[WolfEx]

Chapter 0: The Fall

It was all so fuzzy in the beginning.

Some parts I could swear were a dream. I blacked out in moments here and there, seconds of nothingness in the midst of my panic, but I had to be alert.

I woke up out of a state of unconsciousness being dragged by this large beast. As soon as I awoke I fought out of its mighty grasp and I started to crawl away.

I had to find some kind of solitude.

I remember I was running. Winded, but running. As fast as I could. I was being chased by this crazed creature. Slobbering at the mouth, dilated eyes, a rage that cannot be described or matched. A starved animal being deprived of its meal. It looked dark in color, surrounded in a devious shade, glowering at me with claws etched almost reaching the confines of my suit and tearing me to shreds. I wasn't scared though, no, I had to show no fear. I was a Hunter. I was trained to survive and face far worse. My blood has the magic of the Chozo within, I am human, but also more. I knew this, I knew that had to be how I was still alive. The oxygen compounds in my suit were heavily damaged, my visor, nearly destroyed. The air I could tell on this strange planet wasn't breathable, but somehow, I was breathing, I was surviving. Was it the adrenaline? Was it my genetics? Somehow, with little to no oxygen running at full speed, I was still alive. This baffled me, but I had no time to think things through. This creature was hot on my trail. I could hear its grunting, I could hear it catching up, I had to, at some point, turn around and fight it. I had to reach deep down into my memories, and remember the hand to hand combat in which I was taught as a soldier, and the wit I was gifted as a child with the Chozo. My gun was heavily damaged, I just had my instinct and my strength.



As I began to stop myself to confront the beast, I slid into the rancid dirt below me feeding off the remaining adrenaline of my run, and twisted my leg in a spiral motion behind me to trip the monster as it kept its pace up, not suspecting my tactic of stopping the chase. It seemed to have worked. The beast fell in a thud over my thigh and fumbled to the ground. I took a moment to catch my breath and digged at the dirt struggling to reach the monster after my attack and mercilessly beat it to mush while it was grounded. I tried to pounce on its fallen body but it was hardly affected by my tactic and threw me off of it with ease sending my slender frame some distance away from it in a toss. I rolled through the dirt from its throw and it stomped towards me with a great strut towering over me as I lay there thinking this is how I would die, by some unknown creature with gnarled teeth, massive talons, and bulging eyes gazing right through me, knowing my fate, knowing its victory was near.



I had realized before long what creature it was. It resembled the exact anatomy and stature of my Chozo ancestors. I remembered it so clearly. But how can that be? And why was it attacking me? They were extinct. It was impossible!

So many thoughts were running through my mind, I was ready to die. That was until, I was saved. A sudden and distinct beam of light blasted it in its back and it crumpled to its knees and fell in a heap. It let out a painful moan and then in an instant, the life was gone from its eyes and it began to melt into a puddle of some type of foreign goop I have never seen before. After the beast was slain, I adjusted my vision blinking away with teary eyes the blurryness from the intensity of battle. I had seen the figure of a small man with some kind of mechanical pack on his back and gun in his hand. He wore a pair of glasses that glimmered in the fog of this wasteland I was surrounded by. A hope in the darkness. I could hear little foot steps walk towards me, and to my surprise my hero was an old man with some kind of wielded plasma device that was bigger than his own body size. I was taken aback by this image of a savior. I didn't expect such bravery from such feebleness. He spoke to me.



"Don't be fooled by it, friend. These creatures out here, they manipulate you, it's what they do. Whatever that thing was, it was possessed, and long gone....if you are looking for shelter, come with me, there are some ruins not far from here. And I will need alot of help to make camp." The little man extended a hand to me and helped me up. The look on his face showed concern, I admit, I wasn't in the best shape at the moment, on the brink of passing out at any minute actually, but still, I felt like I could go on somehow. As I stood up I gazed down upon the pile of goop, still baffled by what it was, and why it had become a spitting image of a creature I once took for family. I had to look away and head onwards to these ruins the man who saved my life had mentioned. It was all I could go off of right now really. If nothing else, I had to trust this man. It's the only thing that made sense. I asked him, "What's your name?" He looked back at me with a boisterous smile somehow being cheery after all the fuss, and answered; "Professor Gadd. Now come along." And that's when it all started for me on this strange planet. Life Itself was all that mattered....

So I named the planet....Li.....

[WolfEx]

Chapter 1: Meeting The First Of Them

It felt like we've traveled for days. Somehow me and the old man have yet to run into anymore of those creatures. I wanted to know more about them, I needed to. I know he didn't have all the answers but he can at least enlighten me just a little. "What else do you know about them? About what attacked me?" I was pretty much useless with broken equipment, that didn't mean I didn't know how to defend myself, but I felt at a disadvantage. The one known as Professor Gadd kept walking as he spoke back to me, and he was the only thing that was really going to keep me alive right now so I didn't want to pester him too much. But something told me he really didn't mind that. "Well that is a loaded question, isn't it? I think it best that maybe I show you instead..." He stops and turns to me, I pause anxious to hear what he has to say and what he was going to reveal to me. He reached in his pocket of his white lab coat and pulled out a small metal cube. He tapped the top of it with his finger and it began to float above his head staying in flight within the air and opening parts of its mechanism sending out bursts of light from all directions until ultimately it revealed a floating digital schematic of a strange creature doused in a purple haze with glowing eyes and a dripping goop coming from their body. The tool he was using to reveal this information was like a portable projector, I was fascinated, someone just as intelligent as me, if not moreso, had crossed my path in this hopeless world I was trapped in. And I felt with him, I had a chance to adapt, to stay alive.

