Chapter 17:
Back at the Capitol Building, Samus stood in the command center, looking at the tactical screen that showed the Earth and its moon, along with the position of the warring fleets in orbit. The red dots and clouds on the screen represented the Galactic Federation in Exile ships, while the green dots represented the loyalist Galactic Federation starships and fighters. More green dots were appearing from beyond Luna's orbit and quickly making their way towards the approaching Federation fleet. With the reinforcement waves that were coming in, she knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Federation fleet overwhelmed Admiral Dane's forces and started to land reinforcements of their own on the Earth. The only saving grace was the fact that the ships up in orbit would not risk opening fire on the surface of the planet for fear of killing Cyrus along with the Federation in Exile and the Earth military forces. Soon, a Marine tech sergeant who had an earwig in his right ear looked over at General Hastings and President Richardson and reported, "Sir, we've got good news on the comms. Dane's sending down the first wave of transports, and Assault Shuttles. They'll be reinforcing our troops in the Johto and Sinnoh theaters. In addition, we have reports that indicate that Cyrus is somewhere in Japan, close to Goldenrod City."
"Good," Hastings called. "Direct any spare troops we can send to reinforce those areas and call in air support for tactical strikes on any beachheads and command centers for the Federation that might be located in the Johto and Sinnoh regions. Tell them to destroy everything. If Cyrus is there, and we can take him out now, then we may still be able to end this war without any more bloodshed."
The young sergeant's expression showed that he shared General Hastings' sentiments. As he went to make the call, an Army sergeant looked up from his control console and pushed a series of buttons, calling out, "Everyone, you'll want to hear this, especially you, Samus," he said, looking over at the bounty hunter.
This got Samus's attention and she went over to his console, followed by General Hastings. When she arrived, both she and the general asked, "What is it?"
"We just picked up this distress signal from Mount Coronet," the sergeant responded. "It's coming from a N'Kren soldier, and it was sent here, directly. Given that we've just taken over this building, chances are that he does not know that the building was captured. Listen."
He then put the transmission on speakers and the two listened as a raspy voice blared over the static of the line, "…General Korro, Colonel Traidan, please respond! This is Techno Knight Squad One of the First N'Kren Techno Legion…sent by Cyrus to Mount Coronet…"
"I'll try to clean it up, sir and ma'am."
He adjusted a few dials and then played it back. The voice said, much more clearly this time, "This is Ra'Xef to the Capitol Building. General Korro, Colonel Traidan, please respond. This is Techno Knight Squad One of the First N'Kren Techno Legion. We were sent by Cyrus to Mount Coronet to destroy a Space Pirate presence that had infiltrated the Earth. However, the Space Pirates have stronger defenses than we initially believed and are putting up a serious fight. Among those defenses are two Techno Lords. Repeat, the Space Pirates have infiltrated the Earth and are at Mount Coronet! They have two Techno…" but the transmission ended abruptly.
"That was not us," the sergeant told them. "The transmission was cut from the other end."
General Hastings stroked his chin and mused out loud. "The Space Pirates? Here?"
"Two Techno Lords," Samus whispered to herself audibly. The only thought that came to her head was the prospect of her parents being with them. The mention of the Techno Lords was all she really needed to hear to want to investigate this signal.
General Hastings looked back at President Richardson and told him, "Sir, we have received a transmission from a group of N'Kren soldiers at Mount Coronet. They have encountered a band of Space Pirates inside the mountain."
"Space Pirates?" Richardson blurted. "On Earth?"
William Hastings nodded solemnly. "All indications point to that being the case."
"But how did they manage to get through Earth's defenses?" Richardson asked. "If they've been here long enough to land and establish a base, then they must have gotten here before Samus began to attack the Orbital Rings."
"Then someone on Earth must have let them through," Hastings figured. "Given that Cyrus was firmly in control of both the Radio Tower and the Capitol Building, the only location where sectors of the planetary shields could be dropped, and orders given to let ships through, then either Cyrus, or one of his commanders, likely on his orders, allowed the ship through."
"We have to stop them," Samus proclaimed firmly. "We have to finish what the N'Kren started."
"How?" Hastings asked. "Mount Coronet is all the way in Japan and taking down Cyrus is out top priority at this time. We'd have to divert forces away from the various fronts to deal with this threat, and we've already heard what two Techno Lords can do to a force of Techno Knights.
"I'll do it," she declared. "Besides, there's a personal stake in this for me. Those two Techno Lords are my parents. They were brainwashed by the Space Pirates when Cyrus gave them to the Pirates as payment for a favor the Pirates did for him a while ago. At least, that's the story I was told when I confronted them on Shanera."
"But there's still the fact that you'd have to fly all the way to Japan to reach them. We don't have the ships to spare at this time, and even if you could call down your own gunship/starfighter, it would have to fly through a war zone to get here. Chances are that without a human controlling it, either in cockpit, or via remote, it would be shot down."
"I know," Samus said quietly.
"We could use one of the Galactic Federation ships, here," President Richardson suggested. "Both General Korro and Colonel Traidan were mentioned in the transmission. So far, only General Korro has been accounted for, but Traidan was known to be an armor genius. He may have been operating one of the mechs or tanks that was defending the building. Chances are that their ships may still be here. And I would bet good money that they have some special modifications, especially for defense."
"Sounds like a plan," General Hasting said hopefully. "All we have to do is find the vessel and we're good to go."
"I may be able to help with that," one of the Marine commanders interrupted. "I've had my men been scanning the building, searching for any holdouts and we found a secret hangar area down below the building. Inside, we saw a series of fighters and other ships, including some pretty fast ships like a Wolfen, a ship used exclusively by the Star Wolf Team, likely acquired by former Chairman Elric when he was interested in gathering samples of technology from other political powers. He also managed to have a Cornerian Fighter with an FTL drive, as well as several Venomian starfighters, too. We also found a tunnel that led out of the building that looks like an escape tunnel. The tunnel has an exit point about a mile away from the building."
Both President Richardson and General Hastings glanced over at Samus, who gave a quick nod. Before she departed, they told her, "Go get 'em, Samus."
With a grin, and fierce determination the likes of which even she had never experienced before, Samus replied, "I will, sirs." She then left the command center and made her way down towards the hangar.
