Chapter 2: Storming the Hand of Torment
Five minutes. That was how long it had taken before the alarms had been tripped and any serious resistance had been mounted by the Space Pirates onboard. To be fair, that was largely due to the hyper beam killing its unfortunate targets before they could actually report Samus' presence to the command bridge. Of course, it would have been even better if no alarm had been tripped and she'd been able to shoot Vistler before he even knew he was in danger, but even she knew that was wishful thinking.
Come at me, then, Samus thought as a squad of ten Zebesian troopers rounded the corner, claws snapping open to allow them to fire their lasers. Like I'll let you do that, she commented (again mentally; she found it better to be silent on the job) as she fired, a single hyper beam round ripping through three of the aliens and causing the others to scatter. Big mistake – it allowed her to strafe past them and gun them down from behind, before using the brief moment of calm to get her bearings. From the looks of things, I'm likely in the main corridors. If I'm going to the bridge, I'll need to find one of the onboard map terminals and download a plan. This operation was fairly standard, but the thing about the Pirates was that every ship type had a drastically different layout; while a Glaive-class destroyer, for example, had its bridge located along its spine, a Starcrusher frigate like the Orpheon from Tallon IV was operated from the front of the vessel, and stars knew how a ship like the Hand worked. Well, there was no time to waste, especially since more Pirates could turn up at any minute, and so Samus took the passage the Zebesians had just used and began her search for a map station.
"We've lost contact with Squad Fifteen, sir. The Hunter looks to be headed for the crew quarters currently, but she could be aiming for the main reactor," Bohb stated to Vistler, although he was unfortunately in earshot of the rest of the bridge crew, whose already considerable alarm was in no way diminished by the report.
"Lock down all access to the main reactor and the engine room while the Hunter is still on board. However, I suspect she'll be searching for a map station so that she can navigate her way here – after all, she'll want to end the war once and for all, and the only way to make sure of that is to kill me," Vistler responded. Of course, the idea that the dreaded Samus Aran was coming for him personally was a particularly terrifying one, especially since he'd been used to being somewhat in the background when compared to individuals like Mother Brain, Ridley and even Kraid. However, this could be turned to his advantage (although the very notion was frankly absurd) – if he could lure Samus away from the Hand, the battle could well be won even if it cost him his life, and thus at least the secessionists would have a future. It was for this reason that he'd called his first officer (the official rank was Adjutant Prime, but since the War Council was highly unlikely to be meeting any time soon, he could afford to use the snappier version) Marshal Thrace to the bridge. Turning to the Marshal, Vistler quickly gave his orders, ones he knew his closest friend would be more than capable of following. "Keep the Hand in formation with the secessionist cruisers and keep an eye on Ba'al. Other than that, just make sure the Pulverisers target the bridges of the enemy capital ships and we should send the Federation scum packing."
"Yes, sir. For High Command and for victory!", said Thrace, allowing Vistler to quickly leave the bridge and activate his armour's inbuilt map, making sure to set the nearest hangar bay as his destination. Once that was done, he began activating his commlink and linking it to the onboard intercom. Time to issue my challenge, he thought.
Samus knew she was close to a map station once she entered what were likely the Hand's crew quarters, judging by the sheer number of Pirates that either braced for combat or ran for their lives once she entered. As was befitting such an important ship, members of every known Pirate species and subspecies were present; Samus could make out the forms of Zebesians, Kihunters, Salbraxians, Betatrixans and even some Urtragians – this lot would be quite a handful, even with the hyper beam. What was worse was that the Pirate horde had fire support in the form of several Despair-class turrets in the corners of the room – those things, while not overly dangerous on their own, had still kept her on her toes even when they were the only threats in the room, and now she had to fight at least twelve desperate Space Pirates along with them. Not even the hyper beam was strong enough to clear all those enemies out at once, so Samus was forced to engage in a gruelling skirmish, dodging laser bolts and acid sprays (the latter fired by the Kihunters) while concentrating her fire on the turrets to deny the Pirates their precious covering fire. After a few minutes of this, a well-timed hyper beam shot obliterated the last turret, allowing Samus to concentrate on those Pirates she hadn't already shot down. I have to give them credit, she thought while dodging a Salbraxian trooper with an energy scythe, even in their current state, they still know how to put up a fight- her train of thought was interrupted by a lucky shot from a Kihunter covering her visor, effectively blinding her for the second it took to dissipate. Blast! Why did I let myself get distracted like- she was forced to cut off her internal monologue yet again in order to dodge a grenade thrown by a particularly bold trooper, and then resumed firing until the last Pirate was nothing but a pile of dust on the floor. After a quick check that the situation, was clear, Samus made for the nearest open hatch. This had better lead to the map station, she thought. One shot revealed the nature of the room behind the hatch: it was quite small, with its only notable feature being a small computer terminal hanging from the ceiling. Bingo. After connecting her arm cannon to the terminal's connection port, she quickly downloaded and opened the map of the ship. Looks like I'm in the crew quarters in the command section, which means that the bridge should be… that way! Samus mused, turning to face the appropriate direction on the map. Watch out Vistler, here I come.
If the crew quarters had been dangerous, then the path to the bridge was even more so, with common troopers and militia giving way to heavily armed assault troopers and commandos with a tendency to perform banzai charges in an attempt to get in close before she could get off a shot, not that their plans worked – most of the time, anyway.