"That's it, that has the same traits as to what attacked me. How did you gather this data?" The professor grinned with a mischievous glint in his eye and happily fed my curiosity. It seemed he enjoyed the company and may not have had some in a good while, or at least a scientific chat like this one. "We call them....Infected. See, as you noticed this planet doesn't exactly have breathable air, in fact, it's toxic. The chemicals made up in the air are a mix of carbon monoxide and natural gas emissions. What is causing the toxicity levels is unknown entirely, the conclusion is the atmosphere is all stable, but there is an origin for the toxin that pollutes the air which is nearly impossible to specify. This I conclude, is a living hazard that Infects the lungs and the blood flow of those exposed too long to it. Transforming them somehow into mindless nuisances." Everything he was saying made perfect sense, but it didn't give me answers regarding how I am living and breathing with little issue openly and without any kind of aid. Maybe he knew. "How am I breathing and talking to you without a machine or contraption of some sort? I should be dead." The little scientist placed a finger on his chin and thought about my condition.

"Well, I would have to have a look at you when we reach the ruins. There are only about three of us currently alive on the planet that we know of whom are not Infected. And one more who is, well, he's not doing well but he is with us too. You see...." The cube slowly rotates flipping the image of the Infected to a wall of text and numbers which made no sense to me. "According to this calculation that I have made, it takes exactly two days of being exposed to this air for the toxins to enter your body through your nasal or oral passage ways. After which you slowly start to go mad. First signs of Infection include discolored face, losing your train of thought, impatience, irritability, and eventually, violent outbursts. The last stages are when a purple hue takes over you and your physicality begins to become more, well, goo like. That's when you're really in trouble." The cube closed itself afterwards and floated right back into his pocket. He must have seen a colleague of his turn before his very eyes to know the effects and the stages. The poor man must have been through alot during his time here. As we talked we covered more ground, as we covered more ground I became more intrigued by it all.

"How have you survived this long, and when did you arrive here?" Professor Gadd still answered me respectfully with no complaints, that is commendable. "I came here much like you. I awoke in a blur in the middle of the wasteland with no recollection of how. Thankfully I awoke with a good chunk of my gizmos and laboratory equipment with me. Last I remember, I was in my lab and suddenly...well I was here in the wastes." The man looks around as if still not believing it all, but he accepts what has happened to us, and like me, seems driven for more answers. "The machine on my back is not just a weapon, but also an air detoxifier, purifying the air around me to an extent, only allowing clean air to surround me from its compartment within a few feet or so, that is how I am alive and able to talk to you presently. Took me a while to fiddle with and scrap together it did, but it does the job. The others survived by taking refuge in the ruins ahead, which are safely confined from the deadly air providing shelter from the toxins. With what little technology I had after I put together the contraption I currently carry, I shimmied up some oxygen masks for the others and we all managed to find those ruins. They seem safe enough." He kept mentioning others, I kept wondering more about them. I continued to pry.

"You said there were four of you, so three others? How did you find them..." As we kept moving I could see something beyond the horizon now, over a few dunes. A rather large broken down city of some kind with tarnished buildings and decimated structures of some kind, it looked ancient, but I kept following the professor and he kept answering me. "Same as I found you dear girl. I don't know if I was the first to transport on this planet, but I believed I couldn't have been the only one. So I built a few mechanisms with the tech I had appear with me and made my way north to find a refuge. That's when I spotted the hedgehog, he calls himself Sonic, passed out during my travels. I thought the poor fella was dead but he was very much alive! With some smelling salts I possessed he awoke and I managed to convince him to help me find a safe area to rest in. He agreed, though arrogant and ignorant as he was, he followed me and that's when we found the ruins." The man pointed to the destination of the place which was getting ever closer now and picked up the pace a bit as if to urge me onward. "And the other two?" He was quiet for a minute as if trying to recall, and managed to tell me about them as well.

"Well, my dear friend Mario was already at the ruins when me and the blue hedgehog got there. He was crying and in shock, I had to reassure the poor feller that things were going to be fine. Always gotta look at the bright side of things you know? We hailed from the same kingdom, and I was happy to see he was alive. But when I reached the ruins and looked around, I had realized something awful, it WAS our kingdom. The very place I am taking you is known as what once was The Mushroom Kingdom. Whatever teleported me, and you, and whomever else to this dreaded place, also seemed to transfer a part of our home! And smashed it to pieces. I came to the conclusion that if my home was sent to this planet along with me, then I suppose maybe yours has got to be somewhere around here as well, no?" The Mushroom Kingdom? It sounded familiar, but I knew I had never been there personally. But how did an entire kingdom randomly appear on this planet with actual living people, and nobody remembers? This was quite the mystery, and I was in for quite the investigation. I wanted to believe the professor that a piece of my home was here somewhere, and that I could find it. I wanted to find it I wanted to know I could find a way back. But he had mentioned four survivors, there was still one more he needed to discuss.

"And the last survivor? You said there was something wrong with him, where was he?" The man seemed to change his mood a bit, putting his head down slightly as if not wanting to really answer that last question. I couldn't imagine why. He managed to give me a reply, but it was more, well, almost spiteful. "Ah yes, there is one more. He calls himself Black Shadow....he arrived at the ruins after the rest of us. None of us really get along with THAT one. He's a strange and imposing man. And he is the only one out of all of us that seemed to be exposed to the air too long. And I fear he is in the beginning stages of Infection. We welcomed him to the group out of pity. Sonic and Mario already knew eachother from previous meetings, the two of them didn't ever get along really, I constantly had to break up arguments between them. But that man, Black Shadow, he's got something dark in him....and when we arrive there, I beg of you, keep clear of him. We are desperately trying to find a cure for the man, but he is stubborn, and not fairing well..." He went from a cheery jolly old man to an intense person quite fast. I would take his advice about this Black Shadow individual and keep my guard up around him. As for this Mario and Sonic duo, well, I would have to be the judge of that relationship myself. They also sounded familiar.

