Metroid Equis

by Flammenwerfer


32. Impact Crater

Metroid Equis

Chapter 32

Impact Crater


[Impact Crater Outskirts | 27 Hours Later]


“Completely and utterly destroyed” was too generous of a descriptive phrase for the remnants of the offending Changeling army. Its fate was necessary, however, to ensure the safety of the Empire; as a result, the Changelings would hopefully not be able to mount another offense while allied concentration shifted towards the ultimate goal: The Impact Crater. Princess Luna was right about the travel time, which was primarily due to the fact that a storm rolled through from the Griffon Kingdom, obscuring vision and searing any exposed skin in the blisteringly cold conditions.

The Warhorse, accompanied by a battalion of five hundred of the most seasoned troops that Equestria and the Federation could currently spare, had stopped just outside of a mile and a half from the crater proper once forward scouting elements determined that the Changelings had built what appeared to be a fortress of ice surrounding the core. As well, their arrival during the night ensured that they would have to wait until the morning to launch any attack.

The ‘Phazon Fortress’ was the most interesting part, however. Further reconnaissance flights by Federation air assets over the crater proper had clearly shown that the meteor itself was no longer there, having been dragged underground while Phazon was breathed into life from an entire network of tunnel entrances dotting the entire area.

Scans by two reassigned capital ships were inconclusive, unable to determine the location of the missing meteor and its core; therefore, neither orbital bombardment nor low-altitude bombing runs would be feasible courses of action. A large portion of the underground network was mapped, though; its sheer size indicating with near certainty that the Hive indeed rested there. Even so, without any sign of the core, indiscriminately bombing the crater would only complicate matters, since the result from the previous conclusion was that Samus, along with coalition forces, would have to go in. Furthermore, such a bombardment could collapse tunnels throughout the Hive network, making locating the core that much more of a migraine.

That also meant that Samus would not be out of a job in the near future.

The worst of the blizzard cleared for a few seconds, revealing the Warhorse, standing rigid and lifeless, along with several tanks and infantry entrenched next to it. The wind whipped snow against anyone unlucky enough to be on foot, and troops so exposed did their best to keep their balance, and their warmth. Samus and a certain armored Lunar Alicorn, however, remained unphased as the latter looked through a pair of binoculars at their target while the Hunter, outfitted only in her Zero Suit, just stood by and observed.

“Are you not frigid right now?” Luna commented with a curious tone of voice, not peeling her eyes away. Samus continued to shield her face from the wind and snow.

“I just spent nearly a day mentally locked in the Warhorse, I need some fresh air,” she replied, her breath easily visible with her exhalation. Luna shrugged and continued to observe the fortification ahead of them. It appeared to be a monolithic wall with large amounts of Phazon spidering across its surface like veins. It covered the only entrance into the crater area, as it was flanked on either side by mountains which potentially held more difficult obstacles on them. Thus, the only sure way forward was straight through this defensive structure.

“Did you get any sleep?” Luna asked, again not looking away from the enemy, though the silhouette was disappearing under the blizzard. Magical augmentations could only aid so much against extreme weather that was not controlled by pegasi.

“Some… but I’m used to not getting a lot when I’m deployed, so it’s fine,” Samus answered, beginning to blow air into her hands and rub them together for warmth, as well as shifting from side to side. Luna rolled her eyes, mildly amused at the Hunter’s constant movement in order to generate heat. The attention Luna paid to the Hunter, however, came at the expense of her analysis, but those thoughts left as soon as they came; especially when the blizzard continued to abate, markedly improving their visibility of the target. Due to her uncertainty as to when the storm would regain its momentum, Luna decided that it was time to advance. The Princess lowered the binoculars and teleported them out of existence.

“Let us mount up. It is time.”

“What’s the plan?” Samus asked, secretly eager to return to the warmth of the Warhorse. Luna ruffled her feathers a bit to rid herself of the snow in her wings before replying:

“Rather simple. We attack straight in the front, break through the fortification, and you enter the Hive to locate the meteor core. I shall be piloting this time, however.”

“And what about you and the rest of the troops once we breach the wall?” the Hunter asked, stretching and rolling her shoulders a bit before equipping her suit.

