Chapter 3:
Inside Galactic Federation Headquarters on Daiban, Samus and the other survivors inside the Council Chamber took an official headcount. So far, there were two thousand Council Members inside the Council Chamber who were confirmed to have died, with hundreds more having been wounded, some of them fatally. In addition, countless aides, Army Troopers, and security officers had also been killed during the attack as well. Samus gazed around the carnage that had been wrought on the Council Chamber of the Galactic Federation Council. Too many bodies lined the floors and chairs. The groans and cries of the wounded and dying still echoed throughout the chamber. Countless medical personnel soon flooded into the chamber in order to try to stabilize and save as many of the wounded as possible. First priority went to the wounded Council Members, then the Army and security forces, and finally, the aides. Samus, not being much of a medic and seeing that the surviving Army Troopers and Marines would be more than sufficient to protect the medical personnel attending to the wounded, made her way out of the chamber and back into the Main Hall.
Inside the Main Hall, Samus found her friends Kreatz and Mauk rushing towards the Council Chamber. When they saw Samus stepping out, they skidded to a halt in front of her. Kreatz then rushed up and exclaimed, "Samus, thank the powers you're alright."
Samus looked glumly at the ground at his statement. Mauk noticed Samus's expression and asked, "What is it?"
She answered, "The Federation Council Chamber was hit, hard. So far, we've confirmed at least two thousand Council Members dead so far. And that's not including the aides and military and security personnel that were killed in the attack."
"By God!" Mauk exclaimed. "That's one-fifth of the entire Council! How's Chairman Elric?"
"He's fine," Samus answered. "And Cyrus, as you know, is off-world, along with a few of his loyal supporters."
"What about Councilman Colin Williams of Earth and Councilwoman Madeline Powell of Mars?" Kreatz asked.
"They were fine the last time I checked," Samus responded.
Kreatz gave a shrug. Samus could not help but wonder if that shrug was a shrug of indifference or a shrug of disappointment at the survival of the two Council Members. Mauk also noticed Kreatz's shrug and glowered at him, very subtly shaking his head, but it was not enough to escape Samus's notice. Samus then remembered their talk shortly before the attack by the Space Pirates and wondered what was going on. They had almost seemed as if Earth was being unreasonable in its will to defect from the Federation. Maybe it was, maybe it was not. No one was pleased at the revelations of the bioweapon projects produced onboard the Bottle Ship and Research Facility 777. Many were even angrier at the production of a clone of Samus Aran, a project that had been commissioned by Chairman Elric of the Galactic Federation directly. Despite having Pokémon Trainers and battle leagues, a profession that was currently undergoing a lot of scrutiny on Earth, Earth was a planet that had a strong respect for life in all of its forms, having learned the hard way that a lack of respect for life can, and does, have severe consequences. Samus shook off the thought. She still had a job to finish. She then told Kreatz and Mauk, "I'm going to patrol the Main Hall and the rest of Headquarters for any Space Pirate stragglers."
"We'll come with you," Mauk offered.
Samus smiled and said, "Then let's go."
"And let's hope we got them all," Kreatz exclaimed, finishing for Samus. The group then proceeded on their way.
In the void between stars, Ridley sat in his chair on the Control Deck of Space Station Moreau. Space Pirate Troopers worked diligently at their stations, waiting for word of the arrival of the Space Pirate Commando Transport. The Putze had already arrived back at the station and was currently undergoing refueling. The captain had reported that their part of the mission was a complete success. They had also received word that the Space Pirate Commandos had infiltrated Federation City, obtained the Aurora Unit's DNA, and had infected the Unit. They were due to return shortly. While Ridley could have used the station's computer to spy on the Federation and take direct control of Aurora Unit Zero the second the report had been given, he wished to ensure that he had the Unit's DNA in his hands before he activated Aurora Unit Zero and gave it its first, and last, command.
Outside the station, a subspace window opened and remained stationary for a few seconds before disappearing. After the window disappeared, a transport appeared before the station. On the Control Deck, the Space Pirate Trooper manning the sensor console said, "It's ours, sir. I'm scanning twelve Commandos onboard."
After the Trooper had finished, a comm channel was opened to the station. The Commando leader's voice came in over the radio, saying, "Mission accomplished, Lord Ridley. Requesting landing clearance."
Ridley approached the communications console and replied, "Clearance granted. Once you land, P'Karn, meet me on the Control Deck. And bring the vial with you."
"Understood, sir," P'Karn replied.
The transport then proceeded to make its way into the hangar bay. The interior of the bay was filled with other transports, mostly hyper-light transports that could carry a couple non-FTL drone fighters under their wings. The transports were also, themselves, armed, but mostly so that they could survive long enough to deploy their starfighters. The transport eased its way into the bay and searched for a place to land. Once it had found an empty space to land, the transport slowly descended to the floor. After a few seconds, a shudder reverberated throughout the transport as it touched down onto the hangar bay deck. The pilot then powered down all of the systems and opened the egress hatch.
