Vengarium, Zenthra, Zoran
With their objective in mind, it wasn't too long until they entered the Zenthra region. Guided by Spire's sonically imbued statuary, they took a secret path through the caverns that would bring them to an impressive entrance that had a fair few guardians in the way. But combat was not something they were strangers to, having cut through the bulk of their opposition already and now only dealing with the Slench quartet left to obstruct their path. The large eye like cyborg Samus faced tried to handle her with a burst of Shock Coil neutrinos, but she fired off her newest instrument, the temporal distort. Time slowed to a crawl, the incoming stream moving as fast as lightning moving slower than she could walk. It lasted only a few seconds as she perceived time, but she managed to strike the Slench with a trio of charged beam shots, joined by the sine waves of the phase-wave beam that passed straight through solid cover to strike the cyborg. Each impact rocking into the Slench like a meteor.
Time resumed its normal flow; the Slench went flying while Arne teleported behind the other one and grabbed onto it with his cannon's grapple beam. Firing away with his wrist gun shock coil; he sapped into its shielding, pulled it straight into a kick that made the whole room reverberate. Around his body was his newest upgrade; the steel grey, stony brown, and diamond white suit of Diamont artifice. A work that gave his armour a somewhat more powerful-looking appearance replete with crystal formations emerging from his pauldrons, a more pronounced gorget, a series of diamond coloured reinforcement strips around the edges of the major plates. And to cap it all off was a pair of vaguely blade-like antennae emerging from the temples of his helm.
Samus' similarly changed armour easily shrugged off the turret fire directed her way before she released a pulse of built-up absorbed energy as the diamonds in the suit glowed purple. The crackling purple pulse evaporated many of the nearby turrets and; combined with the shockwave quake emitters; repulsed the attempts by one of the Slenches to charge at her. A power missile fueled by five of her super missiles slammed into the disoriented Slench, smashing it into the nearby wall just as her left arm projected a white coloured energy shield; circular and tall enough to cover much of her torso. Angling it gently, she deflected the incoming Imperialist barrage right into the Shock Coil using Slench; each keen reverberating together with the ping of the shield and making it flash briefly.
With the Slench reeling and trying to turn invisible, Arne pinpointed its location with the Echo visor and lashed out at it with his imperialist laser; prompting it to change cloaks once again. But such would not avail it, as Arne swapped to the Electroperception visor and found the wounded tan and brown eye-like techno-organic creature almost limping in the air. Not wanting to prolong its sad state, Arne launched himself in the screw attack to smash through its shielding and fire off a single power bomb with his munition launchers. A yellow-white explosion expanded rapidly and consumed the slench in its killing light right before Samus met it with a charged shot she made sure included the ice beam. The sudden shift from such extremes of cold and heat shattered the cyborg into pieces, leaving them to strike at another from either side with the Magnum cannon as it tried to adjust to the reduced numbers available to it. Confronted with its weakness, the third slench erupted in an explosion as the rounds cored straight through it, leaving it out of the equation almost immediately.
Laser fire from the first slench sought to target the two; finding only air as their temporal distorts went off once more and Samus jabbed her arm-sword into the biomechanical creation's pupil. Dropping down and firing off her jets, she split the Slench in twain, landing amidst the fireballs of its halves detonating. Her grapple beam shot out and grabbed the last one, pulling energy from its systems into her suit and away from its defences, fully recharging her shielding. With its shielding compromised, the Slench was now wide open to one hit of Arne's Autoflak after the other until one last charge shot was all he needed to finish it off in a massive black cloud of fragments.
The wailing of the dying Slench hitting the ground and then erupting in a fireball that echoed through the caverns cut off shortly, and the two exchanged their arm lock and gentle headbutt action that signified their bond almost immediately.
"Nice shooting there Arne." She said with a gentle laugh.
"I've been handling slenches my whole life. I think I can handle a bunch of low graders at once. But well, you were great too." He said, chuckling with her as they went through the door.
"What do you think we'll be able to find there?" She asked as they passed into the next chamber, a simple square item room with yet another door behind it, a visor upgrade floating in the pit below.
"Not sure, I'm feeling it's a suit upgrade..." He said, tapping his helmet's chin briefly.
"You're going to need to come through a direction they can't anticipate. Just going directly into the jaws of the enemy will get you found and driven back. Luckily there's something that can help you get to where you need to go. They will have a guardian there of course, but you can handle it. Especially with what you'll find on the route." Arne remembered Spire saying last time he checked one of the statues, though he was as of yet unsure of what he was referring to.
The Prize the Slenches guarded was simple enough, the mind visor to see the thought waves of beings that might otherwise elude detection as whispy, impressionistic figures based on their self-perception, but that wasn't what Spire meant. It did however, reveal a path that they had felt with their psychic senses but were not quite able to perceive with light to their left. After using the restoration station that was visible to the ordinary eye, they went through the hidden door and were seamlessly teleported down into lower Zenthra, stowed away in a dimension the Alimbics had created just for it.
The halls were wide and tall, stretching into countless destinations and vistas. As always there were foes to be dealt with; the usual swarm of Alimbic defence machines, but such hardly was of much relevance to them as they shot through with their speed boosters, following the path that they could see only through the mind visor.
Stopping quickly at a turn and shinesparking down the hallway to bring themselves to a halt in front of the next door; they came to a brief pause before opening it. Arne looked at Samus and saw something almost a little holy, an avenger, slightly radiant, brimming with energy and enthusiasm but flickering with the subtle fires of anger. Yet he could see the faint suggestion of feathery wings behind her; Chozo and Human, Aran and Sekh. He almost envied that clear perception of herself.
But when she looked at Arne she saw uncertainty, an image that wasn't quite solid; flickering between something more human and more alimbic. One a more knightly image with a straight visor and a more armet like mouthplate, crest melded into antennae at either side; armour more mechanical and human; proud and decorated in the runes of his clan. And sometimes that image was more like an alimbic, lankier, skinnier, without a neck at all while his head simply floated above his shoulders. Separate and competing identities that each sought to be the sole vision of himself.
It was something that disquieted Samus briefly before he looked at her; shifting the image fully towards that nobler human visage. He was choosing, slowly but surely.
The door dilated open, granting them passage through a tunnel that lead to another portal, one that they instinctively recognized was the way through, but also one where they saw yet another corpse. One that had dragged itself here if the blood smeared everywhere was anything to go by. The body was still fresh, and the blank eyes of the reptilian seemed to stare off into space as if they were still awake. A helmet fitted for its varanid like snout was discarded by its side, caked in blood. Its tongue lolled out of its mouth, purple against its green scales, and a clearly visible gash was seen across its midsection.
"Who is this guy?" Samus said as she leaned down, trying to not look at the blood as she looked at the gorilla sized body, noting that their rifle was still warm to the touch.
"Armor logs say he's a Freelancer. Stygak. Big shot in the whirlpool galaxy. Some sort of quark scale machines interfered with his armour's medical systems but I should be able to terminate them with a scan." Arne said, forcing the eyelids of the reptilian to close with a tug from his fingers. A motion he followed by dipping an armoured finger into the blood of the fallen hunter and painting a rune on his forehead.
"He's only been dead for a few minutes; some of his cells are still alive. One of the machines could save him. Then we can get some information out of him." She said, nodding at Arne. "Come on, shut off the attobots, let's get him to a restoration station." She said, easily hoisting the body over her shoulder once Arne's armour pinged hers to confirm the task was completed, his free hand scooping up the helmet as he walked with her towards a restoration station near the portal.
