Good to see that you have no idea what you're talking about.

You seem to be moving too quickly between huge boss battles.  Try giving more detailed accounts of what's going on, maybe have Adam talk a little about differences between winter and summer, plants on Vho, where the Vhozons live, their adaptations.  But you're going to need more stuff actually happening, too.  Perhaps some exploring around Vho (and also explain how they got there, some conversations on the way, a description of the planet from space).  Other than that, very nice job.

@Gamma_Metroid: Thanks for the advice. Though the only major bosses so far are Dynamus, Phantoon, and the Queen Metroid. All the others are mini-bosses. I'm going to make this long though, Vho is the longest visited planet in the story that Samus explores.

@M.troid: Thanks. :)

Chapter Ten: Extraction

“The blizzard seems to have died down, sir,” a Space Pirate pilot said to Ridley.

“At a notable rate, I assume?” Ridley replied.

“It is now safe to fly towards the target,” another Space Pirate said.

“Alright, hop to it, then!” Ridley demanded. The Space Pirates yelled yes sir out loud, and began the engine of the mother ship. One of them began to steer in the supposed direction of their target. “What is the distance?”

“Around two hundred miles, sir,” the pilot replied.

“What? Then how did these people not find us out of all this time Settlement Zero has been here?” Ridley wondered. A Space Pirate cartographer walked up to Ridley.

“Our geographic scientists have mentioned that these peoples’ infrastructure is isolated from Settlement Zero by the bitter cold temperatures in between,” the cartographer informed.

“Ah,” Ridley replied, slightly interested. “So we outsmarted an ancient race, eh?”

“Ehh, how so, sir?” the cartographer asked.

“We established a serum that will enable you to endure any freezing temperature with ease. You would think that an ancient species that has probably lived here for hundreds of thousands of years would beat us to the idea wouldn’t you?” Ridley wondered.

“The other thing is, is that the area between the infrastructure and Settlement Zero seems to have ruins somewhere in there. We drew conclusions that it is some sort of burial ground for the race, that is dishonorable to disturb, but we can’t be quite so sure for now,” the cartographer answered. Ridley thanked the cartographer for the information, and told him to finish whatever he was working on.

“How fast is the ship moving?” Ridley asked the pilot.

“Around one hundred fifty miles per hour, sir,” the pilot responded. Ridley looked at what the pilot was doing. He was surveying the ground for any sort of checkpoint the mother ship could stop at in case of emergency.

“I’ll tell you what,” Ridley said to the pilot. “Let me take the wheel, and you take a break.”

“Really, sir?” the pilot hesitated.

“I know how to fly a ship,” Ridley said.

“I know, sir. You easily outmatch me in the area; my issue is, well, is it really okay for me to just leave my position?” the pilot asked, confused. Ridley very rarely offered breaks to Space Pirates of a lower ranking than scientists, so this was very unusual.

“As long as I say it’s okay, it’s okay,” Ridley replied in a very casual tone.

“Well, thank you, sir,” the pilot said cheerfully. He got out of his seat holding the ship controls. Ridley came to sit in his seat, and as soon as Ridley grabbed the controls, the pilot let go and walked out of the room. The co-pilot turned to Ridley.

“Why’d you give him a break?” the co-pilot asked. Ridley turned and cocked what would have been an eyebrow if he had eyebrows.

“Are you questioning my authority?” Ridley wondered.

“N-no, sir,” the co-pilot stuttered. “I would never do such a thing intentionally, sir.”

“Very good,” Ridley said calmly. “Now I think it’s time you get back to work.”

The co-pilot saluted Ridley by pretending to create incisions in its chest, then opening his crustacean claw as wide as possible. This was the way Space Pirates saluted. Ridley returned the salute, and the co-pilot got back to his current work. Ridley turned on the Radio Screen and set the ship’s controls to auto-pilot. He quickly entered some precise coordinates for the ship to follow.

On the Radio Screen, Ridley viewed Weavel kneeling at the side of a rock in the middle of the blizzard-y area. Ridley clapped, and got Weavel’s attention. Weavel saluted when he saw Ridley on his Radio Visor.

“Sir!” Weavel said, slightly startled.

“Where is Samus and what are you doing?” Ridley demanded.

“Funny thing about that is, I’m watching Samus on my Radio Visor,” Weavel replied. “We split up, and she got the more interesting path.”

“What are you doing, stalker? Watching her strip?” Ridley joked, but in a serious tone.

“Do you want me to show you her current predicament?” Weavel asked. Ridley nodded. Weavel quickly redirected the signal stream to Samus’s Radio Visor. Ridley could see the giant one-eyed beast in front of her. He gasped.

“Holy crap,” Ridley said. “Is that a…could it be? Is it a—“

“Frezocul?” Samus asked. She immediately understood that Ridley was checking in on them.

“Why yes, that’s the name I was searching for,” Ridley responded. “How, though?”

“You never picked up every Ocul you left behind at Settlement Zero,” Adam said. “Therefore, it is extremely likely that those adapted well enough have migrated to this area.”

“Was there something you needed?” Samus asked Ridley. She ran up to the Frezocul and tested her Plasma Beam on it. The beam simply caused a small red spot to heat up on its leg, with the spot to subsequently disappear after that.

“Technically, no,” Ridley said. “I have contacted you to check your progress, and to inform you two that the blizzard had died down enough for us to come by and pick you up.”

“Yes!” Adam cheered. “So we can finish our compromised mission and leave?”

Ridley glared. “It is up to Samus, sir,” Ridley hissed.

Samus thought about it while dodging a potentially deadly blow from the Frezocul.

“Sure,” Samus said.

“Alright then, I suppose we will pick you up whenever we find you,” Ridley replied. Weavel sounded relieved.

“Alright, when you reach a fork in paths, turn left. You’ll find me a ways down there,” he said.

“Alright,” Ridley spoke.

“Oh, and also—“

Weavel was cut off. Ridley had terminated the signal. Weavel roared.

“Damn it!” he yelled.

“Don’t take it so hard,” Samus said sarcastically. “I’m not that boring.”

“It’s not really you, as much as it is computer man,” Weavel spat.

“I beg your pardon?” Adam asked, slightly enraged from Weavel’s rudeness.

“Just ignore him, unless he’s saying something extremely important,” Samus said to Weavel.

“Lady, I will not tolerate cyborg’s rude demeanor for much longer,” Adam said. Since Weavel didn’t make a smart mouthed reply, Samus assumed that Adam spoke privately to her just then. She ignored any further comments, and focused on the Frezocul.

“Now how do I kill this thing?” Samus wondered. She quickly aimed at its eye and shot it with a charged Plasma Beam shot. The Frezocul winced in immense pain, and fell on its side. Samus walked over next to it, and examined it from a slightly safe distance. The Frezocul opened its eye again, and swept the thin ice lake with its leg. Samus quickly ran out of the way with a perfectly timed Speed Boost, and then she saw the monster plant its foot into the ice again. Then she remembered the logbook scan.

“It’ll starve when its feet are disconnected from its food!” Samus thought to herself. She began to think of a way to disconnect its four large feet from the frozen lake’s surface. With a creature this enormous, it would be nearly impossible to perform such a daunting task. Samus’s thinking cost her her balance, as she felt herself sink down the frigid lake underneath the thin ice. Quickly, Samus swam back up to the surface, and climbed back onto the ice. If she continues to get knocked down like this, she probably could not finish this fight.

But sure enough, missiles from the sky flew in at a breathtaking speed and hit the Frezocul directly in its eye. Samus quickly traced the missiles’ smoking paths to figure out where it came from. Soon, a giant purple ship flew in above, coming from the missiles’ origins. The ship stood taller than at least seventy Frezoculs stacked up on each other on their hind legs. Shortly after the ship set its landing gears on the surrounding walls of ice, a black figure that seemed to be traveling at the speed of a jet rocketed down towards the Frezocul. Samus examined the figure closely, and ran up to get a better view. She switched to Scan Visor and picked up a scan she already got: Ridley. Ridley was on the Frezocul’s head, wrestling as if to stun it. Soon, the giant monster stopped fighting Ridley’s assault, and Ridley quickly flew over to the kneecap equivalent of a Frezocul on one leg and, with great force and obvious straining due to loud cries in pain, Ridley slowly twisted the Frezocul’s leg up to face the sky. After this inhuman feat, Ridley stopped and panted. He pulled out a telecommunicator.

“Alright, assault plan A takes far too much energy,” Ridley spoke into the walkie-talkie-like device.

“Well what do you suppose we should do, sir?”

“Switch to plan B!” Ridley yelled angrily, clearly moody from straining his muscles and using an unfavorable amount of energy.

“…Sir, you’ve never established a plan B,” the voice responded.

“Well, make something up!” Ridley shouted. He wiped his forehead, and began to fly down towards Samus.

