Chapter 8:
Samus activated her Scan Visor and scanned the Techno Knight, hoping to find some weakness in the soldier that she could exploit in the unavoidable battle that was about to begin. After a few seconds, the scan came back, reading, Bioform – Human. Subject's mind has been modified via brainwashing. A single uncharged Wave Beam blast should be sufficient to neutralize brainwashing.
Morphology – Techno Knight, Ground Attack MOS. Subject is encased in fully enclosed, virtually impenetrable battle armor. Subject is armed with a blade that can produce an energy field around it, in addition to chest mounted energy projectors that can destroy a small town in a single blast. Suit is invulnerable to almost any weapon save heavy starfighter weapons and capital ship grade weapons. Only the Screw Attack, and Wave Beam are known to be able inflict damage to Techno Knights via direct means. The only other weakness is the energy projectors at the moment they open fire.
After the scan was finished, a blue bar of energy appeared below her own health bar and below the bar, the label, Techno Knight, appeared below. Hope returned to Samus after she read the scan. She actually had weapons that would be able to inflict damage to these soldiers. And if she managed to time things correctly, she might be able to inflict damage to the energy projectors as well with some well-timed shots. The Techno Knight, however, was the first to attack by charging her with his blade, which had a sheath of blue lightning surrounding it. The sheath of lightning crackled as the Knight swung the blade. The thrusters of the Knight fired and pushed him forward at tremendous speed, fast enough that Samus was barely able to avoid the initial strike.
Samus dodged the swing and reflexively turned towards the knight and returned fire with her Plasma Beam. She was not surprised when the pulse of orange-red energy bounced off of the armor and towards the ceiling of the corridor, leaving a black scorch mark in the ceiling. She quickly switched to her Wave Beam and quickly fired a barrage of uncharged blasts at the Knight. Each blast splashed against the Knight's armor harmlessly. She checked the life bar of her enemy and found that it was not decreasing in the slightest. She surmised that only Charged Wave Beam blasts or the Wave Buster would be sufficient to inflict any real damage to the Knight. She then charged her Wave Beam and proceeded to unleash the charged blast towards the Knight as he charged her once more. The blast struck the Techno Knight squarely in the chest and electricity arced across his body, but the Techno Knight continued his charge, prompting Samus to jump into the air and perform a somersault, thus activating her Screw Attack, as the Knight barreled into her and brought his Lightning Sword down onto her armor. The energy field of the Screw Attack inflicted physical damage to the Knight's armor and she could see small pieces of metal breaking off of the knight right where she had struck him in the chest. A black scorch mark also began to appear as she was inflicting more damage. Her Screw Attack also protected her from the Knight's sword strike, but would soon be put to the test when the energy projectors on the Knights chest began to light up. Samus remained spinning in the air, for she knew exactly what was coming next.
The glow on the energy projectors of the Knight became more intense and after a second, the knight unleashed the built up energy from his chest projectors. Pulsing emerald green energy erupted from the projectors and engulfed Samus in a wave of destructive energy that was capable of inflicting minor damage to the shields of small capital starships. The wave of energy blew out a large section of the Orbital Ring's hull and traveled out into space, where it eventually dissipated. Fortunately, her Screw Attack managed to hold the energy that struck her at bay. Despite this, the threat sensors on her HUD were in the red and she could tell that if this stream of energy did not stop soon, it would start to damage her suit. After ten seconds, though, the stream of energy finally ceased. Checking her status, she found that she had suffered no damage in the attack.
