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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!
Despite seemingly clear, Samus could feel her hand twitching in anxious anticipation of something going wrong in here. It was too easy. And as Eresh had vocalized…whatever happened here had cleaned itself up with little evidence as to the disaster that had befallen the The'nau.
Cautious were her steps as Samus approached the spherical drone, kneeling down and carefully picking the inert device up to examine it. "Looks like one of Mother Brain's she would use back on Zebes," the young woman remarked as she turned the drone over in her left hand. A crack ran through the red optical lense, more visible now that she could better investigate. There were punctures on one side, previously hidden by the angle the drone had been resting at, that Samus recognized even two years later.
"I'd say the metroids got loose and attacked everyone," came her words as she stood up and tossed the drone to her mawkin companion. "Scratches and a few breaches in the casing." A pause as Samus looked around. "But there's no sign of any bodies, very little damage…" and then as she stepped toward the still running computer systems, she noticed several still pending notifications that had been apparently collecting since more than two years prior. "The network is still running tests and automating everything as if the The'nau just…vanished into thin air."
Taking a step toward the main projected display, Samus would narrow her brow as she began tapping at the pseudo-hardlight hologram, clearing what looked to be standard notifications and requests for action, then finding a number of alerts that were labeled "priority". "Looks like there was some kind of containment breach in the lower caverns about a year ago, and some damage in a place referred to as the 'Tower'." A pause again as she studied the displayed alerts. "Something the records refer to as 'zetas' were kept in there, can't find much else at the moment." The young woman sighed and withdrew a slim data stick from a slot in her left leg plate. "Should be able to compress and copy all the data files, just may take a bit to get it all."
A few moments later, she inserted the data stick into an accepting slot, initiating the server duplication, then took a breath that she realized she had been holding. Something still didn't feel right.
Taking an overwatch position as Samus moved towards the consoles, breaking his watch on the door just in time to catch the drone when it was tossed to him. “I see. But if there was an attack by the Metroids.. wouldn’t there be more.. dust? You said that they cause victims to crumble into ash right?” He asked as he turned the drone over in his hands, noting the punctures.
“So, if this is a security drone and assuming it’s data core wasn’t fried— and that seems to be a big if— perhaps there is footage of what happened here, if it’s not already archived in the database.” He would then tuck the drone under his arm as he turned to see what she was doing.
At the mention of Zetas, he tilted his head in confusion. “Do you suppose those are some sort of native animal? Or,” he motioned to the dissected Metroids “Maybe these?”
The hunter was quiet as she directed the computer to begin compressing the database for mobile storage. After a moment, making sure the process was started, she turned her head back toward the tall Mawkin. "I think it's actually one of her relay drones, she used them to interact with the Chozo back in the Zebes nest before she turned on us and allied with Ridley."
That, however, made her trail off as that thought came to her. Despite the lack of damage to the labs, she couldn't rule out that Ridley and the Kromus had been responsible for this, especially as the Mother Brain had betrayed them all.
But there would be far more obvious signs of a Kromus siege. They weren't subtle or careful when they raided a settlement. They wouldn't have cleaned up their handiwork. Something else had happened here. Someone else had been there.
Two hours to compress and copy the database. Samus sighed as she began working at the console, accessing the landing pad controls. She could bring her ship in now, which would make recovering any surviving materials far easier than dragging them back through the tunnels. A few entries into the projected display would initiate a low rumble which signaled the landing platform retracting down into the labs. "We've got a couple hours as the system compiles and compresses everything we need to the data stick. Let's salvage what we can and load up the Thrush in the meantime." Her head turned toward the iced over tanks that contained the strange pods, a sense creeping in that she had a good idea what they were. "Those, especially. Call it intuition, but those are probably gonna be very valuable to the Al'fa."
He would look at the drone, and she would hear him give a rasping curse as he shook his head, dropping the drone to the floor as if in disgust. “Damn machine.” He said as he sighed as he walked back to her, looking at the console, and then at the frozen over pods.
“If you say so Ha’chidari, then I say we shall take them. But does the computer actually say what these specimens are? More over, your shop has the means to keep them powered, yes? I’d hate to have them wake up halfway back.”
He didn’t say anything.. but he was starting to suspect that pirates may have not been present- at least not here. The niggling feeling that there was another player on the board ate at the back of his mind, but until there was actual proof.. well he wasn’t going to voice those concerns and unnecessarily add to Samus’s stress if he didn’t need to.
