Metroid: The Cronus Cluster - Chapter 1

Little did Samus Aran know that the mission she was just assigned would be just as dangerous as the last on Tallon IV...If not more dangerous...

Samus typed in the coordinates into her ship and it went into auto pilot. Samus took this time to prepare her gear and thoroughly examine her suit and weaponry. There didn't seem to be any noticeable problems so she sat down and fell asleep. She dreamed of her late family...of the Chozo...Of Prime...She awakened to find herself looking at the large planet which was her ultimate destination. It had a bluish tint. Looked as if there was a thunderstorm which engulfed most of the planet. This was probably why the distress call was somewhat glitchy.

Samus located the exact area from which the distress signal was sent. She lined up for descent and began the drop. After a few minutes she entered the cloudy atmosphere. Lightning was shooting frivolously in all directions. Large pangs of thunder literally shook the ship. Soon she broke out of the dense mass of clouds and into a steady stream of rain. She slowly landed...Outside the front window of her ship she could see large cavernous walls on each of her sides. She seemed to be within a long canyon...Maybe a meeting ground of some sort? She would soon find out for herself. She put on her suit. Restocked her missiles. And prepared to exit the ship.

She spiraled out the top door of her ship and into the steady stream of rain which bounced this way and that off her Varia Suit and her visor. She looked around. There didn't seem to be any enemies or Galactic Federation troops at all. She couldn't hear anything except the rain. Low trees lined the cavernous walls. Long grass carpeted the ground. But not all was as peaceful as this...There were scorch marks along the walls...some trees were smashed and scattered limbs were spread across the grassy floor. The was a small crater to the right where a small explosion seemed to have occurred.

Samus jumped off her ship and onto the soft lush grass. She walked carefully over to the crater...She peered inside...There was a GF trooper helmet lying there with a cracked visor...Things looked grim...She looked around again and started to notice more things. There seemed to be a humanoid figure lying on the ground a couple meters away from her ship. She proceeded to walk over and knelt to the ground next to the corpse. It was a GF trooper. Many wounds from...Space Pirate weaponry...Samus didn't like the looks of this...She looked around again for traces of more corpses. She found a Space Pirate trooper. A bullet to the head had taken this guy out of his misery. She decided to look around the whole area for any more clues of what had happened here...clearly there was an intense battle between Galactic Federation troopers and Space Pirates.

She found a downed Space Pirate skiff. And then more dead bodies after more dead bodies. Soon there were immense masses of dead troopers from both sides. The odd thing was...They all had the same kind of wounds...Gaping holes with blood coming out of them...usually around the breast area or around the face...These are similar wounds to Metroid-caused casualties...Things keep on getting more grim for Samus...She fears that this will be another mission just like Tallon IV...No. Not at all. She soon makes her way down the bloody battlefield to a door that finally leads her out of this dreadful corridor of death...Hopefully a dry room...without the smell of blood wafting around...Makes her sick to her stomach...

Sadly she finds Space Pirate bodies along the crude wall of stone. Moss covers the ceiling...It's quiet...To the point where it's severely unsettling. She wants to get this over with as quickly as possible...She still hasn't found the exact spot from where the distress signal was sent from.

Once she made it through the hallway she found herself in a large room with many perches lining the walls that were endpoints from a series of caves that seem to lead off to other places in the planet. There was a hole in the tall ceiling that let light in...but also the steady stream of rain...Now there were fewer bodies thankfully...But...There was a GF Captain that was lying in the center of the circle of rain pouring through the hole in the ceiling. Samus sprinted over to him. HE WAS STILL ALIVE!...but barely...He eventually revealed after much self turmoil that he sent the distress signal...Then he coughed up blood...and said...

"Good Luck Samus...I fear...That this monster...Might be your demise...For it...Was Mine..."

He died in her arms.

She found a large wound around his heart...Something extremely sharp had penetrated his armor...and into his chest...

What was this...monster?