Chapter 9:
Samus continued down the corridor, studying her map as she went. She quickly found that unlike the other teleporters, the teleporter that she had used took her on the other side of Ring Eight, a world away, literally, from her desired destination. She then scanned the map to see if there were any hover trams or any other teleporters that would take her to where she needed to be. She found that there was a tram a kilometer away that would take her much closer to her desired destination. She proceeded to head down the corridor, hoping to reach the hover tram in a relatively small period of time, but as she began her journey, the hull of Orbital Ring Eight was blown inward towards her. She jumped back as the air inside the current corridor rushed outside, blowing the debris that had littered the floor out with it. In flew what looked to be a Techno Knight that was almost certainly a N'Kren soldier. However, he seemed to look a little different, for this soldier had shoulder-mounted cannons in addition to the chest energy projectors, along with numerous blade and spike-like protrusions coming from his helmet, knees, elbows, and even shoulders. Samus activated her Scan Visor and scanned the Knight, her scan reading, Biology – N'Kren male.
Morphology – Technoble, Primary MOS Space Combat. 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, in addition to smaller cannons mounted on the shoulders. 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 this level of Techno Soldier via direct means. The only other weakness is the energy projectors at the moment they fire.
A Technoble? Samus thought. This was new. She did not know whether a Technoble was comparable to a Techno Lord or if the Techno Lords were stronger. At the moment, it did not matter. She knew that she had to deal with this N'Kren soldier right here, right now. Still, a pang of regret entered her heart for what she was about to do. The N'Kren were members of the Ancient Chozo Alliance that she had read about during her time on Zebes. It was a time of peace and prosperity for all four races in the alliance and when the Magic Lords had attacked, they had done what no other race before them had ever done before: they fought off the Magic Lords' assault and drove the magical race to the verge of extinction. Now, they and the Ylla were fighting against the Galactic Federation in Exile, and with them, the Chozo and Luminoth. Samus could not bring herself to engage the soldier without trying to talk him out of this course of action, and the fact that the soldier was just standing there before her, rather than opening fire on her with his energy projectors and cannons, indicated that he might be willing to listen to what she had to say.
"You don't have to do this," Samus told the N'Kren soldier. "We don't have to fight."
"You're right," came a deep and powerful voice emanating from the Technoble. "You can surrender now, and I will make sure that you are treated fairly and as a defector, rather than a prisoner."
"I can't do that," Samus responded harshly.
"Then this battle will be unavoidable," the Technoble replied succinctly.
"Wait!" Samus called out to the soldier, who had since drawn a staff-like weapon with two blades on the end.
"There is nothing to discuss, Samus Aran. I am a N'Kren soldier and my people have sworn an oath to fight alongside our allies in their time of need."
"But the Galactic Federation is ruled by a criminal!" Samus cried. "Cyrus is trying to destroy this create a new universe in his own image at the expense of this one! Many of the races in the Galactic Federation are either too blind, or too hateful of the humans of Earth to see what he is doing! He's doing the same thing Elric did; Elric, a known servant of the Magic Lords."
"But Elric was Cyrus's enemy," the N'Kren came back. "He was merely waiting for his time to strike. And now, he is close to wiping out a force that threatens the entire galaxy, if not the universe. We cannot waste this opportunity. The Chozo and the N'Kren are fools for not joining us."
"Or maybe they see something that you and the Ylla refuse to," Samus retorted harshly. This brought a growl from the Technoble.
"Enough talk!" the soldier exclaimed. "You were given the chance to end this mission and you refused. Now you will face me in battle!"
