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May 2023 It's been hectic this last year, but we are alive and celebrating our fifth year of adventure and tales. A lot has been worked on to help make the Monoverse one that everyone can enjoy and explore their story while becoming a part of the greater cosmos. All of you, new and long time players, stay safe, and see you in the Sea of Stars!
The depths of the planet were silent. None of the native wildlife stirred in the deep caverns, as though they had been long abandoned by any form of life. All that filled these tunnels were low growing plants, pools of clear water…
And bones that littered the ground.
Something raced out of a crevice as the high shrill screech of a metroid echoed through the caverns. Small and gelatinous, about the size of a human fist, the yellow thing streaked through the air, reaching out with a series of tendrils as if feeling the air. It was silent, but clearly panicking from its actions. It was fleeing from something, and as the screeching echoed again, the small yellow amoebic creature raced up the tunnels, desperately trying to escape.
There, ahead as it hurried in flight up the caverns. Something moved, began hopping away desperately on its two legs. A hornoad, small and greenish yellow in color. It was already trying to flee itself as soon as it saw the yellow blob coming toward it. It scurried after stumbling, eventually resuming its hop, but the yellow amoeba was already on it, stretching its gelatinous body all around the hornoad and forcing its way through any opening it could find in the amphibian. Pores, eyes, through any point of breathing, any way to enter.
The hornoad stumbled again, giving a pained and pathetic cry as it tried to shake the yellow membrane off to no avail. It tripped on its own feet, hitting the ground face first, then struggling back to its feet and making with all possible speed to escape as the screeches become louder and closer.
Not even emergency lights were active up where the Zeta had been trapped in. The doors normally would have been sealed, but with the power drained from this sector of the Tower, it had been then a matter of forcing the doorway out open, flooding the dark corridors with lumination from the pair of hunters and their armors' headlamps.
"Just ahead is where the armory is marked," Samus remarked as they carefully stepped through the empty hallway. The lack of power in the sector, sadly, did not surprise her after the mutated metroid they had encountered. It had undoubtedly been feeding itself on the Tower's power grid, likely even shorting out the connections between it and the Chozo Nest's power plants. "Looks like the local geothermal power planet is actually underneath the Tower. This says everything down there is still operating, so I wonder why the Tower is shut down like this."
Another door to force open. Between the two of them, the hunters did not have a difficult task of making entry, just time consuming. But they soon came to the chamber that was marked on Samus' map data as where the weapons research and prototypes were being kept. "Okay, let's crack this open, and see what's left here to recover."
But it still was in the back of her mind, bothering her, that the Thé'nau had been not just developing the Metroids, but also researching new kinds of weapons technologies based on the unusual energies of the planet. That hadn't been even revealed, as far as she knew, to the Elders on Zebes. Had Grey Voice known? Had any of them?
Certainly Mother Brain had to have known.
And then she found the desiccated and ravaged corpse of an avian dressed in the tattered remains of Thé'nau robes. Pieces of silver colored armor still adorned its shoulders, simple smoothed spheres connected to a plain chest plate. Other bodies could be seen now, half a dozen in total, with her scan visor giving little information beyond identifying them as Chozo, and probable causes of death.
They were blasted by energy weapons. The predation visible in their bodies was post mortem, scavengers that had made their way into the Tower for easy meals.
And one of them was hunched over, obscuring some small spherical object that the tiercel had been desperate to conceal when they died. Carefully, she knelt down to pry the sphere from the deadman's grip of the deceased Thé'nau, trying to bebas respectful to the dead as possible. "Please forgive me for this," she whispered as a crack could be heard while pulling the tiercel's arms open and recovering the sphere. It was about a quarter of a meter on diameter and resembled a half scaled version if her change sphere state, except it has what looked like a diagram of treads on the outer shell, or some kind of latching system like the barbs on a spider's legs. She directed her scanning display to the object, noticing that the central network had information and was downloading to her suit's own computer.
"Something called a 'Terrain Sphere'," came the remark from Samus as she examined the device. "Looks like it was designed as a all terrain module for chozo power suits that allows a subject in the ball state to traverse sheer angle surfaces and even ceilings.
"A spider ball."
And her suit was compatible with it. That made the decision easy enough.
“Of course, why would these animals be considerate and leave a building’s power systems alone.”
Eresh would then sigh after that sarcastic quip, and he got working to help her get the door open. Thanks to his large stature and strength- along with Samus’ own assistance they were able to slowly wrench the door open in order to see-
Bodies. Numerous Chozo bodies. Eresh would stand in the doorway, one hand clutching the partially opened portal. In some ways, this was nothing Eresh hadn’t seen before: he was a soldier, and he had lost comrades on more occasions than he wanted to remember. But from what he knew of Samus’s adopted kinsmen.. they were not warriors by nature, barring necessity. And these people.. it was clear to see that they were attacked without warning.. and without quarter. And this fact alone caused his metal talons to dig into the door with barely restrained fury.
