Chapter 13:
The Heavy Assault Shuttle continued on its way towards New York City at its maximum atmospheric speed, which was about mach three. As it continued towards New York City, sensors started showing signs of large numbers of air and spacecraft, in addition to numerous ground-based defenses, along with massive numbers of ground troops attacking the Earth defenders. Air and space fighters were darting back and forth in dogfights, and other, larger, gunships were unleashing torrents of energy fire and missiles upon ground weapons emplacements and ground forces. So far, it looked to Samus as if the Earth's forces were holding their own against the Federation aggressors, but she also noticed more squadrons of assault shuttles and transports coming down to relieve the attacking forces, while there were few places for the defenders to retreat to, and little help forthcoming as long as Earth's planetary shields were still up, preventing Admiral Dane and Adam Malkovich from sending down Federation in Exile ground troops of their own. As they flew, she continued to be on alert, making sure that no enemy fighters came their way. So far, the soldiers on both sides of the conflict were too concerned with each other to worry about a new arrival that was not taking any hostile action towards them.
After a few more minutes, the city of New York, or what was left of it, was within their sight. At first, it looked as if the city was still intact, for almost all of the skyscrapers were still standing. It was not until one took a closer look that they noticed that the windows of many of the buildings were blown out and that the streets and subway tunnels were lined with wreckage and bodies from the many battles that were being fought all throughout the city. Samus saw several Federation Marines and Army Troopers fall to a hail of energy fire from their Earth and Federation in Exile counterparts down in the streets. She also noticed several Earth atmospheric fighters engaging a squadron of enemy Rapiers and managing to deal significant damage to the squadron due to them having more missiles than the Rapiers, and that their missiles were air-to-air, while the Rapiers carried a combination of air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.
The shuttle began to slow down and Samus made certain to be on the lookout for any fighters or other ships that were taking an interest in the shuttle as they made their approach to the Radio Tower. So far, they were drawing no attention from the defenders. She looked out into the distance and saw the massive spire of the Tower standing high over the rest of the city. So far, there seemed to be no fighting close to the tower, though she suspected that one of the reasons for that was the fact that there were numerous tanks and massive mechs that resembled Gundams from the old Earth animé series. Despite giant mecha and robots practically being a genre in and of itself in Earth fiction, the militaries of Earth had never embraced giant mecha as a viable battle platform. They required a great deal of resources to build, were maintenance-intensive, were unstable and could easily be toppled and mission-killed by taking out their legs, and they simply required too many resources to overcome their glaring weaknesses. In essence, they were far too expensive, and for the cost of one mech, a dozen jump and hover-capable tanks could be built, with deflector shields, and high-powered energy and projectile weapons. And such tanks, alone could possibly match a mech one-on-one. The only advantages that the mech had were their greater ability to see and shoot over obstacles, something that a tank could do with indirect fire from bomb launchers and other physical payload launchers; and their psychological effects. However, most battle-hardened soldiers were not very fearful of a monstrous, towering humanoid mech. Instead, they would laugh and proceed to shoot said mech in the knees with their missile launchers or plasma cannons, toppling the mechanical beast.
As the shuttle made its approach to the Radio Tower, Samus noticed the mecha begin to take action and point their incredibly large rifles towards the ship. This was Captain Falcon's cue to power the weapons and ready the missiles. He opened a channel to Samus and told her, "We're going in. Keep an eye on our surroundings and make sure that no fighters target us."
"I copy," she responded.
Captain Falcon shifted the shields so that they were balanced between the fore and aft arcs. After that, he targeted the closest of the mechs and opened fire with the shuttle's heavy energy cannons. Scarlet energy pulses lashed out at the line of mechs closest to the shuttle and before the massive humanoid machines could fire on the shuttle, they were pierced by the energy beams. The mechs fell backwards onto the ground, crushing any unfortunate Federation Marine or Army Trooper that did not manage to get out from under the path of their fall. Falcon then zeroed in on the other mechs and input their data into the ship's targeting computer. Once he had targeted all of the remaining mechs, he proceeded to unleash a barrage of missiles from the missile launchers. The missiles rocketed from the launchers and homed in on their targets. Upon striking the mechs, the missiles detonated and blew massive holes into the chests of several of the mechs. The others were completely blown apart. The mechs that "merely" had the holes blown into their chests fell backwards to the ground. Falcon then strafed the fallen mechs with energy fire to make sure that they would never rise again.
