Part 2

Samus Aran’s slender hands flew over the controls of the Starship, navigating it low over the hills and forests of Tal’Alma, keeping a constant height above the treetops. With each dip the ship made, she felt her stomach rise towards her throat to meet her heart as the built-in gravity stabilizers struggled to keep up with the craft. She had invested little ship space on inertia dampeners and stabilizers; she only needed to fly fast, stop fast, and, when necessary, shoot fast.

As her ship suddenly lurched downward another twenty meters, she stumbled forward at the controls. Damn, she thought, This is the last time I fly without my suit.

The ship flew onward, deep into the forested wilderness of the planet, over countless lakes, rivers, streams, and mountain ranges. Samus was drawn onward, onward by some force she did not understand, yet knew that she must conquer. Whatever it was, she would find it. She did not know where she was going, did not care how long it took her to get there, just as long as she found it. The farther she flew, the more powerful the urge got until it consumed her in a rage.

Samus’ fingers flew wildly over her ship’s controls, and the craft flew with them. Voices swirled about her head, seeping into her pores and latching onto her mind with razor-sharp tentacles and suckers. Faster, FASTER! they called as the reactor reached levels well beyond its safety parameters.

And on it went. Samus was flung back onto the bulkhead of the cockpit as the craft lurched forward. Feebly, she lifted her arm up to her head, but it was pasted to the back wall of the craft by sheer gravity.

The numbers on the flight altimeter climbed higher, higher. Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 12. They faded in and out as she blinked to wipe away the clouds that swirled about her.

It did not matter anymore. There was nothing she could do. And even if there was, she would be unable to do it; she must have already reached 3 G's, maybe 7, maybe more. She couldn’t tell.

The clouds swirled in, absorbing her in the white darkness between insanity and unconsciousness, the vibrations of the ship shaking her off into a deep sleep.

Samus awoke. She found herself lying in the fetal position at the control panel of the ship’s cockpit and her forehead felt strangely warm and crackled as she breathed, making her gasp. She lifted her hand, reached up to it, and drew it back caked with dried and drying blood.

The pilot’s chair was swung about at an odd angle, and it slowly twisted back and forth with each breath she took, and oddly coincided with a dull throbbing light that seeped inward through the ship’s view port. She raised a hand towards the chair to steady herself, and, lifting her self up out of the wedged position she had taken, she groped the controls with her other as she rose towards the light.

What she saw made her gasp. The ship had landed in the middle of the ruins of a vast city, but just not any city, a Chozo city - one that was still charred and blackened from when it had been leveled years ago. Amidst the rubble were Chozo statues, statues with arms, legs, hands, and heads missing. The rock walls of the city were scarred in thousands of places by many blaster scores. What sparse vegetation grew in this black, dead world was brittle and dying.

This was what the Shadow had spoken of; this was what he had done. This was his dead world.

Samus donned her suit and climbed the service chute to her ship’s hatch. She clamed over the side and dropped down onto the earth, earth covered with black glass that crunched, and shattered under the weight of her suit. Already, her boots were coated in a thin film of black ash which blew up in the dark wind that blew and howled through the cracks and crevasses of the ruins.

As she walked towards one of the statues in the city’s ruins, she brushed aside a dead moss overhang. It crumpled to the ground in a fine sand, forming a small dust cloud at her feet. There was a symbol on the wall, a symbol she knew. It was her symbol.

She touched it through gloved hands, and its outline shot outward as green light, engulfing her in some otherworldly flame.

From all around her, the voice came:

WATCH, AND LEARN.

The light entered her suit, it entered her mind. From the root of her mind, from the depths of her soul, Samus screamed.

Chapter 022
Answers in the dark by nameless

Billions of images ripped through Samus' mind at once. None of them made sense at first, but once the green light had stopped she understood completely. This was the plight of her people. She walked over to the base of an old pillar which had long ago broken off and fallen to the ground. Falling onto the massive stone and placing her head in her hands, Samus wept. She had heard the ancient stories of the Torizo wars and she had heard of the coming of the night stalker. Over the centuries these great marble pillars and ivory temples had turned into reed huts and small villages. A once great people had been torn by war and strife, and now they lived in tiny houses in the lowest of the lowlands. They had once traveled from planet to planet in great starships building cities and crafting great statues in their own image, but now they carved wooden trinkets which they sold at market for pennies a dozen.

Samus looked up through her visor at the "S" which was carved into the wall. She walked back over to it and pushed on it again, this time standing out of it's direct path. It depressed and emitted a green beam of light casting the entire story of her people onto the ground in a matter of seconds. It must have been some sort of record system designed by her people to tap into the mind and directly import information. But it told an unfinished story. Why of the 339 letters in the Chozo alphabet was the letter "S" selected?

Samus looked around the massive city. Great towers supported by massive pillars rose high above her. Farther off in the distance, she could see more ruins awkwardly positioned on the mountain faces. This place must be what her master referred to as the "Origin." It was the first city. It was the place where the Chozo race had begun, before the existence of the Torizo. "Every Chozo must venture to the origin. Some see it when they are young, others are taken there by their children when they are withered and old, but all who wish to walk the great streets of that glorious city in the afterlife, must first see it in the flesh." This was heaven, the home of her dead ancestors.

The massive statues littered the courtyards and gardens of the now desolate metropolis. It gave Samus an idea of what it must have been like when the Chozo truly did populate that city. Some of them sat on the ground, other's lay in dried up fountains, some missed arms, others held their own head. As she looked at each unique face, she admired the craftsmanship of the detailed avian figures, but one in particular caught her eye. It stood erect, it's arms at it's side. The artwork was so detailed that it almost looked as if...

It was not a statue at all! In fact it wasn't Chozo. Samus dived behind a stone slab just as the 8 foot tall Torizo lashed out with it's fighting pike. It lifted the pike high in the air and brought it down on the rock driving the blade deep into the stone. The stone could not support the pressure of the massive metal projectile and it split into pieces showering Samus with splintered rock. Samus sprung back, ignoring her fear, and placed herself in fighting position. The Torizo spun the pike and swung it at Samus slicing the air with the razor tip. Samus dodged and kicked the pike to the side and subsequently flipped up into the air bringing her titanium foot down onto the giant's head. The Torizo let out a terrible scream and stumbled backward.

"You cannot defeat me, human!" It cried. "I will destroy you as I have done all of your people!"

Samus answered back with a string of well aimed missiles. One struck the Torizo's armored shoulder but the other's flew past and exploded on a nearby pillar, allowing the roof which it supported to crumble to the ground.

The Torizo rose it's staff and thrust it in Samus' direction emitting several large blasts of energy. Before Samus could react, they struck her, blowing her backwards into a stone stature, which immediately shattered under the pressure.

Samus shook off the blow and attempted to lift herself to her feet. But before she could react, the Torizo slammed the pike into her back knocking her onto her face.

"Foolish girl! Did you think that your rookie skill could prevail against me? You are nothing. You are but a fly, another bounty which I will soon collect!" The reptilian voice hissed. "Is this your destiny? You are dealing with forces which you do not understand!"

Samus strained to upright herself, but the massive clawed foot of the Torizo pinned her to the ground.

"I should kill you now and spare your suffering. I would still receive my pay."

Suddenly, a shadow passed overhead, and both hunters could feel a cold wind blow into the city. A voice. Leave her be. The Torizo knew what it was. Have you not learned from your mistakes, Khan? Have you not learned from all of our mistakes? Khan released his foot from Samus back.

"You are just as guilty as any, but you are the sufferer of all of our sins!"

I deny nothing. But unlike you, I have accepted my punishment.

Samus looked up to see a dark figure standing in the shadows of the ruins. He spoke words, but not from a mouth for he had none.

"But you heard it too. You know what this girl is capable of. We cannot allow this to continue!"

The Torizo screamed an ear piercing cry "I fear no one!!!" And with a foul swoop it rushed at the figure. But the shadow could not be touched.

You have not seen it yet. I have seen it: I have lived it. I have breathed it. I have become it. But now, now I know what it is. But this knowledge has brought me terrible pain. In order to truly understand the meaning of darkness, you must become it. You must speak it. And you must reject it.

"I have no time for your sentimental babble! Leave me to my tasks!"

And with the force of a thousand winds, the figure struck out at the Torizo sending it flying into a stone wall, it’s battered body being covered by rock.

The shadow moved over to Samus who now watched with terror. Go. Leave this place of death. You must forget what you have seen here. Renounce all that is bad. Turn against sin. Flee from profit. Approach your deeds with sense and logic, but perform them in the name of goodness. Your mission has not been completed. You must go now to destroy the evil which I have helped to create. The evil which I have become a part of.

Samus looked up at the dark figure, but it was gone. Gone back into it's world of safety, the world of darkness which it hated but could not escape.

The words of her mentor came to mind: "What you know is your most valuable tool of all. Use it in the name of goodness and virtue."

Samus set out, back to Tal'alma, and it's world of motion, to put a stop to the buried injustice which lay deep beneath it's foundation.

Chapter 023
Atmospheric Reentry by CapCom

Samus double-checked the controls to make sure everything was secure, ensuring that she would be able to remotely control the Starship if necessary. She'd made the necessary adjustments to her suit after the ship had been built, just in case. Now, it seemed that she was going to test those adjustments.

She checked the ship's tracking system and saw she was almost directly above Tal'Alma spaceport. Soon, she would be in range for atmospheric reentry. Unfortunately, this was the only way she would be able to sneak into the city again without major resistence; GFED bounty hunters were undoubtedly gunning for her. This would, in a sense, 'put the drop on them'. She couldn't help but notice the irony of the situation.

Switching on autopilot, she hurried to the hatch and blew the cover. Immediately, wind ripped inside of the Starship, sending any loose material flying as the atmosphere greedily vaccumed out any particles to depressurize the cabin.

