//------------------------------// // 27. Enemy of My Enemy // Story: Metroid Equis // by Flammenwerfer //------------------------------// Metroid Equis Chapter 27 Enemy of My Enemy [Suggested Listening] The sheer abominations that nature was capable of never ceased to amaze Samus. As she continued to stare down the Crystal Hydra with her arm cannon as a mediator, she thought to herself that she should honestly be presented with some scientific medal or award for the discovery and documenting of all these new species and creatures. Then again, if she went that route, she would probably have to also be condemned for wiping out said species shortly after she discovered them. Species activists would have a field day. Not waiting to be made into minced meat, Samus decided to plan her attack first. Thinking quickly, there were three heads on the Hydra and four legs, each covered with crystal plating that was vulnerable to destruction with soft tissue underneath. Based on what was in front of her, she felt that she could treat this battle much like when she fought the Amorbis on Dark Aether. She could weaken the heads and then attack the legs to immobilize it or the exact opposite, and achieve the same effect. It all depended on what she wanted to deal with in both the short and long run. She locked onto the middle head and fired two missiles, one after the other. The Hydra made no attempt to dodge the projectiles and they impacted directly onto the creature’s plated head, forcing the targeted head to recoil and growl at what Samus interpreted as a damaging hit. This was corroborated by the plated armor turning a darker color, from a white, somewhat opaque crystal to a pinkish hued one. Based on this, it looked like she would have to just keep hammering away at the crystal until she breached it, and then attack the exposed head. Before Samus could strike again, the left-most head from her point of view recoiled back and lunged straight at her, intending to ensnare her in its jaws or pummel her into the ground. In all honesty she really had no desire to find out, and opted to dash to the side with the aid of her Space Jump boosters. As such, the creature’s head missed her and ended up embedding itself into the ground. It struggled to remove itself and Samus capitalized immediately, firing a super missile straight into its plated head and completely destroying the arrowhead-shaped crystal “helmet.” The action sent crystal shards in every direction and caused an agonized roar to permeate the air from the downed head, which was still struggling to remove itself. Before Samus could ready another super missile, however, she got hit with a crystal projectile decently hard, forcing her to break off her engagement and turn her attention to the remaining two heads, who were launching said projectiles of variable sizes and shapes straight at her in defense of the third head. Successfully dodging a second strike, she was able to return fire with her Night Beam but ended up getting struck in her right pauldron by a rather sharp crystal, making her stumble and further put distance between her and her adversary. Gazing over at the left head that had finally freed itself from the ground, to her frustration, Samus found that it had fully regenerated and regrown its crystal plating. She silently cursed herself for not having found a suitable replacement for her coveted Seeker Missile Launcher that she had obtained on Aether, as the weapon would have come in quite handy in this situation. Nevertheless, Samus pressed on with her attack by equipping her Power Beam again and firing off another Super Missile. The middle head attempted to dodge but it was no use, and the ballistic projectile destroyed the crystal armor, exposing the soft and pink flesh underneath. Samus, again, went to follow up on her attack by firing another salvo of four missiles, but to her utter surprise, the two heads on either side of her target crossed themselves in front of them middle one, the latter head recoiling back behind its protectors. The missiles impacted harmlessly against the Hydra’s nearly indestructible neck plating and about twenty to thirty seconds later, with Samus not being able to get any angle on her target at all, the middle head emerged again, no worse for wear. Aww that’s just perfect… Now, the Hydra began to slowly advance on Samus, taking slow and deliberate steps as the three heads fired down on her with razor-sharp crystals, some easily the size of her. She was able to dodge relatively easily but as she was about to jump back, something grabbed hold of both of her legs. Startled, she looked down and found a crystal had sprouted up from the ground and enveloped her legs up to her middle thigh. She was now completely unable to move, with the massive Hydra bearing down on her. This would not have been much of a problem, as she had fought enemies which had the ability to freeze their prey, such as Sheegoths back on Tallon IV. But, this was not ice that her legs were encased in, but hard, dense crystal. Thrashing her immobile legs as much as possible yielded no results, and looking up to meet the three faces of the Hydra, they were joining their heads together (again, much like the three worms making up Amorbis) and producing, magically, a crystal of