As my ship docked on my assigned landing pad I replied into the comm unit,
"Craft Unit "Hunter 112" has docked and is undergoing landing procedure 287. Requesting an Aviarian and a new Shock-Canister to be placed in Storage Compartment 4. The code is 214-38,"
"Request granted, Welcome to Relemear bounty hunter Samus Aran,"a strong male voice replied. Once the landing procedure was done I stepped onto the drop pad and pulled my jacket on. I was wearing my Zero suit on as always, a pair of dark blue jeans, and my new favorite black leather jacket. As the pad touched the cement I stepped off and watched as men and women rushed about doing their assigned duties. Memories came flooding back to me. My last mission... My old squads last stand... Adams last words... I pushed my Paradel shades back into place. Pull it together Aran.
"Any objections lady?" ringed loud and clear in my mind as my last view of Adam as the door closed flashed in my mind. Tears softly started rimming my eyes but I quickly blinked them away. I walked through the doors to the building. As I walked through the normal checks I noticed that people were whispering and slightly. Just as the tests were done a young 5 ft. 2 inch young female walked up and requested that I allow her to check over my suit. I walked back removed everything except my Zero suit and activated the blue layer with pink Chozo work on the back and front and watched as all my suit materialized and lastly my visor to glide into place. The woman cautiously checked me over then said I was good to go.
"One more thing though. I am going to have to ask you to remove your elbow cannon. We can't permit weaponry inside of the building," she said. It was obvious the second those words left her mouth she intended to try and decipher the codes to getting the weapon to work for her instead of me. The SCCSR had been on my tale about the Chozo tech for ages. And she thought she could lie and get it? Right.
"Sorry hon, but remember that I am ex SCCSR. I know their rules," I switched over to my magma beam and charged her up. "So no point in lying to me. Unless you want to get a firsthand example of what she can do," I threatened as I pointed it at her feet.
"You wouldn't dare. You would get kicked off planet and would be wanted dead!" she tried to hide her fear. Ha. Weak.
"You think adding one more galaxy to my wanted list is going to scare me? Ha. Well if you want it that bad go ahead. Touch it. See what happens when you screw with alien technology," I threatened as I held my arm parallel to her chest. I was a good couple of feet above her so it came up just under her chin. I didn't release or lower the charge. "You know what. I am not going to deal with this. I'm calling security," she said as she backed up. I followed her and my sheer size in my armor dwarfed her. I reached over and pressed the release door button on her belt. "Or you know… I could just continue on and not have this become a scene," I said slowly. She gulped and after a moment just nodded once. The second I stepped out of her radius she took off at a really fast walk to the safe room on the other side of the glass. It was slightly funny they thought that bullet proof glass could stop me. Not even a shield could hold me out. I continued on to my room and began to change into clothes that I hadn't destroyed in the armor. Once I was dressed I went straight for the beacon information center. I logged in found that the beacon had been sent out by the native race on this planet. The Stria were a peaceful race, but can put up a fight when they thinks it's right. I also noticed that the beacon had taken some interest from the SCCSR. I knew almost immediately I was going to have to be cautious of who they sent in. I also knew my destination.
.o~.o.~.o.~.o.~
As the carrier craft landed on the docking pad I heard the pilot asking for the routine check and a new fuel rod.
"Chief, it's safe to disembark," the pilot called. I nodded once as I landed on the hard cement and watched them start doing the routine and take the Ground-Unit for its check. I began to look at all the craft in the dock but my eyes locked on to a specific one. Softly standing not 4 pads from me was the one of a kind "Hunter" gunship. She was in top shape, not a single scratch on her. From the general amount I knew about her she used padded release thrusters.
Big words for large springs in her thrusters so that she could just push off from the ground.
Her weapons were obviously fully charged and loaded from the way the energy chambers were lined up to the nose of the guns to shoot them. She was shimmering in the sun and I could practically read her registration numbers stand bright and proud from her bright green, yellow, and red colours which made her a sight to behold. I had recently read that her pilot and owner had changed from fuel rods to Shock-Canisters, a great addition to such a fine craft especially with those boosters taking the amount of energy that they do. I imagine those guns on her let off beams that could pierce any armor or plating, and had good reason too. Her arch nemesis being a giant fly mechanical pterodactyl which has enhanced plasma breath & armor skin, a multi-missile system, meson bomb launcher, can produce massive ground quakes, and is a pretty good melee fighter. I was simply impressed. She looked gorgeous. And I know my air/space craft.
For a moment I had the idea to try and talk to her but then I saw the little blue hologram figure sitting guard. He looked familiar… Adam. Why was Adam a hologram in her ship? Wouldn't he be there in person? Then ice flooded through my veins as I stopped. Something must have happened. I turned around and began walking towards the space station. But my mind wouldn't let it go. What was a bounty hunter doing here? The beacon was encrypted so how could this be possible? It just meant that I was going to have to be cautious about the pilot. He knew Samus Aran in character had quite a tale to tell, but that she was quiet and wouldn't exactly just tell that tale. He also knew she used to be his only rival in the SCCSR.