The dozen Space Pirate Commandos that made up the complement of the transport filed off the ship and eleven of them then went to their separate stations so they could fill out their reports on the mission. P'Karn, however, made his way through the station and headed towards the Command Deck. The station was large, almost as large as facilities like the Bottle Ship, Research Facility 777, and the BSL research facility. Without the need to create artificial environments for research purposes, most of this station looked very plain, though anyplace that was not the Control Deck, Main Engineering, crew quarters, or the hangar bay was lined with numerous cloning tanks. Ridley had already fully matured the first batch of Zebesians that the Federation had evidently been intending to grow here and use for their own purposes. With these Zebesians out and about, Ridley went about cloning more important, and competent, forces. Now, Space Pirate Troopers and Elite Pirates were currently being cloned in the chambers. Unlike the Zebesians, these Pirates were independent enough to not wander aimlessly focusing only on a single mission should their leader get him or herself killed, the way Zebesians had an annoying habit of doing. However, Ridley and the other Pirate leaders did not forget that the Zebesians had their own uses as well. They made great suicide troops, as evidenced by the attack on Galactic Federation Headquarters, something that would not have been possible before, given the fact that the Hunter had whittled their numbers down to almost nothing on numerous missions. Still, Ridley knew that they had only accomplished one part of their objective. Now, it was time to get the DNA that could let them clone Aurora Unit Zero. With their own Aurora Unit, they would be able to acquire the necessary starships for making the Space Pirates a force to be reckoned with once more.
It was not long before P'Karn arrived on the Command Deck. He entered through a door on the lower level of the deck and looked around at the Space Pirate Troopers attending their duty stations. There were few Space Pirates on the Command Deck, since they were working on a station, rather than a starship and, thus, had fewer systems to work with. P'Karn could not help but feel a little naked on this station. It did not even have any defensive weapons, only shields. And Ridley had not wanted to strip any of the Pirates' remaining transports, or their sole remaining frigate, of their weapons just to give this station some form of defense. Besides, if the Federation did somehow find them, the station would not last five minutes against a fleet of Federation warships, no matter what weapons they took off of their other ships and placed on the station. Secrecy and location was the Moreau's best defense, that and the squadrons of starfighters and drone fighters that the station carried. Still, they would likely fall to any ship stronger than a cruiser.
P'Karn soon turned and went up a staircase that took him to the Upper Command Deck. On the Upper Command Deck, Ridley sat in a chair specifically designed to fit his incredible bulk. When Ridley saw the Space Pirate Commando approach, he gave a grin and a soft rumble. The Commando approached the pterodactyl-like space dragon and once he was a few feet away, he genuflected before Ridley. Ridley rose and said, "Do you have it?"
P'Karn soon produced the vial that was full of Aurora Unit Zero's DNA and presented it to Ridley. Ridley took the vial from the Space Pirate and said, "Good work, Commander P'Karn."
P'Karn did not know what Ridley meant, for he was merely a Commando. "My Lord?" he asked, puzzled at what Ridley was getting at.
"Due to the success of your mission, and without having suffered a single casualty in the process, I am promoting you to Commander," Ridley responded, standing up and spreading his wings. "Go and change into your new armor. You are now second in command, here," Ridley exclaimed, pointing at P'Karn.
P'Karn was shocked, and also humbled by the honor that Ridley had bestowed on him. "Yes, my Lord," he managed to stammer as he rose and left the bridge so that he could outfit himself in the best armor a Space Pirate had access to. He was now going to be the strongest of the Space Pirate survivors, barring Ridley.
Once P'Karn had left the bridge, Ridley smiled. P'Karn was strong, smart, and loyal. He needed to have more troops like him in his army. Still, P'Karn was just one soldier. What he had now was a way to coordinate them and gain other assets, such as starships, for he knew that the Federation would not take long to begin searching for him. He needed to have them worry about other things at the moment, for he knew that it would not be long before Elric declared the formation of a new Empire in place of the Federation. Elric was power hungry, but he ultimately did what he did because he wanted the galaxy to prosper. He merely believed that it would be most prosperous with him at the head, and in the form of a dictatorial, make that benevolent dictatorial Empire, rather than a democratic Federation.
Ridley went over to the communications console and linked the station's computer to Aurora Unit Zero. Over the radio, he heard the crackle of many voices, all speaking at once. He was able to make out that there were at least two thousand dead Federation Council Members in the Main Council Chamber alone, with that number likely to rise quickly. The space dragon grinned. That was almost a fifth of the entire Council Membership, though Ridley knew that not all of the permanent members of the Galactic Federation had membership on the Federation Council. After all, of the greater than one hundred and forty thousand permanent members and colonies of the Galactic Federation, only around ten thousand of them had seats on the Galactic Federation Council. And the casualty reports were still coming in. Yes, there were many members that did not have their seats on the Galactic Federation Council, but that was not important to Ridley at the moment. Ridley knew that with this travesty, the Federation would grant Chairman Elric emergency powers, and he would likely fill in the vacant seats directly, if he filled them at all. This would anger some of the members of the Galactic Federation, particularly Earth, which was a strong and self-sufficient planet, with defenses that put even Daiban's to shame. This strength would likely attract many of Daiban's refugees to the planet, putting a strain on its resources. In addition, due to Earth's ability to grow food and relatively small on-world population, he expected that Earth would be ordered by the Federation to grow and produce food for many others in the Federation once his own Aurora Unit took direct control of many other Aurora Units in the Federation and used the Auroras to send back false readings on food safety, with Earth being one of the few planets whose Aurora Units would be unaffected. Ridley could only hope that these events would cause Earth to secede from the Federation. For then, a large contingent of the Federation would try to force Earth to remain, which it would not, for the humans of Earth are fiercely independent individuals, and the situation would eventually degenerate into a civil war, one which could very well shatter the entire Federation. Now, all he had to worry about was why Cyrus had been so willing to talk to him and give him the Putze and tell him about Daiban's defenses and give him the override codes for Aurora Unit Zero. He did not worry about it, though. If Cyrus tried to double-cross him, he still had his trump card, a record of all of Cyrus's misdeeds and actions, both as Vice-Chairman of the Galactic Federation, and as the leader of Team Galactic.
