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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!
“Barometric pressure and the gravitational forces on this world are.. strange, suit systems are indicating a storm’s imminent,” Eresh muttered as he jogged after her, keeping his weapon up as he occasionally pointed at a local animal that caught his eye before disregarding it. Truthfully, he would’ve preferred a slower pace, running down into cave systems that he knew precisely nothing about didn’t sit right with him- even with this time table.
“Aran, try not to pull too far ahead. Just because you were told the animals aren’t prone to attack unless provoked - that might not be entirely true.. these things are pretty skittish. I know we are in a hurry, but that’s no reason to run face first into a den of animals you barely know anything about.” He warned, keeping a close eye on her as she darted down one passageway to the next.
As signs of civilization became evident, he would quietly observe as he kept pace with his comrade, a faint sense of interest tickling through back of his mind. This would be the first time he’d get first hand exposure to a non Avia aligned Chozo settlement.. and he couldn’t deny that he was intriged to see what it would be like.
"This planet orbits an x-ray binary, and I do not want to be around if that black hole decides to belch up a gamma burst while its munching on its neighbor." Admittedly, the fact that there was such complex life on the planet meant that such conditions had not been an issue here, strangely enough. Considering what she knew about the system based on its old earth records, the fact there were any planets here defied known astrophysics. It wasn't the Forerunners, they had left the galaxy before even the Chozo had arrived from what she knew.
There was a drop ahead, one that looked to have been carved out of the rock. This wasn't just a cavern, she realized as she and her companion followed the path laid out. It was a drilled tunnel. The The'nau must have excavated these caverns in their efforts of their research here. But why had they come here? What had they been looking for? And what were even the Erris? Why did they require making a life draining living weapon in order to deal with them?
Another turn and drop. They were going in the right general direction to get to the The'nau facility, but this was going to take longer than she had initially imagined due to having to use these excavated tunnels instead of the primary landing pad. All the same, if they had to go the long route, so be it.
Most of the native life had been avoiding them. Her HUD active scanning had little to no data on any of the creatures they had come across. The two legged amphibians registered as 'hornoads', with some simple details that led the girl to assume that her suit had tapped into the network already. A quick glance at the mapping image in her HUD confirmed it. So they were right on track. Good.
"I've got network signal and mapping data, we're headed the right way to get in."
“That’s a distinct possibility, though it seems unlikely that such an event is going to happen right now.” Eresh reasoned as he followed her, his attention turned towards the amphibian-like aliens. Their behavior, the behavior of every animal specimen they encountered thus far.. it unsettled him. It was said that Chozo had an empathic affinity for other life forms, it let them understand the world around them better than most others. While Eresh, as far as he knew, had no such supernatural ability.. he had been raised and trained for literal decades.. nearly a century to connect with and understand animals and nature. And what his decades of experience, and what his gut were telling him?
They were in the territory of an apex predator, one that knew no equal on this planet. That realization made his feathers ruffle in agitation as he kept up pace.
“Good. Stay sharp, we can’t see it.. but something definitely is aware of us. Let’s just hope it doesn’t decide we’re worth the time to deal with.”
Now who was being overly paranoid? As of yet, there had been nothing overtly hostile to run into, and the tunnels had been clearly excavated as a pathway to the research facility with guide lights leading the way in. It actually had occurred to her, though, that they had not yet found any sign of the metroids that the Pirates had been raiding from the planet. If the researchers had just vanished, what had happened to the metroids? Or, considering her own experiences with the bio-engineered creatures, had something happened and they were why the nest had gone silent?
Questions to be answered later as they made their way into a larger cavern corridor, or so she assumed after several minutes of traversing the tunnels, they came across a chamber that has bits of what looks like webbing of some kind, a dried trail of something leading ahead, and then the thing that made her blood freeze.
It floated out from behind a large rock, squeaking as them as it hovered in curiosity. But instead of rushing them, it slowly dropped to the ground, its two sets of mandibles chittering before it fell silent, almost like it had collapsed and died. For a moment as she held her arm up to keep Eresh back while she carefully watched it.
The membrane dome shuddered, cracking and tearing as something inside the creature was fighting to get out. A screech, another chitter, and then the thing tore itself free if the now desiccated looking husk of what Samus knew as a metroid. Instead of bottom side mandible, it bore stubby legs curled around the membrane on its underside, and a three jaw mouth at the front with a smaller mouth at the centers, open wide as it screeched at them and rose into the air.
That feeling didn’t lessen as they continued on, and in fact as they traversed deeper into the caverns and the few animals they had come to expect suddenly became scarce, it only affirmed what he had hypothesized- there was something down here that was spooking the animals in a way the two of them weren’t.. and it caused his grip to tighten on the rifle In his hands.
Upon discovering the strange webbing lining the stone around them, he would slow down a bit as he carefully scanned the chamber- coming to a stop as the strange creature floated into view. It’s sickly green membrane, the large nuclei, the massive mandibles.. was this one of thr creatures Samus had told him about? Before he could ask, however, the beast shed off its old flesh and became something considerably more aggressive looking.
