Author's Notes: To get this out of the way right off, this is a Jumpchain fanfic, and the seventh in the chain. So, do not go into this expecting the drop-in Hero to face much in the way of difficult encounters. Being completely overpowered is rather inherent to Jumpchains. If you're here for shenanigans, you'll probably have a much better time.

And no, you didn't miss six stories. This is just the first Jump I've done in this chain that I felt like writing a story for. As other Jumps I've taken either didn't suit me to narrate, or were just obnoxiously long. Example, in the Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Jump I took, I took a Drawback that extended the length of that Jump to roughly 1,280 years instead of the standard 10. So, naturally I am not going to write that length of time out. I'm doing this to have fun, and that much writing of little but 'war, war, war' is not fun.

Prologue: The Drop-In

Tallon VI: Overworld

Samus Aran, galactic bounty-hunter and bane of the Space Pirates, carefully tread her way back towards her ship's landing site. Familiar she might have become with the local terrain, and of the flora and fauna therein, it paid to keep a wary eye out regardless. Never knew when the Pirates would try and launch an ambush. Or when some mutated wildlife would crash though a wall and try to eat her. She'd dealt with that enough over the course of her career for it to be ingrained. But the zoomers and other passive life, she could do with just walking the right way, ergo, not stepping on them. After all, what kind of Hunter would she be if she suffered from such a simple life form?

One shot had her through to what she considered the only currently idyllic place on the planet. She knew, of course, that the Pirates were looking for her ship, but their technology paled in comparison to that of the Chozo. They would never find it, unless they got stupid lucky. And hopefully she wouldn't be on this planet long enough for the odds to bear out in their eventual favor.

She paused, slowly looking between the route towards the crashed Pirate frigate and the upper path on the edge of the area she had not taken yet. She'd seen a large Chozo structure on her landing approach, so, perhaps that would be worth a look? Her HUD had marked a curious power signature beyond the frigate, so… decisions. A preliminary investigation had shown that the frigate was flooded, but with the gravity suit she should be able to traverse it with no trouble.

She nodded once to herself, making her choice. The structure wasn't going anywhere, as the other ruins clearly showed. And the frigate would likely lead her to more Space Pirates to kill. Effectively making the choice for her. Though, perhaps it would be wise to take a moment to restock at her ship? She started stepping towards her ship, a small measure of peace creeping over her as she approached the one place on this planet she would wholly call 'safe.'

A voice boomed out of the ether. "Samus Aran."

She whirled on the spot, aiming her arm cannon in the same smooth motion. There was a figure perched up in the recess of the upper path and it was, in a word, imposing. A nearly eight foot humanoid in jet-black, seemingly somewhat scorched, armor with gleaming red eyes slowly stood, marching slowly, purposefully towards the edge where it stopped for a moment, affixing her with a glare that inexplicably sent a chill down her spine.

The figure jumped down, moving with an impossible smoothness for something so obnoxiously over-armored, and hefted an arm cannon visually similar to her own in what could be construed as a salute. "Nothing personal, you understand. You're just a job."

Well, if prior actions hadn't been hostile, that declaration clinched it. She started to lift her hand to her helmet to engage her scan visor while the initial volley of energy pellets, ostensibly identical to her Power Beam, flew her way. The red, speeding pellets were aimed with precision despite the volume of fire, but it wasn't too difficult for her to dive and roll around them. Her scan visor's line of sight was disrupted several times with the flips and evades she had to make to avoid the incoming fire, but she pieced together enough of a scan.

Her HUD beeped negatively. 'No Data Found.'

She paused for an infinitesimal moment, stunned that her suit couldn't pull anything on this individual. Furthermore, why wasn't this person showing up on her suit's radar? That momentary lull was enough for a few of her enemy's shots to land, metaphorical pinpricks they might have been. She chastised herself for the lapse anyway, not unfamiliar herself with wearing down powerful enemies with little blows just like those.