Once the mechs surrounding the building had been dealt with, Falcon targeted the tanks and other emplacement weapons, which were now firing on the assault shuttle and filling the air with energy bolts and flak. He targeted the tanks surrounding the building and unleashed another volley of missiles. The rockets fell among the tanks and blew them apart with single blasts. As he was destroying the tanks, he noticed that several of the tanks were Landmasters. Given that they had been destroyed with single hits, he figured that they had been the mass-produced variant that had been designed for the Cornerian Army, rather than the ones built for the Star Fox Team. After the first line of tanks had been destroyed, Falcon strafed the second line of tanks and emplacement weapons surrounding the building. Raking the tanks with energy bolts, numerous tanks were either destroyed or put out of commission. Soon, troops armed with shoulder rocket launchers emerged from the Radio Tower and targeted the shuttle. Falcon calmly centered the targeting reticle over the small team of missile troopers and opened fire. The blast gouged a massive hole into the concrete and sent the troopers flying through the air. They landed a few meters away from their launch points and ceased to move. Falcon then strafed another group of Federation troopers that had emerged from another of the entrances. Realizing that there were a large number of troops in the tower, he spoke over the radio to Samus, telling her, "Samus, it looks like we may be up here for a while. They're sending out a large contingent of security forces."
Samus peered down at the ground and saw the shuttle opening up with its anti-personnel support cannons and saw that for each soldier that was being mowed down by the shuttle's cannons, that three troopers would emerge. Since the forces inside the tower likely drastically outnumbered the platoon that was onboard the shuttle. Given the number of troops that were emerging, she suspected that there was at least a battalion of security troopers. Seeing that it would take some time to clear the area, she told Captain Falcon, "There's a window close to the landing pad on the side of the Radio Tower. Get me as close to that area of the tower as possible. I'm going to jump through the window and into the transmitter room. Even if I miss the window for the control room, I'll still only be a level or two down. I should be able to fight my way up to the control room, and you can use the landing pad to quickly drop off some troops for storming the tower as well."
"Are you sure?" Falcon asked over the comm. He was uneasy about taking the shuttle so close and also leaving it without any rear weapons should the security forces call in fighter support for the building."
"It's the best bet we've got at the moment," Samus answered. "We're going to need half of the troops in the shuttle for taking over and holding the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., and they've got at least a battalion of security troopers guarding the tower. If I can gain control of the transmitter inside the tower, I can shut down the jamming signal and hack the computer so that it can't be reactivated. I could even use it to jam the transmissions of Cyrus's troops."
It took Captain Falcon a few moments to consider Samus's plan, but with both President Richardson and General Hastings behind him nodding, he said, "Okay, Samus. We'll do it your way. Get ready. I won't be able to hover near the entrance for long."
"You won't have to," Samus replied, as she got ready to jump off the shuttle.
She watched the ground as the shuttle flew around the perimeter of the tower in search of the landing pad. She focused on the windows for the tower and began to run towards the edge of the shuttle. Once she reached the edge, she jumped off the shuttle as it was making its final approach towards the landing pad and began to spin, activating her Screw Attack. She plowed through the window and found herself inside what appeared to be an unoccupied office. There were cubicles, work desks, and computers all around the large room.
As she stepped forward, her sensors indicated the presence of another lifeform entering the room. They soon told her of a surge of power and the borders of the map in the upper right corner of her HUD turned red. She dove out of the way as a yellow crackling ball of electricity sailed over her head by inches. The ball slowly turned towards her and she continued to flee from it, guiding it towards a work desk, which it hit and promptly reduced to dust. Samus instantly recognized the electrical blast as having been a Volt Driver blast, and she suspected that the one who had fired it was none other than Kanden, one of the two bounty hunters she had encountered in the Alimbic Cluster that had not yet made an appearance. She was not disappointed when the enemy bounty hunter emerged and Samus recognized it as being Kanden. The large Enoema, a yellow-green being with a muscular torso with glowing yellow circles, broad shoulders, normal looking arms and legs, a segmented neck and a worm-like head and mouth with four yellow eyes, stared at Samus. She quickly noticed the stinger-like weapon on his right wrist, almost certainly the Volt Driver. "At last," he hissed in a satisfied and sadistic tone. "I get to prove my superiority by killing the so-called ultimate bounty hunter."
