Chapter 11:
A subspace window opened close to Mars and Admiral Dane's fleet of thirty-one hundred ships exited the subspace window over the Red Planet's orbit and scanned the area between Mars and Earth. The bridge window instantly turned into a Heads Up Display and showed the area between the two planets. Two large dots representing Earth and Mars appeared on the screen, with a smaller dot in Earth's orbit representing Luna, Earth's Moon. Surrounding Earth was a single Orbital Ring, the sole remaining ring of a defense network that was supposed to keep any and all unauthorized personnel away from the planet in order to allow Cyrus to carry out his goals in peace. A cloud of dots surrounded Earth, along with several clouds appearing in spaces between Earth and Mars. The tactical officer, a pretty human woman with light brown hair and green eyes looked back at Admiral Dane from her station and told him, "Sir, I am detecting almost seven thousand capital starships in the orbit of Earth, with more than a quarter million starfighters being scrambled as we speak. Several wings already coming towards us. What are your orders?"
Admiral Dane looked at the viewer and ran through his options. He had suspected that Orbital Ring Eight was still intact since all previous reports indicated that the Ring was still intact. He looked at the viewer and saw that the enemy was not sending any capital ships towards them, merely sending in waves of starfighters. He could not help but grin. That would be a fatal mistake. The tactical officer kept eyeing the Admiral and eventually asked, "Sir, do we scramble our starfighters?"
Admiral Dane smirked and replied, "No, not yet." He then paused and turned to his communications officer, a young human woman with brown hair and gray eyes, and said, "Lieutenant, open a channel to the starfighters that jumped with us."
A beep-like chime sounded and the officer reported, "Channel open, sir, though there is a little interference. It will likely get worse the closer to Earth we get."
So they're using the Radio Tower to not only help coordinate the fleet up in orbit, but also to jam out communications. And they're even able to affect our communications out here, the Admiral thought. That was not unexpected. Admiral Dane then told the fighter squadrons, "Attack fighters and space superiority fighters, jump into the midst of the enemy fleet and begin launching attacks on the Federation capital ships. Avoid the N'Kren and Ylla ships. They'll stand their ground and fight; besides, they can likely take what the fighters can dish out, or shoot it down anyway, but you might just get the Federation ships to turn and focus on you. Once you expend your ordnance, split up into squadrons, run like crazy, and jump back to us. Hopefully, we'll get a few squadrons of starships to jump to us and try to engage us before we deal with the main fleet. Wings one and two, you're up first."
Just then, two wings of Katana-class starfighters and Wraith-class bombers formed up into two wings and gave the signal that they were ready. As they did so, the executive officer sitting next to Dane asked, "But sir, won't we need those fighters to fight off the Federation fighters that are coming our way?"
Admiral Dane shook his head. "No, the Federation fighters are not multi-role fighters. In addition, save for the Stilettos, they are primarily designed for planetary defense. We have the top of the line starfighters, bombers, and interceptors specifically designed for not only dealing with enemy fighters, but also capital ships. Not only that, but we've also upgraded the point-defense systems on all the ships in the fleet. Those fighters will be in for a big surprise when they come to attack."
Once the fighters had indicated that they were good to go, Admiral Dane cried, "Go!" Upon his orders, the fighters jumped to Earth.
After jumping to Earth, the enemy Federation fighters came into range of the weapons of the capital ships of Admiral Dane's fleet. Once they were within range, Admiral Dane commanded, "All ships, open fire!"
Scarlet pulses of energy erupted from the energy cannons of the fleet and towards the enemy fighters. The rate of fire was so great that it looked as if they were beams rather than pulses. The enemy fighters were taken completely off guard by the attack and before they could even begin evasive maneuvers, an entire wing of fighters had already been annihilated. The rest of the fighters then attempted to perform evasive maneuvers to try to avoid the torrents of energy fire being unleashed against them, but many were unsuccessful. The only thing they could do was to try to open fire on the fleet and hope that they managed to score a few critical hits on the ships. The Claymore-class starfighters then proceeded to unleash their missiles towards the fleet, but many of the missiles were shot down before they even managed to get close. It was not long before the Claymores met the same fate, along with the rest of the Federation starfighters.
Back near Earth subspace window opened in the midst of the Federation fleet, with it opening right on the top of an Asgard-class heavy cruiser. The subspace window tore open the cruiser and equipment and crew spilled out of the hole, as if the ship were bleeding. The fighters that emerged from the window ignored the stricken cruiser and focused on the capital ships in front of them. Using their combat experience, the pilots quickly formulated plans for inflicting the most damage that they could in the shortest amount of time possible, for while they had caught the Federation off guard, several wings of starfighters were being launched from the Earth's surface and Orbital Ring Eight and were fast approaching the attacking starfighters. The Wraiths unleashed their payload of matter-antimatter missiles into the nearest capital ships, which consisted of several Midgard-class cruisers, Asgard-class heavy cruisers, a large number of Griffin-class frigates, and even an Olympus-class battleship. The point defenses of the warships managed to shoot down some of the missiles, but the volume of fire was so great, and the fighters attacked so quickly, that most of the missiles managed to get through and score direct hits on the capital ships. In the first volley, two Griffin-class frigates had been destroyed, along with a Midgard-class cruiser and the Olympus-class battleship, with two Asgard-class cruisers suffering heavy damage and floating dead in space. However, a wave of Federation fighters launched from the surface were closing in on the attacking Federation in Exile fighters and scarlet flashes of energy past the cockpits of the Katanas and Wraiths was their signal to jump out. The fighters jumped out just beyond the optimum firing range of the point defense weaponry of the Federation fleet and flew back towards the Federation in Exile fleet at Mars. The enemy starfighters pursued them, but only the Stilettos were able to jump to the rest of the enemy, and into the shooting gallery that been made for them. A couple Olympus-class battleships and a Gehenna-class dreadnaught also gave chase, and met the same fate as the fighters.
Meanwhile, Samus Aran and the escapees made their way down the corridor, and towards the armory. As they ran, they looked out a nearby window and watched as Federation in Exile starfighters made their attack runs on the Federation capital ships in the middle of the fleet. They watched as explosions lit up space not too far away from the Ring. They saw a line of fire form along the spine of an Olympus-class battleship and it took them a moment to realize that the line of fire was actually the impacts of a volley of missiles unleashed by two squadrons of Wraith-class fighter/bombers. "Looks like the space battle has started," President Richardson noted. "We have to hurry. This Ring is still capable of producing a shield that a large number of ships can hide behind and fire through."
That was all that the others needed to hear to peel their gazes away from the window and follow Samus and the President towards the armory. When they arrived at the set of doors that led to the armory, they found the armory to be guarded by a dozen SATs. Samus, President Richardson, General Hastings, and Captain Falcon took point and were the first to open fire on the SATs. Four SATs went down in the initial volley. The Security Android Troopers, having no self-preservation protocols, proceeded to stand in the line of fire and open fire on Samus and the escapees, many of whom were diving for cover. Samus took a few hits to her suit, but only lost ten units of energy. Her return volley was far deadlier, felling two more of the robots. President Richardson and General Hastings soon emerged from cover and took a few shots at the robots as well. They managed to take down a single robot, while taking the arm cannon off of a second, before they were forced back behind cover by a barrage of scarlet energy pulses. Samus continued to fire on the SATs, and managed to destroy the four remaining undamaged robots, as well as the robot that President Richardson and General Hasting had damaged in their last barrage.