Once the Space Dragon was done his musing, he punched in a command and brought up all of the command codes for Aurora Unit Zero. He then downloaded them to a crystal that he would use once he made his own Aurora Unit Zero. After that was finished, he typed in another command into the computer, and to Aurora Unit Zero. He then flashed a grin as he pressed send. He then left the bridge, a disturbing laugh emerging from his beak, and reverberating throughout the entire Command Deck of the station, for he knew that Daiban had seen its last sunrise. If all went well, then twenty-seven billion people were about to die, for he had ordered Aurora Unit Zero to take complete control of the weather and planetary controls. With Aurora Unit Zero already having been plugged into the planet to use it as a power source, it would be easy to destabilize the core and render the planet uninhabitable, or destroy it outright.
Back on Earth, Cyrus went over to a tent which held a computer and subspace radio. He entered the deserted tent and listened to the reports coming in over the radio and merely looked down, expressionless, even though his dreams were coming closer and closer to fruition. So far, the Federation reported that no less than two thousand members of the Galactic Federation Council had been slain in the Space Pirates' attack on Daiban. It was also noted that there were thousands of other casualties as well, Army Troopers, security officers, Marines, aides, etcetera. He knew that it would not be long now. The suffering of the galaxy was growing. And with no reports on the condition of Aurora Unit Zero, Cyrus suspected that the Space Pirate Commandos had been successful in their mission, and that things were about to get worse, much worse.
"Well, well, well," Charon's voice echoed from behind. Cyrus turned and found his short cohort standing behind him. "It seems as if it is all beginning, now."
"Yes," Cyrus said in a stern voice. "It won't be long now. Daiban will soon be destroyed, and there will be billions of refugees, and billions more dead. The galaxy's suffering will overflow and the only way to repair the damage will be to create a new universe free of suffering, free of emotion, which only brings suffering. Soon, everything will be reset to zero."
"Yes it will," Charon replied calmly, though Cyrus could hear a note of anticipation in Charon's voice. The two then waited in the tent to hear news of the destruction of Daiban.
Back on Daiban, Samus helped patrol the hallway, searching for any wounded that escaped initial notice by the doctors and medics that had come to Galactic Federation Headquarters to assist in treating the wounded. She knew that things were looking grim, for she had found at least one hundred and sixty more Council Members dead in the hallways. The doors to the offices and chambers of others had been destroyed as well. So far, she had managed to spot at least a hundred more Council Members wounded by the Space Pirates. As it was right now, things were looking quite grim for everyone. So far, there had been twenty-six hundred members of the Galactic Federation Council that were confirmed to have been killed in the attack. That was more than a quarter of the Council, and reports were still coming in. She stared down at the ground. The Space Pirates had planned this attack perfectly. It had come at a time when almost the entire Galactic Federation Council had been assembled at Headquarters.
Kreatz and Mauk gazed at Samus and could tell what was going through her mind. She felt as if she had failed the galaxy in this battle. She had not seen an attack like this coming. And it had been perpetrated by an organization that was once believed to have been wiped out, and had been thought to be on the verge of complete destruction. It was then that Anthony Higgs and a member of Platoon 07 came up to Samus and asked, "Hey Samus, does that suit of yours still have its Scan Visor?"
Samus looked up at Anthony and said, "It does, but it's not nearly as powerful or versatile as the one I had before I was infected by the X Parasites. Why?"
"Because I was hoping that you could verify my scans," Anthony's companion, a female Army Trooper who Samus recognized as Damara Gomez due to her voice. "I and two others took a scan of one of the dead Zebesian Space Pirates and found genetic markers that indicated that they were products of Galactic Federation genetic engineering."
"Galactic Federation?" Kreatz and Mauk gasped before Samus could respond, their eyes flashing with shock. Even Samus was surprised by the revelation "But how did they get a hold of Federation bred Zebesians? The Bottle Ship and Research Facility Seven-Seven-Seven were destroyed!"
"Yeah, we know," Anthony replied.
"The Federation must have had another station where they bred these warriors," Samus surmised. "Either that or Ridley managed to get a hold of the Federation blueprints for their genetic engineering technology. It's definitely something that the Space Pirates would want to get their hands on."
The others nodded in agreement. It was not widely publicized, but the Federation's genetic engineering ability actually surpassed that of the Space Pirates'. One of their greatest, albeit illegal, achievements was to engineer a Metroid that was highly resistant to freezing. It was even likely that some were designed that were actually unfreezable, but they had been destroyed before they had been able to be deployed by MB. Samus looked at the detached hand of a Zebesian Space Pirate, the DNA sample that Damara Gomez was holding.
"We can take this down to Aurora Unit Zero," Samus suggested. "Its scanners are undoubtedly more powerful than ours, and it can likely confirm your suspicions. And if this Zebesian is Galactic Federation in design, that will likely make finding its home base much easier."
"Assuming that the Space Pirates are using this Pirate's birthplace as their home base," Kreatz interjected.
"Should this suspicion pan out, it'll be the best lead we have," Samus replied.
"You go down to Aurora Unit Zero," Anthony told her, handing her the hand of the Zebesian. "We're still needed here to help clean up the mess and deal with any Space Pirate stragglers. Besides, we've gotten some reports of some strange sightings from some kids who were playin' a little too close to the Aurora Unit's chamber."
"I'll check it out," Samus replied. "And I'll see if there's anything wrong with Aurora Unit Zero as well."
"That wouldn't hurt," Anthony replied.