monolithic proportions intended to end Samus’s existence where she stood. Her eyes widened and, in a sudden bout of remembrance, aimed her arm cannon downward towards her legs and fired a single missile, the anti-magic properties obliterating the surrounding crystals and setting her legs free, albeit the small blast from her missile sending her backwards onto the ground. Nevertheless, she was free, and she jumped and rolled to the right to miss being buried under the monolith of a crystal. She was quickly running out of conventional means of attack and defense, as it was clear that she underestimated the sheer intelligence of the creature. Brawn truly was not the inverse of brains, which Samus was irritatingly finding out. She did, however, possess a weapon capable of untold carnage and destruction… one that she employed the use of a couple of times against a certain Night Dragon in a certain Starfall Fortress. The Night Dragon was nearly identical in height and bodily brawn to this Crystal Hydra, save for the fact that the Hydra had three heads instead of one. So, she armed her Night Beam and charged it up fully. Knowing she could currently spare the missiles, her arm cannon launched the main projectile of the Asteroid Bombardment straight up into the air, well above the height of the Hydra. The latter creature followed the projectile upward but after a while, merely believed that it missed its target, only to have the left-most head get slammed into by the first strike. The projectile destroyed the crystal plating but the second strike hit the middle head’s neck, which was strong enough to withstand the blast. The third and fourth strikes hit the face of the middle head and the jaw of the right respectively. Crystal fragments rained down like hail as Samus attempted to see the damage done. The left-most head had taken the most damage, as evident by the complete lack of crystal plating on it and, like Samus expected, the other two angled themselves in front of it, despite having taken damage as well, so it could regrow its plating. The sheer power of the attack stopped the Hydra’s advance on her and allowed her to pursue an alternate method of attack: its legs. As the heads were busy shielding each other, Samus planted several missiles into the knee-plating of the creature’s front right leg, shattering it and exposing the soft tissue underneath. The Hydra immediately altered its own approach and the three wounded heads began bombarding the Hunter with crystal projectiles. Samus dodged what she could to get a lock on the weak leg-tissue but she had to cast a shield in order to avoid getting pummeled solely by the volume of fire the three heads were spitting, thus forcing her to break off her attack. Had she pressed forward, a generated crystal would have enveloped her form and she would have been subject to the whim of the Hydra’s onslaught. God… Dammit!!! Samus retreated to a respectable distance, thinking to herself how she could proceed in attacking this damned creature. Sure enough though, gazing upon it once more, she found that, aside from a few minor scuffs and cracks on the hardened scales and plating around the body, the Hydra still had full fight left in it and had not taken much ‘weakening’ damage. Possible plans of attack ran through her head but occasionally, she stole a glance back at the entrance to Crystal Pass as well as the random assortment of munitions and energy crystals in the ground. For once, Samus was actually glad to have an exit out if she needed to make a tactical retreat for whatever reason. She hoped that would not be the case, even though she knew that sometimes she had to pick her battles, her pride was a problem. She dug her heel in and aimed up at the Hydra once more. This was going to be a long battle. [Trottingham] The combined Federation/Equestrian objectives were supposed to be simple: simultaneously destroy the Space Pirate forward operations base and retake Trottingham to use as an intermediate supply drop zone, and then continue northward to attack the main Pirate Force. Of course, in the history of military strategy, operations have moreso gone awry than according to plan. Estimated Pirate strength within the decent-sized city was anywhere from two-thousand to twenty-five hundred troops of various varieties. To counter that, the Federation landed approximately nine-thousand Marines and several hundred tanks and other vehicles, while Princess Luna deployed five hundred Magickakorps troopers. Princess Celestia also placed the Royal Guard as an auxiliary/reserve, as well as five-hundred regular army troops. So, aggregate friendly forces were around twelve-thousand troops including armor and vehicular support. However, the Pirates were known to be absolutely ruthless, and refused to surrender. The price for cowardice among their ranks was death, so it was expected that all Space Pirates were to be wiped out before Trottingham could be truly cleared. This was common knowledge. What the Federation and Equestrians did not anticipate, however, was the Pirates being impressively entrenched after so little time. While the Magickakorps was making steady gains on the east side of the city in no small part due to the use of magic, the Federation was fiercely fighting and paying well above MSRP