Chapter 14: Ceres Ambush
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"Oh for the love of…" Samus groaned, seeing the enemy spaceships in the rear view on her overhead display. The bounty hunter's early exit from the Federation fleet apparently hadn't gone quite as she had hoped. "Let's see here…two, four, six, eight? That Doctor must really want my attention with this many on my tail."
Keeping an eye on the ships, Samus can spot the Ceres Space Station coming into view. While she had intended to drop off the baby Metroid here, odds are the Doctors fighters weren't going to give her breathing room for such a thing. She opted for now to scan the surrounding region for a potential spot to hide out, before realizing there was only one place for the job. "Oh brother…"
Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling, Samus tightened the grip on her controls before steering her gunship away from the Station and slowly aiming it towards an all too familiar orange planet. "Why did it have to be Zebes…Ugh, fine. We should be able to lose them down on the surface. As for you…" Samus trailed off, turning her gaze to the baby Metroid, floating around in its capsule.
"I can't just leave it…If something happens to the ship, or worse, they're actually looking for you, who knows what they'll do. Guess you're coming with me" Boosting towards Zebes, Samus recalled her last visit to the planet, having essentially reduced the pirates base of operations to rubble. Hearing that they were back once again on the planet and back to business was frustrating, but to her, it just meant another base to blow up.
"At least this time I don't have to deal with Phazon." Samus mused to herself, recalling the radioactive substance and how widespread it was for a while during her adventures. An incredibly potent material, while extremely dangerous and burned the skin on contact, it was a brutally effective weapon when utilized properly. Having known from firsthand experience, Samus almost missed having the power of Phazon at her disposal, but knew it was for the best that the Great Poison as it was known was long gone.
"Good riddance. Last thing I'd need is more Phazon pirates anyway, those things were hideous" The bounty hunter quipped to herself as she zoomed towards Zebes, soon finding herself entering the atmosphere. Now, let's see if I can lose those ships she thought to herself, checking her rear view for any signs of them.
"Wait…where'd they go?" Sensing something was wrong, Samus noted that the eight ships she'd spotted far behind her had disappeared from her view. Plugging in the command for the ship to land on the surface automatically, she kept her eyes glued to the rear view screen, waiting for any signs of the pursuers. "There's no way I lost them on the descent to the surface…" Trailing off, Samus opted to switch back to the main screen, seeing the familiar surface of Zebes as her ship slowly came to a stop on the surface.
"Go time." Getting up from her seat, Samus took one last check on her arm cannon, pulling up a small screen on it that she used to open up the top of the ship, before she grabbed the capsule containing the baby Metroid. Using her left hand to hold it under her arm, Samus got into position as she was lifted up to the roof of her ship. Taking just a moment to look around, the bounty hunter sighed to herself before jumping off the ship and landing on the surface below.
Needing only a few seconds to refamiliarize herself with Zebes from her starting point, Samus mentally recalled the labyrinth-like layout of the planet's many environments. "Crateria…Brinstar…Norfair…shoot, I left Varia Suit back with the Feds, so Norfairs a bad idea…Brinstar it is" She said aloud, turning west and starting to run for the nearest door, arm cannon ready to blast it open. As she approached, one quick shot was all it took to get the door open, as she pumped her arm cannon up and down, for really no reason other than mild amusement.
Sprinting inside to start her descent down Crateria, Samus darted down the halls, keeping her visor on high alert, not just for her pursuers, but also for leftover items to grab. If there was anything she knew about her travels, it was that just about wherever she went, there were potential powerups to grab and grow stronger from. "Lets see what those lousy Pirates left lying around today"
That was when she heard the distinct sound of a blaster being loaded. Quickly dodge rolling to the side, Samus turned her head to see a blast of some sort of gray goop splat against the wall, quickly freezing into a solid mass. "What the…?" She trailed off, turning her attention towards what the source of that blast was, as the entity responsible came into view.
It appeared to be a humanoid robot, clad in orange and white metal, a green circle on its chest and a gray on adorning its head just above a pair of eyes. It was rather burly looking, the upper half of the bot made of rather thick metal compared to its lowered body, though its boots were also quite large. A large buster cannon was visible in place of a right hand, its left hand resting on top of it as the cannon was aimed at Samus. The bots head appeared to lack a mouth, with a white metal cover of sorts in place of where one would be, but that didn't seem to stop it from speaking to the bounty hunter.
"Samus Aran, drop the infant Metroid and put your hands up" It stated in a robotic, albeit gruff tone. The robot kept its cannon aimed at her and the baby, as Samus decided to press her luck and at least see what she was up against.
"State your ID, Bot. I'm not about to hand off this specimen to an unknown." She coldly replied, keeping a tight hold on the capsule containing the floating jellyfish. The robot remained steadfast in its own position, but did soon answer.
"I am DLN-065, but you may refer to me as Concrete Man." He stated, still waiting for Samus to drop the Metroid capsule. Neither one opted to move from their spots, Samus' own arm cannon raised against Concrete Mans, but she did not fire, having taken the time to try and analyze Concrete Mans body with her visor.
Concrete Man…a bit of a ridiculous name. Well, if that really was concrete he shot at me, it seems to be quite fast acting. I can't get hit by that stuff or I'll get pinned down. Weighing her options, Samus knew that carrying the Metroid with her would only weigh her down if she tried to fight back. Begrudgingly, she decided the best bet would be to slowly lower the capsule from her arm, setting it down on the ground, the Metroid inside floating around harmlessly, occasionally letting out a little noise.