Power-suited Samus was sucked out of the craft and sent flying.

The bounty hunter recruiter had told her this suit could withstand atmospheric re-entry. She was about to test that.

As she neared her epogee, gravity gained control of her suit and pulled it back towards the earth, and she plummeted like a rock. Samus looked down to see only clouds and the tip of the Spire tower piercing through an upper layer of fog that shrouded the city today. And she fell.

It was a sickening plunge, and she had to switch on the suit's remote servos to bring her arms down from above her head. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to stop her stomach and heart from trying to fly up her throat and out her mouth.

An alarm suddenly went off inside the suit.

WARNING: SUIT TEMPERATURE REACHING DANGER LEVELS

was displayed on the suit's internal holographic system, yellow against the light green hue of her suit's visor.

This could only mean that her suit was starting to burn up in the atmosphere. She flicked on the suit's altimeter display with her tongue.

3000M and dropping. Still two miles up.

The beeping started to get louder, rising from an annoying throb to a full-out klaxon. The suit's temperature was rising beyond safety limits. Her power was starting to become drained.

She switched on auxiliary power and the moaning beeps subsided to a low throb that was still grudginly becoming louder.

5000M

The suit's temperature started to climb, and she could feel beads of sweat forming on her skin. The suit's internal systems quickly absorbed the liquid, leaving her flushed, but did little to stop the rising heat. And still she dropped.

The Spire Tower steadily got larger, a growing spike protruding from the planet like a giant green thorn. Eventually, it became so large, that there was no more room for it to grow and it must instead pass by her. And it did. She diverted all power to the leg servos and prayed they wouldn't fail.

She hit the ground with a stomach-wrenching CRUNCH! Debris flew up all around her, masking her movements in a cloud of dust. As the cloud dissipated, a glowing, red-hot Samus emerged, who stepped out of her own little crater and into the Spire Tower, a human torch of barely-controlled fury.

Chapter 024
Deep Impact by nameless

Samus emerged from the massive hole in the sidewalk. Shards of concrete lay all around and some of the passers-by who had heard the crash had scurried over to see what all the commotion was about. They were horrified to see a humanoid figure rise from the rubble, glowing bright red against the dull gray buildings. The figure stood there, it's brilliant glow eventually fading to blend with the natural orange of it’s armor. The people fled in horror, hurrying into shops and office buildings. Several federation police had been alerted to the scene, and they came running up with blasters ready. Upon seeing Samus they abruptly stopped, shocked at the site before them. The delay was short however and they began firing on Samus, the plasma shots ricocheting off of her titanium armor. She vaporized several of them, and marched, unfazed into the Spire Tower.

Inside the Spire Tower, she was greeted with the angry warble of security alarms. "Warning: Security Breach on ground floor. Please leave building through alternate exits." Several heavily armed security guards rushed into the lobby showering Samus with mass quantities of solid and beam artillery. The suit absorbed most of the blasts, but the solid munitions were beginning to make a dent in her suit’s defense system. She immediately corrected this problem by disposing of the guards. "Intruder Alert! All guards proceed to ground floor." Samus heard a slight vibration which culminated into a loud rumble. Before she could react, the windows in the lobby facing the street shattered and a massive assault tank burst through. Damn, she thought, they were on to me fast!. Before she could react the tank aimed it’s immense turret directly at Samus and fired several high powered plasma bolts at her. They struck her and sent her flying backwards, flipping head over heals into the wall. She fell conveniently behind a huge marble reception desk. By this time her suit was taking on heavy damage. Shit, looks like I’ll have to take a less offensive approach.

The tank fired several more plasma charges which whizzed over Samus’ head and punctured viewport sized holes into the wall behind her. She was starting to sweat.

She popped up and fired several missiles at the tank. They exploded, leaving dustings of carbon on the tank hull, but otherwise caused no damage. Crap! More security guards charged into the room, taking position on either side of the tank. Her mind raced. Looking up, she saw the crystanium chandelier gently chiming in response to all of the excitement. Immediately, she fired a few plasma shots at the dangling assemblage of priceless crystals, and it fell swiftly to the ground. It landed directly on top of the security guards, showering them with thousands of brilliant green emeralds. She took this opportunity to make her escape. Samus dove out from behind the counter and somersaulted over to the nearest doorway. The tank follower her, rapidly firing it’s cannon in a last attempt to finish her off. But she was too swift, and she made it to the doorway untouched, shards of pulverized granite following her to safety.

Finding that the turbo lift had been deactivated, Samus rushed to the access stairway, and proceeded to Spire 38. Federation Soldiers fired down the stairwell at her. She retaliated with precision and accuracy, and their bodies soon joined the laser fire which flew past her to the depths below.

She emerged into the hallway, and saw a slight orange glow emitting from room 38. She approached the door, to see a uniformed man dumping stacks upon stacks of paper into a trash can that had been set afire. The man turned around with a gasp. It was Levine. I should have known, Samus thought. He took a run for a blaster which was lying on the desk, and Samus fired a shot vaporizing the gun and part of the table top.

"Please!" Levine cried out "I was only doing my job."

Samus spoke into the comm unit. The voice was synthesized. "Don’t move!" She moved over to the computer and brought up the file database. "What’s the password?"

"It won’t do you any good," Levine said with a shaky but bold voice, "The files have been completely wiped."

She walked over to him, and grabbed him by the neck. The slightest movement of her hand muscles could cause the powerful servos to instantly crush his trachea. "Did you honestly think you could get away with what you have done?"

"The federation can get away with anything!" He gritted, gasping for air, "why do you think it’s been disguised for so long?"

Samus threw him to the ground in disgust, where he landed beside the blazing trash can. Propping himself up with his elbows, he looked at her defiantly.

Samus removed her helmet, and Levine gasped. "Your government has destroyed an entire species. How can anyone live with that?"

"We have done it many times before, and we will do it again. When a species is of danger to our operation, or no longer beneficial to it, we will order it’s extermination. It’s how we conduct our business. Besides, we hire the hunters to do it, they will do anything for money…" A disgusting smile crept across Levine’s face.*

"You make me sick!" She cried, kicking him with her titanium toe.

He looked up at her, clutching his side, "You will never be able to expose us. Our secrets are so far buried into the system that they can never be extracted. Those computer files, these stacks of paper, they mean nothing. As long as we secure the sanctuary of the people, as long as they know they are safe from day to day on their way to their pristine office jobs, as long as they know that their money, their property, and their livelihood is secure from one day to the next, we are untouchable. They don’t care who has suffered before them. They don’t want to believe you. It’s their way of life!"

For an instant, she thought about ending his miserable life then and there. But this would solve nothing, he would just be another casualty of war. Where can one start? If she killed him, she would have to kill the man who gave him his orders, then she would have to kill the executives, the senators, the heads of big business… the people. Would it ever end? How could one uproot a system which was so deeply ingrained, so intertwined that a starting or ending point could not possibly be identified? She needed an answer and she needed it fast.

Chapter 025
The Right Path

“You’re coming with me!” Samus said, grabbing Levine roughly by the arm and half-dragging, half throwing him down the hallway. She left him next to a generator tube and warned him, kneeling close to his face so his reflection would be staring horror-filled back at him through her visor, “You move, and I’ll kill you.” He may still be of use, but she wasn’t about to let him compromise her situation.

She had a good idea of how to stop GFed, but she had to do it someplace else. She didn’t have the right stuff in here.

Samus ran to the weapons storage locker and kicked off the seal. A row of jet-black pulse rifles scattered over the floor. She picked one up off of the gun rack and vaporized the rest. If her arm cannon wasn’t going to take out the tanks, perhaps an anti-bomber weapon would.

That’s odd. There was a grappling line of some sort hooked up to the rifle’s stock. Why the hell would they put THIS here? Dismissing the thought, she ran back over to Levine.

She found him sitting where she had left him, bruised and battered on the wall of the concrete bunker. “Get up.”

It really wouldn’t matter if he did or not; she’d just lift him up anyway. Fortunately, he complied, and quickly kept up with Samus as she skirted down the hallway, past rows and rows of servo suits which glared silently from their neat and orderly battle lines like suits of armor in a grand castle.

There HAD to be a way out. Then she saw it. A shuttle bay lay about 300 meters down the hallway. There was bound to be something in there she could use to escape.

Gunfire arced down from behind her, dancing across the concrete floor of the bunker and splashing off the walls as it dispersed in bright orange hues. Samus turned and took a few potshots at her attackers which ducked behind any cover they could find or were hit, their charred remains sizzling silently on the blue concrete.

This wasn’t working. She had to find a way to get out of here without killing too many people. After all, most of them were probably forced into the service and didn’t have the beliefs in the system that Levine had. Samus turned again, this time firing the antibomber weapon. A small projectile launched out followed by a thin tail of light-blue smoke. It emitted an eerie whizzing sound before hitting the floor of the bunker, showering the hallway with debris, smoke, and flames. Just what she needed

Grabbing Levine roughly by his arm, she ran down the hallway as stray laser blasts skidded across the floor, leaving carbon traces and smoldering rock. Just as they were about to make it to one of the shuttles, a large greenish force field materialized in front of them. A couple of stray laser blasts hit the netting, and were absorbed into the field.

Shit.

“They’ve turned on the landing cords, Samus,” Levine said with a leery grin between broken lips. “You won’t be able to get through! You’re stuck, Samus!”

“Shut up!”

“You’re stuck! You can’t get through!”

“Shut up or I’ll kick you where it hurts!”

“Why should I care? All I have to do is jump into this netting, and I’m fried! I’m not good to you anymore, Samus! You’ve lost!”

“I said SHUT UP!” she raised her servo-suited boot to kick him in the balls, sending him off the ground. He turned sick and slumped to the ground two feet away.

