Metroid: Mission Alpha

Episode 42: A Secret Mission

After staying at HQ for quite some time in waiting for their next mission, Samus and Alpha were finally off on another adventure. This time, they were to return to Lavolca and see what Master Greblai and Master Silhouite were up to.

Samus's Gunship landed on Lavolca outside the immense cave. Alpha and she stepped onto the surface of the planet and looked ahead at the cave. Samus then looked back at her ship, where her Power Suit was safely contained, in thought. "As much as I'd like to use my Power Suit on this mission…we'll be able to move more easily and quietly without it," she said.

The two of them entered the cave, with Alpha using his Fire ability to move any walls of lava they encountered out of the way. They were also careful and watchful so as not to be noticed by any Greblai or Silhouites. They moved stealthily through the rooms of the cave.

Soon, Samus noticed a Greblai guard wandering around one of the halls. "Run before that guard sees us!" she whispered to Alpha. Both of them zipped into a shadowed corner and watched as the guard walked by without seeing them.

This reminds me of my very first mission when I infiltrated the Space Pirate Mother Ship, Samus thought. The adventure brought flashbacks of that mission to her mind. After losing her Power Suit and crash-landing in the remains of a Chozo city, where the Mother Ship had been located, Samus had been left with only her Paralyzer for defense. She'd had to run about and crawl through tunnels while avoiding being detected by the Space Pirates and their security systems. When she was detected, she had to run to a shadowy spot to hide.

Samus remembered that she had emerged victorious from that mission. She'd regained her suit at full power and destroyed the Ridley Robot; then she took over one of the Space Pirates' ships and escaped the Mother Ship before it self-destructed. Let's make this mission just as successful! Samus thought. By now the Greblai guard was out of sight, so she led Alpha ahead while the coast was clear.

The next room contained multiple moving lasers at the side opposite the entrance. "Those lasers weren't here last time," Samus remarked, "They must be working to improve security." Alpha looked worried, but his friend knew there was a way out. "We can get past them if we move at the right moment." She watched the lasers' movements intently, waiting…waiting…

"NOW!" Samus shouted suddenly. Without any hesitation Alpha and she raced across the room, avoiding the lasers by ducking under them. They jumped over a few more before exiting the room and entering another hall. They ran on until they saw a corner, where they stopped to catch their breath. "We made it," Samus said, looking out from the corner for any Greblai or Silhouites.

Samus noticed something moving on her right and turned her head to see a Silhouite approaching in the distance. Samus and Alpha slipped out of the corner and found a vent on the wall. "Quick-into the vent!" Samus whispered. She pulled the cover off the vent, dove in after Alpha, and replaced the cover undetected.

The inside of the vent was a long, empty tunnel. It was dark inside, but there was a small amount of light visible through the slits placed in parts of the floor. The tunnel was wide enough for Samus and Alpha to move side-by-side, but short enough that Samus had to crawl through it while Alpha lowered his head as he walked.

For a while the two of them crept through the tunnel quietly, watching for anything suspicious through the slits. Then they caught sight of Master Silhouite alone in the lab; they halted and peeked down through the slits. "There's Master Silhouite! What could he be doing?" Samus said softly.

Master Silhouite floated near the machine where the Eternal Orbs had once been and then drifted to another machine. This one appeared to be displaying a kind of electrical activity. The villain plugged the two machines into another, larger one. He laughed evilly to himself while the third machine glowed and produced a shining stone inside its case. "What is that?" Samus wondered.

Master Silhouite pressed a button on the machine's front and the case opened. The villain took the stone in one tentacle and gazed at it. Then he held it up and it created a radiating light around the room, which surrounded Master Silhouite. When the glow faded the stone was gone, but Master Silhouite looked confident. "Thanks to the power from the Eternal Orbs and the EnerDrop, I have the strength I need," he said to himself, "Now there will be nothing Samus, the last Chozo member, can do. I will be unstoppable and will get the Interspace Federation out of my way once and for all!" Then he floated out of the room.

"He has more power now? I don't like the looks of this," Samus said, "We've got to hurry to HQ and warn the others!" Alpha and she were near the end of the tunnel, so they snuck through the rest of it. Samus took a look through the slits on the vent's cover; seeing that no one was in the next room, she pushed the cover off and came out with Alpha. They could see that they had come to yet another hall, this time one they had not been to before. While it appeared empty, there were a few doors leading to other rooms on the walls. Fortunately those rooms were also unoccupied.

At that moment Samus heard a mechanical sound from above. It was then that she noticed cameras lining the walls near the ceiling-and they were fixated on Alpha and her! The hall began to flash with red light and a mechanical voice exclaimed, "Intruder alert!"

"We've been spotted! Run for it!" Samus shouted over the noise. As Alpha and she took off, lasers shot from the cameras. The two adventurers nimbly avoided them by jumping and moving aside. They kept on running ahead and evading the attacks, but this hall was a long one and the security systems grew more aggressive by the minute.

By the time Samus and Alpha were near the end of the hall, the lasers were firing so rapidly that they could not move further. Both of them constantly jumped around with nowhere to go. "We have to do something!" Samus said after performing several backflips in order to dodge an array of lasers. She knew it would only be a matter of time before a dodge was unsuccessful or the guards came to the room.

Activating his Thunder ability, Alpha shot out a blast of electricity that ripped through every camera it came across, destroying them all. The lasers, red light, and mechanical voice ceased, and all was quiet again. "Great work," Samus told her friend, "Now let's get out of here!"

The two of them rushed to the end of the hall, where they found an exit. After going through the opening, they found themselves outside the side of the cave. They would need to return to the front of the cave to make it back to the Gunship. So they hurried around the cave until they caught sight of Samus's ship landed by the front.

Once inside the ship Samus wasted no time getting it launched off Lavolca. Every second counts, she thought, The Interspace Federation may be in danger. I don't know just what Master Silhouite has done now, but I know one thing…if he tries to harm any of my allies, he'll be sorry!

(Original story from May 2018)