Samus typed in a final command into the holographic terminal, and the hologram flickered. The window she was in closed automatically, and was replaced by a string of some convoluted math. This window, too, quickly shut down, and a message box quickly popped up in its place, a box which read 'Virus insertion successful.'
Samus turned to the feline pirate, who was still immobile but conscious.
"I'm curious," Samus asked, "I was chosen for this mission because I am immune to Phazon corruption; any one of Alex's crew would die or go insane from the exposure. Why haven't you?"
"First of all, it's called quantazon-bound titanium (III) silicuonate" The pirate replied, "And second of all, Alex knows exactly how to immunize himself; he's just to chicken to do it."
Samus knelt down beside the Raekan.
"Nighty-night," The bounty hunter said. She then shot the pirate, returning him to a state of unconsciousness.
Well, according to the virus, it's remotely infected computers F, G, and J. It recommends targeting computer E next COSE stated And we've got 3 hostiles trying (futilely) to open the door, so be careful on your way out.
As Samus exited the door, COSE immediately scanned the three pirates waiting for her. Right to left, a Raekan, a dinosaur, and a grey-skinned humanoid were highlighted in green, and COSE supplied a comment for each one.
Raekan (Felicie Sapiens, male): Exceptional Combat skills. Their arboreal nature makes them very agile, and thus the majority of them are wicked martial artists.
Velociraptor (Velociraptor Sapiens, male): Advanced combat skills. If you've ever watched Jurrasic park, they're like that, but smarter. Even smarter.
Birik (Homo stolidus, female): Human-level combat skill. The Birik are one of the most boring sapients in our universe – their species name is actually Latin for 'dull'.
Each pirate is armored with a Singularity-class CAT suit, which, among other things, immunizes them against my stun-beams. You'll have to impart 250 joules onto the suits to deplete the energy field protecting them – this can be done with anything, even hand-to-hand combat (Unless the Raekan is a complete idiot, though, you'll want to use quantazon pulses against him)
After the half-second COSE needed to transmit that information, Samus threw a 50-joule punch at the Birik, knocking the pirate on her back. The Raekan attempted a roundhouse kick, which Samus nimbly dodged; the sidestep, unfortunately, landed her left arm in the jaws of the Velociraptor. As her own suit energy field dropped from a thousand joules, Samus quickly retaliated by slamming her elbow down onto the raptor's head. The extant dinosaur released its grip, allowing Samus to follow up with a powerful side-kick. Her visor reported that the Velociraptor was vurnerable to direct attack, and Samus fired a stun-pulse at it.
The Raekan landed a punch on the side of Samus' head, and Samus responded by tossing the Birik (Who had just returned to her feet) at him – She missed, but the humanoid had, at least, returned to the floor. Samus pile-drived the Birik, and was then able to stun her.
"Not bad," The Raekan remarked, "Here I thought you fought with missles and 'power beams'."
"Whoever said I don't?" Samus asked. She held her right arm to the pirate, and COSE fired a quantazon pulse at him, an attack which clipped his HP by 100 joules. The Raekan retaliated with a front kick, which Samus almost dodged (Her inability to completely evade the attack cost her ten joules). She fired another pulse at the feline, which he dodged; Samus nailed him with another pulse as he did so.
The pirate side-kicked Samus' chest, dropping her HP by 50 joules, and also knocking her slightly off balance. Before she could recover, he executed a 30-joule side-kick, knocking her to the floor. The pirate lept on Samus, pinning her right arm, and raised his right elpow. Before he could strike, Samus twisted her body, throwing him off and letting herself getting to her feet. Before the Raekan returned to his, she kicked him, and shot one last time. COSE fired a stun-pulse at the feline, and his target went limp.
140 joules. Not bad, I guess, COSE thought, You can heal at the computer terminal behind you – and any terminal connected to a hacked computer, for that matter (I should probably mark those on your map). Don't dawdle, there's a group of armored pirates making their way toward us. The security systems controlled by the virus are slowing them down, but they'll be here in 5 minutes. No pressure.
Samus turned around to the door behind her, shot the access panel, and entered the station. Sensing her presence, the virus brought up four rectangular button on the green holographic screen: 'Heal', 'Download upgrades (1)', 'Access computer' and 'Accept'. Samus pressed the heal and download upgrade buttons, and hit 'accept.' A quantazon snake then crawled out of the computer, and wrapped itself around Samus' suit. Samus watched as her HP steadily crawled back up to 1000, and a status bar closed to 100%. Once said status bar reached 100% completion, the quantazon ribbon dissapeared, and her visor reported 'Energy replentishment complete. Armorsuit upgrade aquired: Suit Virus – Infects other CAT suits to steal energy.
"Ooh. I like that," Samus said, "Well, to the transporter."
Once again, I've been lax in posting - hardly to the extent of the last interval, but still a large enough gap.
Trying to spur conversation; what should COSE's role be in this little story. Is there anything you think COSE could contribute that hasn't been exploited yet? Is there something he's already done that isn't realistic.
Furthermore, what do you think of Samus in hand-to-hand combat? Would you like to see more of her breaking out martial arts, or should I stick to the long-range attacks that have made her famous?