Evil… It lurks below, all around, and within. It must be destroyed or all who meet it shall cease to be. It must be destroyed, yet it lurks below; buried in the earth it rests, waiting, feeding; preparing. It must be destroyed… but first it must be found.

. . . . . . .

A signal originated from a distress beacon launched from a frigate near the little-known planet called Tallon IV. Intent was to board ship, investigate reason for signal and the ship; nothing more, nothing less. Just a simple look at what was happening on this ship. So why was one of the universes' most famous bounty hunters investigating this matter rather than a soldier or official from the Galactic Federation? Probably because things could rapidly change for the worse or space pirates might be involved. It might also be simply that the bounty hunter had been in the area by sheer chance, but, whatever the reason, she was the one investigating: Samus Aran.

Samus Aran: Bounty hunter, soldier, child of prophecy, bane of space pirates, & savior of the universe countless times. She was so many things, and yet she might have been different if a certain event in her life had never happened to her. The attack on the space station she had called her home; it forever left her traumatized and gave her nothing but hatred for those who were called Space Pirates. She was discovered by a race of bird-people called Chozo. Not much was known about them except that they had given her the tools necessary to exact horrifying vengeance on the Pirates: athletic abilities far surpassing that of any mortal athlete, a suit unlike any other in the universe, and the heart of a warrior.

Time had healed certain wounds and brought others. Revenge had been met out, love had been found, then shattered, along with humility and respect for what was out in the universe, all discovered throughout her adventures. That was Samus Aran in a nutshell. She worked alone, as bounty hunters were rarely teamed up with other people, and she was an independent bounty hunter. This meant that orders were given, she simply carried them out, payment was received, and she moved on. Of course she wasn't a machine, so orders might come into conflict with her own emotions or morals. Payment was nice, but she had personal reasons when it came to space pirates. She had talents and weapons beyond that of the standard Galactic Federation soldier and seemed to only get stronger with time as well, which only made her an increasingly vital asset in any conflict. Some considered her to be a fairy tale having never met or even heard of her. How could one woman take on an entire planet and prevail? It had to be the Galactic Federation's work. It was Samus Aran, though, who did many of those deeds spoken of at times; especially when Space Pirates were concerned.

Samus Aran was a woman of above average height with a slim athletic build. Her legs were slim with powerful hips and quadriceps. Her hair was yellowish in coloration and often kept in a ponytail, though very few who saw her ever really knew of this due to her wearing a helmet on her head when in her suit. The suit itself was orange-yellow in coloration, except around the trapezius, neck, and head. The shoulder pads were orange-yellow and covered her shoulders in their entirety. The head area of the suit was generally bright red and the visor was lime green. Though clear at times, enabling others to see her eyes when she was stationary, in combat conditions, the visor became opaque so Samus could see out, but no one could in. Around the joints of the knees, elbows and neck, the armor had black compressed rubber allowing full range of movement for the joints. Due to them being exposed, the armor had angular points that extended to protect the knees and elbows from being easily hit from certain angles. Around her right arm was a weapon that was forever with her and had seen countless enemies slain: The Arm Cannon.

The weapon resembled a tube with a gun built right into it and her hand fit inside it around the trigger. Unlike most weapons, it was capable of feats defying the laws of physics according to many scientists. This was because the technology of the Chozo had simply never been researched.

The other standard tool was the missile. The missile was formed through unknown means, same as the beam weaponry utilized by the Arm Cannon. Though her suit counted missiles like ammo, they were not loaded into the weapon but rather formed out of pure energy and manifested in physical form when fired.

The last mainstay tool was the Morph Ball and it was a complete defiance of physical laws, but the Chozo seemed to find ways to do things such as this. Somehow, she would curl up like an armadillo might, two halves of a complete sphere would envelop her form, and she could travel around in the sphere through tight spaces. How it was possible could perhaps be explained by the glow of light emanating from the two spherical halves: It appeared to be pure energy and Samus was somehow inside these two halves. The Morph Ball came equipped with a type of bomb, deployable by simple thought, and these were used to further her explorations. She was able to be fully aware of her environment and everything happening around her in this form despite no visible means of perception. All these tools alone enabled her to travel almost anywhere and face all kinds of threats or obstacles. As for this current event, surely it wouldn't be necessary to employ any of the other tools her armor had to offer. After all, this was simply an investigation. What could possibly go wrong?

. . . . . . .

In space, there is no sound so you cannot be heard; unless you are in a place filled with oxygen where sound can exist. The Frigate Orpheon sat in orbit around the little-known planet Tallon IV in utter silence. Meteorites of various sizes, caught by the gravitational pull of the planet, passed by the station or broke themselves into smaller pieces upon it at times; yet nothing else stirred. There was no visual sign of life aboard it whatsoever.