Meanwhile, the first wave of transports brought down reinforcements to assist in the defense of vital locations on Earth and attempt to keep them out of the hands of Cyrus and his minions. Now that time was not on Cyrus's side, he had thrown caution to the wind and was throwing everything he had at the vital locations that he felt he needed to secure in order to accomplish his objectives. One of those locations was the Ruins of Alph, for he had heard a rumor once that if a trainer had taken an Arceus to the ruins, he would be teleported to the fabled Sinjoh Ruins, his true destination. So far, the Galactic Federation had managed to take control of Goldenrod City, but fighting on the routes that led to the Ruins of Alph and Union Cave were still hotly contested.
A squadron of Aries-class transports carrying Marines from the First Infantry Division landed behind a series of bushes and trees just off of Route 35, directly north of Goldenrod City. As soon as the transport touched down, the complement of troops disembarked from the ship. The rest of the transports that were sent to reinforce the area also landed and disgorged their troops as well. Once the troops had disembarked from their transports, they formed up in the forest and waited for the transports to take off. Other ships and assault shuttles deployed tanks and ground and hover-based armored personnel carriers. After their cargo had been delivered, the ships rose into the air, but before returning to space, they gave the reinforcements, and other defenders, a chance to catch their as they flew towards the front lines of the invading Galactic Federation force coming out of Goldenrod City. A volley of scarlet energy blasts blew massive holes in the ranks of the invading forces, blowing apart tanks and APCs that were taking troops to the front lines. Fire, metal, and debris were thrown into the air and bodies were tossed from the centers of the explosions. Other troops dove to the ground as the tanks exploded in order to avoid being skewered by shrapnel. Unfortunately, many of them did not take cover fast enough and were either severely injured or killed. Once the transports had taken out the front armor ranks and decimated the invading forces that were about to launch their attacks, they turned and rose further into the sky, rocketing back up into orbit so as to lend their support to the fleet in its upcoming battle.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the Federation in Exile and Earth military took advantage of the covering fire and emerged from their own cover made their push towards Goldenrod City, the infantry troops running along the route in order to keep back the enemy soldiers. Several squads stayed back at chokepoints to keep guard and harry the enemy should they get past the advancing force, or manage to push the rest of the troopers back. As for the main force, they continued their push towards Goldenrod City, their primary objective being to clear the city of Cyrus's forces.
Over on the beach just outside of Goldenrod City, Cyrus stood in the command outpost that was coordinating the invasion of Goldenrod City and the push towards the Ruins of Alph. He scowled as he read the reports of reinforcements being deployed by transports launched from the ships above, which had recently achieved orbital superiority. Despite the fact that fleet reinforcements had arrived to assist Admiral Morg, reports were already coming in about Morg's death and that his replacement was Admiral Breaz, of the first wave of reinforcements. While his fleet now outnumbered Dane's forces two-to-one, he knew that with the Defense Grid now under Earth's control, that it would require at least three-to-one odds to be able to defeat the fleet, and that was before trying to get past the planetary shields, which effectively closed off the planet from almost any attack short of a planet killer attack, and the shields were said to be rated to be able to block a single blast from a beam capable of literally blowing apart the planet.
Cyrus then focused on the reports of the reinforcements coming to the two paths that were between Goldenrod and the Ruins of Alph. All attempts to simply land troops in the ruins, themselves, or close to them, had ended in disaster. The ruins were protected by a group of Pokémon Trainers led by the Sinnoh League Champion, Cynthia. With several Gyarados present as well, it would be hazardous to send in more Techno Knights to try to take it. A surface attack would be his best chance to try to overwhelm the attacks. It was now that he wanted to know the exact location of the Sinjoh Ruins more than ever, since with reinforcements, and Dane likely being able to hold out for quite a while, along with the Earth's planetary shield blocking access to the planet, chances were that with these reinforcements, if he did not find the location of the Sinjoh Ruins soon, he would either have to go into hiding until a better opportunity to search for them presented itself, or launch an all out invasion of the Ruins of Alph and hope that the Arceus trophies would allow him to use the secret warp inside the Ruins of Alph to access the Sinjoh Ruins.
Mercury soon broke Cyrus out of his reverie when he approached the Chairman and said, "Sir, Alakazam is receiving a message from Venus. We believe we may have located the Sinjoh Ruins. There is an area north of the Johto that cannot be detected by sensors. Venus and her escort flew over it and detected a strange energy signature in an area about twenty-four kilometers north of the Lake of Rage. They managed to find what looked to be a temple in the area they scanned, but they could not get closer due to the fact that a force of Earth fighters and Pokémon Trainers approached. Given the defenses present, Venus believes that we should check it out as soon as possible."
"Did they manage to get any scans of the area, no matter how garbled or distorted?"
"Yes," Mercury answered.
"Get all of the Team Galactic Executives here as quickly as possible. I want to go over the data before we commit to the action, but have Alakazam tell Venus to store the data on the computer of her shuttle, as well as transmit the data to her escorts as well."
"Understood," the executive responded.
Cyrus then stared at the map and considered the ramifications of the latest report from Venus. If it was true, and this was the location of the Sinjoh Ruins, then he finally had what he needed, and the attack on the Ruins of Alph would be unnecessary. With that happy thought, he waited for the arrival of Venus and the other Team Galactic Executives.
Back in Washington D.C., Samus Aran sat in the cockpit of her newly acquired starfighter, identified as a Wolfen II-class starfighter without her armor, for she needed both hands free in order to fly the fighter. Physically, the fighter slightly resembled a sort of butterfly and was rainbow colored in its paint scheme, along with having pointed wings, like fangs or claws. For combat, it was equipped with two heavy laser cannons that looked to be knockoffs of Federation laser cannons. They were not as powerful as the energy cannons of her own gunship, but they were rapid fire and could be charged to fire a Homing Laser. However, this Wolfen II was not equipped with any missiles or bombs, which limited its utility in Samus's eyes. Its targeting computer also only allowed it to lock onto a single enemy craft at any given time. The shields were relatively strong, but were not as strong as those found on her current gunship. The lack of sensors, save for the targeting computer and basic sensors that merely displayed any fighter-sized ship save for special ships like Arwings or Wolfens as small, white dots, and larger structures and capital ships in a grayed out shape resembling said structure or ship also troubled her since she would not be able to find out whether or not a ship was friend or foe. Compounding the issue was the fact that sensors on this ship only seemed to extend five or six kilometers or so, which meant that combat was limited to visual range. This ship was noticeably inferior to her gunship/starfighter in every way. The only saving grace was that its top atmospheric speed was Mach five which, while still greatly inferior to her own ship's top atmospheric speed, was still sufficient for her purposes and, given the shortcomings on the other ships in the secret hangar, made it the ship best suited for her task on such short notice. She only hoped that its shortcomings would not cost her should she be forced to engage in a dogfight. She let out a sigh, wishing that she could use her gunship, but thankful that she was in a specially crafted starfighter, rather than a mass-produced fighter. While ships like the Katana, Wraith, Warthog, Dagger, and Stiletto were all fine starfighters, noticeably superior to anything any of the other powers were producing at the time; they did not have the same level of shields as specially designed ships like Arwings, Wolfens, and her own current gunship, which, since they were not mass produced, could afford to be given the greatest of technology, since their users would be able to afford one or two such ships at the higher cost, rather than the thousands, if not millions, that would need to be produced for a military like the Galactic Federation, Galactic Federation in Exile, or even Earth or other member Federation worlds. She was glad that the ship had its extra shield power, for if she were ever discovered by the enemy, she would need all the shield power she could get, for the enemy would be on her in an instant.
