Chapter 6:
Samus's shuttle emerged from warp over Luna. Immediately upon emerging from warp, she plotted a course for the Orbital Defense Rings' docking hatch so she could get to work. During her minute-long jump, she took the time to plan her course of action on the surface should she be successful in destroying the Orbital Rings should she survive the process. She considered the formidable forces that she would likely have to fight. There were already reports of other bounty hunters, most notably Kanden, whom she had fought before, as well as other well-known bounty hunters such as Cylock, a male Simian that wore powerful battle armor, and Marda, a female Star Elf that oftentimes used seduction to get information from her targets, as well as her looks to get close to targets for assassination. There were also rumors of other bounty hunters such as Weavel and Trace also being present on Earth or on its Orbital Defense Rings. This was in addition to the other formidable security measures found onboard the rings. In addition to these defenses, she had heard that the Star Fox Team was also stationed at Earth and were likely either a part of the defense fleet, or were performing routine patrols around the planet and the defense ring. She felt a pang of sympathy and regret towards them should she be forced to engage any of them. They were much like her in that they did not, until they followed General Peppy Hare's orders, or request, to help out Cyrus and the Galactic Federation against the renegade planet Earth and its allies. Star Fox likely did not know that Cyrus was a criminal that was willing to sacrifice Earth at the very least in order to accomplish his goals, or that his true goals would likely destroy the universe. Had she not been the one to uncover Elric's treachery, as well as Cyrus's, she might be working for him at this very moment.
Her thoughts then turned to the other Galactic Federation soldiers that were fighting for the Cyrus on and over Earth. Many of these soldiers had fought against Elric and had been horrified and enraged by Elric's treasonous activities. She wondered if they knew what they were fighting for. She felt that they did not know of Cyrus's true goals, but she wondered if they knew about his willingness to sacrifice Earth to accomplish his stated goals. While the entire Federation had heard former Councilman, now President of the Galactic Federation in Exile Colin Williams' counter speech to Cyrus's, she knew that many either did not believe him, or worse, did not care. Elric had done a very good job in instilling a sense of discontent, anger, and even hatred towards the humans of Earth since the destruction of Daiban. Despite Earth's willingness to help the survivors of Daiban, many alien races and even humans from the fringes of the Galactic Federation hated Earth due to it kicking off the survivors of Daiban and the closing of the planet to refugees after it had discovered Elric using Earth's charity to send in Watchmen infiltrators. As it was, she knew that the taking of Earth would be difficult and that there was no guarantee that the Galactic Federation Civil War would end should Cyrus either be captured or killed.
Her thoughts then turned towards the mission at hand as she steered her shuttle towards Earth. As her shuttle left the orbit of Earth's moon and headed towards the orbital rings, her sensors alerted her to the fact that several hundred sensor signatures were scanning her ship. Two Stiletto-class starfighters came towards her and performed deep scans on her shuttle. She prayed that the automated transponder and her shuttle's stealth systems would be able to fool the sensors of the two fighters. Soon, a voice cracked in over her comm, saying, "We have you on our sensors now. Please identify immediately."
Samus answered, "This is Nara Draykon of the shuttle Tryclyde, of Bolt Systems Engineering. I'm here as part of the maintenance crew for the Orbital Defense Rings."
"Please transmit your security clearance code to confirm your identity and your mission," the voice stated.
"Transmission commencing," Samus responded.
All she could do now was wait as the two fighters flanked her shuttle. She knew that the fighters were likely in contact with a ship somewhere out there. As she continued towards Earth, she saw a capital ship off in the distance. It was a Pixie-class light cruiser. They were relatively old starships, but they were still quite capable in combat for ships of that size. She continued to wait as her shuttle approached the light cruiser, not daring to change course unless it was to avoid actually hitting the ship or flying too close to the ship for its own comfort. She made certain that her course would keep her from getting too close to the ship so as to be discourteous, but not so far away so as to look like she was actively trying to avoid the ship being able to confirm her identity.
Looking down at her sensors, she found that the two fighters were now breaking off. She heard a voice crackle in over her comm, saying, "Identification confirmed and code clearance accepted. Follow your current course to Orbital Ring Docking Hatch One."
"Understood," Samus answered.