“We are just here to ensure you have enough time to do what you must do,” Luna replied resolutely. That struck somewhat of a chord with Samus; essentially, Luna was risking her own life, along with the lives of her own troops, plus Federation Marines to ensure she could work as fast as she could without all the extra pressure. It would certainly make her job easier, and the blonde-haired girl was, again, not quite sure of the mix of feelings and emotions she was experiencing.

“Just so you know, the entire crater area and then some is gonna completely collapse once the core is destroyed. You’ll know exactly when that happens, and that’ll be your cue to tuck tail out of there, alright?” Samus cautioned, keying a few commands into her cannon and letting the Lunar Princess know exactly what to expect come the moment of truth. She had a feeling that there wasn’t a more opportune time to do so. Luna nodded with a small grunt.

“Just ensure you get out as well, yes?” the Princess added, the slightest pleading edge to her tone evident. Samus responded with a friendly nod, a grin on her face veiled by her helmet.  

“Let us get situated and then we shall pass on the order just before the initial salvos.”

No reply from Samus was needed as the two chose their own methods of ascending the giant machine; one flew, and one used her Spider Ball.


Galactic Federation Marine and Magickakorps armor were both insulated quite nicely, but even that did not stop the troops from shivering at least slightly. No one could hold a candle to Starry, though, in terms of comparative misery. She sat on her haunches behind a tank, hoping some of the exhaust given off of it would warm her up, but to little avail. The others could even hear her teeth chattering from inside her helmet as she stared at the ground, looking absolutely miserable. While the others of CV-Squad managed as well as they could, Starry did not want to deal with anything at the moment aside from just getting warm.

“Is... she alright?” Sydney asked as she laid eyes upon the poor mare. Radiance looked over her way and could not help but let out a highly amused giggle.

“She’s fine, just being overdramatic as always. Starry’s not the biggest fan of the cold.”

“Absolutely hates it,” Windfire added, joining the conversation. “The arctic warfare training was hysterical with her, because she melted the snow with how much she bitched.”

“Eh, I can sympathize with her…” Arianna said, while rubbing her hands together.

Not too far away, Nathan, Jacob, and Constance emerged from one of the few command vehicles that were used for logistics purposes, and moved to rejoin the group. Nathan stopped, however, when he spied a downtrodden Starry behind one of the tanks.

“I’ll join you all in a second,” he commented, breaking off from Constance and Jacob as they went to join the other three. He casually walked over and took a seat next to the chattering mare, who was muttering profanities under her breath through her shaky breaths:

“...fuck… cold shit… fuck this place… goddamn blizzard… shit Frozen North…”

“Not a fan of the cold, huh?” he finally broke the silence after listening to her ramblings for about forty-five seconds. Startled, Starry immediately sat up straight with an ‘eep!’ She clearly was not aware of her surroundings in her attempt to stay as warm as possible.

“Oh! Heh. When’d you get here?”

“About a minute ago.”

“Ah… but yeah, I hate the cold. I’ll be glad when the assault starts, because then I’ll get warmed up pretty quickly,” Starry stated somewhat awkwardly.

“Yeah, I’d take warmer weather any day, myself,” Nathan agreed. He spared a glance at the Warhorse’s silhouette a couple hundred feet away; its imposing figure still as rigid, grey, and lifeless as it had been for the last several hours. Starry nodded a couple of times at his words, imagining a wonderful, warm place she loved. The thought helped her along, if only a little bit.

“Nathan, take me to Zebranica,” Starry half-jokingly ordered, still not facing towards the human. The latter looked over curiously.

“I literally have no idea where that is,” he chuckled, shifting his position to face her more properly. Starry finally looked over and up at him.

“Doesn’t matter. I know where it is. Let’s go.”

“Right now?” Nate asked, humoring the quirky, grey-coated mare.

“Right now,” Starry affirmed. “We can desert and veg out on a beach in a tropical, southern nation far far far away from the cold.”

“Desertion is a capital offense, Starry,” Nathan pointed out as a friendly reminder. The mare giggled.

“It’s only illegal if you get caught,” she replied playfully.

“True… what’s the punishment for desertion in the Magickakorps?” he asked, furthering the meaningless conversation.

“Execution by unicorn firing squad,” Starry answered without missing a beat. Nathan blinked a few times in genuine surprise.