He hoped that rivalry didn't affect his work as he walked right in. Memories seemed to seep around in my mind. Her launching rocks the size of cars at him, only barely dodging them as she flipped around and released a missile. She was always faster than him. But somehow he always got lucky and got away. As he approached the door to get scanned they just opened. No scans or questions. He was Master Chief, a renowned hero. He went straight for the beacon information center and as he rounded the corner he almost ran over a 6ft. 3inch tall blond female.
.o~.o.~.o.~.o.~
As I turned and slid my room key into door #423 in the hotel I was staying in a small tune played over in my head. It was an electronic tune I had come to call HBFS. The letters stood for Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. I wasn't surprised when I found a small piece of paper hanging on the door. It read:
"Dear Thomas Bangalter,
Since you have rented this room for over a week I would like to formally invite you to a gathering tonight of guests who have done the same. I thank you for your support of our business.
James T. Averin, the owner of The Tigers Den Inn,"
In bright green letters. I made up my mind instantly to just go to sleep and spend my last night on this planet resting and rejuvenating. As I walked into the room I tossed the paper on the granite table and slid down on the bed, pulling out my charging cable from the back of my neck and plugging it in to the electrical outlet next to the bed. As the electricity surged into my system I felt my joints beginning to squeak due to lack of oil. I walked over to the cupboards and pulled some out. As soon as I began oiling the hinges I also pounded down a canister of nanoids. Nanoids were a common source for the much needed nanobots that kept my kind in good repair, they were able to increase metal strength, and were great at water resistance. As I flipped through the channels I found a channel that played music. It was the latest type called techno that was playing. I have had a certain love for this style. The group that was on was called Deadmau5. What a strange name. I wondered if they enjoyed making music. After a while a different kind of music was playing. A sing song kind of music, where the lyrics made no sense but still sounded amazing, I think they were called Steam Powered Giraffe? Gazelle? I didn't remember, but it really didn't matter. I had gone through a very long day and deserved a good rest.
I soon found myself drifting in and out of another day dream. I was trapped under rocks and a gold armored figure pulled me out. And just as I was removed from the rubble I saw the same gold head from earlier. And my mind froze as his screen jumped to black, froze with me and him staring dead on at each other. I drank in the details and felt my mind turn to stone. Why was I seeing this now? What was giving me these hopeful yet useless ideas? I glared at the nothing that was the T.V. Why did it get to live but we didn't? Had the one of us done something that bad? What had he even done that could allow for the extermination of an entire race, let alone a type of medical procedure. I mean come on. Were we that bad? Then I looked to myself. I was learning the most deadly type of martial arts known to living kind. Hell I was playing around with phazon and the flood! And those were illegal and dangerous substances. Should I be dead? Or was me learning these to protect myself from those who would hurt me? Yes, that was it. That was just it right there. I was being safe from the dangers of the real world. I though aloud as I drifted off into sleep mode.
.o~.o.~.o.~.o.~
As I walked back to my hotel room the day dream struck again and again each time dragging me back to the idea of another of my kind. My mind whirled with the dream tearing holes in my accepted reality. Things made no more sense to me.
"Why are you letting this affect you? Guy-Man you need to get a grip," I said to myself as I opened the door and walked inside the hotel. I was staying in The Tigers Den Inn and Suites. It was a simple enough building for me to have chosen to stay the 3 days in. I had come to find a small memory chip that some human being created accidentally a couple years ago. Having found it I was ecstatic to see its memory discs logs.
I dropped all my things just inside the door and carried the small, thin, long, box over with me to the bed and pulled my charge cord from my wrist. As I plugged in I felt the current of electricity wash over me. I slowly sipped on a canister of nanobots as I began scanning the chip. It was like any other human chip in design. I popped off my helmet and pulled open my head plate. I transferred all the information from my old one onto this new one and once the transfer was done I slipped the old chip out and the new chip in simultaneously as to not accidentally move or bend any of my circuits, wires, or prongs. As the chip clicked in the new memory also had a sight adjustment key in it. My "eyes" rearranged to fit the design of the program and I could see different viewpoints. My zoom was enhanced and everything was more detailed. With the new chip in, my exhaustion caught up to me so I finished off the canister and laid down to the sound of music drifting in from the room above me. It sounded soft. Like a sing song kind of music. Something about a honey bee... no… a lover called their honey bee. It was sweet, as far as sentiment goes. But it had one big weakness. Honey bees died trying to protect themselves. And he would never allow a loved one to die protecting him or themselves. It's why he got the new chip. It held a new level of mechanical armament. His plating was being given a type of coating that made it bullet proof and his tubing was given a type of liquid that solidified on his plastic so that it would be flexible and more stretch-able. And this process was proving to be quite tiresome…
He laid back and felt the helmet he wore digging into his neural conducts between his "Skull" and his "Neck" if those are the terms to be used. So he removed it and carefully made sure not to disturb the plating on his face that hid his master control sector. He would have sighed if he had his helmet on. But he didn't so he never sighed. But soon sleep did come. And it was nice. Calming… easy…