Metroid Saga: Mythos

by Mental Omega

A collection of stories set in a reimagining of Metroid; here we start with the beginnings of the universe's two greatest warriors; Samus and Sylux. The Hatchling and the Neophyte. Born of K-2L and Cylosis, and bound by fate to decide the destiny of the cosmos. Note that this project started long before Prime 4 came out.

15. Forlorn: Stalk (AS & SA)

Thermarium, Lolondr, Zorant

The temperatures of the Thermarium were high, of course. Molten metal poured in enormous falls and clouds of silicate vapour wafted through the large chamber that the two found themselves entering. The craggy and rough-looking architecture left little doubt that this was a facility built by the Diamonts. They advanced fearlessly through the incredible heat, her ice beam and his Blizzard being used to freeze platforms for them to traverse to avoid slogging through viscous molten materials.

Thermal distortions presented only a minor obstacle for them as they blinked up onto a taller platform before curling into their respective alt-modes to slide into a tunnel. The writhing tendrils of a Magrakal poked out from the molten metal beneath the tunnel, visible to the duo in their third-person point of view in this form. Unable to reach at them through the tunnel's transparent hyraxicrystal windows, the cephalopod like creature simply poked its mantle through the magma, eyeing them with brilliant orange lenses before diving back into the depths of the pool below. Such was hardly the only obstacle in their path, as ahead was a pool of magma, a series of paths and platforms that would require careful jumps in their alternate forms to cross through; especially as centipede-like Skradal drones dove in and out of the magma to look for targets.

The distant howl of the Sunstalker gave them only the briefest pause as they crossed the challenge with dextrous ease. Making careful usage of their alternate forms weapons to clear out the drones in their path while combining their movement tools to traverse from section to section. With one last boost straight through a target by Samus followed by a psycho-pulse from clearing out a path, they were through to where they needed to go at the tallest platform. There they claimed an energy tank as their reward before using the spider ball to crawl up a shaft to their next destination, adding a bit more to their already formidable durability. And with that, they had added yet another entry in a line of collectable upgrades off the beaten path that they could lay claim to bolster their prowess.

On the other end was the sight of a great deal of wreckage strewn about in odd patterns. Damaged natural features and rearranged local geography, shattered stone and metal, energy lashed structures. Few animals were still here, the tripedal Magstriders that normally visited this place having withdraw to a far corner of the room, the dozens of meters tall creatures clearly afraid of something. Other animal corpses were strewn about, and Samus felt herself frowning.

"There was a fight here...getting trace signs of Armaud and Spire's weapons." She said, tracing her fingers across the dusty remnants of something struck by Svihaly's thunderer weapon, crystalline patterns within the stone clearly shocked by heavy impacts. Elsewhere she could see objects scorched by something far hotter than the clouds of vapour in the area. Further analysis showed traces of the energies of the Sunstalker as well, still lingering to objects scalded by terrible forces.

"This terminal should give us access to the security footage here. I think it should help explain what happened at least." Arne said, signalling over to hear as his suit interfaced with the diamont computer in front of him. The crystal responded to his signal and opened its security systems up to him to give him a wealth of data that flowed into his armour computer.

"Let me see." She said, stepping over to him after turning to his direction. The urgency in her voice let him know that it was best to give her what she asked for immediately, though of course he had no intention of delaying.

"Here...I've gone through the data for anything that might be related. This should be the relevant stuff." He said. His brain had worked through the data faster than most computers could manage,

"Send me everything though, just in case." She said, giving him a nod, ready for the transfer that he gave to her.

Together they saw the armoured frame of Svihaly in its shades of green and purple. Some two hundred and forty-two centimetres tall, the sentinel of the N'kren's twin optics looked down at the recording drone through a pair of lenses that gave the impression of angular purple robotic eyes fitted atop the recesses of the somewhat barbute like "helm" that encased the chassis of her head. The upward curvature of her pauldrons and the somewhat pronounced gorget of her suit gave the uppermost part of her body a distinctly powerfully armoured appearance. Her frame was built for power and endurance, the curves of the plating fitted atop it suggesting stylised musculature interspersed with more rigid plates fitting for someone of great strength even though her body was all metal. On her right arm was cannon, with a grilled base below her elbow giving way to a glowing green tube-like structure fitted with struts and ending in what almost seemed to be claws arranged like a compass, just barely avoiding obstructing the cannon. Her boots gave the impression of insectile feet, while her chest bore three strikes markings on each pectoral.

"Spire. We have a problem." She said, her voice bassy and metallic. She had turned away from the drone, looking towards the powerful Diamont as he examined what was now a scattered series of rubble but had once been an impressive looking statue. He seemed to be almost mourning the loss of such fine art made by his people, a low, heavy sound coming from him as he lowered his head in apparent grief.

He rumbled to himself briefly before turning his heavyset head around to her; orange eyes fixated on his counterpart. "Beyond the vandalism to ancient history? There aren't any new craftsmen like this...nothing else like this will ever be made and they go and smash it." He said, his voice in a sorrowful tone clearly upset by the wanton destruction he had seen done to the artifice of his people.

"The Sunstalker is scrambling our homers on the children. We are separated from them, and thus they are vulnerable. We can handle ourselves against the beast; they cannot. And if they die..." She started with an ominous tone.

"...Yes I'm aware of what's expected of the two. That's why I'm trying to speak. Not with your words but with the words of the stone. Stone will be able to record words that the creature cannot hear. Words that it wouldn't understand even if it could breach into this computer. But words I am sure they'll hear when they come to the right place." He said, ruminating as he continued to hum in infrasonic tones inaudible to conventional human ears with his second set of lungs; speaking while maintaining the long song.

"Clever. But what will you do with the Sunstalker? It won't be too far away now, certainly when it has the scent of the children. I suggest we bring it here. The creature is a coward, it fears facing us...but if we make it think easier targets are here we can force it into a fight. Then perhaps we'll see if the thing can bleed as the old stories say." Svihaly said, gesturing to the area around them.

"Amidst all these relics and treasures? Sure, let's just wreck what little is left..." He said, Svihaly pausing and giving him a particularly cold glare before he let out a brief, earthquake-like laugh. "I'm only kidding. If it's the only way, I'll do it. I might not like it, but I'll do it." He said, causing Svihaly to release her tension, shifting her posture ever so slightly before she looked at the field before her with ideas for where to set up their ambush.

"There..." She said, gesturing off of where the camera was able to see.

Fast-forwarding slightly, Samus and Arne saw the two engaging the Sunstalker as it entered the room. A flurry of weapons fire with armaments beyond even their best lashed out at the Sunstalker. A foe which seemed to be surprised by their emergence, flailing and wailing as the pair of ancients beset it. Spire rushed in with his tackle, curling into his dialanche and whirling away with a deadly suite of weapons while Armaud rushed in with her arm scythe extended. A blow was made, followed up by a blast as the Sunstalker hurtled backwards before unleashing a massive pulse.

The solar flare exploded outwards with power and majesty akin to a real version of its namesake. Even things meant to inundate themselves in Carbon vapor and molten tungsten incinerated instantly while a storm of nuclear radiation erupted outwards. High energy ionizing particles and a ferocious shockwave that the duo barely blinked in time to avoid. The thing conjured up a series of circular rifts overhead from which stellar streams of plasma vomited forth like satellite beams, dragging themselves around in patterns meant to chase the old pair.

Spire pulled back and let loose his own barrage; a coruscating inferno engulfing that portion of the room while Armaud's own deadly assault filled that section of the room with green. The drone feed cut off briefly as the images switched to another recording device's perspective, where the Sunstalker had hurtled a series of coruscating orbs burning like the sun itself towards them. Each spitting out a deadly lance of fusion reactant before they detonated, beam weapons fire traded in return while the Sunstalker stumbled from the heavy barrages of missile fire it was taking. Eventually, the Sunstalker decided to smash through a wall after being bull-rushed by Spire to take a blow to the head from Armaud's foot that sent it careening off its feet. Clearly even the stalker had its limitations, but all of this was well beyond what either Samus or Arne could do at the moment. Too fast, too much firepower, too many tools being switched between constantly even in this abbreviated highlight reel.

Spire shook his head and looked towards Armaud. "Should we chase them down?" He asked as the Sunstalker stepped through one of its own circular gates.

"We'll need to bait it again, with something else...it won't fall for the same trick next time. But our priority should be meeting with the children. They'll need our protection." She said.

"Agreed." Spire said as the feed ended, leaving Samus to grin widely beneath her helmet before elbowing Arne in the side. She was over the moon herself even while Arne tapped his helmet with clear concern. She sensed that concern, and he sensed her enthusiasm, and for a moment their conflicting emotions were shared across that link before they snapped back to their own, native feelings. Albeit ever so slightly dimmed so that she came a bit closer to Earth while he felt a bit better about his situation.

"See, I told you they were fine." Samus said cheekily. She clapped a hand on his shoulder and made him flinch forward slightly, but he straightened himself and nodded at her, resting one of his hands on hers.

"We were pretty lucky it didn't go all out on us though...I mean, yeah it's nice to know they're looking for us but we also have...that looking for us!" Arne said.

"Well...we just need to keep moving and get stronger then don't we? We're pretty good at running away too I'd say." She seemed so sure of herself that Arne couldn't help but share in that confidence as he nodded and thought about her wisdom. Yeah, she was right, they were going to be fine he thought.

"I didn't say to not take it seriously, just...I think everything will work out okay for us." She said,

"Yeah...we should probably get going too. This would be an awful place to get desuited." Arne said as he looked up at a grappleable surface and then at Samus.

"Agreed, come on. There's probably something worth checking out up top." She said as the pair fired off their grapple beams and yanked themselves towards the ceiling, firing at a door and swinging themselves through the entrance onto the other side.

Staring at them in the face on the other side was not the signs of combat they were expecting but a relatively pristine environment. Rather featureless even, merely a way to get from one place to the next. But without significant obstacles in the way, they recorded their progress in an emergency station and continued on their path. Little of interest occurred for a few minutes of thorough but brisk searching through a few more pathways. They cleared their way through the drones that emerged from the halls with little trouble, gathered some scan logs of interest to them, and collected a few items of interest to augment themselves. A new sub-weapon known as the Autoflak was acquired after a brief puzzle, as were modifications to their thrusters to allow for temporary flight, and a regenerator pack to augment the rate at which their shielding could recharge and armour could regrow.

But as they moved over a series of quick-moving platforms, they caught a Diamont statue holding something towards the top of the room past a series of shifting barriers. Moving platforms offered them a route to the figure atop its balcony, and an imposing wall that their scan visors said was resonating at an unusual frequency lay behind it. The two only needed to give each other a wordless nod to one another to acknowledge their next path. Both shared a keen interest in what could lay in that statue, and quickly put themselves to the task of getting there. Getting up to the needed height was a simple task, even with rapidly moving obstacles and a few moving wall jumping challenges that tested their ability to bounce from one place to another quickly and the guardians there were no real match for them. Once there, they cracked open the shell of the sphere the Diamont's outstretched hands held and vaulted on top, grabbing the floating token of a gun firing a series of ovoid projectiles straight ahead.