After the battle had concluded, the rest of the makeshift platoon emerged from their cover and followed Samus, President Richardson, Captain Falcon, and General Hastings to the armory. Once they arrived, they stuck to either side of the door. Samus quickly spotted the lock and keypad with a blue light next to the door. Activating her Scan Visor, she proceeded to hack the keypad and the light turned green. The door slid open and the escapees surged on through led by Captain Falcon, with Samus, President Richardson, and General Hastings bringing up the rear.
The interior of the armory was lined with weapons racks and cases, along with suits of Federation Marine and Army Trooper Power Armor. In addition to the weapons, there were several Galactic Federation Army Troopers with a noticeable emblem of TG on the foreheads of their helmets. This was the signal that these soldiers were likely members of Team Galactic, or at least were personally chosen by Cyrus and were completely loyal to him. When the doors opened and the escaped prisoners surged on through, led by Captain Falcon, the soldiers went for the closest weapon they had, but more often then not, they were riddled with energy and bullet holes from the weapons of the prisoners. The enemy soldiers were quickly felled by the volley of fire before they could even cry out a warning. However, the sound of the gun and energy fire was enough to alert the others inside the room that enemies were present. One soldier, a burly Simian, came charging in and began to touch his wrist, as if he were about to activate a weapon or call for reinforcements. He was quickly felled by a blast from Samus's Wave Beam. Electricity arced across the Simian's body and he was rendered unconscious, and the watch was disabled. This was most fortunate, for he was about to summon his Techno Knight suit of armor. Samus and the others did not recognize his face from any of the most wanted lists on any world, so they decided that it was best to lock him in a closet for the time being until he regained consciousness. As several of the prisoners were moving the Simian into the closet, two more soldiers came out and engaged them. Unfortunately, for them, they were shot by the escapees before they were able to fire off a single round. Samus had even added her own weight to the fire by firing several blasts from her Light Beam, which annihilated the enemy, indicating that they were evil. Once the two soldiers had been taken care of, half of the escapees split off into groups of three and four and patrolled the rest of the armory to search for any hidden soldiers. The sound of gun and energy fire resonated in the area, along with the thuds of falling bodies. After a few minutes, each of the escapees reported back to the main gathering area having cleared the entire armory, taking down six hiding soldiers, and losing no one in return.
Once the armory was cleared the group proceeded to head on over to the lockers and begin opening the crates to see what was inside. What was inside the lockers and the crates was a treasure trove of ordnance, munitions, weaponry, and armor; for the crates contained all sorts of guns, missiles, bombs, grenades, and personal shield generators, while the lockers were chock full of suits of Federation Marine Power Armor and Army Trooper Power Armor. Some of the Army suits looked to be equipped with plasma cannons, while some of the Marine suits looked to be that of Missile Troopers. There were even some personal cloaking devices present for the troopers, or Samus to utilize.
"Man, we must be in heaven," one of the prisoners exclaimed. Samus looked over at the prisoners, all of whom were sifting through the weaponry, and she suspected that these were either captured Galactic Federation Marines or Army Troopers. President Richardson went to examine some of the suits of armor and he soon settled on a black Stealth Federation Marine suit of armor. In addition to being a Federation Stealth Marine suit of armor, the energy assault rifle had an underslung grenade launcher that was capable of launching Photon Grenades, grenades that carried small matter-antimatter warheads whose explosions could yield in excess of one hundred and fifty tons if set to full power. They were about the only weapon that had any chance of harming a Techno Knight on the ground. General Hastings found a Galactic Federation Army Trooper suit that was equipped with a plasma cannon and a shield generator.
Meanwhile, Samus passed by several lockers and crates and examined the weaponry. While she did so, she also scanned several of the prisoners who had taken Federation Army and Federation Marine armor suits so she would not have to scan the enemy later on to be able to identify the shield level and armor integrity of said enemies. While she was doing so, she came across what looked to be a missile floating above a crate. General Hastings, noticing Samus heading over to the missile, called out to her and said, "That's a Power Missile. It was developed by the Federation and is based on Chozo technology."
Samus smiled as she headed over and scanned the Power Missile. The scan read, Object – Power Missile. The Power Missile is, in effect, a missile version of the Power Bomb. At full power, the Power Missile is slightly superior to a Photon Grenade in total yield. To launch a Power Missile, switch to Power missiles and fire. Only ten Power Missiles can be stored in your suit at any given time.
Samus grinned as she reached her arm cannon towards the missile. It was basically a missile version of the Power Bomb, if not even stronger. The cannon made contact with the missile and it immediately vanished. An energy field glowed as the Power Missile was incorporated into her Power Suit. After a few seconds, her arm cannon's glow died and her HUD read, Power Missile incorporated into Arm Cannon. Use secondary missile firing unit to fire Power Missiles. Beware of blast radius.
Once she had incorporated the Power Missile into her suit, she searched the rest of the armory for other useful weaponry and gear. She quickly came across what looked to be an experimental weapon. She scanned the item and the scan read, Object – Sniper Beam. The Sniper Beam is based upon the Imperialist, a weapon of choice used by the Kriken Empire. It fires a red laser of incredible power at a target and can inflict devastating damage. The Zoom Visor is automatically incorporated with this weapon. Unlike the Imperialist, though, this weapon has its own power supply and does not use Universal Ammunition canisters and has a faster rate of fire. This was good, Samus thought. She would not have to worry about ammunition.
After acquiring the Sniper beam she checked the rest of the armory to see if there were ant other interesting items that she could use. She quickly came across a device that she had overheard one of the escaped Marines refer to as a personal cloaking device. She scanned the device and the scan read, Object – Personal Cloaking Device. The Personal Cloaking Device is a piece of technology that can be incorporated into any Federation Marine or Army suit of Power Armor, as well as the armor of Chozo soldiers. It renders its user invisible to the naked eye and to most sensor systems. This variant has a time limit of ten seconds per use, with a five second recharge time, however, said variant also allows the user to fire all weapons and have all shields deployed while in use without drawing energy from the user's Energy Tanks or energy system. Cloak is undetectable to thermal sensors, though X-Ray sensors will still manage to detect the user.
Samus gave a satisfied smile. The cloaking device would be of great use for her in the mission. While its short time limit and recharge time would limit its utility, it would allow her to get in a powerful first strike should her enemies not be using X-Ray sensors. She then approached the device, which was smaller than her Grapple Beam attachment, and attached it to the left arm of her suit. The cloaking device was immediately integrated into her suit's systems and once the integration was complete, a message on her HUD read, Personal Cloaking Device acquired.
