//------------------------------// // 22. The Corrupted // Story: Metroid Equis // by Flammenwerfer //------------------------------// Metroid Equis Chapter 22 The Corrupted   [Crashed Frigate]   Samus marched forward, thermal visor equipped, with a focused and determined glare and with experienced trepidation in each step she took. She had cleared the corridor artery leading back to the containment room, yet nothing stirred in her vision, nor did she pick up any sounds. Just the metallic clanking of her suits boots against the metal ground. She held her arm cannon out, casually aiming it elsewhere when she looked around, her lended Assault Rifle equipped with freeze rounds held in her left hand close to her face and aimed upward. Further down her nearly completely dark path, a little light had shown, enough where she could switch back to her combat visor.     She turned the corner and leaned her head out, fancying a look. She found dead Space Pirates of several varieties lining the floor and slumped against the walls. All had died from Metroid Predation, as evident by their complete lack of lifesigns and ultimately color in their skin. Still, nothing stirred, and so Samus quickly turned the corner and aimed both her weapons forward, continuing the same path of caution in her slow advance. This irritated her somewhat, because she and her backup had definitely heard the screeching of several, most likely over a dozen, metroids down this way. This expansive room, which she wasn't sure what it was (no map data), was completely devoid of life.     Too quiet...     Samus reached the middle of this room when she stopped to take a look. Aside from the obvious body count in the area, Samus was able to notice that the walls parallel to her path were lined with large stasis tanks... much too big for a Metroid. As well, they would be too small for containment of multiple Metroids. The remaining tanks had nothing in them, yet, at least ninety percent of them were completely broken and shattered, the proof being the shattered glass laying everywhere. But, that's not what bothered Samus.     Hmmm...    She turned left and walked to one of the destroyed tanks, kneeling down and examining the glass. The glass intrigued her because the material used, if shattered in the crash, would have been strewn everywhere. However, the shattered glass isolated itself directly in front of the respective tanks. Samus concluded that whatever was held in here, had broken out; most likely disturbed from when the Frigate went down. The fact that these tanks were irregular for metroids concerned her. Perhaps "containment" applied to something else.   But what...    Samus shrugged internally and came out of her lunge, standing up straight. Before she was to continue forward, she heard a very familiar squeaking sound, followed by a bone chilling screech. Samus, in fractions of a second, turned on her heel with the assault rifle in hand and pulled the trigger against the charging metroids.       With the entrance door rendered completely useless and the only other connection to Metroid Containment being another artery corridor being traversed by Samus, Crusader Squad and the remnants of Vector Squad could rest easy for a little bit. After all, Samus did leave them in charge of nurturing Luna's troops and getting them ready for the inevitable evacuation. Even so, all four of the Federation Troopers felt somewhat of a guilty pang in their minds, even though none would say it. Nathan, however, was dragged out of this thought process in order to look down at Starry, who was still laying her head on his armor-clad thighs and munching away at the remnants of the meal ration. While her eyes still looked tired and held a far-off gaze, he did notice that her pale coat was starting to gain its color back, which he assumed was gray. As well, her eyes became more silvery and natural.     "How's she doin' Nathan?" Jacob inquired, sitting next to Windfire as he rested. Before he could respond, Radiance decided to chime in:   "She may be an idiot but she's a hard mare. She'll be alright!" she called out. Nathan looked down to Starry, who only chuckled lightly and muttered one word.     "Bitch."   "Yeah she's doing fine. Her color is returning, actually," Nathan commented.     "That's wonderful news..." Constance spoke up with genuine contentedness, still lying on the floor as Sydney and Jacob switched places overseeing her. "You hear that, Starry?! You're gonna be just fine!"     "L-Lucky me. That means I'm still squad-ed up with you all. I probably already died and went to tartarus."   "Yeah, she's definitely feeling better," Windfire commented amusingly, his strength returning to him. He sat on his haunches and observed. Arianna initiated some conversation with him and Jacob and with that lull, Starry turned her gaze up once more. Nathan, feeling himself being watched, turned his eyes downward and meeting Starry's eyes once again.     "So..." she attempted to start conversation of her own, having satiated her stomach and starting to progressively feel better.     Nathan blinked a few times, still a tad surprised by this mare's forwardness. He would consider himself quite outgoing and friendly but this talking pony (which he still hadn't really got over the idea of talking ponies. In truth, he was still wondering how he felt about that) may even take the prize from him.     "What'sup?" he finally decided to respond, settling on what he deemed appropriate.     "I'm Starry, you're Nathan, right?" she asked with what Nathan would describe as adorable inquisitiveness. The fact that he labeled something as 'adorable' was already a problem for him. He felt the need to throw a brick through a window just to feel manly again.     "Yup! Nice to meet you... though on less than ideal circumstances." She giggled.     "Something tells me I might not have made it if the Hunter hadn't arrived and brought you all. Besides, you're the one tending to me. The pleasure is all mine," she countered with a grateful grin.     "Just doing our jobs, Starry," Nathan pointed out in his own friendly tone. He then looked around and remembered the bodies of their four other squad mates. "I'm sorry about your squad mates." Starry sighed, but Constance was the one to respond.     "There was nothing you could've done... or we could've done. They were amazing soldiers and they fought well. Still, I... ummm..." Constance was starting to have trouble coming up with words and her caretaker swore he saw her eyes start to mist over. Jacob knew exactly how she was feeling. The situation of her losing half her soldiers was starting to weigh in on her. Even though he was still weirded out by the idea of "talking ponies," he still felt the overwhelming need to comfort the fellow squad leader.     "I've lost good men and women too. More than I'd prefer to count to. I'm sorry... it's not something I'd wish upon any leader."   "They died for their country. That's all they wanted, really. I couldn't be more proud of them, in the end," Constance conceded. Nathan turned back down to Starry, and she still looked a bit downtrodden over the event. But she quickly pushed her sad thoughts behind and turned back up to him with more questions.     "So, what's your designation? And what is all that cool stuff you have on you?" she asked, somewhat eagerly. Nathan chuckled a bit. He was already enjoying this mare's company.       Guts, body parts, and full dead metroids lay strewn all over the room as Samus expertly dealt with her sworn enemies. The Hunter was in full hunting mode as she shot at the rushing creatures with pinpoint accuracy. She jumped backwards and evaded another ramming attack from a Metroid, only to pepper it with freeze rounds and step on it as it fell to the ground, squashing it like an oversized bug. She then looked over her shoulder and swung her arm cannon in a crescent path, striking another one of the creatures and sending it into the ground, allowing her to finish it off with four power beam rounds to its mouth and a missile to rupture it.     She was absolutely relentless. She stepped forward, and continued her attack-defense. Her form was impeccable and the control she exhibited in firing two weapons simultaneously in two completely different directions and forms was nothing short of mesmerizing... like an intricate battle dance that had been rehearsed time and time again full of attacks, defense, and evasions. She stayed the use of her magic, as she remembered that it had little effect on them. The ambushing metroids had lost cohesion once their numbers thinned out, and none could even approach Samus without getting shot. After several minutes of gaining the upper hand, the fight was over. Both of the Hunter's weapons were smoking from the barrels and her suit was completely covered with viscous fluid from Metroid membranes and their brain matter. She then took a pose with her weapons at the ready... listening for anything.     Nothing came. Not a sound, save for her own breathing. Samus counted over twenty-five metroids slaughtered over a period of five minutes. But that was when she lost count. The threat from Metroid attack was over, for now. She placed the assault rifle on the ground and then her hand on her helmet's side.     "Captain, do you read me?"     After a few moments of silence, there was a response.     "Loud and clear, sorry, had to get my helmet. What's going on?"     "I dealt with the metroid threat. I do not believe we are in any danger from that anymore," she concluded, looking around at her handiwork.     "Excellent to hear. What do you wanna do from here?"     "Ummm... Keep taking care of the Magickakorps troops, I'll go on ahead and see if I can find a way to destroy this ship from the inside. From there, we can head straight out the way we came and evacuate Vector Squad, how copy?"     "Solid copy, Samus. We'll hold our position until you return."     "Excellent. See you soon, Samus out."     