She proceeded to fly towards the Earth. As she flew towards the planet, she could see the silhouette of the eight Orbital Defense Rings over the planet. She also noticed a large number of dots in the background, many of them in front of the Orbital Defense Rings. She began counting the dots and found that there had to be at least hundreds of ships, possibly thousands. The fleet that stood outside the Orbital Rings' defense shield alone numbered almost as much as the fleet that Admiral Dane had currently assembled. She looked past the Orbital Rings and she found that here had to be at least a thousand more ships in reserve behind the shield, able to hurl their ordnance towards any enemy invasion force while sitting safely behind the shield. She then saw a bright flash off in the distance as a subspace window opened. Immediately, one hundred new contacts appeared. Her eyes went wide at the number of ships that had just arrived. She knew that there was no way that Admiral Dane's fleet would be able to take the Earth with this large of a fleet arrayed against them unless he had a lot more help coming. Even worse was the fact that many of these ships were not Galactic Federation starships. Instead, they consisted mostly of Cornerian warships, along with N'Kren and Ylla ships. Everyone would be involved in this fight. Samus closed her eyes for a second and sighed. For the first time in a long time, members of the ancient Chozo Alliance would open fire on each other, for there was no way that combat could be avoided between the two sides.
She continued to fly towards the Orbital Rings and she proceeded to make her way past several of the ships that were holding their positions. She began to get nervous, for she felt as if they likely knew about Admiral Dane's planned assault on Earth and were merely waiting for him to make his move. She had to warn him about the fleet before it was too late. As her shuttle continued on its way, her sensors alerted her to several more scans by Galactic Federation fighters and capital ships. The Federation was not taking any chances. Samus only hoped that her wig, and brown wig that fell to her shoulders, her contact lenses that made her eyes appear to be green, rather than their natural blue, and her uniform would be enough to disguise who she really was.
After a few minutes of flight, the rings were growing in size out the view port of the shuttle. As they were growing, her comm light flashed once more and another voice crackled in over the radio. "This is Ring One control to Shuttle Tryclyde, do you copy?"
"Yes," Samus called into the speaker in response.
"We are lowering the shield, prepare to dock at Docking Hatch One."
"I copy."
With that, Samus closed the channel and began making her approach towards Orbital Ring One's Docking Hatch One. She glanced out the view port once more and examined the Earth. She watched as a yellow lance of plasma emerged from one of the cannons on one of the Orbital Rings. Given its position, she suspected that it was either Ring Three or Ring Five. She looked at the impact spot the Earth and saw a small ring of fire form in the middle of the continent Europe. The explosion on the surface was quite small, though, and seemed to only be a few megatons in power, a barely noticeable fraction of the cannon's true might. Samus uttered a silent prayer for those who were killed or injured in the attack. She then glared at the Orbital Rings, knowing that she would take them down, no matter what it took.
Her shuttle soon banked towards the right and made its way towards Orbital Ring One. Soon, a yellow line appeared on her HUD screen, indicating the way towards Docking Hatch One. She followed the yellow line closely, not daring to stray away from it. As she flew, several squadrons of fighters flew by in groups of two, three, and even four. While many of the fighters were Stilettos, some were of the newer Rapier, Claymore, and Epée class. She turned away from the window and continued to on her course. A red dot soon appeared on the HUD, which was getting larger. She was nearing her destination.
She continued to follow the line as more and more ships were darting to and from the Orbital Ring. Given the number of transports, assault gunships, and starfighters flying to and from the ring, she figured that there was a fighter bay close to the docking hatch for the shuttles. The red dot began to grow until she could see that the red "dot" was no longer a dot, but a hatch that her ship could latch onto. She continued to make her way towards the hatch and glanced out the window once more. She could see figures in space suits putting the finishing touches to some of the armor plates. At first, she wondered how they could be working outside of the ring since the rings would soon reactivate the shield. She then realized that they were likely on the inside of the shield bubble and that they would be safe from harm. If not, though, then this was an indication that Cyrus, or whoever was in command onboard the rings, did not care about the safety of their personnel. She soon saw the figures make their way inside the ring via a man-sized hatch. She figured that the shield was about to rise soon.
As she approached the ring, she noted that the size of the ring was much larger than she had initially expected. She saw one of the menacing cannons jutting out from the hull of the ship and quickly noticed that it was not quite as long as the ring was wide. Looking at the ring, she guessed that it had to be equivalent to at least six decks of a starship in "height", from a crewmember's perspective. The barrel of the cannon was wide, which made Samus think that either the cannon could have its firepower focused, or it was so powerful when fired at full power that the barrel needed to be so wide so as to be able to unleash all of its energy without melting in the process.
