Metroid: Mission Alpha

Episode 2: A Visit to Venine

With suspicions of possible trouble on the planet Venine, Samus flew her Gunship in the proper direction. Her new friend Alpha and HQ leader Michael came along. About halfway into the flight, the CM beeped. Michael looked at the planetary image on its screen. "A distress signal from Venine," he commented, "Looks like we chose just the right time to visit."

The Gunship landed on a rocky terrain below a dark, starry sky. Grey wolf-like creatures scurried around the landscape. Samus in her Power Suit, Michael in his spacesuit from the HQ, and Alpha came out of the ship. "Planet Venine's surface is composed of multiple areas, each of them having its own unique environment," Michael said, "This is the Canyon area, the largest area on the planet. It is in a state of perpetual night and is where the Snacanids live."

A group of Snacanids-21 of them-came running and stopped a few feet ahead. When Alpha saw them, he ran up to them and they ran around barking. "This is Alpha's pack, one of the Snacanid packs my group studied," Michael said, "The darker ones are the males, and the lighter ones are the females." Indeed, the males looked just like Alpha, while the females were medium grey with white markings, pink eyes, and rattlers on their tail tips.

Michael whistled from within his suit, and the Snacanids responded by lining up. "We named all the Snacanids in this pack after letters of the Greek alphabet," Michael said. Then, looking at the Snacanids, he listed their names in order. "Alpha, his brother Beta, his sisters Gamma and Delta, his mother Epsilon and father Zeta, his friend Eta, her sister Theta, her brothers Iota and Kappa, her mother Lambda and father Mu, Nu and Xi, their daughter Omicron and sons Pi and Rho, Sigma and Tau, their son Upsilon and daughters Phi and Chi."

All the Snacanids barked at once as a greeting to Michael and looked at Samus curiously, wondering who she was. "Everyone, this is Samus," Michael told them, "She saved your friend Alpha."

At this, the Snacanids' curiosity changed to gratitude. They all circled around Samus, barking and yipping joyfully, obviously their way of thanking and greeting her. Samus couldn't help but smile at this, though no one else could tell. "It's nice to meet you too," she said.

While Alpha stayed by Samus's side, the other Snacanids moved away and looked over their shoulders. "I think they want to give us a tour," Michael smiled.

"All right," Samus replied, "We can look out for anything strange on the way."

While Samus and Michael followed the Snacanids through the Canyon area, Michael talked about Snacanids. "My group learned quite a few interesting things about Snacanids. For example, they are neither poisonous nor venomous. They use their elemental and physical abilities to catch their prey." Then he continued, "The males do most of the hunting and have dark coloring to camouflage them and thin tails that can be used like whips. The females mostly take care of the young and have light coloring so the young can find them and rattlers to scare away enemies."

Samus looked at the group of Snacanids leading Michael and her. "They sound like fascinating creatures…and they are," she said.

"Yes…I've become quite interested in them and their planet," Michael replied, "Oh, there's one more thing. Each area of Venine has a distinct atmosphere comprised of a mixture of gases. Every area contains oxygen, but some also contain toxic gases. Because Snacanids sometimes traverse these areas in search of food, they are immune to poisonous gas, though there must still be oxygen present for them to survive. Fortunately most of the planets in this galaxy contain oxygen, so we don't need to worry about making a spacesuit for Alpha."

After this, everyone was silent for a while until they saw a somewhat small building. "We built that building to house a machine that would warn us of any trouble on Venine," Michael said, "That's where the distress signal came from." Samus and he went inside the building.

The only object inside the building was a machine very similar to Samus's CM. Samus looked at its screen, seeing a signal on it. "It appears that there's a life form reading on another area of the planet."

"That's strange," Michael said when he saw the screen, "Why does the reading look so…faint and dark? It's coming from the Cave area."

Suddenly, an alarm went off and red light filled the room. "Emergency in the Cave area!" a mechanical voice said.

"That life form must be the cause of this! We have to get to the Cave area!" Samus said. Michael and she rushed outside, where all the Snacanids looked alarmed from all the noise.

"There's trouble in the Cave area," Michael informed the creatures, "Can you lead us there?" Though the Snacanids looked a little afraid, they nodded and led the way.

Samus, Michael, and the 22 Snacanids went to a path and soon came to the Cave area, which was enclosed in an opening on a huge rock formation. It was very dark, with no light from the sun or stars. Fortunately, Samus and Michael's visors helped them to see in the dark while the Snacanids had good night vision. The area was quiet and small creatures scurried by every so often. This place had an ominous, foreboding appearance, but this was only typical for Samus's travels. She remained fearless throughout the walk.

Suddenly, the stillness was broken by a loud screeching sound. The entire cave shook as a huge, dark shadow flew through the air. The Snacanids stepped back and whimpered with fear. Samus pointed her arm cannon at the shadow, preparing for battle. The shadow flew through the room several times, then stopped and floated in front of Samus. Its glowing red eyes tried to stare her down.

For a few moments the group stood in silence, watching the horrific shadow. The pounding of their hearts was the only sound. The Snacanids' slight trembling was the only motion. Then, an eerie voice came from the shadow: "Give me the Snacanids."

"What do you want them for?" Samus demanded.

The voice only grew louder, ignoring her question. "Give me the Snacanids!"

"Not a chance!" Samus stepped in front of the others and fired a few shots at the shadow. It dodged and shot beams from its eyes, which Samus dodged. She fired an Ice Beam at the shadow, freezing it, then shot some missiles at it. Injured, the shadow thawed and lashed out at Samus with one tentacle, grabbing her. She tried to get away, but the grip was too tight.

Alpha was angry. He jumped up and smacked the shadow with his tail, causing it to drop Samus. It looked furiously at Alpha, but before it could attack him, Samus finished it off with a Super Missile. "I will be back!" the shadow shrieked as it disappeared in a burst of darkness.

A short time later, Samus, Michael, and Alpha prepared the board the Gunship. "We'll keep watch over this planet in case that shadow comes back. If it does, stay as far from it as possible," Michael told the Snacanids, "Farewell for now, but we'll be back sometime."

All the Snacanids yipped to say goodbye, but Eta ran up to Michael and whimpered. She wanted to come along, just as Alpha did. "You want to help us, Eta?" Michael said, "All right, you can come along." Eta jumped with joy.

Later, at the HQ, Eta seemed interested in Michael's research. "Eta has easily agreed to help me with my duties and research," Michael said, "In the meantime, the distress signal is gone from Venine. I believe your next mission should be to look for any answers to all this on Lavolca. Oh, by the way…"

He gave Samus a bag. "What's this?" she asked.

"Snacanid food. You're going to need it for Alpha. He's surely hungry after everything he's been through."

Immediately Alpha began jumping at the bag eagerly. "It looks like you're right," Samus chuckled, "Come on, Alpha." The Snacanid barked and followed her back to the Gunship for the next adventure.

(Original story from July 2016)