Samus then hurried away from the scene as Anthony, Damara, Kreatz, and Mauk continued to patrol the Main Hall and secure it from any potential Space Pirate stragglers or looters that may have been trying to take advantage of the situation.
Samus rushed towards the landing pad outside and activated her radio said, "Adam, power up the ship. We're going down to the bowels of Federation City."
"Understood, lady," Adam replied over the radio.
Samus soon arrived on the landing platform and made her way over to her gunship. The lower hatch opened and Samus stood beneath the opening. Tractor rings immediately pulled her into the ship and the hatch closed underneath her feet. She went into the cockpit and input the target coordinates to the building that was directly above the chamber of Aurora Unit Zero. Adam noticed that Samus had the hand of a Space Pirate and said, "I see that you hold the hand of a Zebesian Space Pirate."
Samus nodded.
"I can already confirm that the genetic markers indicate that it was genetically engineered using Galactic Federation technology," Adam continued.
Samus shrugged. She had suspected as much. "So may I ask why we are going down to Aurora Unit Zero?"
"We need to prove it," Samus replied. "And Aurora Unit Zero may know the location of this Space Pirate's birthplace, especially if he was bred on a Galactic Federation facility."
"I see," Adam replied. "Be careful, Samus. I have detected some changes in Daiban's core."
This revelation took Samus by surprise. "What sort of changes?"
"Nothing severe, yet," Adam answered. "But there has been a minor pressure buildup in the core of the planet that seems out of the ordinary."
Oh no, Samus thought. She quickly examined his findings and found that the minor pressure buildup was still far from being dangerous. Still, she did not like the looks of it. "Thanks for the heads up," Samus said as she lifted her ship off the ground and proceeded to fly it into Federation City.
The flight into Federation City to a spot close to the Federation Computer Archives Building that could hold her small gunship was quite short. Within two minutes of flying at relatively low speeds, she found the building and slowly eased her gunship down to the surface of the planet. After a few seconds of descent, her ship touched down on the ground, sending a vibration throughout the cabin of her ship. Before departing her ship, Samus asked Adam, "Adam, are there any strange signals coming from Aurora Unit Zero's chamber?"
The eye on the computer that represented Adam Malkovich flashed for a few moments before responding, "Lady, I am receiving no signals from Aurora Unit Zero at all. It has cut itself off from the rest of the Galactic Federation Aurora Unit Network."
This did not sound good. Suddenly, Samus was thankful that she had decided to check on the Aurora Unit anyway. "Adam, keep the ship warm," she told him. "We may need to get out of here fast."
"Understood, Samus," Adam responded as Samus disembarked from her ship. Once she was outside, she quickly made her way towards the Federation Computer Archives Building. Once she arrived at the building, she proceeded to push open the doors and enter.
The interior of the building was completely deserted. This building had not been in use for a very long time, which was why it was the perfect cover for the pathway that led to Aurora Unit Zero, the most important Aurora Unit in the entire Galactic Federation, for the Aurora Unit had its DNA based upon Mother Brain, and had all of Mother Brain's information as well, minus her personality. Ever since Mother Brain had gone rogue, technicians had carefully monitored Aurora Unit Zero to make sure that it, too, did not go rogue and become like Mother Brain. So far, in the last thirteen years, there had been no problems.
Samus made her way towards a side door and entered. On the other side of the door, she found a stairwell that led down into the tunnels that led down to Aurora Unit Zero's chamber. As Samus descended, she felt intermittent rumblings coming from below. She activated her Scan Visor, but could detect no lifeforms down in the tunnels. She continued to walk for a couple minutes until she came to the door that led to the tunnel network that would take her to Aurora Unit Zero's chamber. She grabbed the handle, pulled down on it and pushed the door open.
The tunnels were dark, but Samus's suit allowed her to see even in the dark. The walls looked to be gray and there was little space in this tunnel. She knew that the space would increase as she went further down into the tunnels. Samus continued to walk and follow the path that led to the Aurora Unit's chamber, finding nothing out of the ordinary. However, midway through her journey, she felt a violent quake. The ceiling began to crack, as did the floor. Rats and rat-like creatures scurried to find cover in the shaking. Even Samus had difficulty maintaining her footing. After a few seconds the shaking stopped. She then heard Adam's voice over her speakers, "Samus, I'm detecting a noticeable increase in seismic activity in your area."
"I felt it, Adam," the bounty hunter replied.
"Samus, this area has no active fault lines, and has had no groundquakes for over two hundred years."
Samus then hurried her pace down to the Aurora Unit's chamber, for she knew that there were only a few things that could cause this type of seismic activity on Daiban. She knew that Aurora Unit Zero had been plugged into Daiban's core at the time it was built, much like Mother Brain had with Zebes. It was Aurora Unit Zero that had allowed Daiban to have perfect weather for visitors, and others. Similar things had been done to worlds that had been transformed into pleasure worlds after the success on Daiban. However, there was always the danger that should an Aurora Unit ever be taken over, that the Unit could create havoc with the planet's weather. Not only that, but the Unit could create tremendous seismic disturbances, or even cause the planet to self-destruct. In essence, Mother Brain had done something similar to Zebes upon her death, though she had been aided then by the use of several time bombs to further destabilize Zebes's already unstable core and destroy the planet. Now the only question was if Aurora Unit Zero was malfunctioning, or rebelling against its initial programming, why was it doing so? She hoped to find out once she arrived at the chamber.