She looked ahead and saw that the docking hatch was only a few hundred meters ahead of her. She shut down her engine power and let the tractor beams of the hatch pull her in. She made certain to keep the automated transponder and the stealth systems active, though. She made certain to check to make sure that she had a personal transponder that could give back false sensor readings should she be forced to go through a bioscan. Good, she had one. She made certain to only activate it once her shuttle was brought onboard.
Meter by meter, the tractor beams pulled in the Tryclyde. Samus merely sat at her station, waiting for the signal that her ship had docked with the ring's hatch. Eventually, she felt a shudder reverberate throughout the cockpit, as well as a message informing her that the shuttle had successfully docked with the hatch. Soon, she saw a set of doors open and the docking hatch retreated into the Orbital Ring, itself. As the ship was pulled in, the view of space was replaced with the walls of the docking hatch. After thirty seconds of slowly retreating into the ring's superstructure, the hatch stopped and Samus could see an open space out the view port. She figured that she had reached her destination. She checked her shuttle's sensors and found that there was an atmosphere outside the shuttle and that it consisted of a nitrogen, oxygen atmosphere with small amounts of water vapor and miniscule amounts of carbon dioxide.
As soon as she read that it was safe to leave the ship, the bounty hunter proceeded to deactivate her shuttle and activated her personal transponder that would give back the false life reading of her merely being an unaugmented human with no trace of Chozo or Metroid DNA. After activating the transponder and placing it in her pocket, she proceeded to go to the rear of the shuttle and get her tools. She found a large assortment of tools. She knew how to use each and every one of the tools, for she wanted to be ready for all contingencies with regards of having to effect repairs to her own ships in the past. She felt as if she had enough passing knowledge of Federation systems that she would be able to pass as an engineer while hiding her true intentions. Once she placed several tools in her tool belt and proceeded to load the other tools and even some replacement parts onto the load lifter, she went to open the rear ramp of the shuttle. The shuttle ramp slowly opened and descended to the ground. Eventually, it struck the floor with a resounding clang.
After the boarding ramp was lowered, she proceeded to disembark from the shuttle, pushing her load lifter in front of her as it floated a couple of feet off the ground. After walking down the ramp, she headed towards the exit. Over near the exit to the small holding bay, she saw a map of the ring, with a red dot signifying her location. She searched for the check in station, which, as it turned out, appeared to be right outside the holding bay she was currently in. She proceeded to step towards the door, which opened as soon as it sensed her approach, and she made her way through.
On the other side of the door, she found a check in area with several scanners and a small security access tunnel. This tunnel was undoubtedly a scanner of some sort. Samus could only hope that the sensors were not acute enough to detect that she was wearing a transponder and that she had Chozo and Metroid DNA, in addition to her normal human DNA, inside of her. The last thing she wanted to do was to alert the entire network to her presence before she had even made it past the first checkpoint. Outside the tunnel, two Galactic Federation Army Troopers stood guard close to the security with assault rifles held firmly in their hands. She could not tell if these were energy rifles or the standard projectile rifles that were generally given to the standard Army Troopers. Upon entering, the two troopers looked at one another and said, "Looks like we've got some more engineers here."
"Yeah, it most certainly does," the officer, who was dressed in a blue uniform and seemingly unarmed, manning one of the sensors sighed. "Well, let's get this over with, miss." He then directed Samus, "Please step through the tunnel and remove all metallic items from your pocket at once. Your metallic items will be placed through a separate scanner."
Samus grew concerned at the order, for she did not know whether or not her transponder would count as metallic. It was designed by Old Bird, and Admiral Dane and Adam had to have filled him in on the scanning customs of the Galactic Federation, particularly humans, but she did not know if this device would register as metallic. She decided that it would be best to not place it in the basket that was given to her. Instead, she placed all of her tools from her tool belt, as well as a few metallic credit coins that she was carrying on her, along with her wristwatch. Once she had placed all of her metallic items inside the basket, another security officer, this one merely wearing a gray Federation Security uniform with an energy pistol for a side arm and no visible armor, took the basket to place in another sensor. The security officer then returned to her and directed, "Please show your identification now."