The light on the radio flashed on her and she pushed a single button and the voice of President Richardson came in, saying, "Samus, you are cleared to proceed. Good luck."
"Thank you, mister President," the bounty hunter responded.
She then activated the G-Diffuser on her fighter and it rose into the air. Turning her fighter to the tunnel, she gunned the throttle and shot forward as if her ship were shot from a cannon. After a few seconds, she was directed to rise and she saw a light in front of her. She arrived at the light and exited the tunnel, rocketing into the air. Following her map to Mount Coronet, she turned her fighter to the west and pressed her fighter to full throttle, and rocketed towards Mount Coronet at Mach five.
Meanwhile, over in Japan, just north of the Kanto Region, the Star Fox Team was participating in an already hotly contested battle near one of the planetary shield projectors. If they had managed to take out this projector, then there would be a small hole in the shields over the Earth, allowing the Galactic Federation to bring down reinforcements of its own. The fact that the arrival of more ships in orbit had forced Admiral Dane to keep many of his fleet's starfighters up in orbit to ward off the Federation's own fighters, as well as forcing the transports to return to orbit to support the capital ships meant that the Federation in Exile had no air forces to deal with any of the transports or fighters that managed to get through the gauntlet of starships and, turrets, and defense platforms and into the Earth's atmosphere. The Earth's ground forces were effectively fighting without any air support at all, save for what the forces of Earth that had not been wiped out were already able to provide. With the addition of more troops and fighters to support them, the Federation would quickly be able to recover many of the lost targets on Earth, as well as provide cover for Cyrus as he carried out his plans.
The shield projector was already in sight of the team when they had entered the fray. Some Earth atmospheric fighters came up to meet the Star Fox Team and fired missiles at their fighters from beyond visual range. The lock-on warnings of the fighters alerted the pilots to the imminent danger and they turned, charging homing laser blasts and releasing them before they could lock onto any targets. They fired a gauntlet of Charged Laser blasts in the hopes that the detonations of the blasts would either shoot down the missiles, or confuse their targeting systems. Off in the distance, the Charged Laser blasts detonated, and with them, several red flaming explosions were visible. Fox smiled as he witnessed the missiles explode, with several more falling to the ground. However, much to his surprise, some of the missiles managed to make it through the blasts and continued towards the fighters. Each of the members of the Star Fox Team opened fire on the missiles, spraying green laser and plasma blasts, praying that they managed to score a hit. One of the laser blasts managed to score a hit on a missile and shoot it down. However, there were still more missiles coming in. Fox and the others only managed to tag one more missile before the rest of them impacted with their fighters. As the missiles struck the fighters, their shields flared an electric blue, managing to absorb the full brunt of the impacts. Slippy's Bullfrog was hit by two missiles and, thus, took more shield damage than Fox and the others, but his fighter was also better suited to deal with such hits as well and only suffered slightly more shield damage than the others. Still, Fox knew that dogfighting was not the strong suit of the Bullfrog, so he opened a channel to Slippy and told him, "Slippy, head on over to the shield projector and take it out. We'll keep the fighters off your back."
Slippy then accelerated towards the shield generator, and several of the atmospheric fighters, which looked reminiscent of old Earth twentieth century fighters, rushed after him. Fox and the others took this time to lock onto the fighters with their targeting computers, charging their lasers in the process. The targeting computer locked onto a starfighter and Fox let loose with his Charged Shot. The green ball of energy erupted from the nose cannon of his aircraft and followed the fighter as it broke away from Slippy. The other members of the team quickly locked onto the other fighters in the squadron and unleashed their own charged shots towards them, with several shots being unleashed from Falco's Sky Claw, albeit at a weaker power per shot. The shots homed in on the pursuing fighters, which were forced to break off their pursuit of Slippy and on their own survival.
The fighters continuously maneuvered, avoiding the Charged Shots, hoping that the shots would overshoot them and detonate once they failed to hit anything. However, several upgrades had been performed to the Charged Lasers of Star Fox's starfighters. These shots could adjust their speed and hold tighter maneuvers. In essence, they were just like missiles. Eventually, they were able to catch up to their quarry and they struck the fighters, detonating upon impact. The atmospheric fighters were annihilated by the blasts as they detonated.
This gave Slippy the necessary time to fly to the shield projector while the rest of Star Fox and the Federation fighters occupied the defending Earth atmospheric fighters and target it. He only had three Smart Bombs, and he did not want to waste them, so he used his ship's sensors to find out what types of defenses the projector had. Much as he expected, it was surrounded by a shield that was capable of holding off at least one nuclear scale weapon. He soon targeted the projector and launched a Smart Bomb from his fighter. The red bomb was propelled from his craft and had no engines of its own, due to wanting to maximize its destructive potential, and streaked towards its target. The bomb proceeded unhindered towards its target and struck the shield, detonating immediately upon impact. The outer edges of the blast Smart Bomb's blast expanded to the size of a small town, and the multicolored inner energy field shaped like an atom continued to eat away at the shield until it dissipated four to five seconds after detonation. A blue field of energy formed around the projector as the bomb detonated, absorbing the full brunt of the blast that struck it. Still, the blast wave of the bomb expanded beyond the shield a bit and killed numerous troops on the ground that were standing too close to the shield, and the blast range of the Smart Bomb. Still, despite the bomb's detonation, the shield still held. Checking his sensors, though, he found that the shield had been taken down to fifty percent of its original strength. Another bomb should be sufficient to deal with the shield, and a strafing run should damage the projector sufficiently to disable it.