Gotta find a way through. Gotta find a way through...

This netting had to have a weakness or a hole she could glimb through. They couldn’t possibly fill the entire docking bay with one of these!

There! Towards the ceiling, there was a hole in the netting where some cranes had been hooked up. Their delicate servo equipment wouldn’t be of any use after they had been reduced to a mass of molten metal. But how to get up....she couldn’t jump to the top. Couldn’t blast her way through. How?

Then, it hit her. The anti-bomber rifle had a grappling hook attached to it. She could grapple onto the crane and swing over! She ducked down under a low-flying laser blast and picked up Levine with her gun arm, setting him in the crook of her arm. With her right arm, she aimed, and fired.

· · ·

The sharpshooter cut his way through the top level of the shuttle bay, carefully picking past the storage crates and gear stowed away. He had to be careful, or the intruder might notice. He had seen what she could do, and she was dangerous. Her suit could absorb almost any type of laser blast - for a time. Now, she was weak enough to be picked off.

He took position behind a large crate of spice, probably confiscated from somewhere. He lowered his sniper rifle, feeling its shiny metal through gloved hands, becoming one with the weapon. He would have to put all his power into the shot to make it hit hard enough and in the right spot. He unlocked the safety and pushed up the infrared scope, sending a beam invisible to anyone except him, right onto the neck of the intruder.

Taking a deep breath in, he squeezed on the trigger...

The sharpshooter’s finger never applied enough pressure to fire off that fatal shot. The last thing he felt was an odd, icy sensation through his chest. Looking down, he saw a strangely shaped spike protruding from his chest with bits of pink and red stuck to the sides. He couldn’t remember seeing anything like that there before...

Khan put a taloned foot on the back of the dead human, pulling on the fighting pike which ripped out of the man’s back, leaving long strands of lung and muscle. He collapsed the pike, and they flew out in a thin spray. No one was going to kill Samus but him. She was his bounty. He must kill the human and receive his pay.

It was the way of the hunt, the way of the hunter. All that was in between was the thrill of the hunt. As far as Khan was concerned, this hunt was far from over.

Retracting the claws on his arms, he grabbed hold of the ceiling, embedding his talons into the solid concrete, and began to climb, hand over hand. Yes, the fun was just beginning.

Chapter 026
Interlude Between A Rock and a Hard Place

“Our secrets are so far buried into the system that they can never be extracted.”

“I will find a way. I must find a way. But I can’t kill the people running the system. Too many innocents will die!”

“As long as we secure the sanctuary of the people, as long as they know they are safe from day to day on their way to their pristine office jobs, as long as they know that their money, their property, and their livelihood is secure from one day to the next, we are untouchable.”

“Then the people must think they are no longer safe. The must feel terror and anarchy and know that they cannot be protected by you! When no one believes in the system, it will fail!”

“They don’t want to believe you. It’s their way of life!"

“They’ve got to believe! Their ways must change!”

“They won’t believe! You’re stuck, Samus! You’ve lost!”

“NO! The people must no longer believe in you! They must learn that the enemy is within their own government, that YOU are the enemy!”

“They don’t believe you, Samus! THEY’RE AFRAID OF YOU!”

“Fear...”

“You can’t win, Samus.”

“Daddy...I’m afraid...”

“You’ve LOST!”

“NEVER! I will never give up! I will keep on fighting until the people no longer believe in your ways, until the people realize what you’ve done to them!”

“They will know. They cannot run from the truth. They will see. And they will learn.”

The Chozo...

Chapter 027
The Hard Place by nameless

"I know what to do. I know what must be done."

Then do it.

· · ·

Samus snapped out of her daydream.

"WATCH AND LEARN..."

The program! That’s it!

Her feet dangled only inches above the netting. She could hear the violent hum of the energy arcing through the thin

air. Laser blasts ripped past her, some dispersing on the netting, others exploding on the steel rafters above. Looking

up, she grabbed onto one of the trusses of the ceiling and simultaneously released the grappling hook. Now she

dangled freely, any false move and her titanium suit would be cut in half, and she and Levine with it. She grabbed

another truss and swung herself away from the netting. She continued this for a period of time until she was sure that

she was clear of the safety netting.

"Don’t let me fall Samus!" Levine screamed.

She let herself drop and Levine screamed even louder. Landing safely on the floor, Samus let Levine down where he

collapsed on the ground in fear.

"What’s the best way out of here?"

"Well, the only way out is through the loading bay doors, but they are most certainly guarded."

‘We’ll just have to take that chance. C’mon."

· · ·

A razor like talon imbedded itself into the sheer iron of the ceiling. Khan propelled himself along with ease, pulling his

body across the steel rafters with as much difficulty as if he were crawling on the floor. Another claw cut into the

metal, holding it’s owner hundreds of feet above the floor. He took a deep breath allowing the air to flow through the

holes in his beak, the smell of charred metal and concrete filled his nostrils. He looked across the ceiling and to him it

was the floor. Soldiers ran frantically around high above him, they seemed to be attached to the concrete by some

sort of impossible force. He heard a voice call out.

"Hey look, there on the ceiling! That’s one of them isn’t it!?!"

He was answered by a barrage of laser fire, blasts raining down on Khan like a storm of fire. Khan grabbed a truss

with the claws of his back feet and let himself fall so he was dangling upside down from the roof. Withdrawing his pike

he let out a terrifying scream that filled the ears of his attackers. They scrambled in all directions but not in time to

escape the devastating energy blast that followed. He raised the pike high above his head pointing it directly down at

the floor and released several massive blasts, which struck the floor creating a shock wave that most certainly took

out all in its path. Pleased, he placed the collapsed staff back onto his belt and continued across the ceiling in

anticipation of the hunt.

· · ·

"Amazing." Samus cried out. "It’s like some sort of virus."

She looked at the code before her. It was attached to one of the files of her weapons cataloguing database. "It must’ve

entered my system when I was viewing it at the city."

"What is it!" Levine inquired.

"It’s what’s gonna bring your government down, that’s what it is."

She studied the code, it was seemingly a highly compressed pseudo-program which behaved as a computer virus.

Scanning through other files, she found that it was attached to those as well. It quickly reproduced itself moving from

one file to the next, silently spreading it’s information but causing no damage.

"Lucky my suit’s virus protection program caught it. If I hadn’t accessed my wepons database I probably would never

have found it." She attempted to open one of the files, and the images ripped through her mind once again, telling the

story of a thousand years in less than a second.

"This should be easy to deploy through the standard VR systems. Come here." She removed her helmet and placed it

on Levine’s head. He stumbled trying to hold up it’s weight. "Open the file labeled wepcat.dbs."

Green light shot out from the base of the helmet, bathing the rest of Levine’s body in a green glow. He pulled the

helmet off and pushed it into Samus’ hands.

"I had no idea," He cried and fell to the floor weeping. "I had no idea!"

"C’mon, Levine, let’s go. We’ve gotta get out of here before they catch up to us."

Just then she heard a distant scream. It wasn’t a scream of terror, but of rage. She had heard it before and she knew

what it was. A chill ran up her spine. Then she felt a rumble, as if a bomb was set off in the warehouse.

"He’s here," She said, "and I will have to fight him."

Chapter 028
The Rock

The Torizo hit the ground, sending a shockwave in all directions, making Samus stumble, and Levine loose his balance. In one fluid motion, Khan pulled the fighting pike out of his cloak and expanded it, focusing its power on Samus. He charged forward toward, swinging his pike forward as his mental energy was focused on the weapon’s power crystal, throwing out a beam of energy much like a pitcher throws a fast ball to hit and walk a batter.

Samus dodged, spin-jumping to the side as the energy blast hit the back wall of the shuttle bay, leaving a gaping hole in the three-foot-thick metal exposing charred rock underneath. Levine screamed and half-rolled, half-crawled towards cover as the battle raged on.

Before Samus hit the floor, she had already armed her missiles and launched. Three rockets burst out of her gun arm, replacing themselves with a new set as the suit readied the next volley. The missiles screamed forward and Khan ducked to avoid getting hit by one, then swung his pike in a swift one-two as both missiles impacted on opposite ends of the pike.

“Really, foolish human!” Khan gloated, jumping forward with foot-talons bared and fighting pike in attack stance. “Did you think your puny toys could stop me? This is coated with crystanium film!” He lunged at Samus, who sumersaulted backwards in a spin jump. When she hit the ground, she had her anti-bomber rifle lowered and the safety unlocked. She fired at the Torizo, sending a pulse of energy towards the bird of prey. She hardly felt the recoil which she was assured would have knocked any normal human over backwards. So that’s what the grappling hook is for!

The Torizo couldn’t move fast enough to dodge the laser blast and was hit in the right shoulder as the unharnessed beam of energy coursed through his bones. Using the blast’s momentum, he pushed his pike into the ground and sumersaulted backwards, then kicked off a nearby loading crate.

Before Samus could react, Khan had brought the other end of his staff up in a swift stroke which not only severed her anti-bomber rifle in two but also slashed over her chest armor. Cursing, she thrust the broken end of the gun forward and into the Torizo’s face with her regular arm, then thrust her gun arm into his stomach, unloading her next set of missiles into the bird’s abdomen.

Khan screamed and bit down-hard. His beak sheared right through the puny gunmetal and into Samus’ hand, making her pull back in agony. He stuck his fighting pike into the ground and pushed off, leg-swiping his prey off her feet. She hit the floor with a sickening thud as servos struggled to keep up with the pace. Carrying his momentum forward, Khan pulled his staff out of the concrete and thrust it down towards Samus who quickly rolled aside to avoid the killing blow.