Samus pulled out a datacard and handed to him. He took the card and examined it closely. After examining it, he pushed a button and a hologram of Samus's alias, Nara Draykon appeared. The hologram not only showed her alias's name, but also her age, height, weight, place of birth, and current address, which was the 213 block of Ion Street on the Jovian moon, Io. The officer then deactivated the hologram and placed the card into a scanner slot on a console near the console that likely controlled the large security tunnel scanner. After a few seconds, in which a flash came from the slot, the security officer withdrew the card and handed it back to Samus.
"It looks like everything checks out, Ms. Draykon," the officer said. "Only one more thing needs to be done." He then directed her towards the large scanner tunnel and said, "Please step through this small tunnel. This tunnel will scan you for any foreign contamination."
Samus nodded and did as she was directed. She stepped into the tunnel and as she walked, a green field of light appeared at the end of the tunnel. The light proceeded to sweep itself towards her and then washed over her. She continued to walk the few steps necessary to emerge from the other side. As she did so, she took in a deep breath. If anything were to go wrong, it would go wrong now. She felt as if she managed to make it past this checkpoint, that she would be free to hack and take control of at least a couple of the rings before she was discovered.
After emerging from the tunnel, she turned around saw the basket with her metallic items on the table next to the console. The officer manning the controls for the scanner went over to her and said, "Everything checks out, Miss Draykon. Welcome to Orbital Ring One. I hope everything here checks out and meets your satisfaction."
"I do too," Samus responded. She then looked over at a digital map pad and asked, "Is it okay if I pick up one of those map pads. My boss over at Bolt Engineering Systems didn't give me a map of the station. They just told me to report to Sector Three, Section Eight on Deck Three."
The security officers gave a chuckle. "That's probably because the Federation here doesn't want to divulge anything about these rings. They are, after all, mostly N'Kren technology, with some Ylla improvements and time dilation used in the quick construction of these rings."
"Woah," Samus said unsteadily. "N'Kren and Ylla tech, huh. I should feel honored to be working here, then."
"Yeah," the officer responded. "Just don't try to smuggle any of the tech back to Bolt Systems Engineering without Federation, or rather, Cyrus's approval."
"Don't worry, I won't," the false engineer assured him. "As tempting as it sounds, I don't want to run afoul with Cyrus."
The security officer nodded and told Samus, "You're good to go. Good luck on your first day in there." She thanked the security officer and, before leaving, she picked up one of the map pads and placed it in her pocket. She then went to pick up her tools, as well as reclaim her load lifter, which carried replacement parts should any repairs be necessary. Once she reclaimed her items, she proceeded to exit the checkpoint and proceed with her mission.
As she entered the ring, proper, she took out her map pad and activated it. A hologram of planet Earth and the Orbital Defense Ring network appeared. There were several sections of the rings that were highlighted, with a key at the bottom indicating what the various signs meant. The green dot indicated her current location, while the blue dots denoted the locations of the main computer cores for each ring. The green dots indicated the crew quarters, and the red dots denoted restricted areas where only military personnel were authorized to be. She pushed a few buttons and had the hologram zero in on her current location. Immediately, her current sector appeared on the display. She then entered in the request for the shortest route to the computer core of Ring One. Immediately, a yellow line indicating the shortest route to the computer core appeared on the display, with orange detours should such detours prove necessary or convenient. She then studied the route as she began to make her way to her destination. As she did so, she pulled out a datapad and pushed a single button on it. The screen came alive and showed a copy of her orders and her designated workstation. She was supposed to work on checking the main computer core of Orbital Ring One and perform a system update on the Orbital Defense Ring network. This was supposed to make the rings more resistant to hacking and tampering. For Samus, though, if she did this correctly, she might even be able to activate the self-destruct mechanisms for all eight rings from Orbital Ring One, itself, and take them all out in one fell swoop. She hoped that her cover identity would make this potential outcome more feasible.
She continued down the corridor, passing a number of other workers and military personnel. The military personnel were merely Fleet Troopers wearing standard Galactic Federation uniforms carrying side arms. As she walked by, she slowed down a bit to listen to the conversations between some of the troopers.
"Man, this is one boring assignment," one of the Fleet Troopers, a male in his mid-twenties with brown hair and green eyes complained. "The only thing there is to do around here is to stand and look out at the stars."