He turned his fighter/bomber around and headed back to the projector. This time, though, several troopers on the surface that were armed with shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles took aim at Slippy's Bullfrog. Before they could fire, though, a series of emerald green laser blasts fell among their ranks and annihilated them. Looking over, he saw Falco in his Sky Claw cant his wing towards him and a transmission came over the radio, saying, "You owe me, Slip," in a cocky voice. Falco then turned away to deal with some more enemy fighters.
Slippy then refocused his attention on dealing with the shield projector. Arming another Smart Bomb, he zeroed in on the projector and let fly with another bomb. The bomb rocketed away from the fighter and Slippy quickly turned away as it struck the projector and detonated. This bomb was sufficient to not only take down the shield, but also inflict some damage to the projector. However, the shield projector still managed to function. That changed as soon as Slippy strafed the dish-like projector, blasting multiple holes into the dish, as well blowing off the antennae-like device coming out of it. The debris from the antennae fell to the ground, where it crashed and nearly crushed several defending troopers.
The Federation fighter pilots gave whoops of celebration as they then flew towards the defending ground troops and opened fire on them, just for fun. Krystal watched from her fighter and a tear formed in her eye. She looked away in disgust as the Federation fighters blew apart the ground forces, though the troops did not die without a fight, using any and all of their remaining surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and shoulder-launched SAMs to take down as many fighters as possible. Fox Falco assisted the fighters in dealing with the ground troopers that were still fighting, but Krystal refused to be a part of it. She opened a channel to Fox and Falco and asked, "What are you doing? Our mission here is accomplished!"
"We're protecting the fighters," came Fox's response.
"Yeah," Falco echoed. "Those ground forces still shot at the Federation fighters."
"Only after the Federation fighters went in to slaughter them!" Krystal countered angrily.
Before Fox and Falco could give a reply, though, a black Wolfen-like mark appeared on radar maps. Fox looked at the mark and found that it was the same marking designated to a Wolfen-class starfighter that was exclusively piloted by members of Star Wolf. Looking at the marking, Fox said, "It can't be. Star Wolf? Here?"
"Who can say?" Falco replied. "It seems like everyone else has congregated at Earth for one reason or another. Though, that drubbing we gave them in the first Battle of Earth should have been enough to force them to keep their fighters in the repair bay for weeks, if not months. Still, it's just one ship. I don't think that only one pilot would be fighting if all three members weren't in sickbay."
Despite Falco's statement, the battle against Star Wolf over Earth had been anything but a drubbing. While that battle had gone in favor of Star Fox, they had to note that they had a lot of help from numerous Federation starfighters as well, and Falco had still been shot down by Wolf O'Donnell and Leon Powalski when he had gone after Panther Caroso, and Slippy's Arwing had lost both wings in that battle, forcing him to make an emergency landing, and Krystal had had a wing taken off of her own Arwing in the fighting as well.
The group watched as the Wolfen II flew by the scene, not stopping to engage them at all. "That's odd," Fox mused. "Didn't even stop to say hello."
"We do outnumber him four-to-one," Falco noted. "Maybe Wolf, Leon, or Panther have gotten a little smarter since their last battle with us."
"Possibly, but there's something else going on here," Krystal told the others. "That fighter's going at over Mach Five and appears to be decelerating. Not only that, but it appears to be heading north, directly towards a target of interest…Mount Coronet, if I'm reading the map correctly," she added, after checking her map and sensors.
Fox then opened a channel to the military commanders in Johto and said, "This is Fox McCloud, to Cyrus and the military commanders in Johto. We've disabled the shield projector just north of the Kanto region, but we've detected the a Wolfen headed towards Mount Coronet."
A response soon came in from an unfamiliar voice, "Good work, Star Fox. Follow the Wolfen and shoot it down if it makes any suspicious moves towards Mount Coronet. While you're at it, check on the Techno Knight strike force that we sent there to take care of a Space Pirate base as well. If something has happened to them, finish what they started and wipe it out. Should it be necessary, its destruction will be added to your fee."
"Understood," Fox answered. He then switched to the full squadron channel and said, "Okay everyone, you heard the orders. We're headin' to Mount Coronet. We've gotta gun it to maximum speed if we're gonna catch the Wolfen in time."
"Got it," the rest of the squadron answered as the fighters gunned it towards Mount Coronet in hot pursuit of Samus's Wolfen.
Not too far ahead of the Star Fox Team, Samus noticed a quartet of fighters break off from the fighting behind her and begin to come her way. The fighters were still a ways away from her, and were not gaining ground very quickly. However, she noticed that one of the fighters was slowly catching up to her. She knew that as she slowed down when she was about to reach her destination, that the craft would arrive. On the Wolfen II's map display, instead of showing up as a blue Arwing-shaped marking. She grimaced. The Star Fox Team was after her. She then gunned the fighter to full throttle, hoping to arrive at Mount Coronet before the Star Fox Team would be able to catch up and enter the mountain before they managed to arrive and shoot her down, but she made contingencies in her head just in case they managed to catch up to her. She was glad that the Wolfen II had an anti-lock on system and shield that would disperse any Homing Lasers and confuse any Smart Bomb targeting sensors, but she did not feel comfortable with the prospect of Smart Bombs coming into play. If they managed to score a lucky hit on her, her ship could suffer severe damage, if not get shot down.
Looking into the distance, she found that she was fast approaching Mount Coronet. As she slowed down, she noticed that one of the Arwings was approaching fast, and showing no signs of slowing down. Then, just as it got within a kilometer or so of her, the ship slowed down. After a few seconds, one of her screens turned red, indicating that the ship was trying to lock onto her ship. So far, it was not successful, but she did not want to take any chances. She went into a climb and looked behind her. She saw a green, pulsing ball of energy rushing after her in a straight line. Since she had already begun her climb, she was out of its flight path. The ball detonated a few seconds after it had been launched, and well away from her fighter. She was still out of range of the Arwing.
She went to full throttle once more and rocketed towards Mount Coronet, with the other fighter pursuing. She also noticed that the other fighters had almost managed to catch up before she accelerated once more towards the mountain. Looking back, she saw the enemy fighter, which looked to be little more than a kilometer away from her fire green pulses of light towards her fighter. She almost breathed a sigh of relief as the pulses dispersed a few dozen meters away from her fighter.