She saw the bird fly over her head and kicked upward with her titanium leg, hitting Khan in mid-flight. Simultaneously, she pushed up with her arms and back-flipped onto her feet. The Torizo regained his footing and rolled to his feet, narrowly avoiding a follow-up missile blast.

This wasn’t working. She was taking serious damage while her opponent had taken little more than a scratch! She needed a distraciton. Samus flicked on the controls of her helmet with her tongue and tried to get to the file that would summon her ship.

“Impressive. It has been awhile before I fought a hunter with such SKILL!” The Torizo charged forward, using his words as a distraction of his own. Samus rolled and jumped up as Khan sailed above her and twisted to bring the pike down towards the struggling human.

Khan was suddenly jerked down to the ground as Samus grabbed hold of the fighting pike with her mangled hand and kicked as hard as she could into the Torizo’s stomach and lowered her arm cannon to paste him with a few more shots.

Khan pulled back, tearing bits of armor off of Samus’ hand, but she stayed firm, either because her hand had cramped up or because she was stubborn. It didn’t matter...he focused his thoughts into the pike and charged up for another shot.

Levine looked back and saw Samus and the renegade bounty hunter exchange blows; two dancers in a deadly ballet. The girl was an excellent fighter. She dodged most of the powerful attacks and was able to pull off a few potshots at the bird in the process...but she wasn’t good enough. It was easy to see that Samus was losing ground and couldn’t keep this up for long. He had to help her. He had taken part in an operation that had helped destroy the Torizo’s peaceful cousins to promote the warrior tribe’s growth. He had to right what he had done.

Levine pulled out a hidden transmitter from his belt and flipped on the switch, narrowly dodging a burst of stray shrapnel. “This is Levine! I need a fighter squad down here in the shuttle bay! Don’t ask why, just give me one!”

Samus could feel the energy surging through the Torizo fighting staff as Khan concentrated on the power crystal. Even though she was holding onto the staff, she could tell that the energy blast would tear her arm off. Leaving the holofile monitoring her Starship open, she brought her foot down on the Torizo’s armorless talons. He shrieked in pain and punched Samus in the helmet, sending her reeling, arm still in contact with the pike.

An alarm went off in her helmet. It wasn’t the low, droning beeping that accompanied her when her suit was failing, but another, different alarm: her ship was under attack.

There was no way she could fight two battles at once!

Chapter 029
Cry of the Eagle by nameless

"FedCom calling unidentified ship. Please state your cargo and destination."

There was no answer. The Federation Command pilot turned to his partner.

"The ship appears not to be responding. What should we do?"

"It looks like it's heading for Tal'Alma. We can't risk an infiltration at this time. Let's take it down."

"FedCom calling unidentified ship. This is your last chance. If you do not identify yourself we will open fire!"

The red and yellow space craft sped steadily on, two G-Fed cruisers tailing closely behind.

"The pilot toggled his communication unit. "Assume attack position."

The bombers pinwheeled through the air, flipping wing over wing, taking opposite positions of either side of the unspoken craft.

"Fire when ready!"

Simultaneously the two bombers deployed several missiles. They weren't your ordinary missiles however, these were Scout9 anti-air craft shells designed to penetrate the hull of even the most well armored battle cruisers. So it came as somewhat of a surprise when the missiles exploded on the outside of the ship's hull leaving little damage.

"She appears to be heavily shielded."

Just then, the ship drew up, flying high above the bombers. For a moment they lost sight of it but then it reappeared in their field of vision far below them. It seemed to be heading for the lower atmosphere and was dropping altitude fast.

"It seems to be taking evasive maneuvers. Whoever’s piloting that thing knows their stuff."

The two bombers dived after it like a sea bird after a fish.

· · ·

It was difficult to remotely fly a space craft while staving off blows from an angry Torizo, but somehow Samus managed to do it. The holo-image flickered as Khan slammed Samus' body against a steel support member. The furious Torizo grabbed Samus by the neck and raised her and the 700 pound suit off the ground.

"You must be a fool. I thought I had underestimated you, but perhaps you are not as skilled as I was led to believe!"

The ship would have to wait. Samus toggled the auto-pilot and activated the evasive maneuvering sequence.

"Maybe you are more perceptive than you give yourself credit for!" Samus raged as she headbutted Khan in the skull while at the same time thrusting an arm cannon into his feathered abdomen. Khan looked up at her, but only for a second because Samus opened up another round of missiles into Khan at point blank. The explosions sent Khan flying through the air, a feat that had long been stripped from his species by evolution. He landed on a stack of wooden boxes sending splinters flying in all directions. Three successive clicks could be heard as the cannon readied another clip of missiles for speedy deployment.

Samus walked over to the crates. There was no movement. Could she have actually killed a Torizo in hand to hand combat? No such luck. Samus felt something strike her abdomen. She looked down to see a large post jutting out of the mound of packing material. She looked further up the post to see that the blade was not visible. It had been driven through her armor and into her stomach. She let out a gasp and dropped to her knees.

Khan rose up from his covering, bits of material rolling off of his shoulders. "What do you have to say for yourself now…Chozo girl?" And with that he hefted the pike above his head catapulting Samus behind him. She, and 700 pounds of titanium flew high into the air and came down with a crash on the other side of a stack of crates.

Khan brought the blade of his pike up to his face. He ran his claw up the side of it and then sucked the dark red blood from his feathered talon. He smiled, as best as a bird can smile. He had finally captured his prey.

· · ·

Samus lay on the ground, her stomach felt warm and sticky. Could this be it? Could this be the destiny that she had come to seek?... No! She wouldn't let herself go that easily. She rolled over on her back and looked around. Behind her there was a door and a sign reading Caution: Servo Testing Area. Heavy equipment in use. Then she remembered something the bounty hunter recruiter had told her. Something about suit specs...

· · ·

Khan walked around to the other side of the crates, and saw the twisted figure of his enemy lying on the ground. He walked up to it and stared into the green visor. "Look at me." He mocked. "Look upon this beaked face, for I want this to be the last image that you see before you die. I want you to see the plight of your ancestors!"

The figure reached up with a weak hand and gently grasped Khan's foot. "Silly human, your kind are all the same. You always expect your slayer to grant you mercy. Pathetic!" and he scooped his pike upward slamming the end of it into the helmet. The suit flew up, and landed on it's back. The figure then planted it's hands firmly on the ground and rose itself to it's feet. Khan looked in amazement. He had driven his pike deeply into his preys stomach, certainly a weak point for that species, yet the human stood there before him. Before he could react, it lifted a gun arm and fired a round of missiles at Khan. He attempted to block, but one of the missiles struck him in the talon knocking the pike and incidentally is hand to the floor. Khan screamed in pain. The figure marched over to him, and Khan quickly picked up the pike with his remaining claw. It swung a green gun arm and hit Khan squarely in the jaw, but he retaliated by bringing the blade of his pike squarely into the shoulder of his attacker. The massive figure lurched backward, the damaged servos angrily twisting and grinding in their housing. Khan concentrated on the crystal. With the powers of his mind, he released a tremendous blast from the staff which ripped through the armor of his attacker severing the arm completely off.

The body fell to the floor, and the arm skidded several feet away.

"You are tougher than I thought... but apparently not tough enough." He said, kneeling over the now lifeless body. The evil smile on his face quickly turned to a confused frown when he realized than no blood flowed from the arm socket.

"What? This cannot be!" He remembered the old Torizo teachings. Beware the one who shows no blood, for no death shall be brought to them.

He took the blade of his pike and pried the helmet off. In horror, it was empty!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He cried.

A voice. "Auto destruct sequence activated. Evacuate suit immediately."

The last thing he saw was a suited Samus sitting on the floor between several boxes, she was holding something, it looked sort of like a remote control...

Chapter 030
Flight of Eagles by CapCom

Samus watched at Khan long enough to see his expression as the suit's internal auto-destruct sequence was initiated and executed. The bird of prey was blasted backward by the explosion and into the green docking netting which greedily swallowed the Torizo whole in a bright flash of white and red. A little bit of overkill, but then again, you could never be too sure. Clutching her side, she got up and made her way to where Levine was standing, accessing not only her suit's damage control display, but also the status of her Starship.

The suit was being repaired with the energy that had been left behind by Khan, and its internal medical systems were quickly moving to close up the wound in her stomach. Still, with every stride she took, knives of pain streaked up her side. She put her leg on manual and staggered over to Levine.

Her ship, however, was not fairing as well. Its shields had been severely damaged by the first barrage of Scout9s and the generators were working at full capacity. Even though her craft had been equipped with high-density N48 shield generators, they were known to easily overload when brought under too much duress. That was why she had an emergency generator hooked up to the ship which would activate if the shields took too much of a beating. That generator was also on its last legs. She needed to take out those fighters, and she needed to do it fast.

Samus activated manual control and corkscrewed the Starship down into the atmosphere at a 90-degree angle to the ground. She pulled up the weapons display panel and powered up the forward missile tubes and heated up the laser cannons. The suit's alarms went haywire as another barrage of missiles was sent screaming outwards. Samus dropped a couple of countermeasure charges and cut forward thrust. She hit the maneuvering thrusters, rocketing her ship upwards, then hit full burn rolling the ship's axis upside-down from its current position.

The ship's engines cut, and she fired both the maneuvering thrusters again and the rear thrusters, breaking the Starship and moving it diagonally backwards. The structural integrity meter went in the red and a new alarm went off. As soon as she saw the missiles collide with the countermeasures or fly off-course, Samus fired navigational thrusters and brought the three bandits into her viewport. Now get ready for the light show.

Greeve Hudane turned his gaze towards the holoHUD's display of the rogue Starship. "Reading weapons output from target. Looks like she's powering up her forward weapons."

Switch to SWARMs. I want that thing outta my sky. Squad leader Daniel McKay's voice was harsh and scratchy over the fighter's com system, and Hudane tapped his helmet radio and set it to automatic tuning. Simultaneously, he toggled his weapons over to SWARM and flooded the tubes with charged iodine gas.

