Chapter 48: Bombing
Following the drone in the tunnel, Sweetie Belle and Samus reached a second part of the room with another Blue Door. Behind it was a curved hallway where they caught up with the drone from earlier which was still flying away. The hallway led to a big circular room with a large central platform that served as a pillar under a huge device that emitted some yellow energy on it. A wall at the right of the entrance turned the lower part of the room into a broken circle that will force Samus to walk all around the central platform to go to the other side. The top of the platform itself was surrounded by three walkways, two of which connected to other entrances in the upper level.
Out of these entrances came pirates. Some of them were the militia ones, the ones that barely had any armor, but there were also a few well armored ones, their armor protecting them from the simplest beams so Samus had to use charged beams and missiles against them.
Thanks to her flight, Sweetie Belle was able to deal with the pirates no matter where they were in the room, while Samus had to deal with the ones that directly faced here as she circled the central platform. On the way, she found out that there was an inactive elevator under the central platform, and the wall separating the lower section of the room actually was a tunnel (a big one, not one for the Morph Ball) out of which an armored pirate came before the entrance door closed behind him. After the pirate was killed, Samus saw that the door in question could only be opened from inside the tunnel.
Beside this door was the entrance of another curved hallway where an armored pirate ran away from Samus, closing behind him security doors. Too bad for him, the doors were so old that Samus easily destroyed them with a charged beam. Seeing this, the pirate took a lift to the upper level and closed one more security door before he reached one of the walkways to the central platforms. Almost immediately, the pirate was shredded, armor and flesh, by a fur ball suddenly hitting him while surrounded by sharp waves of energy like Samus' Screw Attack. The fur ball then rapidly moved away from him to another pirate, the first one dropping dead with half of his body turned into bloody pieces.
No more pirates came.
"This is what you were talking about when you said that my Screw Attack inspired you?" Samus asked to the fur ball.
Sweetie Belle uncurled herself before answering, "Yup! And it's very effective! I went Zoom! Zoom! Zoooom! and they were all dead before I knew it!" The filly then looked around at what remained of the pirates and frowned. "However, the result is quite messy... I think that I will avoid using it in front of people not... ready."
"I agree," Samus replied with a chuckle as she advanced.
The Hunter scanned in passing the huge device above the platform and discovered that it was a containment unit containing a nuclear substance.
Easy to guess that it will probably serve for the bomb. However, three locks were present to keep it here, and each of them had to be disengaged by firing at four targets simultaneously. Like on that roof structure at the exterior of the third pod back in the first part of SkyTown, or the cannon outside of the Aurora Unit's pod.
Both Samus and Sweetie Belle then went through the second entrance of the upper level, entering another curved hallway. This one had three pirate turrets, and two security doors closed and locked them in the hallway so they couldn't escape. Of course, the turrets were easily destroyed, and the doors quickly followed. A Blue Door waited for them at the end of the hallway.
According to Samus' map, there were more door in the room, either further up (a door with a White Blast Shield) or in the level the inactivated elevator led to (an Orange Door and another Blue Door). So this Blue Door was their only current choice.
The room after it was another hallway, a straight one this time, with a green surface for Wall Jump at the end. However, they were at the top of the green surface, not at the bottom, meaning that there was a lower section. They quickly discovered the mean to reach this lower section: by opening a security grating blocking a hole in the floor, in front of the green surface. Also, they spotted a Missile Expansion at the other side of a broken glass window.
After opening the grate by using a bomb in a slot, they fell on a second grate that they had to open the same way. At the bottom, they found an opening in the wall that led to the exterior where they had to destroy a Space Pirate Armored Tactical Carrier, a transport ship like the ones that dropped troops back where they fought Rundas (Sweetie Belle destroying a second passing in the background with a single powerful beam). They spotted a Spider Ball rail, certainly leading to the Missile Expansion, but Sweetie Belle simply flew to the expansion so they won't have to lose time coming back here to get it.
The exit door was here, leading to another curved hallway, this one consisting of two ledge separated by a gap Samus had to cross with the grapple. On the other ledge was a single Space Pirate that Sweetie Belle pushed into the gap with her magic.
The pirate had been guarding the entrance to another circular room that didn't have a roof. Holograms of many planets were in the walls at the top, slots for the Morph Ball below them, some of them accessed by Spider Ball rails. The statue of a Chozo like the one in the bay where they first landed was present, and most of the floor was made of glass. There was a lower section that could be accessed from the left side. Finally, a balcony could be seen further up, at the left. Two Aerotroopers more armored than the usual ones welcomed them.
Sweetie Belle quickly dealt with her Aerotrooper by destroying his jetpack before launching him far into the sky above, the pirate disappearing in the clouds to fall back who knew where. Then, she grabbed the other pirate by the leg to maintain him in place so Samus could target him with her Ice Missiles.
