MATURE: Hunter^2 (METROID)

[UselessBytes]

Okay, for the handful of you who've taken a look at A Brief History of the Galactic Federation, this is one of the many, many Metroid fics that are dancing around in my head that follow that particular history. It's by no means necessary to have read that to read this story, but it's a fun little history written from an in-story point of view, so I suggest checking it out.

This story is a little bit different than what I usually write, as in it's probably gonna be longer than six or seven chapters. I'm hoping to make this a full blown story. Anyways, that's enough rambling from me. On with the show!

Hunter^2 - Chapter 1 - A Harrowing Price


“Science Team Commander 226, report to the nearest holo-terminal immediately.” The rough, barking dialect of the Space Pirates spat out of the speaker attached to the ceiling, drawing the attention of a rather small and wiry space pirate who had been tapping at a glass cage. The pirate let out a frustrated snarl, reluctantly stomping away from the cylindrical container.

As the pirate busied itself activating the holo-terminal, an orange ball with a diameter similar to that of a car tire rolled out from under a work desk at the back of the small laboratory. The ball rolled over to the glass cage, where it stopped. It started to glow, and then deposited a small, soft blue orb. The orb’s soft glow grew brighter, and it promptly exploded, shattering the glass cage and freeing the organism inside.

The pirate looked back from the holo-terminal in surprise, staring in horror at the orange sphere and the act it had just performed. It reached for the energy weapon hanging at its side, but its hands went limp as the cage’s (previous) inhabitant latched onto its head.The creature’s bulbous, jelly-like body pulsed and swelled as it fed on its space pirate prey, screeching joyously as it did.

The orange sphere rolled towards the pirate, quickly unravelling into an orange and yellow power suit clad figure whose steel gray arm cannon was coated in a thin layer of frost. The figure took aim at the still-feeding creature and let loose a burst of supercooled plasma, covering both the creature and the pirate in a thick blanket of ice. The figure’s arm cannon folded open, a small missile with a green-tinged tip protruding from the opening as the frost faded away. The figure took aim, and launched the missile at the frozen pirate. The missile impacted, and both the pirate and the creature were blown apart, painting the walls with a mixture of ice and gore.

The figure lowered its cannon, taking in the death and destruction around it. It reached up, tapping the side of its crimson helmet.

“That should be the last one. How much time do I have until the next security sweep?” The voice was surprisingly feminine.

“You have seven minutes. From where you are now, it’ll take about nine to get out undetected,” a voice replied, crackled and distorted by the comm system’s speakers.

The figure nodded. “I’ll be there in five.”

“I expect you in four. You do have your power bombs, after all.”

The figure laughed. “Keep your distance, then.”


XXX


The faint sound of distant sirens still echoed in the figure’s ears as it looked back down at the compound it had just escaped from. A third of it had been completely destroyed.

“C’mon, close the door. We’re near 15,000 feet, and it’s getting hard to breathe. My suit isn’t made for space travel like yours,” said a figure in a much bulkier suit. This figure’s suit was colored rust brown.

The orange-clad figure gripped the handle of the door to the sleek, orange gunship and pulled it shut. The cabin filled with a loud hiss as the ship pressurized itself. The figure in brown removed its helmet, revealing dark brown hair and a tan, chiseled face. The man in the brown suit put his hand on the orange figure’s shoulder.

“You gonna wear that tin can all the way to the Central System? You’d think you would take the opportunity to walk around without full armor on every now and then.”

“You should know very well that I frequent this ship in far less than what I’m wearing now.”

The man in brown laughed. “Touché. I’m gonna get a few hours of sleep before we have to make our report, and I suggest you do the same.” The man sauntered over to a door on the opposite side of the small shuttle, disappearing through it.

The figure in orange turned to look through the blue tinted window at the front of the small craft. The auto-pilot light blinked softly, but the figure knew who was truly in control.

“Our report,” an electronic voice called out.

“What was that?” The orange figure replied.

“Mr. Donnel said ‘our report’. He is aware that you cannot show yourself in Federation space, is he not?”

The figure let out a sigh. “He is. He claims I’m with him ‘in spirit’ during the reports.”

“And do you feel as if you are?”

“In a way. I watch the reports through his helmet camera, after all.”

The electronic voice was silent for a moment.

“Excuse me for asking, but do you miss your old life?” The voice asked.

The figure looked down at the suit covering its body. “I suppose I do miss it a little bit. It’s probably what drove me to get the old suit working again. Thank you again for getting the animals to grab the parts before the station blew.”

“That was three years ago. You’ve thanked me quite enough.”

The figure reached up, slowly pulling the crimson helmet off of its head. A long, blonde ponytail unfurled itself as it was freed from the cramped helmet. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe I should get out of the suit more,” The figure muttered, now revealed to be a rather attractive woman. “Set an alarm for thirty minutes before arrival, would you?”

“Of course, Samus.”

“Thank you. I’ll be in the cabin if anything happens, Adam.”


XXX


“Thank you for your services, Mr. Brian Donnel. That is all for today. You are free to check the request boards for more assignments if you would like.”

Brian bowed flamboyantly to the group of three Federation officials as his rust brown armor gleamed dully in the dim light of the assembly room. “I assume my payment has already been transferred to my account?”

The rightmost official nodded. “I still have no idea why you ask for so much, Mr. Donnel. You charge near double any other bounty hunter we employ.”

Brian smirked. “I’ve got more than just myself to watch out for.”

This time the leftmost official spoke. “Oh? Who would this be? We have no records of any family you could possibly be providing for except your brother, and seeing is he is a commanding officer in the Galactic Navy I doubt it’s him.”

Brian shook his head. “No family. Just a friend. Anyways, I’ll see you boys later.”

He turned to the door behind him and started to swagger away, but the center official called out, “Mr. Donnel! We would be very grateful if you would inform us of this dependent's name.”

Brian laughed. “That’s a no-no, big fella. They’d like to remain anonymous.”

Both the center and leftmost official frowned. “And why is that?” The center official inquired.

The rightmost official held out a hand. “Now, now. We are not here to pry into the personal lives of the hunters we employ. Mr. Donnel is as entitled to his secrets as we are ours. You are free to go, Mr. Donnel.”

Brian smirked again, and raised a hand in goodbye as he sauntered out the door, leaving the two prying officials to grumble amongst themselves. As soon as the automated doors slid shut, he tapped a button on his wrist.

“I suppose that means you’re in the clear?” Samus’s voice crackled through the speaker in his helmet almost immediately after he turned on his comm system.

“It does indeed. I’m going to head to a shop I know and get my suit fixed up, and then swing by the store to pick up some necessities. You want anything?”

It was silent for a moment before the speaker flared back to life. “Now that I think about it, I need to do some maintenance on the ship. Can you get a set of engine tools for me?”
Brian pulled a sheet of paper and a pencil out of a pouch on his waist, marking down “tools” alongside a list of other items. “It’s a Hunter class gunship, right?”

“Hunter IV, to be exact.”

“You got it. One set of engine tools. I’ll be back in a few hours.” Brian turned off his comm system and shoved the list back into the pouch he’d produced it from. “Time to catch a cab.”

He maneuvered through the building and out onto the street, hailing one of the several hover-taxis speeding past.

“Where to, fella?” The driver asked as Brian ducked into the small vehicle.

“I think the address is on Ammon Crossing. Little hole in the wall shop called Tyler’s Tools.”

The cabbie nodded. “Yeah, I know the joint.” He threw the hover-taxi into gear and sped back into the mass of traffic. As he swerved through throngs of vehicles, the cabbie started to talk. “If ya came out of the request building back there, ya must be a bounty hunter, eh?”

“That’s right.”

The cabbie shook his head. “What a career that must be. I imagine it must be pretty exciting.”

Brian laughed. “It can be.”

The cabbie laughed as well. “Sounds like you enjoy ya job, good for you. You got any jobs goin’ on?”

Brian shook his head. “Not at the moment. Just finished one, actually.”

“Well, if you’re lookin’ for a gig, I hear they just upped the price on that one chick’s head. Think her name was Samus Aran or somethin’ like that.”

Brian frowned. “Really? They increased the bounty again?”

The cabbie glanced back for a second. “Have they done it a lot?”

Brian nodded. “Only about every two months. The bounty was only sixty-five thousand credits originally.”

The cabbie whistled. “You weren’t kidding. It’s almost seven hundred grand now. They must really want this chick in custody.”

“Yeah, they really do. I think I might look into it some more.”

“The job?”

“No, why they increased the bounty. I feel sorry for anyone who tries to take Samus in.”

“Why? What’s so bad about ‘er?”

Brian laughed. “Y’know that planet that was stripped of it’s atmosphere when a research station crash landed? It was about three years ago now.”

The cabbie whistled again. “Damn! And you’re saying that was her? That’s some crazy stuff.”

The rest of the drive was silent, aside from a few questions from the cabbie. (“I thought Caborynes wore brown, what’re you doin’ in it?”) They stopped in front of a dingy little shop sandwiched between two larger, nicer stores, and Brian handed a plastic card to the driver. The driver inserted the card into the meter by his side, and then handed the card back. He gave a toothy grin.

“Thank ya very much, sir. Have a nice day!” He pulled the door shut and sped away to find a new customer, leaving Brian standing in front of the dingy shop.

“Well," Brian said, "Time to get those tools.”

 

[UselessBytes]

Hunter^2 - Chapter 2 - A Change in Style


Samus rolled her eyes as Brian stomped into the gunship, laden with bags and groceries.

“Haven’t you ever heard of taking more than one trip?” She asked.

Brian shook his head, gently setting the mass of bags on the floor in front of the large preservation drawer. “Nah, didn’t wanna keep the cab waiting out there. He would’ve charged me for it, you know how greedy those bastards are.”

“Did you get my tools?” Samus asked.

Brian tossed one of the bags at her. She stuck out her blue-sleeved arm, snagging the handle of the cheap plastic sack with her fingertips. She peered inside, pulling out a set of plastic encased tools.

“Yeah, these are the right ones. I’m going to get working.” She got up, heading for the door, but Brian stepped in front of her.

“It can wait until we’re out of the system. They’ve raised the bounty on you again.”

Samus groaned. “God, will they ever just give up? The only hunters who even try their hand at the job are young and inexperienced. All the skilled ones are too smart to take the bait.”

Brian frowned. “They’ll get sick of it eventually, and they’ll just send the fleet. What’re you gonna do then?”

Samus shrugged. “There are plenty of places in the galaxy they’d never find me. I’ll just hide out there until they give up.”

Brian shook his head. “They won’t, Samus. I checked the holonews while I was out and there’s some group that’s stark ravin’ mad and want your head on a stake. Apparently they have some pretty serious influence in the council, too. It might be time to actually do something about this problem.”

Samus scowled. “Doing something about a problem is how I got this price on my head in the first place. Showing myself now won’t do anything except make them more eager to jump the gun and send the whole damn Federation after me.”