"I must say though, I am excited to study you and find out how you are resisting this environment. This could help my research for a cure tremendously! And give my other three comrades some real joy. Thank you!" The excitement in him sounded so sincere which cheered me up and helped me ignore how much pain I was in right now. "No, thank you. I'm Samus...by the way." I gave him a smile, a small one, but it was enough to acknowledge I was in good company and showing appreciation for saving my life. "Ah, Samus. A pretty name dear. Oh, and here we are!" We were talking for so long that time seemed to fly by and we had reached the entrance to the ruins. They were so much bigger up close. There was no real door, but there was a path surrounded by tall, wilting plants and towering, withered mushrooms. It was certainly not very welcoming. After a few more steps here and there, we got passed the dying brush of the area and maneuvered around the chunks of fallen cement and plastered debris to reach a large open circle with a fire going and a few tents pitched.

And there they were, the next three beings whom were going to be a big part of my life on this planet over the next few years sitting around the fire....staring at me with judgmental duplicity and cautious analysis. I didn't blame them. I can be scary, sometimes.

A plumber, a big mouthed hedgehog, and a mysterious horned man. I was in for the long haul.

"Make yourself at home, won't you? Let us begin the introductions."

The professor skips to the fire pit putting down his stuff and beckons me to join them. I was terrified. Being social was not my thing.

[WolfEx]

Chapter 2: Thou Shalt Not Judge

There was a silence from me, for a time. It took a bit to muster up the courage to actually say words to these gentlemen, but I was kind of on the spot here, and I was feeling the pressure. So I just blurted the first thing in my mind. "Greetings." Well, that was decent enough I suppose. Short, simple, not dreadful at all. Although nobody really seemed interested in judgments as much as I thought, or introductions, they all looked troubled. Who wouldn't be though, waking up so suddenly to find yourself trapped on this forsaken planet. At least we could all empathize. With no responses, Gadd tried to lighten the mood. "Well, I'm Professor E. Gadd as I have stated earlier. That's Mario in the red to my right, Sonic to my left, and that is..." The professor points to the strange horned man who sits more distant from the group and further away from the fire. He looked so cold, so out of it. But he introduced himself with no problem. "The name is Black Shadow...and do we really think it's the best idea to let another straggler into this camp? I'm already poisoned with that infectious toxin, I bet she is too. I mean look at her, she's really roughed up." Okay I officially didn't like that man one bit. The Professor did warn me about him though, so in all fairness, I played polite. "I assure you I am fine, sir." That was a pretty alright retaliation on my part. Not threatening or angry at all, just a tad blunt.

"Chill, man. She's fine. You're sick, get over it..." Ah yes, that must have been the self centered hedgehog I have heard about. A talking hedgehog was strange, but one with an attitude, even stranger. I had interest in that horned man known as Black Shadow though, I bet I could experiment on his condition as me and the Professor discussed, and find some kind of solution. But before I put more thought into that, there was a cage with something making noise behind the group. It was a darker part of the camp, but I could vaguely see a figure locked up and definitely hear the sounds it was making. Professor Gadd saw my eyes wonder over to the cage, and told me its purpose before I even asked. "I see you have curiosity in the cage behind me, no? It's an Infected creature we had captured not long ago meandering outside of these ruins. We didn't want to destroy it because we thought we could research it for more answers on the disease, since we outnumbered it we managed to wrangle it. But we have yet to find much else out from doing blood work on it for Black Shadow's condition." That was all I needed to hear.

Research is something I certainly lived for, and he had my attention. I had to have a closer look. "May I?" The Professor was hesitant, but he gave me permission with a cautious warning. "You must be careful, it is highly agitated in that cage. We will take a look at it together." After the concern, the red dressed man known as Mario added more panic to the matter. "It issa very dangerousa! It nearly took offa my mustacha it did. So please be on your guarda." Mario sounded more depressed than the others, maybe because he was still adjusting to the whole crummy planet destroyed home thing, but I could tell he was a sincere person who cared about the well being of the living. I think I would get along with him just fine.

"Hush, Mario. Samus and I will be fine." Mario nodded and returned his attention to the fire to continue and try to calm his nerves. Sonic seemed disinterested in the thing in the cage and let us go without much fuss. And Black Shadow just didn't care. It was just a few steps before we arrived in front of the creature. There was a sheet over it, and Professor Gadd gave me the heads up. "Ready?" I nodded and he removed the sheet. What I saw next I was completely unprepared for. First it was the Chozo like beast I fought earlier, now, now it was...a Metroid! A Metroid like I have never seen before. Surrounded by a dark hue like the other creature and salivating from its mouth with a dripping purple goop falling off its skin. I didn't know how to react. It hissed and snapped at me in a hellish fury. The Professor was worried about me for a second there.



"Is everything alright Samus? It's locked up, you'll be safe. Don't worry." I shook away the shock of it and paid closer attention to it, and why it seemed so different than the more docile Metroids I am used to. "I know this creature. It's a Metroid. From my home planet. Just like the other monster some ways back was known as a Chozo. But how? Are all these creatures on this planet inhabitants of my own?" The Professor was astonished at my question. I suppose he didn't expect me to recognize not one, but two Infected so easily. "Fascinating analysis! You...recognize these beings, eh? Oh you will be a bigger help than anticipated! Fabulous! And to answer your question, that is not entirely true. Me and Mario over there have ran into Infected Mushroom Kingdom dwellers around here before. We had to clear these ruins out due to the place being littered with them. But I have a theory..." Once again the old man pulls out his cube of digital schematics and it floats into the air popping itself open to reveal a holographic image, this time a generic concept of the planet we currently reside on. He taps the floating cube and it sends out a beam depicting falling asteroids falling on the planet all around it. The Metroid wasn't enjoying the little light show the cube was showing and banged around its cage in protest. We ignored it for the time being.