“Wait, you’re actually serious?”

“No.”

“So what is it then?” he asked, baited by his own curiosity.

“Life in prison.”

“Really?”

“No.” Starry fought to repress a smirk behind her helmet.

“Goddammit!” Nathan exclaimed under his breath, having fallen for the little jest. Starry threw her head back in a fit of giggling, the human joining her before long. Truth be told, Starry was already feeling much warmer after just a couple of minutes. Not very far away, the remaining six pairs of eyes of CV-Squad were on the two.

“Well, she’s certainly feeling better,” Constance remarked casually.

“You just might owe me fifty bits soon, Cap,” Windfire pointed out, still not looking away from the human-pony duo. The three humans, however, all looked oddly at him.

“...Seriously? You’re placing bets on this?” Arianna asked skeptically.

“Do humans even have cross-species relations?” Radiance asked, keeping to herself the fact that she had placed fifty bits in the collective pool as well.

“Not entirely common, yet not completely unheard of,” Jake confirmed, gazing back towards the two in time to witness Starry shoulder-bump Nathan, the latter not put off in the slightest by the silly contact. Arianna also witnessed the gesture and immediately turned back to Constance.

“Fuck it, fifty credits that it’s gonna happen,” she said with complete seriousness in her voice. Sydney let out a mighty guffaw while Jacob shook his head in mock disapproval as the Equine Squad Leader willed a small piece of paper and a pencil into existence, writing down the bet:

“Fifty… credits… it will... Arianna. Whatever that amounts to if an exchange rate gets set up. Anypony else?”

Jacob looked over to the two subjects of this conversation, as well as taking a quick glance around him.

“Nate may be adventurous, but I think this is really strange territory, even for him. Fifty credits; it ain’t happening,” he said, placing his own bet. Sydney, who was just calming down from her laughing fit, nearly lost her footing and fell into the snow as she started choking on her own spit from laughing again. This was hilariously, unbelievably ridiculous. Radiance covered her ‘mouth’ with her hoof as she attempted to suppress her own giggles, lest they attract unwanted attention from the subjects of their little competition.

“Fifty… Jacob…” Constance read out as she scribbled on the paper.

“Stop! I’m gonna fucking choke…!” Sydney wheezed, doing her best to catch her breath. If anything could be said about Sydney, it was the fact that she had a contagious laugh.

Nathan and Starry looked over to see their friends and squadmates behaving… oddly. Constance was writing something down; whatever it was held Windfire’s, Radiance’s, and Arianna’s  undivided attention, while Sydney was absolutely losing her shit. Jake was just standing around and attempting to look occupied with something else.

“What the hell are they doing?” Nathan asked, eyebrow raised under his visor. Before Starry could voice an opinion, however, the Warhorse suddenly sprung to life, a sparkling, midnight-blue ethereal mane shooting out of its formerly lifeless head. As soon as it started up, the main horn launched a hard-magic shell towards the Changeling fortification, startling everyone present out of their idling. Nathan, recovering first, quickly stood up and grabbed his rifle from over his shoulder, bringing it forward and letting it fall into his grasp.

“Looks like you got your wish! It’s about to get really warm,” he commented. Starry was already ready to go.

“Let’s go!” she exclaimed, her thoughts on her partners’ activities set aside in favor of the looming battle.

CV-Squad quickly regrouped and discussed their strategy amid deafening salvos from the combined firepower of the Warhorse and their tanks. Soon enough, however, the advance began and all troops moved out, using the steadily moving armor as cover from whatever would be thrown at them.


A good second after the highly energized magical ‘round’ left the horn, it impacted ferociously right in the middle of the fortification. Princess Luna immediately began the slow trot towards their target while Samus, sitting somewhat comfortably in the commander’s seat, gazed outward through the provided viewport.

“That definitely woke ‘em up…” Samus spoke, thinking out loud. Federation tanks formed up around the gargantuan mechanoid while troops of both varieties spread out in organized formations while using any cover afforded by the armor available. The armored vehicles kept pace with the Warhorse’s advance as, combined, they continued to hammer the Phazon Fortress with shells and magic. So far, they were completely out of range of any possible Changeling counterattack, but that would most likely end sooner rather than later.