Her eyes were still reading over the files she could get immediate access to when he made his own queries. "The dissected specimens are labeled as 'alpha stage', some kind of first stage mutation from the base metroids I've seen before. That means 'zeta' is some kind of further mutation stage." Samus hesitated before continuing, as it was already sinking in what they were looking at. If the Pirates knew about what was going on here on Agár and figured out what mutated the metroids like this, it could be bad. Very bad.
It took her a moment to regain her self composure and resume her work. "Looks like the The'náu researchers had recorded a 'Gamma stage mutation as well, they were keeping them locked up in the Tower as well." And then, as she glanced at the iced over containment tanks, Samus would tilt her head down pointedly. "And if I had to guess on those…"
A hesitant pause again. It was starting to come together as she fit the pieces together. The sudden silence from the research nest just before Zebes was invaded, the vanished researchers, and the unexpected mutations they had been learning about. It took her a long moment to get herself back in her head, but when she did, Samus had gone cold, now all business.
"They're eggs, Eresh. Which means that somehow, the Metroids mutated to being able to breed on their own. They have a nest somewhere in the caverns below."
That caused him to stop and look at the pods again, and his expressionless helmet hid the expression of agitated contemplation as he took what she said and realized the implications.
“So, this is your mission. What do we do with this information, then?” He asked, succinct and straight to the point. What happened next… that was all on her.
If there had been somewhere to sit, she would have dropped herself there to take the weight off of herself. But there wasn't, sadly. So Samus had to make due with leaning on the physical console while reading the holographic imagery. "We need to move these tanks to the Thrush. The cold storage tanks can be hooked into the main grid and kept in stasis, the dissected alphas aren't going to do anything since they're dead." With a sigh, Samus looked over to the set of doors that were labeled as leading to the landing platform. "Just through there is where we can load up the ship. It's going to be a couple hours while the data compresses to the storage stick, so let's get this stuff moved in the meantime. If we don't have any other issues, then I won't even need to recharge my suit's batteries."
That made her consider a moment before opening up her main UI in her visor display. "I'm going to go ahead and shift my suit to minimal combat mode. That gives me eight hours before I need to recall the suit back to its containment chamber and recharge, and still leaves me with my power beam and missiles."
There was a brief flicker of light as the golden grid appeared briefly millimeters over the surface of her armor before disassembling. "If we need to go out of the labs, I can ramp up suit functions as we go, but I think we should be alright in here."
The Mawkin would nod as he glanced at the two pods again. “Fair deal. It’ll be done.” He said as he then paused in thought. “Is that a good idea? If we have to wait for a couple hours anyway, why not charge the armor as much as you could in the meantime— just as a precaution before lowering your defenses to that degree.” He suggested, though he suspected that her mind was made up.
“But if not, I understand.”
He then would take a look at the door she mentioned, and would walk towards it. “I’ll take a quick look, make sure there isn’t any unwanted surprises. Wouldn’t want the Thrush to land in a compromised LZ.”
She raised a brow under her visor. "Charging my suit would require me to recall it back to the ship anyway, I'd only have my paralyzer." The young woman chuckled a bit as she tapped at the holo-console, making sure that the platform and her ship that was on it had retracted and sealed properly. "I'd rather have minimal defenses than none at all, and I doubt we'll be here longer than a few more hours to load everything up." A green flicker on the status, and Aran would nod to herself. "Okay, gunship is inside the complex and ready. Let's get this stuff loaded up while that data copies over."
It would take her a bit of time to follow the connections and cables to the tanks that kept them powered, but disconnecting them was simple enough once the junctions were found. "It should be easy enough to move these since they're not full of fluids, and then we'll pack up the dissected specimens. I want these eggs back in active cold storage as fast as possible." The cables were wrapped around her shoulders as Samus cautiously tilted one tank back and indicated for Eresh to help her. "I've only got one usable hand for this, gonna need some help."
He would shrug and chuckle as well at her answer, and would move to help her carry the pod. “So what exactly is the plan once your data is finished compressing and downloading? Do we leave? Do we keep exploring deeper in order to collect other integral assets? Do we do something about this theoretical infestation that’s growing underneath our feet?” He asked, genuinely curious as they walked down the hall with their precious cargo.
“Do we destroy everything we can’t carry to make sure no one else gets it?”
Samus nodded in exaggerated fashion so that her helmet made her response clear. "I'll wipe the network once we get everything, there's some stuff the records said was in the armory section, so I want to try and recover that as well." Her steps were careful as they carried the first of the two containment tanks down the hall into the landing platform where her ship awaited. A few minutes were needed to set the tank in the small cargo hold and get it hooked into the ship's power grid, but it was, as Samus suspected, simple enough.