With the pirates dead, Samus was able to scan around to discover more about this interesting room, revealing it to be the Observatory from which the Chozo Searcher (certainly the one the statue here represented) from the logs launched satellites to research the planets. What revealed to be satellites were ready to be launched, awaiting a planetary target. In the center of the room was the holographic projector used to chose said targets to launch the satellites, but it was currently offline. On it was a hook.
It was clear that they will have to come back, but right now, there was nothing they could do. So they went to the lower section where they found an elevator that Samus activated with a Hand Scanner. In this lower section, they also found a Morph Ball slot that was control system for the projector, also offline because the unit needed repair, and a panel of Phazite under the projector, recently placed probably by the pirates for some reason.
They took the elevator, going down to the beginning on a corridor. At the end of this corridor was a Blue Door to a room with another, bigger elevator inactivated because of a damaged circuit board. Once the board repaired, the elevator led them to an upper section where they quickly destroyed two mines before reaching the exit door.
Now outside of the pod, giant gears visible between it and the pod that seemed to be their destination, the only way to continue for Samus was to use the Screw Attack to reach a platform, and use it again to reach the entrance of the other pod (after destroying their first Swarmbots, little drones that attacked in big groups). On the way, they remarked the Missile Expansion inside one of the gears, and Sweetie Belle teleported in it to grab it. She also destroyed another ATC that attempted to target Samus as she was doing the Screw Attack.
In the new pod, they entered yet another curved hallway, this one with a broken elevator that was attempting to move down but couldn't. Here they found the drone they encountered earlier which had now joined its comrades. Six of them were now attacking the girls but they were rapidly destroyed, letting them pass an reach the next door.
They followed another, narrower hallway with a pirate turret. At the end, instead of a door, they found a glasswork destroyed by a simple charged beam. At the other side was a huge transport module, another component for the bomb, that was currently spinning. It was held by two electromagnetic cradle arms that they had to retract by destroying power nods. The module thus stopped spinning and opened, allowing them to reach a platform at the other side from which they destroyed another glasswork leading to a Blue Door.
Another curved hallway composed of two ledges separated by a large gap followed. This one had a Databot that recounted how the Elysians got out of their hibernation as the defense systems had detected invaders, only to discover that these invaders were the Galactic Federation who had come in peace. Negotiations followed, becoming the Treaty of Elysia leading to the rebirth of SkyTown. That was fifteen years ago.
There were no Grapple Points this time to traverse the gap, so Samus had to use the Screw Attack, being careful because Samus couldn't turn while doing it so she had to watch out so her course won't end on a wall above the gap.
The door at the other side of the gap led to a bridge not unlike the one that led to the pod where they found the Boost Ball, excepted that this one wasn't as large and didn't fall apart under them. Many Timbots were on it, in a single line because of the lack of place. Grinning, Samus turned into her Morph Ball and used the Boost Ball, sending the bots flying like pins hit by a bowling ball while being careful to not fall off the bridge.
When they entered the pod at the end, they had to cross another gap, first having to destroy two panels on the way before Samus could use her Screw Attack.
And finally, they reached their objective, the Federation Landing Site.
Before taking the lift to it, however, Sweetie Belle shot a Databot for a new log which recounted the aftermath of the Treat of Elysia, the Federation giving the Elysians supplies, fuel, and parts while being allowed in return to use the station. The log ended with the researchers having to leave because of the harsh atmospheric conditions and proposing to be replaced by an Aurora Unit.
They then took the lift down to the Landing Site, and like on the previous one, a Chozebo blocked any attempt for the ship to land. And like before, Aurora Unit 217 and Samus removed it, allowing the Hunter to call her ship. Once it landed, Samus nodded at Sweetie Belle who then pressed a hoof on the terminal to start the process of upgrading the ship, giving it its own grapple.
Now, the ship will be able to transport heavy charges, like the components of the bomb.
Aurora Unit 217 confirmed it and gave Samus the coordinates of the three components. As they had guessed, two of these components are the transportation module and the huge device emitting nuclear energy, and the third one was that module emitting beams on that roof structure outside of the third pod at the start of SkyTown (with the multi-targets lock).
But first, they had to find that power up that will allow them to destroy these multi-targets locks.
So they backtracked.
But now, the pirates were sending more to stop them.
Back on the bridge, an ATC attacked them. Then, in the curved hallway with the gap, it was the turn of walker drones. Another ATC came where there were the giant gears, but instead of attacking them, the ship destroyed the platform between the two pods and the gears themselves. Thankfully, with the gears not in the way another, Samus could use the Screw Attack to reach the other pod without passing by the platform.
Before long, they were back in the Observatory, no pirate coming this time.