Brian’s frown turned into a smirk. “Well, I wasn’t suggesting you show yourself directly.”

Samus gave him a puzzled look. She wasn’t a fan of the scheming look on his face. “What do you have in mind…?” She asked tentatively.

Brian walked over to the computer terminal that he’d built in to the ship’s control interface. He tapped at the virtual keyboard, pulling up a list of bounty requests filed by the Galactic Federation. “The highest priority bounty on this list,” he said, “Has been sitting unclaimed for nearly six months, and the Federation is so desperate that they’ve already put their highest possible reward on it, and no one in the galaxy is likely to complete it save for a select few people, one of them being you.”

“What could be so important that the Federation would offer 1.5 million credits after only six months?” Samus asked, slouching back down into the pilot’s seat.

“It’s an assassination request. There’s been several raids on some outlying colonies that were being used for scientific research, and they want them to stop.”
“Well, if it’s on the public list, it isn’t an issue with any of their black projects. Who would we have to kill?”

Brian smirked again. “The culprit is certain Space Dragon who’s appeared again after several years of silence.”

Samus sat up. “Impossible. Space Dragons are extinct. I saw to that myself.”

“Apparently not,” Brian said, “Seeing as several eyewitness reports saw a large, wyvern like beast tear their friends and coworkers to shreds.”
Samus got up, walking over to the computer screen. “Do they ever mention a name?”
Brian shook his head. “No. I don’t blame ‘em, though. No need to scare off hunters before they even read the whole mission briefing.”

“So what you’re saying is you aren’t sure it’s him.” Samus said, slightly annoyed.

“Who else could it be? Know any other Space Dragons who like to raze Federation protected installations in their spare time?”

“If it’s Federation bases we’d be scouting you know it isn’t an option.”

“Nope. It’s all privately owned labs. Federation provides access, but we can get around that by dipping into our funds a tad.”

Samus was quiet for a moment. “Take the job. We’re taking off in ten minutes so get anything you need to do done. I’ll be showering if I’m needed.”

Brian cracked a smile and tapped “Accept”. “Great! Let’s go kill a dragon, baby!”


XXX


Samus stared at the metal wall in front of her as hot water ran down her naked body. It might’ve sounded strange to someone unaccustomed to space travel, but the fresh water pumped into the ship by the space port’s plumbing system felt infinitely better at first than it did in the middle of a long stay in space, after it had been recycled countless times. She shut the shower off and toweled off, stepping out into the main room of the ship. She was still nude, but it didn’t matter. After spending the better part of three years crammed inside a ship just slightly smaller than the average three room apartment, secrets and privacy were a thing of the past.

Brian looked up from the datapad in his hands as she walked by. “Now normally I’m fine with you sauntering around in your birthday suit, but you might want to put some clothes on. You’ve got a video call with Carth’alal in a few, after all.”

Samus shrugged him off. “Carth’alal is a Caboryne. He won’t give a damn. None of his race would.”

Brian chuckled. “I suppose you’re right. I guess I just don’t understand how the Caborynes think.”

“I’m in the same boat. A lack of sexual reproduction means a lack of the concept of sexuality, I suppose.”

An incessant ringing filled the cabin as a light flashed on the main control interface. Brian laughed.

“And there’s our previously mentioned call,” he said.

Samus strode over to the console and tapped in a command. “Adam?” She asked.

“Yes, Samus?” An electronic voice answered.

“Patch the video call through and project it onto the main windshield, please.” She said, sitting down in the pilot’s chair.

Seconds later, the windshield was coated in a bright blue glow as the long, reptilian features present on every Caboryne’s face appeared.

“Ah, Samus, thank you for taking the time to do business with me,” the Caboryne growled, his voice heavy with the rough accent that was so common among his species. As Samus was predicted, he had no qualms about her nakedness. If he did, he refrained from stating them, as Samus’s breasts were clearly visible.

“Any time. You’re the only supplier that I can trust won’t turn me in for the reward when I’ve got my back turned.”

Carth’alal laughed roughly. “I have no need for any more money than what I make doing business with your sort. I am not exactly a poor being.”

Samus chuckled. “My wallet knows just as well as I do that you aren’t pressed for cash.”

“Very amusing. So, let’s get down to business. What do you need, my dear friend?” The reptilian alien asked, rubbing his hands together.

Samus rolled her eyes. “Always so eager to drain my wallet. I need an identity, as always, as well as a way to get access to Federation restricted space. Preferably something related to hired protection, seeing as I’m most likely going to end up at a privately owned laboratory. How much will all that set me back?”

Carth’alal flipped through a small notebook in front of him, his reptilian tongue flicking in and out of his mouth as he ran mental calculations. “I’d say… About twenty thousand for the false identity and fifteen for a false contract. Any idea what company runs the lab you’ll be heading to?”

Samus shook her head. “Not yet, but I’ll know within the next few days. We can work that out later.”

Carth’alal nodded. “That we will. You want to pay for the lot now? Or would you rather wait until you get them?”

“I’ll pay now,” Samus said.

The Caboryne smiled. “Of course you will. Don’t know why I even asked.” The alien dealer turned away from the screen for a moment. “Hey, Carlos! Get over here, you worthless lug.”

A young boy, no older than fourteen, ran up to Carth’alal, just barely entering the view of the camera. His olive skin was drenched in sweat, and there was no doubt Carth’alal was working him to exhaustion.

“Go on and fetch… let’s see… Ah, how about file 72-AAQ?” Carth’alal asked. He looked expectantly at the boy, who was staring at the video call dumbfoundedly. “Well? Go on!” The Caboryne growled, obviously having little patience for the boy.

“Oh, uh, yessir!” The boy hurried off into the maze of shelves and cases behind him. Carth’alal shook his head, turning back to the screen. “I swear that boy can get distracted by anything… I’ve no clue where his mind wanders off to.”

Samus smirked. “I might have a clue. I’ll have to remember that you have a human employee, so I can cover myself next time I call.”

The alien laughed. “Oh! I suppose that could be it. It seems you’ve given him a bit of what you humans call ‘a show’.”

“Indeed I did. Anyways, back to business. You can send them to me via the normal method. Don’t worry, it’s still secure.”

Carth’alal nodded. “Of course. I’ll send over the identity within the hour, and I’ll forge the security contract whenever you figure out the company you’ll be paying a visit to.”

“McAllister Research and Development,” Brian called out, reading off the datapad in his hand. “They’re an offshoot of NARPAS, the same company that funded the Biologic Space Labs.”

Samus raised an eyebrow. “Well? You heard the man.”

Carth’alal nodded. “You got it. One private security contract with McAllister Research and Development. I’ll need the full name for the funding company to make the papers more convincing.”

Brian tapped his data pad. “National Agrivan Research of Pathogens and Scientific Threats. I’ve only ever heard of them once or twice but apparently they fund almost a third of all private bio-research labs across Federation space. They’ve got some branches out in wild space, though, like this McAllister one.”

Carth’alal frowned. “Uh oh. Agrivans aren’t a species you want to make an enemy out of. They were originally the leading species of the Space Pirates’ Science Division before they defected. That particular even led to a particularly bloody skirmish between them and the rest of the Space Pirates out near the edges of wild space about thirty or so years ago. They’ve since pledged their allegiance to the Federation, but damn do they ever have a temper. You don’t know the meaning of hair-trigger until you’ve gotten on the bad side of an Agrivan.”

“Any idea why they would have an interest in monopolizing the bio-research scene?” Brian asked.

The Caboryne shook his head, his dull scales catching the light of the video screen before him ever so slightly. “Other than a near unhealthy obsession with scientific discovery, I’ve got no clue.”

Samus nodded. “Well, thanks for the info anyways. Brian will transfer payment in a moment.”

Brian tapped away at the datapad in his lap. “Already done. Send over the documents when you can, Carth’alal. Me and Samus have some planning to do.”

The Caboryne nodded. “Will do.” The screen faded into a light shade of blue as the call ended, before fading and revealing the main windshield once again. Brian swiveled his chair to face Samus, cracking his knuckles.

“So, first of all, there’s the problem with you and the Feds. There are four colonies in the system, and each has been given a Federation detail for protection. We’ll have to check in with them and present the documents we just purchased from our Caboryne friend, but as long as they’re convincing they most likely won’t check with NARPAS beforehand. Of course, it is the Feds, so you’ll definitely be needing a disguise alongside that fake identity you purchased.”

Samus nodded. “I have an idea. Anything else?”

Brian continued. “It’s not uncommon for larger companies to hire security for their subsidiaries without informing them initially, so the officials at McAllister shouldn’t question us. The only problem…”

“Is dealing with my old pal,” Samus finished. “That’ll fall on me for the most part.”

“Bingo! Question is, are you up for it?”

Samus nodded. “Of course. For 1.5 million credits I’d be up for just about anything.”

Brian smirked. “Wonderful. Adam?”
The control console flared to life. “Yes, Mr. Donnel?” Adam asked, his electronic voice flooding the cabin.

“What’s your suggested loadout for taking down a Space Dragon?”

“Optimal equipment would include Speed Booster and Shinespark functionality for easy escape. Fighting Space Dragons is not advised.”

Samus snorted and rolled her eyes. “Very funny, Adam. Give us a real answer, please.

“Very well,” Adam said curtly. “Optimal equipment would include Super Missiles at maximum capacity, Plasma and Charge Beam functionality, Space Jump and Screw Attack functionality, and Power Bombs at half capacity, and a total shield rating of 599. That leaves you with room for approximately one additional functionality of your choice, assuming you’ll be using your new suit.”

“That I will be,” Samus answered. “I think I’ll take the Thermal Visor as well, just in case.”

“Of course. I will add Thermal Vision functionality to the planned loadout. This new suit’s capacity is deceptively small, isn’t it?”

Brian whistled. “Damn right it is. That’s hella light compared to your normal setup, especially with that shield rating. What’s the deal with that?”

Samus frowned. “I haven’t managed to successfully replicate the Chozo’s energy compression systems. Unless I want to tear the tech out of my current suit, that’s the loadout I’m going with. Besides, it should be more than adequate.”

Brian turned to the windshield. “Well, if you say so. Still, I’ve never seen you leave the ship without a shield rating of at least 1099.”

“There’s a first time for everything. I’m going to go run some final stress simulations on the new suit. I’ll be in my room if you need me.” She stood up from the pilot’s chair and sauntered off towards the back of the ship, leaving Brian alone.

He glanced at the datapad in his lap, which was now displaying Adam’s suggested loadout alongside the information he’d pulled up on NARPAS. He frowned at the pitifully small shield rating on the screen. He sighed, switching the datapad off. It wouldn’t do him any good to worry about it. Samus was safer with a shield rating of 99 than he was with Adam’s suggested rating.

“Mr. Donnel?” Adam called out.

“Yes, Adam?”

