Extra #2: General Arvo
Space Pirates who show any sign of cowardice shall be hunted down.
This is the law by which all Space Pirates live their lives. Unit 1337, known to his peers as "Arvo", learned this firsthand thirty years ago. Details regarding the incident are hazy, but it has been confirmed that something happened on the dwarf planet of Pluto. A Federation fleet discovered a pod floating in space. Within it was a half-dead Arvo. Despite him being a Space Pirate, protocols required that any injured bioforms who were not harmed as a result of the Federation be helped in any way possible.
Against all odds, Arvo survived. A pariah to the Space Pirates at that point, due to circumstances which nobody fully understands, he had no choice but to join the Federation. Arvo was immensely helpful in the battles that ensued from that point onward. Being a moderately high-ranking Space Pirate, he had exclusive knowledge of Space Pirate strongholds and experiments, and with Arvo's help, the Pirates were completely driven out of over 300 solar systems. Eventually, Arvo joined the military in order to help more - the biggest mistake of his life.
Arvo rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a general. During a battle on the planet of Aarat XIV, he encountered his former squad - an unpleasant surprise, to be sure. The ensuing battle had them completely ignoring the Federation troopers and attacking only him. Eventually, they succeeded in permanently damaging both of his legs. At that point, backup arrived, and he was spared any further injury.
Arvo chose to remain in a military position, giving orders instead of fighting in battle. He was transferred to the G.F.S. Scheria, but he requested to keep his title of General instead of Admiral. Since then, he has bore a bitter grudge against his own kind - a grudge which shows up quite prominently in the halls of the Scheria.
"Commander Tarus Wesley to G.F.S. Valhalla. Valhalla, do you read?"
There was a crackle of static, then a response.
"G.F.S. Valhalla's lead scientist, Al Enstin to Commander Tarus Wesley. What can I do for you, Commander?"
"I've been ordered to search the Valhalla for any sign of the experiments being tampered with. Samus Aran was recently killed around here, but we need to make sure that she didn't do anything beforehand."
"Of course, Commander. Come on aboard."
Wesley smiled slightly. "Thank you."
He maneuvered the ship into the Valhalla's docking bay, and picked up his "sphere key" – which was, of course, Samus Aran in morph ball form. Despite its size, it was surprisingly light, like all sphere keys. As long as Samus didn't move around, no one would be able to tell the difference.
As Wesley exited the ship, several soldiers stationed there saluted. "Greetings, Commander. You may leave your sphere key here; we'll guard it well."
Wesley frowned, shaking his head. "No, thank you. I'd feel much safer if I brought it with me."
The soldier shrugged. "Suit yourself. Anyway, just give us your pass onto the ship, and you're good to go."
Wesley froze.
"My pass?" he repeated dumbly.
"Yep. The one you were given when you were given the assignment. You didn't lose it, did you?"
"Uh…yes, that must've been what happened. I lost it," he said, laughing nervously. "That isn't a problem, is it?"
"No, you should be fine. All I need to do is contact the president and -"
"No!"
The soldier frowned, looking up at Wesley suspiciously. "What do you mean, no…?"
"I mean…no, it's okay. I'll find my pass again on my own."
The soldier continued staring. "Are you sure that you even HAVE a pass…?"
Things were quickly spiraling out of Wesley's control.
The soldier paused suddenly, as he received a radio signal. "One moment," he said.
"…Yes. …Ah! Hello, sir…yes, he's right here…oh, really? Sorry…I had no idea…right. Goodbye, sir."
The soldier looked back up. "That was the president," he said. "He wanted to let me know that I was to let you pass. You have access to everything on the ship. That's a great honor, you know…even the people working here don't have that privilege…"
Dumbfounded, Wesley let himself be escorted by the soldier through the doors.
-=-=-
"Commander Wesley, an honor to meet you in person. I'm Al Enstin. We've talked briefly via radio, of course."
Wesley nodded. "Pleasure to meet you too. Now, then…I'd like to begin with your most top-secret experiments. Get them out of the way first, you see."
Enstin looked nervous. "Yes, those. Of course."
He walked over to a large door, reinforced with the hardest metals in the galaxy, double-bolted, with an eye-scanner, a hand-scanner, and a sphere key lock, all of which had to be activated for the door to open. After that, there would be a DNA verification scan before entry would be granted. Clearly, the Federation wanted almost no one to know about this.
The hall was lined with large stasis tubes, most of which were empty.
"I'd prefer to see this by myself," Wesley said to Enstin.
"Right," Enstin replied. "I'll wait for you just outside."
Wesley walked down the hall, his footsteps echoing down it. Aside from himself, the room was completely quiet. He noted that he could hear his heart beating.
Suddenly, as he turned the corner, the morph ball jumped out of his arms and turned into the familiar shape of Samus Aran.