After the energy stream had ceased, Samus uncurled herself and landed in front of the Techno Knight. She checked her HUD and found that the Techno Knight still had three quarters of his health left. Despite the constant abuse the Knight had suffered during her Screw Attack assault, she had inflicted relatively minor damage to him. The Knight then came at Samus once more and swung his sword at her again. Samus dodged the slash and the sword struck the ground, tearing a massive rent into the floor. Samus saw this as her chance to disarm the Knight and swung her fist at the Knight's wrist, trying to knock away the weapon. Her armor struck the Knight's and his grip on the blade loosened. Samus then kicked the soldier in the wrist and knocked the blade out of his hands. The sword clattered upon striking the floor and its lightning field dissipated. Samus quickly swept in and picked it up before the Knight was able to retrieve his blade. Once she had acquired the blade, she activated its lightning field and thrust it forward into the Knight's abdomen. The blade did not bite deep into the Knight's armor, though, and Samus saw no blood being drawn by the blade. She was both happy and concerned, for she noticed the health bar of the Knight decrease only slightly. She withdrew the blade and saw that it had only made a slight furrow. However, electricity was crackling around that furrow, indicating that the Knight had sustained damage in the attack.
Seeing this as her own chance to do some real damage to the Knight, Samus charged her Wave Beam once more. Once it was charged, she unleashed the charged blast at the damaged part of the armor that had the electricity crackling about it. She hoped that this would be sufficient to shut down the armor and possibly even force the soldier to revert to his human form. As it was, though, that was not the case. The blast struck the weak part of the armor and detonated upon impact in a massive display of electricity. Electricity arced around the armored soldier, but the suit did not disappear. The good news was, though, that the Knight had lost about a quarter of his remaining energy in the attack. The Knight staggered a few steps backwards, but was far from finished.
The Knight quickly recovered and stood still. Two of his chest energy projectors began to glow once more. Samus realized that this battle would take forever unless she took a risk, which this soldier may have been drawing her in to do. She looked up at the two lit energy projectors on the Knight's chest and charged her Wave Beam, locking it onto the two glowing energy projectors. She knew that she had to hit him the instant he began to fire, while avoiding taking a hit in return, for a single hit from a weapon that powerful would almost certainly be fatal. She waited for the glow to become intense and the energy projectors to fire. Just then, she noticed a subtle change in the projectors and fired just as the energy projectors fired towards her. She had dived to the right and managed to avoid taking a hit from the two green energy beams that had been launched her way. The tracking nature of the Wave Beam was put to good use as it adjusted its heading as she had moved her arm cannon out of the field of normal fire for the energy cannons in order to avoid the green beams of energy. The beams sailed wide of Samus to the left and continued until they blew two new holes out of the Orbital Ring's hull and into outer space. Samus's Wave Beam, however, found its mark.
The Wave Beam struck the leftmost active energy projector and electricity arced across the entire body of the Techno Knight and Samus could hear a masculine-sounding grunt coming from inside the armor. The Knight then fell to one knee, staggered, but still active. She checked the life bar of the enemy soldier and found that there were still a few small units left, though it had mostly already been depleted. A single charged Wave Beam shot should finish off the Techno Knight. She charged her beam and prepared to fire. As she was doing so, the Knight stood up, unwilling to surrender just yet, and charged Samus once more. Samus dove out of the way of the charge and fired on the soldier in his rear thrusters. The trio of undulating purple energy pulses flew up the engines of the Knight and after a fraction of a second, electricity sparked around the Techno Knight's armored body once more. This time, the damage was fatal. As the electricity was arcing across the armor, a green field of energy surrounded the Knight and the suit of armor disappeared entirely. In its place was a human male of around fifty years of age. The man fell to his knees, and after a second, to the floor. Samus then powered down her Wave Beam to its weakest level and fired a single blast at the man. Again, electricity arced across his body upon the beam striking him. Electricity continued to arc across his body for a few seconds before it dissipated.
After the battle had concluded, Samus scanned the human once more and the scan came back, reading, Morphology – Human male. Subject has signs of having previously undergone brainwashing as well as a transformation that allowed the use of an Techno Armored Suit that have since been neutralized and the subject returned to normal.
Samus quickly turned the man over onto his back and her eyes were drawn to a label on the left side of his chest that read, K-2L. After a few seconds, the man opened his eyes and looked up at the armored bounty hunter. His eyes went wide with shock at the sight of Samus. "Who are you?" he blurted as he crawled away from the hunter.
"I am Samus Aran," the bounty hunter answered. She then tapped a switch on her chest and her helmet disappeared, revealing her blond hair and blue eyes. Her face greatly resembled her mother's, which the man was quick to pick up on.