“You weren’t too hard to find,” Ridley said to Samus as he approached her. “I just had to search for the abnormal alien creature going out of control.”

“Ridley,” Adam said. “I’ll tell you what. How about we ride in your ship, allowing you to minimally experiment on Samus, and then you simply take us to the nearest neutral civilization?”

Ridley laughed. “Absolutely not,” he retorted. “Samus is a Space Pirate now, and thus she must work like one.”

After a short pause, a loud wincing could be heard. Samus looked at the Frezocul, and Ridley turned around to follow suit. The Frezocul had its legs tied together with its head segment, rendering it immobile. Within seconds, the Frezocul ended its struggling, and closed its eye.

“And there you have it,” Ridley said, clapping his claws. “Dispatch is an improvisational genius!”

Samus walked past Ridley without saying a word. Ridley understood that Samus only talked when either she was asked a question or if she really needed to. Yet still, Ridley was the first to start a conversation.

“Where is Weavel?” Ridley asked Samus. Samus pointed in a specific direction.

“It’s only an estimation,” Adam reassured Ridley. Ridley sighed.

“I want results,” Ridley spat. Adam sighed to Ridley’s remark as Ridley did to his.

“Though not one hundred percent accurate, I would say his current location is Latitude 70 and Longitude 37,” Adam calculated. Ridley swore. He pulled out a device that resembled a GPS, only with a peculiar foreign design to it. He set up an input of Latitude 70 and Longitude 37, and then typed “Vho” in the “Other Information” box. When results popped up, he pressed a button, and punched in “Recovery Squadron”. He then pulled out his telecommunicator.

“Recovery squadron,” Ridley spoke with a military-like tone. “Get to these assigned coordinates and retrieve Weavel pronto. I have sent you the coordinates.”

Instead of a verbal response, Ridley got a bunch of small ships zipping out of the giant purple one, heading about half a mile over from where Samus was standing to the ruins on the horizon. Ridley looked at his GPS-like device and seemed to be timing the ships. In thirty seconds, the ships flew back in to the ship.

“Well? How did it go?” Ridley asked into the telecommunicator.

“We have successfully retrieved Weavel, sir, and we are ready to leave whenever you are,” a buzzy, static-y voice sounded.

“Very good,” Ridley said, as he turned off the device. He turned to Samus, smiling. “My my, sir, you sure seem to know how to pinpoint coordinates.”

“Quite,” Adam gloated. “In fact, I—“

“It’s one of your redeeming qualities,” Ridley spat, with his eyes narrowing. “Don’t get cocky with me, computer man. We still cannot pinpoint whether or not you are trustworthy.”

Ridley turned around to walk off. “Pun intended, I assume?” Adam wondered. Ridley turned to face Samus.

“I suppose,” Ridley said, in a very assuring tone. Adam spoke to Samus privately.

“What is it with these bastards calling me ‘computer man’? I find it very rude and demeaning,” Adam said.

“Find a rude yet fitting name to call them back,” Samus suggested. “With Space Pirates, that may be your only hope socially.”

Samus started to walk behind Ridley as they approached the Stinger flagship to get back to the mother ship.

“Why would I try to get along with these repulsive crustaceans? They are nothing to me,” Adam said. Samus treated the question as rhetorical and stepped into the Stinger. Ridley flew back into the mother ship into the Stinger docks, and Samus quickly booted the green-blue, trilobite-shaped ship up to fly. Within a few seconds, she flew into the Stinger docks. “You could have used that opportunity to pull a fast one, somewhat like what you did on your first mission on Zebes!”

“Adam, that was years ago,” Samus said. “I can barely fly this thing now.”

This was true; Samus was flying the Stinger in an unorthodox fashion, and she managed to enter the docks in that exact same fashion. The Stinger hit the metal floor and bounced upwards about five feet, subsequently skidding across the floor, causing sparks to rocket outward. Shortly after, when the vehicle stopped, the cockpit door popped open with a white hand following it out. The white hand gripped onto the ledge of the cockpit and pulled its main body upward, revealing the white and black Subzero Suit with its ice-blue helmet and pink visor. Samus heard a voice in front of her.

“And although you have probably met before, I introduce to you Space Pirates, Samus Aran!” the voice called. Samus looked up, and saw Ridley standing there with a large squadron of Space Pirates. The Space Pirates raised a claw, and performed the Pirate salute, followed by the formal human salute. Samus saluted with a Space Pirate salute, and then walked up closer.

“So are we ready to take off?” Samus asked.

“Why yes, we are,” Ridley replied.

“Mind if we stop back at Settlement Zero for a bit?”

Ridley paused. “What?” he asked confused. “Why would you want to head back to that old facility?”

“I have…I have a few friends there that I made, and I think it’s wrong to just leave them there,” Samus answered. Weavel stepped up.

“Sir, it’s not a trap,” Weavel assured. “I was there. You want the truth?”

Weavel looked at Samus. She nodded.

“I am now the queen of the Metroid population back at Settlement Zero, Ridley,” Samus said. “I killed their queen back when we stepped into their hive…”

Ridley was shocked. “Should we allow Metroids on this ship?” he asked himself, out loud so the rest of them could hear it. “It would be a great convenience.”

“Really?” Samus wondered.

“Yes,” Ridley responded. “How many are there?”

“Hundreds, if not thousands,” Weavel answered. Ridley cackled in joy.

“Even better!” he called out. “We have enough space for twice that amount!”

“So we’ll go there first?” Samus asked. Ridley nodded. He called for a screen communicator to come down and bring the pilot on screen.

“How was your break?” Ridley asked calmly.

“Oh it was great, sir. I—“

“Save it,” Ridley barked. “Head back to Settlement Zero, at the entrance to where we discovered the hive.”

“Uh, yes sir,” the pilot replied. The screen rose back up, and Ridley looked at Samus.

“We’re going to send you, because the rest of us would be eaten,” he said. Samus nodded.

“But how would I get them in here?” Samus wondered. Ridley cracked a smile.

“Follow me,” he said. Ridley led Samus down a network of hallways and corridors, of which each Space Pirate along the way stopped to glance at Samus in a somewhat confused manner. Samus ignored this attention and continued to follow Ridley. They stopped at a large door, which Ridley set up his access to. His access was granted, and the large door slid open. “Welcome to the old containment chamber.”

The corridor behind the large doorway was hangar-sized, yet abandoned. A disturbing silence came over Samus as a draft blew in.

“You held Metroids here?” Samus presumed.

“Not only Metroids, Samus. Anything we found to be deadly yet powerful enough to help us,” Ridley answered. He beckoned Samus to follow him, and led her down to the large and flat floor. “Tanks were once placed in this room to contain the more dangerous of subjects.”

Samus walked over to the even larger doorway at one side of the room. “What is this?”

“An airlock dock,” Ridley replied. “We used it to carry cargo in and out. You will be using it to get the Metroids in here.”

“How will you seal the Metroids in?” Samus wondered.

“We have security regulations I expect everyone to follow,” Ridley said. Suddenly, he changed the subject. “Would you mind if we extract some of the Metroid DNA from these Metroids?”

Suddenly, Samus seemed to grow a bit agitated. “Why?” she asked. “So you can experiment on them and attempt to make them your slaves?”

“Samus, now please. I may have been that selfish in the past, but as of now, we are suffering,” Ridley pleaded. “My entire race is at stake here, and Metroid DNA is the answer!”

“The answer to what?” Samus demanded. Adam spoke up.

“Oh my,” he said aloud. “Have the Space Pirates, perhaps, been afflicted with the X Parasites?”

“Don’t talk crap, Adam,” Samus spat. “We eradicated the X.”

“But have we?” Adam said. “I suppose you have completely eradicated Phazon too, am I correct? And the Metroids? After your second mission on Zebes upon annihilating that dastardly mechanical brain, you believed the Metroids were gone forever. Now look at this! The Metroids are not gone! The last was cloned, even now; there are those that aren’t clones that still thrive in this planet nearly exiting the galaxy. So, with this logic, anything you believe is gone for good may very well still exist out there, just simply out of Galactic Federation jurisdiction.”

“No, computer man,” Ridley argued. “Phazon is gone. We have different squads examining at least seven other galaxies.”

“But seven galaxies don’t make a universe!” Adam barked. “The universe goes on forever, therefore Phazon, the X, and other things may still exist out there, be it in a neighboring galaxy or two trillion galaxies away!”

“Adam!” Samus interrupted.

“What?” Adam asked, irritated.

“Just shut the hell up, please,” Samus said. Adam grew angrier.

“Lady, you are not authorized to speak to your commander that way!” Adam yelled. Ridley broke up the verbal fracas.

“Computer man, or Adam,” Ridley said, “First off, you are not Samus’s commander anymore. She is not part of the Galactic Federation, and so far, you don’t seem to be a part of it either. I would say I am the closest to her commander now, but to avoid enraging her to the point of committing treason, I give her more freedom than many Space Pirate Elites. Second, your nerdy astrology lesson is giving me a headache, so please, as Samus asked you in a manner most appropriate to counter your attitude, shut the hell up.”