Samus then assumed a fighter's stance and switched to her Wave Beam, charging it. A purple bulge of energy formed over the end of her arm cannon as the Technoble charge towards her at a much faster speed than the Techno Knight she had encountered. She figured that this was due to a N'Kren was faster, more agile, and had quicker reflexes and perceptions than a normal human. The Technoble held out his staff, which had two blades at the end that were now crackling with electricity and he took a swipe at her. However, despite a N'Kren being significantly faster than an ordinary human, Samus was not an ordinary human. Her infusion of Chozo blood had granted her superior speed, agility, and perception, which allowed her to duck underneath the N'Kren soldier's initial strike, as well as his subsequent stab into the floor. The staff imbedded into the floor with the stab and the soldier had difficulty pulling it out. Samus then retaliated with a charged blast from her Wave Beam. The Wave Beam scored a direct hit on the soldier and she noticed the life bar of the Technoble decrease ever so slightly, but she noticed that he was barely fazed by the attack, and that the sliver of the life bar that had been depleted by the attack was miniscule. This would be a long battle if it continued like this, and she could not afford for that to be the case since there were undoubtedly reinforcements coming to support the Technoble.
Seeing that this battle had to end quickly, she curled into her Morph Ball form just as the Technoble stepped back and decided to unleash his full firepower on the bounty hunter. Six blue streams of pulsing energy were unleashed from the Technoble's chest, along with several blue orbs of energy being unleashed by the soldier's shoulder cannons. Samus was lucky to have already been curling into her Morph Ball form, for the streams of energy missed Samus by mere millimeters as she ducked down to transform into her Morph Ball form. Wasting no time, Samus used the Boost Ball to propel herself towards the Technoble as he swept the streams of energy, as well as the volley of sapphire energy pulses downwards, towards the ball rolling at him. Despite the speed of the N'Kren soldier, he was unable to keep up with the bounty hunter's movement and he soon found his opponent directly beneath him.
He activated his thrusters and proceeded to fly into the air just as Samus laid a Power Bomb beneath him and she rocketed away, quickly transforming back to her normal form and firing a shot from her Power Beam in order to detonate the Power Bomb. A massive sphere of energy erupted from the Power Bomb as it detonated. Despite the fact that the Technoble had taken to the air, the fact that the ceiling was quite low meant that it did the N'Kren soldier little good as the Power Bomb detonated and engulfed him in its destruction field. Without any shields to absorb some of the blow, the N'Kren Technoble had to endure the entirety of the assault while he remained in its field of destruction. However, he would soon put the engines on his suit to good use as he rocketed away from the Power Bomb's detonation. Still, the Power Bomb had done a number on the soldier and Samus noticed that he had lost a full third of his health. She looked behind her and saw the Technoble land thirty meters away and glare at her, his armor still smoking and several of the sharp edges of the armor showing signs of having sustained damage and being melted from the energy unleashed by her Power Bomb. Still, the Technoble was far from finished.
The Technoble extended his staff towards Samus and proceeded to unleash a blue pulse of energy that instantly crossed the distance between him and the bounty hunter. The pulse of energy struck her in the chest and knocked her off her feet. She sailed through the air and landed a few meters away, skidding along the ground before flipping over back onto her feet, sliding backwards a few more feet. She looked at her status and found that the pulse had taken a full Energy Tank off of her suit. While she still had nineteen Energy Tanks left, she knew that she could not afford to take many more hits like those if she intended on reaching her destination. Seeing the energy projectors power up to fire once more, she Screw Attacked towards the Technoble and, watching her come towards him, he opened fire with his energy projectors and his shoulder-mounted cannons. The stream of blue energy rocketed towards Samus and struck her when she was still ten meters away.
The blast of energy stopped Samus in her tracks and all of her threat sensors were flashing, indicating that the power of this energy blast was even stronger than the one she had endured at the hands of the Techno Knight. Still, she would not let herself be stopped by the Technoble. She continued to surge towards the N'Kren soldier as his energy blast was buffeting her, and setting the air inside the corridor on fire. Still, the bounty hunter continued towards him undaunted, despite the fact that the energy of the Technoble's energy projectors was now leaking through the Screw Attack shield and inflicting damage to her shields. This did not stop her, though, as she eventually reached the Technoble and plowed straight into his energy projectors. The Screw Attack's energy field immediately broke the energy projectors that it had come into contact with upon impact and the energy assault ceased. The projectors exploded, releasing a tremendous amount of energy outwards; so much that Samus was thrown down the corridor several dozen feet. The N'Kren soldier fared little better as he was hurled through the air in the opposite direction as well. He landed in a heap a few dozen meters from a door that would lead into another sector of the station. He was slow to rise, electricity sparking across most of his suit, and from numerous breaches in his armor, revealing the uniform of the soldier underneath. Still, the suit was not destroyed yet, and his enemy had taken another hit. She had already lost three Energy Tanks in this battle, and even without his energy projectors, he still had access to his shoulder cannons.