for each foot of land they gained from the Pirates. Even with CV-Squad leading the charge, it had been quite difficult for the first three hours of fighting. They had taken the first few blocks by storm relatively easily, but once they hit an entrenched Pirate Commando line about three miles in from their starting point, things went to hell. Currently, with the help of a couple of Marine squads backing them up, CV-Squad was split up amongst piles of ruins of buildings, returning fire against the Space Pirate defensive line. An explosion rocked the middle of Mane Street, forcing everyone back into cover. “Goddammit! Someone kill the grenadier!” Jacob shouted as he reloaded his assault rifle. He was in cover on the north side of the road (they were heading east) with Radiance and Constance, who were using their horns for combat rather than their issued rifles. Assault Cannon, Assault Rifle, and Magical fire were traded back and forth as the Federation lay within a couple-hundred feet of the defensive line. “I’m working on it!” Arianna yelled back through her radio, well behind the rest of the squad’s position as a sniper. She was dialing in her sights and looking for said grenadier. “Sydney, can you relocate your light machine gun and give us suppressing fire? We’re gonna move up!” Starry called out from a ruin-pile opposite of Jacob, Radiance, and Constance. She was in cover with Nathan, while Windfire was aiding Sydney with the use of the LMG. “Yeah! Hold on,” Sydney replied back, changing the barrel and folding up the bipod of the large weapon with Windfire’s help. They braved the crossfire and dove into prone position behind another suitable cover position that shadowed Starry’s and Nathan’s potential advancement path. Just then a loud shot rang out, followed by an energy bolt piercing straight through a Pirate Grenadier’s chest. “Grenadier’s down,” Arianna spoke through the radio comms while cycling the bolt on her rifle that worked the cooling mechanism. Jacob made the motion of blowing a kiss back towards Arianna, who only chuckled. “Don’t get stupid, Star!” Radiance called out to her best friend while lobbing powerful bolts of hard magic towards the Space Pirates. Doctrine between the GFMC and the Magickakorps was a bit differed in close quarters and urban fighting. Where automatic weapons such as assault rifles prevailed with the Marines, the elite unicorns were taught to focus less on volume of fire, but more on large, power blasts (i.e. larger, harder hitting magical bolts) that were guaranteed to kill if it hit. In urban combat, it was dangerous to only wound an enemy and let them live, as they could potentially escape and cause more damage in the future; as Princess Luna had always said: “A wounded combatant can often still fight.” “Me? ‘Stupid?’ When would I ever be?” Starry called back sarcastically. While Starry was actively fighting, this was more than just a fight for an objective to her. This was a fight for her home, and it showed, as in her comrade’s eyes, she was being extraordinarily more aggressive. But perhaps that was an understatement. When the squad moved as a unit, Starry ended up taking point, which was traditionally Jacob’s or Constance’s role. It was also debatable if she had the most confirmed kills at the moment. The rapid fire of a heavy weapon indicated that Sydney had gotten the machine gun working once more, and the effect was immediate as the defending Pirates took as much cover as they could. That was the time to strike. “Frag out!” Nathan called out, priming a grenade and lobbing it into the Pirate’s trench, where it promptly exploded and inflicted an unknown number of casualties. His adrenaline was running high but his suit’s ventilation kept him cool. Starry sprinted ahead towards the Pirate’s trench, with Nathan hot on her tail. "Star! Nathan!" Constance called out, wondering, like the others, what the hell they were doing rushing straight into enemy and friendly crossfire. Her calls went unheeded as Starry still took point with Nathan right behind her. One Pirate Trooper attempted to stand up and fire but was surprised to find itself face-to-face with the faceless unicorn, who promptly blasted the trooper in the chest with a magical round. Starry, with a tiny grunt of exertion, jumped into the trench where the grenade had struck, and found not only a couple of bodies, but well over a couple dozen surprised Space Pirates. Nathan jumped in as well and they stood (figuratively, due to size disparities) back to back. Fighting erupted immediately when the GF trooper opened fire, cutting down three of the much taller Pirates before hand-to-hand combat ensued, something Nathan was rather proficient in, and the human’s smaller size gave him an advantage. Starry, as soon as Nathan attacked, fired a power blast with shotgun-like effect into the Commando and Trooper in her immediate path, blowing open their chest armor with relative ease. Once they slumped backwards, she conjured her magical sword and charged down the opposite side of the trench-line. Due to the sheer width of the trench, only one-to-one engagements were possible, and Arianna’s sniper rifle plus Sydney’s machine gun ensured that no other Pirates could reinforce from behind the trench-line. So, Starry and Nathan were free