//------------------------------//
// Corruption: New Mission 
// Story: Another Hatchling 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	"Saved their lives?" Cadence asked worriedly.  "You mean, the Phazon was going to..."

"Yup," Spike replied.  "As best as I was able to determine, Dark Samus planted the Phazon Seeds in us in the hopes of harvesting them after we were fully corrupted, absorbing our unique ability sets into her own and eliminating the greatest threat to her goals in one fell swoop."

"She was...perturbed that Spike thwarted her," Ghor stated mildly.

"That's an understatement," Rundus and Gandrayda chimed in together.  The way they glared at each other afterwards made Shining Armor, amongst others, chuckle.

"At any rate," Samus continued, "we went to the Aurora Unit for our mission briefing..."





Reaching the Aurora chamber, Samus activated the interface to speak with the unit.

"Welcome Samus and Spike Aran," the Aurora Unit intoned.  "Let us begin.  Time is most critical.  During the attempted Pirate invasion of Norion, it was confirmed that two nearby planets were similarly attacked.  These planets are named Bryyo and Elysia.  These 'Leviathans' have impacted and embedded themselves deep into each planet, spreading a virulent Phazon inside their bodies.  The Leviathans must be destroyed.  As Spike has been informed, Rundus was dispatched to Bryyo and Ghor to Elysia on that exact mission, while Gandrayda was dispatched to find the Pirate stronghold.  This was two weeks ago, and we lost contact with them seven days ago.  They were also outfitted with PED suits like yours to take advantage of the Phazon their bodies were generating.  Your mission now is to complete their missions and find out what happened to them, and take whatever action you deem necessary in the process.  As Bryyo is closest, it is your first objective.  Good luck."

With the briefing complete, Samus and Spike immediately made for their ship.





"So what was Bryyo like?" Luna asked curiously.

"Unpleasant," Rundus replied.  "Equal parts barren stone, ruined citadels, and overgrown jungle.  The once proud natives had been reduced to feral madness."

"Natives?" Twilight asked in surprise.

"The Bryyonians were actually once allies of the Chozo," Samus explained.  "However, unlike the Chozo, they didn't learn the proper balance between technological advancement and attunement with nature, and it...destroyed them.  It led to civil war between the Lords of Science and the Shamans, with the regular citizenry divided between them, and sometimes even being turned into weapons by each.  In the end, the last Lord of Science found balance by combining science with the Nature Magic of their race...and his only Shaman disciple went out into the wilderness after his death to inscribe the records of what had happened, and attempt to turn what was left of their people back from howling barbarism.  She succeeded in the first.  ...we have no idea how successful she was in the latter."

Silence surrounded the table as they all took this in.  Even Discord hung his head in respect for the fallen.

Spike was the first to break the silence.  "It wasn't all bad, though," he mentioned.  "At least, not for me.  See, the entirety of the part of the planet we were exploring regarding the Leviathan was tropical...and almost entirely open air."

Rainbow, Scootaloo, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all smirked at that, with Rainbow and Cadence holding their hooves up to bump Spike's clenched claws.





As they came in for a landing on Bryyo, Samus and Spike noticed that the Leviathan was surrounded by a force shield of Space Pirate design.  On instructions from the Aurora Unit, they sought out a downed Federation Ship to reactivate its satellite uplink in hopes of getting more information.

Spike took to the air, intending to get an aerial survey of the areas available to explore, plot a course to the downed ship, and grab whatever useful items he could for Samus.  This included several missile expansions and Energy Tanks.

As Samus moved along an interior path, she encountered a great deal of evidence of Rundus' movements.  Several unnatural ice formations throughout the area - some encasing formerly hostile organic creatures - showed his progress.  A rather large ice bridge was evidence that he was expecting someone without his abilities to come after him, and sought to leave a path for them.  She took that as a good sign.

The central area of the first segment of Bryyo was a massive structure somewhat resembling Chozo ruins, but without the natural flow of stone and metal reminiscent of growing things that marked Chozo work.  For some reason, it made Samus feel uneasy to see a city so similar and yet so different from that which she grew up in.

After dealing with many hostile creatures - some new, and some similar to varieties she'd encountered on other worlds - Samus reached a point where the path was blocked by Phazon vines.  There were Phazon concentrations that could be destroyed with Phazon based weaponry to open the path.  Entering Hypermode, Samus did so.

Shortly after, Samus would have faced off against Reptilicus hunters, Phazon mutated ground based predators of Bryyo that resembled six-limbed velociraptors.  However, Bryyo had few high altitude fliers, and the Reptilicus had no reason to expect attack from an aerial creature, as there were none larger than them.  This made them easy prey for Spike, who took the first one out with a dropped boulder, the second with his flame breath, and the third with his claws.

A hidden alcove granted Samus the Grapple Swing upgrade, which restored the Grapple Beam's original function of swinging from Grapple Points.  This allowed Samus to follow the path Spike had plotted to the crashed ship, the GFS Theseus.

Due to the damage the ship had taken in crashing, there were no entrances to the control station large enough for Spike, so he'd been forced to wait for Samus to arrive.  It didn't take Samus long to restart the uplink, and she and Spike then waited for information from the Aurora Unit on where to go and what to do next.





"The satellite data gave us the location of two shield generators of Pirate construction," Samus explained.  "At first, Spike was all for trying to fly in and destroy them, but satellite mapping revealed that the Pirates had added anti-air turrets specifically designed to target small, high speed fliers."

Rainbow snickered.  "The Pirates designed anti-Spike turrets?"

Spike smirked in pride.  "Eeyup!"

"So we had to go in another way," Samus explained.  "Thankfully, the data also included two other landing points for the ship."

"On the way out, we spotted Rundus in the distance, but..."  Spike glanced towards Rundus.

"At that point, the Phazon corruption was already quite strong," Rundus explained.  "I...feared I would injure them if I got too close and lost control."  Noticing Samus, Spike, Ghor, and Gandrayda's firm gazes, he quailed.  "Alright, I was also too prideful to admit I'd failed my mission."  This admission brought more than a few snickers from those around the table, as well as a gentle pat on the side from Applejack.