“I am not entirely sure about that, Samus. Let us continue ‘rattling the bed!’” Luna exclaimed, firing off another round before following up with several bursts from the secondary horn. Despite the snowpack on the ground, the speed that the Warhorse advanced on top of no resistance meant that they had already covered a quarter of a mile.

“Well, they’re not rushing to greet us, that’s for sure… but you can bet they’re not gonna want us near the crater,” Samus commented, merely observing the movements of their forces. Federation fighters still flew close air support, though obscured by the low-lying cloud layer. At the moment, there was little she could do until they were through the fortified wall. Samus silently wished that there was a larger port-hole to shoot out of.

“Indeed, but the good news is that from what we have seen of the Changelings’ combat capability, there will be little they can field to stand in our way,” Luna stated proudly as the Warhorse continued to soldier on. However, continuing to observe the fortification slowly drawing closer, a bright, emerald light pierced through the slight haze.

“Luna, what’s that ball of light?” Samus asked, watching it quickly close the distance but still not able to discern it. As it got closer and closer, Samus’s instincts already knew the answer to that. Luna herself barely had time to react to the new development when the large, magical round slammed into the Warhorse’s right-front leg. The massive explosive force startled Luna to such a degree that she almost lost her footing. Once the dust cleared, however, the only damage to the Warhorse was a couple miniscule scratches. The impact had rattled the entire interior and Samus had to reposition herself.

“Blasted insects! They are pooling their magical power to create much more powerful offensive spells,” Luna shouted angrily, cursing the Changelings over another example of their unexpected cunning in the magical arts. Fusing magic together from multiple casters was not unheard of and, in fact, was employed among the Magickakorps to combat larger threats, such as Manticores or even lesser dragons. In essence, what would be considered standard magical fire could be enhanced to the equivalent of an anti-armor or artillery shell in terms of penetration and explosive power.

“Cunning. Can they damage the Warhorse?”

“Unlikely. A few scratches or dents in the enchanted armor but nothing crippling unless in vast numbers. They will, however slow us down if we do not exercise due care to evade when possible,” Luna answered, firing a volley of explosive rounds out of the main horn and following up with five-second bursts of the secondary horns. Federation tanks easily kept pace in middle gear, keeping up their fire against the wall while doing their best to also avoid any of the newly observed explosive magical rounds. Through decent maneuverability and the ability to see enemy fire coming, no casualties had been reported thus far, and the less, the better.

The Warhorse continued to soldier on through the final stretch, easily evading the new, more lethal projectiles. Luna was keen to take this as slowly as she was allowed in order to minimize casualties and ensure that Samus could safely be inserted into the crater hive network. However, a foreign, incoming transmission on the radio network put a damper on that notion:

“Your Highness, this is Captain Gates of the G.F.S. Stratus Light in orbit above the impact crater,” a new voice broke across the communications channels. “Scans are indicating that the enemy is sealing up entrances to the Hive network with Phazon. Unless you plan on digging, the window of opportunity is closing fast.”

“Yeah… I may be good, Luna, but I can’t dig through Phazon,” Samus added, being completely realistic with the situation at hand. That the Changelings were sealing the entrances to their tunnels with the mutagen was of enough importance that the fleet felt the need to notify the Princess, so it was clear that there was not much time left on the clock. The attack force was still a little more than half a mile out from the fortification, but it had taken considerable damage, a spiderweb of cracks competing with the Phazon veins.

Although the Changelings had finally started to mount resistance with the magical equivalent of small arms fire and anti-armor, it was only slowing the advance, not stalling it. If too many casualties were incurred, however, they might not be able to distract the Changelings from Samus’ individual advance long enough, slowing her down even more as she fought her way through their Hive network.

“Acknowledged. Thank you, Captain,” Luna replied before addressing the Hunter: “Well, it looks like we must quicken our pace. I suggest securing yourself…”

“Wait, what do you mean by that?”

Samus did not have to wait long for her answer, as the comfortable ride quickly became quite turbulent. The Warhorse cycled up to a full-fledged gallop, causing the earth to tremble and making for an incredible sight to behold. Earth and snow were thrown outward from the impact of the enormous hooves, yet the machine continued to pick up speed, easily outpacing the supporting tanks which had to shift into the highest gear, but still began to fall behind the terrifyingly graceful machine. The infantry that did not manage to hitch a ride were completely left behind. Inside the Warhorse, however, Samus was doing her best to stabilize herself.