Adam was silenced. Ridley put everything back on subject. “Now, Samus,” he said. “If you won’t allow us to extract a Metroid DNA sample from your Metroid pack, please allow us to extract from you. It will be just a small sample that we can replicate. Just, please, Samus. For the good of the Space Pirates, I beg you.”

Samus stopped to think about it for a moment. Shortly after, the TV monitor came down.

“We’ve arrived, sir,” the pilot told Ridley. Ridley nodded, and the screen retracted into the ceiling.

“How many of those things do you have in this mother ship?” Samus asked. Ridley pointed to the ceiling. Samus saw a network of suspension cables along with the TV hanging there.

“We have one of those in every room of the ship,” Ridley replied. He walked over to open the door, and the large airlock dock opened wide. “Go grab your children.”

Samus nodded. As she walked out, she turned to Ridley and said, “I won’t let you experiment on them,” she told Ridley, “but I have no issue using them as a squadron in your armies.”

Ridley rubbed his lower jaw and hmmed, as if intrigued by the idea. As Samus walked out, Ridley closed the hangar door to help keep the cold air out.

--

Samus walked into the entrance to the hive, that which was her exit when Weavel and her passed through the first time and vanquished the Queen Metroid. She stepped into the goopy floor, and saw all of the Metroids on the ground, sleeping. She called out, and soon, the Metroids all woke up. They encircled her in joy, and the Omega Metroids stomped the ground in excitement. She could easily tell that they were giddy their queen returned. Samus spoke to the Metroids.

“Alright, guys,” she told the Metroids. “Follow me, but be quick about this.”

Samus walked out the door and turned around. She then realized that the doorway outside was too small. An Omega Metroid ran up and bent the edges of the door to enlarge the doorway for the others to pass through. Soon, Samus walked out into the only slightly cold field. She signaled Ridley to open the door and extend a tube for safe transport. A small tube shot out from the mother ship and connected to the rusted, icy walls of Settlement Zero. Samus ran up the tube into the room, and stood in front of Ridley. The entire Metroid population raced in. After they all had entered the hangar-sized room, nearly half the room was full. Metroids attempted to attack Ridley, but stopped when Samus was standing in front of him, as if guarding him.

“As much as I hate you, Ridley,” Samus said. “I don’t want to be charged for murder.”

“Fair enough,” Ridley replied. He walked up the stairs and out of the hangar. He turned to Samus. “Oh, and one more thing. In case something horrible happens, this hangar here acts as a detachable escape pod. That way, if, say, we got shot down, you can escape with the Metroids safely.”

Samus nodded. Ridley left the room and shut the door behind him. Samus turned to the Metroids. “Are all of you tired?”

The Omega Metroids ran up to Samus and roared in unison. The younger Metroids went to sleep, and the Omegas followed suit.

“I believe the Omega Metroids were bidding you a good night, Samus,” Adam suggested. He still had some agitation in his voice. Weavel stepped into the room, and the Metroids ignored his presence since Samus told the Metroids to trust him.

“Yo, Samus,” Weavel called down. Samus looked up at Weavel. “I have something I need to give to you.”

Weavel led Samus into the Cybernetic Space Pirate training grounds, and walked over to the weapons supply.

“What is this?” Samus wondered.

“I have an arm cannon upgrade for you,” Weavel told Samus. “I doubt you’ve ever had this sort of upgrade before.”

Weavel hooked Samus’s arm cannon up to a machine with a wire. After pressing a few buttons, Samus felt her suit upgrade; a feeling she had felt many times before. Then, Weavel seemed to receive Plasma Beam data from Samus’s arm cannon and calculated some statistics. Shortly after, Samus felt another upgrade.

------------PLASMA SWORD UPGRADE ACQUIRED. SLICE THROUGH ENEMIES WITH INTENSE HEAT. ------------

Samus was puzzled. Soon, a sword akin to Weavel’s sword made of orange-brown energy extended out of her arm cannon.

“Melee weapons?” Samus asked, astounded.

“Yup,” Weavel responded. “I figured it would give you a better advantage in close range combat whenever the opportunity arises.”

“But only for Plasma Beam?” Samus asked.

“Nope,” Weavel simply answered. “That first upgrade I gave you allows you to acquire melee weapons for all of your other beams; you just have to find the upgrade itself.”

Samus swung around the sword in a fashionable execution. Weavel seemed to be pretty impressed.

“I suppose you don’t need any training?” he assumed. Samus shook her head.

“Nah, this seems easy enough,” she spoke. Suddenly, the mother ship shook with great force. Soon, a TV screen plopped down.

“Attention all Space Pirates,” Ridley yelled through the screen. “We are under attack, repeat, we are under attack! The attackers are a heavy fleet of Galactic Federation airships! I repeat, we are under attack, this is not a drill!”

Samus got on her toes. “Should I get ready to fight?”

Weavel shrugged. “Depends. Can you pilot an assault aircraft?”

“Yes,” Samus answered. “But what does that have to do with this?”

“Didn’t you hear?” Weavel said. “A bunch of airships are attacking us!”

“Should I just go man a turret or something?” Samus asked.

“Hey, it’s your choice,” Weavel said calmly. He lied back on a machine. “I don’t see the point in it, though. These sort of attacks happen more often than not, and we always turn out alright in the end.”

Samus took off after Ridley’s control room. As expected, Ridley was there, busy with keeping things under control.

“Can I help at all?” Samus asked. Ridley turned to Samus, and spoke as though he was in a hurry.

“You want to attack the Galactic Federation?” Ridley asked. Samus nodded.

“Duh, that’s why I’m a Space Pirate,” Samus said. Ridley nodded, beginning to remember every little detail about that.

“Well then,” he said. “Er, this is huge, Samus.”

“How huge?” she asked.

“The Federation is actually tearing us apart this time, Samus,” Ridley said sadly. “I’m about to order an evacuation.”

“How many ships are there?”

“One, but it is heavy duty and all new. It doesn’t seem to destroy as easily as the last ones they have used,” Ridley responded. Samus seemed to gain an idea.

“So it’s indestructible?” she asked.

“To our weapons, at least,” Ridley said. “It’s no use, Samus, we are going to fall. This isn’t the end of the Pirates, but this mother ship will be ruined.”

“I have a plan,” Samus said. “But you’re going to have to let me on their ship.”

“Are you mad?!” Ridley shouted. “They will kill you!”

“Maybe,” Samus said. “But I know a Federation gunship better than any Space Pirate.”

Ridley seemed to understand what Samus was getting at. “Fair enough,” Ridley spoke. “But how will you get on?”

“Adam,” Samus said.

“What?” he barked.

“What we need you to do is help us out,” Samus told Adam.

“For you or for the Space Pirates?” Adam demanded. Samus quickly answered.

“For me,” Samus replied. Adam agreed.

“Good,” Samus said. She turned to Ridley. “What we are going to do is communicate with the gunship. Adam will convince the Federation that you have prisoners of war violently contained here, making the Federation create a bridge between their ship and our ship. The Federation troops will make their way in here, and the Space Pirates will kill them. I will sneak onto the Federation’s ship and weave my way into the ship’s maintenance sector. I will then sabotage the ship and rig it to crash into the ground, destroying it. This would buy time for us and end their ship.”

“Brilliant!” Ridley shouted. “But one flaw: how would you return? The ship crashing would not give you enough time to make it back. May I rather suggest a time bomb?”

“That would be nice,” Samus said. Ridley opened a hidden compartment, retrieved a small device, and handed it to Samus.

“Don’t allow its size to fool you,” Ridley said. “This tiny bomb can destroy anything up to a hundred mile’s radius.”

“Wouldn’t that destroy our ship as well?” Samus asked.

“No,” Ridley replied. “You can set the time bomb to a certain blast radius as well as the time it takes to explode.”

“Very nice,” Samus said. Adam sighed and would’ve shaken his head to Samus’s reaction to such a device if he had a head. Samus was calling a weapon that would be classified terroristic “very nice”. But Adam said nothing.

“Well alright then,” Ridley broke the silence. “Let us start this mission, and hope for the best.”

Author's Note: Credit to Zyborggian for the melee weapons idea.

laid.

Chapter Eleven: Assault

Samus put Adam on the communicator in the control deck of the Space Pirate Mother ship. The communication signal was sent through to the Galactic Federation, and they accepted the signal. A Galactic Federation general popped up on screen.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” the commander spat angrily, pointing at the screen. Ridley stepped up to the communicator and became visible.

“First of all, we are not terrorists. We do not strive to instill terror in civilians,” Ridley spoke back. “Second, even if we were terrorists, would you negotiate if we had an entire squadron of your organization held captive by our finest guards?”