A long moment later he would quietly walk into the chamber, and as Samus knelt before the fallen Chozo he would gently rest his palm on her shoulder, kneeling beside her. She could hear him uttering a quiet prayer, for their spirit to find solace in the higher world..and a promise of retribution on their behalf. He then would stand up, saying nothing to his companion as he slowly did the same for the others before he too began investigating, gingerly searching - not wishing to trouble their remains.
And after a few minutes of this ritual.. he would find a pair of curious devices- small, resembling data chips to a degree. “Data storage.. maybe?” He mused to himself as he studied one of the devices for a moment before taking a calculated risk by slotting it within a port on his helmet. His eye lenses began blinking a dull red as his armor analyzed the device.
The sphere in her hands would flicker a moment, then disassemble itself into glowing particles and swirling down the length of Samus' arm and around to absorb into her chest plate. The HUD of her visor blinked an alert, informing her of the newly assimilated module and its function. With a deep breath, Samus closed her eyes, allowing her mind to drift away, and fell downward into her morph ball state. A moment later, the spherical form's outer shell shimmered and produced a series of treads from all solid surfaces. The ball dropped a shimmering spherical pulse, launched seconds later as the energy exploded and threw the ball up and to the wall where it stuck and began to roll upward toward the ceiling. As soon as it touched the top, the ball shifted to latch to the ceiling, then suddenly dismissed the gripping treads and dropped back to the ground as it flared and returned to Samus' normal armored form and landed on the metal deck.
"That thing would have been really handy back on Zebes," the young woman remarked as she stood back up from her landing. After a moment, she examined the rest of the room, active scan visor picking up data tags from a number of objects that were half buried in the back of the room. "Let's grab what we can and get it back to the Thrush. Most of this is coming up as incompatible with my suit, and beyond that, I don't know what they are, but the mainframe is tagging them as 'aeion' prototypes."
She stepped over to the pile of collapsed crates and shelves, pulling one of the shelves aside with ease and grabbing the cube shaped object that had been underneath it. "There looks like about three or four of these cube units, we should be able to take them all in one go."
Though, as she handed the cube to Eresh and began digging in for the next one, it did not at all escape her eyes what data she was able to obtain on these 'aeion' modules; a 'lightning shield's that implied an electrical barrier of some kind, something called a 'burst beam', and a third unit that brought up a designation of 'phantom cloak'. The last one came across as very self-explanatory, but it wasn't adding up now. These all appeared to be weapons, or at the very least intended for armed conflict. This wasn't anything like the "energy production" research that she and her father had been told was going on at Agár at all. This was arms research.
But why? And for use against who? More importantly, for use by who?
And then she finally said aloud what had been silently stewing since she first saw the database manifest. "They were lying to us back on Zebes about this planet," Samus let out, standing up and tossing another cube to Eresh. "The Thé'nau weren't researching new energy production methods or even a treatment to the Thó'ha sterility. These are weapons and armament prototypes. They were developing new technologies for fighting a war."
Eresh would give a quiet hum as his suit systems ascertained that the device wasn’t harmful: in fact it contained security access codes for the majority of the facility, acting as a sort of Identify Friend/Foe transponder device. “I think I accidentally instated myself as member of the high clearance personnel,” Eresh called out to Samus, turning to look at her. “Unfortunately I don’t think that will do us much good while the power is still out-“ he was then cut off by the exploding bomb.
It was at that moment that he saw Samus test out her new piece of equipment, watching her roll about for a brief while before dropping back to the floor and returning to her true shape. “Hm- that seems pretty useful.” He said as he followed her as she began rummaging through containers, handing him a number of strange cube-like devices. “Aeion? What is the significance of that I wonder,” he mused as she then dropped that bombshell.. and he would glance at the modules he was holding.
“Weapons? I see. Well that is unexpected. What were they preparing for, if they were secretly developing some sort of combat tech? Who were they expecting to fight? The Kromus, maybe?” He asked, carefully attempting to adjust his arms as he held the cubes, not wishing to drop them.
“But why keep that secret from your kinsmen?” He asked.. though he understood such logic- his own tribe kept many secrets from their cousins .. back before the exodus to the SDC.
The young woman didn't answer right away. She had so many questions herself, with certainty that no one now could give her the answers she needed. But she and her father could still find some themselves. "Let's get this stuff back to the Thrush, that system copy should be nearly done by now."