Samus checked her map once more and found that she was only a few rooms away from the Aurora Unit's chamber. She proceeded quickly and entered the next room. There, she found the remains of a several maintenance workers on the floor, or what she had thought had been maintenance workers, given that the bodies had been shot to pieces. She then activated her radio and asked, "Adam, are you seeing this?"
"I am, Samus," came the response. "It definitely looks like someone was down here. Be on your guard."
"I will be," Samus answered before deactivating her radio.
She continued to make her way through the room, past the bodies, and into the next one, which contained the body of a single technician. Again, he had been practically shredded with weapons fire. The next room contained nothing at all and Samus moved forward quickly. As she approached the entrance to the Aurora Unit's chamber, she found that the door to the chamber had been blown open. A feeling of dread entered her heart, for she had a bad feeling that the Space Pirates were behind this attack. And given the damage done, she figured that it had to be elite forces such as Elite Pirate Troopers, or even Commandos. Without hesitation, she entered the Aurora Unit's chamber.
Inside the Aurora Unit's chamber, she found the bodies of four Army Troopers and over a dozen security personnel. Given their positions, they had been fighting on the same side. Samus examined the room and found that there were no additional bodies, indicating that the enemy had managed to defeat them without suffering a single fatality. She then looked forward at the large Aurora Unit, suspended behind a force field. She looked at it closely, but could find nothing wrong with it on the outside. It was now that she desperately wished that she had her regular Scan Visor, rather than the second rate one she was stuck with since her X Parasite infection had destroyed most of her Power Suit's equipment.
She then went up to a computer console and typed in a few commands. She ordered the Aurora Unit to perform a self-diagnostic. After a few seconds, the vocalizers of the Aurora Unit came online. The Aurora Unit said only one thing, "Hunter…ev..acu..ate…Dai…ban…now! System…corrupted…Space…Pirates! Can…not…self…term…in…ate. Destroy…me. Please!"
"What?" Samus blurted.
"Space Pirates have infected me," the Aurora Unit replied in a much steadier tone. "You must terminate me now. Before I…destroy…Daiban!" Samus saw the brain struggle against some unknown force. The force field soon lowered itself and an eye appeared on the Aurora Unit. Just then, a blue wave of energy was launched at the bounty hunter. The wave slammed into her, sending her sailing through the air. She landed a few meters away and quickly rose to face the Aurora Unit.
"Use… Missiles…to…destroy…me," the Aurora Unit begged. Samus immediately switched to her missiles and targeted the Aurora Unit's eye. She then opened fire on the organic supercomputer, Ice Missiles erupting from her arm cannon, one after the other. The missiles streaked towards the Aurora Unit and smashed into it, detonating. The explosions sent out small waves of freezing energy and what looked to be snowflakes. The detonations caused the Aurora Unit to roar and writhe, whether the Aurora Unit was roaring in pain, or as a result of its attempt to prevent the Pirates from forcing it to destroy Daiban was unclear. It did not matter to Samus, though. She knew what had to be done, and while she was loathe to kill a sentient being that was not evil, she knew the wishes of the Aurora Unit, and what the results would be if she did not kill it. With that, she unleashed more missiles against the Aurora Unit. The brain spasmed and convulsed with each impact. The chamber shuddered violently as Samus knew that she was running low on time. She then fired another volley of Ice Missiles at the Aurora Unit and suddenly, the chamber ceased to shake. The Aurora Unit unleashed a screech as it fell apart in its tank. Samus fired one last Ice Missile at the Aurora Unit, just to make sure that it was destroyed. The missile struck the remains of the Aurora Unit and froze it solid. Samus then switched back to her Power Beam and charged it. Once the beam was charged, she unleashed the orange blast at the frozen Aurora Unit. The pulse of energy struck the Aurora Unit and shattered it into thousands of shards of ice. The shards littered the ground and clattered as they hit the metal floor.
Once the Aurora Unit had been destroyed, Samus went over to a terminal and read the scans of the planet's core. The readings were not reassuring. The Unit had succeeded in destabilizing the core. Samus typed in a few more commands on the computer, asking it if it would be destroyed, and if so how long Daiban had. The answers painted a bleak picture. The terminal read, Planet core readings dangerously unstable. Estimated life expectancy of Daiban: twelve hours.
Samus immediately opened a channel to Adam and commanded, "Adam, relay this signal to Galactic Federation Headquarters."
"At once," Adam replied.
"Listen, everyone," Samus began. "The Space Pirates seem to have taken control of Aurora Unit Zero during their attack on Galactic Federation Headquarters. I was forced to destroy Aurora Unit Zero before it destroyed Daiban. I was only fast enough to prevent its initial destruction, though. The planet's core readings are dangerously unstable and the secondary computers here in the terminal, indicate that Daiban will die in twelve hours!"
In the Council Chamber, the surviving Galactic Federation Council Members, medics, military personnel, and others listened intently to Samus's statement. Elric's eyes flashed. He knew that the Pirates were up to something, he just did not know that he had such little time to deal with the problem. He then went on and opened a channel to the rest of Daiban, saying, "Citizens of Daiban. We have grave news. Many of you are hearing about the recently repulsed attack on our great capital of Daiban and Galactic Federation Headquarters. The situation is even more dire than you know. Another attack has destabilized the core of Daiban and the planet has only twelve hours left of life. All citizens are to evacuate this world immediately!"
As if to accentuate his point, the entire chamber began to shudder violently. Parts of the ceiling collapsed and metal fell to the floor, fortunately not managing to harm anyone still inside the chamber. If Elric and the others had been outside, they would have heard the cries of the terrified civilians as the planet began to shake and convulse. In a way, it was fortunate that the planet began its death throes so quickly after Samus had destroyed the Aurora Unit, for now, the citizens knew that it was not a mere hoax, and even if they had doubts, they would likely decide that it was best not to take the chance of being wrong.