Their cannons glowed as soon as they let out a single shot of the new beam to test it against the brittle wall behind them, shattering it with a burst of created air and a wave of sonic jackhammering force that rode with it. The vibrational energy resonated with the wall and caused the whole building-sized thing to crumble into microscopic dust. Behind was a door that they quickly shot through, bringing them into a space where a series of inward-facing statues ringed around a circular area known as the ring of guardians. A series of doors were on the outermost ring of the circular room, clearly marking this place as a transit area.

But one statue was resonating in a particular manner that Arne recognized.

"Hey Samus, take a look at this." He said indicating towards the statue of a Diamont who looked somewhat reminiscent of Spire. While an average human wouldn't be able to notice the subtle way it was vibrating; it was clear as day to his superhuman senses.

"It's moving but...what's that supposed to mean?" She said as he touched the vibrating statue gingerly.

"Spire visited me a lot when I was younger...he taught me to recognize old long songs. I think this is what they were talking about in the video earlier...some sort of way of passing messages that the Sunstalker can't understand." He said as he felt the intended message and allowed the mystic incantation to seep into him.

"Well, what's he saying? Where to meet up with him?" She asked, curiously looking at the process.

"No...not quite yet...we need to find something he's indicating to us. It'll be important to both our examination and help even the odds. It's just a bit...out of the way. There's a number of item guardians along the road." He said, looking to her.

"Is that all? Spire usually has a bit...more to say to us than that." She said, folding her arms.

"Well...he also says that he's rooting for us." He said, slightly hesitantly as he flushed beneath his helmet.

"Aww, that's sweet. I'm hoping he makes it out alright too." She said, giving him a thumbs up and a cheery grin.

"...No not rooting for us as in success, he meant rooting for us as in being us, you know, you and I." He said, awkwardly and shyly laughing a bit as Samus blushed a bit under her helmet too in response to that.

"Well, I appreciate that thought too. But ahh...hah...let's get going?" She said with an awkward laugh at the end as she tried to blow it off. She was supposed to keep her calm, why was she not keeping her cool now?

"Yeah let's...we should probably head down the door with the missile lock. It should take us to where we need to go." He said, gesturing to the barricaded door.

A missile erupted into existence and blasted off the lock almost immediately after as Samus made a come hither gesture that Arne followed dutifully. The next few minutes were a blaze of rushing through the obstacles. Guardian Drones rose to challenge them more than a few times, but each time they were put down. Puzzles expertly laid out were deduced and solved in seconds by their keen minds to achieve continued progress as their repertoire expanded gradually. Systems to enhance their shielding's durability, armour strength enhancement, a new electroperception visor and as for new weapons; pyro-missiles, ice bombs, grapple voltage, the power missile charge combo, and the magnum cannon sub-weapon all found their way into their arsenals after collecting them.

But as they made their way through a section of the high-temperature region of Gorgomoch, they felt a sudden rush of great danger flooding their prescient senses. As they rushed down a bridge in speed booster mode, their suits picked up the vibrations of an incoming howl. The same dreadful cry of the Sunstalker echoed throughout the passageway, seeming to be everywhere as that piercing sound reverberated through the air and even into the molten metal below them. The cry seemed to rouse the anger of something in the molten metal below, and tendrils emerged while living metal crocodile-like Olgromaks pulled themselves free of the molten Tungsten.

Shaking off the dripping metal from their hides and snapping their jaws together, the Deinosuchus sized monsters let loose hissing and crackling sounds as their burning eyes focused on the pair. A mouth that could crush coal into diamond snapped at them as one approached, rearing itself into a fully upright position as the heavy beast's body brimmed with predatory aggression. One threw itself into the attack, seeking to clamp down on Samus who jumped overhead and dodged one of the skyscraper-sized tentacles that tried to swing itself at her. Acting quickly, she grabbed onto it with her grapple beam and causing the tentacle to bend downwards even as it tried to pull at her to throw herself to kick one of the Olgromaks in the side.

The thunderclap impact knocked the living metal life form off of its magnetized feet and sent it in a roll back into the pools of Tungsten where boiling superheated metal exploded outwards, harmlessly dripping off of their shielding. At the same time, Arne checked one of the charging animals head-on and dug in his heels. After adjusting his footing while Samus fired off her ice beam over one of the silicate vapour clouds overhead to create a large chunk of bitterly cold rock that fell atop the head of the monster closest to her. It stumbled as its six eyes shut as the rock exploded in thermal shock and its metal scutes groaned in protest before Arne threw one of the heavy monsters to bowl the one closest to her over, sending both of them tumbling into the molten metal.

"The Sunstalker must be driving them mad...but how?" Samus asked after dodging the enormous tentacles of the Azagal, silicoid pillars of rocky flesh sweeping across the pathway like a building flung sideways. Feeling herself in the midst of a jump that she bolstered with a second mid-air leap, she ducked beneath a jabbing motion by one of the tentacles while firing off at a leaping Olgromak to freeze its jaw shut before briefly landing atop the molten tungsten lake. Her boots made more of a clang than a splash against the viscous material, her shielding holding fine as she ran across the top of the material to reposition herself, dodging around another leaping pseudo-crocodile and leaping back onto the main bridge.

While Arne pushed a tentacle that had managed to catch him while he was avoiding multiple flying Olgromak young, Samus decided that she needed to do something about one of the tendrils. After mumbling an apology to the Azagral that produced the enormous tentacle that swung itself towards her, she charged and then overcharged an ice beam shot. A keening shriek made itself heard as the ball of ice around her cannon expanded before releasing itself in a ferocious burst after she fed it some of her shield energy to strike with a ninefold bolt that froze the tendril from top to bottom in a bright flash of blue and white. The craggy silicoid tentacle began to crumble beneath its weight, the binding energy of its molecules nullified like the rest of it as it fell apart into so much dust with a deafening shriek. The already high temperatures of the room and the creature were a weakness more than strength as thermal shock did what energy nullification could not. The keen of heat and cold reacting gave way to a deafening crack and a shattering sound and chunks of tendril rained all around, fragmenting like a glass sculpture to never be reassembled again.

"Pretty impressive," Arne said.

"Don't mention it; we're still going to need to get out of here." She said.

"Luckily I don't think the Azagal's up for taking another shot from that." He said, gesturing to the other tentacles withdrawing from the fight, sinking back into the depths of the metal pools and leaving only scattered beasts for them to clear out. Arne took care of most of them, having focused on trying to clear out the chaff while Samus busied herself with the big foe; but the two seamlessly joined back together to combine their efforts. The two let loose with the blizzard sub-weapon to spit out gouts of anti-energy in front of them that engulfed broad sections of the area in front of them with frost and ice that quickly boiled into steam as they gradually forced the remaining animals to think better of their attempts to attack them and retreat into the metal pool.

"Pretty great work there!" Samus said as she shared an elbow bump with Arne.

"Hey, we do pretty well together. Didn't want this to be an exception to that. Because well...why start a bad habit right?" He said, laughing just a bit.

"Arne, come on, you did great, don't try to play down a compliment. I'm not Zurvduat with his mind-games. I'm your well...I like you." She said, fumbling with her words briefly before finding something she could force herself to say while knowing that the Elders were observing her.

"Yeah, I'm...I mean...I like you too..." He said with a bit of a shy chuckle. "And thanks...for not doing mind games...it's nice to have someone I can just...talk to." He said, getting a hand on his shoulder from Samus.

"I can't wait to see the stars with you...we're going to d-" She paused as she felt that needle sensation of danger and the imminent visions of harm warned them as Samus shouted. "Get moving!" She said, pushing Arne and getting the two of them sprinting down the path.

Burning solar plasma erupted to their sides and spun themselves into circles that grew wider and wider. Before the solar beams could emerge from the portals that had opened themselves, the pair ran as quickly as they could, firing off their speed boosters once again and vaulting through a series of roadblocks. All the while, they were weaving through the thicket of portals opening and the beams they unleashed. What was clear, though, was that whatever they were heading towards; the Sunstalker did not want them to find.

The portals opened in increasingly complex patterns to catch the pair with vented solar energy. Each screech of reality tearing open and the fury of a star being spat out filling their ears as their helmets reproduced the audio of the detected vibrations. They sped through the twisting corridors ahead as quickly as possible, careful maneuvres and evasive actions made at every possibility to try and keep the Sunstalker's solar gates from leading on them. Neither of the pair was in a hurry to find out how much damage the solar scourges would have done, and they found themselves having to blitz through multiple obstacle courses to keep ahead.

A scourging beam exploded just in front of Samus who had to stop herself all at once before Arne yanked her back with his grapple beam. "Keep going!" He shouted as he looked down and shot open a door, checking briefly to make sure she was still coming with him before seeing her hurtle down in morph ball form to speed her descent up. He transformed into his alternate form shortly afterwards, letting the two roll through a series of tunnels as enormous chunks of wall and tunnel material were torn through by the solar gates that opened up near them. Each near-miss rang in their systems like a punch to the genitals. Arne's overactive imagination refused to pull away from thinking of being scalded by such heat, replaying that dread scenario over and over. Samus couldn't help but cringe at every near miss, her body flinching and her jaw clenching with every closer and closer rush of molten fury.

But before they could get into a more open section with more room to manoeuvre, they were struck by one of the solar beams as the Sunstalker funnelled into a series of difficult to avoid gates surrounding them. An all-consuming impact that reverberated through their bones that felt like it was boring into their very souls. They persevered and fired off the blink packs in alt mode, having had a pair of energy tanks each depleted from the impact and a sensation of having had a building dropped on their skulls as they recovered their momentum. Indeed, a harsh blow even with the Varia Suit and the shielding hardness and field resistance upgrades they had received cutting the impact down to just ten per cent of its normal strength.

They couldn't afford to take many hits like that without the space and time to regenerate their shielding and with quintessence orbs in short supply as the tunnels vacated itself of lesser foes. Their nerves were grating like steel on flint, every hair in their transformed state seeming to be sensible as every detail became a millionfold sharper and time seemed to flow at a fraction of its regular rate. Samus could just about feel her heart in her mouth, Arne felt his stomach trying its level best to implode. Was it fear? Maybe, but it could also have been a rush of adrenaline, unlike anything ever felt before. Death was legitimately on the line, and the spectre of the reaper gave them an additional clarity of action that the certainty of safety never could. Through being so close to death, they felt a bit more alive. Samus almost felt thrilled by it, soaring as much as terror sought to drag her down, while every thought seemed natural to Arne as if this was where he was meant to be.

