I arrived at the East docking bay, where the Admiral stood with his arms folded, expecting me. I had to leave Ghor at another docking bay, where he would be transported to Elysia. "You ready to go to Bryyo?" Dane said.
"You didn't have to ask." I grumbled.
"Calm down, Rundas. Maybe some of your ice will cool your overheated temper," he chuckled then gestured towards my ship that had been mysteriously docked in the bay. "Get inside, you must leave now."
I growled and stalked over to it, hopping into the cockpit and securing myself inside by freezing my body to it. Then I made a makeshift ice window.
"Make me proud, boy!" Dane shouted from the other side of the shuttle, saluting. I nodded back to him, using my ability to propel the ship out of the bay.
"Rundas, can you hear me?" A soothing, disembodied voice said from inside my helmet once I was well away from Olympus.
A little surprised, I grabbed my head and flicked my eyes around cautiously. "Hello?"
"Sorry to startle you. But I got hold of your communication link and thought I would direct you on your mission to destroy the Leviathan Seed. You have met me before, I am Aurora Unit 242. We spoke at the time the Space Pirates attacked the GFS Olympus." She said.
"Okay," I exhaled heavily. "How long will it be until I reach the planet's atmosphere?" I asked Aurora.
"Approximately eight minutes." She replied.
"The surface?"
"About thirteen minutes. But I could speed up the journey if you wish it, Rundas." Aurora offered.
"Uh... sure. Let's go a little faster." I looked downward to Bryyo.
"Certainly." The ship accelerated sharply with a sudden burst of ice, though I didn't do anything. The planet grew bigger each second that passed.
She was quiet for quite some time. Finally, since I was getting a little bored, said, "What did happen to Samus?"
"She was severely wounded on the day you were attacked by Dark Samus. It was the original, however, that saved Norion by activating the cannon and destroying the Leviathan Seed minutes before impact. Because of this action, she used the rest of the little energy she had left, and has been unconscious longer than you or Gandrayda and Ghor. She has not awoken from her temporary state."
"Wow. I always knew she was an outstanding bounty hunter... But now I realize that she's much more..." I muttered to myself in awe.
"We are approaching Bryyo, Rundas. Prepare for entering, it's going to be a bit bumpy." Aurora cautioned suddenly, I staring down at the planet.
Before long, I began entering Bryyo's atmosphere, fire lighting up the nose of my ship. Peculiar red clouds rushed past me, creating zero visibility.
"Seconds to touchdown..." Aurora 242 counted down loudly in my ears. "Fifteen... Fourteen... Thirteen..."
My mind started to speed ahead, contemplating what Bryyo would look like, what I'd find there, and what I would do to defeat the Leviathan. "...Ten... Nine... Eight..." My thoughts raced even further to after those events. What would I do when my mission was completed? Would the other bounty hunters come back from their assignments alive? Would Samus be okay?
Then I could see the surface. "...Four... Three... Two... One..."
The landing was very smooth, flawless in fact. I docked my ship in a place called, Bryyo Fire, on a platform I created of ice. It was sturdy, so I had no fear of it falling and damaging.
"What do I do now, Aurora?" I asked, dropping down to a suspended platform over a pool of bubbling yellow goo.
"In order for you to maintain a safe mission, you should probably start by studying the planet. Be cautioned though, the inhabitants of Bryyo aren't kind and often will fight with anything that moves." She replied.
I snorted. "Relax. I'm powerful enough to look after myself. After all, what could possibly hurt me here?"
"Whatever you say, Rundas."
Day one on Bryyo had begun.
I obeyed the suggestion and started overviewing the planet and its terrain. I inferred quickly that the sky was always a reddish hue, due to the heat coming off the earth below. Many ruins existed here, crumbling as time battered against them. There were also War Golems -so they were called- from my scans, that used to fight in Bryyonian battles and act as welcomers to travelers who used to land here. Bryyo was mostly uninhabitable, forty-eight percent of the planet being in perpetual night, while the other remaining percent was constantly exposed to blaring sun, that's why visitors stopped coming many millennia ago. The sections of Bryyo that were inhabitable were made up of rocky and barren cliffs, volcanic regions, and thorn-filled jungle. Ancient survivors of the Bryyonian race, the Reptilicus, dot the landscape.
I spent my entire day researching Bryyo, which forced me in one area to make a huge, thick ice bridge across a deep valley. The task was challenging, for the first waves of my ice melted instantly in the overpowering sunlight. But, overtime, I finished the long pathway to the main stretch of land. I proceeded along my creation without slipping once.
I was exhausted by the time I usually went to sleep. Yet since I was in the percent of the planet that was always daylight, I had no way to even attempt to fall into slumber. Tired enough to refuse traveling back to my ship, I found a tall thorn tree and laid in its shadow, creating a large dome of steel-hard ice that would protect me while I slept. I closed my eyes and was immediately out cold.