“I don’t believe you,” the commander barked.

“Fine, then,” Ridley said. He whispered something quickly to Samus, but he was obviously saying it to Adam. Adam whispered back, seemingly in agreement. “Guards, torture our guests!”

The commander could see in the background a rather large and heavily armored Space Pirate whacking something in a dark corner. The commander then could hear cries of pain.

“Please…” the crying human winced. “I beg you…end this torture!”

“Do you not hear the pain he is in, you stupid commander?” Ridley taunted. Ridley turned his head to the right to face the off-screen Samus and winked with his right eye so the commander could not see it. The commander did not know it, but it was not a real person the guard was torturing; it was a punching bag that looked like a human in which Space Pirates used for melee combat training. All this time, the voice was a recorded plead from a real Federation soldier in a real battle that took place between the Galactic Feds and the Space Pirates. It was one of Adam’s men who was killed in action, but he could use the recording since it was in his memories.

“Whoever is listening…if you have any heart, please…save us!” the voice cried. Adam cut it off before the recording continued, where he would say “Quiet. Calling for help won’t help anyone.” If he continued, the Federation may have recognized his voice and would be able to tell that the Space Pirates were playing them. The commander glared at Ridley, whom was simply grinning in a very sinister manner while staring back. The commander shut the signal down. Ridley turned to Samus.

“You know to wait for the fleet to enter entirely, correct?” he reviewed.

“Yeah,” Samus assured. She walked out of the room to head towards the wall that the Federation would break through. While she was at it, Samus quickly entered the hangar with her Metroid ‘children’, whom were still asleep. She quietly woke two Omega Metroids and tried to communicate that she needed their help with a vital operation. With knowledge that their brothers were fast asleep, the Omega Metroids nodded rather than blaring their usual deafening roar. Samus led them into the halls of the mother ship, and told them to hide until they saw blue-armored troops. At first the Metroids seemed to look confused, but they understood. Samus also told them not to attack Space Pirates. They listened to that as well. She finally ordered the Metroids to attack whenever they saw the Federation troops. And again, they agreed.

In the stronger fleet ship, the commander turned to his top-ranked soldiers.

“Alright, maggots, listen up,” the commander shot. “We have ourselves a rescue mission. That Space Pirate Mother ship has one of our squadrons on board as prisoners. We are going to bust a hole in the side of their ship and connect a tube so you all can pass through.”

The commander looked down for a second, then said, “Make sure to bring them back, you hear? And if you get the chance…destroy their mother ship.”

The troops saluted, and took off. Demolition Squad troopers plopped the hangar door down, and a passageway tube shot out and hooked onto the mother ship. The troopers ran down the tube and quickly placed the bombs in precise locations. After a few seconds, a large chunk of metal blew inward into the mother ship. Then, the Combat troops quickly moved in. They paused when they were inside the mother ship and took a look around. When the squad leader assumed where the prisoners were, he spat, “Let’s haul ass.”

The troops took off directly where Ridley wanted them to go. The squad was no more than thirty troops, and given the large size of the fleet ship, that meant that those were definitely not all of them. Samus stared directly at the hole to make sure no one else was coming, and she quickly ran through the tube, being sure it was safe. At the other end of the tube waited a pair of Galactic Federation guards. She extended her newly-obtained Plasma Sword and swung at one of the Federation guards, swiping its neck. The guard fell to its knees with its hand clasped around its neck, followed by the troop falling over. The other guard sprung into action by hitting Samus upside the head. Samus recoiled, but quickly reacted with a quick jab into the Federation’s head. Samus walked carefully down a hallway with her Acid Beam ready to corrode any Federation troop. She found a sign pointing toward the electronic operations deck, and followed it. Before a security camera found her, Samus dropped an EMP bomb that was set to ‘Security Override’. As such, she could only be spotted directly by wandering troopers. She followed the next sign pointing toward the electronic operations deck, and stopped at a door with that name at its side. She quickly shot the energy-powered door open, and immediately shifted back into battle-ready pose. A Federation engineer walked up to Samus.

“You can’t be in here!” the engineer said. He then shifted his glasses. “Oh crap, it’s you!”

Samus walked toward the engineer threateningly with her Acid Beam charged. The Acid Beam would hurt terribly on an engineer, as they were not equipped with armor, rather, a mere jumpsuit. As soon as Samus spotted the engineer reaching for the alarm button, she fired the charged Acid Beam shot at the engineer’s arm. Samus closed her eyes and looked away as the engineer cried in pain as his arm ever so slowly was eaten away. Samus quickly but quietly put the engineer out of his misery by stabbing him in the neck with the Plasma Sword. Samus then quickly stopped at the wires that were next to her as she fought off the engineer. She quickly and cleverly placed the bomb in the wires, and armed the bomb to detonate in one and a half minutes. As Samus stepped out of the room, she quickly morphed into ball form and laid a Power Bomb, which she subsequently moved to the side afterward. Large pieces of the metal ceiling fell and blocked the door off. After that, Samus took a mad dash for the tube, turning down corners as needed. She didn’t even stop running when a few troops spotted her and commanded her to halt. After she ran down the tube and back into the Space Pirate Mother ship, Samus quickly cut anything that connected the tube to the hole in the mother ship. The fleet ship detached from the mother ship, and Samus quickly braced herself for a big shake. A few seconds later, a large explosion forced the mother ship to rock in mid-air, as a large, fiery blast shot through the hole bore into the mother ship. When the blast subsided, Samus waited for a second. She then looked around the corner. To her expectations, she saw a giant cloud of smoke drowning the fleet ship that nearly destroyed the mother ship. Samus switched to the Radio Visor and contacted Ridley.

“I can easily see your objective is completed,” Ridley said, sounding slightly impressed.

“What about the troops here? Are they gone?” Samus asked, panting.

“Our guards and your Metroids literally tore them all to shreds,” Ridley said in a very joyful manner. Samus sighed in relief.

“I still found the goal of that mission to be very wrong,” Adam spoke for the first time in what seemed like forever. Ridley grinned.

“Well, that’s something you will have to get used to, computer man,” Ridley forgot that the ‘computer man’ preferred the name ‘Adam’. Or did he?

“There is one shred of bad news, however,” Ridley said in a more serious tone. “We’re about to crash land.”

Samus immediately sprung up. “What?!” she asked.

“The mother ship sustained far too much damage for it to stay airborne,” Ridley told Samus. “But we have enough time to escape. All of us.”

“The hangar that the Metroids are resting in—“

“Is detachable as a life ship, yes. Do not worry, Samus. We have everything under control,” Ridley assured.

Shortly after, Samus felt a sharp pain course throughout her body, and she fell over. Second by second, she could feel herself grow more and more unconscious…

Samus woke. She felt numb in her head, and she looked around. She was surrounded by sleeping Omega Metroids, literally forming some sort of formation around her, as if protecting her. Just then, a voice over the intercom sounded.

“Are you alright, Samus?” the voice asked. Samus, still feeling a bit woozy, could tell that Ridley was speaking. She stood up, and spoke back.

“What happened?” she wondered, with her palm to her visor.

“I injected you with a sedative. This would allow you to avoid any pain the crash may cause,” Ridley responded. “And don’t worry; the sedative was entirely non-experimental.”

“What about the Metroids?” Samus asked Ridley.

“We filled the room with an airborne sedative, so they did fine as well. As you can see, none have died, nor were any injured,” Ridley said. “I promise, Samus, everything is fine.”

“Where are we?” Samus asked. She had so many questions to ask.

“All I can tell you is that we are in the middle of that treacherous wasteland you traveled through just ten hours ago,” Ridley replied. “As for specific coordinates, I do not know. The coordinator calculator went with the main body of the mother ship.”

“You are incorrect, Ridley,” Adam said aloud. “This is not the Frostbitten Wasteland; this is the aptly named Aurora Heights.”

“Ah, sir Malkovich knows where we are. Brilliant,” Ridley said, in an entirely non-sarcastic manner.

“What kind of environment am I going to face?” Samus asked. She didn’t even have to wait for objectives to ask that question, because the Space Pirates truly know what she is good at.

“Apparently, Aurora Heights is a variety of different environments. It all remains at the freezing cold temperature with the icy weather, but it is…very diverse. Where we are now seems to be in the middle of a network of caverns within the mountains,” Adam explained. “This ship must have crashed into the ice and fell through, and here we are.”

“Crap,” Samus said. “How the hell am I going to get these Metroids out safe?”

“Simple,” Ridley explained. “We have more than one mother ship, Samus. I have already sent for one to extract the cargo that cannot be moved. Namely, this cargo ship.”

“You have more than one mother ship…?” Adam asked rhetorically. “Your empire must be larger than the Federation originally perceived it to be.”

“Damn straight, computer man,” Ridley said. “You forget, we’ve had centuries to expand and grow.”

“And you’ve been the leader for all those years?”