"You see, from what I have found out, it is a guesstimation to be exact, but if you're here, and I'm here, and others are here from different worlds, and I have found a piece of my world here in the ruins we occupy, then it is common place that a piece of your home is somewhere on the planet too. I have hypothesized that parts of our world for whatever reason was sent to the planet with us, sending them crashing into the surface like space rubble. Which leads me to believe a piece of your world must be close by to see creatures of your home planet around here that the Infection has possessed. I also believe, that for whatever reason, whomever or whatever sent us here, didn't want us to come here to suffocate and die. They sent a piece of our worlds with us, to seek out and piece together to possibly try and sustain ourselves here and either find a way out, or find a new way to live. It's all still so muffled and misconstrued, but it's all we have to go off of for now." He did alot of talking, but he also did me alot of good. The more I knew about this place, the more I could help. He tapped his magical little cube again and it floated right back in his pocket. He gazed at the Infected Metroid with buzzing uncertainty.

"If we fail to gather enough samples from this creature due to its inability to properly function or cooperate with us, we will soon have to neutralize it. We have tried sedating it with everything we have, but it just doesn't work. The Infection in its blood is so strong that any further contact could send it into a frenzy and it will kill itself trying to escape. Its heart rate has rapidly accelerated over the past few hours, and it will smash itself into the cage profusely until it is free. That sheet kept it calm for a time, but now we have completely set it off I'm afraid." Luckily I knew how to kill a Metroid, it wasn't hard, but with a broken gun it could prove difficult. With all my intense thinking on what to do next with the poor specimen, somehow it managed to lash a tentacle out at me and slash my arm. I fumbled backwards from the impact bumping into Professor Gadd in the process. I let out a small grunt but I felt like I was still okay. Sonic and Mario rushed over after the incident with the Professor pushing himself back to his feet and now in a defensive position for whatever was going to happen next. All eyes were on me now. Black Shadow didn't move despite everything, he just looked at me with a gloomy feeling and went back to being distant.

"Oh no...Samus....are you...Infected?" Professor Gadd had me scared in that moment. I had survived the air just fine, but to survive an entire wound from an Infected is a different story. Sonic was the first to be ready to attack. "Sorry lady, but I ain't lettin you stay here with a direct wound like that. It'll probably spread quicker. Come on Mario, let's escort her outta here." Mario didn't seem as ready as Sonic was to muscle me out of the camp after what had happened, but I didn't feel any different. I continued to feel fine, at least for now. "I'm fine. Really. I don't think the cut did anything." Nobody truthfully knew exactly what could Infect another, this was good news for me, the toxic air was the only theory, this attack, this notion of direct Infection from another, that was a new theory, and an unknown one. That idea alone is extremely dangerous. But nobody could prove anything, could they? But on a whim, I was saved from certain banishment thanks to that creature. My blood was-

[INFORMATION MISSING. DATA INCOMPLETE.

ERROR//SAMUS DIARY//ERROR.....

ERROR...

COMPUTING....

ERROR......

LOG SHUT DOWN....

ABORT.]

[WolfEx]

Chapter 3: Stayin Alive

[REBOOTING....

LOG RECOVERED....

SOME DATA STILL MISSING.....

REBOOT START.]

We were all sitting back around the fire now, the Metroid had to be killed and was dealt with respectively. For some reason I found it difficult to help put the monster down, but it was a necessary evil. Through experimentation after acquiring fascinating new data what we believed to be the cure was not the cure at all and the Metroid was a lost cause. I remained in tact and alive however regardless of the attack and with no signs of Infection. Our conclusion was gathered as correct on the studies with me, there was a possible cure we found, but it had to be used upon the early stages of Infection, very early. Through analysis of my-.....[DATA ERASED. CONFIDENTIAL BREACH. CONFIDENTIAL BREACH. CONFI...REBOOTING].

We were attacked unmistakably by that traitor Black Shadow! He took all of our research and escaped the compound bringing with him valuable data and screaming something about making the Infection stronger. He experimented on himself through the night as we all fell asleep and somehow stabilized his Infection with the prototype concoction we developed. And now we have no way to re-imagine and recreate what we so strongly struggled to perfect to heal any others with the Infection before it was too late. After many hours of logistics me and the Professor have decided to call the Infected plague Starvia, which is short for Starvation Infection Abrasion Virus. AKA the Starvia Plague. We came up with the name after observing Black Shadow and his symptoms, and now, none of us have any clue what side effects he could have or how long he will last on the planet, he was a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

In addition, Sonic and Mario have become more hostile with eachother questioning one another's motives and decisions of survival, snapping at the Professor whenever he had a suggestion of his own to get us out of here. This enclosed camp wasn't going to keep us toxin free from the air for too much longer, we would need some form of additional oxygen soon, E. Gadd would be running out of his oxygen producing mechanisms fairly quickly, there had to be another solution. But what? None of us could really tell when it was morning, for the planet didn't really have a sun orbit around it, but instead a wave length of different colors that changed after a number of hours, we had supposed the chemicals in the atmosphere had a part in the color change, so we always woke up when the sky above us changed to a burning orange, and we decided to sleep when it fell to a dark purple as time progressed. Luckily this pattern was ongoing and we could follow it for a decent sleep schedule and search party attempts as well as food runs and anything else we could find that was safe to eat.

So far we found several other areas that we have yet to name around us. Besides the place we inhabit now, the Mushroom Ruins, we also found a giant crater with a strange magical presence within it, a field of fallen meteors, and a city of run down robotic parts which is where we found most of our materials for research and food for survival. The more materials and resources we gathered, the more Professor E. Gadd had to fiddle with in terms of a new shelter and a new ecosystem for us. We took turns taking guard of our camp throughout the day and the night after Black Shadow's attack on us. Currently it was the very beginning of Orange as Professor E. Gadd was on duty scoping the lands abroad with a pair of binoculars he had found on a search not long ago. I was still asleep, that is until his squeaky voice yelled out and woke me up. "Samus! SAMUS WAKE UP! I've found something on the horizon out there!" I jumped at his voice jerking awake. I quickly threw on some fresh clothes as my power suit was still being repaired by E. Gadd whenever he found the time, and I rushed over to him trying to alert my body to a wide awake mood leaving my sleeping bag a mess and the others still sound asleep. I climbed over a tall pile of rubble which the Professor was standing on for his lookout post and watched him as he pointed to a small spec far away. "Take a look dear!" He handed me the binoculars and I grabbed them with quaking hands from lack of food in my stomach and focused my eyes on the sight to behold. What I saw next was not just a spec, it was a genuine relief, a blessing, and a pillar of hope.