“Whoa! Luna… what are you doing?” the Hunter asked somewhat apprehensively. She heard no magical fire being lobbed towards the fortress and they were quickly closing in.

“Ramming speed!” came the response from the focused lunar diarch.

“Is the Warhorse rated for ramming??” Samus asked, not taking her eyes from the viewport as their target was closing in, physical impact at this point unavoidable.

“We are about to find out! Brace yourself!” Luna commanded, charging the horn as much as she could and releasing one final, devastating magical shell into the weakest part of the wall she observed. Immediately after, she lowered the Warhorse’s head so that the horn pointed straight forward like a spear, still charged luminously. Just before the moment of truth, Samus only had one word to describe her thoughts:

“Shit!”

The impact was nothing short of awe-inspiring. The dense metal alicorn crashed straight into the substantially weakened Changeling fortification, the charged horn acting as an impact shield or a spall liner of sorts. The horn pierced straight through the ice, further destabilizing its already-compromised structure, providing a point of failure which the Warhorse immediately exploited, destroying a vast section of the icy obstruction through sheer kinetic force. All entrenched Changelings who didn’t flee from the oncoming mechanoid died, either crushed outright by its sheer bulk upon impact, or else by falling to their deaths, thrown clear by the force of the collision.

As the entire body of the Warhorse penetrated the final defense, the snowbound and iced-over crater could be easily seen, stretching for who-knew-how-far with its center deep within the earth. Several tunnel entrances were still open but more Changelings were quickly popping out to slow the advance while others of the Soldier caste quickly worked to seal the remaining ones.

“Samus! Go, now!” the Lunar Princess outright ordered Samus out of the confines of the Warhorse. The Hunter wasted no time in moving to the hatch, quickly exiting, downing two flying Changelings unfortunate enough to find themselves there, and using her Spider Ball to quickly descend the right-front leg. With a little extra momentum afforded by her Boost Ball, she bounded off the leg and phased back into standing form in order to hit the ground sprinting. Samus completely sped past or outright ran through any Changelings that got in her way once her Speed Booster kicked in, a distinctly rainbow tail of energy following her.

She spared quick glances at the crater ground beneath her, looking for any opening and completely ignoring the fact that she was being shot at from all directions. Soon enough, her efforts bore fruit when she spied a large Hive entrance that had yet to be sealed. After running through and completely annihilating one more lone Soldier that dared attempt to stay her advance, Samus bounded and somersaulted in the air, perfectly jumping through the entrance and disappearing into the network of caverns below, while the battle continued to rage on the surface.


[Impact Crater]


After dropping approximately fifteen feet, Samus’s boots hit the rocky ground, and she hunched low to absorb the impact while quickly finishing off five Drones that were passing through. Similar to her previous experience in the catacombs after the debacle with the Crystal Hydra, light was able to easily penetrate the Phazon-veined rock, although much of her ambient light came from the energy that was given off by the massive amounts of Phazon that lined the sides of the path and the walls of the tunnels. A brief glance at her motion tracker and physical surroundings revealed that, for the moment, she was on her own. Samus checked her map data, looking at the portion of the tunnel network that had been mapped so far by Federation orbital scans; to say that the Hive network was "massive" would be a significant understatement.

The tunnels appeared to criss-cross throughout the entire impact crater, following no discernible pattern; each section probably holding untold surprises for her, but Samus was not keen on taking her time exploring this time around: she had a job that needed to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

But where to start…

A few growls, roars, and hisses emanating from somewhere behind Samus alerted her to the presence of less-than-welcoming life at her back. She had to make a quick decision on where to go;  this time, fortunately, she could rely on available map data. Continuing to study the three-dimensional mapping, she noticed that towards the center of the Impact Crater, a gigantic tunnel was present where the core should have been, appearing as if it had been taken underground. This corroborated earlier reconnaissance. One way to start would be to make her way to a group of smaller tunnels that ran parallel to this central shaft before they intersected deep beneath the surface. If she followed that to the Phazon Core, she would be one step closer to her final objective.