“Your actions and body language display that you’re uncomfortable with the loadout I suggested.”

Brian laughed. “No, no. Samus could go through hell and back with half of what she’s taking on this mission. It’s just that compared to her normal haul of equipment it seems a little…”

“Minimalist?” Adam chimed in.

“I was going to say bare bones, but I suppose either works,” Brian continued, turning to look out the front window. “Anyways, it looks like we’re approaching the edge of Federation Space, so tell the exhibitionist to put some clothes on. Garrett will want to see the both of us.”


XXX


Samus stared at the glossy black helmet in her hands. It was of a sleeker design than her standard helmet, as was the entirety of the suit she’d been working on. The helmet didn’t have the angular green visor that so many space pirates had grown to fear. In it’s place was a simple, reddish orange visor that was not sharp and angular but smooth and curved. The bulky filter hoses that protruded from the cheeks of the Varia Suit were nonexistent, replaced by a smaller internal mechanism to properly filter air. It looked more human than the robotic shape of the crimson helmet that normally adorned her head.

She glanced up at the armor before her and shivered at the unfamiliarity of it. The thick armor and familiar large shoulder orbs were absent from the design, replaced by a mixture of ultra thin and ultra hard alloys from across the galaxy and dark gray shoulder pads. The armor was thinner and more agile, but Samus was still concerned about the protection the thinner, smaller armor would provide. The arm cannon was smoother and thinner than the bulky, cannon-like design the Chozo favored. The orange and yellow color scheme was nowhere to be found, instead replaced by a mix of blacks and matte grays.

“Samus?” Adam said, his voice echoing out from the speaker mounted on the ceiling. “We’re approaching the border of Federation space. Mr. Donnel suggests that you dress yourself before we stop at the border check.”

“Get dressed, huh? Must be Garrett’s gate again, then,” Samus said, walking over to the small metal dresser opposite the suit of black armor.

“He did mention the name. Shall I tell him you would prefer to stay aboard?”

Samus glanced back at the suit behind her. “No, it’s fine. I’ve got to get used to this thing sometime, don’t I?”

 

[UselessBytes]

Hunter ^2 - Chapter 3 - Breaking and Entering


“Virginia Hall?” The security officer read. “That’s you?”

The figure in sleek, black armor nodded.

“Well, I’m going to need you to remove your helmet so I can confirm that this really is you,” he said, holding up the datapad displaying “Virginia Hall’s” credentials. “Can’t exactly see your face through that visor there.”

“Virginia Hall” reached up and unlatched her helmet, her pitch black hair falling down her back as she pulled the helmet away from her face. The security officer scanned her face, matching up key identifiers such as the small scar on her lower lip.

She smirked as the officer picked over her appearance. In reality, she looked nothing like the picture on the datapad. Everything about her, including the scar on her lip, was clever prosthetic makeup work, and the officer had fallen for it.

“Could you pull down the neck of your body suit, miss? The picture shows a tattoo on your neck.”

The woman complied, pulling down the high neck of the rubbery gray body suit. There was a tattoo of a dove on the left side, matching the picture on the datapad exactly.

The officer took one last look, and then waved her through the security checkpoint. “Your contract is valid and your identity seems to be as well. You’re free to continue through.”

“Virgina Hall” nodded and gave her thanks as she slipped her helmet back on and continued through the gate, out into the loading dock where her ship had been parked. A man in slim, rust brown armor was leaning against it.

“Well, Virginia,” He asked as she approached, snickering like a child, “I take it you got through fine?”

“Shove it, Brian. You know damn well we’re out of earshot. You can just call me Samus.”

Brian laughed. “Why the aversion to nicknames, Sammy?” He taunted.

Samus lifted her sleek arm cannon up to be level with his midsection. “I regret telling you about that shape-shifting bimbo more and more each day. It’s either Samus or a fresh load of plasma in your gut, your choice.”

Brian put a hand on her arm cannon, pushing it away. “Okay, okay, Samus it is. Now get on board, trigger happy.” He turned and walked up the ship’s cramped entry ramp, ducking under the low-hanging edge of the ship’s dull navy exterior plating.

Samus followed him, and the ship flared to life as she step foot into the main cabin. “Adam,” she called out, “The colony we’re heading to is on a small planet at coordinates SW-J16-776-695-299. Could you plot a course for us?”

“Is that local or galactic coordinates?” Adam asked.

“Galactic. I didn’t even know this little corner of the galaxy was relevant enough to have its own coordinate system,” Samus replied. “I’ll be in the back changing out of this getup if any problems arise.”

“Of course. I’ll set a course and handle the flying.”

Samus smiled. “You’re the best, Adam.” She turned to Brian, who had slumped into the pilot’s chair. “I take it you’ll be digging up more info on NARPAS while we’re en route?”

Brian nodded, not looking up from the datapad in his hands. “Right now their most heavily funded and staffed labs are all doing research on a specific neurological pathogen. It’s referred to as KL344 in most of their reports, and it seems McAllister is working on it as well.” He clicked his tongue as he tapped away at the datapad. “It’s pretty nasty stuff, too. Most common symptom is psychosis, although there’s plenty worse that can happen. Yikes.”

Samus frowned. “Are they researching a cure?”

Brian shook his head. “It only says they’re studying it. Probably one of those ‘for the furtherment of knowledge’ deals.”

Samus’s frown curled into a scowl. “That sounds a tad suspicious to me. No one really researches just for the sake of researching. There’s got to be some motivation.” Samus turned away from Brian and headed towards her quarters. “ Anyways, if anything comes up, you know where to find me.”


XXX


“And this is the main research lab, where most of the testing goes on. I can’t take you in, though. That’d be a major contamination risk.” The scientist who had been touring Samus and Brian around the installation had greeted them at the loading dock and introduced himself as Adrian Moses. He was dark skinned and near six and a half feet tall, just a few inches taller than Samus’s armor. He was friendly, and immediately befriended Brian. The two of them had been chatting about near everything as Adrian showed them around the facility.

“Of course. You’re researching a neurological disease, correct?” Brian asked.

“Yes, we are. KL344 to be exact.” Adrian answered.

“Are you researching a cure?” Samus interjected.

Adrian shook his head. “Not quite. A new strain recently emerged and NARPAS has had us studying it day and night for the past month and a half. Thing is, this strain is pretty rare and the only difference we’ve found is in the symptoms. They seem to develop much more rapidly than the original strain.”

Samus nodded. “I see.”

“Of course, the research we’re doing here could lead to a cure, so it’s not too far fetched to think of this whole operation as cure research. It’s a dangerous disease and a cure would save thousands of lives across the Eastern Quadrant, where this disease isn’t exactly uncommon.”

“Is it contagious?” Brian inquired.

“Mildly, although this strain has the potential to mutate and become highly contagious. That’s probably why the higher-ups sent you two. There’ve been raids on other facilities so I guess they figured they were better off safe than sorry, or something like that.”

“Well, that’s what we’re here to do, keep you guys safe,” Brian said jovially.

“I’d hope so, it is what you do for a living, after all,” Adrian said, chuckling. “What kind of Security Officers would you two be if you didn’t?”

He and Brian both laughed. “Well, Mr. Moses, we’ll be heading back to our ship for the time being so we can get some supplies together, and then we’ll start our rounds.”

Adrian smiled. “Of course. I trust you two can find your way back on your own, so I’ll be off. It was a pleasure meeting you two, Mr. Donnel, Miss Hall.” He turned away and headed back down the corridor they had just came down, whistling as he went.

“He was nice,” Brian commented.

“I suppose,” Samus said dryly, “But that brand of unquestioning kindness is dangerous in our line of work.”

Brian clicked his tongue. “Always the pessimist. But we really do need to get back to the ship and discuss plans.” He turned and sauntered down the hall, beckoning for her to follow him. “After all, we aren’t here for the tour.”


XXX


“So, there are quite a few vulnerabilities here,” Brian said, displaying a 3D schematic of the lab on the holotable in the back of the ship. “The most notable one is the complete lack of energy shielding on the main generator building.”

Samus frowned, and tapped a holographic label. “This reading says there’s moderate shielding, though.”

Brian rubbed his hands together. “It does, but only during the day. However, during the night…” Brian ran his hand through the holographic sun hovering above the building. It shimmered and shaped itself into a small moon. The reading Samus had been looking at suddenly dropped to zero.

“It’s off at night? Why?” Samus questioned.

“I’ve no idea. They have a guard stationed at each of the two doors until the shielding comes back on in the morning, but other than that it’s completely exposed.”

Samus frowned again. “They have the capability to run the shield day and night. There isn’t a logical reason they’d shut it down at night.”

Brian smirked. “Something tells me I’ll be watching your helmet cam tonight.” He pulled up a more detailed hologram of the generator room. “If you are going to go take a look, you’ll have to get in unnoticed by the two night guards. There’s an emergency exit on the roof that you could use.”

“Is there an alarm?”

Brian shook his head. “Nothing that I can’t take care of. It’ll be off before you even arrive.”

Samus spun the hologram around, analyzing the building’s design. “This building is pitifully designed. One good blow would bring it crashing to the ground.” She zoomed the hologram in even further. “Who designed this building?”

Brian checked a small display under the holographic building. “It says here it was NARPAS, but it seems pretty shoddy for such a huge company.”

“That’s what I’m thinking. There’s something else going on here.” Samus turned off the hologram display. “I’ll place some cameras inside when I go in. Any particular area you want watched?”

Brian nodded. “I definitely want to keep an eye on the main generator controls. I’m curious if someone comes and turns the shielding off every night or if it’s automatic.”

“Got it. Camera on the main controls. I’ll head out in a few hours.”

Brian leaned back in his chair. “Wonderful. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can take a look at recent Space Pirate activity out here. Might be able to found out when they’re gonna strike, y’know?”

“You do that. It’ll be good to know when they’re coming.”


XXX


“I’ve arrived at the main generator building,” Samus whispered.

Brian’s voice flooded her helmet. “You’re all clear to start climbing.” He whistled. “Y’know, that black armor does you quite the service in the subtlety department. I can barely see you on the cameras.”

Samus agreed with him. The grays and blacks of her new armor seemed to melt into the shadowy darkness of the night. With no moons out to light the night, she was near invisible.

Samus placed a hand on the wall in front of her. It was rough and textured, an easy climb for sure. She boosted herself up onto the wall, clinging to it like an oversized spider. She smoothly and quickly ascended, her fluid movements reminiscent of a professional dancer. Within moments, she had already reached the top of the three story building, hanging firmly onto the ledge.

“Brian,” she whispered, “Any guards on the roof before I pull myself up?”

“Nothing on the cameras. You’re all good,” Brian replied.

Samus hoisted herself onto the roof, rolling into a crouch as she pulled the weight of her lower body up from the ledge. Her eyes swept across the fairly empty roof, scanning for any sign of a possible threat.

“I’m in the clear. Have you disabled the alarms yet?” Samus asked.