“Indeed, I have,” Ridley said. “I do not die very easily, as you should have figured out by now.”

“So…” Samus interrupted. “What should be my first objective?”

“Good question,” Ridley said. “Why don’t you investigate? Search for civilization. Hell, you can try to radio in areas where you have a signal.”

“Civilization? In these caves?”

“It’s entirely possible,” Ridley told Samus. “But if there is not one, these caves end somewhere, am I correct?”

“I suppose…”

“And the back-up mother ship is on its way to retrieve this cargo. I already have instructed my men to avoid opening the cargo,” Ridley spoke.

“One more question,” Samus said. “Where are you?”

There was a short pause. “Me?” Ridley asked. “Let’s just say I’m already searching.”

--

Ridley was flying about thirty feet above the surface, with his troop of men trying to keep up.

“Sir?” a commander asked. “Could you please slow down and let us catch up?”

Ridley halted, landed, and turned to look at the commander with his evil orange-yellow eyes.

“Nope,” Ridley spat casually. “Think of this as…the most effective training you’ve endured.”

After a brief moan from Ridley’s troop, Ridley took off again. The commander told his men to persevere. Suddenly, Ridley halted and landed again. The Space Pirates behind him finally caught up, panting heavily. After a short pause, the commander noticed Ridley was not moving.

“Sir, are you alright?” he asked.

“Shushushushushushhh,” Ridley silenced the commander. He then pointed ahead of himself. With no blizzard carrying on at the moment, things could be seen clearly. The commander saw it: a blue figure with a humanoid posture, walking casually in the snow. The figure was too far away to see the Pirates at the moment, but Ridley turned to the troops. “I am going to speak to it. As for you all, hide in the snow.”

With that remark, the Space Pirates dove into the snow and tried to cover themselves up. Since they were injected with the Subzero Serum, the cold did not bother them at all. Ridley got down onto all fours, akin to how he casually stood as Omega Ridley back in the time which the Space Pirates mined Phazon. He slowly walked toward the figure. After about twenty seconds of mutually approaching one another, the blue figure jumped and shot a slightly purple beam. The beam hit Ridley directly, but had no effect since Ridley was injected with the Subzero Serum as well. A small shard of ice formed on Ridley’s head, but shattered shortly after. Ridley then took off like a rocket in the blue figure’s direction. He hit the blue figure full force, and landed with the creature under his claws as Ridley held him down.

“Well hello there,” Ridley said in a sinister tone. “Don’t you look oddly familiar? Pity, your name continues to escape me.”

“Damn you, Pirate,” the figure spoke angrily.

“No need to be rude, now, I just want to talk,” Ridley said.

“I will tell you nothing,” the figure spat.

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask about,” Ridley said in a sarcastically sad manner.

“Fine, then,” the creature said. “What do you want?”

“Wonderful weather we’re having, isn’t it?” Ridley asked. The figure spat in Ridley’s face. “Well, how rude. I just wanted to start a friendly conversation.”

“Such an adjective as ‘friendly’ does not exist in your vocabulary,” the creature said. “Nor does it exist in any Space Pirate’s.”

“If that will be your mindset…” Ridley said, “Then I shall follow your stereotype that you plague me with.”

With that, Ridley slashed at the blue figure’s face, creating large scars oozing blue blood. After slashing a few times, Ridley asked the figure a last question.

“Any last words?” he asked.

“Go to hell, and stay there.”

Ridley gripped around the creature’s head, and, with force, ripped it clean off the figure’s body. Ridley threw the now-disembodied head aside, and looked at the decapitated body. The remaining stub where the creature’s head was did not squirt blood like a human’s would have, but rather, blue-purple blood slowly oozed out. Ridley hmphed.

“Not nearly as entertaining when the blood isn’t crimson,” Ridley noted, and stepped off the creature’s body. He turned, and flew back to where his troops were. “Boys! Get up, and let’s get moving!”

The Space Pirates rose out of the snow directly in front of Ridley, and shook the snow off their bodies.

“What did the mysterious figure tell you?” the commander wondered.

“Nothing,” Ridley said, sounding slightly disappointed. “Nothing relevant, that is. So I just sent him on his way.”

“That isn’t like you, sir,” the commander pointed out. “Normally you would’ve killed it, wouldn’t you?”

Ridley slightly narrowed his eyes. “You are absolutely correct,” he said very seriously, despite being facetious. “I should’ve been more brutal.”

The troops started to walk some more, until large thumps approached them. The troops turned around, and Ridley followed suit. Eventually, over the horizon, a large, pudgy green lizard with three red eyes came closer. Ridley sighed. When the lizard was within earshot, Ridley commented on its arrival.

“What in hell’s name are you doing here, Kraid?” Ridley asked.

“Sitting still can get boring, and now I can do something about it,” Kraid said with his booming voice. Once Ridley realized something, he jumped.

“Bloody hell! Did you kill the insects as I instructed you to do so?” Ridley asked.

“Sure did. Damn, I’m going to miss those little guys,” Kraid said in an authentically depressed tone. Kraid then noticed the decapitated body not too far away. Since he was bigger, he could see it better than the smaller troops. “Hey, what happened there?”

Kraid pointed to the dead body. The troops followed where his finger was pointing with their eyes and saw the dead body as well, in which they subsequently switched their sights to gaze at Ridley.

“You told us you sent him on his way and that you should have been more brutal,” the commander said. Ridley turned to glare at the commander.

“I did send him on his way…to the afterlife. I was being facetious, you idiot!”

“Well how could we tell?” the commander asked.

“By paying attention?” Ridley suggested sharply. Kraid broke up the loud conversation by clearing his throat, which was loud enough to cause a ringing in the troops’ ears. Ridley turned to look at Kraid, and then turned to look at the supposed direction he was going to lead the troops. “Right, let’s move.”

--

Samus navigated the caverns ahead of herself. She had already instructed her Metroid “children” to stay behind for safety. When she entered the cavern, the first thing she noticed was a flowing river. She went to examine it closer.

“Adam, how could a river exist on this planet?” Samus asked.

“The temperature dropped significantly since you have entered the cavern. As of now, it is only at 42 degrees Fahrenheit,” Adam replied.

“How?”

“It is possible that there is some sort of natural air lock that separates the outside climate from the inside climate. It is just…a drop in temperature that large seems scientifically impossible in such a small space for the temperature shift to take place,” Adam explained. Samus stuck her face into the water, viewing the depth of it. Despite that it was dark, she could tell that the river’s depth extended to about twenty feet down, and Samus could see that it got wider. She jumped in to investigate. As Samus floated down, she saw that where the river got wider, it led into another natural corridor. Based on her exploration instincts, she traveled down that path. The following room was large and round, and full of what seemed to be plant life. Samus was puzzled by the sight of this life, as being present here, it would be called an anomaly.

“Adam…plants? How could they live here?” Samus asked.

“The drop in temperature, of course,” Adam replied. “It is no longer too cold for a plant to survive here. At least, not where you’re standing. But without the plants, there would be no oxygen in the atmosphere, would there?”

“I thought the Vhozons breathed something else…then again, couldn’t oxygen rise from the melting of the ice and snow?” Samus wondered. Adam let out a small giggle.

“Silly Lady, how could the ice and snow out there melt?” Adam pointed out. Samus didn’t respond. Adam readjusted the subject to the objective at hand. “Lady, what are you going to do next? Perhaps you could follow…the northern path?”

The area surrounding Samus was a round room crafted from dirty ice. As explained, she was underneath an in-cave river. She was now surrounded by four separate paths. Her first instinct was to head for the one blockaded by Vhozon Crystals.

“Ah yes, very good! This looks like something that could lead you to some sort of expansion!” Adam exclaimed.

“Adam…how could an expansion be found here?”

“You found them on this planet before, haven’t you? What about the other planets you’ve visited during other missions?” Adam wondered.

“Yeah, but all the expansions I found here were in Settlement Zero. That would mean the Space Pirates likely ripped off the Chozo models of the expansions and had a few there for experiments. Zebes and Tallon IV had expansions because both were major Chozo settlements; same goes for SR388. The B.S.L. Station had them because the Galactic Federation did what the Space Pirates did; rip off the Chozo model. Aether had them because the Luminoth likely received them from the Chozo as gifts, or items to help with the Ing war. Bryyo was allied with the Chozo, Elysia was a Chozo settlement, and the Pirate Homeworld had them for the same reason Settlement Zero did. The Alimbics were allied with the Chozo as well, so that crosses them out of your list. Trust me, Adam, expansions don’t pop up for no reason,” Samus explained.

“So you are implying that the Chozo are not allies with the Vhozons?” Adam pointed out.

“Likely not, because Ridley explained that they were with the Federation,” Samus answered.

“Really, now? They do not show up anywhere in my databanks as allies with the Federation,” Adam said.