"You look a lot like your mother, Virginia," he told her. Samus looked down at him sadly. He noticed her change in expression and asked, "What is it?"
"My parents were given by Cyrus to the Space Pirates and have become soldiers for them," she responded in a melancholy tone.
The man raised his eyebrows at her. "Are you sure?" he asked. "The last I heard, the N'Kren leader, Hi'Gor, was overseeing their deployment by Cyrus. There's no way that he would have allowed them to be given to the Space Pirates. Besides, they were Techno Lords, and not normal Techno Lords, either. There were rumors that Rodney and Virginia were given armor equivalent to Techno Kings and Techno Queens, if not Princes and Princesses. Cyrus would be an insane fool to give such powerful soldiers to an enemy like the Space Pirates."
"I saw them with Ridley on Shanera," Samus responded flatly. "From what I know of them, and the fact that they were acting like zombies when I saw them last, I'm certain that they were put under some form of mind control."
She then looked at the man intently and asked, "So, what's your name?"
The man smiled. "I'm Leon Kawalski."
He tried to rise, but found the task to be quite difficult. Samus reached down and helped him stand. Once he was up, she let him go and watched to see if he was able to walk properly. At first, he was a little wobbly, but after a while, he was able to walk normally. He then turned to Samus and told her, "Samus, you're going to destroy the remaining Orbital Defense Rings, am I right?"
She nodded.
"Then there are some things that you should know." He then paused before continuing, "First of all, there are other Techno Soldiers patrolling the Rings. These consist of Serfs, Squires, and Knights. Cyrus also called down a dozen Techno Knights to assist his forces in the conquest of Japan. However, that's not all. He's also developing some Technobles, Techno Soldiers that are in between Techno Knights and Techno Lords in power. They have the weapons, but not the shields. These soldiers are going to be loyal to Cyrus, alone, so they're all likely a part of his inner circle or at least know of his plans. In addition, most of the Techno Soldiers are loyal to the N'Kren, either through brainwashing due to the subjects being criminals, or are actually N'Kren themselves. All of the N'Kren are going to be Techno Knights and above. Don't be surprised if you even face off against a Lord or two on your mission. Also, there are other security measures in place, such as security robots, drones, and turrets on the other Rings, particularly on Ring Eight, which houses a great deal of weapons research and development departments."
Once he was finished, Samus told him, "Thank you for your help. Now get off this ring. I hope to destroy it quickly."
Leon nodded and ran down the corridor in the opposite direction of Samus's desired destination, and to the nearest escape pod. He opened the hatch to the pod and jumped in. Samus looked out the window as a small metallic ball flew past and down towards the planet. After his pod was out of sight, she put tapped her suit's neck, restoring her helmet, then turned and headed down the corridor and continued on her mission.
As she advanced down the corridor, she quickly came across a dozen of FG II-Grahams. Upon spotting the bounty hunter, they raised their Wave Beam shields over the entire corridor. Samus was not disturbed, though. She merely charged her own Wave Beam and targeted the closest floating turret-like robot. She unleashed her Charged Wave Beam blast upon the robot and watched as electricity arced across its casing. The robot promptly fell out of the air and clattered on the floor, but the other robots quickly closed ranks in an attempt to keep the shield up and prevent Samus from proceeding. Samus targeted the next robot and, with a single Charged Wave Beam shot, proceeded to fell the robot. She did the same for the rest of the ten remaining robots and in less than a minute, each and every FG II-Graham had fallen. Samus then switched to her Plasma Beam and vaporized the fallen robots in order to make sure that they did not reactivate or rise, on the off chance that their systems had not been completely shorted out.
After dealing with the Grahams, she made her way further down the corridor where a series of six treaded, tank-like security robots met her. These robots looked like metal boxes that were equipped with missile launchers, eight launchers per robot. Samus quickly scanned the robots, their scans coming back, reading, Morphology – Missile Security Robot. Subject possesses eight missile launchers, each capable of firing either a fragmentation anti-personnel missile, or a Heavy Explosive Anti-Tank missile. Subjects have weak armor and a single Power Beam shot should be sufficient to destroy them.
