Chapter 11: Foes on All Sides
The Biosphere Test Area, the final room in Sector 1, took the form of an open field that stretched far into the horizon, where many trees and mountains could be seen. Of course, this environment was simulated, much like several of the other rooms Samus and the 07th Platoon (not to mention Karlac's Space Pirates) had encountered so far. As for non-illusionary features, there were only two of note; a broken, six-wheeled vehicle and a grey metal tower that rose several stories into the air – this was the Exam Centre that Adam had set as the platoon's current objective. Once they reached the building, Adam called a briefing before he let everyone into the place.
"Alright, we've reached the Exam Centre, but there's several pointers I have to give you; although I'm sure you're already aware of these, it'd do no harm to bring them up again. Firstly, we've had no sign of either the Aberration or the Pirates since the Kihunter hive, so we have to consider that they could be in the building waiting for us. As such, I'm going to need someone to scout ahead. Secondly, if there are any survivors, we'll need to secure them as quickly as possible – protecting them will be our top priority. Samus, as the most skilled person here, I'd appreciate if you took on the scouting role." However, Adam received a surprise objection to this request from one of the other soldiers; James, if Samus remembered correctly (she hadn't spent much time with any of the 07th other than Adam, Lyle and Kreatz).
"Sir, with all due respect, I don't think sending Samus in first is a good idea. If the Pirates are indeed in there, they'll be on high alert for the merest sign of her, which could kickstart a firefight we can't afford to get involved with. I'd like to go in first; they won't expect a single soldier to scout into their base on their own, and besides, our armour blends into the dark corridors a lot better than Samus' – no offence intended, of course." While this suggestion was indeed surprising – no one could deny that Samus was likely the best out of all of them in almost every way – James had raised some surprisingly sound points, ones that even Samus found little issue with.
"Ok, James," Adam conceded after a moment of contemplation, "I'll let you go in first. Report back to us once you get to the nearest navigation room, and we'll follow you in."
"Yes, sir!" James responded, before commencing his expedition, leaving everyone else to wait for the all clear. Seconds turned into minutes, and while the group knew that the Exam Centre was quite expansive and would thus take a while to traverse, they nonetheless began to grow tense the longer they heard nothing from James. Five minutes after he had gone in, the group finally decided that their scout wasn't coming back and thus made their way in themselves, bracing for combat; they would find out what had transpired here, and avenge their fallen comrade if necessary.
Like most of the BOTTLE SHIP upon Samus' initial arrival, the Exam Centre was desolate, with no signs of life inside it. In fact, the trip was arguably more tense due to the fact that no danger seemed to show itself (the only things that could have posed a threat, the security robots, were already deactivated), which only served to make them dread the moment that an enemy did eventually show itself. Once they reached the navigation room, Adam attempted to communicate with James one last time before writing him off as lost for good.
"James, come in. I told you to report back once you reached a navigation room, and you've definitely gone past it. Where are you? Come in!" But there was no response from the other end, and so the commander was forced to continue the mission with no intel on what lay ahead. "Be careful; we have to consider James MIA, and so we have to consider the possibility that we could run into the cause of his disappearance at any time. Any objections?" Obviously, no one had any objections, and so the party continued to proceed, with Samus using her scan visor to search for any extra clues as to the truth of the situation, although her results seemed to indicate that the Centre had been abandoned by whoever had been using it (likely the army ringleaders who'd been nominally in charge prior to the Aberration's revolt which had presumably either killed them off or driven them away) and had remained devoid of sentient life until James' entry. When Samus passed this information on (taking care not to mention anything that Madeline had told her, respecting the scientist's desire for anonymity), the soldiers at least seemed somewhat more relieved, starting to hope that James' failure to respond was merely due to a technical malfunction. Fortunately, this hope was confirmed shortly afterwards, when they found James in the Centre's main observation room, placing something underneath a computer console. Obviously engrossed in his task, James was visibly surprised when his compatriots entered the room, taking a moment to compose himself before explaining his failure to respond.
"S-sorry for not responding, sir," he said, addressing Adam at this point, "I tried to reach you once I got to the navigation room, but the wireless interference is still up, and I realised you needed to be in one too, so I decided to go find another one. You'll be pleased to know the entire facility's clear; no Pirates or Aberration in sight." Sighing in a mixture of relief and frustration, Adam took a moment to respond to James before directing the rest of the platoon.
"I'm glad you're safe, James, but you should have gone back and told us about the continued interference. Then again, we should have all taken this into account; I admit I forgot about it myself what with the whole Aberration business, so I'll let it slide this time. Maurice, see what information you can glean from the computers here. Everyone else, spread out and make sure the Pirates aren't approaching the facility. If they are, retreat to the navigation room near the entrance and let me know." At this moment, Samus decided to interject, as she had her own objective in mind.