She picked up the last of the cubes, carrying it herself as she led the way out and followed the map back to the labs. Samus found herself far less talkative than she normally would have been. It bothered her, after having been taught of the vow of non-aggression that the Thó'ha ancestors had taken long ago, that it may have all just been words and hiding behind others to do their fighting for them. When a quarantine of the Naraka system would have done just as well to prevent whatever these 'Erris' were from escaping the planet, being that the system was so far into the core regions, they had elected to create a bioweapon species that was now the subject of repeated usage by the Kromus for attacking the Federation. Now she had discovered that they had been doing even more weapons research here when claiming to her and Maru that everything done on Agár was to research new forms of energy production.
How many other lies had they been fed as truth? What else had the Elders hidden from them? What else had Grey Voice hidden from his own son and adopted granddaughter?
And then her thoughts were interrupted as they exited the Tower and heard a horrific screech. One they already knew all too well. Out of one of the tunnels that led down and deeper into the planet came a hornoad, hopping in terror, though it seemed also in pain as it stumbled. Another screech echoed out of the tunnels behind it, and then came the floating alpha metroid racing after the amphibian.
This wasn’t lost on Eresh, and he would attempt to initiate small talk, though her noncommittal vocalizations shut down his efforts. He couldn’t really hold it against her; after everything she had told him about the tribe, how they were pacifistic and worked to preserve peace through non-violent means.. only go then discover that this wasn’t true.. the Mawkin could sympathize with her world view getting shattered.
“Listen, your people were most likely doing what they thought would best help this galaxy, even if their peers might not agree. What we’ve discovered here.. it’s not necessarily admission of guilt towards a nefarious goal. We simply don’t have the context for the creation of these weapons yet.” Before he could continue- the all too familiar screech of the so-called “Alpha” strain of Metroid set him on high alert, and he would gingerly set the cubes down , unslinging his rifle once again.. quickly taking aim.
“Fantastic, just what we need eh?”
When the two creatures came into view, he would glance at Samus. “Your call, Ha’chidari!”
Her own cargo set aside, Samus would shift her cannon into missile configuration, HUD giving her a lock on the alpha metroid while running the distance and firing angle calculations. "Take out the alpha, I've had enough of these things to last me a lifetime by now."
She fired, but the alpha quickly dodged the missile, now directing its attention from the hornoad and directly on her. It gave a screech as it shook rapidly, then suddenly surged forward to cross the distance between it and the pair and slam into Samus, clamping its outer mandibles around her right arm like a vice. While the shielding barrier held, Samus could still feel the bite as if it had actually penetrated her skin, giving out a scream of shock. A split second later, her HUD was flashing alerts at her; her shields were rapidly draining, now mere seconds from collapse as the alpha metroid refused to let go. Bright white tendrils of energy were crackling over the creature's membrane, and its stumps of insectoid legs began to extend, as if feeding on Samus' armor was what it needed to push growth.
"Get the hell off of me!" The hunter screamed, hitting it physically with her free hand, then finally giving into desperation and triggering her morph ball while she still had power. The matter to energy and back again shift was enough to free her from the alpha's grip, allowing Samus to roll away and revert back to her normal state while the metroid seemed to be confused as it shook itself in midair. Yet she knew she wasn't out of trouble yet. Her shields had collapsed and were having some kind of overload restart kick in, while the metroid had managed to drain over a third of her remaining battery power. Even her main weapons were in the midst of a full reboot due to the sudden surge.
Just like what had happened in Tourian.
"Bastard nearly bit through my suit," she remarked while sparing a quick glance to Eresh. "We have a problem. My shields are still trying to refresh and my cannon is having to reboot from the surge that thing caused. I've got nothing but main movement and operating systems."
Eresh would open fire as she let loose a missile, the magnetically accelerated rounds punching into the Metroid - though sadly none were able to hit the nucleus hanging underneath the abomination. He was just about to open up another barrage on the beast, when it’s speed caught him off guard. It practically bolted for Samus, and he was unable to attempt to redirect it before the creature made contact with the huntress and bit into her arm.. and he was not prepared for her response.
He heard her yell before, he’d heard her shriek Chozo battle cries on many occasions.. but he had never, ever heard such a blood curdling scream leave the Hunter before.. and when she escaped and gave her warning, he would immediately bound forward and put himself between the Metroid and his friend.
“Then shadow me- at least two meters behind. Until your systems reboot I want you to stay behind me and keep a safe distance. I’ll keep it occupied.” He said tersely, his tone low and almost gravelly. He then lifted his rifle and took aim - much like with the “Zeta” he would go for its eye clusters.. aiming for the left-then the right in two short bursts.
The alpha gave a pained cry as the bullets impacted around its eyes. They didn't rupture, but it still inflicted pain, and as it reared back, it gave another pained screech as it shuddered. Its legs slowly lengthened further before Eresh and Samus' eyes, its carapace dulling in color even while its eyes flared with an unnatural light. Another cry of pain as the alpha lowered itself to the ground, its skin splitting open along its head, then along its sides as the stumps of legs elongated into spindly arachnid limbs, the tipped ends digging into the ground as it continued to thrash and screech.