He soon noticed a trio of undulating purple pulses coming at him. It was too late, for as soon as he saw them coming, they struck his armor and inflicted more damage to the armor's systems. His HUD flickered with the hit and he noticed that his shoulder cannons were not responding to his order to fire. In addition, he was unable to open a channel to anyone else, or call his skiff in to assist in the battle. Damn, he thought. That Wave Beam blast disabled my suit's weapons and I can't call over my crystal skiff to help me out. He also suspected that his engines were likely down as well. Things were not looking good for him. He looked at his status screen and found that his suit was at ten percent armor integrity, with numerous breaches on his arms, legs, and even head, along with his systems fluctuating between thirty and thirty-five percent of normal parameters. He gripped his staff and took aim at the bounty hunter that was keeping her distance. She was dancing around the corridor, making certain to be a difficult target to track. He fired his staff towards her, but the blasts went wide, either striking the wall behind her, gouging noticeable holes in them, or certain outcroppings that jutted out from the wall, vaporizing them.
It was then that Samus finished the fight by unleashing one last Charged Wave Beam blast towards the N'Kren Technoble. The pulses rocketed from her arm cannon and almost instantly crossed the distance to the N'Kren soldier. The pulse struck the soldier squarely in the chest and electricity arced across all of his armor once more for a few seconds until it stopped in its entirety. That was when everything shut down. The armor weighed heavily on the N'Kren's body. Moving his arms was like trying to swim against a riptide current. His HUD disappeared and he only had two narrow windows into the outside world. He undid the manual releases for the armor and suit of armor fell off of him in pieces. As the pieces of armor fell off, Samus fired at each and every piece of armor with her Plasma Beam. She knew that her beam would not likely destroy them, but she wanted to make sure that there was nothing salvageable from the armor and that it was all nothing more than dead weight.
After the armor fell off of the N'Kren soldier, he was revealed. He was reptilian in appearance with broad shoulders, a muscular body, and green, scaly skin. He resembled an Urtragian Space Pirate in appearance, but was more powerfully built and of nobler stature. The soldier was also armed with a pistol at his side, which he drew and tried to fire at Samus. However, the bounty hunter was quicker on the draw and shot the pistol out of his hand with a single uncharged Plasma Beam shot. She then switched to the Wave Beam and shot him once with that. The N'Kren soldier staggered backwards, but was not felled yet. He drew a knife and charged towards Samus at blinding speed. Samus then proceeded to shoot him again, partially stopping his forward motion. It took two more blasts from the Wave Beam before the N'Kren soldier finally fell to the floor, releasing his knife. Samus then went over to him, picked up his knife, and threw it into the wall, where it stuck with almost its entire blade embedded into the wall. She looked at him closely and found that he was still alive, and that he seemed to be in no danger of dying or being permanently paralyzed by the Wave Beam blasts. The soldier looked up at her weakly and scowled as Samus pointed her arm cannon at him, but did not fire or even charge her beam. "Well, what are you waiting for?" the soldier croaked. "Finish it."
Samus looked down at the fallen soldier and continued to hold her arm cannon on the warrior, but refused to fire. "Why do you hesitate," he asked sharply. "Kill me!"
"No," Samus eventually responded, lowering her arm cannon. "Not like this."
"Why not?"
She looked into the soldier's eyes and replied, "Because your people were allied once with the Chozo, and an integral part of their alliance. The Chozo found me on K-2L and brought me to their homeworld of Zebes and giving me the gift of their blood, and a suit of armor. They trained me to be a great warrior, but also gave me the opportunity to follow whatever path I chose. Your people did the same for my parents. You saved them from the massacre on K-2L. You then revived them and nursed them back to health, giving them the suits of Techno Lords, the strongest known suits of Techno Armor. You even let them return to their people. In doing so, you have done more for me than many others have. However, now, my parents have been given over to the Space Pirates and brainwashed into being slave soldier for them."