"And look at the fighters fly by," another male Fleet Trooper echoed as a flight of four Rapier-class starfighters flew by the cockpit. The Rapiers were fighters that definitely looked like they were at home in the atmosphere with two wings that thinned out to points, and a single rudder at the rear of the craft that stuck upwards, which also thinned out to a single point. These Rapiers seemed to be armed with both energy cannons, as well as six missiles located on two wing pylons. Given that the Rapiers were designed for air and space superiority, Samus guessed that the missiles were likely anti-starfighter in nature.
She was about to walk on by when she saw a flash out the view port. The two Fleet Troopers joined her in staring out the window. The flash did not die down and Samus was easily able to identify the flash as another subspace window opening. Ship after ship emerged from the subspace window. The bounty hunter could only watch as she saw that the fleet that was emerging consisted of Galactic Federation Asgard-class heavy cruisers, Olympus-class battleships, Gehenna-class dreadnaughts, and a few N'Kren and Ylla ships that looked to be the size of dreadnaughts at over five thousand meters in length for each ship. In all, one hundred ships emerged from the subspace window.
"Looks like the first half of the fleet's finally all here," the first Fleet Trooper noted casually.
"Half?" Samus asked, looking astounded at the arrival of the fleet. "How many ships are coming to Earth?"
"About six thousand," the second Fleet Trooper responded.
"Six thousand?" Samus blurted, trying to sound surprised, which was not difficult considering the fact that while she knew that Cyrus was assembling a fleet at Earth, she had no idea that it would be this large.
"And that's just the first fleet," the first Trooper responded. "There are another six thousand or so ships on hot standby outside the solar system, too, ready to jump in should worse come to worse. And this isn't including the normal defense fleet around Earth, or the minefield that's been laid in the space between Luna and Earth."
"Why are they assembling such a large fleet now?" asked Samus.
"Because Admiral Dane is gonna be attacking soon," the first Fleet Trooper responded in a huff, expecting even the newly arrived engineer to know what was going on with the fleet. "Cyrus is close to finding what he needs to wipe out those Magic Lords. Admiral Dane'll have to launch his attack now if he wants to have any chance of stopping Chairman Cyrus. That's why he's pulling so many ships back to Earth and mining the area between Luna and Earth. Heck, there's even a minefield in the space between Mars and Earth as well."
"Aren't you concerned at all about what that plan to wipe out the Magic Lords might be?" Samus asked, ignoring the mention of the minefield and trying to sound curious without giving away that she knew exactly what would happen if Cyrus succeeded. "I've heard some rumors that there's some risk involved. Some have even said that Cyrus's success could spell doom for everyone."
"Don't believe everything you read in the tabloids, or hear from the so-called Federation in Exile, Miss… Draykon," the second Fleet Trooper snorted, glancing at Samus's nametag for confirmation of her name, as if 'Nara Draykon' was nothing but an out of town hick. "That's all just propaganda lies spread by the Federation in Exile spin machine. There's nothing to worry about. I mean, the most that will happen is that Earth gets damaged or destroyed in the plan."
"Shouldn't that concern you?" the 'engineer' asked. "I mean we're up in the orbit of Earth. If what the Federation in Exile says is true, then there's the possibility that Earth could be destroyed. Wouldn't that be bad for us up here?"
"We'll be transferring to the G.F.S. Nautilus in a couple of hours anyway, so it won't really matter to us, and you'll likely be out of here pretty soon, anyway," the first Fleet Trooper answered casually. "I mean, we all know that Earth was just some arrogant self-sufficient planet that was too selfish and uncaring to help out the refugees of Daiban after it exploded. Don't expect any sympathy from me should this planet meet the same fate as Daiban. Besides, I come from Jigrad. I have no connection to Earth besides being a human." She looked at the other Trooper and his shrug indicated that he felt the same way.
Samus hid her anger from the two of them and merely continued on her way, saying nothing for fear of arousing suspicion had she continued the conversation. She walked away from them as casually as she could, but also as quickly as possible so as to restrain herself from hitting either of them. She proceeded to make her way towards the computer core. On her way, she found a small hover tram that would take her to her desired destination. She proceeded to board the tram, pushing her load lifter into a cargo container on the back of the craft. The cargo hatch on the tram closed and Samus then entered the rearmost car of the tram. The car was unoccupied and she sat in the seat closest to the door she had entered from. After the door had closed, the tram proceeded to take her towards her destination.
As she was riding the hover tram, she pulled out her map pad once more, activated it, and proceeded to study it further. She found several white points that were labeled as teleporters. One point was close to the connection tubes that connected the Orbital Rings to each other. This was something new. She found that she had actually been pretty close to one of the teleporters and that she could have used it to take her to her workstation in a flash. Now, she would have to wait at least ten to twenty minutes before she arrived at her destination.