And then the outer body shed, revealing a longer and more vicious looking insectish creature that stood on its four legs, three eyes on each side of its head as the outer mandibles had grown in size and thickness while the inner maw had expanded out. The back of its body was beginning to lengthen into a tail, and already, the transition between an alpha and the zeta they had encountered was very clear. Crackles of electrical energy arced over its body, its outer mandibles clacking together.
And then it charged, barreling at the taller mawkin hunter and swatting him with one of its surprisingly dense legs. Another screech came as it would attempt to chase after the more brightly colored armored human, knowing her to, at the moment, be a much more rich source of food.
And as this all occurred, the hornoad that the metroid had been chasing to begin with stumbled about, letting out a weak and pain croak, before collapsing to the ground and ceasing to breathe.
Eresh would give a grunt of surprise as he watched the creature metamorphosed into a new form, and he would try to fire again before he was barreled past by the creature, hissing in anger as it did so. But when he saw that it was again going after Samus again, his brain snapped into overdrive as he then called out to the huntress over the comms.
“Samus, ball form NOW!” He shouted as he activated his Grapple Beam and launched it towards Samus between the creature’s spider-like legs- threading the needle as it were. If she heeded his words, he would yank her between its legs and out of its reach.. his rifle hanging from his shoulder as he drew his sword-he couldn’t trust his aim when it’s nucleus was so low to the ground. Those legs however.. they presented a potential target.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the Hornoad collapsing.. but he paid it little mind- figuring that it had been attacked by the Metroid previously.
The metamorphosis that occured before their eyes made Samus stare in horror to realize just how fast these creatures were evolving, how rapidly they were becoming even more dangerous than the forms she had encountered in Tourian. She could barely register what she was seeing when Eresh was swat aside and the newly evolved metroid barreled toward her, snapping its outer mandibles hungrily.
“Samus, ball form NOW!”
She heard him just as it was on her, Samus letting her mind drift and shift herself into the morph ball. For a moment, she almost escaped, feeling the tingle of the mawkin's grapple beam catch her.
And then she felt her armor begin to press in as her transformed state was halted and the metroid held her in its outer mandibles. Her mind panicked, her Astral state vision seeing that its inner maw was snapping angrily at her, hungry for her suit's energy. She could feel Eresh pulling as hard as he could, but the metroid pressed its mandibles inward harder, trying to force the yellow sphere downward to its maw.
And then she dropped the surging pulse that erupted right into the metroid's mouth with pure concussive energy, forcing it to release her while screeching in pain and allowing Eresh to pull her away from it. As soon as he'd release her from his tether, Samus allowed herself to revert to normal form, catching her breath in the split second they had while the metroid was gathering itself. "Hungry bastard."
Eresh let out a harsh stream of curses when the creature snapped up Samus right as his Grapple Beam locked onto her, and for several moments he would engage in a furious tug of war with the glutton, giving an angry keening shriek as he tried to pull her free. “Let her go, you pathetic insect.. blob!” He snarled .. and almost lost his balance when the Metroid suddenly let her go thanks to that ball.. barely catching the ball and letting it go after back pedaling from the momentum.
Once she was back in her normal form, he would again put himself between her and the newly mutated monster. This wasn’t going to plan.. and mission or no mission, he wasn’t going to let Samus fall to these.. things.
“Are you alright?” He asked, before taking hold of his catalyst blade.. and he gave her a look over his shoulder. “I’ll try to buy you as much time as I can until your suit is fully operational. But if I can’t.. take whatever you can carry and get back to the lab- your mission is too important. I’ll be right behind you.”
And then he would charge at the creature, aiming to hack at one of those legs.
The metroid screeched angrily at losing grip on the brightly colored smaller of the pair. It took a series of steps back as it gathered itself again, then screeched as bolts of electrical discharge surged from its underside membrane and along the length upward to its head. It heaved, rearing back on its spindle legs, then thrusting forward to unleash a sheet cone of bright blue lightning.
The blast would catch Eresh, collapsing what little of his shields had managed to recharge and shocking him through his armor, but not enough to put him out. It caught Samus, however, before her own defense barriers could reboot, throwing her as the discharge shocked her and sent her to the ground.
Eresh would give a surprised squawk as this happened- but before he could try to break off, he was struck fully by the cone of electrical energy. The Mawkin would convulse and let out a loud shout of agonized fury. But he wouldn’t fall, no like this. Shaking it off, he would hack at the Metroids leg.. and would strike at that leg again with the intent to sever it. But that wasn’t all.. he would lift his rifle up with the other hand.. and would fire at its eye clusters once again. This beast was too dangerous to allow it to retain functionality… leaping back to avoid a retaliation bite from the creature.