The N'Kren soldier's eyes went wide. "No," the N'Kren soldier stated firmly. "The Arans were only asked to return to their people when Cyrus asked for them to be allowed to return. He would not simply give them over to them."
"Yet it seems as if he did," Samus retorted. "Unless a pair of Techno Lords are weak enough to be beaten by a bunch of Space Pirates."
This brought a chuckle from the N'Kren soldier. "Even the weakest of Techno Soldiers would massacre any Space Pirate force short of a capital ship, of which they have few, if any, left."
"Then the only possible answer is that Cyrus gave them over to the Space Pirates and they were enslaved by them," Samus responded once more.
The N'Kren soldier growled. "I don't believe you." He then drew out an energy pistol and attempted to shoot Samus. However, the bounty hunter was faster and proceeded to raise her arm cannon and shoot the N'Kren soldier in the chest. Electricity arced across the N'Kren soldier's body and he then fell to the floor, unconscious. Samus proceeded to pull the unconscious N'Kren over to an escape pod hatch that was close by. She opened it and then shoved him through. Once he was inside the pod, she closed the door and launched the pod into space. She then walked away, figuring that he had a better chance of surviving and being rescued out in space than finding an escape pod later once she finished off Orbital Ring Eight. With the N'Kren Technoble having been dealt with, she proceeded down the corridor and continued on her mission.
About a hundred yards further down the corridor, she encountered a gauntlet of Halberd-class turrets. She wasted no time trying to fight or shoot down the turrets and merely sprang forward and Screw Attacked through the gauntlet. The turrets fired their Level Three beams at her and orange lances of death lashed out at her. The shield produced by her Screw Attack protected her from harm and she plowed through any of the turrets that were in her direct flight path, vaporizing them in the process. The beams that did not manage to strike Samus gouged massive furrows into the floor. Once Samus had made her way past the turrets, she landed and continued to sprint towards her destination.
Not too far away from the turrets, she encountered a dozen small, aerial robots hovering in front of her. Not having seen this type of robot before, she activated her Scan Visor and scanned them for her logbook. The scan came up, reading, Morphology – M-180 Air Defense Drone, anti-personnel variant. This model of the drone is designed for quick strikes against infantry targets at range. It is equipped with twin rapid-fire anti-personnel energy pulse cannons. Object can also be fitted with long-range sensors, making it an effective scout, or a variety of other weapons, including light anti-vehicle weapons and missiles, making it effective for both defense, and as part of a vanguard force for attack. Being cheap and easy to mass-produce, this drone is popular with the Galactic Federation military as a disposable attack and security force.
Once she had finished reading the scan, she quickly switched back to her Combat Visor and prepared for the fight. A quick scan of the dozen drone indicated that each one of them was equipped with the twin anti-personnel cannons. She was glad, for this would make getting through them easier and less costly in the long run. Once she was ready, she leveled her arm cannon towards them and began her charge. Balls of yellow-orange energy erupted from her cannon as she fired uncharged Power Beam shots at the defense drones. Not having any defensive shields to speak of, the drones fell to single shots from Samus's arm cannon. As she felled more drones, the debris left behind by said drones began to litter the corridor. As she was shooting down the drones, the aerial robots returned fire on the hunter, spraying scarlet bolts of destructive energy her way. Samus was quick enough to evade the tracking systems of the robots most of the time, but a few of the energy bolts managed to tag her, taking off a couple of units of energy per hit. As she took down more of the units, she noticed that the drones were leaving behind small, purple Energy Capsules. That made her want to finish off the last few drones extra quickly since she knew that they would dissipate if she did not collect them fast enough. A few more blasts were all that she needed in order to take down the few remaining drones. Once they were all destroyed, she charged her Power Beam and drew in the small, purple Energy Capsules. As she drew in the energy, her suit's readings showed the increase in energy levels, most notably in shield strength. Once she had finished taking all of the energy that had risen from the robots, replenishing one of her depleted Energy Tanks in the process, she proceeded on her way.
