A/N: I feel like I have to come clean about something really quick. To be totally honest, I kind of stole the word "Gorast" from Lego. It's the name of one of their Bionicle figures, specifically a female villain. I couldn't think of anything else that would fit them, so there you go.
-o-
Samus already had her armor on. The Power Suit's added strength helped with lifting the heavy supplies, even if the Arm Cannon made carrying them a bit awkward. Of course, she hadn't expected a pirate warship to come along. She immediately dropped the large steel crate that she had on her back and stared at the ship in shock and horror. She then cursed. She could easily guess that the pirates were after whatever valuables that the nomadic Gorast had on them. She then quickly realized something.
"Ayame," she muttered as she ran to find her daughter before anything bad could happen.
-o-
Ayame stood in frozen disbelief. Images from her first encounter with the Space Pirates flashed through her mind. She could vividly remember every detail, every gory sight, every ghastly sound. She simply stood, her whole body trembling as a small group of landing pods were ejected from the ship. One pod landed right in front of her as the others surrounded the Gorast ship.
Ten Space Pirates emerged from the pod, and all of them immediately aimed to fire at her. But before they could shoot, a blur of white and red appeared and knocked two of them away in one move. The pirates fired at the attacker, who picked up the weapons of the two pirates he had just killed and quickly returned fire, nimbly dodging his enemies' shots. The remaining eight pirates were soon dispatched.
"Ayame!" said Garnak, who shook the girl with his hand. She looked at him in surprise. What just happened? "Are you injured? Is that why you hesitated?"
It took Ayame a minute to process that much. "N-no. I'm fine. I just…" She trailed off. She lied when she said that she was fine. The truth was that she was completely terrified, but she had too much pride to admit that. Yet another trait she had picked up from Samus. "Let's just go! We have to protect the others!"
Garnak nodded and handed her one of the pirate assault rifles, which she took rather reluctantly. It was lightweight. It was a bit heavier than a Federation pistol, but much lighter than a basic assault rifle. It felt strangely fitting, probably because it was designed to fit a humanoid arm. Weird, Ayame thought with a slightly raised eyebrow.
The two of them began running to the Gorast ship, with Garnak blasting any pirate that dared get in their way before Ayame got a chance to get her first kill. Not that it was something that she was looking forward to. Quite the opposite, really. But the more pirates she saw fall by Garnak's hand, the more helpless she felt. She shook her head. She couldn't think like that. There were far more important things to worry about at the moment.
-o-
Samus blasted a Space Pirate's head right off of its shoulders. That marked her sixteenth kill today. And there were still more where that came from. She had no idea how many had arrived, and how they had managed to get to the Gorast ship without Gear alerting her to their presence.
She heard a pirate releasing a battle cry behind her. She immediately turned to shoot the hostile in the chest, but a Gorast warrior beat her to it. She nodded her appreciation for the insect-like alien's aid and continued her search for Ayame. She had only run about ten feet before stopping at the sound of a screech-like roar. Her eyes widened in absolute dread. She looked up in the sky. She had hoped that she was wrong about her assumption, that maybe she was just hearing things. But what she saw confirmed her fears. She barely caught the sight, but she could tell by the fading sunlight being reflected as a dark purple just who and what she saw.
"Dammit!" she said as she began sprinting, her suit's Speed Booster function allowing her to cover more ground. She had to find Ayame, and fast.
-o-
"Where do they keep coming from!?" Ayame shouted when she heard an explosion, sending dirt and debris everywhere within range. The pirates had the entire area surrounded and were likely killing off innocents and stealing anything that wasn't nailed down.
"That warship keeps sending out landing pods," Garnak said in a frustrated tone. He blasted another pirate as it tried to close in on them. "My people will not be able to escape unless that aerial abomination is destroyed. Have you any ideas?"
"If we can get back to Samus's Gunship, maybe we could take it and attack the pirates directly." Ayame thought that over for a minute. "Then again, I have no idea how to pilot the thing."
"You are Samus Aran's daughter, yet you do not know how to pilot her ship?"
"She said that she'd teach me when I turned eighteen," Ayame muttered with a sigh. "Well, I guess we can only hope that Samus thinks up a better-"
She was unable to finish her sentence as a piercing cry was heard. It sounded like a demonic cross between a bat's screech and a tiger's roar. A huge thud was heard, along with heavy footsteps and a deep growl. Ayame and Garnak both looked over their cover – a decently sized crate – and saw the owner of that frightening call. It was huge and dragon-like, with an almost serpentine body covered in dark purple scales, and cold, yellow-orange eyes that screamed for bloodshed. Ayame froze at the sight. The great beast before her was by far the most intimidating and terrifying creature she had ever seen.
"W-what is that thing?" she asked. At that, the monster let out a mocking chuckle.
"I didn't expect to find a human here," the monster growled in a deep, masculine voice, its dragonish mouth forming the rough shape of an evil smile. "What a lucky find. Your species always tastes the sweetest."
"Who are you, monster?" Garnak demanded as he took a protective stance in front of Ayame.
The alien dragon laughed. "I'm glad you asked, little insect." The creature stood to its full height, its wings spreading out menacingly. "I am Ridley! Master of the Space Pirates!"
-o-
A/N: Ridley is a kick-ass Nintendo villain. That is all.