A ship came into proximity, and then hovered close before circling around to a new position, giving its driver a view from another angle. It then zoomed over the top, slowed before turning, angling to come into a hovering position in order to dock near it and grant its occupant the ability to board. The hatch at the top opened, and a platform gave Samus Aran, Independent Interstellar Bounty Hunter the ability to view the dock from the top of the ship. With a leap, and several somersaults while airborne, she landed upon the dock.

Strange to find no one signs of even the most basic of activity from a vessel such as this. A distinct distress signal was sent out from this very place, so someone sent it; some being that had been very much alive when they dispatched it, and yet there was no response to her docking. Further investigation was warranted. Upon entrance the air lock was triggered through the suits Scan Visor. It permitted her to access a wealth of data from the onboard encyclopedia of knowledge stored in the suit. Among other things, it permitted one to hack into computer terminals to obtain info and interact with computer systems. When the air lock depressurized, she walked into a scene of complete carnage.

The body in the center of the room was enormous and surrounded by the carcasses of many deceased Space Pirates. Fires raged uncontested around the place along with scattered crates of supplies and smashed pieces of metal. The escape pods, all of them, had been jettisoned at around precisely the same time. It appeared that much of what had occurred in this facility had happened recently; the bodies were in an excellent state of physical condition, implying they had not been dead for very long. These pirates looked different from the ones encountered back on appeared to have large upper bodies with strong muscles, including their feet, which possessed dexterous toes, enabling them to undoubtedly cling to surfaces by sheer grip strength. The weaponry they were equipped with included a large blade akin to a machete, a tri-barrel gun capable of strong energy blasts and the armor was sleek and polished, yet resistant to penetration to a certain degree.

One pirate, still barely alive, lay before the door in her path; one shot from the Power Beam to the chest was all it took. Another room, clearly used for specimen storage due to the number of tanks and sealed doors, greeted her with a few online defense gun turrets which quickly bit the dust after being hit with a missile each. A giant cylindrical tank drew her gaze in a large portion of the room. The creature in it, whatever species it was, was clearly deceased, due to the fact that its body seemed to just sit there in the liquid while parts of it floated freely. Scans on the nearby computer terminals showed that the pirates had not soon forgotten their defeat on planet Zebes. They were still conducting experiments with Metroids. They must have had reserves because all known living ones had been exterminated by her personally. What was the substance called Phazon that was mentioned in a data log and how was it involved with Metroid experimentation?

Apparently, the pirates were looking to new horizons with this strange substance whatever it was. From what could be gathered from all this info and the deceased creature here, it was a substance of radical properties capable of being used to alter beings in extreme ways; however there were limits that, if pushed, could result in the demise of the subject. Next stop was an upper deck that led to into places no doubt for the storage of large specimens. Low rumbling sounds met her ears from another cylindrical tank with an occupant in stasis. At first, she thought the sounds she heard came from the specimen, until a figure stumbled into view: Another injured pirate, this one suffering from internal injuries along with external ones. He was disposed of since the pirate would still attempt to kill her or fight her even in his weakened state. The pirates lived harsh lives and intended to ensure that everything was beneath their feet in the end. Proceeding further into the ship, a rather intriguing piece of info was finally revealed through scanning. It would seem this station had literally fallen apart due, in thanks, to its own experiments, two of which had escaped and began running amok in the facility. One was dead, the other remained unaccounted for. Impressive, to do this much damage and vanish without a trace.

A lightly injured up pirate greeted her deeper in the facility, but he had no close-range weapons meaning he did not present much of a threat and was also not in the best of physical condition. The station had obviously seen better times as well as its occupants. But suddenly it came back to her that the data log she had scanned was dated exactly three years ago. This frigate must have been in Zebes' orbit and departed after she had completely eliminated Mother Brain. She had reached the core reactor of the frigate now. She had explored the vessel rather thoroughly but had not seen the other missing specimen. The log had mentioned two escapees and she had found the body of one; so where could the other one be? It had to be somewhere on this ship. The reactor was more than large enough for something of this size to hide in.

A roar greeted her as the lift into the reactor room touched down on the floor. The missing specimen, a massive Parasite Queen, came rushing down the upper portion of the reactor, acid dripping from its jaws, anger in its every breath and move. Swiftly, for something so huge, it hung itself in the center of the reactor by it middle legs. Normal parasites had rather humped bodies around the back, flattened, smooth undersides, and three sets of legs with the largest being the ones in the middle. This creature was a total departure from the norm. Its mass and length were much more than that of the average parasite, in fact it was as big, if not bigger than, a Queen Metroid, and it was constantly drooling green acid. The skin was dark brown in color and the powerful jaws opened at the four compass points of north, south, east and west. The tail opened in the shape of a bell with webs of skin between the finger-like joints forming the ovipositor.