“Well, either you were cut off from the Federation’s databanks, or…”

“Or your lizard friend provided you with a subtle fabrication, Samus,” Adam interrupted.

“Yes, or that. But Adam, Ridley is not my friend. I just…I just have to tolerate him,” Samus said.

“Right, you should definitely trust the same asshole who intentionally murdered your mother, shouldn’t you?”

“He did kill my mother, no doubt about that. But all I do know is that I can trust him. Sure, he is an asshole. Sure, he is an outright douche bag, but he never lied to me before…” Samus said.

“But what if he is lying to you now, Samus? Have you ever considered that? What if he planned this whole scheme out this whole time to bait you into your utter demise so he could finally accomplish something larger, something much more dangerous?” Adam suggested.

“I’m not saying he isn’t! I’m saying if he was to kill me, he would have done it already!” Samus replied assertively.

“Knowing Ridley like the mastermind he is, he doesn’t have to kill you by now. He could easily trick you with his rarely exploited gentleman charm, only to end up killing you. Your safety is vital, Samus! Never put your life at risk! You saved the galaxy hundreds of times before; you need to do it again, here!” Adam yelled back. Samus calmed down.

“Well,” she started, “Then I’m going to save this galaxy. I will thwart the Galactic Federation for the subtle evil they’ve caused. I won’t back down…but I can’t do it alone. And when my once only ally is my enemy this time around…I need to form a new alliance. With an organization I never thought I would join. Adam Malkovich, I trust you. But I trust Ridley as well. And I’ve had enough of your rantings about my choices. You are not my boss; you never were. I could have dropped out of your training program whenever I wished. It would have screwed me over by now, but I could have. I could have gone to the Space Pirates first had they not forced me to have a grudge against them. But now, that grudge is useless. I need to do what’s best for this galaxy. And if you don’t agree with my choices, I suggest you go to hell,” Samus explained. Adam remained silent for a short pause.

“Lady, I…” Adam started, but didn’t finish. Samus continued walking through the underwater in the mysterious ice cavern, hoping she could find a way out.

--

Ridley turned off the communicator. “She does trust us,” he said. He had been eavesdropping on her conversation with Adam.

“But what about the computer man, sir? How could we rid of him? I think killing Samus is out of the question,” the commander replied. “The computer man will easily prove to be a nuisance, if he has not already.”

“I know about how Mr. Malkovich could ruin our plans, underling,” Ridley said. “But that’s why I have ordered for a solution to this problem…”

“Will it shut the asshole up?” Kraid wondered. Ridley turned to Kraid and looked up into his three eyes.

“No…but after the solution is administered, shutting the computer man up will not be necessary.”

--

Trace ran into the Frostbitten Wasteland. He was not affected by the cold due to enduring vigorous training back on his home planet. He ran across the snow, and slipped as soon as he stepped on ice.

“Gah! Damn it!” Trace called. He hit his rain-drop shaped head on the thick ice, and fell over with blurred vision. He felt himself growing unconscious fast. But it wasn’t long until he felt a needle stick into his shoulder blade. He felt a hand pick him up by his claw. He stood up, with his vision evening back out. Once he saw his savior, he slashed the figure with his claw. A direct hit sent the man to the ground, sliding. Soon enough, a large group of men with the same armor locked and loaded their guns, and pointed at Trace. Trace roared, attempting to intimidate the people. But the commotion was soon interrupted.

“Stop,” the figure who Trace slapped onto the ground said. The men surrounding Trace lowered their weapons. The man stood back up and brushed himself off. “Clearly, he is not aware yet.”

“Aware of what? That you will inevitably take me to your damned intergalactic prison keep?” Trace spat. “I do not like your kind, you bastardly G-Feds.”

The Galactic Federation commander walked up to Trace and held out his hand.

“Please, sir,” the commander offered. “Accept our hospitality.”

“That depends,” Trace said. “Do you hold Sylux on your ship?”

“No, sir. Sylux escaped our grasp a few days ago,” the G-Fed commander spoke.

“Then I do not have any business with you,” Trace barked.

“Look, sir,” the commander started to sound assertive. “We have an order from Emperor Gyrion that you must come with us to help.”

“Gyrion sent you?” Trace sounded puzzled. “I don’t believe you.”

Suddenly, Trace’s telecommunicator opened a transmission.

“You had better believe it, Trace,” the booming voice on the other end spoke. “The G-Feds are with us now. You will obey them, or you will die by the Krikis’s teeth!”

“Since when?”

“Since a few hours ago,” Emperor Gyrion spat. “G-Fed Chairman Vogl and I have reached an agreement. If we help the Galactic Federation destroy Samus and her confirmed new Space Pirate cohorts, they will take us off their most wanted list and free us of any crime charge. I would be a fool to refuse the deal.”

“Are you all fucking insane?” Trace barked. “Taking down Samus? The Space Pirates have a stronger military force than the G-Feds, and she can take down their entire army within twenty-four hours! We will never fulfill the deal---the G-Feds have set you up, O Hiera.”

“Quiet, Trace!” Emperor Gyrion asserted. “We did not ask for your smart-assed input. We are commanding you to listen to orders. Like I have said, if you do not obey, you will be the Krikis’s next meal! Understand?”

Trace subtly pouted, then roared in anger. “Fine, O Hiera,” Trace said. “But understand that I do not like this in the least.”

“We expected you wouldn’t,” Emperor Gyrion said. “But to be wholeheartedly honest, we don’t give a damn. Now be quiet, suck it up, and follow this lovely troop of G-Fed soldiers. No more questions!”

The transmission ended. Trace roared in anger again, and looked at the commander. “I don’t approve of my Emperor’s move, human.”

“I know,” the commander responded. “But that Krikis sounds like it is one nasty creature.”

Trace growled. He and the troop continued off in one direction in the wasteland. It’s going to be a long alliance, Trace thought.

Author’s Note: “O Hiera” is basically a Kriken’s traditional way of referring to a higher up in their government, particularly directed at the current Emperor.

Also to note, Trace said the ‘f’ word. Sorry about this for people who wanted this obscene swearing to stop, but I have two more times I can slip in the ‘f’ word. After that, I would have to change the fanfic’s rating to ‘R’ for “some language”, and I do not want to do that.

Also, thanks to Zyborggian for the Aurora Heights idea.

Chapter Twelve: Aurora Heights

Ridley, Kraid, and the troop of Space Pirates continued to trudge through the snow on the mountains of Aurora Heights. Ridley was silently pondering different matters of concern to himself, Kraid was trying to play “I Spy” with himself, and the troops were singing an annoying tune. It was obvious that boredom has got the best of them.

“Sir, I have a question,” a troop asked Ridley.

“What?” Ridley immediately replied, sounding dreadfully irritated from being interrupted from his train of deep thought.

“Did you, by chance, acquaint with that blue figure back there?” the troop wondered. Ridley sighed in what sounded more like an annoyed roar, and started to talk to himself quietly as he racked his brains for any memories of the figure he had recently decapitated.

“No, I did not. But I do know that he was famous, and that his name starts with an ‘n’,” Ridley replied.

“Noxus?” Kraid suggested. Ridley sounded mildly impressed.

“Yes! That was his name. Gah, I’m already losing my memory. Explain Noxus’s back-story to these poorly-informed soldiers, Kraid,” Ridley commanded.

“Weeeeeeeell….” Kraid started. “You see, Noxus was a Vhozon bounty hunter who, much like our newly-acquainted bounty hunting friend, only aimed for the greater good. He rivaled against Samus and Weavel and plenty of other bounty hunters back in the famous Alimbic Expedition only about fifteen years ago. Noxus specialized in utilizing ice-based weapons, the most well-known being the Judicator. Noxus was also known to fold into an alternate form that could swing a hefty scythe out to cut his foes apart. Noxus was one of the only bounty hunters whom wanted the Ultimate Power for good reasons…too bad the rest of his race is corrupt.”

“Damn, sir Kraid. For someone who just sits around so much---no offense---you really seem to get around,” the troop who originally started the conversation said. Kraid grinned.

“Are you crazy? The Alimbic Expedition was history being made, and it was one of my favorite historical events,” Kraid replied.

“Too bad this ‘Alimbic Expedition’ turned out to end quite horribly…and do I even need to bring up that it wouldn’t help us much to begin with?” Ridley remarked.

“Silly Ridley, the Ultimate Power would have been our delicious ticket to destroying our enemies had it been more than a selfish cry for help. And…”

“Kraid, just shut up. Please, shut up,” Ridley interrupted. “Honestly, you are so into history that it makes you talk more than I would like you to.”

“What’s wrong with me talking? Do I sound funny or something?” Kraid asked.

“No…let’s just say you sometimes don’t seem to know how to be quiet,” Ridley answered.