“Yeah, but you’ll still have to be careful. The equipment inside will most likely have silent alarms built directly in, ones that aren’t connected to the rest of the facility’s computer systems. I can’t do a thing about those.”

Samus nodded, slightly unaware that Brian could not see the gesture. “Of course. I’ll be careful.” She dashed over to the door, pressing flat against it with her arm cannon at the ready. “Adam, did you upload Volt Driver functionality like I asked?”

Adam’s crisp, mechanical voice flooded her helmet. “The default power level has been set to a mild stun, just as you requested.”

Samus glanced down at her arm cannon, watching as the ridges and crevices in the sleek weapon flashed a dull yellow against the darkness for a brief moment.

“Wonderful. I’m going in.” Samus reached up to her helmet and toggled a button under the lip of her helmet, and her visor flashed blue. She focused on the electronic keypad on the door as a small reticle appeared in her vision and circled around the locking mechanism. A small progress bar appeared at the base of her visor, taking mere moments to fill before information on the keypad’s make and model as well as the passcode appeared on her visor. She reached over and quickly tapped in the eight digit code, and the door swung open. “It’s open. Switch to helmet cam,” She muttered.

“Switching to helmet cam,” Brian replied, and a red circle appeared in the corner of Samus’s vision, letting her know the helmet cam had been activated. She slipped into the door, letting it swing shut behind her and shroud the cramped stairwell she had just entered in darkness. She once again reached up to a switch under the lip of her helmet, and her visor flashed orange. Her vision was filled with a scene of orange and purple contrast, creating an eerie scene, albeit a navigable one.

“Samus, I must warn you that your currently installed version of the Thermal Visor contains a strange irregularity,” Adam interjected.

Samus groaned. “And why didn’t you tell me this beforehand?”

“I was unaware that you would be using it until this moment. I had not yet managed to correct the irregularity.”

“Well, are you going to tell me what the problem is?” Samus asked impatiently.

“Normally, your Thermal Visor can regulate light and heat energy to filter out any overwhelmingly bright flashes. However, that system seems to have developed a bug. Any overwhelming flashes will leave you blind until you deactivate the visor.”

“Good to know,” Samus said, hints of annoyance creeping into her voice. “I’ll just make sure to avoid any and all weapon fire in the meantime,” she said sarcastically.

“Calm down, sassy. You’ve got a mission to focus on,” Brian chimed in. “Get to searching before daybreak, if you would.”

Samus rolled her eyes as he started down the stairs, moving slowly and quietly. She activated the Scan Visor to unlock the door at the first landing just as she had on the roof, and crept into the room on the opposite side. She switched back to the Thermal Visor, and her vision filled with orange hued machines and consoles.
“Samus, we probably won’t get much out of scanning the main generator itself outside of the make and model, but according to the floor plan I have there should be a small maintenance terminal attached to it. It’ll have maintenance logs and info on any custom modifications that were installed.”

Samus’s eyes fell on a small terminal attached to the side of the largest piece of machinery in the room. She walked up to it and switched to the Scan Visor. “I found it. Sending everything on it to you now.”

Brian laughed. “Bingo! The files are coming in and they’re perfect. Maintenance logs, custom modifications, stability records, all of it is perfect. Just set up that camera I gave you and you can head back here.”

Samus reached into the fabric pouch that had been hastily tied around the waist of her suit, pulling out a small camera no bigger than a thimble. She wedged it in between two large pieces of machinery, making sure the generator controls were in full view of the small device.

“It’s in place. I’m getting out of here,” Samus said.

“I do apologize for the complications with your Thermal Visor, Samus.”

“It’s fine, Adam. It wasn’t a problem this mission. Just get it fixed before the next.”

“You two stop bickering and get out of there,” Brian interrupted. “After all, I’d rather not get fired on the first day of our fake job.”

 

[UselessBytes]

Hunter^2 - Chapter 4 - Double-Edged Sword


Samus grunted as she pulled herself out from under her ship, her hands leaving grimy, oil covered smears on the dull silver plating. She tossed the small tool she’d been using into a toolbox on the ground next to her and wiped her hands on the front of the already oil stained tank top she wore.

“Adam, how’s the fuel flow looking now?” She called out.

Adam’s voice rang out from her helmet, which was sitting on the small roller table next to the ship. “The irregularity appears to be corrected. The ship should no longer consume more than the necessary amount of fuel.”

Samus let out a yawn. “Good riddance, I’ve been working on this thing for hours.”

“It’s been thirty minutes.”

Samus glared at her helmet. “Quiet you. Ship maintenance is enough of a pain in the ass without your quips.”

Adam was silent for a moment. “You know, it’s unadvisable to be outside the ship without your disguise.”

Samus rolled her eyes. “Having oil in my hair sucks, and having dye in my hair sucks. I’d rather avoid having them both there at the same time. Besides, you’ve already told me twice.”

“If someone enters the docking bay your position could be compromised.”

Samus scoffed. “This is a private bay. There’s only room for one ship and that’s ours. There’s zero reason for anyone to come in.”

Adam made a strange buzzing noise that might’ve been a laugh. “Your confidence that no one will stumble in is outstanding.”

Samus snorted. “That’s because even if someone tried to, I locked the door. Try checking the locks next time, you dumbass.”

“My apologies, I am not connected to the building’s computer system. However, it is still foolish to be so unprepared.” Adam mused.

“He’s got a point, Samus. It is a bit risky,” Brian said, leaping down from the now open door on the side of the ship. “The locks could malfunction, or someone could come by with a system master key and pop ‘em open like a can of soda. You’d be a sitting duck either way.”

“Great. Now I’ve got a smartass on my case alongside the condescending AI,” Samus groaned. “Are those logs I gathered for you so useless that it’s a better use of your time to come chastise me for not putting dye in my hair?”

Brian chuckled. “Just the opposite, actually. I came out here to show you something. Adam’s little lecture was just a bonus.”

Samus rolled her eyes. “Whatever. This better be good.”


XXX


Samus stared at the datapad in her hands, her mouth twisted into a confused frown. “So the shields come down automatically? What’s the significance in that?”

Brian snatched the datapad away from her and pulled up another entry. “It means absolutely nothing and makes less than zero logical sense, unless you have this piece of information as well.”

Samus took the datapad back, scanning the screen for any significant information. “What is this? A log entry?”

Brian smirked. “Maintenance worker Darren Trimmer’s fifty-sixth entry in his personal log.”

“And why is this significant?”

“Because Mr. Trimmer here liked to jot down his personal comments about the day’s work. Read it aloud so Adam can hear it, would you?”

Samus started to read. “Log fifty-six. Darren Trimmer. Had to install automated shield controls today. Set the timer to 23:00 through 06:00 just like the report said to, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out why they’d wanna turn the shields off at night. I asked some of the other guys, and they couldn’t come up with any good reason either. It ain’t anything about saving power, seein’ as this place is mostly solar and the sun shines every goddamn day on this hunk of rock. I’ve been workin’ here for near seven months and I haven’t seen a cloud yet. Must be somethin’ in the atmosphere, I dunno. Guess the higher-ups at NARPAS are just on a different level than us. Those Agrivans are one helluva race, I tell ya. I have to go work on the solar arrays tomorrow, so I guess if anything’s wrong with them I’ll have my answer. I hope there isn’t, though. Checking near five square kilometers of solar panels for malfunctions would be one helluva a job.”

“That’s enough,” Brian said, cutting her off. “Adam, can you spot the crucial info in that passage?”

“Of course,” Adam replied. “Mr. Trimmer states that he could not fathom why the shields would need to be deactivated at night, aside from a power issue which the facility should not have. I will check the facility’s solar arrays myself at a later time, but I suspect I shall come to the same conclusion Mr. Trimmer most likely did, and that the solar arrays will be perfectly functional.”

Samus shrugged. “Solar power has always been pretty inconsistent, whether the panels are functional are not. It could be a precaution, albeit a rather unwise one.”

“It still makes no sense. There are plenty of more efficient ways to save power that don't expose you to anyone who'd like to get their hands on your research. They could enforce an electronic curfew, they could cut down on unnecessary data management, hell, they could even bring the shields down during the day and save power more safely than dropping the shields at night. It just isn't a logical conclusion. I'm telling you, there's something going on here.”

Samus was silent for a moment. “Fine, I'll entertain you. How’re you going to prove that there's something other than poor decisions at work here?”

Brian clicked his tongue. “I can’t. At least, not yet. Give me until tonight and I’ll have some definitive proof, okay? I’ll take a peek in some of NARPAS’s private files while you finish up on the ship and make the rounds of the facility.”

Samus frowned. “Fine. You have until tonight.”

“Excellent,” Brian said, smirking. “You’ll have your proof soon enough.”


XXX


“Hello there, Miss Virginia!”

Samus stopped and turned away from the door she’d been about to open to see Adrian Moses walking briskly towards her, his lab coat trailing behind him ever so slightly. “Hello, Adrian. There’s no need for ‘Miss’, Virginia is perfectly fine.”

Adrian smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind. Mind if I walk with you?”

“Not at all.”

“Wonderful! Where are you off to today?” Adrian inquired.

Samus sighed, reaching up and pulled at her dyed black hair. “I’m just heading back to my ship. I was checking out something I saw on the building schematics over by the medical bay. It’s a potential blind spot in case of an intruder.”

“Really now? What’s the issue with it?”

Samus let a slight smile rise to her lips. Adrian seemed genuinely interested in everything she had to say. “It wasn’t much, just some lighter plating on the outer wall. It shouldn’t be a problem, though. Where are you headed?” She asked. Samus hadn’t planned to continue the conversation any further, but found herself unable to stop. Adrian’s personality was infectious.

“I’m just headed to the communications room. It’s my Mother’s birthday, and I wanted to speak to her,” he explained. “Do you have any family, Virginia?”

Samus paused for a moment. “No, not really. Brian is as close as a brother, but I’ve got no biological relatives left.”

“That’s a shame. I’ve got a wife and daughter myself. My wife isn’t really a huge fan of the work I do here, but it pays so well that she doesn’t complain.”

Samus rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t like bioresearch, eh?”

Adrian shook his head sadly. “Does anyone these days? Everyone seems to think that anyone who studies something that breathes for a living is secretly breeding Metroids or recreating Phazon.”

“Well, their fears are somewhat justified. The Federation and the Pirates did throw a lot of dirt on bioresearch, and it hasn’t been cleaned off quite yet. Especially not with the Space Pirates making Mochtroids again,” Samus said.

Adrian sighed. “I guess you’re right, but it’s still annoying. We’re doing good work here, and everyone sees us as these nefarious, scheming scientists. Even if we do something amazing, it’s always the corporations that get the credit, never us.”

“Well, they say real heroes are never made public. Maybe that’s got some merit to it.”

Adrian laughed. “Then what would you call Samus Aran?”

