Stained Crimson: A Metroid Short Story

Stained Crimson

Several years after the events of the original Metroid. Two years after Metroid Prime 3.

It was about an hour after midnight on the city world of Daiban, the capital of the Galactic Federation and lightly raining. The air was misty. The wet, mirror-like streets reflected both the city’s metal buildings and the speeder traffic lanes in the sky. On the ground level, there were a few people with umbrellas taking early morning strolls on the sidewalks. This particular region seemed isolated somehow from the rest of the city’s busy activity. It was a quiet sector, and the residents liked to keep it that way. Three figures stood out of sight in a dark alley, clearly trying to be as negligible as possible. They wore black armor on their upper bodies that complimented their grey skin complexions and each carried an assault rifle with a cycling barrel inside it, indicating that the weapon could probably pump out a lot of rounds quickly.
One of the figures reported to another figure, just noticeable smirking “Charges set sir.”
“All of them?” questioned the captain.
“Yes sir. I armed each one myself.” he replied.
“Good,” the Commando leader pressed on the side of his helmet.
“Seven Seven are you in position?”
A gruff voice with a slight accent replied over the com, “Yeah, but just hurry it up would ya, I’ve been waiting for thirty minutes now.”
“You’ll get your wish, but just wait for the signal first.”
“Fine. You guys are paying the bill anyway,”
“Indeed.” Once the com channel had been safely closed the Captain muttered to himself,
“Blasted greedy piker,” He reopened the channel to another group, and inquired “Force One and Two are in position I presume?”
“Yes sir.” replied a voice.
“Then tell them we’re proceeding in ten seconds.”
“Roger.”
Daiban was the capital of the Galactic Federation. The same federation who ordered Samus Aran, A.K.A “The Hunter”, to stop the Space Pirate’s master plan of unleashing biological weapons upon the galaxy by blowing up their underground base on Zebes several years ago. When Zebes fell, several thousands Pirates died in the subsequent facility collapse including the Pirate leader; Mother Brain. Samus, the Federation’s dog went onto plague the Pirates for years following Zebes, destroying anything relating to the Pirates that she came across. Samus, had smashed major Pirate operations on both Tallon IV and Aethe.She even personally lead the attack against one of the Pirate homeworlds of Ultraghus. The Pirates desired the galaxy, and it seemed that both Samus and the Federation would be the eternal obstacle always standing in their way of achieving it. In light of everything the G.F and Aran had done to them, what the Pirate Captain and his commandos were about to do on Daiban was long awaited vengeance.
“We’ll stain the Federation capitol crimson for the blood they spilt of our kin because of their precious “Hunter”. Level it.” said the Commando lead.
The tall skyscraper in the distance to the lead’s left shook as six sequenced explosions overtook its base and collapsed it to the ground in a fiery earth-jarring smash.