to engage in brutal hand-to-hand (and hand-to-hoof) combat, with the latter having fixed a bayonet to his rifle. Starry easily parried blade with scythe but the combination of her dexterity and skillful offensive strikes with the fact that she was filled with righteous fury ensured that she scored victory after victory against the Pirate invaders. Nathan had the tiniest lulls in battle and gazed back towards Starry to ensure she was okay, but instead found bodies piling up as she advanced down the trench-line. He witnessed her expertly dodge a chopping strike, lop off the Pirate’s attacking arm up to the elbow, and following up by cutting through its right leg and ending it all with a stab straight through the chest. The Pirate Commando cried out in agony and Starry snarled as she bucked the dismembered and dying body off her blade and continued her onslaught. “Make… Them… Suffer!” she screamed her war cry as she cut down another adversary. Nathan had to do a few double-takes, as did the rest of the squad. Was this really the bubbly, eccentric Starry Night that he met on the Frigate? By the time the rest of CV-Squad actually advanced up, the entire trench-line had been cleared out, and the most immediate threat had been eliminated. The Federation now had a straight shot into the heart of Trottingham, where they were supposed to link up with the Magickakorps and proceed northward, effectively liberating the city. Now, support could be called in to evacuate the wounded and the dead. “Jeez, Starry,” Constance could not help but comment on Starry’s handiwork. The latter and Nathan jumped out of the now cleared trench-line and met up with their friends and squadmates. “Hey, you ruin my home and I’ll fuckin’ destroy you,” Starry replied seriously, but then righted herself when she realized who was talking to her: “… Captain.” “At least you’re both okay and that’s all that matters. Taking on two dozen Pirates in close-quarters-combat is no easy feat. You two seem to work well together,” Jacob pointed out. Radiance was staring at Starry but the latter knew that there was a shit-eating grin under the visor. Starry and Nathan just shared a glance with each other and that was that. “We better move to the center. The rest of the Korps is probably waiting on us,” Windfire decided to speak up and remind everyone of the objective. With no objections from anyone, Jacob and Constance resumed the lead and they all jogged to meet the friendly equine forces that were undoubtedly waiting for them. Half the battle was over. Now the other was ominously waiting for them. Frozen Lakebed Son of a bitch! One hour. An entire hour’s worth of fighting and Samus had gotten absolutely nowhere. The Hydra was so much like Amorbis yet it was completely different, and much more intelligent. Samus had to have her missile ammunition replenished too many times by the environmental crystals and as a result, said crystals were pretty much all gone now. With her ammunition stocks becoming much less plentiful than they were, the option to flee through the Crystal Pass was quite an appetizing option at this point. She, herself, had taken relatively little damage in the way of energy or suit-integrity depletion (not even ten percent of the former) but the fact of the matter was that regardless of how excellent of health she was in, it'd be impossible to combat the Hydra with no suitable weapon stock. In fact, after another failed offensive employing the use of three Super Missiles and nearly getting crushed, the 'tactical retreat' was exactly what Samus felt was the best option. I'm gonna run away right now... I'm REALLY gonna run away right now... Finally coming to terms with the fact that she'd get killed due to attrition Samus fired off one more Super Missile and bolted for the Crystal Pass. There was really no major thinking to this plan, as she just needed to get the hell out and get out quickly. It was time to swallow her pride and pick her battles, choosing to disengage for once and fight another day. The idea was, with the Super Missile keeping the Hydra in check, Samus could sprint until her speed booster activated and she could use the extra momentum to jump over the small Phazon lining. There, she would just quickly run up to the Pass and disappear back the way she came. Of course, that was the hope. The increase of seismic 'thuds' under her feet in both frequency and power indicated that the Crystal Hydra was not as slow as she once had thought. Not bothering to look back, she reached the point where she would jump. Once she did, she bounded with all of her strength towards the exit. She was in the clear... until her somersaulting form collided with something unbelievably sturdy and hard. Her speed booster shattered part of the object but stopped her jump all the same with her impacting back-first. Samus was almost knocked out by the impact, but she realized soon after that she had impacted on a large crystal that the Hydra had generated from the ground, right in her path. Laying in the fluffy snow just below the entrance, she angled her head to her destination and found it completely sealed to a height that she could not traverse. The Hydra had trapped her. Shakily getting on one knee due to the shock from the impact, she found the Hydra closing in