Samus then proceeded to search the rest of the armory for any other weaponry and items that might be useful for her. She quickly stumbled across a small ball with an S on it, suspended in midair inside a container. She instantly recognized the small ball as being the Spazer Beam upgrade. She immediately opened the container and the Spazer Beam upgrade fell to the bottom of the container. She then activated her Scan Visor once more, her scan reading, Object – Spazer Beam. The Spazer Beam splits user's beam attack into three separate beams. When charged, the pulses are larger, increase in number and spread out further, and retain their normal effects. However, the damage dealt by each pulse is proportionate to the number of the pulses that "split" from the normal beam or charged beam, making the Spazer effective against large numbers of weak enemies at close range, but less effective against stronger enemies unless the entire blast can still be focused on said enemy, and nearly useless at long range.
Once she finished her scan, she stuck her arm cannon into the container and had the tip of the cannon make contact with the Spazer Beam upgrade. The upgrade promptly disappeared and a glow appeared over her arm cannon. After a few seconds, the glow died and her HUD read, Spazer Beam acquired. Knowing that the Spazer was a safe beam to test, she activated her Spazer upgrade and targeted an empty locker and fired an uncharged Spazer Power beam shot. A trio of small, orange pulses emerged from her arm cannon and streaked towards the locker. The three pulses burned neat holes into the locker with the width of the spread being about three feet. She gave a curious look at the locker. The spread seemed to be a little more focused than she remembered until she noticed that the spread of the Spazer could be modified. She modified the spread and fired several more test shots to see what the default Spazer setting should be. She settled on a middle ground and then gave one final test by charging her Spazer Power Beam. She unleashed a cloud of small orange energy bolts on a target off in the distance and watched as the target was perforated by countless energy balls. The metallic target collapsed under the weight of the energy fire. She gave a satisfied smile. The Spazer Beam would serve her well in future battles. She then switched off the Spazer Beam for the time being.
She then looked around the rest of the armory for anything else that caught her eye, but found nothing of interest to her that she did not already have. The armory mostly contained missiles and Super Missiles that were inferior to her own, along with all of the variants of her Power, Ice, Wave, and Plasma Beams. Once she was satisfied that she had gotten everything that was of use here, she went back to the main assembly area to meet up with the other escapees, who were now dressed in suits of Galactic Federation Marine and Army Trooper power armor. She found that the prisoners were simply waiting for the President and several other prisoners to be finish going over the armory. Once they came back, one of the prisoners then said, "Alright, guys. Now that we're armed, we can get out of this place."
"Not so fast," President Richardson called out. "First, we have to destroy this Orbital Ring." Turning to Samus, he finished, "That's why you're here, right?"
Samus nodded. "Yes, sir," she responded.
Richardson then continued, "And by the looks of things, chances are that you found us by using the main computer to locate us, but were unable to hack into the computer to activate its autodestruct sequence."
"Yes, Mister President," she answered, nodding.
President Richardson then turned to the other prisoners and told them, "You all saw the space battle that was beginning outside. The Galactic Federation in Exile is beginning to launch its assault on Earth, but it will have to get past Orbital Ring Eight and breach its shield in order to get through to the planet below. To that end, we have to destroy the Orbital Ring in order to clear the path towards Earth."
"Why take out the whole Ring?" one of the prisoners asked. "Shouldn't taking out a singe sector of the ring provide enough of a hole for the fleet to pass?"
President Richardson shook his head. "There are seven thousand ships out there, with many behind the shield at this very moment. If we only destroy a single sector of the ring, the self-destruct safety protocols will not activate and send the sectors away. Even with a reactor detonation inside the Ring when the other sectors are still attached, the most we'll be able to do is disable two, maybe three sections of the shield. It will still allow the Federation to concentrate its fleet, as well as the surface to space defenses, on the hole in the shield and shoot down any transport that tries to land on Earth. And that's before taking into account Earth's primary planetary shields. No," the President concluded, shaking his head. "Taking out only a couple reactors won't be enough to neutralize the Ring's threat. We have to take out the whole thing."
"But how do we do that?" another officer asked. "The reactors are matter-antimatter reactors. The only way to take them all out would be to disable all of the safety protocols. The shields that are raised over those reactors are meant to keep all of that energy inside, rather than have it spill out and destroy the station. And even if we could collapse the shields around the reactors, there are so many reactors. After all, this Ring does reach around the entire planet."
"I know," Richardson said. "Which means that we're going to have to find some way to hack the main computer and initiate the self-destruct sequence from there."
"But I've already been to the main computer and tried to activate the autodestruct sequence," Samus informed him. "The computer stated that the autodestruct protocols were deleted and I could not even find them using my Scan Visor."
"Then we'll have to find some way to reinstall them," the President answered. "Or we could try to reconstruct them from the remains inside the computer. It's not easy to erase a program like an autodestruct program within a few minutes, and from all of the reports that we heard and the fact that two of the weaker bounty hunters were left to guard us with the rest of the guards going to intercept you, chances are that you were destroying the Rings pretty quickly. Deleting the autodestruct sequence in a way that it could not be reactivated would be difficult, especially for a computer like this that would almost certainly have multiple redundancies."
"Let's hope so, sir," she replied. "As for the mission, I'll be the one to get to the main computer and try to reassemble the self-destruct program and protocols."
"You'll need help," Richardson told her.
"I'll go with her," one of the escapees in Stealth Marine armor said, stepping forward. "One of my areas of specialty is working with computers and operating systems. I'm the best qualified to assist her."
Just then, several former prisoners, now Federation in Exile Marines stepped forward and said, "We'll go too. They'll need all the protection she can get while they hack the system."
"I'm not going to leave you all, now," President Richardson said, looking over at Samus and the Stealth Marine.
After the first group of Marines had volunteered for the mission, the rest of the escapees then stepped forward and said, "We're with you, too."
Samus, the Stealth Marine, and the others smiled. The group then assembled around a screen on the wall that contained a map of the entire Ring. The key indicated that the main reactors were labeled in blue, with teleporters being labeled in yellow, and the main computer in red. In addition, there seemed to be several computer control centers and repair centers where spare parts were kept, something that the bounty hunter quickly took notice of. Samus quickly noticed that one of these bays was close to the armory. If there was the possibility of having backup files and programs in the event of the main computer being hacked and several key programs being deleted, then this would be the place where they stored the backup disks. Samus then told the others, "Before we go to the main computer core, we should stop at one of these computer repair centers to see if we can download a repair program for the main computer. That could allow us to repair the autodestruct protocols and allow us to set the autodestruct sequence for the Ring."
The others had no objections. Once that course of action was decided, the group then sought the location of the hangar bay on the map so they could find a ship with which they could escape, but found none. However, there was a Heavy Assault Shuttle that was docked at a hatch less than a hundred meters away from the entrance to the main computer control center. The group could scarcely believe their eyes. They figured that God must have been smiling on them today. "Looks like we've even got an avenue for escape," one of the Army Troopers said.
"Assuming that the shuttle stays put for long enough," another Army Trooper replied.
Turning to one of the Marines, General Hastings ordered, "Check the itinerary of that shuttle. I want to know what they're doing with that shuttle, fast."
The Marine quickly went over to a computer console and entered a search for the itinerary of the Heavy Assault Shuttle that was docked close to the main computer control center. After a few seconds, the Marine answered, "It's in for repairs, upgrades, refueling and resupply. They're arming it with missiles and rear-mounted twin energy cannons. Its upgrades are already installed, so it's just being repaired, resupplied, and tested as we speak. They should be finished within the hour. Once they're finished, they are going to load up on some assault troops and take them down to Earth to join in the assault on the Johto region of Japan."