She continued on her path to the large mountain in the distance and saw the damage that had been done to one side of the mountain. It appeared as if the N'Kren Techno Knights had managed to get a few hits in on the Space Pirates before getting taken down. As she approached the mountain, she also noticed the wreckage of what looked to be defense turrets and cannons. Looking down at her map, she found that there were some white blips close to the wreckage, indicating that there were still a few turrets that were operational. Her suspicions were soon confirmed as a volley of green energy blasts streaked towards her fighter. Looking down, she saw several anti-personnel turrets firing on her Wolfen II. These blasts were designed for anti-personnel use, and as such, should not have damaged her fighter. To be on the safe side, though, she went into a barrel roll. As she did so, her ship produced an energy shield that deflected the energy bolts away from her ship. She then strafed the area and took out several of the remaining defense lasers. As she continued to fly around the mountain, she found four Vigilance-class plasma turrets still functioning as well. These soon adjusted their aim and targeted her fighter. They then spewed out balls of green plasma towards her fighter. Executing another barrel roll, her shield deflected the balls if plasma in all directions, some of them back into the mountain, where they hit the mountain and blew out chunks of rock and dirt, revealing tunnels and caves. She then performed a strafing run on the four turrets and destroyed all four of them in one pass.
After destroying the four turrets, a series of green laser blasts shot past her fighter. Checking her sensors, she found a blue Arwing mark close behind her fighter. Looking behind her, she saw a fighter that resembled an Arwing, but had forward swept wings, each with three spikes resembling feathers on the end of them, coming towards her. She immediately performed a loop over the fighter, allowing it to pass right under her, while she charged her own Homing Laser so she could fire on the Arwing. The fighter soon performed a loop, following her maneuver, before she was able to get a lock on. This did not bother Samus, though, since she knew that a large portion of the Arwing's boost meter would be used up in that maneuver, and that it would take time to charge, even if he could perform a looser loop again. Sure enough, her enemy performed another loop, this one much looser than the other, but still too tight for the normal maneuverability of her craft to perform without using up energy from her boost meter, and she followed him, knowing that he would have to wait for the enemy's boost meter to charge back up before he could perform tight complex maneuvers once more. Once he leveled out, she locked onto his fighter and let loose with her charged Homing Laser.
A scarlet ball of energy erupted from the front nose cannon of her starfighter and zeroed in on the enemy fighter, Falco's Sky Claw. Falco's eyes went wide at the sight of the homing energy ball. "What the…? Wolfen IIs don't have the ability to charge their lasers and fired Homing Charged Lasers."
However, much as he could not believe it, it appeared as if this Wolfen II could charge and fire Homing Lasers. He did everything in his power to evade the ball of energy, but since his boost was not yet charged back up, there was little the Cornerian humanoid bird could do except perform a barrel roll, hoping that the roll would either break the lock, or if worse came to worst, deflect the ball. His craft then entered a barrel roll in the attempt to break the lock and/or deflect the ball. Unfortunately, his attempt was in vain, for the Homing Laser continued to follow his craft and the barrel roll shield was unable to protect against a Homing Laser. The shield was immediately breached by the blast and it scored a direct hit on his fighter just as his boost meter was fully recharged and he began a loop. "I'm hit!" he cried over his radio, which Samus's Wolfen was also able to pick up on. That single transmission was all Samus needed to be able to see that her Homing Charged Laser seemed to take little more than half of his shield off of his fighter. Looking at the damage done to his fighter, she figured that he had likely sustained damage from an earlier battle, for there was no way that a Homing Charged Laser would take off half of the ship's shields. She then tracked Falco as he performed his loop, waiting for him to come down so that she would have a clear shot at him. As Falco was looping, he warned the other Star Fox Team members, "This Wolfen Two can charge its lasers and fire Homing Shots, too! Be careful."
"Thanks for the heads up," came the voice of Fox McCloud over Falco's comm.
As Falco came out of his loop, still barrel rolling in order to make sure that any subsequent enemy fire would be deflected, Samus slowed down, so as to not overshoot her target, and fired her Wolfen's twin laser cannons on his Sky Claw. While the barrel roll shield managed to deflect the first few blasts, the next few in the volley got through while he performed another barrel roll to create a new shield. She scored four hits on him and took his shield down to nearly one quarter of its original strength.
"I could really use some help, here, Fox!" Falco cried as he sustained another barrage of hits, only the first few shots being deflected by Samus's lasers, noticing his shields decrease noticeably with each hit.
Inside his Sky Claw's cockpit, Falco grimaced as Samus was inflicting considerable damage to his fighter's shields. "Man, who is this guy? No one in Star Wolf is this good."
He performed another loop, which Samus quickly followed, performing a barrel roll so as to avoid sustaining damage from her lasers. Knowing that his enemy could perform intricate maneuvers more often than he could in his ship, he decided to take advantage of the one area that an Arwing, and by extension, his Sky Claw. He then went into a turn and held it, trying to get behind Samus's starfighter. He knew while a Wolfen II was faster, had stronger laser cannons, and this one could even charge them to fire a Homing Charged Laser, almost certainly more powerful than the one that an Arwing could perform and could perform tight intricate maneuvers more often than his own craft, he knew that the Wolfen II was not more maneuverable than a standard Arwing, to say nothing of his Sky Claw. As he turned, Samus did her best to follow his maneuver but his fighter was able to perform a harder turn, so try as she might, she was unable to line up a shot.
It was at this time that the rest of the team finally arrived at the mountain. Several green laser blasts flashed past her cockpit, with one managing to score a hit, and slightly damage her ship's shields, and she looked behind her to see three starfighters closing in on her. The blasts strafed the ground, scorching the stones beneath her fighter as she dove towards the ground, hoping that one of the pilots would be foolish enough to try to follow her. None of them were, though, and she realized that she had to engage them head on if she wanted to beat them.