As Samus rode the tram, she looked out the window at the various sights as they flashed by her view. She saw a large array of shops and diners on the base. She also noticed several troopers, particularly the bulky Techno Power Suits, as she took to calling the armored suits. While they looked particularly imposing, she knew that they were not nearly as dangerous as even the lowliest of Techno Soldiers, the Techno Serfs that were flying outside the Orbital Ring. She looked outside and saw a large number of Techno Soldiers, many of them either Squires or Knights. She did not see any Techno Lords, from what she was able to see, but there were some Knights that appeared to have more ornate armor and heavier weaponry than the standard knights.
The ride lasted for ten minutes before she saw that the tram was close to arriving at her destination. She pushed a button in her seat to signal the tram to stop at the next stop. After a few seconds, she felt the hover tram slow down. The blur of motion slowed and it was now easier to see what was going on outside the tram inside the Ring. She soon saw a tram station off in the distance as the tram continued to slow. After thirty seconds, the tram pulled into the station and came to a stop. Once it stopped, the lights above the doors turned green and the doors opened to allow the passengers to exit. Samus then proceeded to exit the tram, along with at least a dozen other workers and military personnel.
After she had disembarked from the hover tram she proceeded to follow the map to her station, the main computer core of Orbital Ring One. As she walked through the wide corridor, she glanced around and took mental notes as to the locations and numbers of military troopers, as well as the locations of the teleporters. She only hoped that if she had to use a teleporter, that she would be able to decipher its controls. She did not dwell on that now, she would dwell on that when the time came, if it came. As she continued to walk down the corridor, she noticed several doors that, according to the map, led to storage areas and armories. She suspected that the storage areas likely contained Techno Power Suits. She continued to follow her map until she came to a door on her right. Checking the map, she found that the door led straight to the main computer core of Orbital Ring One. Before heading towards the door, she took one last look around the corridor and saw numerous Army Troopers and security personnel patrolling the hallway. She then proceeded to near the door, which was protected by two Army Troopers wearing their dark blue power armor. As she approached, they stepped in front of the door and ordered, "State your identification and show us your work orders immediately."
"My name is Nara Draykon," Samus answered. She then took out her work orders, as well as her identification, and presented them to the trooper. The trooper took both and examined them closely. He scanned the work orders and identification card for several seconds before handing them back to Samus.
"Everything seems to check out, miss Draykon," the soldier said. "You may pass. If you find anything out of the ordinary or need any assistance, don't hesitate to call."
"Thanks," Samus answered. "I won't." She then entered the main computer core's chamber.
Upon entering the room, the doors slid closed with a hiss. Samus glanced around and saw that housed the main computer core was completely devoid of any personnel, with only a few service robots working inside the room. She did not doubt, though, that there were other security measures in place incase of an attempted security breach. She surmised that the robots that were present might also be part of the room's security system. She glanced around and saw numerous security cameras as well. She was being watched. She knew that if she was to accomplish her mission, as well as warn Admiral Dane of the extra ships that were defending Earth, that she would have to take down the cameras. She also contemplated what her course of action would be, whether she would take the quick and easy route and take down the Orbital Rings in one certain fell swoop, or if she would make certain to warn Admiral Dane and the others about the fact that the Federation was expecting their attack and had amassed a far larger fleet than expected. In the end, she decided that she had to warn Admiral Dane about the fleet and the fact that they were ready for them.
The first thing she had to do was disable the cameras inside the room, and then go for the robots. Before doing so, she went around the core, making certain that everything was in working order a couple of times. She then went over to each console and examined it to make sure that everything was in working order. She then went around and checked the inner workings of each console. She would first remove the panel on the side of the console and then, lying down on the floor with a flashlight in hand, she would examine the wiring, when there were wires, of the console. For those that had energy and/or plasma conduits, she would carefully open the console and check the conduits to make sure that there were no leaks or breaches in said conduits. While she found nothing wrong with any of the consoles she, nevertheless, went back to each console and began to work on it as if she had found a problem, or a set of problems. She needed to make sure that she could program the cameras to send back an endless loop of her working on various consoles and she felt that the only way for this to work would be to make it look like there were several problems with a number of consoles. She could then program the cameras to play back her working on the various consoles. It would likely take the security forces a while to realize that something was wrong, and by the time they did, it would be too late for them to do anything about it.