After reading the scan, the bounty hunter did not waste any time shooting her beams at them, instead, deciding to Screw Attack straight towards the robots. The robots also wasted no time targeting the somersaulting bounty hunter and firing their missiles towards her. The missiles erupted from their launchers and headed straight towards the bounty hunter. The missiles almost immediately crossed the distance between the robots and Samus and impacted against the hunter. The shield produced by the Screw Attack rendered the missiles useless against her as they detonated harmlessly against her armor. She continued through the numerous detonations and proceeded to annihilate each and every Missile Security Robot at the slightest touch.
After the robots had been dealt with, Samus stopped for a second and glanced back at her map once more. She found that she was pretty close to the computer core for Orbital Ring Five. She only had a few dozen more meters to go before she reached the control room. Unfortunately, just as she approached the door, two Stealth Federation Marines, Galactic Federation Marines that wore black suits of power armor identical in shape and strength to normal Galactic Federation Marines, blocked the door. Activating her Scan Visor, she scanned them, her scan reading, Morphology – Stealth Federation Marine. Subject wears a suit of power armor that has all of the abilities of the normal Marine's suit of armor, but is also equipped with a cloaking device. X-Ray or Thermal scanners, however, can detect these soldiers.
After she had scanned the soldiers, they vanished from her sight, prompting her to activate her X-Ray Visor. Upon activating her X-Ray Visor, the background became monochrome, with only the two Stealth Federation Marines really standing out. She did not care. She saw everything that she needed to. She switched back to her Wave Beam and promptly charged it. Once the beam was charged she released a blast at the trooper on the right just as the Federation Marines were opening fire on her. The shots of the Stealth Federation Marines hit true and Samus lost ten energy units to the barrage. However, her Charged Wave Beam blast also hit its mark. Upon being hit by the beam, electricity arced across the armored form of the Stealth Federation Marine and he fell to the floor, his suit decloaking due to being disabled by the Wave Beam. Samus's sensors, however, indicated that he was still alive, merely stunned. She then charged a second Wave Beam blast and pointed it at the other Stealth Marine. The Marine opened fire on Samus, but Samus's superhuman speed made her a nearly impossible target for the Marine to get a bead on. The Marine sprayed energy bolts towards Samus and prayed that he managed to score a hit. As he did so, though, he, too, went evasive in an attempt to prevent Samus from getting an accurate bead on him. However, her superhuman perceptions allowed her to keep up with him and keep her arm cannon centered right on his chest, not that she needed to with the tracking ability of the Wave Beam. She unleashed her Charged Wave Beam shot right at the Marine, who did not have the time to dodge. The beam struck the unfortunate Marine squarely in the chest and electricity arced across his body as he collapsed onto the floor, stunned, but still alive, his suit decloaking in the process. With the Marines having been dealt with for the time being, Samus switched back to her Combat Visor and walked past the fallen Marines, and into the computer core's control room.
Inside the computer control room, Samus was met by two bipedal security robots. These robots were armed with bazookas and immediately took aim at the bounty hunter. Before they could fire, though, she shot both of the robots with single uncharged blasts from her Plasma Beam. The beams burned through the torsos of the robots and blew massive holes into them. The first robot fell to its back without even being able to pull the trigger of its bazooka. The second one managed to fire its missile as it was falling backwards. Unfortunately, the missile was fired straight into the ceiling and blew a massive hole into said ceiling. Debris, along with the metallic corpse of another security robot, fell into the room and crushed the body of the security robot. The bounty hunter fired a single subsequent plasma blast to make sure that the new arrival was truly destroyed. Once the skirmish was over, she walked past the wreckage and made her way over to the console.
When she reached the computer's control console, she activated her Scan Visor, and hacked the computer the same way she had four times before. The console came alive and the keyboard lit up. The screen above the console lit up and illuminated the entire room. After hacking the computer, she immediately input the series of command codes that appeared on the screen into the computer. A series of choices for the autodestruct sequence appeared on the screen above. The computer then spoke, saying, "Please select autodestruct program. Know that once initiated, the autodestruct program cannot be deactivated."