It was my Gunship....

[WolfEx]

Chapter 4: Ship It Real Good



At the sight of my Gunship I practically sprinted back to my power suit, threw it on despite it not being fully fixed yet, and began running to the ship as fast as I could. With bated breath I dashed to the only piece of home I had left to call my own. If I could reach my Gunship safely, I could find a means of escaping this planet, or at the very least salvage any useful tech left over upon its presence. Nobody could stop me, I was on a one way ticket to that ship and all I knew was, I just wanted to have some kind of hope to live another day, and I grasped the belief that my ship would be that hope for all of us. E.Gadd called out to me and tried to stop me from rushing there without thinking, but his voice quickly became a faded echo as my boots made tread marks across the dirt and my body was moving as best it could to the destination without stopping. I could feel exhaustion starting to set in, but I was halfway there, it was a long stretch but I had to keep up the pace, it was almost like a mirage or an illusion at one point, but I kept going and I kept believing! I heard the sound of a small engine behind me, it was the Professor tailing me with some kind of levitating machine. I looked over my shoulder as I ran and could see E. Gadd flying towards me with his vacuum pack on his back which also apparently doubled as a flying mechanism. He caught up pretty fast and I turned my gaze away from him once he was close enough and ignored him going onward to my spaceship. He was side by side next to me now matching my speed and began nagging at me.

"Samus stop this! You don't know what's over there! We need to go as a team, plan it out!" I could hear him, but I wasn't listening. The sound of my breath fogging up my helmet slowly became the only tune I chose to focus on, and the scuffling of my boots. His voice was easily cut from my mind. Running on no food and a damaged suit was a task itself, but I was only a quarter of the way there now, the ship growing bigger and bigger the closer I got I was closing in. The Professor was about to jet ahead in front of me and stop me from going any further but before he did so the ground shook sending me off balance and causing me to stumble onto my back. The ship was no more than a mile away now and obstacles were not an option. After a few moments of shaking, it stopped and E.Gadd and I grouped together and braced ourselves into a guarded stance for anything else strange about to happen. Something must want to prevent us from reaching the ship, maybe the ship was claimed territory by another, anything was possible. The Professor pointed his vacuum gun forward towards the ship and I put my fists up at the ready for close combat. What felt like a waiting game for a good while finally turned into a climax. The ground beneath us burst open into a wide hole as a giant worm of some sort leaped out and tried to chomp at us with its oversized mandibles! E.Gadd somehow maneuvered his flying pack to push us both out of the way of its maw just in time. We got a better look at the creature from a safe distance as it sized us up, and it was incredibly daunting.



The creature possessed the same kind of infectious aura as the others did previously and it was not to be reasoned with. Savage and wild, it had sharpened fangs that stretched ferociously and were made to intimidate and puncture enemies with ease. Its massive body and flexible anatomy was made to bend and turn at a whim for pre-emptive strikes and sneak attacks as well as quick and cunning simple maneuverability in any climate or terrain. It looked as if it could tear through rock and travel anywhere at any time and never get tired. This monster was no joke. E. Gadd came up with a plan and kept his words at a low murmur in case the worm could understand him. None of us knew its level of intellect and we weren't about to find out. "Okay Samus, I'll distract it from afar with some gunfire, you get in close when you can and mount it from its torso area to find a weak point and pummel away." With no weapons of my own really, the plan had to work. I nodded and began to go into a serpentine motion to the worm's flank while E. Gadd started to get its attention and fire away. "Hey big fella! Over here! Come hit an old man!" The worm looked down at E. Gadd and hissed. After a stunning dive forward, it slithered scarily fast towards the Professor and E. Gadd tried giving it a run for its money by kicking up his mechanical pack at full speed leading it away from me and allowing it to chase him in flight. I was able to successfully get behind the creature with a monitored jog, and with a carefully timed heave, jumped onto its back by digging my hands into the crevice of its thorax. It jerked a bit feeling my hand dig into it but the Professor kept it busy as it c0ntinued chasing him.

"Okay ugly, time to battle!" E. Gadd put his Vacuum multi purpose mechanical pack in reverse as he turned his body around now flying backwards firing at the worm with plasma shots from the machine's connected nozzle. The Professor gets a few good shots in into the worm's eyes blinding it temporarily and sending it reeling into a shaky and twisty movement pattern almost causing it to trip over itself. "That looked painful oh ho ho! Samus hang on I think I might have threw it off balance!" I held on tight and started climbing its spine grasping its slimy skin bit by bit refraining to the best of my ability from falling off until I reached its head. The Professor kept up the gunfire as the worm screamed and writhed at the stinging shots turning and flailing doing its best to hunt down E. Gadd. With a screech just as I clasped my fingers around its tiny antennae to start throwing fists into its skull, it spit acid out of its mouth at E. Gadd missing him for the most part as he tried to dodge the attack, but some managed to disintegrate into his pack sending him crashing downwards from being airborne into the dirt. He landed hard and looked to be out of it from the impact. "NO! PROFESSOR!" I tightened my muscles and focused on hanging on to the crazed beast. With the Professor down, it now focused all its energy on me.