Once she was satisfied that she had enough material for her to make a convincing recording that would not be discovered to be a recording by the ring's security for a long time, she went to work programming the cameras, ostensibly doing her best to make certain that everything was okay with the computer systems. While she was not nearly the hacker that many Federation computer experts were, she knew her way around the computer systems of the four ancient races, particularly the Chozo computers, and the main computer was based upon Chozo mechanical computer technology. Those computers had been shared among the four ancient races by the Chozo, while it had been the Ylla that had shared much of their expertise in biotechnology, which helped the Chozo give rise to Mother Brain, the Metroids, and, indirectly, the Aurora Units used by the Galactic Federation and the Galactic Federation in Exile. She had no problem sending back an endless loop of her working on some problem or another on the consoles. While the problems had to be minor, she hoped that if she was discovered, that they would, at most, suspect that she was trying to acquire some N'Kren or Ylla technology for Bolt Engineering Systems. After that, she promptly shut down all security systems on the computer and disabled all motion sensors in the room while sending a signal that everything was still okay.
After the loop was in place and the other security systems were deactivated, Samus went over to the work robots, who were beginning to take notice of her work and went to shut them down. The robots were tracked vehicles with numerous mechanical arms allowing them to perform multiple tasks and work on multiple consoles. They did not have any weapons or defenses, though, and they had an obvious off switch, one that Samus thought was a little too obvious, on their sides. She carefully flicked the switch on the first robot and it immediately shut down. Samus took out her scanner and checked on the robot to make sure that it was non-functional. When she found that it was, she proceeded to shut down the rest of the robots. After the work robots were shut down, she opened up each of them and disconnected all of their wiring and extracted their batteries and other power sources and placed them on the floor in blind spots away from the cameras. She did not need the robots to be potentially eavesdropping in their deactivated states. She also removed any eye-like structures and anything that looked even remotely like a sensor, recording device, or transmitter. Once this was done, she got to work.
She first went over to the main computer core's console and set a sensor jamming field around the room. She then ordered the computer core to send back false sensor readings that indicated that everything was still normal. She did not know how long she would be able to confuse any of the other security measures, but she figured that it should be long enough for her to warn Admiral Dane and the others about the trap that Cyrus had planned. Once she felt as if she had taken all the precautions that she could to remain undetected, she went over to the main radio transmitter and opened a highly encrypted hyperlight channel to the G.F.S. Olympus. Once the channel was open, she called out in a clear voice, "Admiral Dane, Commander General Malkovich, this is Samus Aran, do you read me? I repeat, this is Samus Aran onboard Orbital Ring One, do you read me?"
After a moment, the radio crackled in and she heard the voice of Admiral Castor Dane crackle in, saying, "We read you Samus. What's wrong?"
"Admiral, I take it you haven't attacked Mars yet."
"No we haven't. Why? Is there a trap set up there?"
"No, sir," Samus answered. "The trap is at Earth. He knows that you're going to attack him, sir. There are seven thousand capital ships waiting for you at Earth with at least six thousand more waiting in the wings. Among them are a fleet of N'Kren and Ylla ships, as well as the Star Fox Team and some forces from the Cornerian Army. And that's not counting the squadrons of fighters, bombers, and interceptors that they have. Sir, you need to call in every ship you have, fast. There's no way you'll last very long against a fleet like that in a direct attack!" She then went over to the main computer and ordered it to compile readout and map of the locations of all of the ships that were arriving and their classes. She knew that the list would not be complete, but it was the best that she could manage at the time. It would have to be good enough. She then prepared to send the file to him. She went back to the radio transmitter and told Admiral Dane, "Sir, I am sending you an encrypted file on the fleet build, have your systems ready."
A moment of silence came, then Admiral Dane spoke again, "We're ready, Samus."
She then sent the data to Admiral Dane and after a moment, he said, "We've received the data." Another few moments passed before he spoke again. "Wow, Samus. You were right. This has 'trap' written all over it. Looks like Cyrus is pulling out all the stops. We'll use this new information, but we're still going to be launching towards Earth. It is now more imperative than ever that you manage to take down that Orbital Defense Ring network now and retake control of the Orbital Heavy Defense Platforms protecting the planet. It may be out only chance of sending down a search party to help search for Cyrus."