That did not leave the group a lot of time. They knew that they had to time this just right. If they arrived too soon, the shuttle would not be able to leave the ring. However, if they were too late, then the only way off this Ring would be to use the escape pods, and the pods would likely spread out the force. They realized that they had to start now, so they had a cushion should they be able to get the data they needed quickly and efficiently.
With that, President Richardson and Samus led the way out of the armory and the group proceeded to make their way towards the nearest computer repair center. Along the way, Samus spied a Techno Power Suit off in the distance with the faceplate retracted. Focusing on the face, she found that it belonged to the notorious war criminal, General Grey C. Roger, the commander of the 1st Mechanized Legion of the Galactic Federation. He and his legion had opened fire on hospitals and orphanages on Corella 5 when the Galactic Federation had launched an attack on the planet and even managed to land ground troops. The fleet that he had been a part of had also shot down any and all evacuating civilian starships, even foregoing military targets that were escorting and protecting said civilian ships. While much of the fleet had been destroyed, and Roger's troops driven off of Corella 5, the death toll had been staggering. Ten million civilians had been slaughtered in the battle. Roger and his forces had also been part of attacks launched on civilian convoys and transports. The Galactic Federation in Exile had viewed him as a terrorist, while the Galactic Federation had touted him as a highly competent and decorated commander.
Samus did not need to use her Light Beam to test the evil of General Roger, for she had been present at the Battle of Corella 5. She zeroed in on the exposed face of the Techno Power Suit's occupant and switched to her Sniper Beam. Her Visor switched to a type of sniper scope that resembled the Imperialist's scope. She targeted the center of General Roger's face and once she was certain that her aim was true, she fired. A red laser emerged from her arm cannon and instantly struck the face of the war criminal, completely disintegrating it. The Techno Power Suit promptly fell over on the ground, the helmet falling off of the rest of the suit and rolling to a halt a few feet away from the suit's body. Samus then scanned the rest of the area and found no enemies present, so far. She motioned for everyone to go out and head towards the computer repair center. The others then charged forward and she brought up the rear, making sure that no one managed to ambush the party from behind.
As they continued down the corridor towards the computer repair and storage center, they were met by a dozen Galactic Federation Marines and Army Troopers. The Federation Marines and Army Troopers opened fire on the escapees the moment they caught sight of them. However, since they were equipped with only their standard weapons and had no heavy weapons, most of their weapons fire merely bounced off of the shields of the Marines and Army Troopers. While the bullets did manage to inflict damage to the weaker shields of the suits of the escapee Army Troopers, they were next to useless against the escapee Marines. However, the Federation Marines' energy assault rifles proved to be far more effective, inflicting heavy damage to the shields of two Federation in Exile Marines. However, the Marines were able to survive the initial volley and managed to dive behind a wall outcropping while returning fire before their shields collapsed, or were breached. Two Federation Marines were felled by the return fire of the Federation in Exile Marines, along with four Federation Army Troopers. Samus soon joined the fight, firing a charged shot from her Light Beam along with her new Spazer upgrade. Pulses of golden light erupted from her arm cannon and spread out from her arm cannon like a shotgun blast. The blasts struck the four remaining Federation Marines and Federation Army Troopers and a golden light surrounded the troopers upon impact. The suits of the Federation Marines quickly fell to the ground, completely devoid of any trace of DNA. The Army Troopers also vanished in a long flash of golden light, leaving nothing but their suits of armor behind. Once the way was clear, the group moved forward.
It did not take long for them to reach the computer repair center. As they arrived, they found that it was guarded by a butterfly-like humanoid soldier with wings that resembled a butterfly. "Crud," Captain Falcon spat. "A Ylla soldier. Why'd we have to face off against one, now?"
Samus had heard of the Ylla and saw pictures of them before but had never seen one in person before, until now. According to the Chozo, they were the second strongest of the unaugmented warriors of the Chozo Alliance, second only to the Luminoth. Like the Luminoth, the Ylla rarely wore armor, having their own natural armor and the ability to generate shields. She grimaced at the prospect of having to fight a Ylla. She quickly made certain that her beam was still set to her Light Beam and told the others, "Stand back. I'll handle the Ylla soldier."
The others, including President Richardson, nodded in affirmation and stood back, with Captain Falcon taking point, as Samus stepped forward and began to scan the Ylla soldier. The scan read, Morphology – Ylla. Despite being a peaceful race, the Ylla are quite formidable opponents in battle. The Ylla soldier has the ability to generate energy shields and project energy and can use this ability to enhance personal shield generators and energy pistols that they carry into battle. Shields can be breached by a Wave Beam, which can also be used to stun them for a second when fully charged.
Samus took a deep breath and switched to her Wave Beam. While she had no proof, she had a suspicion that the Ylla might be able to sense her even if she was cloaked. She tested this theory by activating her personal cloaking device and charging her Wave Beam. She then rushed towards the seemingly unsuspecting Ylla soldier and prepared to fire when the Ylla suddenly turned and leveled an energy pistol at her and fired a pulse of green energy towards the bounty hunter. She instinctively dove to the right and managed to avoid taking a hit. Seeing that the cloaking device was not very effective in evading a Ylla, she deactivated her cloak and took aim at the Ylla. "So the cloaked soldier is a Chozo bioweapon," the Ylla scoffed. It was as if he had seen better weapons.
Samus did her best to show that there was a reason that the Chozo had referred to her as "Metroid", which means ultimate weapon in their own language. The Ylla was being evasive and would have been able to evade her fire had the Wave Beam not had the ability to track its quarry. Unfortunately, for the Ylla, the Wave Beam did have that ability, and Samus put it to good use as she fired on the Ylla soldier, quickly switching to her Light Beam and charging it immediately after firing her Wave Beam blast.
The Wave Beam followed the evasive Ylla soldier and managed to score a direct hit on the butterfly-like enemy. The beam penetrated the Ylla's shields and struck the skin of the soldier directly. Electricity arced across his body and stunned him for a moment. In that moment, Samus unleashed a charged Light Beam blast upon the Ylla. The Light Beam struck the Ylla soldier and engulfed him in a wave of golden light. The alien cried out in pain as the light inflicted noticeable burns on his body, though the light did not disintegrate him the way it had Space Pirates and evil humans and other evil forces. Instead, it merely severely burned the Ylla. The alien fell to the floor, writhing in agony as the light eventually dissipated. "How? Why?" she heard the Ylla ask weakly. "Why would the Light Beam do this to me? I'm not evil."
"Maybe because you are fighting for evil," Samus answered harshly as she leveled her arm cannon at the fallen Ylla.
"But I'm fighting for the Galactic Federation on the orders of my own people," the Ylla countered. "My people aren't evil!"