Back in the ruined Council Chamber, Elric, his entourage, and the rest of the assembled Council Members proceeded to flee the chamber with their military escorts. The Council Members inside were already making deals to ensure that they had spots on the fastest and most reliable of transports. Some even requisitioned military starships to carry them and their entourages. Most of the Council Members did their utmost best to ensure that they would be the first ones off of Daiban before it either died, or exploded. A few Council Members, however, did their best to calm everyone and try to allow an orderly evacuation of the doomed planet so that they could get as many of its citizens off the planet as possible before the planet exploded. Some of the few who remained were Colin Williams and Madeline Powell. Their first order of business was to help the government and military coordinate the evacuation of the civilians of Daiban to allow as many of them to evacuate as possible. Chairman Elric and the others, however, were making this task a lot more difficult than it had to be, especially since it was known that Elric had his own personal faster-than-light starfighter that he could have used to safely fly away from Daiban.
Down in the Aurora Unit's chambers, Samus opened a channel to Adam and ordered, "Adam, get as many people off this planet as possible."
"What about you, Samus?" Adam asked in a worried tone. He feared that she was going to either remain down on the planet, or cut it close, trying to help coordinate the evacuation.
His fears were confirmed by her response, "I'm staying so I can monitor the situation. I'll alert the others if the planet's core readings destabilize any further and alter the timetable for the evacuation. We need to get as many people off this planet as possible before it explodes."
"Samus, if you remain behind for too long, you won't have any way off the planet, yourself!"
"That's a risk I'm willing to take," she replied. "Now, go and help with the evacuation."
Adam gave a shrug and replied, "Understood, lady."
Above the ground, just outside the abandoned Federation Computer Archives Building, Samus's gunship rose a few into the air and slowly flew along the streets. A few streets away, he found a huddled crowd of humans standing near a grate, numbering about a dozen. Several looked to be young, with a few looking much older. A bio-scan indicated that the humans all belonged to the same family, with three generations between the whole group. The ground began to shake violently and the dilapidated houses began to collapse. The streets began to split open, creating large chasms. Adam checked his database and found that the families were cut off from their evacuation transports. He lowered the ship and opened his ventral hatch. His voice soon sounded over several loudspeakers on the ship, blaring, "Quickly, get on the ship! I'll take you off this planet!"
An explosion in the distance that sounded like a volcano eruption convinced the family to accept the mysterious stranger's offer for passage. "Stand underneath the hatch," Adam instructed. "The ship's tractor beam will pull you up."
The family did as it was instructed, with the six children being taken up into the ship first. Next were the parents of the children, both sets of them, and finally, the grandparents. Once they had all been taken onboard, Adam realized that the small gunship could not possibly hold any more people, and rose from the surface of Daiban.
Meanwhile, in orbit, several troopships were quickly being converted to evacuation transports, with the larger ships being able to hold close to a quarter million personnel. Countless smaller ships were docking with the larger ships in order to disgorge their passengers so that they could go back down to the surface and bring up another load. Even military warships were giving space for the evacuating civilians. With the large amount of space present on the Olympus-class battleships, the massive starships were able to take on tens of thousands of evacuating civilians, each. Still, the military knew that with the limited space onboard their ships, they would only be able to evacuate a relatively miniscule number of civilians before the planet exploded, even with fifty Olympus-class battleships and one hundred Asgard-class heavy cruisers present, plus all of the other ships. The small millions that the military warships would be able to hold was next to nothing compared to the twenty-seven billion people present on Daiban.
All throughout the twelve hours that Daiban had left, Samus, Colin Williams, Madeline Powell, and a few others helped coordinate the evacuation of Daiban: Samus from Aurora Unit Zero's chamber, and Williams and Powell from Galactic Federation Headquarters. They knew that they would not be able to get everybody off the planet. There were just too many people. Despite their best efforts, they knew that some of the poorest of people would not be able to get news of Daiban's impending fate and would not know to go to any designated evacuation points. Other issues were that the planet was highly populated, that not everyone had access to escape ships. There were many family-owned ships that were slower than light that could allow for immediate evacuation of the planet for individual families, but there were few that had any real faster than light capability. And there was the issue that a lot of people wanted to get out as quickly as possible. There had been several midair collisions that had destroyed said evacuating ships and killed all of those onboard. Several other collisions had damaged ships enough so that they were unable to reach escape velocity and were confined to the doomed world.
As the clock counted down to the destruction of the planet, the number of people still on Daiban dwindled. Wave after wave of evacuating transports, ranging in size from no larger than a family car all the way to the size of an Olympus-class battleship rose from the planet and flew out into space. Within the first four hours, the military warships were filled to beyond capacity. As soon as these ships had taken on the last person that they physically had the ability to carry and provide for, they jumped into warp, wanting to ensure that they managed to get the civilians that they did contain to safety.
However, on the surface, all too many people were doing their best to file on the transports before the transports left and took off for space, for many did not know how many more trips the transports could, or would, make. Several military starships were already being called to escort Chairman Elric and the members of the Federation Council loyal to him away from Daiban. Some of them followed, while others disobeyed Elric's orders and continued to assist in the evacuation of the planet.