"Okay, let's get the other one, then the dissected ones can get tucked away since they're already dead." A brisk pace back to the lab chamber and a repeat of the process to unhook the remaining cryo tank and move it to the ship's hold, now set beside its twin and hooked into the ship's power grid. Another fifteen minutes went by as they moved the remaining specimen components, with time still remaining before the data copy was done. "I'm going to see what I can recover from the armory section real quick while we wait for the database to finish." A few taps at the main console brought up a holographic map of the complex, drawing a path from the laboratory down into a section that was near the Tower. "About eighty mytrás down the complex from here, decently near the Tower, so…I best have my fields up at the least."
A few seconds passed as she accessed her UI and reactivated her shielding. The golden grid of light flickered over her armor as it reconstituted itself, and with a sigh, the young woman began walking toward another set of doors to where the map had indicated a lift was waiting. "You're welcome to wait here or come with me. Just don't mess with anything if you decide to hang out here."
“Sounds like a plan. Hopefully nothing peculiar happens,” Eresh said as they moved both pods, the labor helping keep his attention on their location. Once they was done and she mentioned that she was going to check out an armory- he would hold up a hand.
“Let me think: stay here in a boring room with monster corpses, or go to an Armory since I have already made a point in stating that my current equipment isn’t combat effective against these Metroid creatures. I believe you have my answer.” He said with a chortling huff.
“Besides.. it would be beyond foolish to let you go into an environment this hostile without backup. I rather enjoy having my beak on my face, I’m not going to be the one to tell your father that I let his daughter get eaten by monsters.” He added as he walked with her- his mind decided.”
The lift would rumble for a moment before descending with the human and the Mawkin, revealing its lack of use for over two years. The flat screen monitor built into the frame displayed their progress further into the complex, and thus the planet, as the unlikely pair awaited. Seconds stretched into minutes before they arrived, the protective doors pulling themselves aside to reveal a crudely fashioned tunnel with lumination fixtures hastily mounted into the roof of the corridor. It was here that scraps of fabrics could be seen on the ground, what looked to be burn marks in the rock walls and dark streaks that trailed down the hall.
It painted a far more perturbing story of what happened than the sterile and undisturbed laboratory above had. Something violent had occurred, and there was a nearly imperceptible dimness to the area despite the illuminating fixtures. This had not been a containment breach that caused the Thé'nau to suddenly disappear.
And strangely, it would be the lack of any native wildlife that would indicate something was terribly wrong. Two years of nature left unchecked should have made these tunnels into a haven for lesser creatures and prey species. Instead, they were empty, without a sign of invasive natural reclamation.
And ahead lay the Thé'nau armory and the ominously titled 'Tower'.
And for the ride down, Eresh would make small talk about nothing in particular- an anecdote or two about his life on ZDR before he left the planet, and how SR388 resembled ZDR to an extent. As the pair reached the intended level and the doors opened, however, he would carefully rest the back of his had against her chest plate; his posture much more tense than it had been a moment before.
“Wait.”
He then would carefully draw the ornate sword that had been hanging from his waist. “Something feels.. wrong, out of place. Be on guard, there is something sinister in the air. Look there,” he pointed down the hall. Then, he motioned to the walls and the ceiling.
“Do you notice something? Or a lack of something, in this case.”
Her cannon was already up and shifted into configuration for her wave beam, a stray crackle of electrical discharge every now and then emanating from the surface plates of the weapon. "It's like a tomb down here. There should be wildlife taking shelter in these tunnels." The metroids? She narrowed her eyes as she took her own cautious steps out of the lift, triggering her thermal vision protocols and turning her head to examine anything and everything that the suit's systems could get a lock on. So far, no sign of any trouble, but there was a distinct lack of any kind of heat signatures. And metroids were not devoid of heat, so it begged as to why everything was so still and quiet.
Samus checked the networked map data. The armory and the Tower were ahead some thirty meters of winding corridor. The tunnels appeared to branch about twenty meters in, one path leading to the armory while the other led to the Tower. And considering the facility network had said that there were a number of "Zeta" category metroids being held in the Tower, it was a good bet that such was the last place they wanted to go right now. "We need to take the left branch when we reach the fork ahead, that will take us to the armory." A pause as she checked the timer she had set before they had left the lab. It should be just under two hours now until the data dump was done. "I wanna stay away from that Tower right now. They apparently had locked up a number of the metroid mutations in there, and if the classification names track, I really don't want to run into these 'zetas'."