Samus had almost forgotten she was in a disguise. “Most of the galaxy doesn’t seem to think of her as a hero, if you didn’t notice.”

Adrian shook his head. “Most of the galaxy is blind, then. She’s definitely a hero. We’d all be in Space Pirate prison camps several times over by now if it wasn’t for her.”

Samus laughed softly. “Good to know there’s still someone in the galaxy that believes in her.”

“Don’t you?”

Samus paused. “I’m… impartial. If I were her, I’d probably think of myself as neutral.”

Adrian nodded understandingly. “I see. Well,” he said, moving to a door beside them, “This my stop. I’ll see you around, Virginia.” He disappeared through the door, leaving Samus alone. She sighed.

“I’d almost forgotten what it feels like to have a casual conversation,” she said to herself. “It was rather refreshing.”


XXX


“Alright, you’re time is up. What did you find?” Samus asked, climbing back into the ship. Brian was still hunched over his datapad.

“What did I find? What didn’t I find? There’s so much dirt that I could fill this compound up twice!” Brian exclaimed, tossing the datapad down on the desk. He spun his chair around to face Samus. “Prepare to be absolutely floored. In fact, take a seat or you might collapse from the shock!”

Samus smirked, taking a seat across from him. “So, what’s all the hype about?”

Brian cracked his knuckles. “So, while you were off doing whatever, I decided to put Adam to work. Alongside my own impeccable code cracking skills, the two of us were able to get into NARPAS’s private files.”

“You were hacking? Brian, that was incredibly stupid,” Samus chastised. “If they’d caught you, we’d be totally screwed.”

Brian laughed triumphantly. “But they didn’t, and that’s really all that matters. Plus, I found quite a bit of dirt. Turns out NARPAS installed shield controllers at each of their installations just before receiving large sums of money from a company by the name of Intellicorp.”

“I’ve never heard of Intellicorp,” Samus interrupted.

“Neither have I,” Brian continued, “So I decided to get in touch with Carth’alal to see if he knew anything about them.”

“And?”

Brian smirked. “Here’s the part where I blow your mind. According to Carth’alal, Intellicorp is a sham. Sure, it’s a real company with real employees and real interactions, but it’s also a suspected Space Pirate front among most of the galaxy’s black market-goers. Even the Federation had an eye on it at one point, although they could never get any definitive proof.”

Samus frowned. “Aren’t we in the same situation? We’ve got no proof this Intellicorp company is a front, and the Agrivans are the last race anyone would expect to work with the Pirates. They hate the Pirates.”

“Not quite all of them, actually. There’s a small radicalist faction that is impartial to both the Federation and the Pirates, and they’ve made it clear that they only care about furthering their own race, no matter the means. And of course, the president of NARPAS was accused of being present at one of their rallies a few months back.”

“Did he come clean about it?’ Samus asked.

“Not a chance. He denies everything related to it,” Brian answered.

Samus thought for a moment. “Okay, I can believe it. Question is, will anyone here?”

Brian shook his head. “I doubt it. And seeing as we’re supposed to be employed by NARPAS, we can’t go around showing people that we hacked into their private records to find proof.”

“Agreed. Did you find anything else significant while you were poking around?” Samus asked.

“Yes, actually. There was a payment made to a personal account based in the South Eastern Sector. It wasn’t nearly as large as the payments to Intellicorp, but it’s still a significant sum of money. It looks like it could be an actual security detail.”

“That could be problematic. Do you have access to the facility’s security logs?” Samus asked.

“Yeah, Adrian gave me the access key when we arrived. And I know what you’re thinking, no other ships have docked here carrying NARPAS employees in the past four months, other than us. However, there was a ship sighted traveling away from the facility about two weeks ago,” Brian said.

“Did they ever investigate?”

Brian nodded. “Says they found an abandoned campsite that was clearly months old. There wasn’t anything else.”

Samus frowned. “I’m not buying it. I’ll go and check the site myself tomorrow.”

“So you believe me? That NARPAS is letting the Pirates raid for money?” Brian asked.

“I’ll believe it if someone tries to kill me tomorrow.”

 

[UselessBytes]

Chapter 5 - Crosshairs


The rocky, sun baked ground flashed by as the small, blueish gray hover bike sped towards the horizon. Samus glanced back at the cluster of buildings behind her as they grew smaller and smaller.

She looked down at the armored gloves of her suit, clenched tightly around the handles of the bike. “I really hope I don’t find anything, Brian,” Samus muttered. The words were whipped away by the wind the moment they left her mouth, leaving her to wonder if she’d even truly said them aloud. Did she really mean them? She sighed. Part of her desperately hoped that she wouldn’t find anything besides empty wasteland, yet another part craved the idea of putting an end to yet another sinister Space Pirate plan.

“Dammit, Adrian. You’ve got me think of myself as a hero now,” Samus cursed, the wind claiming her words once again.

“I’m no hero,” she thought. “Far from it. After all, since when is genocide heroic?”

“You’re awfully quiet this morning. Are you perhaps reliving some bad memories?”

Samus sighed, pushing the thoughts away. “I’m fine, Adam. Just… a bit conflicted.”

“You always seem to have these little sessions in the mornings. What was it about today?”

Samus was quiet. A loud screech of static filled her helmet, eliciting a surprised yelp. “Christ, okay! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” She took a deep breath, pausing to let her ears stop ringing. “Yesterday, Adrian claimed that he saw me as a hero. Although, he doesn’t know my real identity.”

“And why is this on your mind now? It’s not like you to let compliments go to your head,” Adam said.

“It wasn’t that. I was just curious how he could logically think such a thing. After all, How many times have I committed genocide? How many planets have I laid waste to?” Samus asked.

“That would be two and three times respectively, if you count Dark Aether and the Ing.” Adam answered.

“Of course I count the Ing. They were intelligent, after all.”

“The Luminoth didn’t seem to think so.” Adam said.

Samus sighed. “The Luminoth only cared about their own survival at the time. The Ing were most definitely intelligent. I just feel like everyone in the universe sees me as a badass, unfeeling machine that doesn’t give a shit about what it does as long as it’s doing it’s job, but it’s not like that at all. I started out carrying the legacy of the Chozo, and I’ve done nothing but add weight to the load since day one.”

“I see. You’re conflicted because you feel like the races you exterminated are being forgotten and devalued.”

“Exactly! The Chozo always taught me that all life is important, and look what I’ve done. I’m no hero,” Samus exclaimed.

“I also recall you telling me that the Chozo taught you that you shouldn’t be afraid to take a life if it means protecting another a few months ago on Wotan VII. Perhaps what you did was necessary.” Adam said.

Samus groaned in frustration. “Maybe it was with the Ing, but I didn’t have to kill the Metroids! They were living just fine on SR388 until I showed up and made a mess of things.”

“But had you not, the Space Pirates would have most likely once again gained position of Metroids and taken thousands of lives.”

“They did anyway. The baby was proof of that,” Samus said.

“But think of the devastation had they been able to acquire them by the dozen from an existing population,” Adam reasoned.

Samus sighed. “I suppose. Thing is, I’ve always managed to convince myself that I had no choice, but I guess, in reality, I did. I could’ve chosen to stay put at the crash site on Aether until my ship was repaired. I could’ve chosen to rip up the extermination contract the Federation offered me. I could’ve ignored the bounty on Mother Brain’s head and let the Galactic Military take care of Zebes.”

“Well, if you had those choices, then why didn’t you take them?” Adam asked. “Are you going to take the easy way out for once, and abandon McAlister?”

Samus shook her head. “No. I’m here because I need the work this time, not because the Federation dangled some piece of bait in front of me. Besides, Brian won’t agree to jump ship. He’s too nice for that, he’ll insist we stay and help these people.” She stared out at the coarse, sparse grass zipping by. “I just… don’t want another tragedy on my head.”

There was silence for a moment, before Adam spoke up again. “Tell me, Samus, have you ever heard of a story by the name of ‘Ender’s Game’?”

“No. Should have I?” Samus asked.

“No, there is no reason you should know of it. It’s one of the few pieces of literature remaining from humanity’s home planet.”

“Well? So what? Why’re you bringing it up now?”

“Because it is a story that might just resonate with you,” Adam said. “It is a story about a young boy named Andrew, although he goes by his childhood nickname, Ender. He was a young boy drafted into a sort of child soldier program during a time of this fictional planet’s greatest need. He was trained and tutored in battle strategy until one day, he was told that the simulations he’d been practicing in weren’t simulations. They were real, and he realised that through what he had thought of as mere games to test him he had committed genocide. He was horrified by what he’d done. However, over time, through subsequent novels, he came to cope with what he’d done by ensuring that their legacy survived,” Adam stated. “And I daresay this young boy isn’t so different from you, Samus.”

Samus though for a moment. “Maybe you’re right Adam. Maybe this ‘Ender’ and I aren’t so different. But the question is, what’s the significance of that?”

“If a young boy such as Ender could learn to make the best of what he’d done, then so can you, a galactic hero. And even more, you have many, many people that see you as a hero. The Luminoth, the Alimbics and the Chozo, and even Adrian Moses.”

“So you’re saying I should go and preach Chozo teachings in the streets?” Samus asked sarcastically.

“I’m suggesting you do something to ensure they are remembered. Perhaps talk to historian, or maybe even submit your mission logs to the galactic library.”

Samus snorted. “Sure, I’ll do that as soon as the Federation promises not to arrest me while I’m signing up for a library membership.” She chuckled at her own joke as a small encampment nestled in between a large outcropping of rock came into view on the horizon.

“It appears we are approaching your destination. We will resume this discussion another time, Samus,” Adam commented. “As for this situation, I advise you to approach with the utmost care.”

“I will, Adam. This isn’t my first mission.”

“I am very aware of that, I was merely concerned that our discussion may have distracted you.”

Samus rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’ll be fine, Adam. After all, I doubt there’ll be much here.”


XXX


Samus ran a hand through the remains of a small campfire, leaving a streak of pale white ash stained across the black metal of her suit. The fire couldn’t have been more than a few days old.

“Okay, someone did take shelter out here. Still no proof it’s a hired gun,” Samus muttered to herself. There was a small shelter set up a short distance away from the remains of the fire, although it was no more than a dark colored blanket draped over a small overhang in the surrounding rock. “There’s no sign of a ship or any lifeforms, but the fire is definitely recent…” She continued. “There’s no proof that anyone from offworld was here-” Samus paused as a small cascade of pebbles slid down the side of one of the massive boulders surrounding the site.

Her sensemove boosters flared to life with a familiar green glow as an deep, crimson bolt of energy speared into the ground where she had been standing moments before, kicking up a cloud of dust and ash from the campfire. Samus’s eyes swept over the peaks of the boulders, her arm cannon glowing yellow.

“Samus,” Adam chimed in, “your arm cannon is still primed with the Volt Driver. I suggest switching to deadly force, such as the Plasma Beam. This unseen enemy obviously intends to harm you, so I advise that you exert the same threat.”