Now that the ship had its grapple, they could now attempt something here. Samus called the ship and hooked the holographic projector to it so it could lift it. Many spider-like elysian drones came from under it and walked away without attempting anything against the girls. With the projector out of the way, they could see its power core with a damaged circuit board. Samus didn't lose time repairing it before she commanded her ship to put the projector back in its place. She then used a bomb in the Morph Ball slot to activate it, making a section of it rise before it began to project the hologram of a planet.
Perfect, they could now use that raised section to reach the upper part of the room, including the Morph Ball tunnel leadin to the slots under the holograms of the planets, and the balcony. Sadly for the slots, many of them were inactivated, and like remarked earlier, some of the activated ones were accessible only with the Spider Ball. But right now, three slots could be reached, each causing a satellite to be launched.
The first slot gave Samus map data on the current area of SkyTown (the map data they had gotten from AU 217 only covering the first area of the station.
The two other slots gave Samus the emplacements of the Suit expansions on Bryyo and Norion, meaning that she now knew the emplacements of stuff like the Missile Expansions and the Energy Tanks left on these planets.
"So it means that we won't have to randomly search these planets to find everything?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yup. It will really make our life easier. I hope that one of these other activated slots will do the same for Elysia once I get the Spider Ball."
Done for now with the holograms in this room, Sweetie Belle and Samus then went on the balcony at the top where there was a corridor leading to an Orange Door.
The new room behind revealed to be filled with plants that grew a bit out of control, some botanic research center certainly. Not after at the entrance, at the left, was a corridor partially blocked with plants leading to a recharge station (which was a dead end). To continue in this room, Samus had to pull two containers that previously stored nutrients for plants to use as platforms to reach the upper level. On the way, they had to deal with Sky Puffers constantly coming out of air holes, and Sweetie Belle flew to collect a Missile Expansion in an alcove above the entrance while Samus destoyed a White Blast Shield blocking the exit door.
They thus returned in the curved hallway with the broken elevator, in the top section this time, where they found another Databot. Its log recounted the installation of the Aurora Unit and its benefices to the Elysians, how they could now access the information in the Federation database and help them in their researches in return. With the Elysins' help, the Federation was able to end many threats and to prevent many disasters.
No wonder the pirates targeted this planet.
Sweetie Belle really hoped that what remained of the Elysians could be saved.
After the broken elevator, they passed a Blue Door and returned in the room with the third component for the bomb, at the top level this time. It was a circular chamber without a roof and with hatches in the center that covered the component in place. Only the top of the component, with a hook for the ship grapple, poked out from a hole in the middle of the hatches. There were four Spinners around them keeping clamps in place, and Phazon fungus were present on the walls.
When Sweetie Belle and Samus stepped on the platform, an energy shield appeared behind them, blocking the exit. Then, a huge Space Pirate, a behemoth version of the already behemoth Berserker Knight they encountered on Bryyo, heavily armored and absolutely filled with Phazon - Sweetie Belle could feel it, it was everywhere in him - landed. Phazite plating covered his head, and he transported a big reserve of Phazon on his back.
Sweetie Belle could only stare in horror at this abomination. Samus told her that the pirates could go far with experiments on their own species in their quest for domination of the galaxy, but THAT was too far! Such a high amount of Phazon, such a high level of corruption it certainly created, there must be (almost) nothing left of the pirate's mind!
"Damn it! A Berserker Lord!" Samus shouted. "Be careful Sweetie Belle! If it fires blue projectiles, you can deflect them back at him by firing at them! However, if the projectiles are red, don't try to fire at them, dodge!"
"Understood," Sweetie Belle said, recovering from her horror after hearing Samus' instructions. "Wait, a Berserker Lord? There are more of these... things?"
Samus fired at the Berserker Lord's shoulders while they both jumped above a stream of Phazon that he fired from his mouth.
"Yeah. I already fought one during the pirate assault on Norion one month ago, and I don't doubt that there are more wherever their HQ is."
"They really have no limit to their cruelty and madness, uh...?"
"None," Samus simply answered as she fired at a blue projectile, sending it back at the Phazite plating on the Berserker Lord's head, damaging it a bit.
The Berserker then went after Sweetie Belle who still hadn't attacked yet, thinking that she was easy prey. He approached her with a jump and attacked her with his pincer (which was something that Samus was apparently more used to see on the pirates than the three-fingered claws that most of the ones Sweetie Belle encountered until now possessed), only for the filly to stop it by catching it with her bar hooves. Sweetie Belle then pulled, tearing the arm off, and pierced the Berserker on the chest with it like a spear, killing him almost instantly.
Sweetie Belle judged that it was mercy to kill the Berserker Lord as fast as possible.
Samus judged that the pirates should just stop trying if the filly could kill even a Berserker Lord that easily.