The next sector of the Ring seemed to house no defenses or security or military personnel to speak of, though there were numerous consoles that lined the area. Wondering if the consoles would make it easier to reach the main computer core, she went over to the nearest console and scanned it with her Scan Visor. The console screen immediately lit up and the data stored in the computer came to the screen. The data was titled, Lore – Dreams of a New World. She proceeded to read the screen. It read, Nearly three years ago I, Cyrus, created an organization known as Team Galactic to fulfill my greatest desires, to destroy this universe of pain, emotion, and spirit, and replace it with a universe devoid of such flawed concepts. I came so close. I gained hold of Dialga and Palkia, but a group of Pokémon Trainers and Giratina stopped me and undid my plans. Two years later, I got my second chance. I had it, Dark Arceus was about to fulfill my desires, one way or the other, but Samus Aran and the Pokémon, Mewtwo, stopped me again. This time, I shall not fail. This time, with the might of the Galactic Federation behind me, Mewtwo gone, as well as going under the guise that I am trying to annihilate the Magic Lords once and for all, I shall finally create my own universe out of the ashes of this one!
After the log was finished, Samus recorded it to her logbook. This would hopefully go a long way in mending the relationship between the people of Earth and the Galactic Federation. However, she could already hear many of the other races, especially those who lost a great number of people on Daiban and had their citizens turned away from Earth after it was discovered that Elric was using refugee ships, and even refugees themselves, to have Watchmen infiltrate Earth. She soon went over to another console and scanned it for data. The scan read, Lore – Alliance with the N'Kren and Ylla: With Earth having seceded from the Galactic Federation, we have finally managed to convince two of the elder races, the N'Kren and Ylla, to join our cause in reunifying the Galactic Federation. While it is known that Earth has stated that should Cyrus leave and the corruption be expunged, that they would voluntarily rejoin the Galactic Federation, the fact of the matter is that those things will not happen. Since the N'Kren and Ylla have officially joined us to assist us in Cyrus's plans to eliminate the Magic Lords. Many have speculated that in order for the plan to be accomplished, that Earth would have to be sacrificed, and that if an evacuation were ordered, that it would alert the enemy, and it seems as if that is the case. But even the N'Kren and Ylla leadership that have joined us indicated that this is an acceptable sacrifice for the security of the galaxy.
Reading that log entry almost made Samus sick to her stomach. She had suspected that the N'Kren and Ylla had been lied to by Cyrus, heck, they actually had been lied to. But for the leadership of both races, at least those leaders that were present here, to be willing to sacrifice a planet with six billion plus people on it was too far. Samus seethed and gave a short hiss. She had always heard from the Chozo, and even from U-Mos, that the N'Kren had a tremendous sense of honor and would keep their word no matter what, even at the risk of entire fleets or their own people. She wondered if the N'Kren soldier that she had spared and saved knew the truth. As for the Ylla, she still did not know all that much about them, personally, except that they were said to be a very caring group of people, and that it was likely Ylla technology that may have saved her parents. She had trouble believing that the entirety of either species would know about the sacrifice of Earth, even if their leaders did, and she wondered what the soldiers and military officers would do if this secret was ever exposed, especially given what she had heard about both of them.
Samus then went to scan the next console and download its data to her logbook. This console had more useful information on it, for it seemed to have data on the Techno Soldier program. Its scan read, Lore – Techno Soldier program: The Techno Soldier program is the pride and joy of the N'Kren and Ylla species. Using technology from both races, a suit of armor is created that can summoned using a single watch-like device or crystal with a mere thought. The Techno Soldiers are ranked as follows, Techno Serf, Squire, Knight, Noble, Lord, and the Royalty class – Prince/Princess, and finally King/Queen. Cyrus has obtained at least a dozen Techno Soldiers of the Knight class and higher that were survivors of K-2L. Each Knight and above has access to highly powerful energy weapons that are on a par with light capital ship-grade weapons. In addition, the N'Kren field entire armies of Knights, which Nobles often lead, and even Nobles, which are led by Lords. The Royalty classes are the leaders of entire armies and are only summoned in extreme circumstances. While Techno Soldiers excel in ground combat, in more recent times, the N'Kren use them to supplement their starfighter forces and even use them as light energy cannons for use against enemy capital ships and starfighter and assault ship squadrons.