Before making her decision, she studied her map and found that the teleporter that would take her to Orbital Ring Six was right outside the room and only a few meters away. She considered choosing the option for the one-minute countdown, but she decided against it so as to give any of the innocents that may have still been on the Ring a chance to get off before the Ring was destroyed. As such, Samus selected the two-minute countdown. Once she made her selection, the computer said, "Autodestruct program activated. Two minutes until final Ring destruction."
Once the autodestruct sequence was set, she proceeded to exit the control room and made her way towards the teleporter. As she exited, she looked to either side and saw that the stunned Stealth Federation Marines had disappeared. Not stopping to see if they were planning an ambush, she continued on her way towards the teleporter, knowing that if they had repaired their armor and were tracking her, that she would know soon enough. On her way, she encountered a series of Missile Security Robots, which she then shot to pieces with her Plasma Beam. It took her only a few seconds to reach the teleporter. Once she arrived, she activated her Scan Visor and activated the device. The teleport pad came alive and a wall of energy appeared. Samus stepped onto the pad and waited a few seconds for the pad to activate. The pad then began to glow and she vanished from Orbital Ring Five.
Samus reappeared on Orbital Ring Six near a window that had a direct view of Ring Five. She stared at the countdown clock as the seconds ticked away. She looked out at the Ring as a small number of escape pods were jettisoned from the Ring. She began to get suspicious since she had known that there were likely more people onboard than she had seen evacuating the Ring. She watched as the clock eventually reached zero. She stared at the Ring, fearing that the crew might have been able to abort the autodestruct sequence. However, upon the countdown clock reaching zero, she saw a series of explosions form on various symmetrical parts of the Ring. Once the sections of the Ring had broken off, thrusters pushed the various sections into the distance before they exploded. Samus noticed that the fighters and other starships were getting wise to what was happening to the Orbital Rings and had flown far enough away from the Rings so that once they were destroyed, that the self-destruct safety protocols would not take them close enough to said ships that the ships would be jeopardized.
Once she had confirmed the destruction of Ring Five, she checked her map to see just how close to the main computer core of Orbital Ring Six she was. The image of the map for Ring Six appeared on her HUD. Her position and the direction she was facing was marked with an orange triangle and a yellow line showing the path to the Ring's computer control room. The line indicated that it was several hundred meters away in the direction that she was currently facing. Wasting no more time, Samus immediately charged down the corridor and proceeded towards her goal.
A few seconds into her run, though, she was stopped by two pairs of FG II-Grahams. The Grahams deployed their Wave Beam shields and cut her off from being able to proceed further. Samus's sensors then picked up anomalous readings coming from behind her, and turning around, she saw several FG-1000s flanking a Techno Power Suit. Wanting to know whether or not the Techno Power Suit was occupied by a brainwashed soldier like the previous suit was, an unwitting participant, or whether this soldier was a willing accomplice to Cyrus's plans, she scanned him. After a couple of seconds, the scan came back, reading, Bioform – Star Elf. Subject is identified as known criminal Kax Imala. Subject has been found guilty of the murder of a human family on Elvax and was sentenced to death before being inducted into the Techno Power Suit program. Morphology – Techno Power Suit. The Techno Power Suit is an incredibly powerful suit of heavy power armor designed to be used by ground troops. While its armor is virtually impervious all but the strongest infantry weapons, it is not nearly as powerful as the armor of a Techno Soldier. However, like the Techno Soldier, the suit is vulnerable to electrical and energy disruptive weapons.