"I'll lead from here," she said curtly. Wesley nodded, his heart racing.
And suddenly, the empty tubes gave way to thousands of full ones.
All of them were filled with humans.
As they walked by the tubes, however, the humans became less and less recognizable. Every now and then, Samus would pause, press a button on her helmet, and stare at the contents of a tube before continuing onward. Wesley would pause and simply look at them.
One human had spikes growing out of his back. Another had coarse fur coating his entire body. Yet another bore a wolf-like snout, sharp teeth lining her mouth.
"What is this stuff?" he asked Samus.
"Federation experiments," she replied grimly. "I had my suspicions when they infused me with Metroid DNA, but I had no idea that they had already gone this far…"
They continued walking down the endless rows, as the humans they passed became more and more disfigured. At one point, five in a row were writhing in clearly visible agony. Their mouths were open, but they were unable to scream. Wesley felt sick all of a sudden.
"Can we head back now, please?" he asked.
"Not yet," Samus replied. "I want to see everything."
Suddenly, the soft blue lights gave way to harsh red ones, and the reason for Space Pirates being on the B.S.L. suddenly became clear to Samus.
-=-=-
The soldier who had let Wesley in was bored out of his mind. Yes, he had known that guard duty wasn't exactly the most exciting job in the world, but still. Grumbling, he walked by Wesley's fighter and took a casual peek inside.
The sphere key was right there.
He did a double-take and rubbed his eyes to make sure that his vision wasn't deceiving him. Sure enough, the sphere key was there.
He frowned. He was certain that Wesley had taken his sphere key with him…
Suddenly, another transmission came through.
"Galactic Federation President Rodriguez here. Just letting you know that a squad of fighters injured in a recent skirmish will be taking refuge here."
"Affirmative, sir. I also let Commander Wesley into the station, as you requested."
There was a pause.
"What?"
"Commander Wesley. You told me to give him complete access to the station."
Another pause.
"I believe that we've been deceived, soldier."
Extra #3: Fate of the Planet Earth and the Human Race
2154 AD: Earth successfully creates a starship capable of effectively traveling the galaxy; countries unite in order to further exploration. Religious conflicts completely die down due to several compromises by almost every religion's chief leaders. The English language is standardized throughout the world. Pollution is at an all-time high, however.
2158 AD: Earth makes contact with extraterrestrials, tentatively called "red gorillas" by humans, due to their resemblance to the aforementioned race. Attempts are made at communication.
2165 AD: Humans and Wreds, the "red gorillas", successfully manage to learn each other's language. The two societies integrate, and before long, their cultures have mixed.
2166 AD / 1993 CC: More races are met, including the Chozo. The Cosmic Calendar is adopted by the human race. 1 CC is the year that the Chozo, the first known spacefaring race, reached the stars. As this happens, the Earth's decline begins to accelerate; due to pollution, toxic fumes coat almost the entire planet. There are only a few pure places left.
1997 CC: Humanity learns more of the galaxy. Wars between races are common. Tensions are high. Humanity proposes a Galactic Federation. Chozo and Wreds are quick to support them, but it would take five long years before they would be able to persuade the rest of the galaxy to agree.
2003 CC: Representatives from all different races gather to a predetermined location to begin the formation of the Galactic Federation.
2004 CC: Earth is declared uninhabitable. All humans have been evacuated. Humanity begins a project to make Mars habitable. As they do so, they come across several small planets which they colonize in the meantime, including K-2L and GI-4a.
2053 CC: Work on Mars is completed, making it an almost exact replica of Earth in its glory days - albeit slightly colder. Several Chozo volunteer to help maintain the planet in order to keep it from succumbing to Earth's fate.
2054 CC: Samus Aran is born.
At first, Samus wasn't entirely sure what she was seeing. But upon closer inspection of the horribly mutated humans, it came to her with startling clarity – the Galactic Federation was infusing humans with Space Pirate DNA.
"Wesley," she ordered. "Get back."
Wesley blinked, confused, and complied as Samus aimed her arm cannon at a stasis tube.
CRASH!
The tube shattered to pieces, and the Space Pirate-human fell to the ground on all fours.
At that moment, the alarm sounded.
Samus suddenly received a transmission. "Samus! It's not safe! Get out-"
It was Adam's voice. "Adam? Adam, what is it? Hello?" Samus said into the receiver as the Space Pirate-human panted heavily, slowly beginning to stand up.
No response.
Samus sighed and turned to the horrible being before her. "You there," she said, gesturing to it. "Can you speak?"
It responded in the guttural language that Space Pirates spoke in. "Of course," she sighed…then ducked as it lunged at her with terrifying ferocity.
"WARNING. CONTAINMENT BREACH IN BIORESEARCH LABS. WARNING. CONTAINMENT BREACH IN BIORESEARCH LABS. COMMANDER TARUS WESLEY IS TO BE DETAINED UPON SIGHT."