Samus ignored his comment and activated her Scan Visor, wanting to scan her enemy to see if he had made any upgrades to his armor and/or weaponry in the years since she had let fought him. The scan soon came back, reading, Bioform – Kanden. Subject is a genetically altered and enhanced Enoema. The engineering process, while it has enhanced his physical abilities, has destroyed his mind. An electrical field surrounds the hunter Kanden. Analysis suggests voltages comparable to that found in lightning storms. Kanden's primary weapon is the Volt Driver, which can fire charged blasts that are capable of disrupting the Combat Visor.
She proceeded to focus on Kanden as he prepared to fire another blast from his Volt Driver. She grimaced, remembering that the Battlehammer had been strong against Kanden and others using the Volt Driver. However, since she did not have the Battlehammer, she would have to make due with her other weapons. Also, since the Radio Tower was key to assisting Admiral Dane's fleet up in orbit, she also did not want to risk damaging the tower, so using her Power Missiles and Power Bombs was out of the question, too. One advantage that she had over the Enoema, though, was the fact that her suit did not have a weak spot on its head, where Kanden did. Since she wanted to deal with Kanden as quickly as possible, and suspected that he would be strong against the electrical variant of the Wave Beam that she possessed, she switched to her Plasma Beam, the strongest of her beams in terms of raw power.
As soon as Kanden peered around a cubicle in search of his quarry, he was met with a series of uncharged Plasma Beam blasts straight to his head. The beam blasts inflicted noticeable damage to the Enoema and caused him to duck back behind the cubicle. The cubicle, however, provided no cover from Samus's Plasma Beam as she unleashed a vicious volley of orange-red blasts Kanden's way, scoring more headshots on the bounty hunter. Kanden returned fire, but Samus's evasiveness meant that she was able to avoid most of his blasts, with only a couple managing to hit. As he had been firing his own uncharged blasts, though, Samus had been charging her Plasma Beam. The orange-red ball of energy appeared over her arm cannon and once it was fully charged, she targeted Kanden's head. She knew the risk, since if she missed, she would have wasted the shot, but she felt that she could hit him. She unleashed the charged blast and it managed to score a direct hit on Kanden's head, taking out about one fifth of his total energy. Kanden recoiled from the blast and roared in pain and rage. "You won't kill me that easily, Hunter!" he cried.
He switched to his missiles and once he had managed to find Samus, he let fly with a missile. However, since his missiles did not have a targeting system, they were merely dumb-fired missiles. Samus moved to her left and easily avoided the projectile, which sailed past her and struck the wall, blowing it out upon its detonation. Samus returned fire with a Charged Plasma shot. This one merely managed to tag Kanden in the torso, rather than the head and, thus, only inflicted half the damage the first Charged Plasma shot had. She continued to fire on Kanden with uncharged Plasma Beam shots, scoring hits on his arms, legs, torso, and even his head. With each hit, she noticed Kanden's life bar decrease little by little. It was not long before almost half of Kanden's life bar had been depleted.
Kanden, realizing that if the fight continued down its current path, that he would lose, he decided to transform into his alternate form, the Stinglarva, a large, yellow-green segmented worm-like creature. His Stinglarva form had the ability to detach its regenerating tail and use it as a homing missile of sorts against enemies. Since he had hidden himself when he transformed, and was smaller, he was able to hide from Samus for a brief moment, which he used to deploy his homing stinger. The stinger on his tail detached itself from the rest of his body and glided across the floor in search of Samus. Since the tail's stinger employed a form of stealth technology, Samus was not able to detect the stinger until it was too late. She heard the tail homing in on her, but could not identify where it was coming from, so she figured that the best thing she could do was jump into the air. As she jumped into the air, the tail exploded. The explosion engulfed almost half of the entire office floor and blew out several windows and threw up wood, metal, and debris. The force of the blast also threw Samus through the air and she landed several meters from her original point of departure from the ground. As she was sailing, she reoriented herself, flipped, and managed to land on her feet, skidding to a halt. Checking her own shield status, she found that the stinger missile had only taken off ten units of energy from her Energy Tank.
She scanned the floor for any signs of Kanden. She soon heard a skittering noise behind her and moved to her right. Passing just to her left was the Stinglarva form of Kanden, the stinger on his tail nearly completely regenerated. Seeing that she would not be able to keep up with him in her normal form, she transformed into her Morph Ball form and rolled after the enemy hunter. Using her Boost Ball, she was able to catch up to Kanden just as his Stinglarva stinger had regenerated. Knowing that his stinger missile would inflict significant damage with a direct hit, she broke off her initial pursuit of him and rolled behind a wall that took her down a corridor behind the office. The stinger missile, following Samus, though heedless of any obstacles, struck the wall and detonated prematurely, blowing a large hole in the wall, but inflicting no damage to Samus.