A holo crosshair blipped onto the canopy and began tracking the Starship. He then flicked the safety catch off the control stick and placed his thumb into position over the launcher.

It didn't take long for the SWARMs to lock on and immediately after he got a firing solution, Hudane punched the missile launcher and a swarm of missiles streaked out from under his fighter's wing. "It's away!" There was a slight vibration through the fighter's hull as a second wave of missiles was locked into position. Three other missile clusters swarmed out from behind him as they too locked onto the yellow Starship and rushed at it like a cloud of angry hornets.

The fleeing ship launched countermeasures, it pulled off to the side, then back again in a zigzagging pattern. "Dammit!" Hudane had barely enough time to hit his maneuvering thrusters as the Starship slowed down to zero and the fighter wing rocketed out in front of it. An alarm sounded inside his ship as three fast-tracking missiles launched and their sniffers picked up the scent of his ion trail. He had to hand it to the pilot of that ship. Whoever it was had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Fortunately, Hudane had a few tricks of his own and quickly dropped chaffing flares and corkscrewed deeper into the atmosphere, then leveled off and bounced off of the air bubble. He used the rebound to roll up and in front of the Starship, then let loose a blind stream of missiles at the target and opened fire with a few laser blasts before braking up over the top of the incoming

craft.

Hudane glanced at his holo display long enough to know that his wingman's ship

was going down. The damage schematics of Pike's fighter was well into the danger zone; it was literally falling apart at the seams.

“Eject!”

Ejection system is damaged!

“Then bail out manually!”

Give me some cover!

That wasn’t Pike. That was his wing commander, McKay. The Starship was bearing down on him and pummeling his ship with all assortments of beams. McKay was good, but he couldn’t shake it.

Hudane quickly toggled back over to Pike’s ship to see how he was doing. A missile had locked onto him and any serious maneuvers would tear his ship to pieces. He could only watch as the holo image of Pike’s fighter skidded off the planet’s atmosphere. The ship fell apart like a toy plane, bits of fuselage and wings ballooning outwards as the fighter’s reactor went critical. He couldn’t make out Pike in the debris field.

Dammit, Greeves! Give me some help here!

Hudane turned his fighter to bear down on the rogue Starship, but was too late. The yellow demon unleashed a cluster of rockets. McKay’s auto-ejection system kicked in, and the nose of his ship broke off and rocketed away. There was a tone as the Starship locked onto Hudane’s fighter and bore down on him like a hungry Rhylian Dragon.

Slightly panicked, Hudane checked the location of the GFed cruisers. They were too far away to do much. The closest target would be ground support from the planetary air defense base. Without a second thought, he turned his ship towards the brilliant blue planet below him and hit full burn.

Chapter 031
Hello Mr. Aran by nameless

Chairman Kimball was not pleased. He had received the report earlier that morning and had spent most of the afternoon making calls and barking orders to his underlings. Something was about to go down and he wasn't quite sure what it was. Nevertheless, he had gone to great lengths to secure his establishments. Afternoon was approaching, and he looked out of the window of his office building to see the great green light of the spire tower begin to make it’s routine sweep of western Tal’Alma. The verdant light gradually made it’s way across the many buildings and city streets, scanning every surface, ensuring that all was normal and that all was safe. Mr. Kimball rotated his chair nervously from side to side. Presently, he received a message over his comm unit.

"Talk to me!" He yelled into the speaker as he pushed the small red button.

"Mr. Kimball sir, I have an update on the status of the security breach."

"Go ahead…"

"It appears that the intruder is one of ours sir. A hostage has been taken as well."

"Is it a civilian?"

"No, sir, he’s one of ours. We received a distress signal at around 02:00 sir. It was officer 3497, citizen name Andross, Levine. He requested a security team."

"Do you have an identification on the intruder?"

"We have a citizen name but the computer won’t give us an agent number. Must be a recruit. The name’s Aran sir."

"Well, get me this Aran. I want him alive. I want to know how he found out about the… program."

"Yes sir, I’ll have a team sent immediately."

The chairman gently leaned his seat back and placed his hand behind his head. Something was not right. The special forces agent had not reported in for days and the intruder had successfully and forcefully entered the spire tower and taken over weapons ops. He must have been a very skilled soldier indeed. And why would the hostage have asked for a security team without first detailing the situation? Furthermore, four of federation command’s best fighter pilots had been bested by a single unidentified space craft. Something was definitely amiss, and he was sure this Mr. Aran was behind the entire thing.

· · ·

The fighters were retreating. Samus punched in her location and set the ship to auto pilot.

Levine said, "That looks bad, Samus." A droplet of blood had made it’s way through the internal padding and external armor and was now trickling cautiously down her suit’s abdominal section.

"Don’t worry about it. Levine, some major stuff is about to go down here. You can stay if you want, but I’ll no longer keep you. I trust you will do what is right."

He looked at her, "Call me Lev."

"Excuse me?" Samus said, puzzled at his response.

"That’s what all my friends call me. I’m in. I can help you access the main frame if you need to."

She smiled. "Hey, you’re one step ahead of me. Thank you… Lev."

Samus tried to step forward but sharp pain shot through her abdomen and upper legs. She gasped, "Damn, the wound’s too deep for the med system to repair. It doesn’t have anything to stitch together. Help me out."

She limped over to a large crate and lay down on her back. "Open abdominal section," she commanded the computer. The yellow abdomen of her suit split open with a pneumatic hiss and revealed Samus’ bare stomach. There was a thick red incision in her right side from which blood gushed slowly. It was too deep to clot but it bled very slowly.

"Levine… look at it," she said.

"Ok"

"Where is it," she gasped, "how far down is it," she inquired clenching her teeth. She was starting to come out of shock and the pain was intense.

"It’s about six or seven inches below your rib cage, just about in line with your belly button."

"Oh, thank god!" she cried in relief. It had not penetrated her liver, she would live.

"Ok, help me out of this suit." She leaned up and placed her fingers around the gash. It produced a small trickle of blood.

"Ok," she said, pulling out a few pieces of her long brown hair. "Take that pin off of your name tag."

She threaded the hair through the loop and stitched the wound together, boot lace style.

"You’re one tough girl," Levine said.

"Well, if you’ve been living in the wilderness for as long as I have, you kind of get used to these things." She cut and tied the end of the hair strand, leaving a neat clean stitch.

"No, I meant this whole thing. I would have never expected that a… well you know."

"What? A woman?"

"Well, I’m just saying that I’m impressed." He said, trying to avoid embarrassment.

"Let’s get out of here," she said, climbing back into the suit. The abdomen and chest cavity snapped shut encasing

her in a protective shell.

"Levine, no one must know about this, about me. Do I have your word?"

"I understand, Samus. You have my word."

She placed the helmet back on her head. There she was safe. Injury she could risk, but detection she could not. Inside that suit she was hidden from the world, her features masked, her identity concealed. She decided at that very moment that if she were to become a mercenary, that no one must ever learn her origins, or her gender. If she were to be taken seriously she would have to remain an enigma. Only when she could prove herself as a true warrior would she reveal her real identity to the world. Only then could she gain her place in the universe. She remembered something her master had told her long ago. Surprise is a virtue. The great warrior is one who has truly mastered it’s art. She would wait for the perfect moment, her moment of glory, then she would take the entire galaxy by surprise.

Chapter 032
Domino Effect by CapCom

The security team ran double time down the narrow corridors of the Spire Tower’s basement level, their slick black boots echoing off the concrete bunker walls. Their green uniforms blended in with the thin rays of green light cascading down the stairway into the bowels of the installation and the heavy riot gear they wore clinked as metal and lead collided. Each carried a crysteel blastshield thin enough to see through, yet strong enough to repel almost any attack.

Yellow caution signs lined the walls, giving off a pale glow in the emergency lighting of the lower levels eminating from large red alarm lights. A dull klaxon echoed and reverberated through the building.

The team went double, kicking aside loose bits of debris from the previous battle, strangely silent as they ran past rows and rows of servo suits that lined the wall like suits of armor, their empty visors staring into nothingness.

Farther ahead, a thick black door covered with carbon film with a sign marked

HIGH SECURITY AREA

It was shattered by a kick from the squad leader who stopped to wave the rest of the team inside the room. He wouldn’t have cared less if it carried the seal of High Chairman Keaton. Aran would be found; found, and terminated.

· · ·

Hudane punched his control stick up, urging the fighter to level off as he entered the planet’s atmosphere. He felt a slight shock run up his arm and into his shoulder as another blast rocked the ship as nearby ozone in the atmosphere detonated, short circuiting several non-critical systems. Even so, his ship was slowly falling apart beneath him and the demon fighter was still tailing.

Quickly, he punched in the command for a distress beacon while at the same time, flooding his exhaust system with ionized iodine gas. That should screw up the guy’s nav system. Hudane opened up a channel to the Tal’Alma military airstrip beneath the Spire Tower, requesting emergency clearance for landing.

No answer.

He tried again, on all channels, hoping for some sort of response, but everything was dead. That was strange, there was always somebody at work in the air traffic control tower, and if there wasn’t the automated controller would activate. He punched the controls with a gloved fist, urging it to respond. Something came through this time, but not what he wanted to hear.

This is the Spire Tower. Permission denied. We cannot risk airspace infiltration. You are ordered to stand down or prepare to be fired upon.

All Hudane could muster up was one simple phrase. “Oh shit.”

· · ·

Levine was hacking feverishly into a nearby computer terminal, bypassing fire walls and security barriers as he desperately tried to hack into the mainframe. He had to relay all communication systems to his temrinal if this was going to work. Entering his passcode into the computer, he paused at the error message on the screen.