That clinched it for Samus. She would not waste time trying to save a known murderer. To that end, she decided to neutralize the threats of the FG-1000s and the Techno Power Suit in one fell swoop. She curled into her Morph Ball form and proceeded to roll towards Kax. Kax leveled his cannon towards her and opened fire on her. Massive green orbs of energy were unleashed towards the bounty hunter as she rolled towards the criminal. The orbs missed the bounty hunter and when they struck the ground, they detonated into massive green spheres of energy that expanded to up to ten meters in diameter. Once she was close enough, she used her Boost Ball to increase her speed and jumped towards the Kax Imala. She barreled through the formation of FG-1000s and straight into Kax's Techno Power Suit. Once she arrived at the Techno Power Suit, she laid down a Power Bomb, which detonated upon striking the suit. Samus took cover behind the suit as it shielded her from the blast radius of the Power Bomb for the precious few seconds she needed in order to escape its radius. She rocketed away from Kax as the Power Bomb's energy field consumed his suit, and him with it. She could hear his scream of rage and fear as he was annihilated by the Power Bomb's detonation. She then turned around and noticed that two of the FG-1000s had evaded destruction by the Power Bomb. She quickly switched to her Plasma Beam and charged it as the two surviving mobile turrets began charging their own energy blasts. Samus finished charging her Plasma Beam first and she unleashed her Charged Plasma blast at the closest of the mobile turrets. The orange-red blast of plasma struck the robot and reduced it to slag. She then quickly dove out of the way of the other FG-1000's pink energy blast, which sailed by her to her left, while simultaneously charging her next Plasma Beam shot. She quickly rose to her feet and took aim at the remaining mobile turret as her beam finished charging. She then unleashed the Charged Plasma blast at the FG-1000 and practically vaporized the robot. All that remained were few shards of superheated metal.
Once she had finished the surviving FG-1000s, she focused her attention back on the FG II-Grahams. The Grahams had produced shields that were immune to all of her beam weapons save for her Wave Beam. As such, she switched to her Wave Beam and took aim at the Grahams. It took her a couple of seconds to charge her Wave Beam, and once it was charged, she unleashed the blast upon the Graham to the right. The blast phased through the shield that had been erected and struck the robot. Electricity arced across the robot's casing and it fell to the floor. As it fell, the shield collapsed, but there was still the other robot to deal with. She then charged her Wave Beam once more and then fired on the remaining Graham. The blast struck the turret in the center of its casing and it soon fell to the floor with a clatter, electricity sparking across its form. Samus then switched to her Plasma Beam and annihilated the robots once and for all.
Once she had finished off the mobile turrets, she proceeded to make her way down the corridor towards the main computer's control room. As she proceeded, she found several defense turrets mounted on the ceiling. She stepped back and scanned the nearest turret. The scan came back, reading, GMX-04 Halberd-class Turret. The GMX-04 Halberd-class Turret is an effective point-defense system for many security zones. It is lightly armored, and nimble targets can evade its tracking system. Current scans indicate that the turret is at Level 3, which fires a highly powerful energy beam designed for use against heavy vehicles and even starfighters.
Samus grimaced. She looked ahead and found that there had to be at least a dozen such turrets. Despite having light armor, she suspected that the grid of turrets would be difficult to avoid. She also knew that taking a hit from such a turret would likely be disastrous. The last thing she needed was to lose a few Energy Tanks to such a weapon. Still, she knew that fast, nimble targets, which she was, would be able to avoid taking a hit. She then took a deep breath and charged down the corridor, firing Plasma Beam blasts at the turrets, picking them off with single shots as they fired orange beams of energy that were blowing massive holes through the floor, and if the shouts of some of the people coming from the level below were any indication, were also injuring or killing people on the deck below. One by one, Samus continued to pick off the turrets, hoping to take them out before they managed to fire, for she knew that damage that the weapons were inflicting on the Ring.
As she passed the first group of turrets, she quickly came across several more turrets as well. These turrets were of the same class, but they merely fired red beams of energy that were not nearly as powerful as the massive beams of energy that had been fired by the other Halberd-class Turrets. Samus took aim at the nearest of the turrets as she charged past them and picked it off. She did this for many of the other turrets that were in her sight. She felt as if she did not have the time to waste destroying all of the turrets, for there were dozens of the weapons throughout the corridor leading all the way up to the main computer's control room. As she ran, Samus fired at the closest and/or most threatening turret at the time. She zigzagged down the corridor, making herself as difficult a target as possible for the turrets. Still, despite her quick movements, there were too many turrets for her to avoid all of the weapons fire. Some of the scarlet energy beams were able to find their mark. However, since they were not set to Level 3, they merely inflicted a single point of damage on her shields, rather than taking off a few Energy Tanks with each hit. She continued to pick off turret after turret as she made her way towards the control room, shards of shrapnel raining down from the ceiling, the only remnants of the turrets that were present.