on her, looking as if it was about to strike with all three of its heads at once. So be it. As much as Samus would rather not, she would fight for her life as long as she could, and hopefully through the combat she could find another way out. Of course, fate tends to take interesting twists and turns for the blonde-haired Hunter. As she was prepared to defend from the strike, Samus was temporarily deafened and blinded by a series of explosions that erupted between her and the Hydra, forcing the hulking creature to back off in surprise. The surprise was not lost on Samus either, as it was like an aircraft executed a precision airstrike. Federation bombing run? At least, Samus thought that was the case before a telltale, high-pitched screech sounded throughout the valley. One that never failed to bring some measure of chill down her spine. [Suggested Listening] God... FUCK! Samus frantically looked around and found Ridley circling the scene. The Hydra also turned its attention to the new intruder that prevented it from having its small meal. The metal dragon screeched a couple of times before flying aggressively towards the duo. Samus was ready to attack immediately but was quite dumbfounded when Ridley veered from course and landed in front of her... facing the Hydra. On all fours and growling aggressively, Ridley unleashed a more fearsome and feral roar, which the Hydra gladly returned. The two were engaged in a primal battle of volume at first as the dragon began to gently pace back and forth, as if Samus was not even present. His tail snaked left and right angrily. I... what?? Her thoughts were thrown for an even wilder ride when Ridley angled his head back towards her and began growling. Her translators were feeding voice data back to her: "I'll break the armor on the head and legs. You attack while I keep the heads distracted." Samus understood exactly what was said to her, but the fact of who it came from was just... it made no sense. With no response from the Hunter, Ridley turned back to her with an even more aggressive 'tone of voice.' "Are you daft? I'll crack the plating, you finish off the wretched creature!" he ordered, shaking her out of her stupor before taking flight and drawing the Hydra's attention, the latter attempting to follow his flight path. This. Goddamn. Planet. Samus had half a mind to shoot Ridley out of the sky, but for whatever reason that he did not capitalize and slaughter her in her moment of weakness, she decided not to do the same for reasons unknown to her. Besides she had quickly realized to combat the Hydra, she would need external aid. If Ridley was willing and able to provide that, then so be it. She could deal with him after the fact, ammunition count willing. Samus ensured her Power Beam was armed and charged. She was ready to fire off a missile at a moment's notice but refrained from doing so as she watched Ridley's actions, both for his plan of attack and for the slightest sign of treachery. One of the Hydra's heads concentrated on Samus and fired crystal shots at her while the other two attempted to take down Ridley with their own crystal weaponry. Both mortal enemies were easily able to dodge the rounds through rolls and basic flight maneuvers respectively. Circling left and wide, Ridley closed the distance and zoomed over the Hydra's head, peppering the creature with plasma bombs which seared some of the scaling, although most entirely missed the heads. However, a few errant rounds made contact with the armor on the Hydra's right-front knee, destroying it and exposing the familiar tissue. Samus sprang into action and immediately fired her Super Missile at the sight of the tissue. Ridley ensured that he had the Hydra's heads' attention as he spewed fire from his mouth and rained it down on the Hydra's heads, who desperately tried to snap at him or fire crystals, which he easily dodged. On Samus's end, the Super Missile scored a direct hit on the tissue and blew it apart, spewing blood and destroyed muscle in various states of dismemberment everywhere. The Hydra screamed through all three of its mouths as the leg refused to support any more weight, forcing it to trip on itself. Redistributing its weight, the limp leg dragged along as it began a slow retreat towards the lake. Samus advanced forward but tripped on herself and got hit by a crystal when her right leg was ensnared. She was not the only one to slip up, as Ridley ended up getting hit by a crystal fired by the middle head. It struck him in the chest and forced him to lose some altitude before he corrected himself. He circled back around and dropped more plasma bombs, this time more accurately. Four bombs found their mark and incinerated the crystal plating of the right-most head. Shortly after, a Super Missile struck the exposed tissue, sending a flood of blood and most likely brain-matter spewing outward. After several high pitched, agonized roars, the head died, crashing to the floor with an enormous thud and adding another weight for the Hydra remnant to lug in retreat. The tables had completely turned. Where Samus was in extreme danger of getting worn down and killed, the Crystal Hydra was being absolutely pummeled into submission by the combined firepower of Ridley and Samus. However, it was not without its