Time continued to tick down as the military, Samus Aran, Council Members Williams, Powell, and a few others tried to coordinate the evacuation of Daiban. However, time was short. Still, they were determined to remain on the planet for as long as possible. However, the planet was beginning to make their decisions for them, for the ground around Federation City, which had already been almost completely evacuated, was already splitting. The once magnificent city was now nothing more than rubble, all but the sturdiest of buildings withstanding the violent groundquakes. Volcanoes were already forming where once there had been none. Fires were already beginning to form around cities. Power generators were suffering damage or outright destroyed, some of them exploding, and killing millions of civilians.
Eventually, the Council Members and others that had remained knew that there was nothing further that they could do. They looked down at the clock and saw that the planet had less than half an hour left, and the final wave of transports was already lifting off. The ships in orbit were already full and for those few that were coming in empty, there was no time to offload the civilians onto the transports and also bring them back down to the planet to load more on. A few atmosphere capable transports had come to directly take on civilians, trying evacuate every person that they could. The Council Members looked on, barely able to hold back tears for those that they would be unable to save. The only orders they had given to the members of their personal staffs regarding their own safety was that they would have their emergency evacuation starfighters fueled and ready to go when the time to leave came. And the time had come. Before leaving his post, though, Colin Williams spoke into his radio, telling Samus, "Samus, we read that there is less than half an hour left here. We're going up with the last group. We've done all we can. Get off this world now!"
"I copy," Samus responded.
With that, Colin Williams, Madeline Powell, and the few Council Members that had not taken the quick path off the planet went over to the launch bay, where a series of hyper-light starfighters remained in the bay. These were all one and two-man fighters, though. The ships were already fueled and powered up for when the time came to evacuate. Each of the Council Members jumped into the cockpit of the starfighters and the canopies then closed. Once the canopies were shut, the fighters immediately took off into the sky and flew as fast as they could away from the dying planet. They were among the last of the ships to leave Daiban.
Under the Federation Computer Archives Building, Samus quickly made her way out of the Aurora Unit's chamber. She knew that she did not have a lot of time to find a fighter or other ship capable of reaching orbit and escape the doomed planet. As she retraced her path through the underground tunnels in order to reach the surface, a few rooms in, she found that her path was blocked. Seeing that the entire ceiling had collapsed all throughout the next corridor, she knew that she would need to take a different path, and pray for a miracle.
As she ran to find an alternative path to the surface of Daiban she felt the ground shudder violently. In the distance, she heard, and felt, the explosions up on the surface as the noise of the blasts echoed through the tunnels. Her environmental sensors soon issued a warning as a red line began to form on her HUD, along with a bar, which extended farther. So far, the red line had not filled the entire bar, but it was close to doing so. Despite having on her Omega Fusion Suit, which already had the environmental protection afforded by the Varia and Gravity Suits, Samus suspected that the lava present would still damage her suit. It just did not have the defenses of her previous Varia or Gravity Suits. She checked her countdown clock to see just how much time she had left. She had less than five minutes before the planet exploded.
She soon came to a fork in the path and took a left. It was a most fortuitous decision on her part, for she immediately saw a pair of doors in front of her, which parted as she approached. Inside the next room, she found a series of fighter craft. Many of them were merely atmospheric fighters and, thus, useless to her, but she did find a small fighter that was space capable in the corner. This fighter resembled a bird with a single rudder on its rear, a small weapons bay, and two energy cannons mounted onto its wings. Samus figured that this was better than nothing, so she went over to the fighter and opened its cockpit.
The fighter's cockpit opened and she immediately began its startup sequence once she jumped in, deactivating her suit so that she could use both of her hands to pilot the ship. She was not surprised when its directions appeared on the console in front of her in English. What did surprise the bounty hunter, though, was that in the checklist, it stated that the fighter had both shields and a warp drive. Hope came to Samus upon seeing that it had a warp drive. While she did not doubt that she would evacuate the planet in time using the starfighter, problems would have come if her fighter had not been FTL capable and there had been no help forthcoming from the rest of the fleet. After all, she did not know how long Adam would have had to hold the passengers on her gunship. Since the fighter did have a warp drive, she could scan for her gunship's signature and immediately jump to it.
She then closed the cockpit and powered up the fighter. The display also showed that it was a Cornerian Fighter and was armed with six missiles. It seemed as if, the Federation had been doing some research on this fighter, wanting to know how this fighter could be so small, yet have shields, missiles, and a faster-than-light drive. This puzzled Samus since the Katana-class starfighters designed on Earth had heavier shields, were faster, had missiles and Nova Bombs, and also sported FTL drives, themselves. Samus banished the thought, though as she powered the fighter's engines and its G-diffuser system and ascended.
As Samus ascended, she tilted her fighter upwards when she found that the launch doors were still closed. She immediately locked onto the doors with a missile and disgorged it from the bottom of her craft. The missile streaked towards the door and detonated upon impact. The massive explosion blew a large hole in the doors that was more than sufficient for Samus to pilot her new fighter through. Samus's fighter zoomed through the doors and rocketed into the air, and towards outer space. Samus looked out the cockpit and saw that volcanoes were already erupting all over the planet. She looked back and saw the crust already beginning to split. She had lost track of time so she did not know if the necessary time had passed for the planet's death to begin, but she was thankful that she had found the fighter when she had and that she was now leaving the dying planet's atmosphere.