"But the Galactic Federation, or this mockery of it, is," Samus almost yelled in response. "Some of its admirals have authorized the annihilation of civilian convoys, the conscription of children, and attacks on purely civilian targets, specifically hospitals, orphanages, and marketplaces. These aren't collateral damage, either. These are primary targets! And Cyrus has done nothing to stop it. How can you justify that? And what's worse is that you know that these evils are going on, yet you do nothing to stop them. You don't even try to talk the perpetrators down. That makes you accomplices!"
"This is the Galactic Federation's war!" the Ylla roared. "We, the N'Kren, the Luminoth, and the Chozo are, or rather were, in the case of the Chozo and Luminoth, their allies! The Chozo and Luminoth have betrayed the Federation!"
"No!" Samus answered in a low, harsh voice. "The Galactic Federation betrayed the Galactic Federation. When Elric took over, the Federation under him betrayed all of the ideals and institutions that it had been founded upon. Even after Elric died, that did not stop. Now that Cyrus has taken over, the admirals that Elric put in place still have free reign to conduct this war. After all, Cyrus doesn't care about what happens on Aether, Tallon IV, Aliehs III, or Corella 5. All he cares about is Earth! He says he wants to destroy the Magic Lords, but all he really cares about is finding the Sinjoh Ruins on Earth so he can find a way to create his own universe at the cost of this one. He's using the threat of the Magic Lords to get you to abandon your principles and protect him and his cohorts as he searches for the means to end the universe. Yes, his plan to destroy the Magic Lords may succeed, if they are stupid enough to remain here, but his way of annihilating them will at the very least sacrifice Earth, along with six billion plus people, if not the entire universe. And even with all of that, there's no guarantee that the Magic Lords will be in this universe when Cyrus's plan goes into effect."
"It does not matter," the Ylla spat. "We gave our word, as did the others in our alliance. The Chozo and Luminoth have betrayed their word, and the Federation."
"Wrong," Samus seethed. "You are the traitors." She then shot him again with the Light Beam. This blast was uncharged, but it still inflicted great pain on the Ylla and he cried out again as his body was covered with more burns. He writhed on the floor, barely able to hold back tears. A third shot would most certainly be fatal. "And the damage you have suffered from the Light Beam proves that you're wrong."
To prove her point even further, she looked behind her and found Captain Falcon coming towards her. She then charged the Light Beam and once it was charged, she turned the beam on herself and fired. The beam struck her in the chest and engulfed her in a bright golden light. Unlike what happened with the Ylla soldier, though, she was not harmed in the slightest. After a few seconds, the light dissipated and she stood there, completely unscathed. The Ylla stared at her in wonder and apprehension and asked, "What did you do? Why weren't you harmed?"
Samus turned to the Ylla and saw the stunned expression on his face as he looked continued to stare at her. Samus then turned to Captain Falcon and answered his question, saying, "Because I am fighting to save the world, and the universe. Unlike you, I haven't surrendered to fear and abandoned my principles. I will continue to fight for what is right, even if I'm the only one who has the courage to do so."
"But she's not the only one who has the courage to do so," came the voice of President Richardson from behind the bounty hunter as he lead the others past the Ylla soldier.
The Ylla could only look up as the others walked by and glared at the fallen alien. Many who walked by shook their heads and muttered, "How the mighty have fallen." It was not meant to indicate the Ylla soldier's weakness, physically, but an indication that the Ylla, and the N'Kren by extension, had betrayed their own ideals and beliefs. And what was worse was the fact that the so-called Federation had used their own beliefs and honor to turn them into monsters. As the humans passed, Samus knelt down and stripped the soldier of his personal shield generator and energy pistol. She then shot both with her Power Beam, destroying both items. She then followed the humans to the computer repair and service center, leaving the Ylla lying on the ground to think about what she had said, as well as his own actions, or inactions of the last year.
The group arrived at the computer service center and President Richardson said, "Captain Gibson, you and a squad of Marines go in and get that data. The rest of us will stay out here to guard the entrance. Hopefully, our disguises will ward off any unwanted attention and allow us to keep people out of the center without arousing any suspicion."
Captain Gibson, the Stealth Marine that was also a computer expert, nodded and saluted the President and took a squad of ten Marines with him as he followed Samus into the computer repair and service center.
The interior of the computer repair and service center seemed to be completely abandoned. Captain Gibson glanced at the Marines and told them, "Search the area. Clear out any threats that you find."
"Yes, sir," the Marines responded in unison. They then split up into groups of two and searched the entire center for any signs of potential enemy activity. So far, they found none. Meanwhile, Samus and Captain Gibson went to work trying to find a disk or memory drive that had the original unmodified operating system for Orbital Ring Eight.
Outside the center, President Richardson and Captain Falcon spied two squads of Galactic Federation Security Officers and SATs approaching. They quickly retreated to the rest of the platoon and told them, "We've got company. Act naturally, guys."
The platoon nodded and stood guard by the entrance to the computer service center. After ten seconds or so, the Federation Security Officers and SATs approached in lines, seemingly on routine patrol. As the Security Officers made their way past the "Galactic Federation Marines" and "Army Troopers", they nodded and saluted. The "Marines" and "Army Troopers" returned their salutes and the group walked past without incident. The Federation in Exile personnel relaxed a bit once the Federation Security Officer made their way past.
Back inside the compute repair and service center, Samus and Captain Gibson continued to pour over the center to try to find any memory drives, disks, or data crystals that might have contained the operating system for the Orbital Ring and/or anything that might contain the original program for the main computer before its autodestruct sequence was deleted. So far, they had met with no success. Captain Gibson was currently sitting at a computer, searching its files for any information on the programs it may have contained. So far, there was nothing about the Ring's autodestruct protocols. Meanwhile, Samus was scanning each and every computer, disk, memory drive, and data crystal in sight with her Scan Visor, trying to ascertain whether or not the original operating system for the main computer core, or at least the autodestruct sequence for the Ring, was on any of the drives. She overlooked nothing. However, she did not find any indications of finding the either the original operating system, or the autodestruct protocols of the Orbital Ring on any of the computers or drives. Eventually, she came across a nondescript I Pad-like computer and proceeded to scan it. Her scan read, Object – Personal Computer Pad. Scan indicates that this pad contains the original and unaltered operating system for the main computers of the Orbital Rings.
Yes, Samus thought, grinning. She gathered the pad and called over to the Marines and Captain Gibson, saying, "Captain, I found a pad with the operating system for the main computers of the Orbital Rings!"
Captain Gibson rose from his computer and rushed over to Samus. When he arrived, she handed him the pad and he input a few commands on the pad. Its screen soon showed all of the programs that were a part of the operating system. It was not long before he came across the autodestruct protocols for the Ring. He studied the protocols and found that they would be easy to implement should they manage to load the original operating system back on the main computer. He then deactivated the pad and turned to the rest of the squad, saying, "Alright, guys. We've got what we need. Let's go."
He did not have to tell the Marines twice, for they immediately stopped what they were doing and followed him and Samus back out into the main corridor. Before leaving, though, they turned off all of the computers and Captain Gibson erased any evidence of the group ever having been in the center.
Back in the corridor, Samus, Captain Gibson, and the squad of Marines met with President Richardson and the others, saying, "We got the data we need. Now all we need to do is get to the main computer and plug this pad in." Gibson then showed the pad to President Richardson and the others.