“Are they supposed to do that?” Eresh asked, weapon trained on the thing.
Her blood ran cold. She knew they would be here, but she had expected the membrane domed flying pods, like jelly fish. To see the thing she had encountered in Tourian, then see it molt off that form into something else…
It was only now that Eresh's query registered to her as she was raising her arm cannon, making sure she was overcharging the missile loaded in it. "I don't know what all they're supposed to do, but the ones I ran into on Zebes did not do that." Samus turned her head toward him, still trying to keep her eyes on the metroid ahead of them. She could see her HUD trying to scan the creature, trying to pull any data available from the local facility network, only to see the lettering for what she knew meant "Forbidden". It was encrypted.
"Energy beams don't affect them," she stated as she took a tentative step back. The metroid creature hissed and chittered its teeth together as it floated toward them ever so slightly. It was preparing to pounce. "Ballistics are the only thing that directly affect them, and extreme colds." Too bad there weren't any coolant lines around as there had been in Tourian… "Do not let it bite into you, or it will suck the literal life energy out of you."
It screeched, surged forward, and hissed as Samus dove to the side, her suit reabsorbing the overcharged missile back into its storage and reconverted bits of surrounding matter into a regular micro missile. The metroid managed to reorient itself just in time to dip down and avoid the ballistic missile fired at that moment, an explosion echoing down the tunnel as the micro-missile impacted the cavern walls some distance away.
“So carbine isn’t a viable option, fantastic.” Came the Mawkin’s response- his words sarcastic in an attempt to bring a bit of levity.. but the tenseness in his voice made it seem a bit harsher than he intended.
Seeing the creature lunge for Samus as she fired at it, he would then spring into action as well. He would fire several times, the magnetically accelerated rounds slamming into the thick shell of the creature, each striking true thanks to the Chozo’s expert aim- hoping to take its attention off of his comrade.
“Keep making for the labs, I’ll keep you covered! You said it yourself, projectile weapons are the more viable option.” He declared as he threw himself out of the way of the creature as did indeed attack him as well, and he would open fire again, unloading into its carapace. However, this distraction proved to be quite beneficial, as the beasts underside membrane was now open to attack for the Hunter.
A heavy clank as her cannon overcharged the missile inside into a glowing green projectile. The creature had its nucleus membrane exposed, owing to Eresh drawing its attention. Even if his rifle wasn't piercing its carapace, it was still feeling each impact and chipped bits of armoring.
"Let's see if this still works without freezing you assholes solid," Samus hissed under her breath as the green micro missile gave a thump, then rocketed as near mach speeds and slammed into the metroid's exposed underbelly. A violent explosion rocked the chamber, the force throwing Samus back a bit while smoke filled the air, obscuring everything from view while several wet splatters could be heard in the dust and smoke. Once the dust cleared, thankfully the front jaws of the metroid were laying in the dirt, pieces of its carapace scattered around while its gelatinous membrane and core were now splattered against the cavern walls.
And she breathed heavily as she waited and watched the displayed cooldown counter begin. Fifteen seconds before she could even think about replenishing her missile stock. The downside of having functionally unlimited ballistics was that her cannon could only store five at a time, and it took a good five seconds of calm and focus to get the E-M converter to generate that refresh…unless she happened to overcharge and use the whole bank at once in a 'super' missile.
"Okay …that worked." She glanced to the Mawkin and smiled, even if her helmet hid it. "Nice set up, don't think that would have worked so well if you hadn't done that."
Narrowing his eyes as he saw just how resilient the creatures shell was, he would place another pair of shots into the creature, a grim satisfaction coming to him as it shrieked in response to his attacks. Out of the corner of his eye he then caught sight of Samus taking aim.. and he leaped backwards as far as he could.
A moment later the entire chamber shook as the Hunter’s missile found its mark, and he tucked his limbs as the shockwave hit him, rolling with it and coming to his feet. Taking a few breaths to center himself.. he would approach the remains, huffing. “So that’s the power of these creatures..” he mused.. and a dark chuckle left the Chozo. “It looks like we will face a proper challenge during this trip after all.”
And as Samus spoke up he would turn his head to look at her, nodding in approval. “I had faith that you’d pull it off, never had a doubt.” He said as he stood up, rifle in hand. “Now then, let us be off. We have those laboratories to find, yes?”
From his body language and tone of voice.. it a strange way it seemed that short battle had lifted his spirit quite considerably.
A nod as she continued now through the tunnel, making no effort to sidestep the cracked remains of the metroid's tri-jaw mandibles and feeling a slight satisfaction to hear them crunch and snap under the weight of her in her armor. "Should be not too much further up ahead. Half a kilometer at this point."
Despite herself, Samus found that she was taking a more measured pace since their encounter with whatever kind of mutation of a metroid that had been. Curious that it had not needed the extreme instant freezing colds that the ones in Tourian had in order to kill them. Then again, she hadn't been accompanied by anyone into the central district of the Chozo city.