Samus looked up and moved on. There was nothing in that scan that really surprised her, save for the fact that the Federation had access to the knowledge that there were also Techno Kings and Techno Queens. Given what she knew about the Lords, she hoped that she would not be forced to engage any of the Royalty class of Techno Soldier.
She then went over to another console close by and scanned it, reading, Lore – Bounty Hunters: One of our other diplomatic successes is the fact that we have managed to hire a large group of bounty hunters to guard our supply lines and track down enemy agents, while the Galactic Federation in Exile has only managed to snag a handful of the hunters, and of them, only Samus Aran is notable. Among our ranks of bounty hunters, we have acquired the services of Trace, Kanden, Noxus, Spire, Cylock, Marda, and even a newly restored Pigma Dengar, complete with his previous Arwing fighter. With these hunters, especially the likes of Kanden and Pigma, we should be able to take down any enemy hunter that opposes us.
Samus looked up from the console with a serious expression on her face. She had suspected that there were a large number of bounty hunters that were working for the Galactic Federation. She just did not expect there to be so many of them. Still, she knew that she could defeat them if push came to shove. She was not worried.
She soon went over to another console nor too far away and scanned it, just as she had with the others. The scan read, Lore – Corneria Joins the Fight: Success! We have successfully convinced the Cornerian Army to join the war on the side of the Galactic Federation. While Corneria can only spare a few dozen ships at the moment, the greatest coup is the fact that General Peppy Hare has asked his old friend and former teammate, Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox Team to fight. Fox has agreed and the Great Fox II has come over, allowing the Star Fox Team to bring in their highly advanced starfighters, the Arwings, and their tanks, the Landmasters. They will instrumental in the upcoming Battle of Earth and subsequent battles in the atmosphere and on the ground.
Samus could only sigh at the fact that such a noble team like the Star Fox Team had been deceived by Cyrus into fighting for the destruction of Earth, at the very least, and likely the destruction of the universe. She hoped with all of her heart that the Star Fox Team, and Peppy, knew nothing of Cyrus's true motives.
She then went over to another console and scanned it. The scan read, Lore – The Conquest of Earth: The battle is over, the conquest is complete. Over nine thousand ships, three waves of three thousand ships, crashed into the defenses of the Earth and managed to overcome them. In addition, we inflicted heavy losses to the enemy defenses, destroying twenty of the Heavy Defense Platforms, and many of the smaller platforms and turrets. Through the use of the black hole dreadnaughts used by both the N'Kren and Ylla, we were able to penetrate Earth's planetary shield and open the way for our troops to land on the planet, though it is unfortunate that we lost the four black hole dreadnaughts used during the battle to the fire of several Chozo and Luminoth cruisers and battleships. Despite that setback, we still managed to land troops on Earth and take control of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., allowing us to take control of the surviving Heavy Defense Platforms and the planet's planetary shields, as well as the Radio Tower, which allowed us to jam the Federation in Exile and Earth's communications. Still, the cost was staggering. We lost more than half of our fleet in the attack and while we destroyed much of the Earth Defense Fleet, itself, many of its stronger ships were able to evacuate and get to safety. Still, the battle is won. We have orbital superiority and are landing millions of troops on Earth as this entry is being written. Upon the completion of Cyrus's work, the war will be over forever!
Samus looked over the report on the first Battle of Earth and said a silent prayer for those who were lost in the fighting on both sides. She had a feeling that the second Battle of Earth would be even worse.