Feeling that it would still be too dangerous to use her Power Bombs here, Samus checked her sensors for Kanden's location. She noticed him coming up fast from behind. She decided to surprise him by laying down two Morph Ball Bombs, keeping a third to propel her into the air at the end. She laid down her first two bombs and the genetically enhanced bounty hunter ran collided with the bombs. Their detonations sent out blue waves of energy and inflicted minor to moderate damage to Kanden's shields and armor per hit. They were nowhere near as powerful as a Charged Plasma Beam blast, but they were stronger than an uncharged blast.
Using her final Morph Ball Bomb, before their ammunition regenerated, she propelled herself into the air. As soon as her final Morph Ball Bomb detonated, her meter of three Morph Ball Bombs filled up once more. She guided her flight path to Kanden's Stinglarva head and landed right on top of it. As she did so, she deployed another Morph Ball Bomb. The bomb instantly detonated upon contact with Kanden's skin and the explosion not only inflicted damage to Kanden, but also propelled Samus into the air. She then landed on Kanden again and repeated the process once more. She continued to deploy a bomb on Kanden, use the blast to propel herself into the air, and land back on him in order to avoid any reprisals from the Enoema. Kanden was not out of options yet, though. He still had his regenerating stinger missile. He detached his tail and proceeded to have it zero in on Samus, and him. He was immune to its own blast, while he suspected that Samus would not be. The tail did not travel far before it exploded, propelling him into the air, and Samus through the air. She suffered only an indirect hit and, thus, only lost ten more points of energy from her Energy Tanks. She was still in good condition, which was more than could be said of Kanden. Kanden had been taken down to less than one third his original health.
She transformed back to normal and landed on her feet, charging her Plasma Beam and taking aim at Kanden, who was doing his best to flee Samus. She continued to follow his movement and once her beam was fully charged, she let fly with the blast. The Charged Plasma shot scored a direct hit on Kanden, inflicting more damage to him. Samus charged after him, ruthlessly blasting away at his Stinglarva form.
Knowing that he would not be able to defeat Samus in this form he, too, transformed back to normal and turned to face his enemy. When he rose to face Samus, he opened fire with his Volt Driver, unleashing a volley of uncharged blasts at Samus. She managed to dodge the first two blasts, but a few of the subsequent blasts managed to score a hit on her suit, taking out two units of energy per hit. Samus, wanting to end this battle quickly, and wanting to see whether or not Kanden was truly evil, switched to her Light Beam and opened fire on him. A single uncharged Light Beam blast erupted from her arm cannon and struck the enemy bounty hunter squarely in the chest. A wave of golden light erupted from the center of Kanden's mass and it washed over the bounty hunter, inflicting incredible pain on the Enoema. Just as she had suspected, Kanden was evil. Seeing that a noticeable portion of Kanden's remaining health was taken off by that single blast, she charged her Light Beam until a ball of golden energy surrounded the end of her arm cannon. As she charged her beam, Kanden charged his own Volt Driver, hoping to charge his beam faster than Samus could charge hers; all the while, he was quite evasive. However, Samus managed to charge her beam first and once she was ready, she went to target the Enoema. Since she was noticeably faster than the Enoema, in both speed, reaction time, and agility, she had no trouble tracking him and once she had drawn a bead on him, she unleashed her Light Beam upon Kanden.
The Charged Light Beam blast was more than sufficient to take him down. The blast instantly struck the bounty hunter and engulfed him in a blast of golden light. The Light blast disintegrated Kanden and in three seconds, no trace of the bounty hunter remained. Samus simply gave a sigh and took stock of herself. She still had more than a third of her first Energy Tank remaining, and nineteen other full Tanks. She was more than able to continue the mission. She proceeded to make her way out of the office and towards the nearest computer console, hoping to download a map to the tower so she could see how far from the main control room she was.
She found a computer console on the wall of the corridor that led to one of the stairwells and used her Scan Visor to hack the computer. The map soon appeared on the screen and she saw that she was two levels down from the main control center. Once she had gotten the information that she needed, she headed over to the nearest stairwell. She opened the door and went on through.