I reached the highest point of its head knowing I had to think fast and act immediately before it had a chance to fling me off of it, I raised my left arm into the air while hanging on with my right around its antennae and then drove my left fist from the air into its left eye piercing the pupil and smashing a hole right through its socket. It shrieked and coughed up some blue blood onto the ground below. The blood overflowed out from its eye and it came falling downwards and eventually smacked into its side on a couple of boulders beneath it. The impact caused me to spiral off of its back and onto the ground as well, I was able to roll into a more safe landing while the creature itself didn't have such lack hitting some pretty blunt rocks with its tumble. While it was trying to get up and recover lashing its tentacles and little legs every which way to return to its feet, I went right back on the offensive and sprinted to its body bouncing off of a boulder and onto its belly. I found an exposed laceration from the fall on its upper belly area and drilled both my fists into it gripping its insides and crushing them with all my might turning them into mush. I could hear it cry out in a tempo of misery. It felt like hours as I went to work on its body and insides decimating it piece by piece and grinding up its organs from the inside through every opening I could find with my bare hands. Finally I reached its face as it was fading into death now and smashed my fist into its other eye ripping it out from its head and severing the nerve ending connected to its brain. It died instantly at that point and began melting into goop.

As it shrank into a liquid, I made my way to the Professor who has recuperated at this point but had damaged his weapon pack incredibly. He seemed fine despite the confrontation and went right to work trying to fix his machine. "Go on ahead Samus, I am going to need to head back to camp to fix this properly. I won't be of any use to you this way. Besides, I can see there is no stopping a girl on a mission, and you can handle yourself no doubt. Just be careful, and report back to me as soon as you can with your finds. I have my miniature plasma pistol to keep me safe. I'm old but not daft." I heard his suggestion and concerns and with appreciation thanked him with a small hug. "Thank you, Professor. I'll be back before you know it." E. Gadd grinned and recognized my empathy. "Now, go." With a nod I turned to my ship and continued my way there while the Professor made the trek back to camp. I kept my eyes on my surroundings and remained observant as I ran the rest of the mile to my vessel, worm blood and purple goop littered my suit and I had been through hell so far on this terrible planet but I wasn't giving up. At last I took as much of a breath in as I could within my helmet as I reached my beloved craft. Its large dome welcoming me even though it was in rough shape and badly damaged. I laid a gentle hand on it as if touching a delicate masterpiece and sighed both with relief and sorrow that it was in tact, but well beyond repair in its condition. The foreign metals that made it up were rusted and severely torn, the inside of the ship was almost inaccessible but still gave way to entrance. I knew I didn't have much time to check the ship out thoroughly before I run out of air or more trouble came, so I stopped my reminiscing and found a big enough hole to crawl through to enter its cockpit. The modules were busted, cargo decimated, walls and panels completely bent and out of place. There was hardly room to walk around anymore, and sparks were shooting out all over signaling a fire hazard. I desperately wanted to spend hours on end repairing it, but with what tools, and what time? It wasn't realistic to reach that goal. But there was one thing I found....one thing that could change the course of survival for anyone still alive on this planet. A fully operational still active Hyper Reserve Tank.



An item that the Chozo had given me as an emergency life sustainer, it had the capacity of nearly unlimited amounts of hyper sensitive energy cells and power charges. It was ancient and the only one of its kind, yet somehow it survived The Fall. This was a posing question in my mind, but I didn't have the time to dwell on it, I just knew this item was going to help immensely with sustaining life for those trapped on this planet. It would create a thriving power source for a livable environment. I had to get it back to the Professor and the others ASAP. I lifted it up and hoisted it over my shoulders, I would have to carry it the whole way back like a pack mule. Once I obtained the technology I took a last look inside my ship with a great remorse leaving it for condemnation and escaped back through the hole in the hull. But once I had exited back out, what I saw next was the worst case scenario....



An entire army of Infected.

"Son of a b-"

[LOG INTERRUPTED.]

[WolfEx]

Chapter 5: Samus, The Powerful

There were far too many. My suit was damaged, my gun was of no use in its condition, I had no way to fight these monsters off. I couldn't let them defeat me, not now, not when I've come so far, not when I have found a hope for this planet, this artifact of an energy source that could sustain life. The energy it was giving off felt immense, it circulated through my body in my hands and I could sense that its source of power was nearly never ending. Maybe that's why the Infected were here, why so may surrounded me, they were drawn in by the field of energy the artifact was giving off. Either that, or they haven't had the satisfaction of blood shed in a long while and I was the closest thing to violent pleasure that they could gorge themselves on. The madness of the disease craved such things, it's what me and the Professor have gathered from our research, they craved power, territory, dominance. I was in their way, a domino they wished to knock down so they can go on with their rampaging and mindless conquering. To have the mind of the Infected, to think what they were thinking and get inside their heads, it was a scary thing but it was a thought that may help me and the others understand them better. To think of research at a time like this however, was obscene. I should be thinking of a way out of this, a plan and a solution to escape and survive with the capsule in my hands. I wasn't going to let it go, I would fight to the death before I let them get their claws on it. The ship I would have to abandon for now, but no part of me could ever part with the sacred artifact I had discovered for the better of the good people still struggling to live on this planet. I had to...hmm? What's this?



The energy tank in my hands was glowing wildly. I stared at it through my broken helmet wide-eyed and stargazed, it was reacting to something...to me, to my fear? To what? In a flash a surge of power whirled through my entire body and caused me to enter a state of euphoric shock. I had no control of what was going on inside me and the Infected were closing in. My power suit began to spark and fizzle until eventually the entire suit had fallen off of me and I began feeling a new rush of adrenaline and energy with my previous wounds and exhausted state slowly going away. Ofcourse! I had remembered I still possessed the Zero Suit underneath it all and the hyper energy capsule must have been reacting to my distress in some way. The blood flow within me increased at an accelerated rate, and I felt more aware and more alive than ever before. Though my power suit may not be of any use to me right now, my Zero suit would at least grant me a chance to stand my ground against these beasts! The artifact I had recovered had given me the ability and the boost I needed to fend these creatures off, and I wasn't going to waste it, my Zero suit would have to do for this battle.