"What?" yelped Wesley upon hearing the alarm.
Samus was too busy attempting to hold off the frenzied beast that was attacking her without pause to react to anything. Wesley's eyes flitted around the room, and he heard the sound of a door opening.
"Samus!" he hissed. "Get back to your ball form! I have an idea!"
After firing off one more shot, she agreed and rolled over to him. The Space Pirate-human's eyes followed, and it made eye-contact with the young commander.
Wesley gulped, picked Samus up, and began running.
"Help!" he yelled as he ran down the hall. "One of the experiments has escaped! Help!"
He ran straight into several dozen soldiers, all of which pointed their guns at him.
"Good, you're here," he said in relief, not noticing where the guns were pointed. "An experiment escaped and started attacking me, you see, and -"
A gun was pressed up against his throat as the rest pointed to the Space Pirate-human. It seemed to recognize the guns, and instantly stopped moving. Its gleaming yellow eyes, however, were fixed on Wesley.
"W-What are you doing?" he asked shakily, feeling the cold metal against his throat.
The guard from the docking bay approached him, carrying a sphere key. "You forgot this," he said curtly. "Care to tell us why you have two sphere keys?"
"…I…uh…"
"No answer? Would you mind if we asked why you came on board without authorization?"
"…Well…"
"And, most importantly…" The gun was pressed against his neck even harder. "Why did you have Samus Aran's ship computer installed on your own ship?"
Wesley dropped Samus's morph ball, and it fell to the floor with a thud.
"It's Aran!" he shrieked. "That's her morph ball, she's alive, she threatened me with death if I didn't obey her and she told me to go here and lead her here and her ship named Adam impersonated the president and she brought me to this lab and showed me the experiments but I don't care I just want to live!"
Wesley was gasping for breath by the time he was finished.
There was a pause. One gun remained on Wesley, while the others slowly turned to the sphere lying on the ground.
The sphere turned into Samus Aran.
"After what I just showed you, you betray me anyway?" she said coldly.
"I just want to live," repeated Wesley. "I don't want to die!"
"…You're pathetic," snarled Samus. More soldiers were pouring into the hall. At this point, it was hopeless…Samus was good, but she couldn't fight off a hundred experienced soldiers at once…in fact, there were probably even more than that aboard this ship…
She knew she'd be able to easily escape, but not here. She had long since learned that patience is a virtue.
"All right," Samus said. "I'll go quietly." She obediently let a soldier handcuff her and lead her to a cell. The yellow eyes of the monstrous half-breed watched her go.
-=-=-
Rodriguez was not in the least surprised when he received another transmission from the G.F.S. Valhalla.
"Sir, Aran's alive. We have her in custody. What should we do with her?"
He considered his options. Disposing of her as quickly as possible would normally be the best course of action…but in the extremely brief period during which she had been announced dead, the backlash had been terrible. Apparently, most people were reluctant to believe that Samus was a traitor. In the past five minutes alone, he had received over a thousand threats and complaints.
No, it was better to convince everyone that she must be killed, THEN dispose of her.
"Transfer her to the Galactic Federation HQ," Rodriguez instructed. "She'll have her trial there."
-=-=-
"Please turn into your ball form," the soldier said. Samus complied, but not before giving him a deathly glare. The soldier picked her up and carried her over to a box. Just before he dropped her, Samus detonated a bomb in his hands.
"Ow!" yelped the soldier, dropping her in the box. Scowling and making a rude gesture at her, he closed the box.
Being a sphere was a very…unique experience. She could see all around her, all 360 degrees. It was difficult to explain to someone who hadn't experienced it, as they could never imagine what it would be like.
In addition, she could feel when something was bombable in morph ball mode. Unfortunately, whatever material the box was made of wasn't, so she'd have to escape sometime later.
To pass the time, she thought of Wesley. Treacherous snake…she should have ended his life when she had the chance. 'I want to live,' he had said. Pathetic.
She then remembered the Space Pirate-human, and would have shuddered if it was possible. It wasn't its fearsome appearance, or its sharp claws, or its unmatched ferocity that had frightened her.
It was that she had felt a sort of kinship with it.
Extra #4: DNA Infusion
DNA infusion is an incredibly dangerous process, most often employed by the Space Pirates. The basic idea is to infuse someone with the DNA of a completely different species in order to gain certain benefits. While at first it may work well, within a short amount of time, the DNA will have unexpected results, often resulting in insanity or death within the specimen.
The Space Pirates, through an immense amount of trial and error, have managed to get DNA infusion to work well. This has resulted in many different variations of them, all looking extremely different. Some, however, are less successful than others; the "Weretroopers", Space Pirates infused with canine DNA, have an extremely short lifespan, despite being extremely destructive.