The Hunter used the four Spinners to release the clamps keeping the hatches locked before she used a lock to open them, freeing the component and activating energy shields all around it to ensure that nobody will fall. She then called her ship and hooked the component to it before it flew away. The lock's terminal then turned to reveal a drop shaft for Samus' Morph Ball to access a Blue Door. They then traversed another curved hallway, destroying two Crawltanks (the pirate walker drones) on the way, before they entered a room with gears on the wall and a large gap.
Samus had to use the Screw Attack to reach the other side of the gap. However, an energy shield was constantly appearing and disappearing at the end, and if Samus timed her Screw Attack wrong, then she would hit the shield and fall into the gap.
After watching the shield a few seconds to judge the timing, Samus jumped and used he Screw Attack, successfully reaching the other side. Sweetie Belle simply teleported beside her. They then had to wait the energy shield blocking the exit to disappear before they could pass and reach the Blue Door at the end of the corridor here.
Judging from Samus' map, they were back in the room with the second bomb component, in the level below the inactivated elevator in the center. This level consisted of a simple straight hallway between the door they came out of and an Orange Door, with the elevator at the center. At the left and right upon entering, there were circuit board, the left one damaged. Samus immediately repaired it. At the other end, before the Orange Door, were two other circuit boards with one damaged.
"Damn it Ghor. You really did a number to this place before we came," Samus mumbled as she repaired it.
This reactivated the elevator, creating a short cut to return to the main level of the room. But instead of taking it, they passed the Orange Door and entered yet another curved hallway made of two ledges separated by a large gap, this one having big chains dangling from the walls. This time, no way to reach the other ledge with the Screw Attack. Instead, she had to jump to reach a small ledge further up leading to a Morph Ball tunnel.
The Blue Door at the end led outside of the pod, at a zipline, which the girls had been beginning to think weren't present in this part of SkyTown. However, the zipline was at a higher level which couldn't be reached from here. Instead, Samus had to use the Screw Attack to jump from platform to platform to reach the other side. While she did that, being careful of one of the platforms spinning to not hit its fence-like structure and fall into the clouds below, Sweetie Belle dealt with one of these armored Aerotroopers like they fought in the Observatory (she simply destroyed his jetpack and let him fall into the clouds) and an ATC (she teared off the cockpit and threw the pilot into the clouds before letting the ship drop).
When they reached the entrance of the lower level of the next pod, Samus opened the Blue Door here only to have a bad surprise when they discovered a pirate corpse leaning against the door at the other side. Beside the original surprise of the presence of a pirate corpse, what really unsettled them was that the body was a greyish, statue-like brittle husk stuck in an expression of agony and fear that almost immediately fell apart into ash. It had clearly been attempting to escape something, but failed.
Sweetie Belle looked down at the ash, horrified, and couldn't stop herself from stepping back.
"What...? What...?"
Silently, Samus passed the door and looked around, quickly followed by the filly.
There were more pirate corpses, several, all in the same state. Greyish, statue-like, stuck with expressions of struggle, fear, and agony.
A scene that will remain stuck in Sweetie Belle's mind for a long time.
Samus gripped her cannon, saying only one word, "Metroids."
"Metroids?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Metroids are responsible of this?"
"Yes. This is what is left of their victims after the Metroids drained them of all their life energy."
Sweetie Belle slowly approached the nearest corpse, a pirate mostly on the floor, head against the wall, and touched it. The corpse immediately fell apart into ash like the other, and she watched in horrified fascination.
"So, Metroids drain life energy?"
"And pretty much all forms of energy, like Phazon for instance. So ever robots aren't safe from them. And like I said, they have an insatiable appetite so they will never stop. Drop a bunch of Metroids in the middle of a city, and the city will be entirely drained in less than a day."
Sweetie Belle understood what Samus implied and covered her mouth. "This is what the pirates do?"
"Yes... The pirates use the Metroids as bioweapons to easily eradicate their targets with a minimal risk for their troops. A friend saw the aftermath of such an attack... It wasn't petty, from what he told me..."
Sweetie Belle shivered just imagining said aftermath.
Samus sighed. "This means that we will certainly deal with Metroids in the near future, so let me tell you what you must know before facing them. The Metroids are highly resistant to all forms of weapons excepted anything related to cold because they are weak to it, so use ice beams or whatever other ice stuff you have in priority. As soon as they see you, the Metroids will charge at you to latch onto you to drain your energy. If you have nothing on you that they will be forced to drain first before they can drain your life energy, like my Energy Tanks, then your death will come after several long, very painful seconds. They drain energy very rapidly, even my Suit won't last long despite all the Energy Tanks we collected, so if they latch onto you, do everything you can to get them off as soon as possible. The only way I personally found to do this is to turn into my Morph Ball and use bombs. Oh, and they somehow fly so they are very fast, and their small size makes them hard to hit. And finally, be sure to kill every single ones of them. If even one survives, then the pirates could recover it and use Beta-Rays to make it split itself into several individuals, rendering our efforts vain."