Performing an Immelmann turn, she reversed her direction and pointed her Wolfen straight at the three incoming Star Fox fighters. She charged her Homing Laser and unleashed a single shot towards the leader, Fox McCloud. The scarlet energy ball streaked towards his fighter and he performed a loop to try to break its lock. He was too late to perform the loop, though, and the ball managed to score a hit on his fighter, taking it shields down to half strength. While Fox was occupied with the Homing Laser, Samus unleashed a volley of laser blasts at the other two fighters, focusing on the weaker fighter that resembled a bird, rather than an Arwing. She scored several hits on Krystal's Cloud Runner before the female Cerinian fox performed a barrel roll to limit the damage to her fighter. Several blasts were deflected and Samus turned to focus on Slippy's Bullfrog. He performed a barrel roll to deflect some of her laser fire, but after the first roll's shield vanished, he took some direct hits from Samus's ship. He then tried to turn towards Samus so he could face her down and take advantage of his ship's superior Plasma Lasers, but she performed a barrel roll as he opened fire on her and the opening volley of plasma pulses was deflected away from the fighter. A few pulses managed to score hits on her, but her ship's shields were holding strong against the assault and she only lost about a eighth of her ship's shields. She performed another roll as she swerved in order to avoid Slippy's Bullfrog as the two fighters exchanged fire. Several more shots hit her fighter, but four twin-linked energy blasts managed to score direct hits on the body of Slippy's fighter-bomber.
As she went to Immelmann back to Slippy, two streams of laser fire came from below, scoring hits on her fighter. Looking down, she saw a normal Arwing and the forward swept wing Arwing approaching. Realizing that having two fighters on her tail would likely bring a swift and untimely end to this fight, she turned around to take the fight to them, directly, charging a Homing Laser. Once she was facing the two oncoming fighters, she locked onto Falco's fighter and waited until he began his loop in order to break the lock. As he looped, Fox fired on her with his fighter's single laser cannon. Barrel rolling, she deflected most of the hits, but the few pulses that managed to hit her Wolfen only inflicted minor shield damage to her ship. As Falco emerged from his loop, she let fly with her Homing Charged Laser. The scarlet pulse of energy rocketed towards Falco and he tried to turn away to cause it to overshoot his fighter, but the pulse scored its hit before he was able to do so. A red sphere of energy engulfed the fighter and destroyed the rest of the Sky Claw's shields, inflicting direct damage to the fighter's hull. The engines were smoking as several parts of the metal body were warped and melted. A single shot from her laser cannons would be enough to take down the fighter. She lined up her shot with Falco's Sky Claw and just as he Immelmann turned to face her, she let loose with her final shot. The laser blasts scored a direct hit on his starboard wing and nose. Both the wing and the nose snapped off and the fighter began to smoke as it listed downward and to the left. The canopy immediately flew off the top of the fighter and Falco jumped out of his doomed fighter. Spreading his arms, which doubled as wings, he glided to the ground, aided by his special flight suit. His fighter, however, merely plowed into the mountainside and crumpled and deformed upon impact, skidding along the ground and scrapping off metal, wires, and other key components of the fighter. Eventually, the flaming hulk came to a rest a few dozen meters away from its initial impact point. Samus looked at the ground and thought, One down, three to go.
Her next target was the fighter that resembled a fat Arwing. Knowing that that fighter was not nearly as fast or maneuverable as the others, she wanted to take out the easy target before he could cause her any trouble while she handed the other two fighters. Charging her Homing Laser, she focused on the bulky fighter-bomber and locked onto it. Slippy must have detected her lock, for he immediately performed a loop. His loop was relatively loose, but it was still tighter than most fighters could perform under normal power. Samus merely slowed her Wolfen II, barrel rolling to make sure that any fire from the other two Star Fox Team members was deflected and the shield damage to her fighter was kept to a minimum. Her Wolfen still maintained its lock and she fired her Homing Laser at Slippy's Bullfrog.
Since Slippy's boost meter was still recharging, at a significantly slower rate than Fox's Arwing II, he was unable to perform any evasive maneuvers that would allow him to avoid the incoming blast. The scarlet energy ball struck his craft and exploded, inflicting noticeable damage to his ship's shields. However, due to the strength of the shields, and the durability of his ship, he still had a little more than a third of his shield strength remaining. Samus clipped off more of his fighter's shields with a volley of laser fire that caught the pilot by surprise. The bounty hunter was quick to notice that Slippy seemed to be the least skilled of the Star Fox pilots.
She continued to fire on the Bullfrog, which was unsuccessfully attempting to evade her fire, when a volley of laser blasts struck the rear of her fighter, prompting her to barrel roll and perform a loop. Underneath her craft sailed the other two members of Star Fox. She decided to test the strange-looking Arwing that resembled a bird and maneuvered in close behind. As she did so, she let loose with a volley of laser fire. A couple blasts scored hits on Krystal's Cloud Runner, but the female fox quickly put her fighter into a barrel roll, producing a shield and then performed an Immelmann turn to get out of the line of fire.
Fox McCloud soon turned around and began a dive towards Samus's Wolfen. He sprayed laser fire towards her, but she entered into a barrel roll and performed a series of evasive maneuvers that allowed her to avoid damage. She soon noticed Slippy coming from the right and she decided that now would be a good time to take him out of the fight before he joined Fox on her tail. Performing a series of barrel rolls to deflect Fox's laser fire, she banked to the right and entered into a tight turn to try to close in on Slippy. Fox's tighter turning ability of the Arwing allowed him to keep up with her, but his superior turning ability was slight, and with the surprise of the turn, she had a few seconds to close in on Slippy before Fox managed to get a bead on her. She charged her Homing Laser once more and locked into Slippy, who was still foolishly trying to keep out of her line of fire by entering into a turning contest. It was a contest that he would lose, for after Samus locked onto his fighter, she let loose with another Homing Charged Laser. The ball of energy erupted from the nose of her craft and rocketed towards the unfortunate fighter-bomber. It scored a direct hit on the ship's engines and exploded, inflicting more shield damage to the ship. Some of the energy also bled through the shields and inflicted damage to the engine walls of Slippy's fighter, which was now smoking, with electricity arcing across its engines. This was Samus's cue to finish off his fighter, and finish it off she did. With Fox blasting away at her tail, she lined up her fighter with Slippy's while she barrel rolled in order to limit the damage done to her fighter. She then fired a volley of scarlet laser blasts at the stricken fighter-bomber just as Slippy was putting the craft into a loop. She scored a series of hits on the engines and there was an explosion in its engines as the shields were breached. The fighter continued upwards as Slippy let loose a cry on the radio.
Fox, seeing his wingman continuing to ascend into the sky, smoke trailing his fighter just as he was at the apex of his climb and beginning to fall back down to the Earth, with no sign of him having ejected from his fighter, yelled to Slippy, "Bail out, Slippy! Bail out!"