She disengaged her comms and moved to continue forward. As she turned back to her initial direction before the ambush, a loud explosion rocked the other side of the room, startling her back to her complete battle senses. Only then did Samus realize that the second door straight ahead had been completely blown apart, and the explosion she heard just now came through there. Even her suit picked it up.     [Unnatural explosion within adjoining room. Investigation highly recommended.]    The suit has spoken.    She jogged to the blown open door, finding what looked to be a testing room, as it was even more expansive as the previous and it was partitioned in sections of containment field housings. Immediately when Samus entered this slightly less lit room, she heard that odd whining and gurgling that she heard before and couldn't figure out what it was. This time, however, it originated from across the room. She lifted her arm cannon and advanced forward, as whatever was there, was obscured by darkness.     The middle of the room was circular in nature, almost like a testing arena. When she reached the center, she heard the same whining, accompanied by more gurgling and what she described as heavy whimpering. She stopped immediately and kept her cannon forward-aimed. Footsteps sounded... but they were more of an irregular clopping sound. She was not kept waiting for long, soon the figure was revealed in the light.     A whimpering and whining unicorn strode into the light, but its coat was completely indistinguishable from the completely fluorescent blue caused by total phazon corruption lining its body. Some tumors were evident in several places and there was a noticeable limp in its walk. Samus then locked eyes with this abomination. Those white, soulless eyes that still held fluorescent blue veins running through them, lighting up with the subject's heart beat stared into her very soul. Its mouth was coated with the substance and it hungered for more, its dripping salivation too viscous to be natural. Its gurgling and growling became more aggressive as it stopped its advance about thirty feet in front of Samus.     [Recorded to Logbook]    [Morphology: Corrupted Unicorn]    [Standard Equis unicorn artificially infused with Phazon. The unicorns that survive the viral corruption of the phazon infusion become a mere shell of what they once were. Now, they desire nothing more than to feed on more phazon. Extraordinarily violent and unpredictable, the phazon has completely destroyed any cognitive control over the unicorn's magical inhibitions, making such a magic wielder a particularly dangerous threat. However, complex spells are forgone from their magical vernacular. Scans detect phazon supercharges and infuses with the unicorn's magical reserves. Potentially lethal in numbers.]    Returning to her combat visor, Samus's motion detector showed nine other contacts approaching her from all sides. Their zombie-like whines, gurgles, and growls only grew larger as she surveyed her surroundings. She was completely surrounded.     Those goddamn monsters... I'm sorry, but there's no other way out of this.  *Battle Music*   Samus planted her feet in the ground and raised her weapons, ready for combat. Once she did, all ten of the corrupted unicorns screamed a bone-chilling and feral roar before they ran at her, horns charging.     Samus let loose a charge round straight into the first unicorn she saw, sending it flying backwards, but she had no time to stay still. She bounded up and forward, somersaulting over more attackers and avoiding magical blasts and streams charged with phazon. She planted her foot once more and turned around, activating her own magical shield to absorb a hailstorm of magical bolts. The shield shattered in seconds and she went on the offensive once more. She charged straight into the remaining nine unicorns and swung her arm cannon, decking one of her attackers in the side of the face and forcing the others to stumble upon themselves. The sheer amount of phazon in their coats actually inflicted shield damage on her when she made contact.     She spun on her heels as they righted themselves, charging their horns, and she let loose a hailstorm from her lended assault rifle. Although the rounds were freezing in property, they still pierced easily into the neck and chest of two of the unicorns, striking vital organs and ultimately forcing them to fall lifeless, though not without a shrill scream of feral agony.     *click**click**click*    The rifle had been emptied and she immediately chucked it with all the force she could muster, into the face of another of her remaining attackers. That allotted her very little breathing room as she unleashed more torrents of fire from her power beam. They found their target in the face of a corrupted unicorn and she scored another victory, though not without a price. Samus's pauldron was struck with a few magical rounds, forcing her to stumble. But it wasn't over, as another attacker rammed straight into her legs from behind with no regard for itself, taking her completely off her feet and forcing her onto her back with a loud 'clang!'     