Prologue: The End of an Era
Ever since the formation of the Galactic Federation in the year 2003 of the Cosmic Calendar, the forces of progress and unity have been threatened by the minions of evil. Although various such threats have been faced by the Federation Police, Army and Marine Corps, none have been as persistent or dangerous as the Space Pirates; a confederation of several warlike species whose dreams of conflict and self-enrichment soon turned to galactic conquest and the destruction of all who opposed them. These foes were responsible for some of the greatest perils faced by galactic society, from the Lydianite Insurrection to the Phazon Crisis, and the Federation's own forces were insufficient to deal with them. As a result, powerful bounty hunters were hired to capture or eliminate them wherever they were found, but one of them would go on to perform some of the greatest deeds in the Federation's history: Samus Aran.
Samus, a human originally from Earth colony K-2L, was raised by the avian Chozo after she was orphaned in a Pirate raid which left her as the sole survivor of the entire population. The Chozo, a technologically advanced but declining people, saw in the girl a new Protector of the Galaxy, and so trained and enhanced her with their own DNA, while also providing her with her own Power Suit. Samus would then serve with the Federation Police for a time, but it was as a freelance space hunter that she would perform her greatest exploits. She not only played a significant role in ending the Phazon Crisis, denying the Pirates an army of supersoldiers and a potent energy source, but also helped curtail the fiends' plans to utilise the other great legacy of the Chozo – the parasitic Metroids – as bioweapons capable of ending galactic civilisation. Eventually, the Federation Council would task her with the extinction of the Metroid species on Planet SR-388; a task which culminated in not only the death of the last infant Metroid on the Pirate fortress world of Zebes, but also the deaths of the top two Pirate leaders – Mother Brain, an insane Chozo AI which acted as the base's overseer; and Ridley, the sadistic Supreme Commander of the Pirate military and Samus' long-time nemesis due to his role in the K-2L atrocity. Now, with this most recent mission concluded, a clear message has rung out across the stars:
Mother Brain, Ridley and the last Metroid are dead. The galaxy is at peace.
However, it is a message that has proven to be somewhat premature. The Federation and the various bounty hunters in its employ are now busier than ever purging the various Pirate remnant factions before they can reorganise, but with the fiends fighting tooth and nail to evade justice, there were always going to be setbacks. One of these has turned out to be the seizure of the important Salbrax sector by Pirate-backed secessionists, which has quickly turned into full-scale war as the Federation fleet clashes with a combined Pirate and secessionist armada under the leadership of Ridley's former second-in-command Stedlan Vistler.
But beyond the events unfolding in Salbrax, evil comes in many forms, and unbeknownst to both Samus and the majority of the galaxy, the Pirates have begun implementing a secret contingency plan that could not only reunify their forces, but make the victory at Zebes be all for naught…
Chapter 1: Mission to Calbrion
The Calbrion system was usually a quiet place. Not only did it have no habitable planets to speak of, thus cutting out the space traffic one would find in most inhabited systems, but it wasn't even a particularly important one by Federation standards, sitting at one end of a minor hyperlane connecting to one of several processing systems in the Salbrax sector; systems that themselves might as well have been automated due to the regularity of goods and ores being exchanged between the federal and sector governments. Yes, it was true that said processing systems (and by extension the sector itself) dealt in vital components for the Federation's various technological wonders, especially its Aurora Unit AIs, but this importance never applied to distant, backwater Calbrion; the only ships that even saw it were cargo haulers and the occasional repair ship called out to fix a faulty beacon or sort out a malfunction at the processing stations.
As such, the system's current situation – embroiled in a large-scale space battle of the kind not seen since the invasion of Norion three years ago – was practically unthinkable. "How", the standard Federation citizen might ask if they were particularly aware of the wider galaxy, "did it come to this? The Space Pirates were soundly beaten at Zebes (and then largely vaporised along with the planet) and their remnants are on their last legs, so how were they able to pull off this kind of assault, in a sector as important as Salbrax no less?" The answer, of course, is that they couldn't have pulled it off – not without help, anyway. For the sector had a secret history of anti-Federation sentiments, derived from the fact that the native Salbraxians had commanded their own interstellar empire in the sector named after their homeworld, and had joined the Federation under the belief that they would get access to a mother lode of Chozo technology and protection from their various rivals in the Lawless Zone. It was therefore quite understandable that when they were instead roped into a democratic, humanoid-dominated, Chozo-designed hegemony in which they essentially sacrificed their national sovereignty to become a supply hub, the reptilians would develop a fair degree of resentment towards their new masters, which many of them decided to express by joining various anti-Federation groups and eventually the Space Pirates, who had become quite popular in the sector due to their talking points basically lining up with those of many Salbraxian traditionalists. It was thus perfectly natural that the Salbraxians would decide to express their "solidarity" with the Pirate cause by seceding from the Federation almost as soon as the destruction of Zebes made the news. The Federation, for its part, could not allow such a vital sector to simply break away when galactic unity was so close, and so sent a fleet to crush the rebels. This in turn led to a Pirate 'Vengeance Force' led by the infamous Stedlan Vistler arriving to help its by now long-time allies, driving the Federation fleet back to the Calbrion system, where the outcome of the war would be decided.