Plasma wafted outwards behind them, a testament to the power of the sunbeams that carved through the facility with a fury sufficient to disintegrate asteroids. Blinding lights and intense heat invaded their senses, ear-splitting sounds and the strange, ozone like scent of the plasma assaulted them. But still, the pair moved as if their lives depended on it, uncurling after throwing their alternate forms off of a ramp and shooting the nearest door. Their legs carried them still faster, jumping and then shinesparking to the left to evade a corridor filling beam that had opened in front of them and cutting through the kilometre-long hall almost instantly. A portal opened up behind them, and only quick thinking with their blink packs prevented them from flying directly into the path of the beam as they came across a more open space. A large arena with a Torizo clearly waiting for them, its deception as an ordinary, unpresumptuous Chozo statue holding an upgrade waiting for the taking hardly fooling them.

Sun gates began to open, only for the whole facility to shake from another of the stalker's howls as heavy weapons fire reverberated through the ground. All at once, the ring gates spun out of existence and dissipated into a shower of harmless sparks. The sensation of danger had faded immediately, and relief made itself known to them with the certainty of being struck by lightning. At last, they could breathe, and Samus took a second to look at Arne as they stood still for a second. She looked at the Torizo in its dormant state, in the stylized shape of a wingless Chozo and then she took a moment to look at herself and just laughed. She almost doubled over as the tension fell off of her like a coat. Her expression was locked in the biggest possible grin on her face as Arne started to give a few chuckles himself.

"Why am I laughing? We could have died there! But...gods of my ancestors we're alive somehow! We...hah...we showed that thing, right? Gods, I was terrified!" Arne said as his chuckles started to turn into genuine laughter. He had his triumph over a danger that would have rattled the nerves of most of his elders, and he felt good for it. He was panting and sweating, not from exhaustion but from the cooldown of coming off such an adrenaline high.

"Oh, spirits blessed that was a close one, huh? Almost thought we might not be able to make it but...we are pretty great, aren't we? But I mean, how could we not have made it? We've got so much to do and see." She said, smiling a bit as her laughter started to fade, straightening herself and relaxing. She breathed out and stretched, rolling her muscles and shoulders in a practised motion meant to ease her nerves. The world seemed to go back to normal, and there she was with him, the hot air outside their suits choked with small but fine clouds of dust.

A moment of concentration was all they needed to regenerate their shielding back to full strength. Samus and Arne's energy tanks filled up in moments, and all the systems that fed information into their minds were reading as operating at standard capacity. Their armour cleaned off the sweat on their bodies once the fluid had served its purpose. In the blink of an eye, they were now good to go.

"Ready to claim that upgrade?" Samus said, elbowing Arne slightly as he turned towards her and gave a nod.

"Yeah. It's not what we're supposed to be looking for, but it'll be helpful." He said, giving her a thumbs up in imitation of one of her favourite gestures and beaming at her beneath his helm. After escaping that particular death trap earlier, he felt like he could do anything. For a moment, he shared Samus' boundless confidence, and he could scarcely think of Zurvduat's criticisms anymore. The needling comments about his substandard performance were no longer in his mind; he had done right and would revel in that.

Samus was less focused on the praise of others, but she had bested her greatest challenge yet, and that was enough to put her heart alight with pride and satisfaction. A fight with a Torizo would be easy after that? Why worry in the slightest? She certainly had no intention of letting any further doubts about her ability to handle this cloud her mind. She could not only do this; she could keep Arne safe and see him flourish at the same time. For her objectives, that was excellent progress.

From their scan visors, they could tell that the Torizo guarded a new armour upgrade, and the fight with it would at least be something approaching conventional. A less nerve-wracking engagement with the animated statue as soon as they laid their claim to it. Something relaxing after a hard minute or so of frantic evasion and dodging to put themselves more at ease.

Energy flowed into their armours once again, transforming and altering it into a more resilient form. The portions of their armour that had once been orange and sky blue respectively had changed to a vivid and forest green instead. Their visors shifted in colour as well, Samus' to yellow, Arne's to orange. The Desolation Suit, not only would it improve their overall functions and increase their baseline shielding impact resistance to 75%; which when combined with their other upgrades offered 95% total resistance; but it also granted their shielding and armour plating immunity to virtually any damaging chemical reactant. But once this had been acquired, as expected the Torizo had come to life, shedding off a shell of inanimate stone to stand itself up and awaken its optics with blazing yellow lights.

The mottled green coloured animate statue let out its roar of challenge, and the two engaged it in a somewhat routine battle. It sent forth energy shockwaves in raking crescents from its claws; they dodged and assailed it with a fusillade of charge shots and missiles. It sought to grab onto them; they met it with ice bombs and skilful melee blade work. It took a few minutes of labour, but the Torizo was soon reduced to dust by a tandem shot from the pair as they fired their charged beams together in such a way as to allow the energies to merge. The impact obliterating the now shieldless Torizo and leaving them the space needed to carry on their way.

"Do you think we'll be able to help out Armaud and Spire? I don't want to be a bystander when they're risking their lives for us. I've...been there, not being able to help. I don't want to be helpless when other people are hurt or fighting for me." Arne said, fighting back bitter memory fragments and the dreadful sensation of cold and heat at the same time, trying to avert his mind's eye from imagining those five serpentine heads and that awful cackle.

Samus nodded and offered him her hand to squeeze to banish the fright that he felt. She understood all too well the feeling of being left unable to do more than just watch the world burn.

"Don't worry; we'll find a way. It's what we're to learn how to do, aren't we? We wouldn't be able to be the heroes we want to be if we couldn't." She said as she walked them through a door to an elevator, taking them to the next area. A quick stop to the recording station and they were soon off on the transit elevator, taking them quickly to a jaunt through Elemara. A polluted zone originally meant to offer habitation to very peculiar life forms now serving as a hazard training facility, fuel gel pooling into basins as it poured from outfalls in great streams. At the same time, a gas that could eat through the hull of a starship gathered in foul looking clouds.

With their new suits, going through was of no real risk at all, and the drones that emerged to provide them a challenge were dispatched just as quickly as they appeared. A few minutes passed as they rushed through the rooms and dealt with the enemies that tried to oppose them, and they found themselves before a grand gate into what was something of importance.

Arne stopped them briefly as he looked at another vibrating statue, touching it to hear the message that Spire had left them before looking back at her. "We're getting close to where we need to go. Not sure what we're likely to find here...but I think the way we're taking is going to save us on a lot of time to reach it than if we headed there the "normal" route." Arne said.

"Hrm, that's awfully unorthodox of you Arne." She said cheekily.

"Hey, I'm not completely by the book." He protested jokingly.

With that brief exchange out of the way, they proceeded through the grand gate. The door winked open like an eye-opening its lids and allowed the pubescents into a room that seemed entirely too tall for its intended purpose. Alcoves and balconies dotted it everywhere, containers lying in wait while Lurim drones walked from place to place with the usage of their tentacles; standing as tall as giraffes and extending optic stalks to look around. Smaller Narumod drones like nautiloids flew around, orbiting their larger counterparts.

Also within the room was the eerie architecture of the Salamik who had designed it. Smooth and organic, almost like flesh made of metal more than anything, typically referred to as technology. The cephalopod like countenances of the Salamik were represented in figure form like silent witnesses. And upon each was a thicket of squid-like arms emerging from inscrutable faces immortalized in fleshmetal. Long walking tentacles that emerged from the midsection kept the statues aloft, and the eyes moulded into the statues seemed entirely too lifelike.

"Kind of creepy," Arne said as they walked through a thick gas cloud, making use of their electroperception visor to retain sight even when visible light was entirely obscured. The world seemed to be a mist illuminated by the squiggling arcs and currents of every object's electromagnetic field, resulting in somewhat abstract shapes that the two needed only a moment to adjust to. However, there was an unusual sight hidden within the clouds. A field laid against a wall that seemed closer to what their suits looked like in this view than anything else in the room. And hesitantly, they decided to approach.

"What do you think it is?" Arne asked. He remained a bit further behind, taking a moment to check the drones for any signs of hostility before taking a position to guard her back.

"I think it's..." She said as she drew closer, only to gasp and recoil backwards in shock. The sight was something that made her feel sick to the stomach and shudder in astonishment. She felt the tingle of unease crawl down her spine and make her want to leap back as far as she could.

"Samus?!" Arne said as Samus breathed out in alarm. Just the idea of her of all people getting spooked in such a way rang alarm bells for him. It just wasn't something that was ever supposed to happen.

"Arne...that's..." She said, pointing to the figure as Arne finally got close enough to see it through the poison mist. What he saw made his jaw drop.

"That's a human," He said in hushed tones as the dead explorer became clear to him, confronted with a corpse of his species seemed to rattle him more than most deaths could. A grim reminder of mortality? Or that the first other human besides Samus he'd seen in person since the day he was orphaned was this horrible, mangled dead body. Clad in chrome armour that had been rent open with their body a hollowed-out husk-like what had happened to Vurdon earlier. The symbol of the galactic federation was clear as day on their shoulder, and the turquoise visor gave a brief glimpse of a skeletonized face. Their corpse was laid in repose against the wall, the scan visors of the two booting to life immediately as they sought to determine the cause of such a death.

"Subject armour logs indicate that the individual is Sergeant Melinda Graves. Armour computer logs record an extradimensional event bringing them and their brigade to this location chasing a formation of space pirates. Melinda was terminated by injuries identical to those suffered by Vurdom, with medical logs indicating a heightened level of fear before being executed following a long pursuit. Armour and remains have been tampered with by unknown technologies to prevent degradation within the corrosive clouds, suggesting that it serves as a trophy. Final logs downloaded for user consumption." Read their armour as Samus knelt to look into the empty eye sockets of Melinda's body, with Arne laying his hand on the helmet and muttering a prayer of speedy passage to the afterlife.

"This is the second incident of this place bringing in people who aren't supposed to be here...that can't be a coincidence," Samus said. A sentence followed by telling her apologies to Melinda's body out of regret for not being there to offer her help and praying for her soul's safety. She was always an empathetic person, and the idea of this woman being hunted to death until she died in panic and fright made her angry. The cauldron in her heart boiling with righteous outrage before she clenched her fist and choked it down to a more manageable level.

"Why would they bring them here? To hunt them for sport? That seems so, petty and cruel. Just..." He said before blinking and noticing he had some water in his eyes beneath his helmet. He wasn't a stranger to tears; he often cried even as much as Zurvduat always sought to make him stop. He didn't sob at least, but he felt almost ashamed of letting it fall anyway. Zurvduat always hated it when he cried, and his the thought of Zurvduat applying his usual methods to make him stop made him reflexively cringe.

"...why would anyone be so heartless?" He said, sitting on one of the ledges of the platform behind him, nestling himself into a space and laying his hand on his helmet.

"Let's look at her final logs first...maybe that will give us some answers." Samus said, pulling up the information and relaying it into their memories, a series of visions flashing in their mind's eye as if they were there themselves, sequestered in such a way to avoid any unwanted intermingling of identity.

They saw the Federal Marines, a mechanized brigade, try to chase down a formation of Space Pirates in a firefight for a section of forest on a resource rich world. Just a single, smaller section of a much larger battle, but the trench lines that had been set up were ablaze with weapons fire. Her own unit had split off to infiltrate the pirate lines; opening fire on the mortars they had set up from an unexpected angle as they filtered into a hole in their defences.