When Richardson saw the pad, and got a quick glimpse of the data, he said, "Alright. Let's get this over to the main computer control center and install the autodestruct protocols into the computer."
That was Samus's cue to bring up the map and find the nearest teleporter that would take them to the main computer control room. She found that there was a teleporter close by, but that it would not take them to their desired destination without some modifications. However, she felt as if her Scan Visor was up to the task of hacking the teleporter and reprogramming it to take them to the main computer control room. She told them, "There's a teleporter about six hundred meters ahead. This way!" she ushered them, taking the lead and charging her Power Beam, ready to deal with any enemy that may stand before them.
She would be challenged soon enough when she saw a Techno Soldier. barring their way. She turned and yelled to the others, "Get a safe distance away from here! I'll handle this!"
The others did not have to be told twice. They quickly retreated back the way they came and left Samus alone to deal with the Techno Soldier. This one did not look like a Serf, but did not have the thick armor of a Knight, either. She activated her Scan Visor and scanned the soldier. Her scan came back, Morphology – Techno Squire. Techno Squires are armed with stronger weapons than Serfs, but do not have the armor of Knights. Like all Techno Soldiers, they are vulnerable to the Wave Beam and the Screw Attack.
Samus had no intention of having a long, drawn out fight with the Techno Squire, though. She intended to finish this battle as quickly as possible. She figured that it was time to put her Power Missiles to the test. She pulled the secondary missile launch trigger inside her arm cannon and it opened up even wider than it did for firing a Super Missile. A large missile with a ruby red warhead emerged from the cannon and she targeted the Techno Squire. She braced herself for the ensuing explosion as she fired the Power Missile. The large missile erupted from her arm cannon and streaked right to the Techno Squire. As it erupted towards him, Samus immediately spin jumped into a Screw Attack to protect her from the ensuing detonation. The Squire did nothing to dodge the missile, figuring it to be insufficient to deal with him. He did not realize his mistake until the missile hit him squarely in the chest and detonated, engulfing him in a massive explosion equivalent to an explosion of one-quarter kiloton of TNT. The tactical nuclear weapon-like explosion obliterated the section of the corridor, blowing out the walls and exposed much of it the remaining area to space. Air continued to rush out of the corridor until the emergency force fields activated and stopped the decompression. After the explosion had dissipated, examined the results and found a humanoid lizard-like figure that she recognized as a Lizardian, a member race of the Galactic Federation, kneeling among a pile of burned metal that she figured was the remains of the armor of the Techno Squire. He held his side, indicating that he was injured, but he also had an energy pistol in his hand. She stared at him and pleaded, "Don't do it!" as she quickly switched to her Light Beam. The Lizardian raised his weapon at her and she reflexively fired a single uncharged Light Beam blast shot at him. The beam of golden light hit him in the chest and engulfed him in a field of blinding light and disintegrated him. Samus gave a sigh. Yet another Galactic Federation soldier that was evil enough to be killed by the Light Beam. She then turned back to the others, who were coming back towards her and motioned for them to continue.
They made their way down the ruined corridor, encountering no further resistance. Eventually, the group finally made it to the teleporter. When they did, Samus went to work scanning the teleporter so she could reprogram it. She got into its systems quickly and began to reprogram the device. After a few seconds, it was ready to go. She informed everyone, "Okay, it's ready."
With that, she activated the teleporter and groups of four stepped onto the pad. She, Captain Falcon, President Richardson, and General Hastings were the first group to teleport. Once they stepped onto the pad, they remained still for a few seconds and then vanished. After they were away, the rest of the Marines and Army Troopers stepped onto the pad and vanished, one group after the other. In less than a minute, the last of the escapees had disappeared.
The escapees reappeared on a teleporter just outside the doorway to the main computer control center. Each team waited for the others to arrive and once they did so, Samus made her way into the main computer control room along with Captain Gibson, Captain Falcon, and a Federation Marine Missile Trooper for security. The rest of the platoon remained on guard outside, watching for any signs of enemy soldiers approaching. So far, there were none. Many of the troopers looked off in the direction of the docked shuttle. President Richardson even sent down some Stealth Marine reconnaissance troops to see if the shuttle was still docked with the Ring. Upon seeing that the shuttle was still docked with the Ring, they reported back to the President, informing him that the shuttle was still docked and a viable means of escape. President Richardson nodded and the Stealth Marines quickly took their positions in the defense of the main computer control center, waiting for Samus and Captain Gibson to upload the original operating system and reinstall the self-destruct protocols into the main computer.
Inside the main computer control center, Samus and the others came across two Galactic Federation Army Troopers and eight SATs. The Army Troopers immediately drew their weapons at the sight of Samus and the three Marines that were with her. But they were too slow to fire on Samus before she managed to shoot them. While Captain Gibson, Captain Falcon, and the other Marine dealt with the robots, Samus fired a volley of Light Beam blasts at the two Army Troopers. The Light Beam pulses instantly struck the two troopers in the chest and they were engulfed by the golden light generated by the explosion of the light pulse. After a few seconds, the light faded and left the two troopers completely unharmed, allowing them to open fire on Samus. Her suit suffered no damage to her shields. This made things a little more complicated since the lack of injury inflicted by the Light Beam meant that these two Army Troopers were not evil. Even so, though, she was still concerned about the other Marines, who were currently blasting the SATs apart with their energy assault rifles. Samus switched to her Wave Beam and fired a volley of pulses at the two troopers. Their unshielded armor suits did not protect them from the electrical pulses and lightning arced across their bodies. The two troopers gave short cries and fell to the floor, unconscious. Samus then went over and helped Captain Gibson and the other two Marines deal with the remaining Security Android Troopers; there were only two left. In less than a second, the android was literally shot to pieces. Gears and parts from the chassis fell out of the robot and fell to the floor, the robot reduced to a pile of metallic debris. Once that was finished, she went over to the unconscious Federation Army Troopers and destroyed their assault rifles and Freeze Guns with single blasts from her Power Beam, rendering them ineffective even should they regain consciousness.
With the defenses of the room having been dealt with, Captain Gibson and the others headed to the computer as Samus went over to a Recharge Station in order to restore the energy and ammunition that had been expended this mission. She stepped into the center of the station and a wall of energy rose around her. She felt a refreshing sensation as her suit's Energy Tanks, missiles, and Power Bombs were filled. Once she was finished, she stepped out of the station and made her way over to the main computer's console.
Once she arrived, she activated her Scan Visor and hacked into the main computer of the Ring. The screen above the console came to life. Using her visor, she proceeded to direct the computer to open all drives and ports in order to accept new data. Once the drives and ports were open, the voice of the computer then blared over the speakers, saying, "Main computer drives and ports open. Input data now."
Samus then stepped aside and allowed Captain Gibson to step forward. He did so and took out the pad that contained the operating system for the Ring and plugged it into the computer. Gibson stared at the screen and waited for the icon representing the datapad to appear. Once it did so, he moved a control mouse over to the icon and clicked on it. The icon folder opened and an icon representing the data for the original, unmodified, operating system appeared. He then clicked on it and a query came up asking whether or not he wanted to download the new data to the computer. He clicked, Yes, and the symbol flashed green. The computer then said, "Uploading data for new operating system update. Upload will take approximately ten minutes."