“Uh-oh. Samus, it’s not accepting my ID number and passcode! They’ve locked me out!” Levine slammed the palm of his hand onto the monitor.

“Damn. Can you try other codes?” Samus replied, shaking her head as she leaned on a large crate, hand over her wound.

“Yes, but that’ll take some time. I have security clearance up to level six, but wasn’t allowed access to any higher files. The mainframe is level nine, and you can only reroute all systems with level ten.”

“And who’s got level ten clearance?”

“Chairman Kimball.”

“Give me a second.” Samus stepped in front of Levine, and flicked off the top of her suit’s glove covering her little finger. A small computer jack opened up, neurofibers blinking dully. She inserted the jack into the terminal’s nearby link and opened up a file in her helmet’s computer giving her access to various hacking programs. It’d take her awhile to find the right file that would let her bypass the security systems and give her access to the com terminal, but she could do it.

“Samus, what are you doing?” Levine said.

A small screen opened up on the monitor showing security troops entering a corridor. They silently walked up to a large green barrier. In fact, it looked familiar. She turned her head to the side and saw a squad of twenty taking positions behind crates. Suddenly, they opened fire, rapid blasts of energy coursing across the docking bay and into the energy shield as they slowly but surely drilled their way into it.

“Lev, we’ve got company.”

Chapter 033
Imprisoned by Andy

Samus glanced over at the security team long enough to get a rough estimate of how much time they had. "Looks like we have about 10 minutes." she said to Levine while she keyed in a request for a more accurate time on the computer.

The computer bleeped and printed the time on the screen:

Samus shrugged. "Close enough."

A drop of sweat beaded and rolled down Levine's cheek. Absently, he brushed it away. "So how's it going now, Samus?" Levine asked nervously.

"Well, for such a big operation, their security seems a bit on the light side. All I've gotta do now is… Oh crap!"

"What? What is it?" Levine exclaimed frantically. He nervously craned his neck, trying to see over Samus' shoulder.

"I was afraid of this," Samus replied, slamming her fist on the table beside her in frustration. "They've activated a randomizer program. It randomizes the passwords, file directories, high and low level security protocols: everything!" Samus sighed. "…changes occur every few nanoseconds to top it off. This is VERY high tech stuff. There's no way we'll get through it with the hardware we have here."

Levine wilted visibly. He sputtered, "There's nothing we can do?" He turned and watched the security team relentlessly attack the shield. When he turned back to Samus there was a wild look in his eyes. "There has to be something we can do," he said softly. "If we are totally locked out we are trapped… We can't even open the bay doors."

"No, there's nothing we can….. except…." Samus trailed off into silence.

"What is it? Samus….?" Levine hurriedly shook her arm. "Samus??"

Samus snapped back to reality. She brushed Levine's arm away. "Stop it Levine!" she snapped as she gave him an irritated glance.

He backed away and slid into a chair, mumbling apologies as he went. Samus slumped against the wall and sighed as she held her side. "No, I'm sorry Lev… I've had a long day. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

Levine gave her a wry smile. "Nah, it's ok Samus. I understand. I work in a bureaucracy's office building, remember? Or at least I used to." He stared glumly over at the security team that was still pounding the energy shield. "Anyway, what were you saying before?"

Samus smiled. "Oh yeah. Luckily, my suit has a high speed data link to my space ship. I've just patched through to my hyperspace computer, and hopefully it can keep up with the randomizer. After all, it was made to solve billions of complex equations almost instantly." Samus turned towards Levine and smirked. "And, while the randomizer has to change hundreds of thousands of things, OUR computer only has to look for a few temporary passwords in the main memory banks."

Levine looked doubtful. "You sure about that Samus?"

"Nope." Samus replied. "But all we can do now is wait… and look for heavier weaponry of course. Unless I'm getting rusty, those security officers have crystanium shields."

With that, Samus started walking towards the weapons lockers.

Levine stood there for a second. "I could have told you that!" he yelled after Samus.

Samus turned her head back and looked at him. "Well, then, perhaps you'd better come and tell me what other things they have that you know about." She chuckled as she turned and resumed walking towards the lockers.

Chapter 034
Deliverance by nameless

Hudane hit his banking thrusters and panned the fighter to the right. His ship was coming apart fast and he needed to find a place to crash land. The battered G6 ejected a short jet of charged particles from its maneuvering engines forcing it to reluctantly change course, the phantom reflection of its scarred underbelly gently distorting as it passed by the crystal panels of the air traffic control tower. His plasma core was going critical and his shields would be down within a minute. But this is not what worried him. He anxiously watched the gauge monitoring his antimatter holding field. Slowly but surly the numbers dropped indicating a critical decline in field integrity.

"Shit," he thought. If the field were to fail and the antimatter escaped through the engine housing and into the cockpit, it would be all over.

"This is Hudane, officer 2229. Please transmit clearance codes on the double. Ship has sustained heavy damage and must land immediately!" He screamed into the transmitter, already frustrated with bureaucratic inefficiency.

There was as brief pause, and then, "This is your last chance to stand down. If you do not exit Tal’Alma airspace immediately, we will have no other choice but to take defensive measures."

"God damn it!!!" Hudane screamed, throwing the microphone against his control grid, small plastic fragments of it showering the keys.

The demon fighter slammed him with another blast and the damage alarms screamed loudly in his ears. The FedCom officer answered back by depressurizing his exhaust bay into the surrounding atmosphere. That would dust the rogue ship’s ram coolers and hopefully cause its core to overheat.

He scanned his sensors, he needed to get his ship out of the air as soon as possible, and he hoped that he would be the one to do it. Just then an alarm sounded indicating that the antimatter holding field had reached its critical low. He needed some power. With no other choice, Hudane threw the switch to the ion accelerator and rerouted the power from the fusion core to the holding field. The temperature gauge to the accelerator quickly dropped to zero. His thrusters were dead.

The orange fighter tailed him relentlessly, its sleek appearance complimenting the dull angular features of the G6. Occasionally, it would stab him with a charged photon beam in a carefully chosen spot, until it seemed the ship could no longer sustain it.

Reaching across the control panel, Hudane kicked the switch to the manual emergency maneuvering systems. The switch cracked as he pushed it up; it had never been used. He pulled back hard on his control stick and he could feel the ship vibrate as the wing flaps caught turbulence. That ship was gonna come down weather he liked it or not.

He watched his altimeter, its kinetic numbers quickly rising and dropping with each reverberation of the ship, but becoming perpetually lower as he plummeted towards the earth.

He checked his sensors. The rogue ship had broken off and was nowhere in sight. Had his trick worked? Maybe the pilot figured that his ship was done for.

Just then, a tone sounded accompanied by a flashing light on his control screen. Hudane’s desperation was lifted. "Thank you!" He yelled aloud. He examined the clearance coordinates, "Spire tower, bay 4." He thought for a moment, "why the hell would they want to land me in weapons ops?"

The fighter pilot slid the manual lateral leveler all the way down and he could feel his ship shudder as it skipped off of the air pockets. He was going to step land it, hopefully that would lighten the impact. The ship bounced off of the thick atmosphere like a ball bouncing down a flight of stairs. Hudane aimed his nose directly for the green obelisk in the distance. Occasionally, the top of a great sky scraper would whisk past his view port. Hudane released his hands from the control stick after he was sure that the auto pilot had accepted the clearance codes. The ship lurched as it dropped to the next air level. This was it. There was only one thing left to do. Slowly, Hudane brought his hands together and began to pray…

· · ·

Chapter 035
Deliverance (part 2) by nameless

The troops maintained their position, idle and determined. The laser blasts slowly drove their way into the green energy netting, some skipping sharply off of its surface, others transforming into small orange pools as the shield absorbed their full brunt.

Levine stood there, horrified. He had called that team. "Hurry Samus, toss me a weapon! They’ll be through soon!"

The filed began to violently flicker as it reached its maximum threshold. Finally, the buffers could no longer sustain the blasts and sparks shot violently from the walls as the field emitters short-circuited. The barrier between two worlds had vanished, and now the battle would truly begin.

Levine dived out of the way as a massive energy bolt vaporized a near by weapons case, showering his back with pulverized, molten glass.

The team advanced, systematically assuming positions as if they had been assigned to them long ago. Samus powered up her plasma beam. She watched as the troop leader brought three fingers to his nose, and then flicked them outward. Three troopers advanced forward, their blast shields protecting them from instant death. Samus determined that they were going to try to surround them. Her mind raced, there was nowhere left to run. She fired several futile blasts at the advancing troops, the hot plasma leaving carbon spots on the transparent blast shields.

"Samus! I think I can open the bay doors with the computer. I’ll need your helmet though so I can link with your ship. You hold them off while I connect with the system." She detached it and tossed it over to Levine. He stumbled as the massive hunk of titanium slammed him in the chest. Levine crawled over to the computer where it rested behind a cubicle. His fingers raced wildly across the keyboard, the clicking of the keys punctuated only by the occasional sound of automatic weapon fire. He brought up a menu:

Cargo Bay Doors: Specify number

4_

Restricted Access to Bay 4, override?

Y_

Enter security access password

Patching in the data link from the ship, he established an override protocol with the randomizer. After a few precarious seconds, the program produced several passwords. He typed in the first one that appeared.

gunner2475_

Incorrect Password, you have 2 more tries

1gunnero78_

Password accepted, security level 5 randomizer override ok?

Y_

Enter Action

OPNB4_

Operation in progress, thank you for using FedLink.

A massive rumbling began. The security team leader looked across the warehouse to see a thin vertical line of white light pierce through the spacious warehouse and begin to flood the room.

"Damnit! Who the hell authorized that!?! I thought we were under security alert."