This action helped to cost the space pirates the battle, and they pursued the routing foe through the foliage until they found a portal of some sort opening up in front of the fleeing Confederates. The space pirates, seeing nothing to lose, poured in through the portal and forced the Federal troopers to give chase. The brigade lost track of the pirates shortly and tried to hunt them in the hallways. However, things would begin to go wrong sooner than later; the Sunstalker was soon hunting them down, picking them off at irregular intervals; utterly unstoppable. Not even the Diomar class heavy tanks could get the Sunstalker to flinch, nor was its defences any protection.

It eventually raided their base camp directly, where they tried to throw everything they had against it...but what they did not expect was a second one. With horns that made a crescent shape over its head, midnight blue highlights and energy where its solar counterpart had yellow, and moonlight white armour, the new being gave an appearance of being based on the moon as opposed to the sun. No sooner had the new foe stepped forth from a wormhole and at once, most of the Federation soldiers screamed as they began to implode within their armour. They died twisted, horrible deaths as they were sucked away into singularities with no means of resisting, and panic soon overtook the surviving marines.

She managed to run away in time, shame and fear carrying her far as she abandoned her fellow soldiers to their fate. All the while their screams never stopped ringing in her ears. She ran as fast as her augments and armour could carry her. Shame and fear made her go as far as she could until she found a room where she could progress no further; her armour unable to allow her to dive into the corrosive gas clouds long enough to make it. She passed by a statue bearing an upgrade, but as her armour lacked the modularity to incorporate it, all it was was an orb.

Frustrated and tired, she made her way down the halls until she came close to where she died, finding herself too scared to head back but no way to head forward. She cried, wailed for someone to help her, and heard the sounds of distant gunfire and the howl of the Sunstalker. She felt an urge to try and investigate, but the keen of a circular ring gate opening made her freeze. She turned around and saw the Moonhunter emerging before opening another such gate, trying to reach through only to be rebuffed by its own portal. A low groan of frustration that she felt as much as heard echoed from the white monster, and she briefly forgot her fear.

Then the Moonhunter turned towards her and it all came back at once. She tried to fight. She gave everything she had, it wasn't even a start on the path of being enough. She ran again, even through the clouds, hoping for the swift death of dissolving over the Moonhunter's hunt. But her shields stopped ticking down as they glowed with an unusual force, and she then saw a claw reaching for her through the fog and had enough time to let out a scream. It was not a pleasant death. And the memory cut off shortly after the first breach into the armour by the Moonhunter.

Back in the present, Arne mulled over the implications. "There's two of them...can Spire and Armaud handle both of them?" He said, his mind going over possible scenarios, known information and capabilities. He kept on thinking and thinking about it until Samus straightened her posture and stood up.

"We're going to help them do it. We'll just need to find the right gear first. Come on. We're not letting those two...things get away with this." She said, steely determination filling her voice as she balled her fists up. That hot sensation of anger was coming back to her, filling her up like soup and making her feel the veins beneath her skin pulse. Injustice didn't sit with her, and she wasn't going to let it go answered.

"We'd need something to cancel out the gravity fields...some way of interfering with their teleportation, and weapons that can do some serious hurt to their shields. And if we can find them; something that can really hurt that armour. No sense in taking them on if we can't hurt them." Arne said, thinking about it and nodding supportively as they crossed out of the fog and through another room in the grand chamber.

"You're...not going to tell me it's a bad idea?" Samus said, raising an eyebrow.

"You said it yourself. Those things can't be allowed to prey on people. I'm sure they're behind the teleports somehow...might be an experiment by them to try and get off-world...or get to somewhere else important to them." He said, theorizing and letting his ideas rack themselves in his brain. He needed to understand them, why they were doing what they did. If he wanted to defeat them, he needed to grasp them.

"Yes...the Moonhunter was stopped when it tried to open a portal. It must be trying to reach something it's not allowed to, maybe it was trying to find a weak point in whatever's jamming its teleports?" Samus said.

"Yeah that would make sense...and I'm sure that they're the ones blocking communications. And we know they're why the animals are going wild. Not sure why domesticated animals are immune though, that's weird." He said as the two started to pick up their pace once again.

"Well...I think we should try finding some answers to our question no? There has to be something about the Forbidden Wars here somewhere. We probably won't even have to detour from our path." She said, offering him a come hither gesture.

"Come on Arne, let's do this." She said, anger and excitement blending together into a sort of impish anticipation that made her feel electric with eagerness to do some real heroic work in what was supposed to be a training mission.

"I'm ready." He said with a nod. And with that the two ascended a series of platforms, rushing towards the next door; cutting through countless hostile drones in their way. It almost seemed unfair at times, but they drove themselves with an eagerness to learn.

Old archives were stashed here, revealed to them by the map station they raided. Old archives for an old war with a few objects of interest to pick up along the way. A few attachments such as a wrist gun for the left arm and a bayonet projector for the cannon, shockwave emitters for the boots and alternate mode, a pair of retractable shoulder-mounted munitions launchers as well as corrosion-grenades for them, the spazer beam, the deadly screw attack, and their first power bombs. A number of energy tanks and other minor upgrades were of course also picked up along the way as they found their way to the archives. Though perhaps most unusual were some upgrades for the zero suit, durability augments, enhancements to their sidearms, a few extra functions here and there. Nothing they hoped they'd need to use anytime soon, but useful.

Off the beaten path, the archives were a menagerie of differing architectural styles as they provided centralized access to the collected stores of knowledge of countless civilizations gathered throughout millions of years. Much of the recorded history here was older than the very first hominid, some of it comparable in age to the dinosaurs or even older. But they were looking for something perhaps a bit newer than that. They tried to maintain their focus, even as they tried to contain their excitement at being presented with so much information.

"Wow...I could get lost in here forever..." Samus whistled out, her young brain filled with so many possibilities. She warmed inside at the thought of understanding even a fraction of the information stored here, and briefly lost herself in dreams of curling up with endless tomes of knowledge before snapping back to her task at hand. Her armour analyzed the organization system of the archives while Arne briefly stopped when he noticed a text written by Elmorni amongst the datafiles his armour was perusing.

"Observations on the indigenous population of Planet..." He said, pursing his lips beneath his helmet as the armour A.I translated the data. "Earth?" He blinked. He never knew that about his caretaker, but there she was in the files; observing Roman legionaries from a distance. He'd have to ask her about that when he got back to her, but he noticed Samus had already started to wander off. Scrambling, he caught up to her as she ran her hand along the side of one of the archive mainframes.

"Find anything?" He asked, slowing himself down once he was walking beside her again.

"Here we go." She said, snapping her gauntleted finger as if her hand were utterly bare as she extracted the information. "Records of the Celestial War." She mused as she dug into the data. It was rather vague, but there was enough there for her to piece some of it together, including a name she recognized as taboo. It was a name given to storybook monsters who had never been given the honour of an appellation in all the old tales she listened to as a small child; Krazimak. The old enemy, a foe whom the Commonwealth developed the greatest war machine ever seen to best. They who had been expelled to beyond the firmament for their wars of aggression and pacts with dark things from the vast unplace at the hour of their final defeat. The banishment though was supposed to have caught their entire civilization and all their allies who refused terms though. A fact that left her with the question as to how two got here.

"The pocket universe they're stuck in is supposed to be unbreachable. Nothing gets in or out. Must be two stragglers then...they don't seem like they could be true warriors. Definitely not with that much time to advance." She said, taking a moment to put her armoured chin in her fingers as she paused for a moment to think.

"Then they might be trying to find a way to break open the seal somewhat. Though they'd need way more than what this planet can offer if they want to make any sizeable breach...if it's even possible at all honestly." He said, then shaking his head. "I don't really get it though, the old foe would have probably wiped themselves out if they were trapped in there all that time...why bother trying to go back?"

"A hundred and fourteen thousand years is a very long time to get homesick. They're probably desperate, that might have given them hope. But if that's the case...then we'll have to put them down. Even if you're right, and I think you are, it's too risky to gamble with something like this." She said, coming to her decision decisively and swiftly in a way that left Arne almost breathless.

"I think that sounds like a good plan, we'll just need to gather what we can to even the odds. Then I think we should cut their communications jamming. If we can link up with Spire and Armaud once we're ready...we can really do this." He said, bringing up a map of the facility and having his suit try to analyze any sources of signal distortion and coming up with a likely location.

"Great thinking! Then if we can get control of the planet's defence systems too...we could totally clean them out no problem!" She said, beaming brightly beneath her helmet.

"I mean...I wouldn't say no problem; there's probably going to be problems. But yeah, good plan I'd say." He gave her a thumbs up that she reciprocated before they made one of their arm locks and headbutts of affection as they decided to redirect course; pulling whatever information that caught their interest all the while. Of course, this meant about as much of it as they could get their scan visors to analyze.

Once they had everything they wanted, they made a course towards something quite important on their journey, going through another elevator to take them to the region of Azimil. There they were met with a great deal of water and pools. Aquatic life forms swam freely through this water, sharing it with drones designed to function in an environment which their armour; while able to traverse, was slowed down by. The sensation of speed was replaced with the frustration of drag and pushing through the weight of liquid and fluid; something they could manage with decent velocity but ever an annoyance. The howl of the stalkers unfortunately forced them to have to deal with some of the majestic wildlife. Perhaps the one they felt the most broken up about having to engage were the powerful but beautiful sailbacked and ray like elagons who sought mostly to feed off of plankton but proved viciously aggressive once provoked by the hunting call.

This sort of activity dragged on their attempt to blitz through the area as quickly as possible. The rush they got from accomplishing everything as fast as they could had faded into memory and the deliberation of making sure they were moving in the right way lest they waste time with more traversing through water grew like an annoying mosquito bite. For the often impatient Samus in particular, the constant sensation of being forced to slow down and hold back grated on her, while Arne kept on feeling as if he was being judged by someone for every second of wasted time.

Every time they were able to surface into a section of drier land was one where they felt relieved as the world seemed to no longer be in slow motion.

"Ugh...I sometimes feel like I'd be faster swimming unsuited." Samus groaned as she emerged from the water while they oriented themselves. She didn't bother shake drying her armour and took a sip of the nutrient feed that her armour provided when she indicated she wanted something in her system. After that, she dismissed her armour altogether and undid the face cover of her zero suit. Blue and white with harder plates to offer additional protection to vital areas and designed to evoke musculature, the zero suit felt like wearing nothing but the air, but she didn't really mind. She sighed and stretched herself while Arne was already trying to scout ahead.

"Not going to take a break there Arne?" She asked, causing him to stop in his tracks and turn around while he nodded and dismissed his own armour in turn.

"Something the matter?" He asked, approaching her as she patted his silver hair and gave a cheeky grin.

"Mmmh...nothing really, just wanted to talk face to face with my boyfriend for a bit. Since we are doing this whole quest pretty ad hoc no?" She said, laying her fingers on his chin and turning his head towards her. His pale cheeks turned a quite brilliant red akin to his eyes as he averted his gaze.

