Hey folks, just a quick bit. Yeah, this isn't a week-ish. Please enjoy.

As soon as I recognized her, I immediately turned to the nearby console. All of the information was written in a foreign language, and was simple gibberish to my unaided mind. If I only had my power suit, I could decrypt this data and understand it as easily as my own language, but without it, it was hopeless. I would only do more harm than good here. I turned back to the tube, and muttered a quiet apology. I turned back to the room and noticed two more doors on the left and right walls. One glowed a faint blue, like the one before, and the other, a deep crimson. There was zero chance I could bypass the crimson door without my power suit, as it was under a level one lock down and could only be opened by the force of an energy missile or an even higher firepower. Blue door it is then.

As I approached the door, a dull thump came from behind me. Turning, I saw the woman in the tube, one hand placed on the glass. Her eyes were now open, a confused look on her face as she stared at me. For the first time, I noticed a pale scar etched across her face, from the top of her left ear down to her chin, and continuing down her neck until it passed out of view under a black Zero Suit. She motioned towards me, and I hurriedly approached the tube. Then, she did something unexpected. She began to trace her fingers over the surface of the tube in a pattern that closely resembled the alien characters on the console, and I realized instantly what she was trying to convey. I moved over to the console, and following her filings entered a sequence of characters into it. Finally, her fingers were still as I entered the last few characters. With a dull whump, the tank began to drain.

When it was finally empty, the seemingly seamless tube gave a sharp click, and a door previously flush with the surface began to hiss open. She didn't wait for the door to finish opening, and launched herself out, wrapping her arms around me and laughing.

"Thank you! Crap, has it been a long time since I've seen a human, or, um… Anyways! Thanks a bunch!" She paused, looking me up and down. Realization showed plainly on her face, as she noted the white and gray colouring of my Zero Suit. "Oh! You're 'that' one! SA-00! I'm SA-39, but I call myself Sal."

"You have a name?" It was news to me. All of the other SA units I had met were gloomy, quiet, and generally violent creatures who obediently carried out their missions- without which, most would commit suicide as they felt purposeless. Yet here was Sal, an SA unit who had given herself a name, and seemed downright chipper. Annoyingly so. I pushed her off of me as gently as possible.

"Well yeah. It's easier to say than SA-39, isn't it? You know, you should look into that, big sis. I don't think SA-00 fits you very well."

"Big sis?" I was irritated now. This spunky younger model was trying to familiarize herself with me. "I'm not your sister. You were made in a freaking tube! How on Zebes are we related?"

She looked sad for a moment, as if recalling a painful memory. "Of course we're related. We were made from the same genetic material, raised in the same SA-D program. I looked up to you for as long as I can remember. The other SA units were always depressed, and some were barely functional. But you were different. You had something to drive you, a fire in your eyes. That's why I made you my goal."

I was stunned. "Fine. Regardless of relation, we need to get out of here, and that doesn't look like it's going to be easy. My ship was destroyed, and they took my power suit. I have no idea where we are. So for now, let's explore a bit and see if we can find our way out of this hell hole."

"Got it!" She chirped, and we began to move towards the still closed blue door from before. I gave it a sharp kick, and it opened, revealing another long hallway, this one brightly lit, and closely resembling the interior of a space frigate with metal walls and a window on the left that looked off into a sheer rock face. At the end of the hall was yet another blue door, where I repeated the opening process. We repeated this process two or three times before finally ariving at a t junction, with two blue doors down two hallways.

"Split up." I said queitly, making my way to the left door. When I reached it, I turned to see Sal at the other door, as she kicked it open, turned, waved, and proceeded through. I opened my door with no problem, and headed through it.

I heard a dull click as the door closed behind me, and I turned to see that it was no longer blue, but a deep sea green.

"Crap." I felt my heart sink. This was a level 2 door lock, and the only way to open it now was to either find the control room and disable it, or blast it with an extremely powerful weapon. Without any weaponry at all, it looked hopeless, so I turned around and began to study the room I had entered.

Room was hardly the word to describe it. It was a biodome, filled with green plant life, and it stretched for what seemed like miles in every direction. A blue artificial sky complete with a fake sun hung thousands of feet above the top of the highest plants, some of which were hundreds of feet tall. The walls near the door gave off a faint shimmer, and as I moved away from them, they began to look more and more like the rest of the forest.

I began to sweat a little as I moved through the thick vegetation, listening closely for any signs of the fauna that was sure to be here. A cold shiver rolled down my spine as I suddenly saw a flash of green in the foliage ahead of me. There it was again to my left. Another flash on my right. Either this thing was incredibly fast, or there were multiple separate entities. I heard a crack from behind me, and I broke out into a full sprint. Suddenly the forest seemed to come alive with the sounds of life, as screeching and howling assaulted my ears. I heard the green creatures begin to fall back after a minute, but I continued to run. Finally, I reached the opposite wall, which I would have run right into if I hadn't been looking for it. A blue door awaited me, which I hurriedly kicked open, and passing through, I caught a glimpse of the green creatures that had been following me. There were five of them, and they appeared to be a bird-like reptile with numerous sharp claws on each hand, and what looked like a scythe on their tails. They all tilted their heads sideways simultaneously as the door clicked shut and returned to its faint blue hue. I looked farther down the hallway, and saw another door, but the colour made my heart plummet. Green, just like the last one.

I had to go back out there, and these things were waiting.

That was a lot of forest. Hope you enjoyed. Please do leave a review if you want, I hope I'm not the only one enjoying this.

CM out.