_____________________

“Good night” Senator Grae shouted, abruptly awoken from his sleep. “What on Daiban was that?! An earthquake!?” He could hear in the distance exchang es of laser fire. Bright light shone through his on of the bedroom window’s purple curtains and lit the room with an orange glow. He walked over to the window and opened the curtains. But what he saw made his heart drop. To his horror, he noticed one of the city’s biggest skyscrapers was missing. The city now glowed red and orange due to the fire now breaking out around the affected area. A stark contrast to the city’s light-glittered landscape filled with airspeeder traffic and great, spire like, shadowed buildings.
Two armored troopers suddenly burst into the Senator’s bedroom.
“Senator, terrorists are attacking the capitol and we need to get you out of here as quickly as possible.” The female Sergeant said.
The Senator turned to address the soldiers with a look of pride, “There's no cause for alarm sergeant. I'm sure security will have this little mess taken care of soon. Besides skyscrapers can be rebuilt. I think I'll grab a cup of tea to calm down and head back to sleep-”
The sergeant scowled under the orange plate visor. “Sir with all due respect, it’s not what you want anymore. We need to get you to outta here. Now you can either walk there or I can knock you out and carry you there."
“Well, if you put it that way…” The senator turned and grabbed his scarlet robe. The three fled out of the luxury apartment, into the elevator. On their way down, the female guard told the Senator “Reinforcements are waiting down on the reception level.”
The reception room had a few chairs and two sofas arranged around a large coffee table in the center of the room. The room featured a spectacular slanted glass roof that offered a view of a night sky, choked out by the smoking flames of the burning skyscraper. The room was filled with seven armed soldiers wearing compact armor suits. Across the room was a lovely stone balcony where two more soldiers stood holding heavy repeating blasters. To their left was the elevator to the lower levels. Three of the troopers took notice of the Senator coming out of elevator and started walking with them towards the second elevator on the left.
“I really don’t see how some insurgents could manage to overtake our group Sergeant. We’ll be quite safe I’m sure.”
Suddenly the overhead skyline exploded to pieces. A Moment later two Space Pirate Commandos and an armored warrior dropped down to the floor.
“Unless the terrorists are Space Pirates!” muttered the Sergeant.
“You bet your neck we’re Space Pirates!” The armored man retorted, before the room erupted in exchanging laser fire. The three intruders dove for cover, one of the commandos tackled a trooper as he did where he dispatched him with a knife. Senator Grae and his guards found cover along one of the couches. The Heavy gunners standing on the balcony turned to the room.
“Everybody down!!”one yelled and began pelting the room with an unrelenting volley of laser fire. Grae put his hands on his head and tucked lower to the ground. But as the HMG troopers were preoccupied with the foes in the room they didn’t notice the two jetpack Pirate troopers that just flew in from behind. One of the gunners fell dead when he was blasted in the back but the other ducked just in time to return with his own punishing burst. The target Pirate Aerotrooper tried tried evading his shots, but took several hits to the chest. His jet pack caught fire and it flung the now dead pilot to the hard ground five stories below. The other Aerotrooper descended under the balcony for cover against the gunner’s attack.
The armored warrior was crouching behind a stone column at the entrance of the balcony. He turned ‘round the corner and blasted the distracted gunner in the back with his SMG. While the two commandos were busy with the remaining troopers in the room, the Senator’s Sergeant signaled the other guard to make a break for the elevator. “Cover us!” She shouted.
Taking notice, the troopers behind cover stood up and laid down as much suppressive fire as they could on the foes across the room. The senator and his guards broke for the elevator and pressed the “close doors” once inside. The foes rose from their cover and made short work of the remaining security troopers. The armored warrior noticed a trooper lying wounded on the floor and put a blaster bolt into his head. He turned towards the elevator, about to blast the ones inside. Two security troopers rushed into the elevator at the last second as the doors closed.
The elevator stopped on the basement level and the doors opened on cue. Two of the soldiers, who had just popped fresh magazines into their carbine rifles, bolted out and quickly scanned the perimeter with their guns.
“The coast is clear, let’s move.” one of them said.
The five ran down the long hallway and past the private hanger.
“Shouldn’t we take my ship? It would be the fastest way out of here,” offered Grae.
The Sergeant replied dryly. “Negative. If they know were down here, they’ve probably got that hanger covered, since it juts out of the building.”
“I see.” sounding out of breath.
“This is Sgt. Hahli Cain of the SSF, we’ve got Senator Herman Grae with us here and are being actively pursued by Space Pirate forces. We need an immediate evac near our position ASAP.”
“Sergent Cain, this is Warrant Officer Martinez of the 4th DSAK wing. We read you; what’s your current position?”
“We’re just leaving Gunther Suites and now 93rd Ave.”
“Yeah…the buildings in that area are too close together for us to pick you up. Can you make it to Myersburg Park Square?”
“Only if we book it.”
“Yeah, that looks like the only way we’ll be able to get you out of there. Sorry.”
“Roger Warrant Officer. We’ll see you there soon.”
__________