Slowly but surely, the several tons of metal parted allowing the late afternoon sun to peek into the warehouse, an overseer of all, mediating and monitoring. Just then, the sun seemed to be blocked out by something, and a massive shadow appeared in the doorway.

"Levine, quick, throw me my helmet!" Levine hefted the dead weight to his partner, where it was received with all of the ease and grace of a professional athlete accepting a pass. Quickly Samus replaced the helmet and donned the weapons database for her ship.

"What the hell is that?" one of the squadron members inquired rhetorically seconds before realizing that it would be the cause of his death.

Just as the doors had opened wide enough to accept the wingspan of a crash landing GFed Bomber, a massive gray ship shot soundlessly through the impossible corridor. It sailed through the warehouse, its wings cutting through stacks of supplies and armaments, smashing titanium servo suits as one might crush a tin can.

"Levine! Get the hell out of the way!

They both dove in opposite directions taking cover behind stacks of boxes that would soon cover them. Levine looked up just in time to see the gray blur of a wing pass over his head, and then feel its wake pull piles of military supplies down on top of him. The troops, too, scattered like small ants after a thoughtless human kicked over their sand hill.

The G6 touched down, its smooth metal surface reacting violently with the rough warehouse concrete. Everyone in the warehouse held their hands to their ears as the screaming metal cut its way into the asphalt, sparks showering the entire span of the building and generating small fires from bits of packing material.

The raging hulk passed through the warehouse like a runaway train seemingly unaffected by any give obstacle. It slowly drifted towards the right wall as it made its cut, and upon contacting the steel supports of the warehouse’s skeletal structure, the ship broke from its smooth form and spun violently, shedding pieces of its wing and body as it ripped through the remaining length of the warehouse. It was then, that many of the troops realized that they would never leave that warehouse alive.

After what seemed like a millennium of destruction, the ship finally reached the security team’s front, reducing their numbers greatly as it passed through. But it passed on still until finally, it found a impediment which it could not defy: the rear safety netting. It slammed into the green field at a velocity nearly unchanged since its contact with the floor, and the warehouse was illuminated by a bright flash of light as the fighter’s shields reacted with the energy barrier. The ship bounced off and skidded to a halt in an odd corner, tipping down on its remaining wing as if it were a crutch for an injured soldier.

There was a brief moment of silence as if the entire warehouse had been engulfed in the eye of an apocalyptic storm, and then they saw it. In the doorway, as if a ghostly apparition had been summoned from the very bowels of the under world, the figure of a hunter ship lowered itself into the doorway. The sun seemed to be eclipsed by the looming hulk as it lowered itself into the light, a silver lining radiating outward from the dark beacon. The soldiers watched if for a moment as it hovered silently, its thrusters releasing a low murmur. Then suddenly, without warning, without thought, as if its state had remained unchanged, it released its wrath.

A massive ball of plasma shot its way through the warehouse vaporizing crates and boxes as it passed and exploded several feet behind the security team. Crates and men alike flew in all directions. Some of the team members who hadn’t been caught directly in the blast crawled away to safety as another blast slammed into the wall, causing piles of crates and weapons to collapse onto the cold concrete.

Samus thought it was a little overkill using anti-aircraft weaponry on ground troops, but it seemed to work. "C’mon Lev, let’s move!" Climbing out from under fragments of wood, cardboard, and packing materials, the two ran across the warehouse followed by the fire of the recovering survivors. Samus covered herself and her partner by replying with several bolts of plasma from her beam weapon, surely the men hadn’t held onto their blast shields after that! She took Levine under her arm and, ignoring the access ladder, jumped onto the top of her awaiting space craft. Opening the hatch, she dived in just in time to avoid being picked of by last-ditched laser fire.

Quickly and skillfully, the ship rotated 180 degrees and departed, its engines flooding the warehouse with hot, sparkling, ionized exhaust. The troops stood up, scratching their heads. The preceding events had happened so quickly that hey had not fully realized what had just occurred. The troop leader lowered his blast shield. He stared into the afternoon light and gritted his teeth, the sun had hidden itself behind a looming building. Aran had escaped.

The troops stood around him awaiting orders. Their organization had disintegrated, and now all that was left was chaos. The troop leader snapped some orders attempting to recall his control, but his mission had failed. "Move out!" he screamed, and the troops marched steadily back, picking past fallen boxes and kicking away debris as they went.

Chapter 036
Tal’eura Station by CapCom

The Starship lifted off with a lurch and flew out towards the bright blue sky, an orange dot amongst the clouds. Levine grabbed hold of a handrail to the left of Samus who was sitting on the cockpit’s chair, seemingly oblivious to his presence. “Where is the closest communications grid?” she said, almost in response, not bothering to turn to look at the ex-police officer.

“There’s a station orbiting Tal’alma’s moon, Tal’eura. What do we need a com grid for?” Levine said, puzzled.

“In order to transmit the computer virus to every planet in GFed, we need a com station large enough to transmit to the network. From there, it will spread like wildfire and infect every computer system in the quadrant. It’ll be a matter of time before GFed is shut down.”

“Won’t that start a civil war?”

Samus turned slightly. “Loyalists are only in key military and government positions. Most of the military only takes orders and they will not obey their commanding officers once they know of this. They don’t have any idea what they’re fighting for anymore. It will start a military coup. But first, there will be shock. We must act in that time frame to ensure all goes well and they don’t take control again.”

She turned back to her controls. “Does the station have any defenses?”

“None that I know of. The only thing is there’s a blockade around the planet. The Chairman must have sent for an entire squadron to block off the planet. Most are orbiting over Tal’alma’s northern hemisphere. We’ll have to either slip through or go around the blockade.”

“No problem.” Samus punched a few commands into the ship’s computer. With a shiver, the ship went stealth. “I’m logging in the station’s coordinates.”

· · ·

The hunter ship eased into the communications grid, a spindly station hovering over the dark side of Tal’eura. Navigation beacons flickered on and off in a steady rhythm and emergency lights glowed white into the night. Even though the station normally ran on automatic, it still looked like an abandoned hulk, dark and menacing.

Bright red lights ran down the four corners of the landing bay, starting near its edge and running inward in an endless loop. The hull of the Starship glowed eerily crimson in the dim lighting and was temporarily swallowed by the darkness whenever the landing lights switched positions. Silently, the craft lowered itself into the bay doors which slammed shut behind it like the jaws of some gigantic beast. No clang greeted them as they closed; the station wouldn’t flood it’s airlocks until the bay was completely sealed. There was a slight hiss and a message that the room was flooded with oxygen, and Samus pushed open the airlock and floated out into the darkness.

It took Levine a while to realize that the station lacked artificial gravity systems. It was only there for communications purposes and manned by artificial intelligence in the form of it’s main processor, NODE 300. NODE was an experimental system with a built-in personality matrix. It spent its long hours in stasis, flickering on for several nanoseconds every few seconds to maintain that the all was well. Repair and maintenance crews seldom visited the godforsaken station and no one had really paid much attention to it since its activation thirty years ago.

Levine had entered the code that would allow them access to the station without tripping any alarms and allow NODE to recognize them, but it was still black and ominous. The corridors glowed white where emergency lights dimly illuminated the path, but beyond that, it was pitch black. As he lifted himself out of the Starship’s hatch, Levine felt the spacecraft’s gravity system’s grip on him weaken and he floated off into the night. He shook his head, trying to overcome the effects of weightlessness, and almost lost his grip on the ship’s ladder.

“Hurry it up, Levine! We haven’t got all day!” Samus’ artificial voice rasped through the black towards him as if they had come from a disembodied presence. Levine shivered. God, he hated the dark.

“C-could you give me some light?”

There was a brief pause, and he was blinded by a bright torch that cut through the air like a lighthouse beacon from Samus’ gun arm. He could see her Power Suit’s features in the harsh light, a shade darker than on Tal’alma. She was holding onto a handrail leading along a corridor that stretched endlessly into the blackness. “You coming?”

Levine collected himself and floated off, cursing the galaxy for letting him get into this mess.

Chapter 037
Shadows in the Night by nameless

A dark figure stood high on a bluff and watched the battered spacecraft trudge swiftly across the dim skyline. It breathed softly through two puncture holes in a smooth featureless face. He lifted a pair of night vision binoculars with two deformed appendages to his dark visage, it's dull features blending with the night. The orange spacecraft shone brightly against the looming clouds which still glowed slightly as if they were coals in a dying fire. The Shadow had misjudged the girl, she was much stronger than he had originally believed. Could it be possible that this girl, this weak human would be the one who would liberate his soul after all? Could she be the one to relieve him of his eternal suffering? No, redemption was not possible, he had slipped too deeply into the shadows to ever foster a hope of escape. All he could do now was to influence the progression of things. That is all he could ever do.

He checked the coordinates of the craft. He could easily track their every move with the homing beacon that he had attached to Samus' ship during her recon mission. They were heading towards Tal'eura. This disturbed the Shadow. If they were planning to do what he feared, the wrong people could be implicated. This was not the doing of a collective mind, but the result of a mutiny within. In his years of dealing with galactic governments, the Shadow had learned that corruptness never saturated the whole. Always present yet effecting few, it was like a light rain, which would pool up only in the lowest and darkest of places. Such a place was the Tal’Alma colonies.

Only the right people must be punished for this.

Slowly, the shadow replaced his night vision goggles, and stepped away from the cliff's edge, and as if the darkness itself had swallowed him whole, he was gone. A light breeze began to blow as if the stagnant air were moving in to fill the void created by his departure.

· · ·

It was a beautiful sunset. The light rested gently on the horizon as if a rainbow had been turned on it side and placed there by some experimenting god. First came the dark blood red, and then the rich coppers and bold yellows. They extended upward as light tan transformed to turquoise and teal. Finally as they reached into the heavens the patriotic blues and navies faded into black, the absence of all color. Another day had ended in Tal'Alma and the weary sun welcomed its brother, the night, it's many tiny eyes watching over all wile it's companion regenerated itself for another cycle of its eternal journey. Tal'Alma slept in safety, or at least under a shadow of the safety it once had.