"Well uh...what do you want to talk about, Sammy?" He said, the pet name making her flush herself as she gave him a gentle punch in the arm that elicited a mock "ow" from him.

"What do you want to do when we finish up? You haven't forgotten my offer have you?" She said, blue eyes looking at him expectantly as he stammered.

"What...miss a night watching shows with you? No way!" He said as she smiled and pulled him into a hug that he quickly returned, a peck of the lips shared shortly afterwards.

"Well I'm glad, just remember...I don't care what Zurvduat says, he can't come. I hate seeing him and I'm not having him spoil our fun." She said, rather enjoying how warm he felt as she refused to break from the embrace.

"Hahah...that's a bit of a long term worry right now isn't it?" he said awkwardly. "Gotta clear out the problem in this facility first right? I mean...probably return to our suits as fast as possible. We're going to need them shortly." He said as she nodded.

"Yeah...we shouldn't be too far away anyway. The map said up ahead should just be an obstacle challenge room. It's going to suck doing it through the water, but once we're through the gravity anomaly should be on the other side." She said, peeling from the hug with a bit of a skip as she resummoned her suit and helmet, letting Arne follow suit and lead the way.

"I'll take point this time." He said as the two looked at the borderline maze of challenges to go through both with and without water and even gravitational distorts and felt an immediate sense of dread. Samus even let out a groan of preemptive frustration and almost sulked towards the obstacle course.

Braving a series of gruelling tasks, they had just about cut their way through a swarm of drones guarding a statue of a bipedal moth-like creature. In its hands was an upgrade that emitted powerful gravitational radiation and plunged themselves into the water to acquire it; letting it merge with their suits and infuse it with a rush of energy as their backs began to glow. The thrusters upon them were augmented with a flight pack that went high enough to cover the backs of their heads, smooth and rounded in a shape somewhat like half of a pelvis. The water that had once provided them with so much resistance all at once felt like it didn't exist. This they found, was the Gravity Boost. But they would not just be allowed to claim it.

The hunting howl of the moonhunter resounded through the water and a serpentine beast with a mouth full of fangs and a head like a dragon's crawled through, finned limbs stroking through the water as the grey-furred monster seemed to stretch on forever in the massive obstacle course room. Arne, fond of prehistoric earth fauna; found his mind making a comparison to a basilosaurus with a bit of the traits of an otter and perhaps a narwhal, given the long tusk that extended from the nose of the monster. Samus for her part, took a good look at the creature as its body seemed to go for hundreds of meters and just grinned beneath her helmet as the scan visor identified it as the Goradon.

"Think we can take it out without killing it?" Arne asked.

"Definitely." She said enthusiastically as its roar made the entirety of the room and more shake like an earthquake was going on, the two of them immediately assuming their fighting positions in response.

The Goradon's sinuous body stretched on for long enough that the parts of its body farther away from the pair faded into the blue of the water; a partially hidden colossus who could have swallowed a whale whole with its mouth. The obstacle course folded away, and the room shifted as it expanded to give the colossal Goradon all the space it needed. The battlespace went from just barely large enough to fit the goradon's frigate sized body to more than enough to give it all the room to move around it needed. Floating platforms rose up and then started to drift in chaotic patterns. The floor lowered, letting the water below sluice through until it was deep enough for the leviathan to manoeuvre comfortably and the light of the surface could no longer be seen in the pitch dark of abyssal depths. But they could still fight, the pressure not bothering them at all while their superhuman eyes and low-light visors served to illuminate the field of battle.

Their scan visors reported that the creature's sensitive ears were its weakest point, with a sonic attack against these organs being the recommended course of action. It also informed them that the beast was deadset on the pair despite their enormous difference in size. Fortunately, the scan also suggested that the berserk state it was in could be undone, should they be able to sufficiently disrupt the lingering harmonic fields within its ears.

"+We can save it...+" Samus said over the commlinks with Arne as her eyes widened with realisation, getting a nod out of him.

"+We just need to interfere with the energy still reverberating through it, and we should be able to break the berserk state. Then once we've got the data w-+" He said before she finished his sentence for him.

"+We can tune the seismic beam to it and use that to nonlethally subdue the berserk wildlife. And the Goradon should be tough enough for it to handle the process until we get it just right.+" She said. Something like this was worth fighting for over merely trying to find a way out as soon as possible. It was a chance to not only save the Goradon itself but save every other creature from the mad spell of the Sunstalker and Moonhunter.

"+That'll take plenty of punch out of the hands of the two. We'll just need to get in well...uh, earshot.+" He said, feeling slightly embarrassed at the unavoidable pun.

"+Don't worry, we'll be able to manage. We have to if we want to subdue this poor thing.+" She said, clenching her fist and focusing her mind. Of course, getting there would be a challenge in its own right in the face of the creature's sheer size and power. A power that it demonstrated with a click and an undulation of its throat that created a massive ripple of incoming pressure waves in the water. A sonic pulse to split the earth asunder and shake the seas.

Arne and Samus split off, Arne firing his new boosters to get over the sound wave before it could reach him, Samus dashing in the opposite direction and firing off her speed booster, cackling at the sensation of being under its power once again.

With the pulse avoided, Arne flanked it from the side and charged up a shot from his cannon. The seismic beam blast lanced from his weapon, stacked with several other beams to allow it to detonate, fire nine projectiles at once in a tight buckshot pattern, pierce through obstacles, and strike with considerably more power than was usual. And this impact was particularly more potent when combined with his max-charge and striking power upgrades. The strike made the creature's head lurch to the side, the behemoth's vast body unbraced for such a collision and its ears ringing from the impact.

Just the opening Samus needed as she launched herself in a shinespark tackle that struck the Goradon's body in the chest. The beast's quintessence field kept it alive, resisting the shinespark's efforts to bore right through its body, but it could not stop the impact as it bowled over the kaiju sized animal; flipping through the water before righting itself.

It swept its tail around at speeds high enough to make the water supercavitate, a foam of bubbles and a bow wave of parting water surrounding the lashing appendage as the creature spun itself around. The water around them swirled into a brief whirlpool, churned into furious motion as it moved around. The pair's retaliation in the form of a barrage of missile impacts was shrugged off, willing itself not to be budged by them before the supercavitation shockwave slammed the pair.

They were flung through the water and took considerable damage from a movement that displaced the water in the lake sized chamber all at once, sloshing it into a great wave while they righted themselves, a third of an energy tank lower than they once were. Indeed, a mighty blow; given that they felt only a single percentage of it. But the beast was not done yet, whipping its body into motion fast enough to supercavitate, intending to skewer them with its mighty tusk or crush them beneath its mass.

"+Samus, try and see if we can get it stuck.+" Arne said, counting the fractions of a second before impact. He already had his idea of how this was going to work formed in his head. He just needed to wait until the Goradon was fully committed to its movement, its looming shape growing ever larger in their vision. Soon could he could just about smell the creature, and saw every imperfection in its house-sized teeth and could count its billions of hairs.

"+Now Arne!+" Samus shouted, each of them firing off their blink packs to leave the Goradon with nothing to impact but the floor of the chamber's floor. A shockwave rippled outwards, lashing over the feature heavy floor while Arne and Samus materialised to the sides of its head as it thrashed its body, trying to get its hands to touch the ground while straining its neck muscles backwards. Anger and frustration could be felt roiling off of its massive body, its glowing green eyes a mask of fury and offence at having been trapped in such a manner. And that fury turned to writhing pain at the sensation of its ears being assaulted with sonic and concussive weapons. Its body tensed with each shot, a low groan rumbling across the water before it finally pulled itself free.

The monster shook and shuddered, and roared as it sought to get another pass on the two, snapping its head forward to catch them in its jaws. Seeing it approaching Arne, Samus latched onto the side of its head with her grapple beam and tugged the thing's head to the other side violently, grunting as she wrestled with its enormous muscles and planting her heels. The contest between her own musculature and her armour's strength and the creature's millions of tonnes of quintessence fueled flesh lasted only a few moments from her perspective until the surprised animal found itself redirected just enough that its exposed ear was struck again by Arne. It hated the sensation, but its eyes seemed to clear somewhat with that impact.

"+Ahah! I think I'm getting close! Just need to fine-tune a bit.+" Arne said, letting the left hand's wrist blaster let loose with a continual beam pulse that clearly aggravated the leviathan. Samus added her own fire to the mix, the two making the kaiju undulate in discomfort and feeling terrible every step of the way as its cries made their hearts sink. Samus could only hope to find what she was looking for quickly in the hopes of releasing the animal from its spell, but all at once her bones felt alive with electric anticipation.

"+Incoming!+" She shouted, engaging her teleport to find cover as the monster, clicked its jaw and then snapped it at speeds so great as to create a white flash of heat from its grinding teeth as it released a sound burst in all directions. A bubble expanded with a skin as hot as a star, like a pistol shrimp's snap magnified to a scale that could be the ruin of old earth nations. The beast floundered in the vacuum pocket it had created briefly before the bubble finally collapsed, and the whole of the watery arena churned to the point of starting to steam until anti-energy was released to cool the fluid. Arne was not lucky enough to dodge it, having gotten too focused in trying to find the right frequency. He had enough cognisance to recognise that Samus had shouted "+ARNE!+" over the comms just before he took the impact head-on.

An entire energy tank depleted instantly before his impact with the wall depleted a second, his body splayed out from the impact and his head swimming briefly from the impact. But he recovered himself, gasping briefly for breath before getting his bearings once again. His vision straightened and his mind cleared and he found himself being bullrushed by the creature. He stopped himself and braced for impact, reaching out a hand and blocking its motion. He felt his body strain from the impact, he felt his boots dragging across the ground and he saw another energy tank start to tick downwards. But he did not relent. He raised a leg, took a step forward and held position.

He felt his legs fight to stay rigid, his body seemed to be of steel as he refused to give any slack. Each movement had to be fought over but he persevered even as a second energy tank emptied. He felt something wet in his nose very much unlike the usual mucus that had a coppery taste in his mouth as he heard a power missile strike the behemoth in the side, bringing the frigate sized beast to a sudden halt as it snarled in displeasure. Now, he finally broke free and redirected its remaining momentum into the ground, teleporting aside as it impaled itself into the floor once again.

Already, Samus had been taking advantage of its distraction, filling its ears with shifting frequencies. "+Are you alright Arne? You've taken some pretty hard hits.+" She asked as he got onto another side of the leviathan and struck at its ears. Worry was in her voice, and he felt guilty for letting himself be in a position where she'd have to worry about him instead of being able to handle himself. A punch to the gut as sure as taking that bubble blast.

"+I'll be fine, Samus. I've had worse.+" He said as he sighed. Only a half-truth and both of them knew it. He had worse yes, but his voice was shaky with discontent at having shown weakness. He made a mistake, and he was cursing himself for it. Already he could imagine Zurvduat's criticisms, already he felt like he was letting his birth parents down. They could have handled this if they had the same kind of means he did. What was he then if he couldn't be better despite everything he was given?