The three commandos stood in the reception room amidst the broken bodies of the downed solider,
“They’re headed down. They weren’t stupid enough to try and fly that speeder out of their hanger or they would have done it by now.” Said the armored man as the elevator doors closed on his wrist comlink. “Phase Three has failed… as planned.”
“On with Phase Four then, I’m sure that won’t be too much of a problem, bounty hunter?” replied the Commando Lead.
“That’s what you guys pay me for, Nakiit.”
A moment later the hunter and the two commandos rushed out of the reception room onto the balcony where the Armored Personnel Carrier had just pulled in. As the three jumped inside the ship, the hunter said, “They’re headed for the Park Square a klick east from here!”
“We’re on our way then!” replied the pilot.
The ATC’s engines hummed up as the ship accelerated. The younger of the two Pirate commandos inquired, “How can you tell where they’re going?”
“Park Square’s the closest and easiest place for an evac right?”
The Commando nodded, “Definitely . Trying to get one atop a building would make the Senator and his guards easy to spot from the air. And I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to try and book it 2-3 klicks to that police station without more men with ‘em. ”
The ATC had been flying for about two minutes, the when older Commando recalled a comment the armored warrior muttered earlier in the apartment. “You’re not a Space Pirate, Sevenseven.”
“Did you really want to ruin the by letting ‘em know that?” countered the hunter.
The commando chuckled, but didn’t reply.
Smiling smugly, “Besides, from where I’m standing, you guys need all the help you can get these days anyway. I’m just glad I’ve found some people willing to hire me full time for a nice sum.”
The ship slowed as it approached the park. “Bring her down low and slow here, we don’t want to scare the little bureaucrat now.”
__________

Myersburg Park Square was spacious and surrounded by a large clearing, lined by trees on all sides. The center area was fairly well lit by a ring of classic Earth 21st century lamps. While the center area felt warm, the surrounding trees seemed dark and uninviting. The air felt moist and cool, but the sky seemed harsh and smoggy. Crickets were chirping.
“Never make me run…like that…ever again.” wheezed Senator Grae, out of breath.
Two of the soldiers looked at each other and roll their eyes. Running ten miles every day was expected of every participant in basic training.
Sgt. Cain shrugged, “Warrant Officer Malkov, this is Sgt. Hahli Cain of the SSF, requesting immediate evac from Myersburg Park Square. Where the heck are you guys?”
“Sgt. Cain, this is Officer Malkov. We read you and are en route. ETA five minutes.”
“Roger that Warrant Officer. We’ll be waiting for you. Out”
Turning to the others sitting either crouched or behind a tree for cover, “We’ll have to wait for five minutes.”
“Good.” replied Grae, still breathing fairly hard.
Cain smirked, “You’ve never run that much have you?”
“Not since I was 12, politicians typically don’t get a lot of exercise.”
“At least in your case.” She countered, still smirking.
“Sure.”
The soldiers laughed.

“Wait, where’s Miller?” she said, suddenly alert.
“He didn’t get lost did he?” asked the trooper with Washington on his name plate
“No, he was just here a second ago.” She replied. A chill fell over her.
“Then where the frag did he g-“A green blaster bolt shot out and struck him dead in the head.
“Washington!” shouted Konett.
“Get down” Cain yelled as she tackled the senator to the ground as another bolt silenced Konett.
She whispered to the senator, “Stay down and don’t move.”
“It’s really too bad you don’t have another three minutes, otherwise you might have gotten on that transport alive.” said a deep, coarse voice from behind her across the fountain and in the trees.
Cain instantly spun around and put five blasts into the trees where the voice came from. Her heart raced and she frantically scanned the area for the source of the taunting voice. Her eyes flicked from one side to the other under her orange plate visor. But she didn’t see Sevenseven behind her. He grabbed her in a tight head lock.
“Awfully hard to watch your back when your backup’s all dead.” He whispered coldly right before he slit her throat.
Senator Grae screamed.
“One left…” Sevenseven muttered.
______________

“We’re leaving.” Said the ATC pilot as the three jumped inside the ship.
“Fed reinforcements here already? Well, you guys did plan a quick operation after all. Wasn’t this whole thing all under about 10 minutes?”
“Fifteen.” the older commando dryly replied.
“I didn’t think it could be done, but I guess Commander Nakiit pulled it off. The Feds never expected a surface attack like this. Never even prepared for it.”
“Bounty Hunter, did you succeed?” inquired Commander Nakiit over the com, the same commander who blew the skyscraper to its knees earlier.
“Painted the park fountain red with ‘em.”Replied Sevenseven
“Your very…malicious aren’t you?”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Your work is appreciated. The other half of your payment will be deposited into your account as soon as we return.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
Once all the ATCs were aboard the claw-like corvette, the ship engaged its cloaking projector, ascended into Daiban’s upper atmosphere unpursued and escaped into hyperspace without a trace.