"That last encounter was tougher than it should have been. I HATE commando Pirates," Samus muttered, remembering her various encounters with the teleporting fiends on Aether and the Pirate homeworld. However, her march on the Hand's bridge was cut short by an unexpected announcement over the ship's intercom:
"Welcome aboard the Hand of Torment, Samus Aran. As much as I'd like to let you continue your little tour of the ship, I have to tell you that something has come up and I now have to leave. If you're quick enough, you might be able to find me in the hangar bay before my shuttle is ready; I'm sure we'd be able to schedule another tour later. Oh by the way, you have around five minutes by my clock, so I'll leave you to it. Good luck, 'Protector of the Galaxy'." Samus didn't exactly know whose voice that was, but she could make a fairly educated guess.
"Vistler." The old bugger was abandoning ship then, likely in an attempt to lure her away from the Pirates' prized dreadnought, if the files she'd been given on him by the Federation Police were any indication. Just her luck – she had almost reached the bridge and Vistler was already heading to the ship's lower levels to make his escape. For a Zebesian following the destruction of Zebes, he was remarkably organised; she suspected that it was because of him having hung around Ridley for so long and that him keeping things together was a direct cause of why his underlings hadn't reverted into a mindless, instinctual rabble. She quickly pulled up the map and looked for the main hangar as quickly as possible, though it didn't take too long; on a ship as large as the Hand, the sheer size of its fighter and transport compliment required it to have a hangar to match. After that, she quickly closed the map and used her scan visor to look for any quicker ways to the hangar, as she knew she'd never make it on foot; not with so many Pirates swarming the corridors. The situation, already rather tense due to the oppressive time limit, was made even worse by the sound of guttural alien voices indicating the imminent arrival of another Pirate squad (likely Salbraxians, but it could well be a Betatrixan group) intent on blasting her with their galvanic accelerator cannons. However, she did eventually find an air duct one room back that she was able to open with her grapple beam, before rolling into her trusty morph ball form and entering it just in time to evade the approaching Pirates (assault troopers, by the looks of things – she'd been lucky this time) and continue her pursuit.
By the time Samus reached the hangar bay, she was certain she'd missed her chance and Vistler had escaped. She'd failed, and now the Pirates would be able to continue their war upon the galaxy, leaving even more misery in their wake. The situation hadn't been helped by the fact that the closer she'd gotten to Vistler's apparent location, the more the Pirate troopers and militia had given way to Kihunter swarms, assault troopers and commandos determined to lay down their lives to protect their superior. Well, it appeared the blasted creatures had served their purpose, and all she had to do now was to clear the last two Zebesians at the hangar bay doors, call her gunship and call it a day. The Pirates in question, two grey-armoured foot soldiers, seemed to panic as they realised their impending doom, raising their claws in some pathetic attempt at surrender. As if that'll save you, Samus wryly mused, before the cowering Pirates… threw the insides of their claws at her? Momentarily taken aback by this unusual action, She was inactive for just long enough for one of the Zebesians to begin unloading its claw-mounted cannons at her while the other proceeded to dive-kick her right in the chest, sending her sprawling back.
"Vengeance for Zebes!" the two cried, before resuming their merciless assault, one firing while the other got in close to prevent Samus from properly aiming with her arm cannon.
Hold on, Samus realised, I've seen those tactics somewhere before… Then it hit her; the armour of the two Zebesians wasn't grey, but silver. The only Space Pirates she'd ever seen in that sort of armour were the Chromium Guard, the elite of the elite, Ridley's personal praetorians. They'd given her enough trouble on Zebes, especially during her descent into the Cunning God of Death's sanctum in Lower Norfair. If they were here, guarding this hangar bay, that meant… Vistler's still on the ship! That particular realisation gave her new determination, enough to jump out of the way of the dive-kicking guard and take him down with one shot of the hyper beam, for very little could survive the weapon Mother Brain had personally devised to kill Samus herself. The other guard went down relatively quickly after that, allowing Samus to charge into the hangar, arm cannon raised. This is it, Vistler, say goodnight!
Author's note: And so the Orpheon-style intro segment continues, with Samus blasting her way through the Pirate horde with all her shiny new upgrades. It was hard to make it a challenge for her when she has all her upgrades from Super Metroid at this point, but I'm pleased with how it ultimately turned out.
And the great thing about this being a prose story is that I can add more lore that would be a bit much to add into 1 of the games, like distinctions between the main Pirate species. For clarification, I made each species correspond to a Pirate design from the games, so Salbraxians are the Prime 1 Pirates (think the guys with the flaming eyes on Tallon IV); Betatrixans are the Prime 2 versions (the not quite Zebesians on Aether); and the Urtragians are the Prime 3 design (I got their name from finding out that the Prime 3 Pirate Homeworld is called Urtraghus in the game's Japanese version). I assume I don't need to explain what the Zebesians and Kihunters are since their names are actually given in a good amount of official material. And speaking of Space Pirates, the sections from Vistler's perspective allowed me to flesh out the Pirates a little, giving some of them names and creating an idea about what the upper ranks of their organisation are (or were, given how it's all falling apart after the loss of most of its leadrship) like. It was fun to come up with extra ranks like Adjutant Prime (I title I borrowed from Warhammer 40k, in which a Chaos marine of the Crimson Slaughter warband is known as the Adjutant Prime to his leader, Kranon the Relentless) and it made sense that there would've been a war council alongside High Command led by key military figures like Ridley. Don't worry, I won't drown you guys in Pirate lore for the rest of the story; we'll be getting to the BOTTLE SHIP soon enough and with it the main bulk of the story.
Next up's the end of area boss fight and Samus' first meeting with Vistler, so get ready for a bit more adrenaline.