"+Arne. You're not okay, stop pretending you are and let me help you! You can do this! You made a misstep that's all. Just focus on the harmonics and we'll be in the clear!+" Samus said as the titan started to thrash once again, digging its hands into the floor and trying to push back. However, its eyes were increasingly less filled with malice even as it struggled against the sound filling its ears. But right now, her concerns were elsewhere, she could sense the disquiet in his head, she could feel the frustration in his heart. And that frustration soon echoed inside of her, why couldn't she help him?

"+I...I can't do this right now Samus! I need to...I've almost got the frequency.+" He said, trying to purge his mind of the sense of frustration and unquiet that was wracking around inside of it. He needed to focus, he had to make this right. Checking the mental math he was doing against what his armour computer had come up with, he relayed the information to Samus and the two came to something that finally matched the chaotic, physics-defying frequency. At last he felt a bit of triumph as the armour reported to him with those magical words. "Frequency neutralised". All at once the animal stopped trying to catch them with its limbs and instead pulled itself out. It glowered at them, knowing they had caused it pain, but it seemed understanding, contemplating them briefly before exhaling to calm down and swimming away.

"+We did it!+" Arne said, briefly smiling to himself before Samus stormed up to him and grabbed him by the collar, shooting the both of them out of the water with their gravity boosters. They breached outwards like cannonballs and landed atop a platform as she turned her head towards him and let her visor opacity decrease to give him a good view of her eyes. She wasn't happy. She was scowling even. He adored her, but her anger sparked a bit of primordial fear in him, even as he felt guilty for upsetting her.

"Arne! Listen to me. You need to get Zurvduat out of your head for once!" She said, pulling off her helmet and tossing it on the ground as she glared at him. "Take that thing off now; we need to talk." She said, tapping on his helmet and getting his almost immediate compliance. He inhaled once again, the freshwater air filling his nostrils as he allowed it to permeate through his armour and zero suit shielding.

"You know I don't have the same kind of...family you do. People who stand up for you, who kiss you goodnight and brush away your tears. I can't jus-" He started before Samus laid her hand on his cheek and thumbed over the skin just below his right eye. The metal on her gauntlet was warm to the touch, softer than expected, and glistening with wetness fresher than the water. He had been tearing again.

"Arne, when we finish this you'll be free to leave him behind. He's not the only one judging you, and if he's going to try and keep you over taking a few hits here and there in this maze, then he doesn't deserve you as a son." She said calmly, shushing him as he started to relax his guard and allow himself to sob a bit from the stress of worrying about his father's approval. "And you do have a good family. You've got people like Elmorni to look out for you, and not all of the Alimbics are out to whip you into shape as Zurvduat does." She said.

"...I...I know...but almost everyone on Zebes loves you and I just...why don't I have that? The worst you've got is Mother Brain and you just...ignore her. I...I want something like that." He said, shuddering a bit as he slumped a bit forwards onto her.

"Mother Brain is...stupid. Smart, but stupid. She doesn't understand me. She never wanted me. So why care about what she has to say? Besides...not all the Chozo are as sweet as Old Bird. Some of them don't see Mother Brain the way I do, and..." She said before realising she had opened her own defences up as Arne nodded.

"You're scared that Mother Brain is planning something, but you don't know how to convince them. Especially when she's supposed to know everything but...well...here we are trying to stop something that isn't supposed to exist anymore." He said, sniffling a bit as he attempted to collect himself, resting a hand on the one she offered him.

"...Yeah. She's supposed to be everywhere, monitoring everything. How didn't she know about this?" She said, looking down before meeting his gaze again.

"Look...I don't know how to talk to her, but I think the ones on her side believe you're...biased I guess? You've never liked her. Maybe try making a bit of an effort to understand her? You're honestly probably right to worry, but just...start making preparations." He said, getting a nod out of her.

"You're right. I just...find it so frustrating that I can't be rid of her and when I see you and Zurvduat I think...it's everything I'm scared of happening to people like us. When I look at Zurvduat, I see Mother Brain...not Old Bird, and that scares me, Arne." She said, sitting him down onto a crate and following suit.

"I want people to be safe and happy to be able to do things that make them happy. I don't want people like you to cry...I hate feeling like there's nothing I can do. Please, Arne, I want to feel like I can do something." She said, finding his arm on her shoulder and a pat on it as she closed her eyes and blinked a loose tear or so.

"I...well, we're doing something now, aren't we. Two of us, sitting here, talking things out. You're more patient than you think you are Samus. You put up with everything pretty well and well...I think you're going to do great when you get out there. And then people will see what I see." He said, sniffling again as he looked gently on her.

"I mean, I don't think everyone's going to see me exactly the way you do. Especially with the stuff you've um...seen." She said with a red flush. "It is a bit...special even if I'd like other people to see me that way too. I just hope I don't scare them away when I get mad." She said with a little giggle and getting a blush out of him.

"Ahah that'd be a bit, really, super-awkward. Let's uh, ah, ahem. Other people would be nice but uhhh." He cleared his throat and tried his best not to do his an impression of a beet root. "Okay, starting over. With the anger thing. Well, the way I see it, you just get mad about stuff people should be mad about. It's not really a bad thing. It just means you care."

"Your mother said that in one of her books. That being outraged means you care." She said with a smile.

"She was...really smart about that kind of thing." He said, returning the smile.

"But I think you should pay a bit more attention to what she wrote about valuing yourself Arne. You're not a disappointment or whatever Zurvduat says...you're the guy who's going to kick Krazimak butt with me, Spire, and Armaud. Then let's see Zurvduat try to keep you down." She said, starting to grin.

"Hahah...yeah. I guess I am! But on that note, Samus...please, never think you can't help. Just, sitting here and talking this out with me was a big help. And I don't want you to think you're helpless." He said, giving her a hug before the two shared another kiss, deeper than last time before duty called to them to break it up once again.

"Love you." She said. The words had been shared between them like secret notes for almost a year now. Now they felt so much heavier than ever before. A moment born of concerned anger strengthened those words, made them feel almost divine. Being near him made her feel like she was understood, that she wasn't alone. That someone could listen to her and know what she felt the way only a peer could. He gave her a sense that not only could she realize her dreams, she would be able to count on other people to make them real.

"Love you too." He replied. He meant it. She gave him a sense that he was valued, that he was someone who mattered and was more than just what others told him to be. She made him optimistic, that things were going to go alright and he could live up to the expectations set for him.

The moment that seemed to last forever, the warmth in their chests stretching that iota of time out until seconds felt like hours came to an end though as they recollected their helmets.

"We should probably get going, we're gonna need to collect a few things and disable that signal. Come on, Spire's probably got another navigation thing set up." Arne said, stretching as he reared up to his full height.

"Let's not keep them waiting then." She said, confident as they started to move at full speed once again.

---

Consolidated Logbook Entries

Diamont Logs: Craftsman's Honour

We are proud of our work that has chiselled old stone into the finest gems. Our hands have forged for aeons in peace and war, and we look on our achievements with glad hearts. The splendour of Mondreus and the other gem worlds can be shared with all, and it is only natural that we seek to gift to Zoran some of the beauty that we hope to build throughout the cosmos until all may live in the glory that we all deserve for our labours. We who have built these works that you now look upon now only ask of you to reflect on our artifice and appreciate the effort that went into our craft.

Samus' Notes:
It's a bit odd to find this next to a destroyed statue I'll admit.

Arne's Notes:
I suppose I am something of a traveller from an antique land.

Mechanoids: Diamont: Utility: Nuisance: Skradal

The Skradal drone is an almost ubiquitous example of multipurpose Diamont Drone technology that was developed to make life simpler. Designed for handling nearly all menial tasks from cleaning to mining to most forms of routine maintenance and repair work, Skradal Drones are present on virtually all worlds that once had a Diamont presence. With the disappearance of the Diamonts, the Skradals have largely continued to follow their last orders and any other tasks that their synthetic consciousnesses determine are necessary. Skradal drones are extremely resilient to heat but do not handle cryogenic stresses particularly well.

Samus' Notes:
Thinking about it, is the Diamonts being known as a culture of artists because the Diamonts were particularly creative? Or is it just because they had a lot of free time because they had robots do most of the work?

Arne's Notes:
My parents always wrote about how it made no sense to have so many people working for a wage when all the technology for everyone to have all the free time they want. Especially when people in the ODOCR already live like that. I guess the Diamonts thought the same way they did.

Species: Fauna: Metallic: Molluscoid: Cephalopodoid: Octopoid: Large: Debatably Sapient: Omnivorous: Non-Hostile: Magrakal

The Magrakal species originates from the molten world of Agramat and has been found to be able to spread far and wide by its young stowing away on the craft of thermophilic species. A common and particularly intelligent animal often regarded as a pest to an outright menace, the Magrakal can fill a large number of niches due to its omnivorous diet and adaptable body plan. Semi-aquatic ambush predation, active pursuit hunting, fully aquatic camouflage ambushes, and filter-feeding all serve substantial roles in ensuring that Magrakals have sufficient food intake for their caloric needs. Magrakals are vulnerable to low temperatures and will begin to die in temperatures below the melting point of glass.

Samus' Notes:
Hrm...I think I've got an idea for the fabricator now. Something nice and plush and squid shaped.

Arne's Notes:
Having been inside Spire's ship I'm curious as to just which part of those ships their young stow away in?

Species: Fauna: Silicoid: Tripod: Legolramik: Stragim: Ralag: Non-Sapient: Omnivorous: Non-Hostile: Magistrider

Magistriders are large and generally unaggressive animals native to Zorant that use their immensely long legs to stride well above the surface of molten materials to make their prey think they are much smaller than they are as well as to reach special foliage that only grows at specific heights. Upon the detection of prey through the sensory organs, Magistriders will quickly plunge stabbing limbs into the molten pools to skewer their victims and pull them up towards their mouthparts for consumption. As might be expected from the gracility of their limbs, Magistriders are vulnerable to limb damage and will typically topple over if one leg is lost.

Samus' Notes:
It's awful to see these animals just mutilated as collateral damage. At least they didn't die in too much pain.

Arne's Notes:
It's...pretty disturbing to see so many dead Magistriders when they're some of the least hostile animals of that size I know.

Species: Fauna: Living Metal: Diapsidoid: Archosauriform: Crocodilloform: Suchidomorph: Non-Sapient: Carnivorous: Hostile: Olgromak

The Olgromak is a creature indigenous to the molten planet of Harandl that is rarely found outside of environments hot enough to melt most conventional metals. The extremophilic organism occupies a semi-aquatic ambush predator niche much akin to the Crocodiles of Earth, lurking near the shoreline and seeking to pull prey into the molten material to drown them and pull them apart. Well armoured and tremendously strong, Olgromaks are often among the most dangerous predators in the biomes they inhabit. However, like most extremophilic metallic organisms; they do not respond well to cryogenic weapons which can induce severe temperature shock in their tissue.