"Arms up, Miss Aran." Concrete Man repeated. "I will not ask again. My Concrete Shot will solidify you and make you easy pickings against me" He seemed rather confident he had this whole thing figured out, having Samus in a bind in her position, with the baby Metroid between them.
"Will it now? Wouldn't that also mean you'd bind me down in one spot here, unable to be moved?" Samus questioned, wanting to see if she could catch him overthinking his plan. She hadn't yet put her arms up just yet, cannon still pointing at Concrete Man as she waited for an answer.
"No, my body is strong enough to break the concrete through sheer force." He replied, balling his left hand into a fist, as though to show his strength. "As you can see from my body, I am built for heavy construction, so moving and even breaking concrete is quite easy for me. You do not stand a ch-"
Concrete Man's monologuing was cut off as Samus seized her moment, blasting right between his eyes and knocking the robot back. "GAH!" He cried out, stumbling backwards before regaining his footing. Samus quickly grabbed the capsule containing the baby Metroid and took off in a sprint. She quickly scaled the elevated terrain behind her and dashed off, not before hearing the large robot behind her clanking its metal boots as it pursued her.
Crap, he's faster than I thought Samus internalized as she ran, spotting a large opening in the floor ahead. Cradling the Metroid capsule close to her, she dropped down it, navigating further and further down the shaft until she hit the bottom, finding a door on the floor that she quickly blasted open. Stopping for just a moment to look up, Samus could hear the sounds of Concrete Man slamming onto the floors above, prompting her to make a quick exit through the door.
I have to find a way to catch him off guard, if he can see me I'm at a disadvantage… Strategizing potential options, Samus knew she didn't have many tools at her disposal to deal with a bot like this. All she had on hand at present was her arm cannon, and the Power Beam it carried wasn't exactly built to shred machinery. I won't be able to fight him head on with this thing…Unless…? Dropping down another large shaft, this one decrepit and infested with bugs as it seemed in ruins, Samus kept a close hold on the capsule until she finally hit the ground, her boots absorbing the impact.
That might work…And this may just be the one room I can do this in. Smirking to herself, Samus blasted open the door to the next area and darted inside, a hand atop the Metroid capsule. "Let's see him stop this."
Concrete Man soon came crashing down to the bottom of the shaft, having taken a much more blunt approach to the drop and smashing down through the floors. Pieces of debris scattered around him as he scanned the area for signs of Samus, finding a single door in front of him. Not seeing many other options, the machine approached the door, firing a blast of his Concrete Shot against it, the impact making the blue energy field around it dissipate as the door opened in response to the blast.
"This is DLN-065 reporting in." He said to himself, having entered a private communications link. "I am in pursuit of the Bounty Hunter Samus Aran. Requesting back up to my location." The large robot slowly walked into the room, vision adjusting to the darker interior, the remnants of a space pirate base in full view. Damaged machinery adorned the room as broken glass littered the floor, the Robot Master scanning the room for signs of the Bounty Hunter.
"Now would she try to hide, or keep running…" Walking further into the room, Concrete Man could hear the door close behind him automatically, the dark room thankfully not an issue to see in due to his robotic eyes having a night vision mode. He scanned the broken down ruins of the pirates last base, trudging around and looking for signs of the bounty hunter, but nothing appeared in his sights.
"Nothing…She must have made a break for it further ahead. Maybe she went lower, the Doctor did say there were many levels to this place. I'll have to get mo-GAH!?" The machine's monologuing was cut off as his vision was obscured, the fleshy mouth of a vicious alien parasite having latched on.
"The Metroid?!" Concrete Man exclaimed, trying to use his hand to grab hold of the creature and yank it off, his metal hand grasping at the squishy jellyfish to try and pull it off. The parasite however wasn't having any of it, its fangs clasped around the back of the robots head as it did what Metroids do best. The robot was put on high alert as it could feel its energy being drained by the parasite, Metroids being engineered to have the power to absorb energy from both living beings and machinery.
"Have to get this thing off, but the Doctor said…don't…destroy it…" Feeling his energy depleting, Concrete Man tried in desperation to pull the Metroid off, but having only one arm for the job and not lacking Wily's permission to kill it, he could only feebly try and tug on the squishy jellyfish's membrane as his power was slowly drained away into it.
"Your boss said not to destroy it huh?" Samus said, coming out from behind the cover she was in, carrying the now empty capsule that housed the infant Metroid. "So they know the power of the Metroid, and how few there are left…Sounds like someone is more knowledgeable than I thought." She approached the now malfunctioning robot, his eyes flickering and joints stiffly jittering as the parasite finally freed itself from his head.
"Y-Y-You c-can't s-stop him. Th-The D-Doctor w-w-will f-find you a-a-and d-defeat y-you" Concrete Man's speech was jittering just like his body, barely functioning as he tried desperately to aim his arm cannon at Samus. The cannon's interior showed a very faint glow but was unable to fire, the glowing light flickering as Samus put her own arm cannon to the robot's chest.
"Bring it on." She said calmly, her own cannon blasting the bot, causing him to fall down onto his back, a hole formed in the robot's chest from the point blank impact as his flickering eyes darkened. "Now, let's see what upgrades I can get outta this guy."