Firstly, though, was choosing the quickest route; a simple job for Samus’s map. A couple more commands, and the the quickest path to a potential intersection given the available data was highlighted in bright, pulsing red. While “shortest” it may have been, the trek would still be an arduous one. Another wave of collective hissing and growling coming from behind, so it was in Samus’s best interest to get a move on.

Let’s get this over with.

Resting her elbow against her side and leveling her Arm Cannon, and ensuring all her systems were primed for battle, she set off at a jog, though Samus quickly realized that she was producing her own illumination, which could prove problematic if she wanted to be at all stealthy as she progressed. The light was magenta in color and, looking over her shoulder, she quickly found the source to be her hard-magic ‘wings,’ casting a soft glow.

Is there a way to shut these off? the Hunter thought irritably.

The moment the words ‘shut these off’  crossed her mind, the wings vanished completely, disappearing as if they had never existed in the first place. She could still feel them, however, and Samus tested this by willing them back into existence; sure enough, they reappeared immediately. Once more, she willed them away.

Neat.

With that sorted, she continued onto the next area as determined by her route, where the tunnel she started in opened up into a somewhat larger chamber. Light was much more plentiful here, as below the pathway was a massive pit of Phazon, though this time it was not the usual blue strain that she was used to seeing. No; this strain was bright emerald, definitely an entirely different ‘flavor,’ possibly the product of a mutation or magical interference unique to Equis. Samus confidently strode to where the solid tunnel ended and an bridge began, taking a cautious look over and into the pit. Calling forth her Scan Visor yielded some new information:

[Preliminary analysis indicates significant differences in this sample of Phazon from those encountered on Tallon IV and Aether. This sample's emerald color is attributed to an inclusion of lethal amounts of raw magic into the Phazon vein. While the Varia Suit's shielding is able to protect you from the ambient radiation, it will not protect you from direct contact. Further study recommended.]

All she needed to know, for now. Samus dismissed her Scan Visor and, reverting it back to its Combat variant, turned her gaze towards the bridge that she had every intention of crossing as quickly as she could manage. Right as her left foot set down on the bridge, a massive, green magical blast impacted just ahead of her, obliterating the bridge in an instant and spraying the area with stone fragments due to the explosive force. Samus threw her arm up in an instinctive gesture, and looked towards the source of the blast, observing a tunnel that overlooked her position. From within, two Soldier Changelings leered down at her, horns charged brilliantly.
She immediately moved to engage, aiming and firing a torrent of Magicka blasts towards their position, killing the Soldier on the right. Its body plummeted into the Phazon as Samus quickly dispatched the second with three more shots, immolating and vaporizing it with pure weaponized magic.

Checking her surroundings more closely, Samus was able to spot several more pairs of malevolent eyes staring at her from all directions… and that number multiplied as she realized that even more, smaller tunnels made their way into this phazon pit. Not keen on stalling her advance to fight every single Changeling, Samus deployed her wings before jumping as high as her legs could take her, using the extra boost afforded by her Space Jump and the two magical appendages to easily clear the pit. Once her boots connected with the ground again, Samus came to terms with the fact that the longer she delayed, the lower her chances of success would ultimately become.

Time to sprint it!

Samus broke into a sprint down her chosen route, ignoring any activity behind her. She kept her pace just below where her Speed Booster would kick in, to account for her potential need to move in something other than a straight line.

Three Soldier Changelings attempted to ambush her from the top as she came by but they dropped too early… it only took Samus a little bit of extra energy to ignite her Speed Booster and plow through their forms with deadly force. Blood and pieces of exoskeleton were all that remained, but Samus spared no thought, bringing her speed back down to more manageable levels and continuing on. Her blood vessels pumped fresh oxygen to her body, her heart beat strong and fast at the sensation and knowledge that she was so close… so close to meeting the final foe and absolutely nothing would stand in her way.

A lucky ambush by a Soldier Changeling at a tunnel intersection sent Samus and her ambusher harshly to the ground. Another Soldier, along with five Drones teleported into existence and intended to overwhelm her downed form but Samus broke an attempted binding spell, shooting her potential executioner in the head before flipping back up to her feet. She cast a shield between herself and her remaining aggressors, firing from around its perimeter, making quick work of the second Soldier and four of the Drones. Dropping her shield in an attempt to locate the last survivor, a magical power blast nailed her in the back, causing her to stumble and fall on her side. Her shielding easily absorbed the projectile with minimal loss in energy.