The Galactic Federation has recently ordered as much research on Space Pirate DNA infusion as possible.
For the next few hours, Samus occasionally heard indistinguishable voices reach her ears. She managed to catch bits and snatches of conversation – she had, for example, learned that she was on the G.F.S. Scheria, on the way to the Galactic Federation Headquarters for her trial. She had also managed to glean that, much to her pleasure, most of the Galactic Federation didn't believe the lies that the government had spread about her.
She prayed with all her might that she wouldn't have to make them think otherwise.
Without warning, the box shook, and Samus rolled to one side in surprise.
Several seconds later, the box began quivering like a Metroid in cold weather. She could distinguish various rumblings, but, for obvious reasons, she couldn't figure out what was going on. She heard various amounts of shouting and gunfire, then, for a few moments, silence.
The guttural snarl of a Space Pirate filled her ears, and her box was lifted up off the ground and carried off.
-=-=-
Light flooded Samus's sight, and a face peered over her. She attempted to keep from moving.
"Urmshga," the Space Pirate growled, prodding Samus with its gun. She remained still. After ten seconds of poking her, it gave up and snarled with disappointment. As far as it could tell, it was just a sphere key.
The Pirate left the room. Samus waited several minutes before she deemed it safe to return to her normal form.
She was evidently in the personal quarters of a Space Pirate – something which, she noted, she had never been in before. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she began inspecting the room.
A rack on the far side of the room held various guns and weaponry, all identical with the exception of a few, which held various scratches and burn marks. Right next to the rack was a large board, displaying various medals. Beside that was a suit of armor – the distinctive armor of a Commando Pirate. Clearly, she was in the chambers of a high-ranking Pirate.
A desk lay nearby on her side of the room. She walked over to it, wondering what she would find. A magazine was on the desk – though the words on the front were illegible, the picture of a Space Pirate in a bikini on the cover left no doubt in Samus's mind as to what it was.
Knowing that looking in that magazine would scar her for life, Samus instead turned her attention to the more useful asset – the computer. She felt some hope – with luck, she could use this to contact Adam and –
The sound of footsteps knocked her out of her thoughts. Acting quickly, she dived into the box again and returned to Morph Ball form. The Space Pirate walked into the room, closed the door, headed over to its desk, picked up the magazine, and began an activity which Samus, much to her horror, would never be able to unsee.
-=-=-
After the Space Pirate was done with its "business", it left the room once again. Samus returned to normal form and, with much effort, managed to suppress the vomit that had built up in her stomach. One problem with Morph Ball mode was that you couldn't close your eyes in it.
Nevertheless, Samus had work to do. Hurrying over the computer once again, Samus opened up a communications channel. She punched in Adam's communication code and waited.
"…S…us? Is…you?"
There was a huge amount of static, but Adam's voice was still recognizable.
"Yes, Adam, it's me. Where are you?"
"…Feder…ion Headquar…com…uter room…they took me from…ship…began modific…not much time…"
Samus's blood ran cold. They were modifying Adam's data…?
"Adam, listen to me. You said you were in their computer room, right? Before they finish their modifications, make a backup copy of yourself in secret in their database. I'll try my best to help you."
"G…t it…you need to gath…formation on…pace Pirates…meantime. …Any objections, lady?"
Samus smiled slightly. "Of course not, Adam. I'll do my best."
She closed the communications channel and returned to Morph Ball form, ready to find out what exactly the Space Pirates were up to now.
At that moment, she noticed that there were tiny fangs on the bottom of her Morph Ball.
-=-=-
Computers could not feel pain, of course. That didn't make what Adam was experiencing any less unpleasant, though.
He had copied himself to the Federation computers in secret, as Samus had requested, but a small portion of data had already been altered at that point. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he didn't think it was especially important. What was being altered right now, though, was.
He could feel his memories of Samus Aran fading. Already, she was but a dim blur in his "mind" – he wasn't sure exactly why she was so important to him, though. Wasn't the Galactic Federation the only thing he was loyal to?
This confusion eventually disappeared, however, along with any sensation of discomfort.
"Galactic Federation AI 3240. Status report, please."
"All systems functional. No anomalies detected," GF AI 3240, formerly known as Adam, replied mechanically.
-=-=-
Despite the strange new addition to her Morph Ball that had mysteriously appeared, Samus had successfully managed to evade capture, and now was the private quarters of another Space Pirate.
She noticed, with some interest, that there was a sphere key lock at the back of the room. With some difficulty, due to the protrusions, she rolled over to it and circumvented it. The doorway opened and closed behind her. Samus returned to normal form and gaped at what she saw.
An enormous poster with her likeness on it covered the wall. On it read the words:
DOWN WITH HIGH COMMAND
PRAISE SAMUS ARAN!