slip-ups. Ridley circled around and came too close to one of the heads, and almost got ensnared by the jaws of the middle head but got head-butted by the left head. After a squawk of pain he careened into the ground but quickly found his bearings. Before the Hydra could attempt any revenge on him, Samus ensured he had room to get up and away by drawing the ire of the Hydra, forcing it to retreat even more. No words were exchanged between them but they knew what they had to do. Samus could not beat the Hydra on her own so she begrudgingly accepted Ridley's help, while Ridley could really not attack Samus without getting destroyed by the Hydra. Even if he just wanted to bomb her into submission and whittle her shields, she could easily turn her improved arsenal against him. At least, that was Samus's interpretation of the dragon's thought process. Getting back to the battle, Ridley quickly gained altitude and swooped in for another bombing run. He dropped about eight different bombs on both of the heads, shattering their armor and allowing Samus to strike. Ridley again rained down molten plasma from his mouth in order to keep the Hydra's attention off of the Hunter. A second Super Missile literally blew the brains out of the left-most head, the long neck falling lifeless on top of the middle head and forcing it to carry the extra weight upon its figurative shoulders. The plasma that Ridley had rained down on the middle head had kept the crystal armor from regrowing, and this time, he took the opportunity to go in for a killing strike. Ridley flew down and slammed feet first into the middle head, digging his rear claws into the head complete with a gory, squelching sound and a complementing, agonized roar from the remaining Hydra head. The dragon harshly flew upward, ripping meat with his claws and finishing off the head by shearing his tail straight through it. The Hydra's last mouth hung open as Ridley's tail pierced its brain and once the latter removed said tail, the head snaked to the ground and landed like a rock. Soon after, the legs collapsed with the complete loss of brain function. Samus fought the Hydra for over an hour and made absolutely no progress. With an unwilling partnership between her and the Pirate Commander, they were able to defeat the creature in a little under ten minutes, leading Samus to conclude that the Hydra was not a tough combatant per se, but an enemy that required ingenuity to best. She compared the battle to Flaaghra or Quadraxis. The Hydra was dead, its carcass and guts splayed across the lakebed as proof. Samus stared down the carcass for a while, not giving the rest of the world any mind as she thought to herself. Normally, she would have turned her attention to Ridley immediately, but somehow, she knew that he would not attack her. This was supported when she sensed him flap down and land right next to her, folding his wings to his side as they both stared at the deceased Hydra. An uncomfortable and awkward silence fell between the two arch-enemies, but someone was bound to break the silence at some point. Samus only had one question for Ridley, comprised of one word but loaded with so much meaning: "Why?" Ridley cocked his head lightly towards her. "I would not attempt to thank me nor show any admiration for my actions, whelp," the Pirate Commander spoke back mirthfully. "Yet you intervened." "I did. After you nearly killed me on Zebes, I wanted you dead. I still do. However, the difference was that I did not care how that was accomplished. I offered great rewards to any one of my troops who was responsible for killing you when you came to Tallon IV. After you defeated me there yet again, things changed. Then, it was solely my battle." "Poetic and honorable for the murderer of my parents and countless others," Samus pointed out with her own mirth. The effect was immediate as Ridley roared and lunged at Samus, grabbing her in his right hand and bringing her up to his mouth, while she in turn armed her Night Beam and charged it fully, ready to send the pure Asteroid Bombardment straight into his mouth. The weapon would kill them both from its sheer destructive power, and although she did not prefer it, she took no issue with taking him with her. "If you think your words mean anything to me, you are sorely mistaken. I am a murderer and I commit genocide at will... and I would do it again and again and again. I want to, and I will be the one to shear my tail straight through your heart and peel the flesh from your bones. I will ensure to finish you as I did your parents." Samus said nothing as she listened to her nemesis, her cannon still trained on his face and ready to fire the moment Ridley opened his mouth aggressively. His cybernetic eyes locked onto her blues through her visor. He then lowered his stance but kept her locked in his grasp. "I have no intention of potentially falling here. This pathetic planet filled with these 'ponies' is not worth the phazon it excretes. I've lost too many forces due to early Federation arrival, and your usual meddling along with unexpected resistance from the Equines only adds to the problem. As well we've lost the upper hand in space with two of my frigates lost." "My heart weeps for you, Ridley." He pulled her close to his mouth again and Samus never