“Y’know what, Adam?” Samus grunted as she danced out of the way of yet another bolt of angry red energy. “Normally, I’d listen to you, but I think I’ve got an idea. It’s a bit of a crazy one, though, so trust me on this.” Samus sidestepped another energy bolt, and immediately sent a glowing bulb of electrical energy in the direction the bolt had come from.

The energy ball burst midair, and the air on top of one of the boulders started to shimmer as a figure cloaked in spindly red armor faded into view, shaking as bolts of electricity ricocheted off of it. The figure’s single red eye glared at Samus angrily as it lowered its disabled weapon. It shook off the remaining electricity and nimbly leapt down the boulders, landing a few feet in front of her.

“Samus, what a pleasant surprise,” the figure said sarcastically, its voice light and raspy like knives dragging on granite. The figure’s armor was all too familiar to Samus, save for the ash gray lines running along all of its limbs.

“You’ve got five minutes to explain to me what you’re doing here, Trace.”

The figure laughed raspily. “Ah, Samus, are you sure you don’t want to catch up? I’ve gathered plenty of stories since our time in the Tetra Galaxy.”

Samus raised her arm cannon.

“Fine then,” Trace said. “I was hired by the company that funds this lab. They were looking for a hunter that would keep quiet and I was looking for a job.”

“So you are involved with NARPAS. What do you know about the Space Pirate raids in this area?” Samus asked.

Trace laughed again. “Well, you’ve certainly put two and two together. I’m curious, how’d you figure it out?”

Answer the question,” Samus growled.

Trace held up his thin arms. “Fine, fine. All I know is NARPAS hired me to, uh, ‘silence’ and threats to their little scandal. Obviously, I don’t think they had you in mind. What are you doing here anyways? Aren’t you a wanted criminal?”

“I’m not the one who should be answering questions right now,” Samus said, dropping her arm cannon. “You’re completely disarmed from the Volt Driver’s electricity, so I suggest you follow my orders. Now, where is your ship?”

Trace nodded his head towards a boulder off in the distance. “Behind that spire. It’s cloaked.”

“Good. Get on board and leave this planet or I’ll take you into custody and the security officers at McAllister will turn you in to the Federation.”

“Mmm, I’ll pass,” Trace rasped. “NARPAS pays too well for me to just walk away.”

Samus shook her head. “You’d rather take me on with no weaponry than risk losing out on some cash? I thought the Kriken were supposed to be hyper-intelligent.”

Trace laughed once more. “Well I was weighing the pros and cons, but it looks like your little power outage is over, so… I’ll be going now.”

Samus’s eyes widened as Trace seemed to blink out of existence. She whipped around, her arm cannon starting to glow, before Adam spoke up.

“Samus, stand down. You said it yourself, the Kriken aren’t stupid. He won’t reveal his location to you this time.”

Samus lowered her arm cannon, aware that Adam was correct. There was little to no chance of properly locating the Kriken.

“We’ll head back to McAllister and tell Brian what we saw. Not a word about any of this to McAllister staff, though. I don’t want NARPAS knowing what we’ve found out.”

“Of course. I’ll relay the footage from your helmet cam to Mr. Donnel as we head back to the laboratory.”

Samus sighed as she took one last look around the field of boulders. “Dammit, Brian. You were right.”

 

[diamondpearl876]

Hey, there! I've seen you a fair bit around the forums recently, but hadn't gotten the chance to sit down and get a review set up for you until now. Now, I do want to say I know very little about the Metroid fandom. However, I do think that non-Pokemon fics don't get enough love, and to be honest, it didn't cross my mind too much that I don't know much about Metroid because of the detail you put into the story. From the features on Samus's suit to the descriptions of the Federation and Samus's tragic past regarding genocide, there was enough to bring the story to life for me. Of course, this also means I don't know if anything here isn't actually canon, but again, it doesn't matter, because the worldbuilding was portrayed nicely. So kudos on that.

My favorite about the fic is the dialogue. There's a ton of it, and it all sounds realistic and their bickering was especially fun to read. I mean, you could expect bounty hunters to be all tough and serious and formal, but that's not the case here. Instead, you can tell these characters are comfortable with each other, and since they feel comfortable speaking freely, I got a good grasp on their personalities as well. Five chapters in and there's not too much depth into anyone but Samus yet, and a large part of that depth was put into the scene where she vents about how she doesn't view herself as a hero. This seems to be more of a plot-driven than character-driven story, though, so I can't complain too much in that department.

And, speaking of the plot, a lot happened in these five chapters. I really do mean a lot. Which isn't a bad thing. The dialogue just makes everything feel super fast paced, and before I really got to grasp the implications of everything that's happening in one scene, the characters moved on to the next big part of their plan. My main suggestion would be to make the chapters less dialogue-heavy. Weird advice, maybe, since I enjoyed your dialogue the most. You keep doing what you're doing with it! Adding more narration and description alongside the dialogue would just slow the story's pacing down and really work to make your readers become more absorbed in all the action.

All that said, I was impressed with everything you have written here so far, and I look forward to more. A side note: I noticed you put your Pokemon fics in our Workshop Directory, but not this one. Non-Pokemon fics have a place there, too, so feel free to post there for any other Metroid fans passing through.

 

[UselessBytes]

Hey, there! I've seen you a fair bit around the forums recently, but hadn't gotten the chance to sit down and get a review set up for you until now. Now, I do want to say I know very little about the Metroid fandom. However, I do think that non-Pokemon fics don't get enough love, and to be honest, it didn't cross my mind too much that I don't know much about Metroid because of the detail you put into the story. From the features on Samus's suit to the descriptions of the Federation and Samus's tragic past regarding genocide, there was enough to bring the story to life for me. Of course, this also means I don't know if anything here isn't actually canon, but again, it doesn't matter, because the worldbuilding was portrayed nicely. So kudos on that.

My favorite about the fic is the dialogue. There's a ton of it, and it all sounds realistic and their bickering was especially fun to read. I mean, you could expect bounty hunters to be all tough and serious and formal, but that's not the case here. Instead, you can tell these characters are comfortable with each other, and since they feel comfortable speaking freely, I got a good grasp on their personalities as well. Five chapters in and there's not too much depth into anyone but Samus yet, and a large part of that depth was put into the scene where she vents about how she doesn't view herself as a hero. This seems to be more of a plot-driven than character-driven story, though, so I can't complain too much in that department.

And, speaking of the plot, a lot happened in these five chapters. I really do mean a lot. Which isn't a bad thing. The dialogue just makes everything feel super fast paced, and before I really got to grasp the implications of everything that's happening in one scene, the characters moved on to the next big part of their plan. My main suggestion would be to make the chapters less dialogue-heavy. Weird advice, maybe, since I enjoyed your dialogue the most. You keep doing what you're doing with it! Adding more narration and description alongside the dialogue would just slow the story's pacing down and really work to make your readers become more absorbed in all the action.

All that said, I was impressed with everything you have written here so far, and I look forward to more. A side note: I noticed you put your Pokemon fics in our Workshop Directory, but not this one. Non-Pokemon fics have a place there, too, so feel free to post there for any other Metroid fans passing through.

Thanks for the review! it's nice to have some assurance that people are reading this pic, at least. Knowing very little about Metroid isn't much of a problem, and if you keep reading Metroid lore in general is pretty easy to brush up on. Anything involving events in Samus's past is mostly going to be canon, although her thoughts and feelings on the specific subject will probably be non-canon. Samus isn't much of a talker outside of Other M . Characters, however, vary. Carth'alal, Brian, and Adrian are all of my own creation, while Samus, Adam, Trace, and the briefly mentioned Ridley are all real Metroid characters. As for world building, if you are interested more specifically in MY version of the Metroid Universe, there's a link at the top of this story that should be helpful.

The dialogue is something I'm happy to hear praise for. I'm real critical of myself, especially on what I've been told I'm good at, so I always worry that stuff like dialogue sounds choppy and repetitive. As for development, I am focusing on Samus for the most part, because it is her story. However, this fic is a behemoth of a plan, with multiple arcs and everything, so there's definitely room for more. Characters like Brian and Adrian are due for some development soon.

(And as for the directory, that one just slipped my mind! TwT)

 

[UselessBytes]

Chapter 6 - Digital Poison


“So based on the footage from your helmet cam, you obviously know the assassin. Who is he exactly?” Brian asked.

“Christ, could you at least give me time to sit down? I’m barely out of the shower,” Samus said, sitting down at the ship’s console, once again in the nude. “His name is Trace. He’s a Kriken warrior that chose traditional exile in order to try and achieve a higher social status, but to my knowledge he gave up after I killed Gorea and started mercenary work.”

“Gorea?” Brian asked.

“Ah, I keep forgetting I never told you about that. Gorea was a horrifically powerful being who nearly wiped out the Alimbics before being imprisoned in the Tetra Galaxy. It duped a group of seven bounty hunters, including Trace, into releasing it. I killed it, and in doing so saved all seven hunters. I hadn’t seen Trace since then, aside from hearing about him through other hunters,” Samus explained.

Brian laughed. “Man, another god for you to casually slay. As if there weren’t enough of those already. Anyways, so obviously NARPAS hired Trace as extra insurance just in case someone like you and I came along. What are we gonna do about it? Are we going to track him down?”

“No. If a Kriken doesn’t want to be found, they won’t be found. And taking him on in a one-on-one fight is a bad idea as well. The Kriken are a warrior race, and prize their skill in battle above all else. It’d be suicide for most.”

Brian whistled. “Damn, I guess we’re lucky the Kriken Empire hasn’t taken a liking to Federation space.”

Samus nodded. “Very. If the Kriken ever decided to invade, our wisest option would be surrender.”

“So what’re we gonna do about this situation?” Brian asked, leaning in.

“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Samus said, a grimace spreading across her face. “I’m going to go take a breather and do some suit maintenance. You can do whatever in the meantime.” Samus stood up and walked to the door to her small cabin at the back of the ship. “If you’d like, try and see if you can figure out when the pirates might be coming.”

Brian sighed and swung around to face the ship’s main console as he heard the electronic hiss of the door sliding shut behind Samus. “Well, Adam, let’s get to searching. Do me a favor and see if any of my usual contacts are free,” He said, beginning to tap away at the console.

“You do not seem like yourself today, Mr. Donnel.”

“Hm?”

“You do not seem like yourself,” Adam said. “Normally, you maintain an upbeat and cheerful personality. However, I’ve observed that you have been acting differently today, if only slightly.”

Brian let out a half-hearted laugh. “You caught that, huh? Well, yeah, today ain’t the best of days. Between how moody Samus has been and the date, it’s got me a bit weathered down, so to speak.”
“The date? What is the significance of today’s date?” Adam inquired. Brian’s hands froze, no longer dancing across the console. He leaned back in his chair and let out a grunt that was somewhere between a chuckle and a sigh.