Samus and the others suppressed groans at the revelation of the slow download. Samus opened a channel to President Richardson and informed him of the situation, saying, "Mr. President, sir, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we're uploading the new operating system and update to the main computer. The bad news is that the download will take around ten minutes."
There was a pause before President Richardson responded, "Thanks for the update Samus. We'll keep watch over things out here."
She then shut down the channel and focused on the entrance to the main computer control center, and wait for the data to be uploaded, and hope that no one managed to interfere with the upload.
Outside the main computer's control room, President Richardson and General Hastings continued to stand guard around the computer control room. Despite the number of troops that were stationed around the room, none of the passing troopers seemed to indicate any suspicion that the troopers standing outside the computer control center and the wall were anything other than Galactic Federation Marine and Army Troopers. All throughout the ten minutes that he and the others would have to wait, President Richardson checked his suit's chronometer to see just how much time was left before the upload was complete.
After six minutes had past, he sent down two Stealth Marines to check on the shuttle. They cloaked themselves and made their way down to the shuttle almost a hundred meters away and noticed several technicians standing around the shuttle, talking to the pilot, who looked to be a Star Elf dressed in a Federation Fleet Trooper uniform. "Well, it looks like everything checks out. You're fully fuelled and armed. It looks like you're good to go," the head technician, a middle aged human male said.
"Thanks," the pilot answered. "I'll contact the troops. Cyrus wants as many Techno Knights to assist in the takeover of Sinnoh and Johto as quickly as possible."
"With all the Techno Knights that that thing can hold, he'll be able to conquer all of Earth," the technician laughed.
"Yeah," the pilot responded, joining the technician in his laughter. "And there's nuthin' the people of Earth will be able to do to stop it. It looks like their time has finally come."
As the technicians and the shuttle pilot were laughing, the two Stealth Marines opened a channel to the President and the others, telling them, "Hey guys, you'd better get down here now. The pilot's about to take off and we're going to expose ourselves when we try to stop him."
"Understood," President Richardson's voice crackled in over their comms. "Neutralize the pilot and any troopers that try to board the shuttle. We'll be down there, ASAP. I'll inform Samus and Captain Gibson of the situation."
"We copy," the Stealth Marines replied.
The Stealth Marines quickly went over to the pilot and the technicians and decloaked and approached the pilot and technicians. The pilot and technicians were startled by their sudden appearance and they took a step back. "What are you all doing here?" the pilot asked.
"We're here to relieve you. We have orders from above. We're going to be the ones to take the shuttle and its troops down to Earth," one of the Marines replied.
"I was told that this shuttle was going to be transporting Techno Knights down to Earth to assist Cyrus in his final takeover of the Johto and Sinnoh Regions of Japan."
"Well, we got new orders. We've been told to take a contingent of Marines down to reinforce the forces defending the Radio Tower and Capitol Building against Earth resistance attack."
"That's funny," the pilot said, questioning the validity of the orders. "We received no orders. I'll have to ask for your mission orders and authorization."
The only response the pilot and technicians got were a few stun bolts from the Stealth Marines. The pilot and technicians were unable to draw their defensive weapons before the low powered stun bolts fired from the Marines' energy rifles rendered them unconscious. The only reason the Stealth Marines had not killed them was because firing their weapons at full power would have set off the security alerts onboard the Ring and alerted all of the security personnel to their presence in this sector of the Ring. Once they had rendered the group unconscious, they grabbed the pilot and technicians' unconscious forms and dragged them to the nearest escape pod. They stuffed them into the escape pod and jettisoned it down to the planet below. Once the shuttle pilot and the technicians had been dealt with, the others began to stand guard by the shuttle.
After a minute or so, President Richardson and the others arrived and met the Stealth Marines. When they met, the Marines told them, "We've dealt with the pilot and the technicians, sir. The ship is fully fueled and armed."
"Excellent," the President said in a satisfied tone. "You two stand guard out here. The rest of you, get onboard the shuttle. I want everything ready to go by the time Samus and the others get here."
"But sir, Captain Falcon and Samus are our best pilots," one of the Army Troopers told him.
"I know," the President responded. "But we can still do a final tally and check of its systems, as well as power up the shuttle and do a preflight check. We're going to have to leave this Ring pretty quickly once Samus and the others get onboard."
The Army Trooper nodded, realizing that the President was right, and the group went about carrying out Richardson's orders.
Back in the main computer control room, Samus heard President Richardson inform her, "Samus, Captain Falcon, Captain Gibson, and Lieutenant Grant, we've taken control of the shuttle. Once you activate the autodestruct sequence, get over here as fast as you can."
"We will," Samus assured him. She then checked the clock and saw that there was still one minute left to go for the upload of the original operating system of Orbital Ring Eight, as well as its self-destruct protocols.
The quartet waited out the remaining minute with Captain Falcon and Lieutenant Grant watching the exit in order to make sure that no one managed to enter the computer control center and surprise them, while Captain Gibson and Samus waited by the computer. The minute finally passed and the computer reported, "Upload complete. All applications and programs are now accessible."
That prompted Captain Gibson to tell Samus, "Okay Samus, it's your show."
With that, Samus activated her Scan Visor and used it to access the main computer's programs. She searched for all protocols and quickly found the autodestruct protocols, as well as security lockout protocols. She first brought up the autodestruct sequence and the screen flashed red and three options appeared on the screen: one for a five minute countdown, one for a two minute countdown, and one for a one minute countdown. Before deciding on what sequence to activate, she turned and asked everyone, "Do you think you all can make it to the shuttle in about one and a half minutes?" She wanted to leave enough time for them to board the shuttle and to be able to detach from the Ring before the ring began its self-destruction, as well as enough time for her to activate the security protocols so that no one would be able to disable the autodestruct sequence.
The others nodded in affirmation. "We can make it," Captain Gibson assured her.
Samus turned back to the computer and chose the two-minute countdown. Upon entering the final commands, the computer said, "Autodestruct sequence activated. Two minutes until Orbital Ring destruction." A large countdown clock then appeared on the screen and lines of red lights flashed throughout the Ring. Samus then turned to the others and told them, "Get out of here. I'll lock out the computer so no one can disable the autodestruct. I'll catch up to you when I'm done here."
The other Marines and Captain Falcon had no objections and proceeded to rush out the exit. While they were running, Samus brought up the security protocols and input a series of commands that locked the computer so that it could not be tampered with. Once that was finished, she followed Captain Falcon and the others out of the main computer control center.