“Bullshit,” Kraid retorted. “You don’t know---“

“I would shut your trap if I were you. All you’re doing now is further proving my point,” Ridley said in a very serious tone. Kraid grew quiet. Soon enough, the group of Space Pirates stopped at a ledge overlooking a cliff that stood an unfathomable depth. Across the chasm that stood before them, they could see multiple cylinder-shaped structures made of ice popping up. Kraid soon jumped.

“Ooh! I remember this place now!” he shouted. Ridley turned at Kraid and narrowed both eyes, one eye slightly more than the other.

“You’ve been here?” Ridley asked, not convinced by Kraid’s sudden revelation.

“Not physically,” Kraid said. “But I saw this place all across the Internet when I was looking up Vhozon culture.”

“This is a cultural landmark?” Ridley wondered. “Continue.”

“Well, Vhozon warriors prove their capabilities as a warrior by venturing off from the infrastructure, then meditating carefully on these cylinders. If they fall off the cylinders, then, according to their religion, their god is saying that the Vhozon was not ready to become a warrior. When training is completed, warriors often return to the towers of ice to meditate on top of them. I have also read somewhere that Noxus mastered the art of tower meditation, and was considered a warlord in the eyes of a Vhozon Pope---“

“Shut up!” Ridley stopped Kraid. Kraid huffed. Ridley sighed, and facepalmed. “Look, Kraid, all you had to say was that warriors meditate here. Hell, even then, you could have denied answering the question, because I simply asked out of curiosity.”

“Well why do you have to be such a douche about it?” Kraid barked. Ridley told Kraid to suck it up. He then turned and looked at the cylinders.

“Crap,” Ridley said. He turned to Kraid again. “You will have to wait for extraction to progress, Kraid. Unless you feel like walking a few hundred or thousand miles to get around this chasm.”

“Oh, now you’re calling me obese?” Kraid asked. Ridley looked deep into Kraid’s eyes, and clearly saw that Kraid was, in fact, trolling. Kraid always enjoyed picking on Ridley in bizarre ways. This situation was no exception.

“Quit whining, troll,” Ridley spat. With that, Kraid shut up---and stayed shut up, too. Kraid sat down and made the glacier underneath the group tremble. Ridley turned to the troop.

“Can you troops handle this minefield?” Ridley asked to be sure. The troops didn’t respond, thinking about the question. With some thought, the commander stepped up and shook his head.

“To be safe, sir, no,” the commander replied. Ridley spat.

“To be safe? What the hell do you mean by that? Why do you think I never hired you, or you, or you, or even you to be our primary bounty hunter? Because Weavel does not care if anything is safe or not; not even Samus does! What we are enduring here is the kind of bullshit Samus deals with nearly every day. Survival, instinct. The ability to pull through anything! What kind of army am I raising here? A first-class elite group of ultimate soldiers? Hardly. You’re all just a bunch of pussies, that’s what you all are. I cannot believe I recruited this troop to follow me,” Ridley barked. The troops were quiet, but the commander surprisingly retorted.

“Damn it, sir, we are not Samus Aran! We’re just a bunch of well-trained crustaceans. Forcing us to cross this chasm is murder! You will lose an entire troop!” the commander retorted. Ridley narrowed his eyes, looking extremely surprised. Ridley got onto all fours and slowly crawled toward the commander as he spoke.

“Do you really think our entire empire would just fall apart from me losing a damned troop?” Ridley spoke in a quiet but sinister tone. “We have lost hundreds of troops and squadrons all throughout our empire’s history, even all in a similar time frame. Even then, our empire never even came close to collapsing!”

As Ridley approached the commander slowly, the armored bipedal crustacean cowered and took steps back. Ridley had a sinister glare in his eye, with a hint of fury. In the Space Pirates, going against the leader---Ridley---if you were lower than the class “Hierarch” was considered a “lethal violation”. Ridley was a mastermind. He knew what he was doing. The commander had no say in the future of the Space Pirates. Unfortunately for the commander, a terrible exhaustion he had never endured before took the best of him.

Ridley was now face to face with the commander. He spoke in a very calmed and quiet tone, while sounding very unforgiving all at once. “Do you have the balls to raise your voice to me again?” he whispered. The commander shook his head. “I am willing to spare you this once, commander. But if you allow a weak force such as exhaustion to take control of your common sense in the future, your jugular artery will find a link missing. Understood?”

The commander nodded. Quickly, Ridley pulled his face away from the commanders’. “Alright then,” Ridley said. “You can sit here to wait for extraction, while in the meantime you get to hear Kraid bitch and whine about how much of an ass I am.”

On that remark, the troops of Space Pirates were already hopping off to the towers of ice. Ridley grinned.

“The hell is this?” Kraid whined. Ridley flew over the chasm with ease, and landed on the other side. He looked back at the troop. To his dismay, there were only three Space Pirates left in the troop. And the commander was gone. They had already fallen off the towers. Ridley turned around and walked off, as the final three slipped off the ice.

--

Samus climbed out of the river in an entirely different location than she was in before. Samus stepped out of the cave, as an exit stood before her. In front of her were ice pillars sticking to the ground. She looked up, and pondered how tall the pillars were. She then noticed dead bodies on the ground. Based on the colors and appearance, she could tell they were Space Pirates. But their chests were ripped open. Thankfully, there was no blood, as it was all dried up. But Samus wondered just why their bodies were torn open. Samus soon heard a mysterious growl. She searched for the source.

Suddenly, a blue armored lizard popped out from behind a pillar. It roared, and three other blue armored lizards jumped out. They all looked at Samus with an evil stare, and roared in unison. The roar echoed all the way through the cave she believed she was still in. Samus quickly scanned the creatures.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Herpetology: Helmraptor. Helmraptors are vicious, highly intelligent, territorial monsters which are dangerous when alone, and deadly when in a pack. Despite being reptiles, they have a velociraptor-esque posture and build, and they are easily amazingly endothermic. Helmraptors attack very much in the same fashion as velociraptors, with claws and such, and they sport a thieving mentality. The armor Helmraptors are almost always found wearing is stolen from the Vhozons, particularly from ancient armories found in the Vhozon Ruins. Bitter cold has absolutely no effect on the Helmraptors, but extreme heat proves useful. It is a better idea to fight the Helmraptors in close combat, as otherwise you will find that they will dodge most shots taken.”

Samus was surprised to find a reptile native to Vho. Then again, Metroids could be called reptiles, so Ice Metroids would be her first reptile found native on this planet. Adam spoke up.

“So, based on the given information, you should engage in melee combat with them. So you should use…ah, forget it. I’m almost certain you know yourself,” Adam said. Samus extended her Plasma Sword. The Helmraptors continued to growl. She slowly but carefully walked toward the four beasts. Soon enough, one of the Helmraptors took Samus on. It lunged at her, slashing at her suit. Samus accumulated major damage, and recoiled from the pain. Quickly, she swung her Plasma Sword and created a large, gaping cut in the Helmraptor’s side. The Helmraptor’s deep, pitch black eyes seemed to widen, and it fell over. Samus walked over and put the lizard out of its misery. With that, the remaining three pounced Samus at once, and started to tear and shred at Samus’s Subzero Suit. Samus fell over as she felt the pain, and quickly jabbed one of the lizards through the skull. The lizard stopped slashing, and fell over. She stabbed a second lizard into the belly, and threw it aside. She then cut the final Helmraptor’s head off. The second lizard that which she stabbed in the gut was still alive, but dying. Samus walked over, and shot the lizard in the leg with the Acid Beam. She then touched the area with the acid, and felt her energy replenish. That ambush seriously almost injured her to the point of no return.

“Well they seem quite simple to kill,” Adam pointed out the obvious.

“Yeah,” Samus replied. “And if I found them here, I’m probably close to reaching the Vhozon Ruins.”

“Possibly,” Adam said. “But this icy plain could be the equivalent to a desert for a velociraptor. Velociraptors were well known on Earth during the late Cretaceous period to trek across the Gobi Desert in what became Mongolia around sixty-five million years later. They traveled ridiculous distances that would kill a normal man for running too much without stopping. This could be the Helmraptors’ desert.”

“So…you’re saying that the Vhozon Ruins could be farther away than expected?” Samus asked.

“Precisely, Lady,” Adam answered. “Taxonomically, the Helmraptors may be hardly related to the velociraptors. But they’ve represented them in almost every other way possible.”

Samus then pointed something out. “A normal man can die from running too much without stopping?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m not a normal man. I’m not even a man,” Samus said. “I’m a superhuman female.”

“Gah, you women and your tendency to point out that women are not men, as if trying to prove a point,” Adam spoke. Samus glared.

“We don’t have to prove a point,” Samus said. She then realized how disgustingly feminine she sounded right then, so she changed the subject. “Adam, are we still in Aurora Heights?”

“Indeed we are,” Adam responded. “Particularly, in the pillar area, where Vhozon warriors train and meditate.”

Suddenly, something popped up on Samus’s visor, notifying her of an unpleasant disturbance. The notification said as follows:

“Unidentified species migration taking hold.”

