6: Mizar Beta
We had slept for hours. I awoke upon hearing a dog far off. It must have been Lupus, because I had heard thrusters as well.
"Vela, wake up. I can hear your dog."
I reengaged my suit and shot off a missile. She still slept on, so I had the suit recognize her as a user. I took off my helmet and set 'Toccata' to play and set it over her head as the song reached a crescendo.
"Jesus!"
She snapped out her side arm and fired off two shells.
"Calm down, I needed to wake you up. We had both crashed from exhaustion and I awoke hearing Lupus near by."
She pulled off my helmet and handed it back to me. 'Toccata' had ended and the play list had jumped to 'Peter Gunn.' We continued through coming to a large waterfall that covered the exit.
"Samus, I really enjoyed what you did for me. Since the militia was killed off, I've just been bottling all of my feelings. My only release was blowing those ants straight to hell, but that was only temporary."
"Vela, we are very similar. We both are semi-rouge females in the male military, we both have vendettas to settle, and we both needed sexual contact to keep sane. I enjoyed our consummation just as much as you did."
"Samus, I don't want you to leave when this is over."
"I don't want to leave you either, and I won't. Fuck my career, I'm sure this council would enjoy having me as an employee. Even if not, there's bound to be some mercenary work for me out here. The work does not matter, because I love you. The last sentient being I loved was a Chozo elder, Old Bird, and he was focused on moulding me into a super solider."
"Don't abandon your vendetta for me. What is your vendetta anyway?"
"I was born on a small earth colony called K-2L. It was rich in minerals used for space travel. My father was the mining chief and my mother stayed at home. One day when I was three, a cadre of Chozo had arrived, looking to acquire a contract for the minerals. I had run into one of the Chozo, the elder I called Old Bird. He showed me the beauty of nature. Within a week, space pirates had raided the colony. Their leader, Ridley, was pterodactyl-like in appearance. He killed both of my parents. Ridley killed my mother, Virginia, with his plasma breath, while my father, Rodney, triggered an explosion that had grounded Ridley temporarily. He died in the explosion. I managed to escape with the Chozo. They trained me as a super solider and gave me this power suit. I had sworn to kill Ridley and any of his forces."
"Dear god. Its almost scary how similar we are. Juno and I were orphaned by space pirates as well. We got lucky and escaped into council custody. They raised us to be part of an elite militia, Jet Force. We were given the code-name Gemini because we are twins. Lupus is the third generation from the dog that escaped with us as children."
We walked towards the pyramid slumped on each other. There were three doors coded to each team member. Vela's symbol was a white, bird-like creature over a blue background.
"Your symbol, why is it bird-like?"
"It's a squid. It represents my aquatic nature, exemplified by my gills."
"Odd, although I can sort-of see an aquatic cephalopod."
Inside the pyramid, were three pillars that could rise. We stepped upon the nearest one and were lifted halfway when energy shot into the base and we began to levitate upwards. We came up to see a lifeless Juno.
Lupus had come up his shaft. Vela, Lupus, and, I ran into Mizar's chamber. A wall of flames appeared. I lifted and threw the little dog as high, and as far as I could. His thrusters had managed to take him over the flames. Mizar used several attacks in a very predictable pattern. Energy slam, slice, acid breath, and missiles in that pattern. I scanned the tyrant and found that his face was un-armoured.
"Lupus, shoot his face. Just barrage it with all that you have."
With an anti-climax of a tri-rocket round, the tyrant flinched and told us that he wanted revenge on the humans. He flew himself into an asteroid and began to pilot it towards Earth. We ran back to where Juno was and found the Tribal King.
"Thank you team Gemini, but you must stop that asteroid. We have a ship fast enough to catch the asteroid, but there are a dozen missing pieces. To help you retrieve the parts, we can give you jet-packs. I have the last part and will install it when all of the Tribals have been rescued.
Three platforms raised. Vela, Lupus, and I stepped into them and received jet-packs. I was told to wait as Vela and Lupus exited the temple.
"We came from afar and settled in this galaxy. In our travels, we met a bird-like race, the Chorizo or something like that."
"They're Chozo, your highness."
"Chozo, yes. They gave us some technology, technology that we tried to outfit onto the Jet Force militia but couldn't. This technology seems to match your suit, miss?"
"Aran. Samus Aran."
"The technology matches your suit, miss Aran and we would like you to have it. The Chozo called it a 'gravity suit' and said that it would protect the user against lava and caustic environments. Had Juno not been killed, we would not have offered you this suit. As there are many areas of lava in this galaxy, and Juno could wade through lava, it seems likely that some of the ship parts would be found through lava fields."
He cast out his staff, and soon appeared a variant of my symbol. When I stepped into it, my arms and shins became purple, and a purple trim was added up my thighs. I left the small king and the temple. Outside, Vela awaited. I explained to her the gravity suit. We called our ships to our location and flew off.