She laid the body on the station and stepped back as a ring of light surrounded the corpse after Arne had reaffixed the helmet. The body, despite missing most of its organs began to knit itself back together in a rather unpleasant to watch process. Based on the still viable DNA from the remains and an analysis of the traces of the spirit left in the body, the machine worked what was a rather standard miracle to the Alimbics or Chozo. Armour seemingly rematerialized as it flowed together, damaged functions came back online and the circular depression began to rise before a final jolt called the departed spirit back to its body.
Even as...gory as watching such a mangled body be restored to function and life was, the sensation of being near the mystic lighthouse that called the departed spirit back gave Samus goosebumps. She hung her jaw open slightly while Arne simply watched in fascination, his eyes widening slowly as the Mind Visor started to shift. No more did he simply appear as he did in reality, but consciousness changed him into his bold and brash visage of himself. Stronger, braver, feistier, ready for round two.
He shot up with a start and let out a prolonged hissing roar as he grabbed his gun and looked back and forth, startled as if he had been forcibly awakened from a deep slumber. "WHERE IS THAT THING!? I'LL GUT I-" He said before his cyan visor fixated on the two, the rotary gun he wielded as easily as a rifle starting to spool up before he thought better of it. His turquoise and green armour made a simple clank against the floor as his digitigrade feet took a step back, the pointed boots feeling for a secure standing on the hard floor below.
"Who are you two?" He said.
"Aira-Sekh." Samus said, offering only her Chozo name to the recently resurrected Freelancer.
"Sarxyl Avar" Arne offered. The Alimbic name evoked strange sensations. It was one of his names, yet...it sometimes felt unnatural to even say.
He looked at the station and let out a cough of dissatisfaction as he figured out the implications of where he was. "I must have snuffed it then." He said, working his jaw. "So, I owe you two then." He offered a nod and lowered his weapon, stopping the spool up.
"Oh, it wasn't a problem at all. You just looked like you needed help." Samus said, trying to be as friendly as possible to ease him back into the land of the living.
"Yeah, thanks. Guess I got in over my head." He hissed, disappointed in his inability to handle himself. "Now, I got a question, do you two know what this place is? Never seen this much progenitor tech in one place before...or anyone like you wearing it." He said, gesturing to their armour, he knew what Alimbics and Chozo looked like; they didn't look like either.
"Zoran. It's an old progenitor world." Arne said, trying his best to be helpful as Stygak gave a slow nod.
"This must be a pocket dimension then. But you two, what are you exactly? Beneath that armour." He said, looking up and then directly at the two children. The way they moved, the way they spoke even vocoded through the helmets. That all aroused interest, or perhaps suspicion might be a better term.
"Well, uh." Arne started. He thought about his answer for a bit. What was he exactly? What would be the simplest answer to his question that would remain truthful? Should he just offer a lie? No that wouldn't sit right with him, there was no reason to deceive Stygak intentionally. Yet he didn't want to say Alimbic, but could he say human? He was standing next to the only living human he'd known since he was orphaned and she...well...could she be called that?
"Hybrids." Samus said, answering Stygak's question for him before he could get impatient, stepping slightly forward to get Stygak's attention. Internally Arne felt some relief while Samus puffed her chest slightly. It was an incomplete truth to be sure, but a truth all the same.
"Must be young then. You're awfully short for a Chozo Warrior, and as for you one-eye; don't think I don't know Alimbic tech when I see it. Not sure how you skinned that off of a dead species though." He said, examining Samus and then Arne closely, the roaring crocodilian like symbol on his chest at about eye level with their faces as he approached.
"No beak either, and you've got a neck...five-fingered hands, plantigrade posture, s-curved spines...both of you are human aren't you?" He said continuing his analysis and then coming to his conclusion with a nod.
"I...well...y-yeah we are." Arne said, deciding that he wasn't quite able to lie his way out of this one and exhaling a bit.
"Hatchlings like you already got scutes eh? Must have done something respectable to get that kind of honour." He said with a proud hiss, chest swelling with pride in having guessed correctly.
"Okay okay, before we get any further. I need to ask you, what gave you that injury we found you with?" Samus asked, clearing her throat and then approaching him.
"I was hanging around with some colleagues when I noticed a portal on the station Heldris. I told anyone who didn't have the scars to go in to clear out for myself and my ship to go in, give myself another chance to prove I've got what it takes." He said, reporting his findings with a strangely cold voice, letting out an emphatic cough at the end and briefly flicking his eyes upwards.
"Hanging around? Around what?" Samus asked. The expression confused her briefly as she squinted at him. She was trying to picture what he meant, and for the moment, she only drew rather silly images in her mind.
"I think out of a building, maybe? It could be some kind of bungie sport?" Arne offered, shrugging and slowly spreading his hands to indicate his confusion.
"Are you allowed to do those kinds of sports on Heldris station?" She asked before Arne shrugged his shoulders.
"It's an expression. It meant I was socializing with my friends." Stygak said with an abrupt cough to get the two of them to stop interrupting. Once he had their attention, he resumed without skipping a beat.
"I rushed in without thinking and found myself exploring the abandoned hallways, an unfortunate move on my part, but seeking to demonstrate that I was superior outweighed other considerations. I heard combat, took out some space pirates and drones, a few larger guardians. Found a few dead Federation soldiers incapable of surviving." He said, almost seeming scornful at the marine's inability to survive the death trap Zoran was now. Samus briefly balled up her fist while Arne exhaled sharply in irritation, but so far no outburst was forthcoming.
"I was investigating the source of the strange howls and sounds of weapons fire from what I determined to be Spire and Armaud. The chance to join them and demonstrate superiority was intoxicating. But I had not counted on the second source of the howling. I made an error and fought to survive. I clearly failed, so I must improve myself." He said with a hacking cough of emphasis.
"Wait wait, did you see anything of interest?" Samus asked, stepping forward to get his attention and his head turned in her direction followed by a reptilian choking sound.
"Yes, some manner of machine plugging itself into an Alimbic Palatine Mind's cerebral circuits. It's got some kind of upgrade guarded there too. What are you planning on doing with this information?" He reported, straightening his posture somewhat before asking his question.
"We're going to take it out, obviously." Samus said, placing a hand on her hip and nodding at Stygak. She meant it, and the reptilian seemed plenty convinced of it as he lowered his head slightly and then looked back at her.
"Brave for a pair of children aren't you?" He said wryly but approvingly. Almost enviously even, based on the sort of emotional sensation the two were able to read from him. Their psychic abilities weren't hugely refined despite all of its potential, but empathy was simple enough to pick up on.
"If we weren't brave, would we even be here?" Arne said, clanging his left fist against his chest plate and nodding before standing at ease. Praise came to him rarely from adults, and he grabbed onto what was offered with relish.
"You've clearly done better than myself in that case. Your superiority despite your age and smaller stature shames me; I hope to redeem myself if that is alright?" He said with a stooped posture that Samus quickly figured for an equivalent of a bow, his tail raised and wagging slightly before he let out a low pop and hiss.
Before Arne could speak though, Samus cut in. "The Marines, are there any left?" She said.
"Some, yes, according to my last memories." He said, gradually straightening himself.
"Can you find and rescue them? We'll be able to take care of the Sunstalker and Moonhunter." She said. Getting them off the planet was going to be a priority if they wanted to keep them safe, and he seemed more likely to know how to handle a bunch of scared marines than they did.