"What? They can multiply by splitting themselves?"
"Yes, meaning that the pirates can get themselves an army of Metroids from a single individual in a matter of days. Add to this that they can easily mutate thanks to radiations to create new, stronger Metroids, and you can see why they are a Space Pirate Favorite."
Sweetie Belle groaned. "Yeah, I can see... Thanks."
After this, they advanced among the Space Pirate husks, some of them falling apart as they touched them. On the way, they found a path at the right leading to a room with another recharge station where Samus made sure to recharge to have all her Ice Missiles. They then continued among the husks, reaching the other end of the room where Phazon fungus and plants were present before a Blue Door.
The hallway that followed had more pirate husks and Phazon everywhere. At the other end was a multi-targets lock mechanism blocking a door, so they had no choice but to take another Blue Door at the right in the middle of the hallway which led to a lift that Samus had to activate first with a Hand Scanner.
Through some glass window behind the lift, the skeleton of some big creature could be seen.
"Looks like the Parasite Queen... I hope that we won't encounter one here," Samus said.
"Let me guess, you encountered one before?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yeah and it was a pain in the ass to fight."
"Don't worry. If we encounter one, I can easily deal with it."
Another skeleton of the same creature was behind another glass window at the top of the lift, but they didn't mind it. In the top level, they passed beside two containment units reinforced with barriers, one of which contained an Energy Tank.
Then, after a Blue Door, they entered a hallway lined with more containment units.
Inside many of these containment units were little floating creatures that consisted of a red mass of nuclei almost looking like a brain enclosed in a translucent membrane - a bone-like ridge splitting it in two halves - with two pairs of large fangs underneath, one bigger than another. No eyes, no wings, no limbs or tail or... anything. Just a mouth surrounded by smaller fangs between the four bigger ones. How was it floating?
"That! Is a Metroid!" Samus said as she pointed at the first Metroid.
"That's a Metroid? Celestia, they look like nothing I have ever seen!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Yeah... And these ones look different from the ones I know. Let me scan it......... Well... Fuck..."
"What?"
"Phazon-mutated Metroids originating from the ones that were on Tallon IV. These ones can apparently emit bursts of Phazon energy and phase its body to ignore solid matter."
"You mean it can turn ghost-like and pass through walls and other stuff? As if it wasn't already a pain to kill from what you told me..."
"Yeah, I already hate them."
They continued along the containment units until a multi-targets lock blocked their path, forcing them to take a detour by the left. On the way, they reached a small room with the exit blocked by a door that Samus had to lower with the Boost Ball in a Spinner. While using the Spinner lowered the door, it made another raise and block the path they came from. No more such doors followed before they reached the next Blue Door.
They entered another lift room with more containment units containing Phazon Metroids. This room, however, didn't have the skeletons like in the other.
They then continued through more hallways lined with containment units and invaded by Phazon. a multi-targets lock blocking the way however forced them to use a Morph Ball tunnel to reach the other side. Another, shorter tunnel at the end of the hallway led to another one with, at the end, a last containment unit containing the upgrade they searched to destroy the multi-targets locks: the Seeker Missiles. Keeping an eye on the Steamspiders that were here, Sweetie Belle and Samus searched for a way to open the containment unit.
They found a way after ripping off a panel: an Energy Cell. Retiring it would cut all the power here, removing the shields protecting the containment units which would let them get the upgrade.
Buuut this would also unleash the Phazon Metroids so...
Buuut they needed to destroy the Metroids anyway so...
With some hesitation, Samus removed the Energy Cell, and everything went as planned. The shield on the containment unit disappeared, letting them break the glass and get the Seeker Missile upgrade. At the same time, this caused a door with a multi-targets lock to rise behind them, locking them in the small room they were in.
So Samus immediately put the Seeker Missiles to test and was able to fire five missiles at once, each missile destroying one of the five targets of the lock at the same time, opening the door.
"Well, time to face the music," Samus said.
Backtracking, it wasn't long before they reached broken containment units. Already, they could see Metroids move in tunnels below the floor, behind glasses panels.
And then, as they approached the first multi-targets lock, their first Phazon Metroid ambushed them, and by pure reflex, both Samus and Sweetie Belle fired respectively an Ice Missile and an ice beam at it, hitting it in the middle of its charge. This froze it right in the air, the Metroid somehow still floating. It was easily killed afterward. Samus then destroyed the multi-targets lock and they continued.
"It wasn't so bad," Sweetie Belle said.
"We got it by surprise. It didn't even have time to phase. We won't always be as lucky."