Once she had left the atmosphere and had reached a safe distance away from Daiban, Samus turned her fighter back towards the planet. She watched as the brown surface of the planet cracked and splintered, orange and yellow lines forming across its surface. The lines then seemed to spill over onto the solid surface of the planet. The planet looked to be bleeding. Fires erupted from all across the surface of the planet. After a couple of minutes, the planet entered its final death throes. An explosion rocked the planet and about a fifth of the planet exploded and propelled flaming debris and lava into space, where it cooled into globules of magma and lava-rock. Several more explosions rocked the planet and most of the crust and part of the mantle had been ejected into space, leaving nothing more than the remains of the mantle and the core. After a few more seconds, the remains of Daiban finally exploded, sending the rest of the mantle and pieces of the core hurtling through space. Samus then turned her fighter and accelerated away from the planetary debris. She looked forward and saw that she was the last ship to still be inside the planetary system, as all of the other ships had entered warp.
She was about to enter warp when she heard Chairman Elric's voice sound over her radio. "Citizens of the Galactic Federation," he began. "Today is the most terrible day in the history of this great entity. The Space Pirates, a force thought to have been destroyed, has struck us at our very hearts. First, the Galactic Federation Council received an attack that saw the deaths of more than three thousand Galactic Federation Council Members. That's almost a third of the membership of the Federation Council. Second, today, we saw a world die. And not just a world; but a planet that had been the center of galactic civilization for centuries, millennia, even. Long before the Galactic Federation of today had been formed, Daiban was the center of galactic civilization. It had historical significance. But more importantly, it was home to twenty-seven billion people. So far, we have only accounted for eight billion evacuees. Those remaining nineteen billion civilians must be avenged!" A slam was heard over the radio, indicating that Elric had slammed his fist down onto his desk. "We must show our enemies that the Galactic Federation is still powerful and that we will not let this travesty go without punishment! To do so, however, will require a great deal of sacrifice on all of our parts. To that end, I called an emergency meeting of the surviving members of the Galactic Federation Council and they have granted me emergency powers. It is with great reluctance that I accept these powers, but given the situation, I see no alternative. As of right now, I am declaring martial law across the entire Galactic Federation. I will assure everyone, though, that once this crisis has passed, that I will relinquish the powers granted to me back to the Federation Council. However, until then, we need to work quickly, for our enemies will do their best to take advantage of this situation. To that end, I call upon the planet Earth to stand up and accept its new position as temporary Headquarters of the Galactic Federation. In addition, I must call on all of the food producing and cattle raising farms to increase their yield and to ship food and supplies to the starving and dispossessed of the Galactic Federation. Being the strongest and most self-sufficient planet, I know that Earth can handle this temporary burden. Since I am going to be required to coordinate with the rest of the fleet, I will leave my Vice-Chairman, Cyrus Mann, in charge of Earth for the time being, answerable only to me. I will also assign sector governors to various sectors of the Federation as well. They will be in charge of administering martial law, carrying out my orders, and deploying the defenses of the Federation sector fleets. I am also giving a great deal of power to the Police and military and in the absence of myself, or the sector governors or their representatives, they have final authority over rules and regulations. I know that this is inconvenient and I wish that there was another way to ensure the safety and security of the Federation, but I know of no other way. To that end, we must all move forward past this tragedy, and into a new day. We must never forget what happened to Daiban! And we shall avenge her loss! This transmission ends, now."
With that, the radio cut off, and Samus knew that the worst had come. Martial law had been declared, Elric was now, in essence, an emperor, though he would not call himself that until he had Earth firmly under his control, and he had placed the one man that Earth hated with a passion in charge of the planet. She knew that Earth would not take this lying down, and that they would be hesitant to enforce any of the orders given by Elric, if for no other reason than because they knew that it would be Cyrus who was going to be overseeing the planet. And the people of Earth would be on the lookout for anything suspicious that he would try.
Back on Earth, Cyrus and Charon listened to Elric's address to the Galactic Federation. At the end of the address, a grin twisted their lips. "Finally," Cyrus said excitedly. "Finally, I will have the power to access the Spear Pillar once more and experiment in creating a new Red Chain, this time without Earth's government or the International Police Force hanging all over me."
"Yes," Charon echoed. "With Elric basically telling Earth that it will now feed and clothe the survivors of Daiban and everyone else, as well as likely be made to house many of the at least eight billion evacuees that had made it off of Daiban before its destruction. That will force Earth to focus on the Federation and not on us. And its likely refusal to do all that the Federation desires will cause the two sides to begin mistrusting one another."
"And that will free me to unleash the Dark Original One upon the world," Cyrus added. "And with all of the suffering of this universe, the Dark Original One will have to create a new world, a new universe for me; one without emotion and suffering. The day is coming!" he exclaimed. "Soon, I will have everything!" His eyes then flashed with the same insanity and darkness that they had when he had come so close to achieving his dream two years earlier.
Meanwhile, back on Space Lab Moreau, Ridley listened to the reports coming in over the comm networks from the Main Engineering section of the station. According to the final tally, more than three thousand members of the Galactic Federation Council had been killed in the Space Pirate attack on Galactic Federation Headquarters. He grinned upon hearing the reports and the final tally. He stared at the screen as he witnessed Daiban explode. He sadistically hoped that most of the people of Daiban had died and would have been disappointed to know that eight billion of Daiban's inhabitants had managed to evacuate before the planet exploded. He did not let it bother him, though. He still had some work to do, yet. He quickly went over to an unoccupied tank that looked to be large enough to contain an Aurora Unit, or Mother Brain. He then took the vial of Aurora Unit Zero's DNA and a syringe. He drew about half of the DNA of the vial and then injected it into the unoccupied tank. Once the DNA had been injected into the tank, he withdrew the needle and backed away. He stared at the tank for a few more moments before turning and exiting Main Engineering to return to the Control Deck. Now, he would only have to wait a few months before the next phase of his plan would begin.