It then opened her virtual map of the area, which was still mostly hidden due to a lack of a map station. Sure enough, it pointed to a dome-shaped chamber on her map, which she did not know the path to. The remnant notification stated that an anomaly resided in this room. To Samus, the word “anomaly” could mean practically anything, ranging from a big boss battle to an unidentified item upgrade. She called for Adam.

“I see it,” Adam spoke ahead. “The anomaly is emitting both organic frequencies and non-organic frequencies. Your best bet is to investigate.”

Samus agreed, and pressed on. She walked through the chasm she was on the bottom of, and entered an oddly-placed door. The door led into a small passageway with its walls covered in purple-blue tiles with exotic symbols all over each tile. Adam spoke up.

“Apparently, a patch of ruins takes up some of the Aurora Heights area, Samus,” Adam said. “But don’t think this is the official ‘Vhozon Ruins’ quite yet.”

Samus nodded as she continued down the hall. The next corridor was large, and very much lined with the same mysterious tiles she found in the previous hallway. The corridor was mostly vertical, with multiple steps and other bridge-like structures leading to the top. But out of instinct, Samus went into the nearest room that was not where she just was. The room was dull and round. In the center resided a mysterious glowing station. Samus walked into it, and was greeted by a shock of pain. A strange device plopped down and forced Samus’s arm cannon to insert itself into the device, mysteriously seemingly designed for her arm cannon. When the device detached, Samus calmed down from the sudden pain shock, and saw this notification on her heads-up display:

“The map for this area has been downloaded.”

Her visor then pulled up the newly-downloaded map. To Samus’s surprise, it was not just Aurora Heights’s map; it was the map to practically everywhere on Vho. The Frostbitten Wasteland, Aurora Heights, and even some areas Samus didn’t know existed appeared on the map. As expected, Settlement Zero showed up nowhere, seeing as it was made by the Space Pirates. But still, this map would be very beneficial. Now, the rooms connecting where she was to the dome-shaped room she was notified to visit popped up. Samus jumped when she saw a lot. But she sucked it up, and continued. Carefully, Samus climbed the steps and crossed the bridges that brought her to the top. To her surprise, there was no form of animal life in here. She forgot about that fact, and entered through the door at the top of the shaft.

Samus then found herself outside. She looked up, and all around. But she soon saw clouds forming above her. Precipitation? she thought. Shortly after, pellets of ice fell and hit Samus hard. When what seemed like a trillion pellets of ice fell, Samus felt her energy drain.

“Samus, you must take cover,” Adam said suddenly. “The hail will hurt your energy terribly.”

Samus thought fast, and ran over to a nearby cave. She sat down.

“What now, Adam?” she asked.

“I suppose you could wait for the hail to subside, or you can try to run through it,” Adam responded. Samus poked her head out of the cave, and looked at where she was about to go. It was just an icy plain, with no spots to take cover whatsoever. But soon, Samus saw an enormous shadow cast on the plain, and it flew across the plain. She looked up into the sky, and saw an enormous white bird. It flew over the plain without being harmed by the hail. Samus then got what could hatch into a successful plan. She scanned the bird.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Ornithology: Gargun. Garguns are enormous birds that are harmless to everything except the prey it feeds on. They are not affected by the bitter cold atmosphere of Vho, nor are they harmed by the extreme precipitation that is known to damage most other life forms on Vho. The Gargun actually prefers the extreme precipitation, and as such is most commonly found in Aurora Heights, where the hail commonly falls.”

The precursor to Samus’s plan hatched and became official.

“What are you thinking about, Lady?” Adam wondered.

“If I stay in the bird’s shadow, I can remain safe underneath the hail!” Samus spoke.

“Ah, yes,” Adam replied. “The bird is large and slow, so it will be relatively easy to stay underneath it. Just be careful.”

Samus nodded, and ran out to be under the bird’s shadow. She had accumulated some massive damage, but not enough to be a huge issue. She looked down, and tried her best to remain inside the shadow. The bird flew slowly, and Samus ran as soon as she figured she was close to the next door, and ran in after she opened it. Shortly after, she slipped down a slope. The bottom of the slope greeted Samus harshly by making her crash into a thick wall of ice. Samus stood up, and took the next door. The next room was, in fact, dome-shaped. She was surprised, seeing as that the map made her conclude that more rooms sat between her and her destination. But when she pulled up the map, it said she wasn’t in a recorded room. Instead, she was directly above her destination. Assuming she had to turn back, Samus turned around, but only to be yanked to the ground brutally. She recoiled from the massive pain surging down her back. She turned her head to look behind where she lay, and saw a large, aggressive, white monster that had a lizard build and sported fins on its hind legs. Samus scanned it before the inevitable attack.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Morphology: Omega Ice Metroid. Omega Ice Metroids are vicious, brutal, and merciless hunters, being the fear of many harmless people as they trudge through the icy wasteland. They often hunt in small packs usually consisting of three Omega Ice Metroids. When a blizzard is out, packs of them hunt through the blizzard. Since the Omega Ice Metroids are blind, finding prey or possible natural competitors via heat is quite easy considering how rare heat is found throughout the surface of Vho. The ice variant of the Omega Metroids is far more aggressive and assertive when they are protecting the Queen Ice Metroid. These hunters attack with their claws and teeth, along with burrowing. The only known way to kill an Omega Ice Metroid is to break its core membrane with a concussive blast, while subsequently forcing a heated blow into the core.”

Samus stood up clumsily. She pointed her arm cannon at the Omega Ice Metroid, and stood there. The eyeless lizard simply growled at Samus. She launched a diffusion missile at the core membrane of the Metroid, and the membrane subsequently cracked. The Omega Ice Metroid responded to the move by moving in to rid of Samus. It started to tear her with its claws, and then it picked her up with its teeth. The Omega Ice Metroid shook Samus as she was in its jaws, and then threw Samus to the bottom of the uncharted dome-shaped room Samus was in. Soon enough, Samus fell through a small hole in the center of the dip in the dome. She stood up, finding herself in a different dome-shaped room. Samus looked all around as many small Ice Metroid larvae popped out of the snow and pursued Samus. She reacted by entering Morph Ball and bombing them all. With that, Alpha and Gamma Ice Metroids appeared in fewer numbers. Samus tried a new tactic, and extended her Plasma Sword. Samus shoved the blade into the core of the Ice Metroid pupae, one by one, and they died. Right after, five Zeta Ice Metroids and three Omega Ice Metroids climbed out of the burrows they dug. They pursued Samus at a rapid speed, and Samus simply cowered. She could not handle an ambush of Metroids this large. But soon enough, a large tremble took place. Samus fell, and soon shut her eyes hard as an earth-shattering roar surged across the dome-shaped roar. Subsequently, the swarm of adult Ice Metroids cleared up, and an awkward-looking creature resembling a narwhal dug itself out of the ground. The monster had a vicious set of teeth, two front arms with nasty claws, two hind legs with fins attached to the end, and a spiky-ended long tail. It was heavily armored as well. It had nasty red and black eyes, and a deadly-looking horn on what could have been its nose. The monster had what looked like eel-like structures hanging from behind its eyes. The monster roared again, making Samus cringe. Samus struggled to pull up the Scan Visor to scan the beast.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Morphology: Queen Ice Metroid. The only female Ice Metroid in its population, the queen is quite the tough opponent. It will not go down easily. Though proven to be a difficult contender in itself, the Queen Ice Metroid is heavily guarded by vicious Ice Metroids of each metamorphic stage. The Queen Ice Metroid handles all migrations the Ice Metroids undertake, so there is no confirmed hive meant to allow Ice Metroids to reside there. The queen fights in numerous brutal ways, often holding its prey down for it to rip the internal organs of the victim out with its set of teeth. The queen is very dangerous and no one should attempt to handle one. They say you can kill the Queen Ice Metroid similarly to terminating an Omega Ice Metroid, but it cannot be confirmed for sure.”

Samus held her arms apart, as if allowing the queen to attack her. And sure enough, the queen started to dash toward Samus.

--

“Where the hell is Samus?” Ridley asked into the intercom. He was now on the new replacement mother ship, as was Kraid.

“We’re searching, sir,” the Recovery Squadron commander spoke back. Ridley roared and sighed at once.

“Once you find her, pick her up. Never let the chance pass!” Ridley exclaimed. The commander agreed, and the transmission was terminated. Ridley facepalmed. “Gah…if we don’t find Samus in the next sixty hours, we are just going to have to go to the Vhozon Infrastructure, and hope she will catch up.”

“What if she doesn’t show up? Should we assume the worst?” a pilot asked. Ridley grinned.

“With Samus? Never assume the worst.”

Author's Note: Sorry about how this chapter just dragged...there wasn't much to include in it. This chapter is easily not my best, so don't think I believe I excelled with this one.