The creature spat a thick stream of acid at her which she dodged and she retaliated with a barrage of blasts but none of them touched the beast; a cylindrical shield emanated from the between the two halves of the reactor and surrounded the creature completely, except for two gaps opposite of each other circling continuously around it. The blast of acid was ranked weapon-grade by her scans and the creature only served as increasing evidence of what the pirates were doing here, or at least what they hoped to accomplish in the future. She would have time to ponder it provided she killed this beast.

The shield originated from the reactor itself through unknown means, protecting the beast, and the creature's ovipositor kept getting lowered into the reactor itself before the streams of acid were fired. Very, very strange all of this. Samus found a gap and pounded away before releasing a missile. It connected and the beast roared in anger and pain. The shield vanished as the beast swung off the reactor and landed on the wall surrounding the room. Samus ran away with all her might as the beast pursued her, jaws snapping, jointed knobby legs pounding into the ground and walls in anger, acid flying all over the place. A quick lunge and Samus vanished, only for the creature to screech and spit her out again; a missile to the roof of the mouth had rendered her uneatable. The creature resumed its holding position in the reactor and Samus strafed back and forth looking for openings. Missiles flew along with power blasts and streams of acid. One final missile and the creature groaned; one leg lost its position on the reactor's interior, weakly scrabbling to get back only for its companion to follow suit. The beast fell into the reactor roaring in pain. It briefly appeared at the rim before vanishing completely into the core of the reactor.

"Warning-evacuate immediately-evacuate immediately," warned a computerized voice. "Reactor meltdown imminent. Reactor levels at critical; propulsion unit failure. Evacuate immediately." The beast had just started a chain reaction that would culminate in the demise of everything and everyone here. The way she had traveled wouldn't work again and any remaining crew aboard may have sealed the doors. Fortunately, the emergency entrance out of the reactor wasn't locked. She quickly fled as fast as her feet could carry her through large shafts and masses of smaller parasites fleeing the vents in their panic. Pirates began to appear from all over, attempting to kill any rampant experiments and her to. If they were going to die, they would take her with them. She killed them and raced onward. Entering the chamber where the monstrous creature in its tank slept, she heard glass shattering and yelling. Just as she came into visibility of all that was happening, a roar resounded and she noticed two pirates shooting at the large specimen, most likely a third Parasite Queen. It collapsed dead from the pirate's shots; she slew them before they became aware of her and pushed on using collapsed rubble created by the beast's thrashing.

On her way out she came into a chamber that was rather big and looked as though it was a place for operations and experiments. This place was for surgical experimentation. Apparently, judging by the tubing and look of things, one subject was still in here. That subject proved to be quite the surprise to Samus Aran as it was someone/something that had been dead. Not anymore. The creature, which was hooked up to the surgical apparatus, quickly broke free, liquids, equipment, and tubing scattering all over before fleeing the chamber in a way she could not follow. Thankfully there were some points for the grapple to latch on to. She swung across the massive gap and was in motion again.

The timer on her armor's display now read only three minutes left before complete and total meltdown. She blasted the gun turrets that aimed her way and reached an elevator, but it was currently inactive. She began interfacing with the nearby panel in order to activate the elevator, thereby enabling passage to the airlock before getting to her ship and safety. Explosions began to pop up here and there erratically as the reactor went critical. Several rang out in the tunnel she was in just as she finished, the explosions catching and throwing her back against the elevator wall damaging her suit. She knelt on the floor of the ascending elevator and groaned in pain. Finally the pain subsided and she stood up, but the suit suddenly began shrinking around her and the systems began issuing warnings: "Warning: Varia Suit disabled, Grapple Beam disabled, Morph Ball and Morph Ball Bombs disabled, Power Bomb disabled, Charge Beam disabled, Missiles offline." Virtually every piece of equipment she had was gone and all that remained was the Power Beam and her default Power Suit.

She reached the airlock and the doors opened as explosions began to break out on the ship's exterior. The whole thing might still take her with it if she didn't get to her ship now! She hesitated just long enough to observe the escapee from surgery break out from another area and start flying off on its own power. She leapt to her ship, entered it, and floored the gas in pursuit of the escapee who rapidly plunged into the planet's atmosphere and was soon lost to her sensors.