Samus then heard the sounds of knocking at the door. She said, "I have to go now, sir. They may have made me. Good luck."
"And to you, too, Samus," Admiral Dane responded before closing the channel.
After the channel was closed, she shut down the radio transmitter and erased all of the transmitter's logs. She then, in her mind, came up with the excuse that if she was questioned, that she was trying to understand some of the N'Kren and/or Ylla technology so she could take either a sample or understanding back to Bolt Engineering Systems with her.
More knocking sounded and Samus made the finishing touches to the room, making sure that everything was in working order as the door opened. Immediately, twenty Galactic Federation Army Troopers flooded into the room, flanking a single female human with blond hair and green eyes. She stood at about five foot four and looked quite young, as if she were barely out of her teens. A sense of dread entered Samus's heart as she recognized the sensation of having her mind scanned. She proceeded to close off her mind as best as a normal could and took on the personal of Nara Draykon. The young woman stepped closer to her and began her scan again. Samus could feel the probe in the back of her mind, but her own mental strength and resilience, as well as her experience in dealing with telepathic opponents in the forms of Mother Brain and more recently with MB had forced her to learn how overcome a scan or attempt at mind control without having any telepathic abilities of her own. The young woman frowned at Samus and it seemed as if her scan did not give satisfactory results. Samus merely looked over at her and asked, "Who are you? And why do you have a small army of Federation soldiers surrounding you?"
"I am Mari, apprentice to the telepath, Venus, of Team Galactic. I, too, however, am also a member," the woman answered.
"Why are you here?"
The woman gave a chuckle. "I'm here because you are tampering with the computer. I sensed that something was wrong and I am investigating. Now, tell me who you are, immediately," she commanded in a no-nonsense tone.
Samus answered, "I'm Nara Draykon, an engineer affiliated with Bolt Engineering Systems. We were hired by the GF as maintenance workers and I was stationed here. I was merely making certain that everything was working okay."
Mari studied Samus for a bit. "That last part's a big, fat, lie!" she then blurted. At that cry, the Galactic Federation Army Troopers proceeded to point their weapons at Samus, which prompted her to raise her hands in surrender. "Now, tell me, what are you doing here, really?"
Samus then lowered her hands and gave a defeated sigh. "Alright, you got me," she said with resignation. "I was studying the technology of the computer core and gonna take back some samples with me. I mean c'mon, it's not every day that you get a chance to study technology of two of the four ancient races," she pouted. "I just wanted a good bauble or two to take back, maybe get me a promotion. Heck, I might even manage to invent somethin' with this tech."
Mari studied her once more. The young woman's eyes started to glow as she seemed to be scanning Samus's mind again. Again, Samus did her best to throw off the scan. She did math in her head, thought about various sporting events, worried about what her 'bosses' over at Bolt Engineering Systems would do to her if they heard about this and she did not give them something good in return. After a few seconds, Mari said, "I don't believe you." Turning to the soldiers, she said, "Kill her!"
"What?" Samus blurted, still in her Nara Draykon persona. "So an attempt to get some N'Kren and Ylla technology is now punishable by death?"
"It is when I'm giving the orders," the girl chuckled. "Besides, I know you're hiding something. Tell me, what is it? If you don't the soldiers will kill you in three seconds."
Samus then smiled and removed her contact lenses, revealing her blue eyes. She then took off her wig, showing her blond hair. Suddenly, a golden light surrounded her body and clothing and the soldiers took aim at her. The soldiers fired at her with their assault rifles, but it was too late. The armor had formed over Samus and the first few bullets bounced off of her armor just before the shields came up. Once they did, the bullets merely proceeded to bounce off her shields, inflicting no damage to the shields whatsoever. She quickly checked her armor to make sure that its integrity was not compromised. The readouts said that it was still at one hundred percent. The energy-sheathed bullets had inflicted no damage. She then focused on the soldiers.
Mari's eyes went wide at the sight of Samus and she cried, "It's Samus Aran! Kill her you fools!"
The soldiers tried to comply, but their weapons were not up to the task. Samus both grimaced and smiled to herself. She would have to take down the Orbital Defense Ring network the old fashioned way, but she had managed to warn Admiral Dane and the others about the fleet that was assembled at Earth. And while the destruction of the Orbital Rings was prolonged due to the fighting, she knew that she had the capability to accomplish this mission. She then focused on the soldiers and the telepathic woman and finally returned fire.