planted firmly on the table, slowly balled into a fist. "Why?" he said through his teeth.
"What is the point of it?"
"No more Zebesian blood spilled by Zebesian hands. That is the point."
"I know you. I know what this will be like. And an empire that swaps Zebesian blood for human blood is not the mathas I envisioned."
"I make no guarantees," Re-Kuluk said. "If humankind provokes us, it will expect a reaction. If not, no."
"You've never advocated a reactionary policy before. Humankind never provoked us. But we fought, we killed thousands of them anyway. For what?"
"Unaii, we want the same thing," Re-Kuluk said. "We want to free our people. While we bicker about politics, they toil in slave pits."
Unaii looked away. Re-Kuluk seemed unusually sensible.
"And what of Rid-Ley?" Unaii said.
Re-Kuluk eased back into his chair, relieved that Unaii had retreated to more practical issues. "What of him?"
"Rid-Ley doesn't bow down to anyone," Unaii continued. "He's not going to take well to you as the surzak of everybody."
"That's why I'm not going to be surzak," Re-Kuluk said. "Neither is he."
"Then who?"
"We'll figure that out when the time comes," Re-Kuluk said. "Is that all? I have a ship to command. Are you with us?"
"One more thing," Unaii said, leaning forward. "You mentioned Dark Samus before. What is her part in all of this?"
"She is an ally," he said, absentmindedly rubbing his red phazon armor. "Just an ally."
"I hope so," Unaii said. And I hope that's all she ever wants to be."
--
The stars streaked across the window of Unaii's chambers. All two-thousand of Re-Kuluk's renegades were barreling through hyperspace again, heading for an empty cooridor in space where Unaii would meet his accomplice.
Make that two-thousand and one renegades. Unaii, once Sin-Unaii, was now Re-Unaii.
Despite the name change, Re-Kuluk would never be the same master, the same god, that he was to the others. And Unaii would never feel the comraderie that his new brothers surely felt. He liked to think of his new vocation as a temporary one, though he could not be any less certain of the future. But, to be honest, the fruition of his two-year vendetta and the Hunter's demise compelled him to think he was being reborn, compelled him to jettison from his mind his affection and contempt. Yet questions still hounded him. In killing the Hunter, had he sacrificed his only chance to know why precisely she attacked his colony in the first place? He had only his theories. And why did Re-Kuluk go through so much trouble to find the Hunter if Ark-Magnus was such an easy kill that Unaii and this new accomplice could do it themselves?
And how in the Thirteen-hundred Hells did Re-Kuluk with a fleet of Republic warships in tow "stumble upon" the one assassin in the galaxy he had needed, when Unaii had only been able to find the damned woman after consorting with the Republic?