Inside the stairwell, she was immediately met by several Galactic Federation Army Troopers and two Galactic Federation Marines. Upon sighting her, the troopers opened fire on her, yelling, "It's Samus! Kill her!"
The bullets of the Army Troopers bounced off of her shields, but the energy blasts of the two Marines managed to inflict some damage. Samus was unconcerned about the Marines and Army Troopers and casually raised her arm cannon towards them and opened fire with her Light Beam. The uncharged Light Beam blasts struck the Army Troopers and promptly disintegrated them with single shots. The Marines were a little more resilient but they, too, fell to the firepower of the Light Beam with two or three uncharged blasts per Marine. Samus could only sigh as she made her way up the now unoccupied stairs, not knowing whether to be happy that more evil soldiers were killed, or sad that the soldiers were evil enough to have been killed by the Light Beam in the first place. She shook off the feeling and proceeded up the stairwell.
As she ascended the staircase, she heard an explosion outside and below the building. The tower promptly shuddered, as if a missile, bomb, or shell had struck the tower. She soon heard voices from above crying out over the sound of explosions outside. "Get every trooper outside at once! We're under attack!"
"Sir, Kanden's signature has gone dark and we're reading a breach to one of the windows," another voice called from inside one of the rooms.
"Get security down to the affected area at once!" the first voice cried. "We have to keep those Federation in Exile and human scum from getting up here."
Samus was tempted to yell, "Too late," but instead, she let her Light Beam do the talking as she ran into the squad of twelve Army Troopers coming down the stairs to support the troopers on the streets. These troopers, however, came better prepared to face off against stronger opposition and were armed with Freeze Guns and plasma cannon. Before many of them could open fire, though, Samus unleashed a volley of Light Beam blasts upon the troopers. Of the six that she managed to strike before they started to return fire, three were disintegrated in a flood of golden light, with two other suffering severe burns across their entire bodies, felling, but not killing, them, with one other suffering only a small, tingling sensation. To the sole trooper able to fight, Samus said, "Don't follow in their path. You haven't become like them yet."
He did not listen to her, though, and leveled his Freeze Gun on her. Samus responded by switching to her Wave Beam and firing a series of blasts at the trooper. The trooper cried out as electricity arced across his armor and he fell to the floor, writhing in agony, but still alive, and he would remain so.
The return fire from the still active troopers forced Samus to dive to the ground. Switching back to her Light Beam, she shot the rest of the troopers in rapid succession, scoring direct hits on all six remaining Army Troopers. Sadly, all six troopers were disintegrated by her Light Beam, indicating that they were, indeed, all evil. Before proceeding, she looked back down at the trooper who had survived her Light Beam blast, his visor hiding the shocked expression on his face. Before leaving, she told him, "The Light Beam only kills those who are evil. That is why you are still alive. Don't fall into the darkness as so many of your comrades have." With that final warning, she proceeded up the stairs and to the tower's main control center.
Upon reaching the door that led to the control center, she kicked it in with a single kick and scanned the area. Much as she had remembered, the room was full of computers, transmitters, and transceivers of all kinds. Upon her entry, several troopers wearing Galactic Federation Marine power armor, but with the stylized Gs of Team Galactic on their chests, rather than the Federation symbol, took aim and opened fire on her. Before they could get their shots off, Samus managed to shoot three of the troopers, utterly disintegrating them with single blasts. Apparently, these "Marines" were not equipped with shields. She quickly took cover behind an innocuous looking console as the other two surviving Team Galactic Marines got their shots off, their energy blasts sailing wide. They then focused their fire on her cover and shot several holes in the console that she was hiding behind. The officer in charge of the Radio Tower and its operations witnessed the troopers firing into the console, destroying it, and cried, "You idiots! You just destroyed one of our primary transceivers! Without that, we'll be limited in our ability to coordinate with the ground forces all over the Earth!"
The troopers did not care and they continued to fire on the console, hoping to take out Samus with it. The bounty hunter had other ideas as she emerged from cover and fired a series of Light Beam blasts at the troopers, annihilating them with single hits.
Once she was finished dealing with the security troopers, she cried out to the others, "Surrender now in the name of Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile. If you do so now, you have my word that your lives will be spared."