Rolling to the side, Samus quickly located her target charging up another magical power round for a point-blank shot. Reacting, the Hunter bounded up and sprang forward, sliding inside the Drone’s guard and backhanding it with her cannon, dissipating the charge around its horn and freeing her to continue her assault. Samus decked the Drone in the snout with her left fist and quickly cast a binding spell of her own to prevent its recovery. She forced her enemy to the ground, planted her cannon against its head and fired.

The small skirmish was over in a grand total of twenty-three seconds and Samus spared barely a moment’s thought before she resumed her trek towards her destination. It certainly would not be the last skirmish she had to wade through, considering that her map showed one more major ‘section’ before her path took her to the core of the Hive. Surprisingly, though, she encountered far less resistance than she expected, leading her to believe that Luna’s plan of wreaking absolute chaos in and around other parts of the Hive was working as intended, drawing forces that would otherwise have contested her fiercely.

Samus continued to make unprecedented progress through the puzzle of a Hive, though her map made it just that simple. The Changelings were getting desperate, however, throwing whatever reserves they had in an effort to mount some resistance to the Hunter’s unyielding advance.

Samus’s motion tracker showed that she had company giving chase behind her, but that did not deter her in the slightest. She quickly came up on another large Phazon chamber. The presence of the emerald Phazon notwithstanding, the larger room would give her plenty of space to play.

Three Drones dared to stand in her way at the entrance of the luminous chamber, and Samus cut them down with three precision Magicka shots while on the move. The moment the third creature fell lifeless, Samus cleared the entrance, running along the path which ran to the exit on the other end, flanked by Emerald Phazon on both sides. She brought herself to a halt and turned on her heels, aiming her cannon back towards any Changelings that may have followed her, only to find a dozen of them stopped, statue-like, outside of the entrance… glaring at her.

Who wants to die first??

Strangely enough, however, none moved to attack her… in fact, they retreated out of sight, a few of them teleporting out of existence. It appeared that the Changeling’s willingness to throw their lives away had finally been broken upon seeing the carnage Samus had wrought. She lowered her cannon and let out a curt huff… right as her motion tracker picked up a lone enemy behind her.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

A chill went down Samus’s spine as she went rigid. She slowly turned around, cannon aimed, only to find a lone metroid, though safe to say, it was not like any metroid she had ever seen before.

Okay...what the hell is that?

To begin with, this metroid was half again as large as a standard metroid with fangs that, rather than being curved, were straight and as sharp as obsidian… on top of the fact that there was an extra pair of them. The transparent gelatinous layer was bright green rather than teal and its internal organs looked like they had been crystallized. Samus’s Scan Visor was already at work, and it certainly pulled up a great deal of information:

[Recorded to Logbook]

[Morphology: Arcane Metroid]

[Standard metroid over-inundated with the magical effects of Planet Equis. This metroid has been exposed to staggering amounts of pure magic, both ambient and direct, targeted exposure. A moderate mutation has formed as a result, increasing the metroid’s natural resistance to magical assault; incoming attacks may be actively redirected instead of merely absorbed. The Arcane Metroid seeks to feed on both vital and magical forces, increasing its lethality against magic-sensitive beings. Its fangs can pierce fifty millimeters of armor-grade steel, and are not restricted to merely retaining hold on a target for energy absorption purposes. Magical crystallization has manifested around the Arcane Metroid’s nuclei, enhancing its overall resilience. Recommended Tactic: Use your Needle Beam to destroy the protective gelatinous layer; then switch to Anti-Magic Missiles to destroy the nuclei.]

The second Samus dismissed her scan visor, the Arcane Metroid charged at her with frightening speed, forcing her to contort her form to avoid getting her face smothered by three pairs of fangs while also avoiding falling into the Phazon. Turning on her heel and aiming at the recovering metroid, Samus switched to her Needle Beam. What she noticed, as she observed its recovery, was that it swayed side to side much faster than its standard counterpart, but this fact was of little importance. Samus unleashed a rapid-fire torrent of needle rounds at the Metroid, more than a few finding their marks and piercing straight through the gel layer.