After a minute of surreal Chozo origin hyper energy coursing through my veins, the artifact loosened from my grip and I could no longer handle the massive outlet of power it was giving off. It tumbled out of my grasp and to the ground below. I felt rejuvenated in more ways than one. I had no idea how it activated like it did, but I was prepared to find that out later, presently, I had some Infected lost souls to redeem. The strange exuberance of a boost from the Chozo artifact had restored at least my Plasma Whip weapon and its functionality which was safely concealed underneath my now inoperable suit before me in pieces. My boots were now standard Military Jet Boots that kicked on instantly at my control thanks to the artifact and I launched myself into the sky going straight to work at the monsters below me. I drew my Paralyzer blaster and began firing immediately at the creatures aiming for their head as it had to be the easiest point of extermination for those poor beings. I managed to take out a few of them by popping them perfectly in their brain while airborne and then continued trying to damage the others as I was about to descend. I injured a few more in their legs and piercing arms of others preventing a good lot of them from properly moving or attacking me. I landed at the flank of the army and didn't keep my eyes off the energy tank resting in the dirt near my ship. Even with my newfound vitality and injuring many of these foes, they still kept charging towards me hellbent on ending my life. I had to do more, I had to push myself to the limit to stop their charge.

I unsheathed my Plasma Whip and began lashing at the enemies sending them one by one to their knees and stunning enough of them to slow down the attack of the sea of creatures behind them. I was pacing myself and watching my breath and heart rate as I battled in this toxic wasteland without my power suit on. The toxins were already starting to affect my liveliness. I took a breath and held it as long as I could as to not breath in anymore dangerous air and continued whipping my plasma weapon as effectively and violently as possible at those that continued to charge me in battle, it was of no use, there were just too many! I looked over at my ship and had an idea, if the hyper energy tank could revitalize me, then maybe it could help at least just enough, to power on my ship's weaponry which would eliminate most if not all of these abominations. I made a dash through the air striding over the heads of the Infected crowd just barely dodging a blow by one of them lunging at me and made a beeline to the ship itself using as much of my fuel within my boots as I could. I safely made it back to the Chozo artifact, hoisted it up on my shoulders as it continued to glow and shine brightly from previously activating itself and climbed back into the ship. I didn't have much time, the benevolent atrocities would overpower the ship in a matter of seconds. I squeezed into the phallus pit and placed the hyper energized artifact on the console hoping it could send a surge of electrical energy into the circuits and at least power up the gun cannons. I tapped it, I banged it, I shook it in a panic and it did nothing to activate my ship's controls. I cursed out loud at its inopportune stubbornness and prepared for the worst.

But what was this? A blue blur zoomed passed the broken wind shield of my battle ship and began crashing into the Infected horde bashing them into mush at lightning speed. After a moment of witnessing this, I wondered who or what could be aiding me. The attacker showed itself and it was the annoying hedgehog stopping at the edge of the Infected army to say hello. How arrogant. "Heya girlie! E. Gadd sent me to check on ya. Need a hand?" His voice infuriated me, but what was I to do? I needed the support and he must have been the only one fast enough to reach me in time. I responded to him urgently. "I just need enough time to power on my ship's weapons, then I can eradicate the lot of them. Can you buy me some time?" the hedgehog known as Sonic replied with delight. "HA! Can I? What kinda question is that lady! Course I can! Time ain't nothin to Sonic The Hedgehog!" Sonic gives me a thumbs up, I groaned uninterested in his theatrics and he continued his thwarting on the monsters for as long as he could, gliding across that crowd like a bullet out of a pistol. I returned my attention to the controls and almost ripped my hair out of my head trying to make things work cursing the artifact for not cooperating with me when I needed it most and choosing to activate on its own terms. I turned my head to the back of the ship and saw one last hope. A backup generator. Maybe If I could just get the artifact to fire up the generator somehow just for but a moment or two, then I could clear out this area and head back to camp safe and sound. I dragged the Chozo capsule to the back of my ship climbing over tangled wires and broken machinery and made it to the backup generator. There was a slot for a generator battery that was rather roughed up and missing the battery itself which someone must have salvaged long ago. I attempted putting the capsule into its place and stared within it waiting for something, anything to happen. But nothing did. I sighed bowing my head smashing my fist into the ground of my ship and screaming out of fury and hopelessness. Why was I put on this planet? Why is this madness of an apocalypse falling upon me, upon the Professor and everyone else? What did we do to deserve this? Being a defender of a galaxy and seeing the doom of my home Tetra was stressful enough, and now I have another planet filled with people lost and afraid crying out for a solution and a hero to save them that I have to deal with.

I have always taken on too much as a Bounty Hunter. The burdens that I have placed on my shoulders, the pain I have seen and felt, everything I have been put through, it takes a toll on you. And now this, this is just something beyond me. Far beyond me. For the first time in my entire sub human life, I have seen a tear shed from my eye dropping to the hard metal floor of my destroyed Gunship. I have truly given up. I looked up at the energy tank and poured my frustrations into it. "WHY WON'T YOU WORK!!!" With moistened eyes I bashed it with my fist and it started to burst with life! I couldn't believe it! It must have been misplaced somehow within the socket. Suddenly my whole ship powers up with a buzzing recognition and in the distance I could hear Sonic rejoicing. "FINALLY! Now hurry up blondie so we can get outta here!" I could continue to hear the sounds of battle outside the confines of my ship and nodded. I ran back to the cockpit as quickly as I could, revved up the gun controls and made sure the aiming system was in tact, which thankfully it was, and pointed the guns right at the heart of the Infected army! I alerted Sonic in a boom. "Get out of the way, hedgehog!" Sonic smirked and rolled himself to safety away from the monsters and I locked on with little issue. At last, they were all to be at rest. "I'm so sorry it had to end this way. You all didn't deserve this. You were once good innocent Samaritans. This isn't your fault. Goodbye....rest now." I put my hand on the trigger control and pressed it with a flick of my thumb. In a grand display of firepower, the cannons blasted the enemies into vaporized antimatter. Within seconds every single one of them had been reduced to nothing but goo and ash. The ship's condition was too poor to handle more than just a few bursts of the cannons, but it was enough to do the job. The Chozo relic powered itself down as if it knew its duties had been fulfilled the ship turned off after emitting a dull roar.