"Adam, I'll check the remaining rooms in the facility to make sure there's no nasty surprises. I know James said the place's clear, but things can very easily change, especially if there was something that wanted to stay hidden during his sweep of the area."
"Fair enough, Samus. I'll send one of the soldiers to find you if we uncover any vital info." And with that, Samus made her way into the back of the Exam Centre, hoping the situation could be clarified.
The last rooms and corridors in the Exam Centre were much like the others; empty, dull and yet strangely sinister. Perhaps it was because the environment seemed so clean that it was so unnerving; on a station where so much had gone wrong, it was always the most normal places that were the most jarring.
There has to be something here, Samus thought, judging by this place's name, it was likely used for testing the various bioweapons, so there has to be at least some evidence left over, especially since an incident like the one Madeline described would have given them little time to hide any evidence. Luckily, she didn't have to look far, as she soon detected an unusual beeping sound coming from the room in front of her. Once she entered the room, a spacious octagonal one, the source was revealed as a metallic object with a vaguely humanoid shape hanging from the ceiling. Not taking any chances, she fired a single shot at the object, causing it to detach and fall to the floor, where its identity was revealed; one of the cyborg Zebesians Madeline had described earlier, with the Federation insignia upon its chest. It was a crude thing, with cybernetics far less advanced than those the Pirates tended to use. And there's the evidence. Looks like this one was made after the Ringleaders started side-lining the Pirate sympathisers; there's no way High Command would have allowed such shoddy results for such an important project, even after the fall of Zebes. Heck, it's even battery-powered, if that beeping means what I think it means. I can't believe the Federation Army of all people would make such low-quality soldiers, unless they were solely trying to sabotage the Pirates at this point. Making sure to scan the deceased cyborg to confirm her findings (it was indeed battery-powered), she then proceeded further in, hoping that something would take her mind off of the disgust she felt about the state of the Federation she had spent so long trying to protect.
Well this sucks, Lyle mused as he exited the Exam Centre. After Commander Malkovich had given the platoon orders to spread out, they'd taken a moment to decide amongst themselves which parts of the area each of them would be covering. Of course, he'd drawn the short straw and was now having to cover the area immediately outside the Centre to act as a sentry in the event of the Pirates showing up. Fortunately for him, he hadn't seen anything so far, but the mixture of boredom and dread he was feeling right now was lousy like nothing else. It was as he was turning round to head back into the Centre to notify the others that the area was clear that he heard the sound. The one sound he had wanted to hear least of all. The sound of the door to the Test Area opening. He immediately spun around while drawing his gun, but he could see nothing at all – WAIT. Now he thought about it, he swore he could see something… pointy sticking out from behind the ruined vehicle. Slowly but surely, he edged towards the vehicle, finger on his weapon's trigger in case the worse happened. The object was moving, waving around in some kind of natural motion that likely indicated it was attached to something, like the stinger on a scorpion's tail. Sure enough, the pointed object was indeed a tail spike, attached to the tail of a small, purple lizard that turned to look at him with bulging red eyes. "You're an ugly little thing, aren't you?" Lyle asked (rhetorically, of course, he didn't really expect it to respond), keeping his gun on the animal in case it tried anything. As of yet, it wasn't being aggressive, but just looking at it made him feel… uneasy. He didn't know what it was about it that made him feel this way; was it the way it looked at him like he was irritating just to look at, the strange stumps on its body that might have been vestigial wings, or the unusual white down that covered its back? Hold on – he'd seen something like it with white down before, hadn't he? Then he remembered the little white monster he, Kreatz and Samus had been hunting. Could this thing be related to it somehow? If it was, that meant that he needed to check the area for an ambush it might be laying, he couldn't let the platoon be endangered. Keeping his gun on the lizard, he quickly looked over his shoulder at the door-
A sudden impact, accompanied by a bright flash of light, left him sprawling to the floor, disoriented. What's happening? He thought as his senses returned to him – just in time for the lizard to leap onto his chest and angle its tail so that the spike was pointed at his throat. Too late, he tried to push it off, but the deadly natural weapon struck true, dealing a terrible wound and preventing him from crying out. As his life ebbed from him, Lyle could feel the creature working its way through his armour… and the mocking laughter of the Space Pirates, who had now made their way into the area; it was likely one of them who'd shot him. I'm sorry, he thought weakly as he lost consciousness, I've left you all in danger. Be careful… all of you.
Author's note: I don't think there's not too much for me to say this time round, though the big confrontation at the end of the Biosphere arc is drawing near and the sinister details are starting to build up.
Also I just discovered that I've been getting reviews with advice in them, so sorry for anyone who's been offering feedback and only getting acknowledged now. I'll be fixing the chapters up around now, so expect some formatting changes to the previous ones to hopefully make it all less tedious to read.
For now then, Rewrite Guy out.