The unicorns capitalized on her predicament and one mounted her immediately on her chest, charging its horn to unpredictable levels while gnashing its teeth into her visor, spraying phazon infected saliva all over her. With a grunt of exertion, the unicorn was smacked off and Samus flipped up onto her feet. She immediately assessed a concentration of three of the unicorns to her immediate left and she formed a plan. Samus somersaulted horizontally and got back to her feet with her beam charged. She aimed and let loose a Super Missile, the large round colliding directly with the middle unicorn of her target concentration and blowing the three of them apart completely.     Samus had no time to think on the gory situation as her back endured the full force of a magical blast, sending her flying several feet forward with a cry of disorientation and hitting the ground on her chest. She turned on her back to find a unicorn pouncing on her with its horn charged, and she sent three Night Beam rounds into its abdomen to return the favor. Said unicorn writhed on the floor in agony but Samus was forced to evade another magical strike before she could finish it off. Having avoided more shielding damage, Samus extended her Grapple Beam which found its mark on the attacking unicorns chest. She retracted it and with great force, swung the corrupted pony into its comrade, sending them tumbling to the ground. She then acted quickly when she heard a roar behind her, turning on her heels and firing a single missile, which struck the sole unicorn's horn and fragmented it as it was charging. The utter destruction of the horn backfired and sent the magic blast straight into the unicorn's head... there was no head anymore. The corpse crumpled to the ground.     Oh... god...    Samus had seen much gore in her life, and as such, she was little stranger to it during combat or what not. The slaughtering of her entire colony on K2-L was one of the many sights she would never forget until she died. However, the sight of a unicorn's head exploding from misfired magic... well, she would not be forgetting that image for a long while.     Permanent damage right there.    Three corrupted unicorns remained. Samus sent a charged Night-Beam round into the mortally wounded one that was writhing on the ground, ending its life. The other two had gotten untangled and righted themselves, horns charged and about to strike. Samus attacked right there, extending her Grapple Beam again and pulling back one of the unicorns. She met its face with the front barrel of her arm cannon and hearing an audible snap of bones. She followed through that attack and aimed at the remaining unicorn before firing another lone missile which struck its chest, sending it careening into the air and bouncing on the ground. No more movement came from it.     She then surveyed the scene. All ten unicorns had been killed, and in all honesty, they were better off dead than corrupted. A collection of body parts had been strewn in random directions, and full bodies took no particular form or formation on the ground.     Samus did not want to look at the headless pony to her rear left.     A quick diagnostic check revealed that she had gotten out of that battle relatively unscathed. Her shielding held at ninety percent, but she had not been able to rearm her missiles. They now stood just shy of forty percent capacity. Getting her head back on track to finding a way to destroy the frigate (she settled on destroying the phazon engine cores), her motion sensor picked up a sole contact in the darkness towards the only other exit. Upon instinct, she raised her cannon out and waited.     She heard what sounded like more clopping sounds against the ground, but they were... different. They had more weight to them. Like last time, the Hunter did not have to wait long for the enemy to reveal itself.     She noticed the general shape of a unicorn first, but this was covered in onyx black (although heavily fractured) armor, and a full face helmet completely obscuring its soulless and corrupted face. The same sounds of whining, growling, and sickening gurgling still emanated clearly from the newcomer. The armored equine continued to advance forward towards Samus until it stopped abruptly in the light. The sudden stoppage of movement forced a piece of the unicorn's compromised armor to detach itself and expose the infected coat and skin; an oblique plate hit the ground with an audible metallic sound, phazon material coating its inside, and was labeled with a single word:     Magickakorps.    For the first time in a very long time, Samus uttered two words in a very particular order as her eyes widened behind her visor, the full implications of the current (and very near future) weighing in on her:     "Oh... shit."