Samus' Notes:
I'm hoping I haven't caused any permanent damage by using my cryogenic weapons, but if not, I'm praying that the facility's drones can take care of them.

Arne's Notes:
I'm really curious as to what exactly goes into the berserker signal that makes wild animals so aggressive...it's...weird to see them crawl out of their preferred environment to fight us in ours.

Species: Fauna: Silicoid: Molluscoid: Cephalopodoid: Pseudo-Squid: Titan class organism: Debatably Sapient: Omnivorous: Hostile: Azagal

The Azagal is a species of Titan class organisms native to the Diamont homeworld of Mondreus typically dwelled within the planet's mantle and outer core. While initially starting life as fry the size of a human's thumbnail, Azagals can grow in size seemingly without limit so long as they avoid death; their physiologies continually changing to accommodate their greater bulk. While typically remaining in these superheated areas, Azagals sometimes approach the surface to acquire minerals found less common in the inner regions of the planets they reside in. Azagals are incredibly durable and robust and can make use of the quintessence within them to project ultra-high temperature attacks from the crystal formations in their tentacles. Like most organisms native to extremely high temperatures; however, rapid decreases in temperature will usually prove exceedingly dangerous to their tissue.

Samus' Notes:
Spire really liked to tell stories about Mondreus and the kind of animals that live there. I wonder if he's met this particular Azagal now actually?

Arne's Notes:
Man am I hoping that the Azagal isn't going to miss that tentacle. That must have been hundreds of thousands of tons worth of flesh to regenerate later.

Upgrades: Sub-Weapons: Projectile: Diamont originated: Autoflak

The Autoflak is a somewhat crude but effective weapon that launches hypervelocity fragmentation projectiles that will explode into a shower of subatomically sharp shards; dealing severe damage to any target caught in the blast radius. Capable of sustained rapid-fire, the Autoflak is incredibly deadly against large numbers of soft targets or targets that rely on agility rather than durability for their survivability. The autoflak can be charged to fire a cluster shell that will launch submunitions in addition to the initial wave of shards; annihilating most soft targets in reach.

Samus' Notes:
Diamont Weapons are pretty straightforward but hugely fun to use. The Autoflak's proven to be incredible against swarming enemies so far.

Arne's Notes:
I'm more familiar with reverse-engineered versions made by later societies, but every time I've seen Spire use one of these, he's put it to good use.

Upgrades: Beams: Sonic: Diamont originated: Seismic Beam

The Seismic Beam is a sonic weapon that releases a burst of air in front of it, generating it from the armour's zero point systems and then having it trailed by a powerful vibrational frequency. The more that the beam hits a target, the more it will resonate with the target, increasing the damage with each following hit until the target is destroyed or until the resonance stops. The beam will also traverse through multiple targets and can ignore many forms of cover. Its charged form is known as the Seismoquake and causes the afflicted target to resonate violently, echoing outwards and damaging all nearby enemies.

Samus' Notes:
What I've found is that the Seismoquake can be extended by firing onto the resonating target. Usually, the target will be destroyed before you can get too crazy with the amplification, but it makes the Seismic Beam great at clearing out mobs.

Arne's Notes:
The Seismic Beam's been a dream at dealing with tunnelling enemies, collapsing the tunnels on top of them is worth it. There's a bit of a delay though, maybe I could rig it to use a denser medium? Something I'll need to think about later.

Upgrades: Sub-Weapons: Projectile: Diamont Created: Magnum Cannon

The Magnum Cannon serves as a powerful sniper weapon and anti-materiel tool for the user. Accelerating a projectile to near light speed, the Magnum Cannon's projectiles are capable of penetrating through multiple targets at a time and can shear their way through most armour and shielding thanks to the disruption effect of the projectile. While light progenitor grade shielding remains effective, the Magnum Cannon will be more than sufficient against most modern technology. The charge shot will fire a MIRV projectile that will split into submunitions, damaging up to three lines worth of targets.

Samus' Notes:
Getting used to aiming the MIRV for maximum effect's going to take just a bit of getting used to, but I think once I properly use my distant sight to do it I'll be lining up group shots like nothing.

Arne's Notes:
It's not quite as precise as the Imperialist but quite a lot punchier. I'd call it more of an anti-materiel weapon than a sniper, but I can use it like that in a pinch.

Upgrades: Charge Combo: Projectile: Chozo Created: Power Missile

Fusing the power of an overcharged power beam shot and five missiles which may be swapped in for super missiles and/or charged and/or elemental missiles, the power missile impacts with tremendous kinetic energy before releasing a power burst. The energy is "neutral" with regards to most resistances and can afflict entities usually immune to elemental forms of damage such as many forms of spirits. The projectile will retain its full homing capabilities and bears a significantly increased area of effect compared to the standard missile.

Samus' Notes:
Pretty basic as far as combos go, it just shoots a more powerful missile. Definitely might have use in clearing some obstacles and locks though.

Arne's Notes:
It's very bog-standard, but honestly, it just works? Nothing really more to say about it.

Upgrades: Explosives: Multiple-Origin: Elemental Warheads:

Elemental warheads such as Toxin grenades, Ice Bombs, Pyro-Missiles and similar devices augment your existing explosive arsenal by offering them increased damaging effect as well as the capacity to deliver elemental effects. The user may swap between or combine compatible effects as deemed necessary to create differing types of warheads as the situation demands. Elemental warheads may be applied to superlative but more ammunition intensive munitions such as super-missiles, power bombs, and ultra grenades.

Samus' Notes:
More versatility is always welcome. I'll try out some of the elemental combinations as soon as I can get the chance.

Arne's Notes:
Ugh, I've got so many ideas on how to tinker with the missiles for better effect but no time to sit down and work on them right now.

Upgrades: Grapple Beam: Offensive/Utility: Grapple Voltage

The grapple voltage adds the ability for the user to transmit or drain energy through the grapple beam. Transmission of energy may be used to charge targets or overload them while the drain function may be used to bolster the user's suit functions or replenish shielding as the need arises. The grapple voltage may also be utilized for medicinal purposes, converting suit energy into bioforce able to regenerate injuries.

Samus' Notes:
I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of the bioforce transfer. I just wish I had more tools to heal as well as hurt?

Arne's Notes:
From my notes in combat, the send function seems to work a lot faster than the receive function.

Mechanoids: Chozo: Warrior Testing: Combat Capable: Torizo

Build in the stylized visage of traditional Chozo statuary, Torizos serve similar functions to standard statues until the item they guard is collected, or some other predetermined trigger is set off. Upon this eventuality, the Torizo activates and reveals itself to be a combat test. Torizo models come in many degrees of strength and combat capability, but all share the tendency to shift in colour towards purple as they take damage to give the warrior a clear idea of their progress. The weakest Torizos start the battles they fight already in their purple state while stronger ones typically have other colour schemes. This particular model of Torizo is a green Torizo and will augment its ability to fire claw produced energy crescents, anti-energy ocular bolts, and clap generated shockwaves with the capacity to vent quintessence plasma at nearby targets orally.

Samus' Notes:
Torizos are largely bog-standard to fight, but they can be quite tricky since they're a lot faster than they look. Pinning them down to one place usually makes things go faster as long as you can keep them from jumping out of your suppressive fire.

Arne's Notes:
The deception seems to only really work if you already associate Chozo statues with places of safety. And honestly, a Chozo statue standing in the middle of what's clearly an arena is probably not entirely benign.

Upgrades: Armour: Physical modification: Chemical Defenses: Multiple Makers: Desolation Suit

The Desolation suit was designed with ensuring the user's ability to traverse through chemical obstacles and deal with chemically derived attacks. Created initially with hypercorrosive agents such as Fuel Gel in mind, the Desolation Suit has come to offer a wide array of protections against all manner of toxic agents. In addition to rendering the user immune to nearly all hostile corrosive agents, the Desolation suit offers a wide array of overall improvements to the armour's functions, including to shield resilience, plating durability, regenerative capacity and physical augmentation. In addition, modifications to the visor allow for somewhat clearer sight in heavily polluted environments.

Samus' Notes:
Honestly there's not a whole lot to say about it, though I'm not entirely sure that the colour scheme looks all that good with my armour. That being said, it's going to be handy when I have to deal with Fuel Gel.

Arne's Notes:
There's something to be said for the ability to go through most toxic environments without any trouble. Still, I'm surprised by how little these Chozo upgrades alter the appearance of the armour.

Individuals: Human: Galactic Federation: Female: Military: Marine Corps: Deceased: Non-Commissioned Officers: Melinda Graves

Born on the starship GFNSS Endeavour to military parents on a long deployment, Melinda Graves knew nothing but the marine corps for her entire life. Educated in the Guilliman military academy and enrolled in its cadet program, she immediately signed for a majority competence exam to fast track her career into the Marine Corps' ranks. Serving with the 389,841st Spelzar "Bows of Apollo" Mechanized Brigade, Melinda rose to the rank of Sergeant, serving multiple tours of duty in the Andromeda galaxy in active combat assignments against deep penetration raids by hostile entities such as the Confederacy of Dismor. With the currently revealed evidence, it is apparent that Melinda and the 389,841st were wiped out entirely by the Sunstalker and Moonhunter. With her suit's stock of nonreplenishable munitions emptied and her armour computers having registered continual weapon discharges, any claims of cowardice on her part are faulty. Her retreat was initiated by a lack of means to continue fighting. She is survived by her parents Laura Graves and Ivan Borisovich Orlokov and half-sister Sasha Ivanovich Orlokov.

Samus' Notes:
I'll tell papa that there's going to be a message we'll need to deliver. Hopefully, we'll be able to deliver her remains to her family too.

Arne's Notes:
She fought bravely as my mother did. Certainly not for cowardly causes like the outfit that attacked Cylosis. Rest well.

Individuals: Organic: Active: Combatant: Dangerous: Old Foe: Unknown: Unknown: Moonhunter One

Moonhunter One is an Old Foe combatant patterned off of the lunar cult. Though the means with which Moonhunter One is able to be present in this reality following the sealing is unknown, Moonhunter One appears to have been present in this universe for quite some time. As an instrument of the Lunar Cult, Moonhunter One is equipped with a wide array of gravitic weapons to embody the tides of the Old Foe homeworld's moons. A wide array of other weapon systems have been observed, but the full array of weapons is currently unable to be determined. Moonhunter One's present combat capabilities are beyond your ability to confront in combat and engaging it without the benefit of gravitonic defence systems at all is strongly advised against for the user's safety.

Recommendation: Avoid conflict with.

Samus' Notes:
The Moonhunter seems to be more sadistic and predatory than the Sunstalker, I'm wondering if we could use that to lure it into a trap?

Arne's Notes:
If Spire's words on the Sunstalker being a coward are accurate, could that apply to the Moonhunter? I just need to think of a way to keep it from fleeing then.