She soon spied a pair of consoles near the end of this sector of the corridor, which was close to a teleporter. She went over to the closest console and scanned it, reading, Lore – Dangerous enemies: Despite the conquest of Earth, the war is not yet over. There are still many enemies that still have to be dealt with before final victory can be achieved. Earth has moved many of its troops to Japan, particularly the Sinnoh and Johto Regions, as well as the Unova Region of the United States of America. Cyrus believes that there is something special in either Sinnoh or Johto that will be instrumental in accomplishing the destruction of the Magic Lords, and possibly result in the destruction of Earth. So far, the World Pokémon League leaders, Cynthia and Lance, have organized a resistance movement on Earth consisting of not only of Pokémon Trainers, but of ordinary civilians as well. In addition, there are other issues that have come up. The Star Wolf Team, the mortal enemies of the Star Fox Team, has joined the fight on the side of the Galactic Federation in Exile, and are harassing our supply lines. All battles between Star Wolf and Star Fox are currently ending either in stalemates, or Star Wolf victories, which is unusual since Star Fox usually has the upper hand on them given their numerical superiority and the superior maneuverability of the Arwings compared to the Wolfens, as well as the experience in fighting previous battles against the Star Wolf Team. That only leaves Samus Aran, who has been a nuisance in many battles, such as the Battles of Aether and Corella 5. However, she has yet to appear near Earth, though we are expecting her to be utilized quite soon. In addition, we have placed a three million gold credit bounty on her head, dead! If she appears, we are certain that she will be terminated with extreme prejudice.
Samus could only grin at that last statement. She had already arrived, and had destroyed seven of the eight Orbital Rings. She was eager to make it eight of eight. She then scanned the second console and found that it activated the teleporter. Her eyes went wide with surprise and delight when she found that the teleporter took her to a secret room adjacent to the main computer's control room. After activating the teleporter, she then stepped onto the pad and vanished. However, little did she know, that after she had vanished, the pad lit up and glowed brightly once more, and then died, indicating that someone else had used it to follow her.
She reappeared in a dark room surrounded by metal walls. She stepped forward towards the door. Despite the darkness, she was able to see perfectly due to her Combat Visor's ability to pick up on even the faintest of light and illuminate it so that it would be clear for Samus. She soon reached the door leading out of the teleportation chamber. The door opened as she approached and she walked on through. The door closed before a second flash was seen from the teleportation pad.
Inside the main computer's control room, Samus scanned the surroundings for any sign of defense turrets, security robots, or security personnel. She found none, which surprised her, especially since she had been systematically destroying the Orbital Rings in rapid succession. Seeing no signs of defenses, she hurried over to the main computer, eager to finish this part of the mission and begin on the second phase. She activated her Scan Visor and went to hack the computer. When she did so, though, a red circle with an angular line going through it appeared on the screen. The computer's voice then blared, "Self-destruct protocols deleted."
Samus grimaced. It seems as if someone had there had been additional security protocols set in place here. She was surprised that all of the self-destruct protocols had been outright deleted. She then used her Scan Visor to try to ascertain when the protocols had been deleted. The data soon came up on the screen and, much as she had suspected, it had been done relatively recently, within the last hour. She then directly interfaced with the console itself, and told it to mark the locations of each of the reactors on the Ring. Fortunately, the computer had not been prevented from giving her this information. A map of the Orbital Ring then appeared on the console screen and marked the locations of the reactors in red. They were evenly distributed throughout the entire Ring. She then brought up the schematics for each of the reactors and found that if she managed to destroy eight reactors that were evenly spaced throughout the ring, that she would be able to destroy the entire ring. She did not know whether or not the safety protocols from the normal self-destruct sequence would activate and send away the larger pieces of the Ring from Earth, but she knew that enough of the Ring would be destroyed that the shield over the Earth would fall.
She then brought up more information on the Ring on the screen. She found that she was relatively close to the brig. The computer also indicated that this was the only brig onboard any of the Orbital Rings. Curious to see who was being confined here, she brought up the list of prisoners. She was shocked to find that President Jonathan Richardson was one of the prisoners, as was General William Hastings, his Chairman of the Earth's Joint Chiefs of Staff. She was also shocked to find out that Captain Falcon, a famous F-Zero racer and bounty hunter who had recently made a big name for himself fighting in support of the Galactic Federation in Exile, was also confined here. She would have expected them to have already been executed had they been captured. She did not dwell on it and, instead, had the location of the penitentiary downloaded to her map of the Ring. Once the download was made, she was about to see what types of defenses could be expected when a red beam of energy lanced through the console millimeters away from her left hand. She turned around to see who it was that had fired on her, but she could find no one. She did not like the looks of this, so she quickly dove to her right and activated her X-Ray Visor.