Eventually, Slippy obeyed and the canopy to the dead Bullfrog opened. Slippy jumped out of his fighter and began to fall. As soon as he began to fall, he pulled the chord on his backpack and deployed his parachute. He gently floated to the ground away from Mount Coronet as his fighter fell to the ground, crashing into the side of the mountain and exploded. Samus had taken down half of the Star Fox Team in this battle. With Falco and Slippy down, she focused on dealing with Fox and Krystal. Checking her shields, she found that she still had half of her ship's shields remaining.
Fox searched for his teammate and found Krystal quickly forming up on him. A channel opened between the two fighters and he heard Krystal ask, "Fox, who is this person?"
"I don't know," Fox answered. "But he's not a member of Star Wolf. None of the members of Star Wolf fly like this. And besides, he's better anyone I've seen on Star Wolf. Only Wolf may be on his level."
"Do you think we can beat him?"
"Yeah," Fox said in a confident voice. Despite the seeming confidence in his voice, he was worried. Despite the fact that both Falco and Slippy's fighters had taken damage in their fights in the atmosphere, the way that this Wolfen pilot had dealt with them was scary. He would not have been surprised if it had been Ixis, Fasome, or even Wolf O'Donnell piloting this Wolfen II, but reports indicated that Ixis and Fasome had been killed in a Space Pirate raid on a convoy a couple days ago, and Star Wolf was still recovering from the last battle they had with Star Fox. Still, that did not deter him from taking on this challenge, quite possibly the greatest challenge that he had ever faced. "Are you with me Krystal?"
"I always am," came the Cerinian fox's response as she followed Fox.
"Fall back a bit and stay far enough back to cover me. I'm going after this fighter, myself."
Krystal obeyed and let off the throttle a bit as both she and Fox searched the map for the location of their quarry. Their search soon ended as a black Wolfen mark appeared in the right corner of their map, approaching fast. Fox performed a barrel roll in anticipation of having to deflect enemy laser fire, but Samus waited until the shield dropped before opening fire on his craft. Once his shield dropped, she opened fire on him, scoring several hits on his fighter, taking it down to less than one quarter its original shield strength. A few more hits would be enough to take down the fighter. Fox rocketed away in order to make himself a tempting target. She did not take the bait, for she knew about Fox's teammate, who was trailing her fighter, firing on it. She continued to barrel roll as Krystal fell in behind her and unleashed a vicious volley of laser fire from her ship's twin laser cannons. The barrel roll deflected many of the blasts of energy, but several more blasts managed to score critical hits in between barrel rolls, taking her shields below half strength.
Knowing that she had to do something quickly to make this a one-on-one fight, she flew a straight path towards Fox, knowing that his wingman would follow her and take a shot at her. Checking her sensor map, she found Krystal's Cloud Runner rapidly closing in on her fighter. As soon as Krystal got too close, she performed a loop, which the pursuing Cloud Runner quickly followed. Samus grinned, though, for she knew that her ship's boost meter would allow her to perform another loop before Krystal would be able to perform a second loop of her own. Charging a Homing Laser shot, Samus performed a second loop just as Krystal opened fire on her fighter. Samus performed a barrel roll and managed to deflect the laser blasts as she performed her loop. Krystal sailed underneath her Wolfen II and she soon leveled off behind the Cloud Runner, locking onto the ship, and letting loose with her Homing Charged Laser. As the energy ball was homing in on the fighter, Samus unleashed a volley of laser fire from the Wolfen II's twin laser cannons. With the shield damage being inflicted by the laser blasts, the Homing Charged Laser was the final nail in the coffin of Krystal's Cloud Runner.
The scarlet energy missile struck the rear of her fighter and exploded, blowing out the engines of the ship, and destroying the rear quarter of it in the process. The ship entered into an involuntary barrel roll and fell uncontrollably to the ground. Krystal wasted no time blowing off the cockpit canopy and jumping out of her doomed starfighter. As her parachute opened to slow her fall, she watched as her fighter crashed into the side of the mountain, exploding and blowing a hole in the side of the mountain. That left only one fighter for Samus to deal with, Fox McCloud's Arwing II.
As Samus was dealing with Krystal's Cloud Runner, Fox, noticing that Samus was no longer focusing in on him, performed an Immelmann turn and rocketed back towards Samus just as she shot down Krystal. When he saw the Cloud Runner falling towards the mountain, he cried, "Krystal, no!"
He was greatly relieved to see Krystal jump out of her doomed starfighter and her parachute deploy. He watched as she gently descended to the ground, landing softly near the base of the mountain. Once he was certain that she was safe, he proceeded to focus his gaze on the Wolfen II that was making its way towards him. "You won't take me down," he vowed.
As for Samus, she also focused her attention towards Fox McCloud since he was the greatest threat to her at the moment. As soon as they got within range, both fighters fired on one another while flying straight towards one another, both sides playing chicken. As they fired on each other, both fighters barrel rolled in order to deflect the other's laser blasts. The laser blasts of the Wolfen's laser cannons were far more powerful than the laser blasts of Fox's Arwing, but something soon happened that Samus did not expect, for an anti-aircraft plasma missile from the surface struck the rear of her Wolfen and exploded, inflicting significant damage to her fighter's shields, taking off more shield energy than a Charged Laser fired from an Arwing would have. She could not afford to look below her until she faced down Fox. She flew towards him and forced him to break off his attack, several of her laser blasts sailing past him, but having inflicted more damage on his fighter, the bleed-through damage causing the fighter to smoke. However, Fox's return fire also inflicted more damage on her own Wolfen, taking its shields down to a sliver of what they used to be. She realized that she would have to break off the fight and get to the closest entrance to Mount Coronet as soon as possible.
She looked back at the mountain and noticed a squad of eight Pirates standing around one of the entrance tunnels to the mountain, two of the Pirates holding shoulder-launched plasma missile launchers. They were quickly reloading their weapons for a second shot. Quickly turning around, she lined up her fighter with the Pirates and unleashed a volley of laser fire on them, slaughtering the Pirates in a single pass.