“I never told you this story, did I? Guess that was just Samus.”

“I cannot say I recall any story involving today’s date. I don’t listen to all of you and Samus’s conversations, you know,” Adam assured.

“Well,” Brian said, “I guess it’s storytime.” Brian brushed the hair out of his eyes and folded his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. “Today’s the anniversary of my old man’s sentencing.”
“Sentencing?”

“Yeah, sentencing. As in sentenced to death,” Brian explained. “My dad wasn’t exactly the kindest of people. Sure, he loved me and my mom to death, but I couldn’t say the same about anything that wasn’t human. He was a real racist dude, and that’d gotten him into trouble before. Most of the time it’d just be an alcohol-induced bar fight and he’d end up in police custody, but one day it got real bad. He’d been out at the bar with some buddies and came back late pretty drunk. And for as much as he loved my mom, she didn’t love ‘em back quite as much, let alone me. She was a pretty lousy woman, in retrospect. Anyways, he came back to find her in the sack with a Tetralyte she’d met at work, and damn was he ever furious. He couldn’t hold back all that liquor fueled rage, and he got out his gun and shot the two of ‘em dead, on the spot. I heard the blasts from my room and came sprinting downstairs, thinking someone had broken in. I was only thirteen at the time, so seeing my mother and some alien lying naked on the floor and my dad holding a still-glowing energy rifle was scarring to say the least.”

“So he was charged with double homicide and sentenced to death, I presume?” Adam said.

Brian shook his head. “Nope. It gets worse.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “He stormed out of the house after that. I was too terrified to do anything other than call the cops and squeak out ‘help’ at the time, and that’s just what I did. The police showed up mighty quick, I told them what I knew, and they took me with them to the local station. I waited there for a few hours until I saw them come in with my dad in cuffs, cussin’ and screaming. Turns out the Tetralyte he’d killed had a business card with his address in his wallet, so he’d gone down a few miles to his apartment and shot up the building. Killed three more people.” Brian paused, taking another deep breath. “The trial was a few days later and the decision to sentence him to death was unanimous. He had three days to live and then it was lights out. I got to talk to him a day before the execution, when he was all sobered up. He could barely look me in the eyes, but damn it all if I cared, I just wanted it all to be over. They were about to take me away and put him back in his cell, when he finally met my eyes and said to me ‘I know sorry doesn’t cut it, so… Thanks for at least caring about me still.’ They shoved me in orphanage after orphanage after that, and that’s when I started to be the way I am now. I decided that focusing on the bad side of things sucked, and ever since I’ve always just kept on chuggin’, only taking notice of the advantages to life, and ignoring all the rough spots. ‘Cept days like this, that is. It’s been eighteen years since and I’ve stuck to that way of life the whole ride.”

“If you claim you’ve stuck to your specific way of life, then why exactly are you still looking back on this event and taking special notice of all the unfavorable moments?” Adam asked.

“That’s just it. I’m not really. I don’t hate my dad, never have and I doubt I ever will. I miss ‘em more and more every year, him and my mom both. I guess what’s bothering me is that I know for a fact that Samus has gone through so much more than me, yet she just shakes it all off like it’s nothing while I’m sitting here reliving the same memories all the time. I guess that means I’m jealous, doesn’t it?”

Adam was silent. Brian laughed, slumping back toward the console. “Yeah, I know it’s a load of shit. I tell myself that every other day.”

“Actually, quite the opposite. Samus struggles through remarkably similar mental conflicts, Mr. Donnel. She is just exceptionally skilled at hiding it. Perhaps you two could have a discussion sometime,” Adam said.

“Maybe we could, Adam. Maybe we could. But for now, I suppose I should get back to work. Did you get to checking those contacts before I started ranting?”

“Yes, I did, and I have a call waiting right now.”

Brian chuckled again, this time a genuine laugh. “You’re the best. And thanks for letting me rant.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Donnel.”


XXX


Samus pulled the gray washrag over the sleek black surface of her helmet, cutting through the dirt from her encounter with Trace. Satisfied with the cleanliness of the helmet, she tossed the rag aside and fell back onto the cot in the corner of the small room. The cool touch of her helmet’s cold metal surface on her bare stomach was strangely comforting. She ran her hand over the helmet’s curved form, letting her fingertips linger on its surface. She turned her head, staring at the dark wall in front of her. There was a blueprint pinned to it, detailing the basic structure of her newest power suit.

It had taken her months to design and construct, but she had loved every minute of it. It was the final sign of her independence from the world that had grown to despise her, despite the bittersweet feeling that came with retiring the chozo made armor that had carried her for years on end.

She looked over to the opposite corner of the room, where the shocking orange of her original suit was visible through the foggy green glass of a defunct stasis tube. She hoisted herself off her bed and walked over to the tube, peering at the neon green visor through the glass. The familiar reds, oranges, and yellows of the chozo armor called out to her, as if asking, “Why did you abandon us?”

“I didn’t abandon you,” Samus whispered. “I just can’t wear my old identity without living in fear anymore. One day I’ll put you on again.”

“You are afraid,” the suit seemed to say, “of embracing the truth. We represent the memories you look back on fondly, while the suit you wear now embraces the memories you are afraid to take in. When you are ready, you shall wear us fully.”

She reached out a hand to touch the glass, to open up the stasis tube and touch the armor’s familiar surface again, but stopped when Brian’s voice crackled through the ship’s intercom.

“Will the exhibitionist please report to the main cabin? I’ve got info on the Space Pirate raiding force, and our little friend is with them,” Brian said.

Samus sighed, grabbing a loose tee shirt from the floor. “It’s been six years since I’ve seen the real you,” she muttered. “We’ve certainly got some catching up to do, Ridley.”

As she slipped the tee shirt over her head, she looked up at the intercom on the ceiling. “Adam?”

“Yes, Samus?”

“Remind me to stop talking to my suit some time.”


XXX


World of Hunter^2 - Entry 1 - The Kriken Skirmishes


The Kriken Empire is one of the oldest and most powerful civilizations in the galaxy, with lore and records dated before the estimated extinction of the Space Dragons. (This date is, ironically, estimated using large amounts of Kriken log entries and lore.) They are infamous throughout the galaxy as a bloodthirsty race of vicious conquerors, and even though they’ve calmed down in recent years, they certainly earned the title.

Humanity’s first encounter with the Kriken empire was shortly after the end of the Qarr-Tokk War. Several Kriken ships ambushed and destroyed a diplomatic convoy headed for the Caboryne homeworld, killing everyone aboard and stealing several sensitive documents involving several future military projects. The Kriken returned the documents, but not before using them to lock the Galactic Federation into a pact that forbade them from venturing into Kriken Space at all. The Command Council was eager to send spies and personnel into the South Eastern Quadrant almost immediately, but shut the idea away after the Kriken razed a human colony planet in a display of power. To this day, the planet is still near uninhabitable.

 

[UselessBytes]

Chapter 7 - Knife-Edge


“So, Ridley and the rest of the Space Pirate raiding squad should be here less than three days, and Trace is obviously here to make sure that no one interferes with the raid. So that means Trace is probably going to make a move sometime soon, and we’ll need to be ready,” Samus said. She leaned over the ship’s main console, peering at the holographic display. “It isn’t too big a force, so you can probably deal with most of the Space Pirates with the security personnel while I deal with Ridley.”

Brian cracked a smile. “Sounds like a plan. Adam, you there?”

“Of course, Mr. Donnel.”

“Wonderful. Could you do me a favor and bring up the building schematics?” Brian asked. The holographic display updated itself to show a miniature version of McAllister Research and Development without a word from Adam. “Thank you,” Brian said, rubbing his hands together. He pointed to a small room near the center of the holographic building. “This is the vault where they keep the virus. It’s most likely the Pirates, main target, so the security force and I will have to focus on keeping them away from here while you tango with our dragon friend. Trace will probably join in on the attack, and no matter who he chooses to confront, we’ll have our hands full. He’s our variable at the moment.”

“Let’s hope he chooses me. If it was just him versus you, I’d say you might be able to best him, but you’ll be distracted by the rest of the Space Pirates as well. The best chance we have at taking him down without any casualties is if I deal with him,” Samus said.

“If you think you can deal with Ridley and him at the same time, be my guest. The further away he is from the virus, the safer the Galaxy is.” Brian swiveled his chair around to face Samus. “Our next question is, how do we let the staff here know about the oncoming attack?”

Samus shrugged. “We could always just tell them. I mean, they probably won’t believe us, but we could try.”

“The whole ‘not believing us’ part is what I’m worried about. We can’t exactly give them any proof without revealing that we were snooping around in NARPAS’s private files, and Space Pirate attack or not, that’s a crime,” Brian said.

“Well, I could just let the head of security know that I found traces of a foreign ship some miles away. That’ll put them on alert without compromising us,” Samus suggested.

“Sounds like our best course of action. You want to go do that while I take a closer look at the schematic? I want to see if I can figure out the best defensible position around the vault.”

Samus nodded. “I’ll do that right away. I’ll be back in a few.”


XXX


Moonlight streamed in through the glass walls of the hall connecting the main laboratory with the hangar where Samus and Brian had been staying. The click of Samus’s black boots on the floor stopped suddenly as she slowed to a halt, turning to look up at the moon.

The sun had set just an hour earlier, and tinges of red and pink could just barely be seen over the horizon. Samus sighed. It’d been a long time since she’d been able to relax and enjoy something as peaceful as a sunset.

“Ah, Virginia, good to see you!”

Samus tore her gaze away from the world outside the glass wall to see Adrian Moses strolling up to her.

“Stargazing?” He asked.

Samus shook her head. “No, just looking at the moon. I’m not used to a sky that isn’t so crowded.”

“Really? Why not?” He asked.

“I lived on Wotan VII for a few years recently. The planet has twenty-three moons, and at least six were visible every night. The sky here seems… empty, in comparison.”

Adrian laughed. “Really? Twenty-three? That must be quite a sight. I’ve only ever lived here and on Trondis, so I’ve only ever seen a planet with one moon.”

“You lived on the federation homeworld?”

Adrian nodded. “That’s right. My uncle was a professor at the Trondis School for Intergalactic Education. He was pretty famous, and his papers payed enough to get me through college, so I stayed put on Trondis. Got my degree in Biochemistry and headed out here after a while.”

Adrian slipped his hands into his pockets. “But that’s enough about me. Where are you headed tonight?”

Samus let out a slight smile. Once again, she found Adrian’s amicable attitude was infectious. “Just heading down to the security office to talk to the head of security. There are some potential threats I’d like to warn him about.”

“Mind if I walk with you?”

“Not at all,” Samus said. She started down the hall, and Adrian followed suit.

“So, what are these potential threats?” Adrian asked.

“Well, the primary issue is what I found on my trip out to the wilds outside the facility. I encountered a Kriken bounty hunter by the name of Trace,” Samus explained.