The attacker commented. "Figured it wouldn't do much, but hey, never know." The distinctive sound, identical to her own, of a beam weapon being changed was heard. "Time to take off the kid gloves."

She felt mildly insulted that this person would even consider using 'kid gloves' on her to begin with and, undaunted by the lack of analysis, she turned her own power beam on this other "bounty hunter," firing off a volley of several shots aimed square for her target's center of mass. They did not even bother to move, and her shots all wildly ricocheted off of the armor into the air with a tiny spat of sparks each time.

The target aimed their arm cannon, violent green energy gathering at its tip. "That's cute, my turn."

She only just avoided the discharge, diving away from a blast that carved a deep furrow in the earth behind her. What obnoxiously powerful weapon was this hunter packing? Well, she had more tricks up her sleeve too. With a quick adjustment she switched to the wave beam, and immediately started charging a shot.

Her stationary enemy lazily spoke. "Well aren't you a squirrely target. Kind of just delaying the inevitable, I'll have you know."

Not responding, vocally or otherwise, to this statement of boundless arrogance she rolled to the right, stopped in a firing position, and let the electric charge fly. Her enemy however, in an insulting mirror of her immediate actions, rolled forward over her shot and did the exact same thing. Unfortunately, given the distance covered, her opponent was far too close for her to react to the retaliatory shot in time. That angry blast of viridian energy took her square in the chest, blew her back at least ten feet, and slammed her into the area's perimeter. Gritting her teeth and fighting through the pain such an impact caused, she dove behind a large rock to buy herself a moment to think.

The power beam wasn't effective. They could dodge the wave beam. Maybe a cordite battle suit? She'd need to use super missiles then, and she'd need to make sure she actually hit them. Ice beam to the foot, and then super missile? That could work. Wait, why wasn't the other hunter trying to pursue…?

Her answer was given when her piece of cover was soundly penetrated, catching her in the side with a blow no less intense than the one she'd been struck with no stone in the way. Turning her mind off from the pain, she was again forced to wonder what terrible power that weapon system possessed. Regardless, she had a plan. A simple one, but it was far better than nothing. They wouldn't dodge if she shot for the foot, right?

Switching to the ice beam she charged it up as she moved from cover, ducking her head as the immediate barrage of verdant bolts only just missed her. She stopped on a dime, crouched, pivoted, and launched her shot towards her target's left leg. They again didn't bother to move, only pausing and glancing down at the leg that was now encased in ice and, more importantly, stuck to the ground. She took full advantage of their lapse in attention, swapping to the power beam, charging it up just enough, and launching a super missile square into the other hunter's chest. The miniscule cloud of smoke cleared… and nothing. Her super missile hadn't even left a minute scratch.

Her adversary, an obvious smug note to their voice, commented. "Now what did I say about the inevitable?" Their arm cannon dissolved into data, revealing an armored mitt identical to their free hand. "This whole 'shooting' game is getting old. Time to get up close and personal."

With a slight twitch her adversary shattered the ice encasing their leg and lunged at her with an impossible level of speed for something so big. Almost before she could blink the behemoth humanoid was on her, fist primed for a haymaker. She slipped to the side, only to realize too late that the fist was a feint. And she learned this by having her opponent's knee crash into her abdomen with, incomprehensibly, even more force than the solid-stone piercing beam weapon they'd been firing.

She was thrown to the walls by the blow, and her attacker was on her immediately, pinning her arm cannon to the unyielding stone with a grip she could feel through her armor. "Oh no, you look kind of screwed right now." They punctuated their taunt with a punch to her helmet. "How unfortunate that all of your offense is tied to this one weapon. You should have thought of that." Another knee to her middle.

Speech was dispensed with, in favor of repeated, ravaging blows to her helmet and core. Her suit's shields dropped horribly with each hit, even as she felt every blow with the flesh beneath. She felt baffled, between repeatedly having her bell rung. How could she have been ignorant of such an individual? How could the Federation? If her most powerful weapons were useless… She didn't have the time to finish the mental question, as the oblivion of unconsciousness took her.