I sighed with relief and patted the console with a grin. "Thank you, old friend..." It was time to leave my dearest friend, to leave all that was left of my home. I made my way to the back of the ship, retrieved the artifact that helped get me through that damnation of a circumstance, and climbed out of the cockpit back on solid ground. Sonic was there waiting for me with a tapping of a foot and an impatient look on his ugly mug. "So...we ready to get outta here or what?" I rolled my eyes and nodded holding the spoils and the object of this whole mess that made it all worth it. "What's that you have there?" Sonic asked as nosy as ever, and in an exasperated breath I answered him. "Hope..." He kept a stern face at this answer and I ignored his lack of maturity. "Now let's go." We both agreed we needed to make it back to camp before any more of those psychotic mutations showed up and after gathering up the pieces of my power suit and tying it around my waste with some rope I had retrieved from the ship, and the Chozo artifact that may have very well saved my life in my possession, we left the premises and I didn't look back.

[WolfEx]

Chapter 6: Once On This Island....

Sonic and myself managed to get back to base camp safely without much more trouble other than that infected army ways back. I had no energy left and collapsed to the ground the moment we hit camp. Upon seeing my exhaustion E. Gadd rushed over to me with the capsule and quickly untied it from my body allowing my bones and muscles to have a bit of a breather. Mario headed over to Sonic with a smile. "Thank you fora volunteering to helpa check on Samusa. I am prouda of you for helpinga in that way. I woulda have been too slowa to get to hera in time." Sonic smirked with arrogant fervor and gave a shrug. "It's what I do Toilet Boy. Whatever that thing is she had with her, it's gonna do us alotta good." The comment caused Mario to grow upset after being compared to a toilet but E. Gadd quickly jumped into the conversation diverting the attention back to the matter at hand. "Samus Dear Girl, are you ok? What is it you have brought back? So glad to see Sonic got to you and helped in time. And I must say a little surprised you survived such forces!" I was able to get back to my feet after collapsing to the ground and pointed at the capsule of Chozo energy below me confidently.

"This container has a huge amount of stored plasma energy that is enough to power and sustain an entire city for months. With proper energy amplifiers attached to it, maybe even years Professor. This is our chance to sustain life on this planet and survive the dangers of these wastelands." This comment put a look of ease on all the faces of the group. Things were looking so dreary for so long for the group and the planet, and now, they had a shot at life and survival. A real and honest shot. The Professor was elated. "Samus that is amazing news. By the looks of it and the energy readings I am getting, I have no doubt that this will be a giant energy source for a long time. I have ideas on how to utilize this for our group, maybe even utilize this source of power to sustain an environment for many more souls to come! But the question is, how to make it work with the tech we salvaged..." I had ideas of my own as well, and it started with alot of building material and plenty of motivation and cooperation from the group.

"We need to salvage more tech and materials Professor. We have to. We have no choice. And that will also require more hands and more teamwork. My plan is to start making a forcefield around us with sustainable oxygen sensors to keep a long term safe haven for all of us, but this will take time and dedication and lots of help." It was a long shot, but we all had to think big if we were to stay alive on this planet. Time was running out and who knew really when the next horde of Infected would find and attack us and perhaps next time we wouldn't be so lucky. The Professor's facial expressions seemed distant at first, but after a few seconds of thought, he got perky and exuded optimism. "I like it! Let's start getting some search tactics drafted to think on how we want to scout this planet out for those materials and in what amount of time. My ideas involved building a laboratory and more weapons which could be used as offense and defense abilities with your shield idea. We have a good basis on what needs doing, now let's focus on the how!" The Professor's morale was at a high point and I couldn't be more thankful, however Sonic butted in with his typical negative outlook. "How in the blue hell would we pull off finding so much material in a short amount of time. There are only 3 of us dudes!" Ever the heckler, Sonic's attitude was only hindering the situation but it seems Mario came up with the perfect retort before I or the Professor could.

"That'sa why we focusa on gatheringa the people we can finda and do some rescues first you idiota!" Sonic just got told and his only rebuttal to that was just a crossing of his arms and a sneer. That was his way of agreeing with displeasure. "Mario's right, Sonic. We need the manpower first, and to find that, we start scouting around for any living and capable bodies in the surrounding crash sites. We should scout in groups of two. Me and you can go together, and the Professor and Mario can go in a separate outing. We cover more ground that way and may increase the chance of finding survivors." Sonic sighed obviously realizing he lost this verbal debate and went with the said plan. "Fine by me. Let's just get it done quick." That was something he was quite right about, however. We had to be speedy in our endeavors because the risk and danger of being in such an unprotected setting goes up by each passing minute.

The Professor went right to work on gathering what little supplies he could for our outings and began preparing us for another mission outside our camp. "It's settled then everyone. These supplies I am dispersing to us all must be used sparingly, we don't know what's out there, and we don't know if anyone else is even alive yet besides us. So heir on the side of caution and whatever you do, stay in your teams." With those final words, the Professor divided up the supplies such as food and weaponry to us all that we currently had, and we went to our respective team member. He added one more statement. "Within the supplies I gave all of you are makeshift communicators. DO NOT LOSE THEM! We shall use them to keep in touch from afar. The way I built them should allow us to cover a decent distance, but should they stop working and you become in danger, there is a flare gun I have also given all of you. Use it and we will immediately convene at that location." We all looked at eachother and nodded. And with an equal understanding of what we must do, we split off in opposite directions to find more survivors. It was now or never.