lost her resolve. She was willing, as a last resort, to commit suicide to end Ridley's existence... but she was almost certain that Ridley was not willing to do the same if he did not have a certainty that she would be dead. "This... This will be your only free lunch from me. I will not aid you, I will not speak to you, and I will not fraternize with you in any form. Because next time we meet, and we will meet, I will attack you immediately and I will show you no mercy. You would do well to be ready then," he threatened. Samus would take said threat seriously. Since Ridley essentially stated that he's pulling his forces off of Equis, he had every intention to survive. "Then get the fuck off this planet," Samus replied with a low and dark tone of voice. Samus flinched under the cover of her helmet because a sudden spasm of sharp pain entered her head, originating deep within the recesses of her mind. It went as quickly as it came. Ridley lowered his eyelids at her and the two stared each other down for what seemed like several minutes before the former tossed her into the snow. Samus flipped back up onto her feet to be greeted with the scene of Ridley taking off towards the West, to link back up with his forces and initiate a withdrawal, most likely. His flapping form soon disappeared among the clouds and once again, she was alone. She had no idea when or where she would see him again. Maybe I should've asked him to drop me off outside of the Crystal Pass. She did catch something out of the corner of her eye, however. Next to the Hydra's corpse lay a floating crystal. It shined brilliantly like the common crystal sheen and even smaller crystals orbited the larger crystal like electrons to an atom. Samus slowly made her way to the suspended prize and she made no hesitation to reach up and grasp it with her left hand, and the pure energy immediately went to her arm cannon. The cannon lit up brightly and Samus studied it, holding it orthogonal to the ground before aiming and firing once. An incredibly sharp crystal about the size of her fore-arm exited the barrel at high velocity, striking the snow and embedding itself. Her cannon took the orientation of what was once her Ice Beam. [Needle Beam Acquired!] [The Needle Beam, unlike your traditional Ice Beam, fires a thin, incredibly sharp crystal needle at bullet-like velocity. The projectile is extremely lethal against soft targets, but quickly loses its use against armored targets, as the crystal will merely shatter; ideal for dispatching multiple metroids quickly and efficiently, as well as any other fleshy targets. Impact from a charged round of the Needle Beam will encase a target completely or partially in crystal, allowing for the use of a missile to quickly eliminate tougher adversaries.] Samus was about to dismiss her visor when another notification popped up: [Apparent Charge Beam Combination bundled with the beam. Scanning...] [Crystal Lattice Acquired!] [The Crystal Lattice is the Charge Beam Combination of the Needle Beam. At the cost of seven missiles, the attack will trigger the growth of monolithic-proportioned crystals from the ground, ensnaring multiple targets or possibly the limb of a much larger target.] Samus returned to her combat visor and, with another weapon added to her arsenal, she was ready to continue on the task of finding a way out of this damn lakebed. She destroyed the remaining crystals in the area to replace her energy and missiles as much as she could. Her energy was replenished to full capacity, while her ammunition could only be replenished to approximately seventy-nine percent capacity. It was good enough for her, and easily able to get her by should she run into trouble. Sensing no movement or any presence of anything that could attempt to attack her, she decided to remove her helmet and sit in the snow. She placed her arm and arm cannon on top of her knees and just laid her forehead on the cool metal, gently closing her eyes and thinking. After a few deep breaths and zoning out for a few minutes, Samus lifted her head and stared down at the dead Hydra. Studying its form and curvature, her blue eyes followed the length of the heads, almost memorizing it as she passed the time. However, upon 'tracing' the path of the middle head, she noticed something a bit out of place. Standing up and walking closer to where the third head landed, she found that it was not embedded in the snow... but that it looked like its head had fell into a hole of some sort. Investigating further and not caring about the snowfall picking up (and patting her directly in the face), she looked down the hole that the head was hanging in, and found that said hole was not a natural formation. The Hydra had actually broken through the ceiling of what looked like underground catacombs when it fell dead. Samus was able to spy some dim lights from reflections off of crystals, but no activity from below. Looking back around and confirming that there was indeed no way out of the lakebed, she realized that there was really no choice but to explore these caverns and see where they lead. This totally can't backfire in any possible way. So, Samus fixed her helmet back on her head and with a gentle bound, jumped straight down and into the waiting caverns. Edited by Random_Dragon.