Chairman Kimball watched the last fragments of the day fade into the horizon, it's light never to be seen again by another man. After a brief reverie, he turned himself back to the task at hand.

"So you were saying, Mr. Chairman..."

"Yes. We must not allow Aran to escape the quadrant. Have you received an update on the ship's heading?"

"No sir, we lost all locales on the ship once it left the Tal'Alma airspace. There have been no reports form Space Station Marn of any unauthorized ships leaving the western hemisphere and the blockade would most certainly have detected them had they left the planet. Our only conclusion is that they must still be within the atmosphere. "

"That ship must be found. This ‘mishap’ could be detrimental to our operation. I want Aran dead or... well just dead. Find them!"

The chief of military affairs snapped a salute that stated both agreement and farewell, and walked swiftly out of the office.

The chairman picked up a telephone and made a call. He was not sure how far this would go, and if things proceeded on the current course, he needed a backup plan.

· · ·

Chapter 038
NODE awakes by nameless

"We have to find the main computer terminal. We won’t be able to override the communication systems if we don’t have access to the mainframe." Samus’ electronically enhanced voice echoed softly off the walls of the hanger which, only minutes before, would have reflected no sound.

"I’m not familiar with the layout of this station, but I know that the NODE computer is relatively easy to access." Levine called after Samus who was already half way across the hanger. "You see, it was an experimental unit used to provide easier programmability. Instead of hacking into it all you have to do is reason with it. It has personality tables which can yield nearly fifty thousand different emotions and thought processes. I’ve heard she can be stubborn sometimes, but it’s relatively easy to outsmart it in most cases.

"Just great! All we need is a computer with an attitude! What if we can’t ‘reason’ with it?" The sarcasm lingered, weightless in the empty hanger.

"Then we’ll overload the personality matrix and hack directly into the CPU…"

Samus’ torch glowed brightly exaggerating the features of her suit.

"Hey, I think we’re on the right track…"

They reached a crawl shaft which read, "To Level 2: Engineering Communications Control."

The crawl shaft took the place of an elevator as such a device was not needed in an environment which rendered it’s function obsolete. Levine and Samus grabbed the hand grips and propelled themselves upward, or downward, through the shaft. Finally they reached a room which was, unmistakably, the main control terminal. They allowed themselves to float soundlessly into the room where they were immediately greeted by the computer.

"Human presence detected. How may I help you today sir and or mam?

"NODE 300, this is Levine. Officer 3497of the Tal’Alma confederation. Do you recognize me?"

Without a noticeable pause, NODE responded, "Of course Mr. Andross, I am glad to finally be acquainted with you."

Toying with the the computer's artificial sense of humor, Levine said "Have you been lonely, NODE?"

"No, Levine, my function requires that I not be given a sense of time. I have the capability to indicate an exact amount of elapsed time down to the nanosecond, but I have no ability to draw meaning from it." The timeless computer had obviously missed the joke.

Proceeding, Levine got down to business. "NODE, we need you to perform a transmission for us, could you do that?"

"What is the nature of your transmission?"

"Well, why don’t you examine it and see?"

"Certainly Mr. Andross, but I will need your access codes first, if it’s not too much trouble."

"Of course, NODE, that will not be a problem."

As Levine was typing in the access codes that he had gained from the warehouse, NODE said, "Levine, I have sensed and processed slight fluctuations in your speech pattern which indicate that you proceed with a higher agenda than I have been made aware of. Is this true?"

Levine knew that it was not easy to lie to a super voice intelligent computer so he responded, "Yes, NODE, you are correct, but it will be hard to explain it to you. Once you examine the program, you will see. Have you processed my clearance codes?"

"Yes, Mr. Andross, the codes have been verified as valid. You may now upload the transmission."

Samus stepped over to the NODE terminal and connected with it, quickly transmitting the program.

There was a brief pause in which the inner workings of NODE’s superprocesser could be heard analyzing the data. Levine clenched his teath.

"Mr. Andross, I am sorry, I cannot transmit your files."

"Why is that, NODE?"

"My virus protection protocol has identified this file as a self duplicating hostile program. It has been deleted from my memory banks."

"But, NODE, did you examine the information?"

"No, Levine, I cannot do so unless the virus protection program validates it."

"NODE, this program is not hostile. It has been activated on a different computer and caused no harm. The program is self duplicating but can be easily removed and causes no damage. Do you believe me to be lying?"

"No, Levine, I can detect no dishonesty in your voice variance. However, it is beyond my ability to override the virus protection protocol."

There was a brief moment of silence in which time, Samus spoke up, "NODE, we need you to help us. Something terrible has happened and you are the only one who can make it right. Do you understand?"

There was no response from the computer. Finally Levine said, "NODE, did you hear my partner?"

"The voice is not recognizable as human. Possible reasons are that the voice has been synthesized or fabricated. Levine, I must now question your intentions. Do you plan to cause harm to our government?"

"Of course not, NODE…"

"Levine, you are lying to me. Please do not lie to me…"

"NODE, you are beginning to scare me."

"As you should be, Levine, I have the ability to replicate nearly fifty thousand human emotions. Four thousand of those are variations of anger. I am now angry, Mr. Andross…"

"NODE, there is no need to become angry. We are not trying to harm anyone."

There was no response.

"NODE?"

There was no response.

"NODE, answer me."

"I’m sorry Levine. You have been identified as an intruder. I will now have to defend myself."

"Shit, Samus, hurry, send a feedback charge. We’re going to have to overload the matrix!"

Before Samus could react, sparks flew out of the socket which Samus’ computer was linked to. NODE had fried it’s terminal.

"Damn it! We’ve gotta get the hell out of here, Samus! NODE, we are leaving, there is no need to do anything unnecessary!"

"I’m sorry Levine, you have already proven yourself to be hostile. I am now preparing to defend myself."

Levine’s breathing began to become heavy. "Samus! NODE is de-pressurizing the station! I won’t live Samus! We’ve gotta go!!!"

"This is our only chance, Levine. This is our only chance to avenge my people! You get back to the ship. I’ll try to figure something out!!"

With that, Levine thrust himself towards the crawl shaft, and propelled himself down it. The oxygen was waning fast. Levine’s hart raced, partly out of fear, partly because of the lack of air. NODE had cut the lights and Levine grasped at the dark. Where was he going? There was an unbearable pressure behind his eyes and he began to see spots of light in his field of vision. He reached a door. Pushing himself out into the dark he allowed himself to float into nothingness. He saw nothing, he felt nothing, only the unbearable pressure, and the burning in his lungs. Suddenly, he smashed into something. It felt like an access ladder. Had he made it into the ship? Yes!

But what about Samus? She was all alone in a room with an angry computer who had no idea what century it was in. Hopefully NODE wouldn’t activate it’s self destruct system... No, it wouldn’t do that, it had too big of an ego.

Chapter 039
Levine by CapCom

Levine held his breath. He’d been holding it for the past thirty seconds, ever since NODE had emptied the station’s oxygen supply, and his lungs were starting to hurt like hell. And he had no idea where Samus’ ship was; it was so dark, he had to follow the wall of the space station with his hand to get even an idea of where he was going, the metal cold on his palm.

His skin started to tingle, and his ears popped. NODE must have blown an airlock someplace and the room was quickly losing its atmosphere. If the air pressure reached zero, then his blood would boil and he would explode. Levine was now glad that he had placed the safety feature on the station that limited the amount of air that could be released at once to try and prevent a sudden loss of pressure, something the designers had thought of as being a stupid idea. His same design was now on starships throughout the galaxy.

Up ahead, he saw a field of stars. That must be the loading bay. He could see water particles in the air crystallizing on the dome in the starlight and every a floating ice crystal would bounce off his face. Samus’ ship was somewhere in here... He kicked off the floor and floated towards a dark black, triangular object in the center which he hoped was Samus’ ship. As he neared the craft’s proximity lights flickered on and he could see where he was going.

Levine floated up to the roof of Samus’ ship and grabbed hold of the bay door with numb fingers that tingled as he grasped the hatch. He fumbled with the access lock and was greeted by a shrill beep in the thin air.

The damn thing was locked! God damn it, Samus! The hatch was locked!

He pounded on the cover, willing for it to open up, the dull thud of flesh on metal echoing hollowly in the chamber while his lungs screamed for oxygen.

Chapter 040
A mistake, a creature, and darkness by dab

Suddenly a great burst of air rushed upon Levine's cold, blue body. As the bay door opened slowly, a bright shine of light burst through. Air blasted out of the ship as the door opened more and more. Levine looked at the access panel that was once dark before. On it, two switches read open and close. He had mistakenly pressed the close button while the door was closed! After desperately banging on the bay door, one of his arms must of hit the open switch!

Levine eagerly reached into the ship to get hold of something firmly. So much air was coming out that he could not get in! As he groped for a handle, Levine grabbed a hard cold object of some sort, and pulled himself into the ship. He felt assured that he would never have to be in that cold airless darkness as the door entrance grew smaller and smaller, and soon gone.

As he got up off the floor, he let go of the handle which saved him. His hand didn't move an inch. He pulled harder away from the handle. Nothing. Levine turned to see what was wrong, and saw four green claws holding his hands in a tight grip. His heart froze. He looked up further, at a shiny metallic arm. Levine's lungs gasped, then ceased to breathe. He looked up further. A metallic body glittering with light stared at Levine with two dark eyes. Levine did not move. The other arm of the mysterious creature's body swung toward Levine's pale head and darkness faded out Levine's consciousness.