Eventually, she managed to make it to the door that led to the control room for Orbital Ring Six. However, she ran into another snag once she reached the door, for the door was guarded by two Missile Security Robots. Upon spying the bounty hunter, the Missile Robots rotated their missile turrets and proceeded to launch all of their missiles towards her. Samus immediately Screw Attacked towards the missiles and allowed them to strike her suit. The Screw Attack field prevented her from suffering any damage from the turrets and she somersaulted through the air and right to the door. Once at the door, she Screw Attacked through the two Missile Security Robots and utterly annihilated them. She then uncurled herself and pointed her arm cannon behind her and shot down two Halberd-class turrets from the ceiling before making her way into the control room.
Once inside the control room, she was met by another quartet of Halberd-class turrets. The Halberds caught her off guard and they fired their Level 3 blasts at her, scoring direct hits on the bounty hunter. The force of the blasts knocked Samus off her feet and sent her sailing right out the door. She landed in the corridor on her back and skidded to a halt after a few feet. As she came to a halt, she felt several more strikes against her suit as she noticed her defenses taking more damage. She turned and saw two more Halberd-class turrets firing Level 1 blasts on her. She turned to the turrets and fired a single blast of her Plasma Beam at them, taking them down. Several orange Large Energy Capsules appeared where the turrets had once been. She charged her Plasma Beam and drew in the two Large Energy Capsules. The Capsules replenished one of her depleted Energy Tanks. Once she was ready, she proceeded back into the room and was not caught off guard by the turrets this time.
She shot down the first turret with her Charged Plasma Beam, utterly vaporizing it, and then shot down a second turret with a single uncharged blast as the other two turrets opened fire on her. She managed to avoid their tracking systems and their shots went wide of the hunter, burning holes through the wall leading out to the corridor. She quickly then dealt with the other two turrets before they could fire on her again.
Once the turrets had been dealt with, Samus made her way to the control console for the main computer. As with the other computers, she used her Scan Visor to hack into the main computer and break it to her will. She was quite surprised that the security personnel onboard the Rings were not making a more concerted effort to protect their computers since taking over the main computers and activating the autodestruct was the only way to destroy the Orbital Rings without getting oneself killed in the process. After hacking into the computer, the screen lit up, as did the keyboard on the console. She typed in a series of commands and the autodestruct protocols appeared on the computer screen above. Samus selected a two-minute countdown, just as she had with the five Rings before. Once she entered the command into the computer, the computer's voice echoed throughout the room, "Autodestruct sequence activated. Two minutes until Ring destruction." That was Samus's cue to evacuate.
She left the main computer's control room and followed her map to the nearest teleporter that would take her to Orbital Ring Seven. As she followed the path, she was engaged by more Missile Security Robots and Halberd-class turrets. Not wanting to waste time dealing with the turrets, she Screw Attacked through the air and barreled through the barrage of missiles and energy beams that the robots and turrets unleashed upon her. She also barreled her way through any of the Missile Security Robots that interposed themselves between her and her destination. As she was somersaulting through the air, she focused on following the path to the teleporter, which was only a couple hundred meters away. Samus stopped Screw Attacking and proceeded to run at full sprint towards the teleporter, picking off any Halberd-class turrets that got in her way.
After about twenty seconds, she arrived at the teleporter and used her Scan Visor to activate the device. Once the device lit up and the pad began to glow, Samus stepped onto it as several Missile Security Robots rolled towards her and unleashed their missiles. She vanished from the teleporter a fraction of a second before the missiles struck the teleporter and destroyed it.