It was into this situation, as the two-hour long space battle was reaching its most critical moments, that a single Hunter-class gunship entered the system, taking care to skirt around the warring fleets as it searched for a good vector through which it could approach its target. A Hunter-class, while a perfect pursuit craft and quite heavily armed and armoured, was certainly not designed as a space superiority fighter like the squadrons of Stiletto and tadpole-esque Terroriser ships that were engaging each other in intense dogfights throughout the battlefield, as its pilot knew from bitter experience after having her first such ship shot down by Terrorisers after escaping an exploding Pirate base. Fortunately, it was still insignificant when compared to the various capital ships on both sides, and so was able to slip through the duelling fleets without much notice. It was once the gunship acquired its target that the mission became actually challenging, for it now had to directly approach – no, land on – the largest, most heavily armed ship in the system; an action that would be considered suicide even by most veteran bounty hunters. Fortunately, the pilot of this particular ship was well-versed in making stealthy landing procedures and had a cloaking device installed for keeping her ride hidden from prying eyes, and so the gunship made its steady approach towards the pilot's chosen landing site – and destiny.
Patience girl, Samus Aran thought to herself, it's just another secret landing on the hull of a Pirate capital ship. You've done this song and dance before – you'll be fine. Of course, this landing wasn't exactly like the others she'd had to do; after all, it wasn't every day that one had to infiltrate the Hand of Torment, flagship of the hated (and thankfully late) Ridley and probably the most advanced ship in the Pirates' possession. But she'd fought through worse – after all, she'd been through Zebes twice, the Tallon IV Phazon Mines and one of the Pirate homeworlds and come out the other side. And I made the monsters pay for their crimes, she added with grim satisfaction. And the results of all those trials and tribulations had led up to this one moment – the Pirates making their last desperate rolls of the dice and Ridley's right-hand crab Vistler within her sights. It was unusually hard for her to contain her excitement long enough to make the landing on a patch of hull plating close to one of the airlocks. Once that was done, she made a quick check over her inventory – she knew better than to disengage her acquired suit modules this time, what with most of her recent missions requiring her to wipe every trace of the Pirates from the cosmos and thus making every single suit module priceless.
"Gravity suit – check." Good; there was no reason to abandon her most efficient suit, which she had used in some capacity during both missions to Zebes and the Tallon IV Incident – she never knew when the Pirates would next try springing a lava trap on her.
"Missiles – check." These were practically essentials for opening any door with any sort of industrial locking mechanism, the more concussive super missiles even more so.
"Hyper beam – check." This was by far the most important weapon that she'd ever wielded; a condensed (but undiminished) version of the terrifying Laser Brain Attack used by Mother Brain during her last stand in the Zebesian Command Centre just months prior. Just thinking about that incident made the veteran bounty hunter shudder – she'd had more than a few nightmares about that day; Mother standing over her with that monstrous cyborg body of hers, charging up the deadly rainbow beam that tore through even the gravity suit's advanced shields like they were a wet paper bag, before opening her eye – "Snap out of it! Mother's dead for real this time. The last Metroid made sure of that." The last Metroid. The deceased last Metroid. Just thinking about that made Samus feel…strange. So many of her key missions had involved her taking on the things, and now they were just…gone. And yet they weren't just things, were they? After all, the baby she'd taken from SR-388 had ended up saving her life twice; from Proteus Ridley on the Metroid homeworld and Mother Brain on Zebes, the latter of whom had killed it soon after. But there was no time to think about that now – Samus had work to do. And so she stepped into the boarding shaft that allowed her to depart her trusty gunship, and began her mission.
The view from the bridge of the Castigator-class dreadnought Hand of Torment was quite breath-taking, thought the dark-armoured Zebesian looking out at the battle raging before his very eyes. Or rather, it would have been breath-taking if he wasn't so busy holding his breath due to how damn tense it was. The large collection of Pirate and secessionist warships was certainly impressive, considering how incoherent the organisation had become after Zebes' destruction and just how many vessels the Salbraxian rebels had already lost to Federation guns in the weeks prior to his arrival. However, this was a make-or-break situation, and for all the bluster he'd spouted about a 'Vengeance Force', Stedlan Vistler knew that most of the Pirate ships' captains were more concerned about their own safety than defeating the hated Federation ever since the thrice-accursed Hunter Samus Aran had killed Lord Ridley and Mother Brain in one night, not to mention causing the eradication of many of their best soldiers when Zebes was reduced to cosmic dust. But, Vistler reflected, he had to make do with the forces he had, even if their disunity and cowardice meant that even the slightest mistake could well cost him and the secessionists the entire war. Things would be so much easier if Lord Ridley were here, he reflected. But Ridley was dead and he had been designated his successor, and so he would do his best to honour the previous Supreme Commander's memory.