"I can provide you with the location of a relatively safe area, the hangar where we put our ships. You should be able to hold out there until we're done." Arne said; suit sending over the map data immediately with Stygak taking only a moment to confirm the information.
"I suppose I should ask what to do should I see either of these beings." He asked, raising his neck into an S-Curve and tilting it.
"Run and hide. Keep as many alive as you can. But, I don't think they'll be focused on you; not when we're hitting their machine." Samus said, letting the opacity of her visor drop a bit to give him a look at her eyes, warm and trustworthy. "We'll be able to handle this...but one more thing." She said, her expression hardening a bit. "Don't say the people who didn't make it weren't worthy again or else." She said with a glower before stepping off.
"Bold. This offer does not require dissent on my part. Hunt well, children." He said as the two stepped into the portal. Samus offered a wave goodbye, simply raising her hand and giving it a slight shake as she walked down. Arne gave him the courtesy of a nod before leaving, following behind her before overtaking her.
Samus sighed and relaxed some of the tension as she looked into the other side of the portal hall, the imperious and grandiose architecture of the Alimbics all around them. Statues of conquerors, scholars, heroes, and explorers. Though to Samus' eyes there wasn't much difference between the first and the last categories. Not the way that the histories attached to each statue talked about them anyway.
Arne knew who they were and what they stood for. Those who began to expand the Alimbic's territories into the Black Eye Galaxy fifty thousand years ago. Zurvduat told him they were glorious, yet so many had the look of an imperialist. They were surveying subjugated lands, standing over conquered foes, or simply standing in poses meant to awe him with how small he was. He saw so very few that reminded him of Elmorni's gentle warmth, and soon turned his head from them as he looked down at the end of the hallway. So far it seemed that everything was fine here, and he left the place behind.
It would be just a few minutes of travel before they found what they were looking for at last, passing by several Federal Marine corpses. A whole squad's worth. Most of their bodies were in poor condition, missing large portions of their organs or multiple limbs. One was half skeletonized and half disintegrated, the vaguely pachydermid skeleton's jaw having fallen off after the tissue holding it in place had been blasted off.
Arne gulped and let his suit counter the rise in nausea that he sensed. Death was something he would just have to acclimate to. If he couldn't handle a few corpses, what good was he? Still, he made the time to paint the runes on the dead where he could, looking for those whose blood was still present to make the marks and say his goodbyes.
Samus lingered a bit, muttering an apology under her breath as she showed the back of her hand and spread her pinky and thumb finger to wish for the passage of each soul to be a safe one. Then she focused, steeling herself with the fight to come. These dead would be avenged shortly, she was sure of it.
They stepped through the last door, coming to a cylindrical machine containing an engineered pseudobrain within a transparent container the size of a truck. Green and mustard yellow equipment hooked into the tank containing the Palatine mind as it quivered within the container. Platforms were spread throughout for direct, hardline links to the machine at the centre.
But that was not what they were looking for.
That would be directly above.
The most immediate comparison was to a spider. Its head like a metallic mantis mixed with some terrible lamprey with a ring of eight metallic mandibles, a thicket of eight legs each splitting into four claws at their ends. From its rear came a curling tail, long and ending in a scorpion-like barb. Its body was lined with geometric glowing lines, the plating of its chassis moving in sync with the rest of the sauropod sized machine as it scuttled towards them at high speeds. The sandy yellow colouration mixed with the glowing purple lines and highlights made it stand out well in the environment, while every step it took filled their ears with a strange rattling noise.
Their armour identified it as a Zakiriqt; a war machine of the old foe, somehow constructed with materials local to the planet and equipped with the ability to phase through solid objects; though their progenitor blood and armour should keep it out. Its weapon systems made it read as a threat of tremendously high caliber, and the roar like knives scraped on flint almost seemed to pierce into their very bones.
The Zakiriqt stood between them and a means to contact Spire and Armaud. Its metallic hide had been anointed with the blood of dozens of people just trying to get away. Its masters, however unknown their goals were; were monsters left behind from a past best left forgotten. Yet strangely, Samus and Arne did not feel the usual cold emptiness that most machines gave. They sensed outrage, intruders, violators, and trespassers they were. The Zakiriqt would be no mere cold contraption, its anger burned hot and bright, and they felt the simmering sensation of its ire inside of their heads. They perceived a beating war drum throbbing with the flicker of hateful emotional flame in their mind's eye, and it almost made them doubt for a moment.
"We need to get contact going with Spire and Armaud if anyone's going to get off this planet. Mendelle, Stygak, and any of the surviving Marines; they're all counting on us." Samus said as she shifted her stance. She felt a weight on her shoulders, the pressure of expectation. Not simply to impress Old Bird, not just to silence Grey Voice's doubts, not just to show up mother brain, but to preserve life. People needed her to survive, and she couldn't let them down. Her stomach hardened like steel as she clenched her gut and waited for the machine to rush her.
"We'll save them...don't worry. Nobody's going to die because of us." Arne said, looking briefly at the corpses behind. His eyes briefly caught that while the insignias indicated that there was a platoon here, there weren't enough bodies there to make up a whole platoon. Those who just couldn't make it, he figured. His fault, these corpses were only minutes old. If he hadn't been so slow...no, there was no time to wonder about "what if". The machine was already moving.
The machine's scuttling body would have been invisible to the unassisted human eye, but their reflexes were more than fast enough to get them out of the way with a single jump. The scorpion tail whipped around towards Arne, and Samus felt her heart briefly drop before swallowing the sensation, charging up her stacked beam. Arne double jumped over the incoming tail, feeling the air start to spark into plasma below him and flipped himself around to call forth the storm of his shock coil.
Samus struck the machine just as it raised a limb to block the Shock Coil, letting nine blue-white bolts slam into its head module and encase the thing in a cascade of instantly generated frost dozens of meters thick. She felt relief for a moment, but the sharp sensation of danger returned and a flashing image of incoming shards of ice. She dismissed them as a nonthreat and simply took them head-on, shrugging off the impact to build up speed.
Arne sensed her movements and looked nervously at the emergence of a strangely shaped gun formed out angular struts on its back, folding itself into a cage for a glowing accretion disc around a black void. The pull of the vortex hardly concerned him; the gravity boost would keep him safe. But the energy it was producing just drawing in matter and letting it fall into its pit was something he felt concerned about, even more so when it leapt out in a miniature quasar.
The air howled and screamed and tore apart like cloth in the hands of a giant. Samus saw the burst flying towards her at a hair's breadth under the speed of light just before it could arrive. Her spine felt like it was trying to contort straight out of her skin, and her lungs felt ready to implode. The stinging sensation of imminent extreme danger faded as she rolled into her morph ball and just missed the beam that sailed straight overhead.
Arne had been hammering away at the machine with his missiles all the while. Every click and shiver of his arm registered like the feedback of making a punch. He wouldn't let this thing hurt anyone else. He would prove that he was able to best even the most potent foe, that the faith that Samus put into him was deserved. She believed in him, Elmorni believed in him...hopefully, Zurvduat would too. But the thing let out another one of its shrieks in his direction, making the missiles he had on its way start to explode.
He outpaced the sound of both the shriek and the impact of Samus' speed boosted form. A reverberating blow he felt as much as heard Samus knocked the metal spider into the air. He knew what he had to do; he couldn't let up against an enemy like this. Not even for a moment. Right before it could flip itself to land on its feet, his grapple beams lanced out and he gave it a massive swing.
Samus pounded it with shot after shot, every impact making a piercing keen and a burst of ice materialised into being. Each blast was aimed towards the same precise point as the last as she sought to create a weakness in its shielding. It was moving again, however, throwing Arne around and pulling him with his own grapple beam towards it, it was seething at being struck by two of its makers' old foes, its cries of rage and spite at those who would deny it its purpose. Arne's cries though were of surprise and a bit of fear before sudden pain as he cried out in agony from an impact.
He rarely felt real pain; his armour blocked it out. But the room shaking impact he was put through and then the lancing sensation of a strange transmission into his suit made him feel like his skin had been doused in acid and then had a current ran through them. His cries were not pleasant to hear; his body convulsing at the strange command run through it to make him suffer. His eyes wide and mouth agape with screams, he fought with every fibre of his being to reach the source of his pain. He grabbed at the leg and began to push, resisting the mysterious pseudo-energies he was commanded to feel, but the Zakiriqt raised a second leg.
Its head disappeared in an enormous yellow explosion, and its body flung end over end like garbage in the wind, repeatedly slamming into the floor before smashing through a wall and going into a roll.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Samus shouted, fury burning so intensely inside of her Arne could just about see it through his hazed eyes as he sucked in a breath of air and tried to pick himself up. His muscles ached and felt like lead, his movements stiff and slowed until his suit and physiology corrected the aberration and proper sensation returned all at once as if nothing was ever wrong.
The Machine picked itself up, pulling its body through the hole it had made with its shielding blazing in beehive patterns around it. Mandibles rippled below its optics and it seemed almost respectful of its foes. Arne returned that gaze with trepidation, while Samus' expression was now of an anger to surpass its simulacrum of battle fury.
Samus leaped into action, her movements a blur of kineticism. The Zakiriqt moved, she moved faster. It struck, she parried and then countered with ear sundering force. Its body writhed to try and pin her down into one place, its vocoders screeching like hell itself all the while. Yet it could never quite pin her down as she bounced from one end of its angle of attack to another with the efficacy of a superball.
Samus barely noticed as Arne returned to the fray, she paid no heed to the discharge of his own weapons. She was working on automatic, the Zakiriqt made someone that made her realise she wasn't alone in the universe scream. She would make it hurt.
As they wrestled and slashed at each other she saw her chance to strike. She caught its leg and ducked aside from the transmitter. Seeing her opening, she jammed her cannon into the joint of the limb. She opened fire with a quartet of super missiles, almost threatening to knock over the ceiling, but she kept fighting.
The blue lash of the positron beam arced over her head, anti-matter erupting close to her, but she only saw red. Time slowed to a crawl with the temporal distort and she made her moves without hestiation. A power bomb was dropped, the screw attack was utilised, and a shockwave kick was thrown hard enough to make the contraption's body flip over. She did not relent however, fury was driving most of her movements as she pursued her prey, teleporting directly to it with a fully charged shot at the ready, letting loose and following with another power missile.
"Samus!" Arne shouted at her as she found herself suddenly forced to dodge around the flurry of limbs it had swung at her until the Stinger reached around and jabbed into her back as she tried to parry its eight limbs. She let out a cry of white-hot agony herself as she felt like her skin was trying to tear off of her muscles.
If the Zakiriqt thought that was going to stop her though, it had another thing coming as she grabbed at its head through pure anger. The optics of the robot almost seemed to widen with what she for a moment, believed was fear before she decided she didn't care. Her shielding was draining quickly and everything hurt so, so very much. But she began to pull at the machine's head and her grapple beam found its target.
Her suit began to leech energy from the foe, the grapple voltage feeding herself as she began to charge, then overcharge a beam shot. Her energy count rose slightly, then began dropping as she sacrificed power into the weapon.
Arne knew what she was doing, but he wasn't about to let her do it alone. Honour wouldn't allow him to do such a thing, not when she had done so much for him already. He couldn't be useless, not when they had their lives and the lives of others riding on this. He pointed his arm and took aim, letting his shock coil shoot out, followed immediately by his grapple beam. The first lanced into the robot with constant crackling thunder like a sonic saw, the latter latched onto Samus' suit.
As he drained energy from the machine, he fed it into Samus' armour. The overcharged beam's sphere grew bigger and bigger in front of the barrel of her cannon. He strained slightly, feeling that familiar pain start to travel through the grapple beam before his body felt like it was burning. He cried out, his legs wanted to fold over and the robot was continually trying to wriggle out of the shock coil lock it was forced into. But he didn't relent, he knew what was riding on this shot.
When the sphere of charged energy was bigger than she was, Samus felt like her heart was about to explode from the pain. She had been under the influence of that pain for less than a second as a normal human perceived time. But it seemed like an eternity from her end. She cried out briefly, but gritted her teeth...not now, not when she was so close she thought as she buckled from a blast of solar energy from the maw of the spider-machine.
The Pillar of light bored into her, and she knew that it was now or never. So she released that energy. She let it flow out of her cannon and expand into a column that collided with its yellow counterpart. Her orange coloured beam slammed into the rival's weapons fire like a tsunami pushing into a storm surge. The energies comingled before hers overpowered its own. Its beam was pushed back, thrown into its face, and the eruption fountained over its body. The cascade of power engulfed the Krazimak robot in a display of energy that even a primitive receiver could detect from across the solar system with ease.
The air was reduced to particles rarely seen in most physical conditions natural to the universe. The shielding of the mechanical monstrosity held for a brief moment before it splintered, layer after layer cracking like glass being pressed by the full weight of the sea. The energy picked it off the ground, it tore through walls meant to withstand the worst abuse that trainees could give it as if they were simply not there. It went on and on until it shot past the horizon. The Drone that had been so stubbornly resilient so far was reduced to the simplest of particles. Its chassis was consumed in the fires of her cannon, its whole existence seemingly nullified by a shot that pierced the heavens themselves.
She had her triumph, and took just one second to raise her cannon into the air in victory. And with that she fell to a knee and panted. Then she dismissed her armour entirely and rolled onto her zero suit clad back, pulling off her hood to breathe in proper air. Not from a lack of suit energy, but after such a strain on her body from pushing through that much pain, she wanted to more properly touch the ground to assure herself that sensations that weren't pain were still real.
"Aira..." Arne said slightly weakly as he started to doubt once again. The usage of her Chozo name made her spare him only a brief glance before looking back up at the ceiling with a small, victorious smile on her face.
"You did good there Arne...thanks..." She breathed out. She felt pride, he was alright...and they had won. She could just use this win to take a bit and lie down here. The floor was after all, remarkably comfortable.
"Comfortable?" Arne asked, sitting down with her and crossing his legs and dismissing his suit as well before lying down next to her. He winced slightly, but the hurt soon began to fade as he relaxed.
"Mmhmm. Definitely feels a lot better than getting fried by some neuralyzer." A laugh was shared between the two of them as she pulled him in and laid her head atop his shoulder and snaked a hand around.
"Yeah that thing was not really fun at all. Pretty terrible to go through actually. Wouldn't recommend it for anyone else." He said, smiling at her as she hummed gently to him, listening to his heartbeat beneath his suit and feeling brief elation at its regularity. The two were quite warm against each other, even in a place this dangerous. But they sensed nothing coming, and allowed themselves this moment of vulnerability.
"Arne, please don't make me worry like that about you again. Can you promise me that?" She said, stroking his hair and petting it gently, picking herself up slightly to look down on him and then staring into his eyes. A glistening in the corner of her eyes told him straight away that she had cried from hearing his hurt, and he soon became all too aware of the wetness in his own eyes.
"I...I'll try my best." Arne said before Samus shook her head. Worry wrote itself on her face and a frown crept its way onto her expression. His answer left her feeling incomplete, unsure. His heart felt like it had been weighed down with neutronium and thrown off a cliff. He swallowed briefly and nodded at her, not sure of how to respond.
"Don't say you'll try. Promise." She said, the insistence of her tone clear as day. She wanted him to be safe; she wanted to see him happy and flourishing, just as he wanted the same for her. They were supposed to share this adventure of life, and the thought of her being unable to keep him safe weighed heavy on her heart.
He felt a weight on his shoulders and his chest. Guilt, shame. He made her upset with worry, and that made him feel like a sinner. He blinked away some of the water around his eye and stared into her far more seriously this time. He knew what he was going to say.
"I promise. I'm going to do better. You can be sure of it." He said, taking her hand in his own and threading a few fingers through that soft blond hair of hers before releasing his hold on her and sitting up.
The two shared a hug, feeling the other's warmth. For a moment, Arne forgot where he was and just held onto her, losing himself in the affection while she clung onto him like a pillow. For a moment, there was nothing but each other.
Then he felt a squeeze on his backside and his cheeks went red. "S-samus!" He protested bashfully while she made a catlike smirk before letting out a cackle as they broke off the hug. She raised her hands up and twiddled her fingers, already seeming to have cleared the tears out of her face. He almost wondered if the whole thing was a set up just to do that...but he remembered that Samus just wasn't the type of person to do that.
Samus lay there laughing to herself for only a brief moment before stretching as she picked herself back up again. She stretched herself briefly and let the bones in her arms make that satisfying popping sound as she entwined them. A crack of her neck and her armour had rematerialised once again, her fingers wriggling in their gauntlets.
"Well...I'm glad we got to that agreement. And that we can handle a Krazimak war machine. I was worried we were in over our heads there." Arne said, rubbing the back of his head and stretching before thumping his chest once with his left hand, his armour flashing into being with a cascade of blue light all around his body.
"Oh, yeah, hugely agreed there. That was kind of...it was really a big desperation move. But it worked out right?" She said with a little smirk and a light punch to his arm that got him to flinch before returning the gesture.
"But something doesn't quite add up." Samus said, making Arne stop as he approached the suit upgrade token. Hairs stood up on the back of his neck, and his eyes swivelled around to her. He quirked his brow beneath his helmet and looked intently at her.
"What's that?" He asked.
"How did it get here? The scan said that the materials came from this place. But there's no way that the two could have made something like that. The manufacturies wouldn't take their orders." She said, getting him to stop and think about it for a second. A thought soon began to rise like the sun in his mind.
"And how would it know how to send pain signals like that through our armour? Only the people who made the suits and ourselves know that." Arne said. He tapped the chin of his helmet and gave it a thought, making a mental note that he would need to change the access routes of his suit later. But in other parts of his mind he was starting to think of culprits.
"Someone has to have known. But it couldn't be either the Chozo or Alimbics right? Maybe someone told someone they shouldn't have and the information slipped out?" Samus suggested. Blaming their families felt...wrong, too hasty, too impatient to find a culprit. She'd need to give this further thought, bring it up to Old Bird or August Wings. They'd know what was up.
"I think the only way we're going to find out is to deal with the Sunstalker and Moonhunter though. Let's grab the suit upgrade and contact our chaperones. We'll try to gather the evidence we can from their armour when we've won." Arne said, getting a thumbs up in return from Samus that he reciprocated. This plan seemed to give him a good feeling at the very least. Not foolproof, but definitely worth doing.
Samus stepped ahead of him to touch the upgrade token and absorb its power into her suit, Arne following just behind her and stepping back as the energies lifted the two into the air. They felt a surge of invincibility, a rush of confidence, the sensation that they could be anywhere and do anything filled their very bones for a hot minute. The transformation brought about by the upgrading to an entirely new armour always felt like another step on the path to apotheosis. A surging rush of power, energy, and an endless array of new possibilities opened to them all at once.
The nimbus calmed and released them at last. Samus saw herself of course, her armour offering her a diagnostic on her newfound appearance. The battlesuit changed due to the N'kren technology integrated into it. Her pauldrons now had a somewhat upward turning edge, purple eye-like circles at their front and rear blending with the ghostly green fading into blue colouration of the armour plating. A flexible, midnight coloured metal hood covered much of her helmet, while her waist had a knee-length, split petticoat. The plating even had a somewhat more bone-like appearance, with ridges and grooves cut into it and the cheeks of the helmet were slightly sunken. She liked the shift, her eyes widening with an impressed expression of awe before she let out a bit of a laugh.
Arne's armour changed in similar ways, his armour's transformation engulfing him from head to toe. His hood had a somewhat pointed fringe over his head like a thief from a long-passed era. The coat of his suit trailed a bit longer than Samus', fading into a wispy edge at its tips. His pauldrons guarding his shoulders had extended into something reminiscent of shoulder blades in shape, hinged to let his arms move with the full range of motion. The faint hint of mandibles on the bottom of his helmet's cheeks grew more pronounced, giving his armour a slightly more menacing countenance And last but not least, his visor took on an eerie purple colouration, haunting and exotic. He was a bit more reserved, taking a moment to analyse his hand and let out a gasp of wonderment before he was allowed to drop back down onto the ground.
Their HUD flashed with the words "Phantom Suit acquired" before their eyes, and they scanned through a brief readout of what it offered. The ability to phase partially out of physical reality, interact with partially phased objects instead of merely blocking incorporeal attacks. Counted amongst its unique features was its immunity to the effects of dimensional instability that might otherwise drain at their shielding. And finally, to round out its special abilities was the ability to absorb many spiritual forms of energy into the suit for many purposes. This, in addition to the standard suite of augments, was what would help give them an edge against the Sunstalker and Moonhunter. A rising sensation stirred within them; they felt mighty and ready for the final round. Once they had ran, now they could stand and fight, and the two were eager for the chance to prove themselves.
But they'd first need to re-establish contact with Spire and Armaud. To put at rest the question of what was going on with them. With the old foe machine destroyed, they now had access to the cerebrum of the palatine mind, and their armour suits were quick to analyse its condition. Some sort attoscale machinery afflicted the mechanical components of the artificial cybernetic creature. Still, with the guardian robot no longer present to protect it, their armours were quick to synthesise a counter as they inserted their arm cannons into the interface slot.
They felt a tingling sensation coiling through their bodies as their armour tapped into the machinery. It was like snakes slithering across their skin, their brains cooperating with the armour computers to scan the affliction in the machinery. A tense surge was felt, the machines sought to spread, sought to turn on the armour the two wore and absorb it into itself. A sensation like needles in their bodies drew a wince. The machinery wanted them to be part of it, to infect them as well. To consume and assimilate as it was programmed to do. The armour and his body held it back, defences flaring to life.
Arne tensed, his breath growing more shallow as he felt a moment of doubt. Could they do this? He wondered as Samus continued to try differing combinations of signals while the machines probed her defences like they were his. He felt her concern, the sinking sensation of wondering if they had come all this way for nothing. He almost allowed himself to sink into it, before realising, he had found the solution while the armour kept the infestation at bay. The right combination of impulses to break through its adaptation, unfolding before him like the beauty of a finished puzzle. Triumph and elation banished the tension, and he soon shared with his partner who grinned back at him before they shared a nod to go ahead.
The tension within was banished back out and the old foe machines gave their electronic screams as they died with the armour releasing its purgation into them. Curing the machine and immunising themselves to the attoplague that had sought to absorb the whole network of the planet before being cut off by firewall protocols. The Palatine Mind before them started to hum to life once again and its soothing psychic music banished remaining doubts that may have clouded their mind and judgement. Everything was spooling up back into its proper function, every light and signal hitting the exact note it needed to.
The brain within the tank pulsed briefly before running a diagnostic as soon as it felt that it was connected to everything as it should be once more. Samus and Arne could feel a brightness emanating from it as the shadow of ignorance that had kept it isolated was banished. It could see, hear, and speak as it was intended to once more. The brightness became warm, grateful, the equivalent of a laugh of victory coming forth as it restored every cut off signal and machine at once.
"-You have my gratitude for restoring me to my normal state of function, Neophyte and Hatchling. The loneliness of being cut off from the choral nodes was starting to grate. You seek to deal with the intruders yes?-" They asked politely, their voice formal and courteous.
"Yes. Would you happen to know where they are? We need to track them down as soon as we can." Arne asked. He had his victory, but he would need to expand on it. He felt almost eager to take on the old foe warriors, the fear of another pain signal coursing through him subsiding as he realised that his chances of winning were never better.
"And Spire and Armaud too. As well as any outworlders brought here through wormhole travel." Samus said, her mind drifting briefly to the question of how many victims the Sunstalker and Moonhunter might have claimed. There was going to be justice soon, and she would be more than happy to be the one to deliver it, with her friends all at her side.
"-Yes, I can have them tracked for you. I can also provide escape routes for those unintended to be present in this facility while the four of you resolve the current situation. I will start to run what interference I can, but you are likely to need to hurry.-" The Computer reported as it ran a quick analysis of everything going on across the entire planet.
That got their attention surely enough. Arne straightened himself while Samus leaned in as if to hear the telepathic broadcast better. "Why would we need to hurry?" She asked, squinting her eyes ever so slightly.
"-The Sunstalker and Moonhunter are seeking to refine their dimensional transport equipment, likely to try and experiment with the seal. With the faulty equipment, they currently possess they will only succeed in destroying everything within a hundred-parsec radius via dimensional collapse. You will be able to be teleported safely, but the population of the surrounding systems will be destroyed instantaneously.-" The Palatine Mind said quite plainly as if they were reporting on the chance of rain today.
Arne blinked as he considered the implications of that. Then he resisted the incredibly powerful urge to try and grab at his hair through his helmet and freak out. He felt a cascade of sensations and emotions all circling his mind at once: confusion, alarm, surprise, and even a bit of fear. Samus sputtered and had the strong feeling that if she were currently drinking something, she'd have spat it out in shock. She shook her head and then focused dead on the machine as she realised that what they had just said to her was entirely real. Concerned terror had to be choked back down as she straightened herself.
"Okay so how close are they to finishing this machine and well...taking out the entire sector? Which is, okay I'm almost curious as to how they can mess up that bad with one device." Arne said, recovering from his shock and trying to ease his mind. Something technical might make him feel a little less like he had a few dozen trillion lives riding on his actions over whatever time they had left to act. But he drifted his mind to other things, the realisation that doubt and worry were going to get people killed. He was scared, he was shaking, but he stilled his breathing. He couldn't let people down, not now. Now was the time to be decisive. At last, his fingers stopped twitching, he exhaled, and what to do was clear as day in his mind.
"-You will have thirty-six minutes to act before they run a test of their device. The energies that they seek to use will propagate at superluminal speeds and collapse multiple coterminous planes of existence atop each other. The energies they hope to generate from this will come from an attempted dimensional siphon, but they lack access to the proper regulators to control the direction of this energy. They will attempt anyway, out of desperation.-" The Palatine mind said, seemingly unconcerned with their somewhat noted lack of ability to move from its current position or the enormous blast radius.
"Okay, can you patch us through to Spire and Armaud then? We need to get in touch with them immediately. Then...what can you do to make sure we arrive there on time? Because if we only have thirty-six minutes then I'm sorry but I'm not going to just...wait for stuff to happen!" Samus said, stamping her foot for emphasis with the final sentence and puffing her chest out a bit. She felt her heart racing faster than light itself; her body almost quivering with adrenaline and excitement. She was scared, but she was also eager to do her first big good act in her life. People counted on her, and that gave her peace. She couldn't fail; she wouldn't allow herself to fail. She was going to do it, and nothing was going to stop her.
"-It is done, communication links re-established. I count on your success, and I offer you my hopes for good circumstances. Fight well, Aira-Sekh and Sarxyl Avar.-" The Palatine Mind finished before starting a teleportation sequence, contracting time and space until the distance of many tens of kilometres was reduced to nothing in less time than it took for either to blink. Their tall, imposing forms were now looming over the two like giants and their eyes opening wide with surprise and pride. The two felt a surge of sunlike warmth radiating from the two as their expressions began to soften into the utmost relief like parents who had lost track of their children only to be reunited. Though of course, was that not exactly what this feeling was?
Of course, Spire needed only the briefest moment to lock gazes with the two before what they felt was his huge rocky arms pulling them up into a bear hug. A squeeze that could have snapped a mountain was shared for a second before he lightened up, laughing like the rumble of the earth itself. "Kids!" He shouted with a joyous tone like a celebratory volcanic eruption, spinning them around while his eyes shuttered beneath the lenses of his helmet. The two let out half-hearted protests but hugged back, all the same, sharing in the infectious joy of the last Diamont.
"Yeah...nice to see you too Spire. Just a little...tight on the squeeze there." Samus said, wriggling slightly in his grasp as she did so to make herself a bit more comfortable in his embrace.
"Well, definitely glad to see you're in one piece. Just...ease up a little please." Arne said, doing his best to squeeze Spire back but of course, finding it impossible to even get his arms completely around Spire's bulk.
"Lords of the Cauldron, I've been looking all over for you!" He said as he swivelled to show them to Svihaly who gave a gentle laugh before patting the two on the head. Just look at you...doing so well for yourselves even all on your own. Gahhh...I just wish I could have been there to see it." Spire said as he gently set them down for Armaud to offer them a few pats to their heads. Her metallic fingers were cold against the shielded metal of their helmets. Yet they felt safe, a wall between them and the rest of the universe. The pressure was on, higher than it had ever been before, but there was a real feeling that they'd manage. That everything was going to be okay.
"You've done good for yourselves, you have my approval younglings. I can hardly say I cold have taught you better with my direct guidance...tch, you children do grow up fast don't you?" She said with warm and glowing approval. Every word made Samus widen her beaming smile beneath her helmet just a little more, while Arne flushed and chuckled slightly bashfully, unused to such warm words. It felt good, though, being praised. He lingered on those words and felt something he didn't get to feel too often, pride. Meanwhile, Samus gave her a thumbs up, nodding enthusiastically.
"What's the situation then?" Spire asked, deciding to cut to business as he relaxed a bit, a sandy exhalation emerging from the filters of his helm as he shuffled ever so slightly on his feet.
"There's two old foe warriors. A Sunstalker and a Moonhunter. They're trying to set up a device to bore their way through the seal but...they don't have good enough regulators or enough power." Arne said, having taken a moment to examine the designs of the machine sent to him by the Palatine mind. It wasn't going to work on so many different levels his head spun from it, unsure of how anyone could think such a thing was an even remotely good idea. Yet in disaster and mistake they could very well prove even more dangerous than if they had succeeded. That terrified the boy, made him feel the serpentine coils of concern constrict around his heart and guts.
"So what they're doing is setting up a bomb that's going to wipe out...everything in a hundred parsec radius. Trillions of people are going to die if we don't stop them. We need to get out there and save them...and everyone else from themselves!" Samus said, finishing off where Arne had started. Her words were emphatic, her motions dramatic, her eyes sweeping from one of the two elders to the other and then standing herself straight up to let them know that she was dead serious.
Armaud was the first to speak after a few seconds of stunned silence. Her voice had gone cold as the chill of winter itself, her stance hardening and optics glowering with iron determination. "How long have we got until then?" She asked. Direct and to the point, as she always was.
"A little less than thirty-three minutes." Arne said, running the numbers in his head. They had time but still, the seconds in the timer in his HUD ticked down at an alarming rate. He felt a squeeze inside of him get tighter with every second that passed before his eyes. Based on where they were, they could get there in time, but the time for transportation made him feel sick to his stomach. Too many wasted moments.
"Is there any way we could get closer to them then? As quickly as possible, preferably." Spire said, turning his attentions towards the Palatine mind that hummed a moment inside of their tank. Not with a musical note, but with the surge of energy they channelled through themselves to run every possibility.
"-There is a dimensional interference field surrounding their immediate area, preventing me from teleporting you directly into their presence. However, I can insert you quite close by. You will be unlikely to be detected. From there you will be able to engage the enemy. I will run whatever support I can.-" The Palatine Mind reported, conjuring up a hard light image of exactly where they would be going and its position relative to their intended destination.
"-I must advise caution; however, there are multiple Old Foe war machines in the vicinity; they will respond to the distress of their creators with all the force they can muster. But thankfully, the berserker state of the animal life nearby will not be a problem, thanks to the accomplishments of the Hatchling and Neophyte. Who have also managed to ensure the safety of a number of uninvolved who are approaching their ships even now.-" They said with a bit of pride at the end, earning a raised eyebrow from Samus who had up until this point assumed they were emotionless.
"You kids really could handle this all by yourselves couldn't you? I'm so proud of you both." Spire said, patting the both of them on the back and giving an avuncular laugh. Joy and confidence filled him, and his stony heart was as a furnace of gladness at the sensation that he could fight alongside these two not as a teacher, but as a partner.
"Yeah I mean, all we really did was figure out how to cancel the berserk frequency...not a big deal right?" Arne said before Armaud gave a tch and a finger wag at him. A gesture she had copied from observing people in more than a few cultures as proof that even an ancient such as she could pick up new tricks.
"Don't be so humble. Take pride in your actions without letting it turn into arrogance. Most people wouldn't have figured it out so quickly in your circumstances." She said with the patience of someone who had watched time pass by since before the first human learned how to shape wood and stone into spears. She rested her hand on Arne's shoulder and then nodded at him before she glanced over to Samus.
"And Samus, keep up that eagerness for the good fight. You'll need every bit of it. Now, all of you. Prepare for teleport. We'll take the fight directly to the Moonhunter and Sunstalker and end this right here, right now." Armaud said, all three other pairs of eyes fixating on her and giving her a nod of affirmation and a chorus of acknowledgements.
"Now, let's get rolling." Spire said as he curled into his Dialanche alternate form. The spiked rocky sphere shook the ground once he hit the floor and prompting both Samus and Arne to let out a prolonged groan as they realised the joke he had just made.
Consolidated Logbook Entries
Alimbic Logs: The Long Twilight:
The forces of civilisation continue to fade every passing cycle. Ever does Zoran have fewer visitors passing through its halls and fewer newcomers demonstrate the sophistication to commune with our generation than ever before. Even those who remain seem to be increasingly detached from proper material existence as the Chozo babble nonsense about transcendence and the limitations of material reality. Nonsense that more and more seem inclined to accept with every passing age. We will not succumb to such defeatism; there is yet work to be done in this material existence and not even the spirits the Chozo revere could hope to drive us from our task. Should the others be so content as to derelict their duties to the rest of the cosmos, then we will be forced to do what they are too afraid to. Perhaps they have forgotten their solemn vow to defend existence from those who would cast it into savagery, but we shall not.
Samus' Notes:
Based on the dating attached to this message this was written only fifty years before the Alimbics disappeared completely. It's weird to think about how they just seemed to vanish at their peak without any decline beforehand.
Arne's Notes:
The stuff written during the Order-Milieu cold war almost breaks my heart. You can just feel the disdain for the Chozo dripping off the screen in statements like this. And I'm just left to wonder where and why things started to go so sour between the two.
Chozo Logs: Dust to Dust
The Long stare has come to an end as the Alimbics have passed into the realm of memory. They who had deemed themselves the greatest of all societies now exist nowhere we can observe, save for those few who slumbered far from the heartland of their order. We have victory then, yet we grieve for it was a victory not won with reconciliation or understanding but instead through simple longevity. We grieve for the lost, and say our sad farewells to those who had once called themselves our enemies. And in this grief, we find ourselves questioning the very worth of seeking to be the masters of creation. We instead ponder what can be done following the complete mastery of existence, what we can achieve beyond the present and the temporal. We are saddened then, that the Alimbics will not be able to share in this pondering, and that those who decided to call us their enemies will now never once again be our comrades.
Samus' Notes:
This was written the year the Alimbics disappeared once and for all. It's so strange that they felt sad to see them go despite the rivalry. I'll need to look more into it.
Arne's Notes:
The Chozo started to advocate the philosophy of transcendence in much greater numbers once the Alimbics disappeared. I wonder if their disappearance convinced them there was nothing left for them?
Individuals: Deceased/Resurrected: Organic: Combatant: Non-Hostile: Thegrakal: Freelancer: Stygak Legromach
Stygak is a Freelancer native to the Whirlpool Galaxy famous for their willingness to take on dangerous high-intensity combat operations and return home still alive even with the most dangerous missions. Boisterous yet honourable, Stygak is also well regarded for their punctuality and eagerness to avenge any failed operations with follow up missions against any who have managed to beat him. A habit that many believe will one day lead to his permanent end if his insistence on repaying any debt owed by him regardless of how minor or extreme it is does not kill him first. Stygak makes use of a suite of heavy weapons including a rotary pulse laser and a multi-missile launcher, and in close quarters combat makes ample usage of a shockwave hammer to clear out large numbers of opponents.
Samus' Notes:
For somebody who was dead on the floor until we saved him, he's certainly eager to get back into action. I mean...I can definitely hugely respect that.
Arne's Notes:
I'm kind of boggled by the fact that he doesn't seem even a little bit afraid or traumatised by what he just went through. He must really love what he does.
Weapons: Beams: Chozo Originated: Phase-Wave Beam
The Phase Wave Beam utilises phasic technology to harmlessly pass through non-target obstacles such as cover or walls while still imparting damaging levels of energy into enemies. Best paired with visor technology that allows for vision past obstacles or with a spotter, the Phase Wave beam will make engaging with enemies in hardened positions a much simpler prospect. The Charged version of the Phase Wave Beam is the Phase-Storm, which will create a short-lived vortex of phasic energy upon impact, damaging everything it comes into contact with.
Samus' Notes:
A beam like this will need more caution for use in Urban areas since a missed shot has a much higher chance of hurting someone you didn't mean to. But I guess that means I have more reason to fine-tune my marksmanship.
Arne's Notes:
There's going to be a lot of cases with entrenched enemies where something like this is going to come in handy. Or in dealing with enemies that rely on moving cover around to obstruct fields of fire, shame most energy fields block it out though.
Upgrades: Visors: Luminoth Originated: Echo Visor
The Echo Visor visualises sonic information and vibrational data to allow the user to "see" sound as well as sonic profiles. Combining both active and passive sonic detection systems, the Echo Visor is well suited to watery environments in particular where its detection systems can often see much farther than electromagnetic signals. Due to its ability to detect vibrations through long-range scanning, it can even work in a limited function in vacuum environments.
Samus' Notes:
The Echo Visor's also notably very useful for detecting burrowing enemies as the reverberations they make through the ground are extremely easy to detect with it. Should come in very useful in the future whenever I bring it with me!
Arne's Notes:
I won't lie, it's very weird that the visor can let me see things like foetuses still inside of their mothers on ultrasonic mode. But it is a pretty interesting way to perceive the world. I imagine that it'd also be very useful for people who can't hear sounds as low or high as we can.
Upgrades: Combat: Defensive: Multiple Originators: Shield Projector
The Shield projector adds a module to the joints of the arm able to create a reflective barrier that may be used against both melee and ranged attacks. The barrier has a limited diameter, but careful angling can reflect incoming ranged attacks towards their senders. The energy and dimensional field is also able to be utilised as a deadly weapon in melee and can even be detached and thrown, upon which it will gradually dissipate over time but will damage all targets it impacts. A new barrier can be projected immediately afterwards.
Samus' Notes:
Using this along with the bayonet or the arm sword lets me switch into a sword and board melee combat style I find that I really like. It's also great for quickly getting some cover when I need it, making sure to bounce the shield between multiple targets takes a bit of calculation though. Nothing I can't handle of course.
Arne's Notes:
It really should be emphasised that the shield itself is a deadly weapon. You can cut straight through many forms of armour or hardened material with a good swing and the reflection ability means that it can give really, really unpleasant kinetic feedback to anyone you bash it into.
Upgrades: Utility: N'Kren Origin: Temporal Distorter
The Temporal Distorter allows for altering of the flow of time for a duration affected by the intensity of usage. At maximum, at its base level the temporal distorter can pause time entirely for only six seconds from the user's perspective, which will allow them to make maneuvres and attacks as they deem necessary within the period. Upon depletion of its stored up distortion, the Distorter requires a recharge. The distorter can also be used to target another individual, but this halves the duration in which it will last. Upgrades to improve the distorter are available however.
Samus' Notes:
I know the Chozo made their own equivalent to this not long after the N'Kren revealed their first models. It's definitely a tool that should be used responsibly, however, manipulating time in such a way is way too easily abused for this to be something for any situation...but I have to admit, there's definitely some fun ideas for it.
Arne's Notes:
I have the strongest sensation imaginable that one day Samus is going to use this to prank me. I can just feel it in my bones. I need to think of a way to prank her right back, before she hatches her sinister yet adorable schemes.
Upgrades: Armour: Physical Modifications: Diamont Originated: Frequency Suit
The Frequency suit alters the composition of the armour and its multilayered shielding to allow it to absorb energy; particularly vibrational energy; into itself. This notably has the benefit of preventing the overwhelming majority of damage from blunt force conduction through the armour, keeping the wearer safe from even the hardest blows should the shielding fail. The Frequency suit also cancels out the effects of high-frequency weapons, absorbing their vibrations and making them considerably less threatening to the wielder. The Frequency suit can store energy that can be used for many purposes, such as refilling energy, recharging the temporal distort, recharging the shielding, or releasing it in a bomb-burst of energy or to augment specific attacks. The Frequency suit will also cancel out the effects of unusual vibrations and sonic fences, preventing them from impeding the user. It finally improves all physical augmentations, enhances the resilience of the shielding and armour plating, and the antennae on the suit allow for improved signal interception.
Samus' Notes:
One thing that the description doesn't talk about is how it also cancels out most of the sound of your footsteps, allowing you to sneak up on enemies you normally wouldn't be able to otherwise. Shouldn't take too long before I come across a situation where this helps out.
Arne's Notes:
It's worth noting that only some of the energy will be absorbed into the batteries while most of the rest will still end up going into the shielding. It's mostly the damage that the shielding hardness manages to cancel out entirely from what I've been able to glean.
Mechanoids: Old Foe: Guardian: Combat Capable: Zakiriqt
The Zakiriqt is a deadly combat machine created by the Old Foe to guard sites of importance that cannot afford to have a standard guard posted. Designed in the style of a predator from the Krazimak homeworld, the Zakiriqt moves in a highly stable multi-limbed configuration that makes it difficult to knock over. The Zakiriqt in its many modular varieties is most well known for its extreme speed and agility and the vast array of threats it can present to a target. This particular model carries a neural agoniser able to transmit pain signals through armour through hijacking the armour's link to the wearer as well as a Quasar gun that uses the accretion process of an artificial black hole to release enormously powerful jets. The Head is the most vulnerable portion of the Zakiriqt and should be focused upon to disable it as quickly as possible.
Samus' Notes:
My current mark of power armour shouldn't even be able to be interfaced with the agoniser. I'll need to change up some access routing to prevent any similar events like this. Then I'll need to find out how it knew how to access into my armour.
Arne's Notes:
We're pretty lucky that the Zakiriqt wasn't made quite to full Forbidden Wars standards. Or really, even close to it. Gods I'm trying to imagine what one from that era would even be like and every answer I can think of is horrible.
Upgrades: Armour: Physical Modifications: N'Kren Originated: Phantom Suit
Using N'Kren ectophasic technology, the Phantom Suit allows for phasing partially out of conventional reality to pass through most objects uninhibited. While the conventional power suit and the user's progenitor blood already prevents phasing through to reach vulnerable organs, the Phantom Suit also allows for interacting with the incorporeal as if they were fully solid. Furthermore, the Phantom Suit makes the user impervious to most forms of dimensional instability events, allowing for previously inaccessible areas to be freely explored. The Phantom Suit additionally comes with improved stealth capability, cancelling out most of the sound that the user makes unless they wish to be heard and offering a silencing effect on all weapons. The Phantom suit augments all physical attributes of the armour and further bolsters the resilience of the plating and shielding, augmenting the rate that the plating and components can regenerate if damaged in particular through its usage of living metal.
Samus' Notes:
Not only is the Phantom Suit one of the most useful armour upgrades I've been able to get so far, but it's also definitely one of my favourites in terms of appearance. I just kind of wish it also came in red or orange. I'd love to be able to take this into an exploration mission, though. I could reach so many new places.
Arne's Notes:
The Phantom Suit is definitely going to be an incredibly useful armour for stealth operations. Being able to phase past most forms of defences not specifically designed to block phasic entities should be useful in most cases. Also, the hood looks really, really nice on me. It makes me feel like Robin Hood; if you'll pardon me referencing a classic.