She reappeared onboard Orbital Ring Seven and found that the corridor was devoid of any personnel, and defenses. Checking her countdown clock, she found that there were still twenty seconds left on the clock before the scheduled death of Orbital Ring Six. She went over to the nearest window and watched as a small number of escape ships fled the doomed Ring. She then looked over at her countdown clock and watched as the seconds ticked away. Eventually, the clock reached zero, and once it did, she looked out at Orbital Ring Six. It was almost as if she was watching a rerun of her favorite television program as explosive charges broke the ring into various sections which rocketed away from the planet. Once they were a set distance away, they exploded. Samus felt the shockwave of the explosion strike Orbital Ring Seven, and the station shudder as a result. Once Orbital Ring Six was confirmed to have been destroyed, she checked her map so she could get to the control room for the main computer of Orbital Ring Seven so she could get it to join the other Rings. She found that she was standing just outside the control room for the Ring. She was beginning to suspect that this was just like Orbital Ring 3. As such, she casually walked towards the control room for the main computer and walked on in.
Inside the control room, she not only found the controls to the main computer, but also a Recharge Station. Not only did she find a Recharge Station, but she saw another door at the other end of the room. She ignored the door for the moment and focused on the Recharge Station. Wanting to make sure that it was a legitimate Recharge Station and not a trap, Samus scanned the station and found that it was, indeed, real. She then stepped into the station and stood on the center pad. Once she did so, a female computer voice said, "Beginning recharge process." A field of blue-green refreshing energy then surrounded her and washed over her. She noticed her Energy Tanks, Missile Tanks, and Power Bombs being completely replenished. After a few seconds, the field vanished and the voice said, "Recharge complete."
Once the recharge was complete, Samus made her way over to the computer console and hacked it with her Scan Visor just as she had done six times before. As before, the computer then came alive and the autodestruct protocols then appeared on the screen. Before selecting a protocol to activate, she studied her map of the Ring once more. She found that the nearest teleportation pad that would take her to Orbital Ring Eight was actually in a room just beyond this one. This could not have been any easier if she had designed it herself, which made her that much more suspicious. She chose the standard two-minute countdown and entered it into the computer. Once she had done so, the computer's voice stated, "Autodestruct sequence activated. Two minutes until this stupid ring gets blown to kingdom come."
Samus did not care about the difference in tone in this computer's voice compared to the others', but she still decided that it would not be a good idea to hang around any longer than she had to. She proceeded to make her way to the door at the other end of the room when she noticed a red blast shield over the door. She immediately fired a missile at the door and blew away its blast shield, opening the door. She walked on through and found herself next to a teleporter that was already active. She merely stepped onto the teleporter and then vanished from the Orbital Ring.
She reappeared on Orbital Ring Eight and looked at the countdown clock, which still had quite some time left on it before the Ring was scheduled to be destroyed. During that time, she looked around and saw a small window over by the wall. She was also quick to notice that the ceiling onboard this ring was quite low, much lower than it had been on the other rings. She guessed that it was no more than fifteen feet high, if that. She then went over to the window and looked out at Orbital Ring Seven, finding no evacuation ships or escape pods leaving the Ring. She watched intently as the seconds ticked away and the Ring came ever closer to its destruction. After nearly one and a half minutes had passed, she looked out at the Ring; only ten seconds left on the countdown. She stared into space as the seconds ticked away and when the countdown reached zero, she saw Orbital Ring Seven die. As with the others, the Ring broke off into various sections which then rocketed off into space. These traveled farther than normal and zeroed in on various corvettes and frigates that were in range of the sections of the ring. The sections then rammed the ships and detonated, taking the ships down with them. All in all, at least a dozen capital ships were destroyed in the destruction of Orbital Ring Seven. With Orbital Ring Seven destroyed, Samus concentrated on getting underway and dealing with the last of the Orbital Defense Rings that surrounded Earth: Orbital Ring Eight. Knowing that the eighth Ring had to fall, she proceeded to make her way down the corridor in an attempt to find the main computer core and destroy the ring, allowing Admiral Dane and Adam Malkovich to land troops on Earth so they could go after Cyrus and end his threat, once and for all.