Darkest Ridley's Metroid: Chapter 1

The GFS Mordecai drifted through the silent abyss of space, bringing with it cargo that would forever change the course of galactic history. Behind the starship was the desolate planet known simply as SR388, a barren world with vicious terrain and even more vicious creatures.

It was one of those vicious creatures that Captain Cole stared at, floating in a containment cell, at that very moment.

"I'll hit," said Gauge. The dealer, Andricks, flipped over a card, and Cole could hear the heavy sigh of disappointment as Gauge's hand went over the 21 limit.

"Let's play a different game," Carlson suggested. Carlson was a huge man, about six foot six, and incredibly bulky. The Federation's arms supplier, Riley Corp., had a very difficult time fitting Carlson with the standard infantry armor. Cole wished he could be that big. He sighed.

"What do you guys want to play, then?" asked Gauge.

"Poker," said Carlson and Mouse at the same time.

"Captain, you want in?" asked Gauge.

He thought for a long moment.

"Captain?"

Cole blinked and then looked at him. "No thank you."

Gauge's expression changed to concern. "Anything wrong, Captain?"

"No, just thinking about these things. What are they? Why does the Federation want them so much?"

"Who cares? They give the orders. We follow the orders. We die for the orders. If we don't die for the orders, we get paid for following the orders. It's a good life. As long as you don't take part in the dying part."

Cole frowned. "Well, some aren't as fortunate as we are." He felt his eyes drifting to the two helmets sitting on top of a counter. Both had cracked visors, from where the creatures had managed to break through. How could he explain that in a letter home? How could he glorify the Marine's deaths to their parents, or even their spouses and children?

Dear Mrs. Jane Doe,

It is with great regret that I must inform you that your son, John Doe, has fallen with his brothers in arms in combat. John was a good Marine, but a better man I have never known. He fought valiantly, even when the alien organism this corrupt government sent us to obtain cracked open his visor and sucked the life out of him without leaving a mark. I sincerely apologize for your loss.

With much regret,

Captain Rick Cole, Galactic Federation Marine Corps.

There really was no way.

He looked back at the creatures, eight of them, floating behind the containment field.

Metroids.

That was what Danilov, Head of Galactic Affairs and Defense, had called them when he assigned them the mission six months ago.

There is something of great value to our Federation on SR388. The Biologic Space Labs have found a new species there, which they have called the Metroids. They can, allegedly, absorb energy from any living organism. With enough research, we could reverse the flow of this energy, for an efficient, renewable energy source..

It had sounded like a good idea at the time. But that was before the monsters had killed two of his men.

He narrowed his eyes, staring into the containment cell. They floated, and he wasn't sure if they were looking at him, because they had no eyes. But there was something about them, something very much there, that told him that they were watching every move he made.

He was quite positive that if they were staring at him, they did so with hungering eyes.

The creatures were about the size of a human head, and looked kind of like green jellyfish with long, white talon-like jaws on the bottom. Inside the green, gelatinous body was a red substance, which Cole could only assume were the creatures brains.

Suddenly, an alarm began to blare throughout the starship, and red lights danced across the ceiling. He wasted no time, placing his helmet on over his head, and then grabbing his assault rifle.

"All Marines, report to Operations Deck A. I repeat, all Marines to Operations Deck A."

The unattached voice of the ship's computer echoed through the halls. Suddenly, