Prodigal Program HQ Entrance, Zellemite City, Planet Gyldaine, Suramil System, Seleania Galaxy, Popular Republican Union of Esdemir, Galactic Federation: 8th of April 1,986,014
Samus hated the feeling of waiting around when there were things she could be helping with going on. Whatever information the classes had for her slid clean off her brain once she had determined she already knew it, and she would simply download any other information into her memory as she saw fit.
All she could think of was that the Space Pirates had come to this place and violated her sanctity for some reason and that Arne had similarly faced attack by the Kriken. But the feeling of being restrained ate at her. She couldn't leave the planet, she couldn't leave the classroom. All she could do was wait and fiddle with her stylus, drawing out schematics for a heavy cruiser sized starship to help her relax and idly crunching the last decimal points needed for every component.
She wasn't as much of a cockpit jockey as Arne, but designing technology helped keep her mind at ease. The constraints of having to ensure everything worked, down to her custom modifications to the N-Space, Alcubierre and Tachyonic Drives she thought up based on exotic principles that she showed curiosity in to squeeze out new magnitudes of performance...
Better that then worrying about how the Dismorites were up to their tricks elsewhere. Better that then the burden of knowing that there was suffering in the universe she was not presently allowed to do anything about. None of the security staff could stop her...but she didn't want to hurt them unnecessarily to get out and follow the trail of evidence when they'd invariably try to restrain her.
Especially when she was "under observation" following her brutal beatdown of the pirate invaders. To the point of being declared a "person of interest" during the Federal Security Agency's investigation. Not even the precinct or the component national police, the Federal Security of the Galactic Federation as a whole.
Though being bored out of her mind listening to the professor drone on about metadimensional physics she mastered as a toddler was honestly better than the interviews the Police Officers had given her so far.
Her mental reverie was interrupted when the door to the auditorium was opened, through which a heavily built, loping synapsidoid walked through, wearing not merely personal armour but outright combat gear. Black it was, with sleek plates that called to mind the design of primitive aerial stealth fighters from long before interstellar travel was dreamed possible.
"Would the hybrid Samus Eabha Aran please report to us once more for a further interview?" The creature said, sabre-toothed jaws snapping beneath their helmet.
Immediately that rankled with her. "The Hybrid"
She looked to the professor, the silicoid's scintillations shifting in colour to affirm that she should in fact, go rather than keep the FSA Officer waiting.
She sighed and stood up, shifting her legs a bit in the optional uniform she wore to stand out less while she looked dead on at the Officer and their escort, noticing them shifting their hands slightly as if to conjure their pistols from storage at any moment.
"Why are you nervous?" She asked.
"A precaution, given your capabilities," the lead said, escorting her towards a room they had requisitioned for the interview. Stark, clean, austere. She sat down on a chair, feeling the seat through the small gap between her socks and skirt and noting the presence of Police Officers and the micro-sensors scattered across the room to report back to their superiors.
She also noticed briefly that an CIN Agent was with them, and that sparked her interest. The Central Intelligence Network wasn't supposed to be doing domestic work...so why was the figure in the more angular, dark armour here at all?
"Shouldn't I have a lawyer present?" She asked.
"You aren't in any legal trouble; this will not be necessary," another said, this one probably human from their posture and the timbre of their voice. Even through the helmet, she could distinguish between mankind, the aelva, and similar beings. But she simply looked into the one-way T-Visor of the dark armoured figure, almost seeming to stare through the blue material.
"I read the law; you have to have one with me to speak to me," she replied bluntly. They'd try to get under her skin, she was sure. So she disassociated as best she could, with simple, calm detachment from the situation to focus purely on what would work best.
"This is simply an informal courtesy." The one who summoned her said, a thrumming voice as feelable as it was audible exiting the helmet's vocoders.
"If there is nothing to worry about, we can waive the formalities. We don't need legal counsel getting in the way here. Especially not after such a traumatic incident." The human said, a woman trying to sound motherly and understanding, but mostly making the hairs down the back of Samus' neck stand up with the firmness of Cosmium as she felt at unease.
"We are simply looking to catch the Pirates who tried to hurt you. Someone with your background should understand right? We're here to stop more K-2Ls." Another said, the Plantoid's chemical signals translated into voice through the armour of the Subnational Legal Enforcement Troopers.
The sweetness behind the words made the desire to retch all the more evident, especially invoking those three syllables to her. She gripped at the chair, whose seat handle crumpled to a fine point beneath her fingers, the metal creaking and snapping into a foil ball despite being made to resist the grip of nervous enhanced individuals who could drive a fist through an AFV's glacis. That briefly got the words to stop as she grinded her teeth.
"Look, we're here to help you. But first you need to help us." The CIN figure said, voice filtered into being impossible to identify, a drink offered to the young lady in the hopes of appearing to be a friend.
She knew what she had to do, but she could feel the mounting pressure of their desire to get her to do what they wanted building all around her, enclosing her. The walls were coming in, creeping forward as instincts that told her to fight or flee started to mount up. Her hands reached for her ears as she was about to tell them to stop...a hand reaching towards her and a split second vision of it touching her nearly making her reach out and grab the arm to tear it away from her.
Fortunately, someone else entered the room. Tall, blue haired, sharp dressed in an Army ceremonial uniform accompanied by an orange-haired woman with augmented reality spectacles and a dress suit; a piece of human fashion that hadn't changed in several hundred thousand years since the time of pre-spacefaring humanity.
"Adam?" She asked, then looking towards the woman who hurriedlya adjusted her tie and stared down the procession of important looking figures in duty-armour. She felt relieved, the black void of enclosure washing away from her and letting her breathe once again, the visions of people crowding around her receding and her breath and heart calming.
"I had a sneaking suspicion you wouldn't stop haranguing her about this, so I went and contacted my spouse." He said, gesturing to the woman.
"Zakiko Malkovich, Attorney at Law, please back the assault division the hell away from my client." She said, red puffed in her cheeks and angular eyes drawing a thin line with disdain for the procession she saw before her.
"We are simply trying to help an orphan through a traumatic experience." The CIN Agent said, radially symmetrical legs snapping as they scuttled back, impassive visor making it hard to tell for the untrained eye whether they were looking at Samus, Zakiko, or Adam.
"Like hell you are. I don't know what you're planning to do, but you're going to have to stop unless you're comfortable with saying it around me." She said.
"Well, firstly, it is very, very rare for the Progenitors to entrust a child under their care to the Federation and other modern societies. And the fact that the Confederacy of Dismor has found her all the way here is a matter of substantial concern. Nevermind that according to the testimony of the Brigade on Zoranth, she had encount-"
"She is thirteen. Leave her out of whatever scheme you spooks have cooking in your black ops riddled brains." She said, prompting Samus to let out an exhale and a look of silent thanks.
She wasn't sure if she could have resisted the urge to lash out from being cornered for that long, and from what she could guess, they likely wanted her to do just that in order to entrap her. The Federation's ideals and the Chozo's role in forming it were inspirational, but even Old Bird had warned her to not trust the enforcement arm of that Federation.
She looked towards Adam, who loomed impassively while presenting the imposing air of a successful general whose career these people could not touch.
"Thanks..." Samus said in a small voice while Zakiko argued with the procession of spooks.
"I'd never let let Rodney's daughter be thrown to the wolves, not like that. I'm sure he'd eat my backside from beyond the grave if I did." Adam said with something approximating a smile.
Samus hated waiting, especially when she knew the words to what the adults were saying but the context was eluding her. She personally would have preferred to just get onto her craft and solve things herself, maybe with some help. She saw the Federation's forces on Zorant, so...mortal and fragile. She saw in these armoured men and women of this modern, mortal world only fragility and weakness. How they needed to be temporarily uplifted to her most basic capabilities to provide anything meaningful against the Sun Stalker and Moon Hunter.
A host of them that numbered in the millions to billions for every star in whichever Galaxy Weavel sought to commence with his plans in of would not be able to do what she could. So many of them would perish, so much time would be lost, there would be so much destruction and misery and death and it made a tear come to her eye at the thought. No, people like this shouldn't be risking themselves, they ought to let her do it, let her take care of it. She would be so much better than them at it., not the least because in those numbers they'd be clumsy, slow to manoeuvre and inflexible compared to a single mighty champion such as herself.
Such a horde would be far too noticeable too for the operation she was thinking of in her mind. They'd control territory better than her sure but surely the system shielding and defences would stone wall any offensives to the point where they would have to entrust special forces to try and make openings for further operations and landings. Time would be expended in unthinkable quantities, the expense of resources upon the dreary business of war would be even more horrendous. A waste, all of it nothing but the purest sort of waste.
Plus, if she did it alone, none of those soldiers or other personnel would risk dying. It was wrong for something so...frail to risk its life when she could take the risk and ensure all who needed it got home safely. She had calculated the risks, her way would preserve more lives, the Federation would just send the marines and army to yet another mire, yet another bog fighting the Krikens, the Pirates and whatever else was at the site that they so desperately craved. She could bypass interdiction fields, slip through defensive shielding, arrive in the tiniest cracks in any defence and topple the thrones of the greatest kings...she knew she could do it so why...
"She's not going to be put up to whatever insane field tests you want out of her. I don't care if she can overpower neutronium life forms in arm-wrestling, she's not old enough for the battlefield." Zakiko said, and at once Samus' mindset changed regarding her. She had saved her from the probing, the needling, the questions, but she was...saying she shouldn't go out there at all?
"Nor is she old enough to be treated like a walking Federal security hazard. Just let her live her life as normal while she's in the care of this facility. If she shows interest in whatever it is you want when she's of voting age, then sure."
A whole two years? She counted her lucky stars that she wasn't born in an earlier age where she'd have to wait for five but who knows what could happen in two years[1]!
"Wait...but if it's Weavel, then I should go! You can't organise the sort of force needed to take him down in time before he achieves whatever he's trying." Samus protested, slamming her hand on the desk so hard that something meant to be able to be used as cover in case of an emergency dented visibly while her own hand felt little more than the dull thud of contact.
That drew eyebrow raises and pauses. She had their attention at least.
"With your history with the inferno pack that is exactly why you can't go. He already knows you're here and is already expecting you in all likelihood. Old Bird...the Zebesian Chozo entrusted you to this place to learn and grow like a normal child. You should be worrying about classes not...spec ops and raids for artefacts of power." Zakiko said, Adam nodding firmly while the procession discussed amongst themselves, electroperceptors in her body tasting the communiques going between them in secret.
"But you can't do it! None of you can! I've seen your soldiers! They're weak! Once the save stations are taken out you'd all die and die and die! How can you even think about not letting people who can actually handle this take care of it for you? Don't you want those poor soldiers to live?" She said.
"They are trained for this, and they know what they're doing, which is why they should handle it." She said as Samus sat down and exhaled.
"And I'm not? I was raised to fight, I am equipped to fight! I'm stronger than all of you put together! Why won't you let me protect you?!" She said, on the verge of flipping the table through the door to make her way to her craft as the red heat within her heart started to rise.
"Samus, after the way you lost your temper at the game when you saw even a handful of pirates, letting you deal with an army of them is out of the question." Adam said, finally interjecting.
"And when I knew your parents when they were in the navy, they talked to me with so much excitement about their plans for a daughter. How long and hard they thought about the name for her, what they hoped she'd look like when she came of age, and all the things they wanted to do with her. I knew them about as well as I could given our different branches, but I know they wouldn't want you doing this." He said, and for a moment Samus' armour flashed into being and her hand nearly lunged for his throat to crush it into pulp.
But she stopped, the red mist vanished from her eyes, and she exhaled, long, hard, and shrunk into her chair as she let the armour fade once more.
"...Sorry..." She said, the adrenaline still causing her arms and shoulders to twitch until the nervous energy cooled and the heat turned to the chill of embarrassment.
She tried to not pay any more attention, attempting to tune out the words directed towards her and retreat to the island of her thoughts. She wished she could simply hide away at this point.
She continued to wait, to pick at little slivers of dust beneath the tips of her nails, to resist the urge to chew on her hair, to just...exist as they meandered about things while she could only think about how they were making mistakes, treating her like she was the one who had to be sheltered and taken care of. The conversation winded away from thing she cared to listen in on, babble about deep legalities and the citation of one caselaw or the next while she would be asked to provide some comment or the other until at last the signal for her to leave was offered.
She could still feel the eyes of the CIN Officer on her as she was directed to leave, a sensation she found unpleasant enough to want to duck out of the way as fast as possible. When she turned the corner to break the line of sight, she did so pointedly, looking at the raw, steely disappointment from Zakiko and Adam until she noticed the air was moving and her mind reacted presciently to something about to happen.
But then a blue and a purple shape made themselves evident with the silent fade-in of decloaking, and it took her a moment longer to recognise who the figure in blue was. Somehow, despite being removed by the intergalactic gulf of space, Arne was there, clad in his full squire armour while another girl stood next to him in the armour of the umbhar.
"Well, are you going to stand there or are we going to do something about Trace?" Agafya said, clearly not about to hear "no" for an answer while Adam's initial instinct to signal an alarm was pre-empted by Arne's scan visor and his armoured hand grabbing his wrist before he could make any efforts towards a manual alarm.
"I spent three days preparing everything for a long trip far, far away and I'm not leaving without you!" She said, clearly proud of herself.
Consolidated Logbook Entries
Topics: Cosmopolitical: Foreign Relations: Omdynic-Federal Relations
The Omdyn of Democratic Council Omnist Republics and the Galactic Federation are two of the universe's most powerful polities and stand at the helm of their respective spheres of influence which are in turn, underpinned by their alliance blocs. However, despite mutual threat from renegade actors such as the Imperial State of Arkatika or the Confederacy of Dismor, relations are generally sour due to conflicting interests and ideological differences. The Omdyn, one of the major patrons of revolutionary action, frequently finds itself colliding with the Federation which generally sponsors the status quo against efforts to transform it. While neither power has yet to escalate to full-scale warfare following the Horus Rebellion and the ensuing Kemetica Revolutionary Wars, a status of rivalry has settled between the two giants and the other major blocs for the past Earth Century often referred to as "the great game".
Samus' Notes: Why do they waste so much effort against each other when there are so many out to destroy them both? If the Omdyn and the Federation could join forces, just think of all the good they'd do! I don't get all this political nonsense.
Arne's Notes: My mom wrote a lot on this conflict and why it was so important to her. I still try to make sense of it to this day, but without the context…maybe there's something I'm missing?
Individuals: Lawyers: Federation: Human: Zakiko Sato Malkovich
Zakiko Sato Malkovich (Born Zakiko Sato) is a lawyer with the Rivderi Legal Firm and the Federal Civil Liberties Alliance that specialises in Federal Family Court issues as well as Civil Rights, and the current spouse of Adam Ivaschenko Malkovich as well as the mother to Izumi Malkovich, Rin Malkovich, Taiyo Malkovich, and Aoi Malkovich. Zakiko, trained at the Yokoi University of Shinkyoto on the planet New Mars, is well regarded for her advocacy for children's rights in the legal process and her willingness to work pro bono for less advantaged clients to the point of being nicknamed the "Courtroom Angel". She is also known for refusing to back down when confronted with the Federal Armed Forces, Police Corps, or even the Central Intelligence Network; a quality of hers that formed the basis of her relationship and marriage to Adam following her service in the Federal Army. She is also known for her one term of service as the system chancellor of New Sol under the Popular Democratic Labour Party.
Samus' Notes: I'm…thankful she helped me, but I wish she understood how important what I need to do really is. I just hope that once we take care of it, we can still be friends?
Arne's Notes: From what I can find about her, she's supposed to be some sort of reform advocate? I hope she manages to succeed, but I'm not sure why she gave up on electoral politics to become a lawyer. It seems less efficient.
Technology: Arcanotech: Progenitor: Umbharian: Shadow Step
The Shadow Step is one of the most remarkable forms of teleportation devised, allowing the user to move between any two unlit points regardless of distance so long as there is sufficient data for a successful translocation. Bypassing most forms of teleportation blockage, Shadowstep devices remain impenetrable to attempts by modern societies to study them due to the general difficulty of reverse engineering Umbhar technology compounded with the metaphysical inscrutability woven into their nature at the conceptual level. The only non-progenitors to make use of it are inheritors, with Agafya Sokolova making use of hers after acquiring it during her warrior trial on the planet of Sondex to commit a wide series of, to use her terminology, "Japes" such as stealing pre-spacefaring society artefacts from museums to return them to their creators, robbing the personal effects of major corporate officials, and assassinating Hierarch Azadra of the Star Serenity.
Samus' Notes: I don't think I like Agafya using something like this to play japes on people. But I can definitely approve of her stance on artefacts.
Arne's Notes: I'm just hoping she manages to keep herself out of trouble while she plays around with the technology.
Consolidated News Entries
International News: Engenoid: Republican Triumph: Rantik Swarm Deivore spotted in Styrmandin Galaxy
A Rantik Deivore, a type of systemcraft utilised by the Rantik Swarm in its later stages of galactic harvesting, has been seen in the Styrmandin Galaxy by Engenoid and Othimarin forces engaging in relatively rare cooperation between the two intergalactic powers as they try to repulse the Rantik effort to cyberise all intelligence in the Styrmandin Galaxy. However, the commitment of a Deivore indicates that the self-replicating machine swarm regards this campaign to be of significant importance, as its interstellar range superluminal effectors, tachyonic weapons, and gravity wave pulsars allow it to dominate combat across large portions of a galaxy. The deployment of such a device has many analysts concerned, but has many thinking that the Rantik Swarm's invasion could be weakened by destroying the craft.
Samus' Notes: I wonder what's bringing the Pirates, Krikens, and the Swarm to a single place? Whatever it is, I'm not going to let them have it!
Arne's Notes: With a Deivore present, I think that if we have to deploy to the Styrmandin galaxy, we'd probably have to make sure we get in and out as fast as possible.
Internal News: Dismor: Cyclical Informer: Theft of Star of Delias Raises Security Questions
It has come to our attention that the Star of Delias, intended for sale to the Monks of Grondheim, has been stolen with reports once again blaming the "Shade Bandit" for the loss of item already cleared for the transaction. This failure on the part of unacceptably lax security is not to be blamed on imaginary cryptids or phantom thieves when the clear explanation is that one of you sought to filch the gem for your own profit. For the crime of laxness in duty, your unit is to be subject to summary decimation by the end of this milicycle, followed by a second decimation for the clearly absurd excuse of "teleporting progenitor thieves". The survivors will face further interrogation and disciplinary measures as is seen fit by your local command, and your request to System Command for extra reinforcements is denied. We wish you ill fortune and excruciating punishment until you liberate yourselves from this weakness.
Samus' Notes: Space Pirate logs are always so full of banal mundanities mixed with the most viciously cruel sentiments I've ever seen.
Arne's Notes: Yes this is definitely Agafya's work.
International News: Omdyni: Popular Tribune: Creation of the "Star of Gyda" Order Draws Controversy
In a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Omdyni Congress, the decision to create an award commemorating Gyda Skjoldr has drawn controversy from many Star States, such as the Galactic Federation, for the "honouring of committed terrorists and agent provocateurs", in the words of Ambassador Voris. With unconfirmed rumours of possible sightings of Arne Skjoldr being firmly denied by the Mind Spider Council as "misreportings driven by grief", it is currently believed that Gyda, Erik, and Arne Skjoldr perished with the Cylosis incident and that any prior reportings of Arne's survival were mistaken. The Magnus Academy would wish that people be more mindful of spreading such rumours in the future, given the distress it may cause living members of the Skjoldr tribe.
Samus' Notes: Why are they hiding knowledge that Arne is still around? And why is Arne's mom so controversial?
Arne's Notes: My mother's notes always said that she would be the sort of person that history would remember very differently depending on who you asked.
[1]: The age of adulthood in the Federation is a finnicky thing due to all the species with differing maturation rates so I settled on "starts at fifteen for humans excepting a citizenship exam for early emancipation" to square the circle of Zero Mission taking place when she's 17/18 and her being involved in the Federal Armed forces before that. I personally think it's kind of weird but I like Zero Mission being a coming of age thing and this does have story possibilities. That being said I'm still not putting her into her canonical sexy outfits until after ZM because I have self respect.