Sure enough, just as she had moved, another red beam was emitted from ten meters or so in front of her, missing her head by a millimeter and scoring another hit on the computer, destroying it. Her X-Ray Visor identified the enemy as a Kriken, an insectoid enemy with an exoskeleton, a floating head with a single eye, arms that had no fingers. Had she been viewing him without the X-Ray Visor, she would have seen that his body was entirely red. Given the fact that the Kriken had fired a red laser towards her, Samus surmised that the Kriken that she was facing was none other than Trace, a bounty hunter she had encountered in the Alimbic Cluster years ago. This was confirmed when the Kriken hissed, "Finally, Hunter, I shall avenge my lossss in the Alimbic Clussster."
Samus said nothing in response to the Kriken. She did not know if he was working for Cyrus, or merely using him so as to find her, and she did not care. Still, she had a feeling, given his statement, that he had been searching for her for quite some time. Still, she knew that the Kriken Empire was at war with the Galactic Federation, and she figured that Trace had figured out that there was a reason that Cyrus was hated by the people of Earth. If Earth had been weakened greatly enough, then the Krikens could come in and conquer the planet. After all, it was likely that the rest of the Federation would not lift a finger to help the people of Earth, especially now.
Trace then took aim at Samus and opened fire a third time. Samus was already on the move, having curled up into Morph Ball form and charging towards the Kriken at full speed, noting that he appeared to be stronger and more versatile, being able to maintain his invisibility while in his bipedal form and while still being mobile. She struck the insectoid alien and proceeded to lay down a series of Morph Ball Bombs. Each bomb was not all that strong, in and of itself, but when hit with several bombs, the damage added up. Trace quickly backed away and tried to fire his Imperialist at the enemy bounty hunter, only to drill a hole into the floor a few feet away from the hunter. Samus then charged him again with her Boost Ball and barreled into him, inflicting more damage to the Kriken. Immediately upon hitting him, she laid down a Power Bomb and rolled away. The Kriken backed off from Samus, only for the Power Bomb to detonate and engulf him in the massive field of destructive energy.
Trace quickly fled from the center of the blast, but he could still feel himself taking incredible damage. He decloaked and appeared before Samus, who switched back to her normal Combat Visor after transforming back to normal and charged a Super Missile. As Trace emerged from the center of the Power Bomb blast, his body was smoking and burnt, but he was still alive and ready to fight. However, Samus gave him no time to launch attack, letting loose with a Super Missile. The missile streaked towards Trace, who was too slow to evade the powerful explosive. The explosive struck the Kriken in the chest, forcing him backwards. Samus then scanned Trace and his life bar came up on her HUD, the little quarter bar that was left.
Trace, seeing that a ranged battle was not going his way at all, quickly transformed into his alternative form, the Triskelion, a three-legged form that allowed him to lunge towards his targets quickly and strike them with his arms, inflicting severe damage to his opponents. Unfortunately, Samus was still faster than he was, and backed away while switching to her Wave Beam and charging her Wavebuster, wanting to end this fight quickly. Once the Wavebuster was charged, she unleashed a vicious stream of lightning upon the Kriken. The Kriken writhed, hissed, and gave a screech of pain as he was bombarded by the lightning. He had taken Shock Coil attacks from Sylux before, but the assault from the Wavebuster was far worse. Samus looked at his life bar decrease at an increased rate until it was eventually drained in its entirety. As soon as it was drained, Trace fell to the ground and writhed for a few moments before becoming still, sporadic throes being the only movement left in his body. Scanning the Kriken, she found that he was dead.
As soon as Trace had died, Samus took stock of herself. Trace had not managed to score a hit on her, but she had used a number of missiles, but found that she still had two hundred and thirty missiles left, more than enough to deal with any threat that she would likely face up ahead. With that, Samus exited the control room and followed the map headed towards Orbital Ring Eight's penitentiary so as to free the captured allied leaders, Captain Falcon, and the Galactic Federation in Exile Marines that had been captured during the war.