Equipment: Modular: Arm Cannon Attachment: Melee: Bayonet projector

The Bayonet Projector allows the arm cannon to fire either a coherent energy blade or extend a physical energy sheathed blade from either beneath or above. The blade, like the Arm-Sword; is upgraded by beam weapons and a certain number of melee blade specific upgrades. The primary effect of this is to double the avenues of bladed melee attack the user can make in combat.

Samus' Notes:
Definitely handy but not something I hope to have to use too often.

Arne's Notes:
Modifying my fighting style to account for a second bladed implement isn't really that hard. Just a matter of switching between forms.

Equipment: Modular: Shoulder Attachments: Ranged: Munitions Launcher

The munitions launcher serves as a platform for releasing extra munitions without occupying the attentions of the arm cannon. Primarily a method of firing grenades, specialist projectiles or fluid streams, the Munitions launcher is also able to be utilized while in alternate form to allow for ranged combat capability in the alternate mode.

Samus' Notes:
The range on these weapons is pretty good, you could get a lot of use out of them indirectly bombarding distant targets I'd imagine.

Arne's Notes:
Enemies in cover I'd imagine would be a primary target for the munitions launcher; a well-timed airburst could clear out most enemies in hiding.

Equipment: Modular: Wrist-Mounted: Ranged: Wrist Gun

The wrist gun is a secondary ranged weapon attachment designed for usage on the freehand. While its projectiles lack the raw power of the arm cannon's; they allow for additional fire capabilities and can serve as a backup tool in case multiple avenues of fire are required. The wrist gun can utilize all the same weapons that the arm cannon may utilize at reduced strength. It may also be separated and used as a sidearm should the need arise.

Samus' Notes:
You could get a lot of use out of it in melee honestly. But usually, I'd say I'd only really need my arm cannon most of the time? Still, not bad to have as an option.

Arne's notes:
Using this for the shock coil should be handy for getting energy cycled back into my suit.

Upgrades: Chozo Designed: Mobility/Offense: Screw Attack

The Screw attack emits a zero-point field around itself that reduces nearly all matter it comes into contact with into quark dust by twisting their bonds at the subatomic level. Energy fields are similarly disrupted as the "screw" effect twists most particle-waves into incoherent paths, instantly breaking through any but the most resilient of defences. The spin motion of the user is generally required to initiate the user, limiting its usage to somersaulting jumps, thus requiring practice to make offensive usage of. However, it also provides for excellent defensive capabilities while moving as virtually no attacks can break through the field it generates.

Samus' Notes: I think I'm getting good with aiming the Screw Attack just right to catch flying enemies. But I think it'd only really reach its full potential with something that could let me somersault indefinitely.

Arne's Notes: The primary downside to this is that it's a bit hard to make use of any ranged weapons while building up the necessary spin for the weapon to work. The primary upside is that there's not much better for going through a contested gap with a single jump.

Equipment: Weapons: Multiple Origin: Shockwave Quake Generators

Shockwave quake generators are primarily mounted in the boots and gauntlets and serve as a means to clear out surrounding enemies, augment kicks or punches, and make a means of dynamic entry; removing large numbers of targets upon landing. Shockwave quake generators can be charged up for larger shockwaves that will not only damage enemies with the energy field released but also physically push them back with the high kinetic energy ion field they generate.

Samus' Notes: It seems the best time to charge up a shockwave would be while using the screw attack. That should allow me to make the best possible entry, cut through anything immediately in my way and push away the rest. Wondering if I could modify the fields somehow, launching targets up would be more useful to me than pushing them back.

Arne's Notes: The primary usage I see for this would be in getting any necessary range I need back or in keeping an opponent off balance. It should also be pretty good in isolating an individual target I'd like to single out too.

Weapons: Alternate mode: Explosive: Power Bomb/Power Pulse

The Power Bomb and Pulse release a contained zero-point energy explosion of enormous force, able to destroy nearly anything it touches. The extreme heat and force of the blast are accompanied by a particle disruption effect that will tear apart the bonds of most forms of matter and overload the coherency of most forms of energy screens. The containment helps to prevent excessive collateral damage, but as the bombs are physical munitions; the user must concentrate to produce more of them.

Samus' Notes: I'll have to make a note to only use these when necessary. The amount of damage one of them can do is really unfortunate to think about. Being able to clear out Denzium obstacles would be quite useful though. Could the area of effect be modified somehow?

Arne's Notes: There's a slight delay between creating the bomb and detonating it that needs to be adjusted to, but I'm wondering if that could be filed down to something more immediate.

Upgrades: Beams: Light-based: Chozo originated: Spazer Beam

The Spazer Beam fires a spread shot of nine coherent light packets in a pseudo-laser that allows for a much wider area of effect and considerably more damage than standard beam weapons. However, the Spazer Beam is often regarded as more of a beam to be combined with more specialist weapons than a weapon that truly stands on its own, with most users valuing it for its ability to multiply their shots more than anything else. The Spazer Beam's distinctive orange colouration is a product of the particular wavelength of the pseudo-laser packets and is considered rarely seen due to how commonly the Spazer Beam is combined with other weapons. The Spazer Beam's charged form is the Refractor, where the beams will bounce off of any target it is not able to penetrate to damage other targets until the energy packets lose coherence, causing havoc with tightly packed enemies in confined spaces.

Samus' Notes: The spread is controllable through thought, depending on how far you want the beams to go from your initial target. I generally prefer the spread to be fairly tight; I don't need the shots going all over the place. I'm somewhat concerned with the Refractor's potential for collateral damage too. It is pretty fun to watch though.

Arne's Notes: For my purposes, a widespread generally serves the best. At close range spreading out hits should be able to catch more enemies at once. I think that as long as I'm able to keep close, the bouncing of the Refractor should be largely controllable too. I have to agree with the assessment that its more of an augment than a weapon on its own though.

Cultures: Defunct: Defunct circa Forbidden Wars: Dominion of Krazimak

The Dominion of Krazimak was a theocratic society based on the worship of beings they dubbed the Manifold Beyonders or "Xarzamloq". An aggressively expansionistic society under the control of bloodthirsty priest-generals who sought to harvest ever-growing amounts of life for favour, the Dominion and its vassal states organized into the Sacred Hierarchy would come to conflict with the Sophont Commonwealth over a vast gulf of time and space in the largest war in the universe's history. In a war fought with manipulation of reality, temporal travel and fluctuations, across all dimensions recorded to both factions, and routinely being interrupted by third parties; the Forbidden Wars would rearrange the cosmos. Over the course of a span beyond conventional measurement, the Sophont Commonwealth would gradually overwhelm the Hierarchy and liberate most of its war-thrall societies before banishing the Dominion itself beyond any universe into an isolated pocket reality with no means of access following the Chozo and Alimbics severing it from the rest of existence and having the whole of the war time-locked to ensure its history may never be altered. Most records of the Forbidden Wars are beyond your clearance of access.

Samus' Notes:
The Elders were always really evasive on the specifics of the conflict. I know Old Bird fought in it but he never really likes to speak about it. Still, if the stories are accurate; the Moonhunter and Sunstalker might be the last two of their kind left. I can't imagine them surviving trapped on their own without killing themselves.

Arne's Notes:
Alimbic histories talk about them less as a culture that had to be fought and more a bunch of monsters that were rightfully vanquished. But I'm left wondering, what sort of conditions did their society exist in to drive them to where they ended up? I don't think I'll be getting answers though; the records are sealed shut.

Chozo Logs: The Whirlwind Reaped

The blade of hubris has felled countless beings over the course of the ages. None dreamed of more nor fell harder than the Old Foe whose name will forever be among those cursed by history. They who had sought to dominate and subjugate now find themselves with nothing to conquer, their throats perpetually parched of the nectar of empire. Though they have made us raise our hands in anger for an aeon, we now stand triumphant and turn our minds to the peace that they rejected in search of the fickle favour of dire spirits. Though we grieve for that which has been lost, we rejoice for the farewell to arms and turn our eyes to rebuilding and nurturing that which senseless conflict destroyed. Let this be a lesson to all who would seek to paper over the faults of their tyrants with the exploitation of the conquered. Would only that their leaders have not threatened to drag their people into oblivion than surrender.

Samus' Notes:
I'm wondering if this was why the Chozo started to decide to look beyond the material universe? It might have seemed like the universe had nothing left to offer after so much destruction.

Arne's Notes:
Old Bird seems to be shellshocked a few of the times I look at him, and I see that in Elmorni too. What did they see that they won't share with us?

Alimbics Logs: The Great Triumph

The greatest of foes meets the greatest of ends. The insane howling of the Hierarchy will never again be heard in the stars. Our genius and prowess has proved instrumental in the forging of this magnificent triumph. Though in our mercy we have deigned to spare the Dominion through banishment rather than dismantling, we have rid ourselves of ever having to consider their name ever again. From the sorrows of their apex to the glories of their nadir, we have seen the totality of their measure and have found them wanting. Our order has emerged from this trial more potent than ever before. And all who have shed their blood in the name of civilization and the rightful law will not have shed it in vain; for from this day forward the continued ascension of our kind is unstoppable.

Samus' Notes:
If Zurvduat weren't seventy thousand years too young I'd have figured he wrote this. It sounds so arrogant and condescending.

Arne's Notes:
The Alimbic-Chozo cold war started not long after the Forbidden Wars notably. I think I can see why they started to fall out.

Upgrades: Mobility: Gravitonics: Luminoth originated: Gravity Boost

The Gravity Boost regulates and controls gravity for the user, rendering them able to function at their preferred gravity in all cases and also neutralizing unwanted friction and drag such as that created by water. The Gravity Boost also allows for flight through activating its thrusters and gravity regulation. The Gravity Boost furthermore negates the harmful effects of most gravitational attacks.

Samus' Notes:
Finally, something that will let me move around in fluidic environments the way I'm supposed to! I hate the feeling of being dragged down by the environment.

Arne's Notes:
Hrm, what's the top speed I could get the thrusters going at I wonder?

Species: Fauna: Mammaliform: Cetaceoid: Titan Class Organism: Radiovoric: Hostile: Goradon

A species of Titan class Organism native to the planet of Zoran, the Goradon is one of the apex predators of its oceans. Well known amongst the progenitors for their ability to continually grow in size so long as food remains ample, Goradons typically seek to draw their energy from areas of naturally occurring concentrations of fissile material. It is these fissile materials that they consume instead of food for the most part with the except of other radiovoric organisms. Goradons also have weaponizable sonar pulses that can generate tsunamis and can click their jaws together for bubble blasts of extinction event proportions. With their immense strength and speed, the Goradon is also able to use its sheer bulk as a massively destructive weapon, and caution must always be exercised when dealing with one. However, the ears of the Goradon are a weakness, as sonic weapons delivered directly to the eardrum will cause substantial discomfort in the organism.

Samus' Notes:
It's a shame to have to fight something so majestic. But I think I can manage to free it from its current condition without hurting it too much.

Arne's Notes:
I'm honestly slightly intimidated by having to handle something this big out to try and kill me. But based on what we know, if we can break the berserk state it should lose interest in fighting us.