And indeed, before reaching the Blue Door, another Metroid came before them, and this time, it was able to phase, avoiding Samus' Ice Missile. Sweetie Belle's ice beam still got it, energy not traversing it, forcing it back to normal as it was frozen solid.
More Metroids were encountered as the girls backtracked through the lift rooms and the hallways, destroying the second multi-targets lock on the way. Sweetie Belle did most of the work as Samus' Ice Missiles hit the Metroids only when they were too busy charging at them to phase. The last hallway before the second lift room was especially bad as several Metroids phased through the walls, floor, and ceiling to attack them in number. Sweetie Belle had to punch one that got too close, the force of her punch making it explode.
"Yup. I hate them," Samus commented.
In the second lift room, they made sure to grab the Energy Tank on the way now that it wasn't protected by a shield.
Back in the room that led to all this, Samus destroyed the multi-targets lock here, gaining access to another lift. Surprisingly, in the hallway it led to, they didn't encounter any Metroid but a single pirate trooper. A few seconds later and they were out of the pod at the top level where Samus could reach the zipline.
Phazon Metroids phased through the floor here but were quickly killed, and Samus took the zipline only for more Metroids to come on the way. Sweetie Belle killed all of them, protecting her friend, and also killed the two ones that Phazed through the wall of the pod at the end as Samus landed.
"They are already spreading everywhere!" Sweetie Belle said.
"That's what I feared with their phasing ability... At least, they will take care of some of the pirates for us."
"Killing all of them like you said will be difficult however."
"Priority for now is the Leviathan. We will see later what to do about the Metroids. Maybe we will end up killing all of them while we work on the bomb."
At this, they entered the pod. Now in another curved hallway, all they found here were some crates and a Databot.
The log it contained revealed to have information extremely important.
Five months ago, the Elysians detected a Leviathan hit a planet far away. In the months that followed, the Elysians did all they could to uncover its origin and, eventually, they were able to find out that the Leviathan not only came from a very distant planet, but that said planet was the sentient planet the Chozo Searcher had discovered all these years ago! A sentient planet was at the origin of all their current Phazon problems! However, the Elysians failed to transmit their discovery to the Federation because it was then that the Aurora Unit was struck by the Phazon-virus.
They had been so close!
"So our enemy is that sentient planet," Sweetie Belle summarized. "That's something that I sure wasn't expecting when I came to this dimension. But we are still missing its coordinates."
"The Aurora Unit should be able to find them from the Elysians' researches once we are done with the Leviathan."
Samus destroyed the White Shield Blast at the end of the hallway, letting them return in the room with the second bomb component, this time from the very top. Immediately, at the left, Samus spotted a Morph Ball tunnel that led to a Missile Expansion, just in front of one of the locks keeping the component in place. Once she took the expansion, Samus destroying it with the Seeker Missiles. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle decided to destroy herself another multi-targets lock, this one locking a lift.
The lift led them down to the middle level with the three walkways from which they were able to destroy the two other multi-targets locks keeping the component in place.
The roof opened as a result, letting Samus call her ship to transport the component away. The ship was still transporting the first component which was inserted into the second through the hole in the center, assembling them. Thus the ship was able to fly away with the two components, only one missing.
And so, they were done with this part of SkyTown.
Sweetie Belle and Samus took the tram back to the first area and backtracked to the pod with the last bomb component, this time taking the path made of floating platform they hadn't take yet. On the way in this new path, Sweetie Belle grabbed a Missile Expansion for the ship while Samus scanned a Databot above a platform with a Spider Ball track (no doubt to reach the Ship Missile Expansion Sweetie Belle just took).
The log of the bot pretty much recounted what the Aurora Unit already told them. As the Elysians studied the Leviathan, the Space Pirates invaded, destroying a big number of Elysians in their initial assault. After this assault, the pirates built the shield around the Leviathan, and the remaining Elysians studied the pirates in hope of finding a way to stop them. Instead, they discovered that all the pirates were corrupted by Phazon that apparently sustained them and controlled them with a will of its own.
"That means that the pirates are puppets too, not just the corrupted Bounty Hunters," Sweetie Belle said.
"And Dark Samus is the puppeteer. So they aren't working together, the pirates are just her pawns," Samus concluded. "She is using them to protect the Seeds."
"Everything comes back to Dark Samus in the end. We kill her, and everything will be over."
"We will still have to deal with that sentient planet where the Leviathans come from, or it will still continue to send them in the future."
"Right."
Eventually, they reached the Barrack Pod where they fought the Steamlord, and from here, they reached the pod with the last bomb component. Some Seeker Missiles to remove the lock later and Samus was able to call her ship to finally fully assemble the bomb.
Samus received a communication of AU 217 instructing them to place the bomb in the cargo hold of the Spire Pod, which was the big pod with the large circular area in open air.