The light fixtures were becoming more sparse in functional mountings. Something had been breaking a number of the lighting units, leaving the tunnel into the The'nau facility dimmed and more foreboding as they neared. Had it been feral metroids? They haven't seemed to be possessed of that kind of spite in all her encounters. Unless maybe the creatures had been breaking the light fixtures in order to get at their iinnards and drain power from the reactor feeds.
“More than enough tunnel for something interesting to happen along the way, if our indignant friend back there is any indication,” Eresh said as he fell into step behind her, now taking care to be even more alert than he had been before.. covering his friend’s six while occasionally casting a few discerning glances over Samus’s direction. The Metroid was a surprise to be sure, and he was determined to avoid getting blindsided that easily again.
The fact that Samus was now being a bit more cautious didn’t hurt either, and he was glad she was now opting to advance at a more moderate pace. Glancing at the broken lights, he would speak up
“Watch your step. Since this Tunnel is artificially constructed, there might be some structural integrity issues. Be on guard for fragile sections of the floor.”
The armored hunter gave an affirming nod, taking a moment as her arm cannon came up and began to flicker. Her eyes under her helmet closed as she suddenly halted, her breathing in deliberate control pauses as the glow spiraled up the shaft of her cannon arm and reached the barrel port to disperse back downward as there was a deep electric crack. Opening her eyes again, Samus saw her missile stock was fresher back to full. Hopefully she'd not need to overclock the ballistic system again so soon. As powerful as the 'super' missiles were, they pushed the missile fabricator to its limits every time, hence why her armor needed a longer cooldown before she could restore her munitions.
That and she wasn't so sure firing that explosive a charge was going to be so safe again. They'd been lucky with the size of that last chamber. But now the cavern walls were getting tighter in size, more akin to the decks on a cruiser.
"I've admittedly only run into metroids when I was infiltrating the Tourian central complex back on Zebes, but even with seeing half a dozen of them myself, Federation forces and Confed infantry have run into enough of them that I know they normally don't molt like that one did."
Fifty meters ahead of them and they should reach an entry into the The'nau facilities. And yet, now her paranoia was at an all high. The distinct metal thump of her cannon opening up into missile mode could be heard in the cavern hallway, a purple topped micro missile forming from a series of glowing light structures inside the barrel. "Eyes open and ears up," the young hunter intoned as they continued in. "I want to be able to get in and out before I have to switch to my suit's reserve batteries. That's four hours from now. Let's not be here all day."
“So either the creatures life cycle isn’t like what we just saw, or their maturation is wildly accelerated here for some reason. Either possibility is strange and a little unnerving. Perhaps there is something more sinister about this world besides super predators hiding behind every stone.” Eresh commented as the pair continued to make their way to the facilities.
But at Samus advising him to keep alert, he gave a soft sarcastic huff. “Acceptable, wouldn't want me to accidentally lead us into another one of those things, would we?” He asked, his tone one of barely restrained amusement. All the same, his vigilance would not falter- it wasn’t in his nature to be inattentive during a mission.
A low blue light filled the laboratory chamber as the pair made their way through the tunnel adjacent doors and into the massive room. Tubes full of fluids were scattered about the chamber, some containing what appeared to be dissected metroids, others housing creatures that had membranes akin to the life-energy consuming animal, yet…more insectish. The same creature they had seen emerge from the metroid in the tunnels, no less. Some were intact, others had been sectioned apart into separate tubes for closer study. A pair of large observation tanks were covered in a thin layer of ice and frost while inside them were individual pods of some kind.
It was a sight that raised many questions as to what had been going on at the The'náu labs, and just what was the actual purpose of the metroids. and what they really were.
Despite the nearly two and a half years that had passed since the Siege of Zebes, systems were still running, with data scrolling on a variety of monitors and holographic projections. In a far corner was a miniature projection of the Naraka system, three planets orbiting the central star and its voracious singularity partner, and near it, coated in a layer of dust from laying there for two and a half years, was a silver spherical drone, a single dark red eye lense on one side, covered in scratches.
And once they were in the labs proper, Eresh would request to be allowed to take point. He was larger than Samus, true, but he also had many years of experience being a point man during times of active combat. And also, in his own words: “It’s more tactically sound to keep the mission critical personnel away from possible trip wires or automated defense weapons.”
It was also his way of apology; to make up for his inability to warn her of the last encounter. And as they beheld the dissected monsters and the frozen-over specimen tanks, he gave a soft chirrup as he then wondered aloud.
“Is it just me, or does it look like there is a distinct lack of damage in this room? There is a suspicious lack of carnage or evidence of any real struggle so far- don’t you find that strange?” He then looked back at his comrade after turning his attention from the innards of one of the creatures that resembled the one they had so recently turned to pulp.
“Wasn’t there some sort of disaster? Where are all the signs of panic? There’s signs of disrepair - but things are still quite intact.”