After dealing with the Pirates, she searched for a place to land her fighter since she knew that in an extended battle with Fox McCloud, she would lose. She soon saw an open area that could fit her fighter. As she began her approach, though, she saw Fox's Arwing close in on her. Seeing that he would do everything in his power to shoot her down, she decided to do the thing he least expected: she turned towards him and took her fighter on a collision course with his own. Holding onto the control stick with one hand, Samus reactivated her armor, a golden sheen covering her body and her Power Suit then forming over her body and form. As she gripped the control stick, she mashed the fire button for the laser cannons into the stick, unleashing a hail of energy fire on Fox's Arwing II. After a few seconds, she fast approached his Arwing, performing a barrel roll in order to deflect his incoming fire. She managed to score some more hits on the fighter, but it was too little, for Fox managed to score two fatal hits on her own fighter.
His first laser blast sheared off the left wing of the Wolfen II, with the second one taking off some of its nose. Smoke trailed the fighter and blinded the cockpit canopy, but Samus was barely able to make out Fox's Arwing trying to bank away from her fighter. She would not have any of that, though, and she pulled the stick to the right as hard as she could. The fighter swerved slightly and entered a spin, which carried her directly into Fox's Arwing II. The two ships crashed and her ship sheared off the right wing and part of the nose of Fox's starfighter. Samus grinned as the Wolfen collided with the enemy fighter and took off its wing. She hoped that the loss of a wing, combined with the previous damage suffered by his fighter was enough to take Fox out of the fight, and keep the Star Fox Team out of her hair for a while.
Knowing that it would be foolish to stay with her doomed fighter, she pushed the canopy release button and as soon as the canopy was blown off, she proceeded to jump out of the doomed fighter. She fell to a relatively large mountain ledge without any concern, for her suit had the ability to survive atmospheric reentry. Falling a few hundred feet would be nothing. She landed on her feet and created a small crater in the ledge that she had landed on. Looking into the sky, she saw Fox struggle to keep his one-winged Arwing II aloft as he was taken away from the mountain. Smoke trailed the doomed craft as it was listing downward and Samus silently hoped that Fox would punch out of his fighter and not attempt to ride it in; not only because she did not want to risk fighting a starfighter on the ground, but also because she did not want to see him die trying to ride the fighter to the ground. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him jump from the stricken fighter and let it crash and die a quick death as it crashed into the mountain, rather than a slow death as it scraped itself apart trying to land using its landing pads as wheels.
With the Star Fox Team's threat neutralized for the time being, Samus began the search for the nearest entrance to the mountain. She quickly scaled the mountain, using her Screw Attack to fly along the mountainside until she could find an entrance. So far, she was having difficulty finding an entrance, and began to think that she would have to ascend all the way to Spear Pillar before she would be able to find an entrance and infiltrate the mountain. She continued her ascent until she eventually reached one of the peaks. The peak was frozen over with ice, and only sparse patches of grass grew this high, and in the cold temperatures at this altitude. She landed on the icy ground spied a cave entrance along the mountainside right in front of her. As she approached, her sensors indicated the presence of another person in the vicinity. She activated her Scan Visor and quickly scanned the area. Seeing a pile of rocks to her right, she went over to investigate. As soon as she started to walk, a large stone was pushed aside and a N'Kren soldier was revealed, clutching his side. She could see blue blood leaking from under his hand and arm. Rushing over to the N'Kren, she directed, "Lie down and stay still. Your wound is serious."
The N'Kren struggled to raise his head towards her and, seeing that it was Samus who was caring for him, croaked, "Not as serious as the wound in my heart, Hunter."
Samus was puzzled by what he meant and asked, "What are you talking about?"
The N'Kren cracked what passed for a smile in his current condition. "I mean that I am Hi'Gor, commander of the first N'Kren Army. I was…the one who…sent your parents, Rodney and Virginia Aran, to Cyrus to help bolster the Galactic Federation forces. After doing so, I did not stop to check on…them. Cyrus gave them to the Space Pirates as a reward, or payment, for something."
"I know," Samus told him. "I encountered them on Shanera."
The N'Kren gripped Samus's arm and pulled her down to him. "Samus, the Space Pirates must be stopped. They cannot be allowed to leave this world." He then handed her a small, cube-shaped device. "This is an emergency teleportation unit," he croaked. "The Pirates managed to capture a N'Kren soldier after our battle. He was taken inside their base to have his mind scanned and his knowledge downloaded to the Space Pirates' computers. When you find him, push the cube against his skin, turn the knob forty-five degrees clockwise, according to your clocks, and push it in. It will automatically teleport him to the bridge of the N'Kren flagship." Looking sternly into Samus's eyes, he reiterated, "Samus, you must destroy the Space Pirates. Wipe them out, once and for all. Do…what…I…could….not."
"Stay with me!" she shouted. "Don't die on me! I'll call for help!"
She opened a channel to Admiral Dane when the N'Kren reached up to her, stopping her. "Don't," he told her, shaking his head. "It's too late for me, Chozo Warrior. You must carry on with my mission to destroy the Space Pirates. It's the only…good thing I've done in this useless war." With that, the N'Kren fell back to the ground. Samus watched as his chest rose and fell rhythmically for a few seconds. She placed her fingers at his carotid artery, or what would have passed as such for a N'Kren, and felt the throb of blood slow. His pulse slowed until it came to a complete stop. When it came to a stop, Hi'Gor gave one last sigh. Samus scanned the N'Kren and all of her readings came back negative. He was dead.
Samus gripped the emergency teleporter that she had received from the N'Kren and attached it to her left arm for the time being, being careful to not activate the device. She then turned to the entrance and began to walk towards it. As she began to approach the entrance, she saw the side of the mountain facing her get blown outward. Boulders the size of Arwings barreled towards her and she had to either dodge the incoming boulders, or blast them with her Plasma Beam. The torrent of boulders and stone soon ceased and she scanned the large cloud of dust that had been created. As she scanned it, she heard, and felt, the sound of footsteps coming towards her. A loud roar also erupted from the cloud as well. Soon, a large figure that looked to be more than a hundred and twenty feet tall emerged from the cloud of dust. Samus's eyes went wide as she saw that the beast that had emerged was none other than Kraid, one of the Space Pirate generals. The difference here was that he was almost twice as large as he was before. He had his normal three yellow eyes and three spikes emerging from his stomach as well, but there was also a large metal plate on his head as well. She readied her Arm Cannon, switching to her Power Beam so as to prepare to charge a Super Missile as he looked down on her. "Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh," the beast laughed as he looked down at Samus. "Today, Hunter, you die," he said menacingly. Samus, had other ideas, though, as she charged her Power Beam in preparation of force-feeding the massive beast a Super Missile.