So, without losing time, they used the cannon to return to the Aurora Unit's pod (destroying upon arrival the multi-target lock on the cannon here), traversed said pod, and used the cannon to the Spire Pod. Samus then called her ship, and the AU opened the roof of the Spire Pod to let it (carefully) drop the bomb in the cargo hold there.
Finally, the AU called them back to his chamber.
Back in the chamber, Samus activated the communication terminal.
"The Theronian bomb is primed and ready. Excellent work, you two," the AU began. "To drop the bomb onto the Leviathan's shield, you must move the bomb pod directly over the Leviathan and shut down the pod's engine. This must be done manually. This is a dangerous mission. Will you accept it?"
Sweetie Belle and Samus both nodded, the filly saying, "Of course!"
"Thank you. Initiating SkyTown migration."
Sweetie Belle then could feel that they were getting closer to the Leviathan. The whole facility was moving.
It must be impressive to see from outside.
"We will move the SkyTown facility as close as possible to the Leviathan's shield, and then deploy the bomb pod," the AU continued. "Do you understand what you are supposed to do?"
Again, Sweetie Belle and Samus nodded.
"After shutting off the engines, use the escape capsule to return here," the AU then said.
"SKYTOWN MIGRATION COMPLETE," a robotic, feminine voice informed.
"You must now proceed to the bomb pod. We will release the cables once you're in position. We regret this mission places you in mortal danger, but there are no other options. Good luck," the AU finished.
So Sweetie Belle and Samus left the chamber, the filly grinning.
"Time for some action!"
As soon as they returned on the Spire Pod, AU 217 did as he said and the cables connecting the pod to the rest of the facility were released, or rather destroyed. The Spire Pod then began its course toward the Leviathan while SkyTown returned to its previous location.
It wasn't long before AU 217 warned them that he was sensing a large number of enemies approaching, and Sweetie Belle immediately took flight.
They had to defend the pod.
A Space Pirate Assault ship named Skiff (which was just an ATC with a move powerful cannon but without place for troops) was the first to arrive and Sweetie Belle immediately moved to destroy it before it could fire at the pod while Samus went to deal with pirate drones.
Not long after the ship was destroyed, Aerotroopers came and distracted them from the arrival of an ATC that had time to drop some troopers before it was destroyed too by Sweetie Belle. Samus entered in Hypermode to rapidly deal with all the pirates and drones.
Another Skiff then came only to suffer the same fate than the first one, but it was quickly followed by more ships, both Skiffs and ATCs. Sweetie Belle dealt with the ships, leaving any pirates and drones that managed to arrive on the pod itself to Samus. Seeing how dangerous she was, one of the Skiffs attempted to fire at Sweetie Belle but the filly destroyed it before it had time to fire.
This continued for a few more minutes before the pod was finally above the Leviathan. A terminal then activated and Samus quickly used it to shut down the engines and reveal the escape pod which she entered, Sweetie Belle signing her that she could go on without her since she could already fly.
The pod, however, revealed to have a malfunctioning mechanism that Samus needed to fix by entering a Morph Ball tunnel that revealed itself afterward.
"Oh, come on! Seriously?!" Sweetie Belle yelled. "Okay, you know what? Screw the pod! There's a better way!" The filly then grew in size until she was as tall as Celestia, and she lowered herself so Samus could climb on her back.
Samus nodded in thanks and did so, and Sweetie Belle took off and flew away.
A few minutes later, they watched as the pod finally dropped on the Leviathan's shield, causing a huge explosion that blinded them.
When they could see again, the shield was gone.
Grinning victoriously, they returned to SkyTown to take the ship and fly to the Leviathan.
Things then happened pretty much like with the Leviathan of Bryyo. They landed inside the Leviathan, in a huge chamber full of little critters and of giant glands generating Phazon. They jumped on organic platforms to reach the access to the Core. On the way to the Core, they had to destroy organic masses blocking the way, these ones needed the Seeker Missiles.
And they reached the Core's chamber which was orange colored instead of blue colored like the chamber back in Bryyo...
But no Guardian could be seen contrary to last time.
They had to approach before the Guardian showed itself, revealing it to be a spherical robot with four tentacle-arm like appendages, and it could float.
Immediately, countless Swarmbots came and surrounded the round robot.
A scan revealed it to be called Helios, a robot made to control the Swarmbots which it used to attack and defend itself, using different formations.Helios immediately showed what the scan meant by forming a spherical shield of energy with the Swarmbots before rolling on the ground toward Samus and Sweetie Belle. As they moved to avoid the shield, they fired at it, destroying some of the Swarmbots and creating opening to fire at Helios itself. It was easier said than done of course as Helios rolled around very rapidly, making it hard to hit it.