The metroid screeched in agony but charged at Samus once more, attempting to bore its fangs into her yet again; but in response, and like any encounter with a more traditional metroid, Samus dodged to the side, the only difference being the usage of her Needle Beam rather than a vastly preferred Ice Beam variant. While a charged Needle Beam shot would have done the job, the metroid would easily outmaneuver the slower round. Samus’s patience paid off when five more needles shredded through the Arcane Metroid’s protective layer, the gelatinous sheath losing integrity and exposing the crystallized inner nuclei.

Samus quickly armed a missile, the Anti-Magic warhead primed and ready. After another failed attempt by the creature to latch onto the Hunter, she quickly fired the single homing projectile into its exposed innards, the magical crystals shattering explosively under the force of the Anti-Magical concussive detonation. The Arcane Metroid screeched one last time before it dropped lifelessly into the phazon pool, never to be seen again.

Samus, again, was only concerned about getting to the Hive Core, but as she started towards the intended exit, her motion tracker picked up another lone enemy spawning from the exact same place that the Arcane Metroid fell. Sparing a reluctant glance, the very same metroid appeared no worse for wear, save for being somewhat different in appearance and quite pissed off. The gel layer was now dark emerald in color while a green, magical charge was flickering around the fangs and the now repaired internal organs… much like a horn would appear as it charges magic.

[Recorded to Logbook]

[Morphology: Chi Metroid]

[Arcane Metroid further evolved from extreme Magical Phazon exposure. The Chi Metroid is the result of exposing the nuclei of an Arcane Metroid to a catastrophic amount of Phazon-tainted magical energy, creating a new divergent form of the Metroid evolutionary line. While retaining the attributes and abilities of the Arcane metroid, the Chi Metroid is highly advanced, possessing the ability to fire potent blasts of the same magic that gave birth to it. The incredible power lent by the corrupt energy will cause significant shielding depletion upon direct contact. However, the unstable nature of the Chi Metroid’s nuclei require it to stop before firing; it is completely vulnerable during this time. Exploit this vulnerability by barraging it with Anti-Magic missiles when it prepares to fire.]

Samus briefly wondered if this thing would follow her if she made a run for it… but that quickly left her mind when the metroid charged at her. She evaded easily, but it recovered much more quickly than its predecessor, emerald-colored magic flickering around its fangs as it charged. Samus immediately armed her missiles and moved to strike, as she had little desire to figure out what such magical ‘bursts’ entailed.

Samus launched two missiles back to back at the creature. Much to her surprise, however, the Chi Metroid immediately launched an energy attack in the short span of time before the missiles crossed the intervening space. The attack reminded Samus nostalgically of the Parasite Queen on the late Frigate Orpheon. The missiles impacted the creature, forcing it to abruptly break off its attack, but Samus had little time to evade; the energy beam seared across her suit’s left shoulder pauldron The shielding that surrounded it was nearly obliterated and once the remaining shielding was redistributed, her suit calculated that the brief attack had depleted fifteen percent of her suit’s energy capacity.

Jesus…

The metroid paused but went back for more, moving to charge its magic once again; this time, however, Samus gave it no quarter. She fired missile after missile, a total of eleven highly-energized warheads impacting the Chi Metroid before it convulsed violently in midair and exploded, leaving no remains behind to ‘resurrect.’

Samus sighed heavily, allowing herself to calm down just a tad after the short yet riveting engagement with essentially two new types of metroids. She then moved towards the exit, confirming with her map that there was one last massive drop into the Hive Core. Exiting the previous chamber and proceeding to what looked like a massive underground sinkhole, the blue phazon residue confirmed by her suit’s systems corroborating the claim that the actual meteor passed through this area.

Glancing into the sinkhole, Samus could tell the drop would be a considerable one; the bottom of the shaft disappeared into blue-black nothingness. Thankfully, though, her map indicated that the drop was angled, so she could essentially slide down at some point and not get killed by the fall.

Looking over her shoulder once more and ensuring her pursuers had indeed given up, along with no other surprise visits from any new metroids, Samus hunched low after taking in a deep breath.

Alright… this is it.

Samus gently jumped into the ominous, phazon-covered void which would bring her face to face with the core itself.


Edited by Random_Dragon and ToxiClay