Outside the control center, she saw that the others already had a head start on her, though she would easily be able to catch up. However, turning to her right, she noticed a contingent of Federation Marines, Army Troopers, SATs, and Air Defense Drones coming her way. Before following the others to the shuttle, she switched to her Ice Beam and targeted the lead forces, a group of SATs, Air Defense Drones, along with a few Army Troopers. Once the Ice Beam was ready, she fired a blast from the Ice Spreader. An expanding ball of ice shot out from her arm cannon and streaked towards the oncoming force. The ball hit dead center of the front ranks of the oncoming force. The blast then exploded and engulfed no less than ten enemy soldiers, plus numerous smaller flying drones, in ice. The smaller drones came crashing to the ground and shattered on contact. Some even crashed into frozen SATs, shattering both. The massive block of ice that was formed covered a large part of the corridor, blocking many of the approaching troopers. However, some went around the edges of the ice block and continued to rush towards Samus, causing her to fire a series of uncharged Ice Beam blasts before fleeing from the oncoming force. As she ran towards the shuttle, she charged another shot from her Ice Beam so she could fire another blast from her Ice Spreader should she have the need to do so. As she continued down the corridor, several of the troopers and SATs were firing through the ice block, itself, in order to allow the rest of the force to continue the pursuit of Samus, shattering the soldiers that were frozen inside that block. Samus looked back at the scene and could scarcely believe it. They were little better than Space Pirates. Had the Federation fallen so far? Once they had shot a hole through their own frozen ranks, the troopers and SATs continued to surge after the bounty hunter.
Samus saw the shuttle off in the distance. Captain Falcon and the others were already boarding the shuttle. She noticed several scarlet energy pulses fly past her visor, along with the sound of metal thumps. The outline of the indicators on her HUD flashed red, but no damage was registered to the shields. She figured that the Federation Army Troopers were firing their ineffective assault rifles. Several of the blasts struck too close to the shuttle's boarding hatch for comfort, so she turned and unleashed another blast from her Ice Spreader. The expanding mass of ice rocketed towards the oncoming force and managed to strike an Army Trooper before detonating in a massive wave of ice, encasing more than a dozen soldiers, androids, and flying drones. As before, the flying drones were brought down by the freezing blast of energy and crashed into the floor, shattering on contact.
She did not stop to blast any of the troopers that were making their way around the large block of ice in the middle of the floor; she merely turned and headed towards the shuttle. As she ran, she took the occasional shot back at the enemy force, hoping to score a few hits on them to halt their charge, or at least make them think twice about continuing the attack. However, they did not stop and continued to surge after her.
Eventually, Samus reached the shuttle and rushed towards the boarding ramp. As she approached, two friendly Marine Missile Troopers exited the ramp to cover her escape. They fired missiles from their missile launchers that flew by Samus's head, missing her by inches. They fell among the enemy and blew massive holes in their ranks as they approached. The missiles managed to stop the charge for a second before they continued once more. However, that second was all that was needed in order to fully ensure that Samus and the others managed to get through the boarding hatch and onto the shuttle.
Once she and the other Marines were onboard, she quickly closed the boarding hatch. The hatch slammed shut and Samus rushed into the shuttle cockpit. Once she arrived, she saw Captain Falcon sitting in the copilot's seat. She quickly took to the pilot's station, all the while checking her clock. She found that she had less than thirty seconds remaining before the Ring blew. Seeing that the startup sequence had already been initiated, she disengaged the shuttle from the docking clamps of the Ring and steered the shuttle a ways away from the Ring. She then tilted the shuttle down towards Earth and proceeded to take it straight towards the atmosphere. As she did so, she made certain to check the IFF beacon to make sure that the shuttle was still broadcasting as a friendly air/spacecraft.
As the shuttle rocketed away from the Orbital Ring, President Richardson, General Hastings, and the other escapees looked out the window as they counted down the final seconds to the Ring's destruction. At the moment the clock reached zero, a series of explosions could be seen flashing across the entire ring as far as the eye could see. The various sections of the ring then proceeded to rocket off into space away from the planet, and into several of the capital ships that had stationed themselves a little too close to the ring. The sections that struck capital ships either destroyed said ships, or knocked them out of their path, inflicting severe damage to said ships. Once the Ring's sections were a safe distance away from the planet, they exploded, spraying shrapnel throughout all of space, and into the lines of the Galactic Federation fleet defending Earth.
Once the Ring had been destroyed, Samus proceeded to take the shuttle into the atmosphere. As she did, so, she looked back at President Richardson, who was seated in one of the passenger seats, and asked, "Mister President, where do you wish to go?"
He answered, "Take us to the Radio Tower in New York so we can drop off a couple squads to take control of the Radio Tower. Then, we can take the rest of the force to Washington to take control of the Capitol Building. As long as the Radio Tower is under Federation control, they might be able to jam the Capitol Building's signal to the Defense Grid."
She nodded and then banked the shuttle and set course for the New York City. She could only smile as she piloted the shuttle. So far, this mission had been easier than she expected, far easier than an S-rank mission should have been. And with the other Marines and Army Troopers, President Richardson, General Hastings, and Captain Falcon present, she felt as if Earth might have a chance after all.
In the orbit of Mars, Admiral Dane and the rest of the fleet were finishing off the enemy fighters and capital ships that had broken ranks in pursuit of the Katanas and Wraiths that had jumped into the middle of the enemy starfleet. Admiral Dane was not too disappointed with the results. Two hundred capital ships, many of them Unicorn-class destroyers, and old Ba'al and Moloch-class cruisers, were destroyed in the fighting, while only four ships in Admiral Dane's fleet had received moderate shield damage. After the last of the Federation capital ships exploded, Admiral Dane checked the viewscreen and noticed that the image of the Orbital Ring surrounding Earth had disappeared. The voice of the sensor officer then rang out, calling, "Admiral Dane, sir, sensors indicate that Orbital Ring Eight has been destroyed! The shield over Earth is down!"
Elation filled Admiral Dane's heart. Finally, the eighth and final Orbital Ring had been destroyed. The path to Earth was clear. The only things between his fleet and Earth were the subspace minefields that were interspersed between Earth and Mars, and the Federation fleet orbiting the planet. Admiral Dane told the communications officer, "Open a channel to the minesweepers. Tell them to come forth and to start clearing a path for us to Earth."
"Yes sir," the officer responded as she opened a channel to the minesweepers and told them to enter the battle.
Almost instantly, a dozen large capital ships that looked more like cannons than ships jumped out in front of the fleet. They then formed a line in front of the fleet and once they were in position, they began to fire large asteroids forward, close to Earth, being careful to make sure that the asteroids would not strike the Earth. They also fired shotgun-like blasts of rock and metal as well. At first, there was no reaction, but after a few seconds, bright flashes of light appeared off in the distance. Admiral Dane smiled as the asteroids were setting off the sensors of the mines in the minefields that had been set up between Earth and Mars. He knew that they would have to clear the rest of the minefields after they retook Earth, but right now, opening a clear path to Earth was the primary objective.
For the next hour, the minesweepers continued to fire asteroids, large and small, into the minefield, causing the mines to prematurely detonate. After a while, the ships' long-range sensors indicated that there were massive gaps in the minefield. These gaps were more than large enough to take the entire fleet through without a problem. Admiral Dane then told the communications officer, "Open a channel to Earth."
"Channel open, sir," the officer replied after a beep.
Once the channel was open, Admiral Dane proclaimed, "All ships, prepare to jump to Earth." He then waited for a few seconds for the ships to get in position. Once they were ready, he cried, "Jump!" A series of subspace windows then opened in front of the fleet, and the Federation in Exile fleet jumped into subspace, and less than a second later, reappeared over Earth.