Once it stopped its attack, new Swarmbot came to replace the ones that were destroyed. But before it could begin another formation, it was hit enough time that it overloaded, exposing its Phazon-enhanced core. The Swarmbots were dispelled, and two blades extended from its arms. Helios then began to continuously charge at either Samus or Sweetie Belle while swinging its blades, forcing them to constantly move to avoid it while they fired at its core with beams of Phazon.
They weren't able to destroy it however before it recovered, hiding its core again, and called back its Swarmbots. The formation the bots took this time was a humanoid one, the Swarmbots becoming two 'arms' and two 'legs' for Helios. Samus quickly scanned it again and revealed that the 'joints' were its weakness, but they had to wait for one of the limbs to attack to hit the corresponding joint. Just at this moment, Helios raised a 'leg', clearly about to create a shockwave on the ground, and Sweetie Belle and Samus quickly fired at the joint, destroying the whole formation of the limb. This made Helios fall, opening it to fire.
They overloaded it again, exposing its core a second time.
This time, it wasn't able to recover before it was destroyed.
Like with the Mogenar, as Helios exploded, a huge quantity of Phazon escaped it and was absorbed by Samus, causing her Seed to grow.
This time, she knew what was coming, and she didn't end up vomiting Phazon, probably because she was now adapted to it. As for her Suit, the parts that were still a dark shade of the original orange were now blue, and the visor had turned blue too. The helmet and torso were still red, but a darker, bluer shade. The metallic-colored parts hadn't changed however. And the veins of Phazon in the joints were now brighter.
Samus nodded at Sweetie Belle to reassure her before she grabbed the new upgrade that Helios left behind: the Hyper Missile. She immediately had to use them to destroy growths of Phazon crystals that appeared on orange minerals near the ceiling. The minerals cracked as a result of the destruction of the crystal, letting out streams of Phazon that went toward the opening in the ceiling. Out of the opening then came the Leviathan's core that Samus then killed like the previous one.
As the core fell dead, Sweetie Belle and Samus walked away, back toward the ship.
"I'm disappointed. The Mogenar put up a better fight than this pushover," Sweetie Belle said.
"Personally, I'm not complaining," Samus replied.
In stationary above Elysia, the two waited for AU 242's next communication to know the next step of the mission (unless it was exploring the Valhalla).
they didn't have to wait long, the AUs hologram appearing before them.
"Elysia is now free of further corruption. Both Leviathans have been removed from Federation space. You have once again performed admirably. I also report that Ghor has safely arrived on the Olympus and has been confirmed free of all Phazon and its corruption. He is now undergoing reparation. As for the ship, the Lor Starcutter, it was sadly too large to enter any of the docking bays of the Olympus. Instead, it integrated itself in the armada, flying alongside the ships. Many of our scientists and engineers are eager to learn more about it."
This made Sweetie Belle giggle.
"However, the threat is not over," the AU continued. "We received word from a reconnaissance unit that an emergency GF communication capsule has been found." At her words, the hologram shifted to show said capsule. The hologram then shifted again to show a clearly female humanoid alien with various info. "Analysis has uncovered a message from Gandrayda, sent while she was searching for the Pirate Homeworld." The AU's hologram returned. "This is her last message right before she disappeared." The hologram then showed a planet, half of it entirely blue, probably indicating Phazon. "To our surprise, the message indicates that a Leviathan has also impacted the Pirate Homeworld, which suggests that pirates are now enhancing their military forces with Phazon."
That's nothing new, miss, Sweetie Belle thought with a roll of her eyes.
"Worse," the AU continued, unaware of the filly's thoughts as the hologram showed the planet now with huge tentacles of Phazon coming from its surface, especially the surface covered in Phazon. "the corruption appears to be spreading very quickly. It's as if the planet itself is transforming into pure Phazon."
"Oh god..."
"Oh Celestia..."
The hologram returned to the AU. "Left unchecked, this corruption could spread to the entire galaxy. The time to act in now. You must destroy that Leviathan and stop the spread of further corruption." The hologram now showed several ships. "To that end, the Federation is planning a full-scale assault on the Pirate Homeworld. The attack will commence as soon as our preparations are complete." Back to the Aurora. "We have marked the location of the Pirate Homeworld on your map. And, you two, be on the look out for Gandrayda..."
On this, AU 242 ended her transmission.
Sweetie Belle and Samus stared at each other in horror at what they learned.
"Pirate Homeworld?" the filly asked.
"Pirate Homeworld," the Hunter confirmed with a nod. "The Valhalla can wait."
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Well planet phazon is not a problem
10958516
But it has a problem.
Sweetie Belle unlocks the spindash attack.
10959523
Excepted that Sweetie Belle has total control of where she goes as a ball, so she can avoid obstacles or suddenly change targets mid-strike contrary to Sonic.
Ah! It's totally that!