Do you think the Space Pirates hired him?” Adrian asked.

Samus paused. She obviously couldn’t reveal to Adrian that NARPAS had hired Trace. “Probably,” she lied, “but we can’t be sure quite yet. He’s most likely scouting for a raiding party.”

“So did you confront him?”

Samus nodded. “I did, but he managed to slip away. The Kriken are masters of staying hidden.”

Adriaan frowned. “I see. That’s rather troubling news. Anyways,” he continued, gesturing to a door to Samus’s left, “we’ve arrived at our destination, so If I were you I’d share all that info with the head of security.”

Samus nodded, her hand moving towards the control panel next to the door. Just as her hand was about to make contact, she froze.

“This panel is dark,” she muttered. She slipped her fingers under the edge of the panel, finding that it was already loose. She pulled the panel off and flipped it over, revealing several clipped wires.

Samus’s eyes narrowed. “Adrian, you need to leave. Go alert the nearest security officer and tell him to bring a squad down to the head of security’s office. She slipped a small paralyzer pistol from its holster on her waist, and placed her hand on the door. SHe glared back at Adrian who still hadn’t moved. “Do what I said,” she snarled, “unless you want to find out what’s hiding in the security office.”

Adrian nodded and hurried off, a mixed look of bewilderment and fear painted across his face. Samus took a deep breath, and yanked the door open.

The carnage inside was horrific. The normally pristine white walls were painted with erratic splatterings of blood, and the array of monitors mounted on the wall were either obscured with more gore or shattered completely. Samus whipped her pistol into position as she felt a hand on her leg, but relaxed upon seeing it was the head of security. She knelt down, examining him. Blood was pouring from multiple wounds across his face and body, and his clothes were shredded and torn. He had left a bloody handprint on Samus’s black jumpsuit where he had grabbed her leg.

“What happened? Can you tell me?” Samus asked, helping the man up into a sitting position.

“There was a bounty hunter… all in red, came at me with a blade, tortured me,” he said weakly, wincing in pain. “God, he was so fricking fast… I hardly had time to defend myself. He took the codes to the virus vault and then fried the computer system.” The officer finished his statement and went into a fit of coughing blood dripping from his mouth. It was clear he was not going to live. “He went up to the roof… through the ducts.” He moved his head weakly in the general direction of an open vent in the ceiling.”

Samus nodded. “Thank you.” She set the man down gently and burst back into the corridor, running directly into a group of security personnel, armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons. “Get the man in there some medical attention and put the facility on lockdown. Someone’s stolen the access codes to the facility’s virus vault, and they’re probably on the roof by now. Can someone tell me where the roof access is?”

One officer near the back of the group spoke up. “The roof access is just down the hall. There’s a red sign on the door.”

Samus gave a nod of thanks and sprinted down the hall until she found the proper door. She rushed up the stairs, tapping a button on the small device wrapped around her ear. “Brian, are you there?”

“What’s up?” Brian said, his voice flooding through the comm device’s speaker.

“Trace is in the facility. Can you get on the cameras and tell me where he is? He should be somewhere on the roof.”

“You got it. Give me a second.”

Samus burst out of the stairwell and onto the roof, her pistol crackling with electric energy. She scanned the roof around her for any sign of Trace.

“Samus, he’s on top of building 3A,” Brian chimed in. Samus whipped around, catching sight of the familiar, spindly red armor. She loosed a round of electricity in Trace’s direction, but to her dismay, the Kriken turned back and nimbly evaded the burst.

“Ah, I see I’ve been discovered. What a shame!” Trace called out, lifting his own arm cannon and firing off several angry red bolts of energy. Samus swiftly picked her way through the gauntlet of lasers, readying her pistol to fire once more.

Trace dropped to the ground as the burst of energy flew over him. He held up a small card and waved it at Samus tauntingly. “I suppose you want these back? What a shame.”

“Get back here and face me, coward!” Samus shouted.

Trace let out a raspy laugh. “I’d rather not. My way is much more… efficient. I’ll be seeing you, Samus.” The Kriken flourished the small card once again, and then blinked out of existence as one final burst from Samus’s pistol passed through where he had just been standing moments prior.

Samus let out a frustrated sigh. “Dammit…”


XXX


Samus slammed her fist down onto the ship’s control panel. “Dammit! Why did I let him get away again?”

Brian grabbed the mug of coffee in danger of falling from the tremors Samus was causing. “He caught us all by surprise. Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he said, taking a sip of his drink.

Samus let out a frustrated sigh. “That’s twice in a row he’s given me the slip. I’m getting rusty.”

“Rusty? You’ve got a date with a Space Dragon in a few days and ‘rusty’ won’t cut it,” Brian commented.

“I know, I know!” Samus groaned. She took a deep breath. “I’m not actually getting rusty. I’m just being paranoid. The first time, I let my guard down, and this time I was only in my jumpsuit. I’ll be fine when it’s time to confront Ridley.”

Samus slumped down into the pilot’s chair. “Did they give you any info on the Security Chief's condition while I was scrubbing the blood off of my jumpsuit?” she asked.

Brian nodded. “Adrian brought the news. Said he’ll live, but he’ll probably be living the rest of his life as a paraplegic.”

Samus frowned. “Even with therapy?”

Brian sighed. “Yeah, pretty much. The damage was pretty bad. Trace obviously knew all the right places to hit to make this guy’s life a living hell.”

“That’s what I don’t quite understand,” Samus said. “Trace tortured the Security Chief for the codes to the virus vault, when NARPAS could have just as easily given them to him themselves. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Unless he was planning to betray them, or something along those lines,” Brian suggested. “Maybe he decided that the virus is more appealing than whatever NARPAS is offering.”

“Could be true,” Samus muttered, and if it is, that complicates things even more.” Samus pulled herself up from the pilot’s chair. “All I know for sure,” she said, “is that I won’t get any thinking done sitting here. Adam, load up my suit. I’m going patrolling.”

“Will do, Samus.”

Samus turned to Brian. “I’ll let you know if anything happens. If I were you, I’d start keeping your suit at the ready.” She turned and walked briskly to her cabin, the cold metal door sliding shut behind her. Brian whistled.

“Things are starting to get messy around here, aren’t they?”


***


Well, this was long overdue. Sorry about that.

 

[AetherX]

Awards review time

It's hard to judge a story like this so early, but there's a lot of potential here. There's a clear main plotline with trying to draw out and deal with the space dragon, but there's enough mystery and tension around it that it could flesh out into something much more far reaching. The pacing of this is good so far, with introducing a couple mysteries and Trace as another important actor. Like I said, the potential is there, but I'm not quite drawn in by the plot as it is right now. There's definitely some personal stakes in it with Samus trying to show off or something and then also deal with Ridley, but that part isn't focused on very much so far. I'd suggest trying to drum that aspect up a bit. I care way more about Samus's character and story than simply whether or not she gets paid.

The style is solid overall. There are a few cases where a concept or narrative tool is a bit overdone, like keeping the identity of the protagonist a "secret" for the first couple scenes. It felt just a tad forced. The worldbuilding is solid, but it's hard to separate this from what I already know from A Brief History. Nothing feels unnatural or confusing without being quickly explained. But on a more local level, the settings are not very elaborate. Samus's ship and the lab are pretty much left up to the reader to imagine, which isn't always the best approach.

I found a few typos here and there. I didn't write them down, unfortunately, but I recall a couple broke my immersion briefly, which isn't great. The kind of thing that could be caught with an out-loud read through.

I sense a need for the protagonists to be "cool", which apparently means sarcasm, aloofness, and flouting the rules. I understand these traits being used here and there, but Brian and Samus just seem too similar. It would be nice to see the duo be able to play off each other more by highlighting the differences in their personalities. The side characters seem alright, but it's hard to tell when something's a personality trait and when it's just there to be a plot point later. Maybe it's a subconscious bias against stories that haven't had a chance to really develop, but while there aren't very many things that this story does wrong, there's also not a lot that makes it memorable yet.

The Metroid fan in me is interested. Keep up the good work.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Here with awards thoughts!

Plot:

• I'm not sure what exactly the plot is other than Samus and her companion are planning to destroy Ridley for like the 8th time while avoiding Federation authorities.
• I'm going to guess that, by the title of the story, the mention of a bounty being placed on Samus indicates that there's another bounty hunter out there who she'll cross paths with eventually, possibly someone of equal or greater skill. I can't tell if Trace is supposed to be this other bounty hunter, though. From the dialogue, it's hinted that he's merely security at this research lab.
• There's definitely potential here, I like the ideas proposed so far.

Setting:

• This felt pretty weak. Outside of the research lab, none of the other areas the characters visited were named, and even the research lab wasn't named all that well.

Characterization:

• Both of the main characters appear to be sarcastic and in some cases careless bastards. This doesn't resonate at all with what I know of Samus, a serious bounty hunter who doesn't take things lightly. I feel like that detracted heavily from the experience, personally.
• All of the other minor characters, with the exception of the Carth'alal were pretty flat and same-y.

Style:

• The description is decent. I've got a good idea of what I should imagine, and it doesn't meander into excessiveness.

Technical:
(note: this is probably my weakest section as a judge, since I so very often miss easy to spot errors in spelling/wording, bear with me please)

• Shortly in, I've already noticed a few irregularities. In "professional" writing, I don't see much use of parentheses like that seen in the third paragraph of the first chapter, but I can't say with certainty that there are strict rules against it.
• Grammar seems okay, with a few minor problems. Sometimes the tense on a word is incorrect ("Might be able to found out when they’re gonna strike", "You’ve got me think of myself as a hero now")
• Spelling is spot on. Nothing to complain about here.
• There are several instances throughout the early chapters where the double spacing is neglected. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it can break the flow a tiny bit.
• Those two big walls of text. You know what I'm talking about. Long, uninterrupted bits of dialogue, very distracting to see and get through in chapter 6. I would suggest breaking them up somehow, either with descriptive action or having Adam ask a question or provide commentary of some sort.

Other thoughts

• I don't know why, but I felt like the attention brought towards Samus' nudity in the second chapter seemed a bit overdone and unnecessary. It felt like a bit of a turn off towards the story for me, personally.
• This story seems to rely a bit too much on using game mechanics instead of finding more creative methods of solving problems. While it's true that scanning doors in Metroid Prime was the way to open the locked ones, it doesn't make the most sense, really. Surely there's something else in that fancy power suit of hers that would allow Samus to open up a locked door.
• All of that said though, don't take this as a complete lambast of your work and I hope I didn't come across as cruel. I enjoyed it a lot! Just pointing out the things I feel could be improved.

 

[Robert Ketchum]

Wait this is all thats here? Awwww. But I was getting very interested in this. The metroid fan in me had a chuckle or two at some pieces of dialogue and the one off mentioning of how Samus could have just found the research team and then wait for her ship to autorepair was neat.