The officer in charge, however, did not intend to surrender so quickly. He drew a pistol and opened fire on Samus. She danced to her right and let the blast sail past her and towards the door. She responded by switching to her Wave Beam and shooting the man once in the chest. The man writhed in pain as electricity sparked across his body and uniform. He dropped the pistol and fell to the floor, the pistol clattering on the ground. Samus then waved her arm cannon around the room, pointing to the others, telling them, "Surrender your weapons and leave now. If you do so, your lives will be spared."
The personnel inside the tower, most of who were Star Elves, Simians and other aliens glanced at one another, and then back at Samus. One of them then asked, "What guarantee do we have that you won't just kill us once our backs are turned?"
"Because I have the power to kill you all now, and there's not a thing you can do to stop me," she answered flatly. She did not like stating it in such plain and seemingly arrogant language, but she did not sugarcoat the position that they were in. "Besides, the others might not be so merciful. While they might not worry about facing a war crimes tribunal for taking out some Star Elves and Simians who have 'surrendered', they'll be concerned about going against someone like me if I protect you." She could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. "Give me your answer quickly," she warned them. "My support is coming here fast."
As soon as she had said those words, eighteen Federation in Exile Marine and Army Troopers stormed into the control center, along with Captain Falcon. They looked around the room, waving their weapons and saw that the personnel had already placed their weapons on the ground and had their hands behind their heads. "The situation is under control," Samus told them.
The soldiers nodded as they made their way towards the commanding officer and the rest of the personnel that were still inside the main control room and picked up the weapons that they had dropped. They then took each of them into custody, motioning for them to leave with several of the guards. The Federation in Exile troopers treated them well as they escorted them out of the room and to the makeshift detention area.
Not long after the room had been cleared, only Samus, Captain Falcon, and twelve Federation in Exile Marines and Army Troopers remained. After a few seconds, several technicians and engineers entered the room. When they saw Samus and the others turning towards them, they held up their hands, showing that they were both unarmed and non-hostile, and told them, "We're Federation in Exile Engineering Corps. We were part of the assault force to take back New York. Thanks for the help in taking down the defenses around the Radio Tower." The engineers and technicians then presented their identification and showed their new insignia, proving that they were either members of the Galactic Federation in Exile, or were part of Earth's military engineering division.
When the soldiers saw their identification badges and were able to prove that the engineers were who they said they were and were allies, they told them, "You're good to go."
The engineers then took the stations around the room that had been abandoned when the previous occupants had been captured. After taking the stations, they checked over the reading to get a bead on the situation. Once they had managed to get a good reading of what was happening, they turned to Samus and Captain Falcon and told them, "Sir and ma'am, the Radio Tower is currently providing communications support for the Federation ground forces and the fleet up in orbit. It is also assisting in the jamming of all outgoing Federation in Exile transmissions both from the ground and from space. However, the jammers are all controlled from this tower. We can shut them down and also make cut off communications from the ground to orbit for all Federation starships."
"Do it!" both Samus and Captain Falcon blurted in unison.
The engineers and technicians then went to work deactivating the jammers and allowing the Federation in Exile fleet in orbit to communicate with the rest of their forces. The process took only a minute or so to execute. In another minute, they had effectively cut off communication between much of the ground forces of the Federation and the orbital support forces. They hoped that that would allow the ground forces on Earth to take over other key locations on the planet, and allow Earth forces to deal with Cyrus before he managed to accomplish his objectives.
Meanwhile, underneath Mount Coronet, the Space Pirates, nearly forgotten by all of the participants of the war, were making the finishing touches to their newest base. The process had not taken long, since there were already tons of caverns already excavated inside the mountain. The only real work that had had to have been done was to set up defensive turrets and sensors inside the mountain, which had been a little time-consuming since the mountain was so large. Still, it had taken less than a day to set up. They had also set up some cloning tanks in order to clone some Zebesian Space Pirate Troopers, but there were only a few of those, and only a dozen or so Zebesians had been born. However, since they were necessary for the defense of the mountain, they were given golden armor and the most powerful energy rifles and plasma missile launchers in the Space Pirate arsenal, making them excellent security troopers.
The last part of the base had been the basement, where a control center for Mother Brain and the rest of High Command had been established. So far, only some work stations and Mother Brain's own stasis tank had been erected as of yet, with them beginning to work on constructing an android body for the organic supercomputer. Once it was finished, she would have regained the power she had had on Zebes and once again be the most powerful weapon that the Space Pirates possessed, save for maybe the two Techno Lords that they currently had on their roster.