Vistler was brought out of his reverie by a concerned member of the bridge crew – comms officer Illsa, if he remembered correctly.
"Lord Vistler?" the officer asked, her tone clearly indicating that something important had come up.
"Yes, Illsa?" Vistler responded, taking care to address her by name rather than rank; in troubled times like these, he found it was better to adopt a more personal approach with the crew, to build a rapport with them and thus improve their morale (and besides, it eased the pressure of his new position).
"Commander Ba'al has asked permission to launch a forward assault on the enemy's right flank. I think he's hoping to divide the Feds in two but it'll leave the Salbraxian frigates vulnerable."
"Tell him to wait while we notify the secessionists of his plan and give them time to prepare accordingly. I can't have Ba'al jeopardising everything we've worked for on such a dangerous manoeuvre." Typical, the Supreme Commander thought to himself, Ridley's heir can command quasi-affiliated secessionists better than his own commanders. This is the moment I needed the fleet to stay where it was and glory-hungry fools like Ba'al screw it up because they know I'm in no position to refuse. Lord Ridley would've had him court-martialled at LEAST for that kind of plan, I know it…
"Sir, an incident has been reported in Arterial Passage 3," the chief security officer, Bohb, stated hurriedly, bringing him back to reality once more.
"What sort of incident? Can it wait until after the battle?" Vistler asked, hoping against hope that the situation hadn't just gotten even worse.
"Unauthorised weapons fire within the passage was reported several times, but we've been unable to gather further details, sir." So they'd been boarded, then. No matter, he could easily divert several combat squads, maybe backed up by commandos, to crush the unfortunate souls who had dared to take the fight to his ship – the Supreme Commander (it was still hard to even think of anyone other than Ridley as holding that position) hadn't chosen the Hand as his command ship for nothing.
"How many boarders?" This was an important question to ask, as more enemies could do more damage, but also gave him an excuse to assign more soldiers, and thus take their minds off of the Zebes disaster.
"Uh…it says there's…one, sir?"
"Check again, Bohb; the Feds may be pretentious slimeballs, but they're not stupid. There has to be something else to this that we're not seeing." It was precisely at this moment that the priority warning klaxons sounded, indicating that the situation had just taken a serious turn for the worse. But how? What could have happened to make one enemy soldier worth such an emergency? Unless… no, it couldn't be her, not now! "Do you have more information, Bohb?" Vistler asked frantically, his blood running cold from the suspicion that he'd been too focused on the space battle to consider that the real danger had slipped by completely undetected until now.
"Yes, sir – it appears that the enemy has been identified by our security feeds as… Samus Aran…" At this point, as Bohb's words almost died in his throat even as he finished his sentence, Vistler could offer up only one word as a reply:
"Frag."
Author's note: Here it is - my first fanfiction on this site, and boy is it a big one. After watching videos about how badly the notorious Metroid: Other M's English translation is compared to the Japanese version a few years ago, I was inspired to take things further still and add a good few alterations that, I hope, bring it more in line with the rest of the Metroid franchise's lore and setting.
And those changes... Firstly, the whole opening section, with Samus boarding the Pirate dreadnought, is an entirely new point in the story. I wanted to give Samus a good reason to go to the BOTTLE SHIP that didn't involve a shoehorned-in baby metaphor, and giving her a high-ranking Space Pirate to pursue, especially now that they're on their last legs after Super Metroid and she's the closest she's ever come to defeating them once and for all, felt like a great way to do so. It was also a great opportunity to expand upon what might be going on in the wider galaxy now that the Pirates have been dealt such a decisive blow; even with Ridley and Mother Brain dead and Kraid MIA, there's still a Pirate High Command out there and they and their remaining forces won't go down without a fight.
And then there's Vistler, a new character of mine I devised as both Samus' target and one of the main villains of the story. Honestly, I was also partly inspired by the breakup of the Empire in Star Wars when coming up with the worldbuilding of this, since Super Metroid kinda feels like a Return of the Jedi moment for the Metroid series and by that logic, although "the Emperor" (Mother Brain) and "Darth Vader" (Ridley) are dead, there's still various warlords and splinter fleets for the Federation to deal with, and Vistler fills the role of Grand Admiral Thrawn in this overly extended analogy. I hope you like him.
Writing Samus' inner monologue and thoughts was also something I found enjoyable to write, if mainly for the challenge of writing something that sounded more organic than her thoughts in the actual game. Don't worry, I tried to base her characterisation based on a mix of the games and what I remember of the manga, so there's no traces of "ThE BaBY" or authorisation here.
And that's all for now; feel free to tell me what you think and hopefully you enjoy reading this until I upload the next chapter.