One of the Pirate Troopers looked around, admiring the hideout and sighed. "It ain't Zebes, Urtraghus, or Shanera, but it ain't that bad, either."
"Yeah," another Urtragian Space Pirate Trooper echoed. "We've got clean water, a good source of food, and most of all, there's somethin' special about Spear Pillar, which shields us from Federation sensors."
Just then, they heard a silent alarm go off and lights around their perimeter flashed. They went over to the nearest makeshift security station and saw the image of a human boy approximately ten Earth years old, passing through one of the tunnels. He was then accosted by two bat-like creatures called Zubats, but he sent out another creature, a small, orange monkey-like creature that dossiers on the Pokémon Trainers of the region had identified as a Chimchar. The Chimchar dealt with the two Zubats and then returned his trainer's side. The two then passed through the tunnel, not stopping for anything else, and also not deviating from the path that quickly led through the mountain. The two Pirate Troopers grinned and they reported back to Mother Brain, Ridley, and High Command, saying, "Sirs, we have just detected a human child passing through Mount Coronet. Should we kill him?"
The voice of one of the members of High Command came through their comm, asking, "Has he or she detected our existence yet?"
The Pirates glanced at the image once more and saw that the child was walking as quickly through the mountain as possible, not stopping for anything. His current path took him to the exit on the other side of the mountain. "Not that we can tell," one of the Troopers answered. "He seems to be traveling pretty fast."
"Then no," the Pirate Commander replied succinctly.
"But…" the Troopers began.
"No buts!" the Commander roared. "We cannot risk being detected just to satisfy your bloodlust. We have plenty of these Pokémon to eat down here. Secrecy is our goal. The murder of that child and his Pokémon would draw attention to us. I know it sucks, but that's the way it will have to be for a while. Now finish the sensor installation and get back down here."
"Understood, sir," the Troopers responded. They then went about their task, grumbling about how they were not allowed to kill the child and eat him, but they obeyed High Command's order. They could see the logic, but they still thought they were being overcautious.
Down inside the so-called basement of Mount Coronet, Mother Brain and her stasis tank were in the center of a small, makeshift control center. The command center was occupied by the ten remaining Space Pirates of High Command, Ridley, and Rodney and Virginia Aran, both of who were clad in the uniforms that they had worn on K-2L. Mother Brain's eye stared down at the Space Pirates as she inquired, "What is the status of our base?"
"We are online and operational?" one of the members of High Command replied. "We had to convert our freighter into a makeshift repair and engineering center, but I think it should suffice, as well as give us a quick means of escape, along with the transports we still have. Still, our defenses are minimal. We'll have to rely on the feral Pokémon inside the caverns above to provide any meaningful resistance to any invaders. Them, or we can just send our Techno Lords or Kraid at them."
"What is the status of Kraid?" the brain asked.
"Kraid's undergoing his final growth therapy. It should be finished in about an hour. Once it's finished, he'll be even bigger than before, nearly one hundred and twenty Earth feet tall, nearly twice his original size."
"And what about his other enhancements?"
"He'll have his usual organic weapons and retain his skin's near imperviousness to anything short of capital ship-grade weaponry, but he'll also have the ability to shoot energy from his eyes and paralyze his opponents with merely a gaze. Still, don't let an enemy fire any missiles in his mouth. His internal organs are still quite vulnerable to attack."
"I see," Mother Brain said flatly.
It was then that Ridley spoke. "Have the sensors point outwards and put everyone on security alert," he commanded. "There's no way that Cyrus is gonna leave us alone. I expect him to attack us shortly." Turning to Rodney and Virginia, he told them, "I also want you prepared to intercept any attack. If, or rather, when, Cyrus attacks, I fully expect him to use Techno Soldiers, possibly even Techno Lords, to attack."
"Understood," Rodney and Virginia responded. They felt that it was unlikely that the Space Pirates would have to deal with Techno Lords since Hi'Gor, the ranking N'Kren soldier on Earth was only a Technoble, and the rank of Techno Lord, and the armor that came with it, was given only to commanders that had proven their worth not only in battle, but also in everyday life. It was as much a gift celebrating a benevolent and moral lifestyle as it was did one's battle prowess. They gave low bows to the Ridley before they departed the command center and went up into the base, and the closest exit point where they could remain on alert and in contact with the rest of High Command. As they departed, Ridley grinned. He knew that full powers of the Techno Lords that the Space Pirates had managed to unlock would make all the difference in the battle that would likely soon come.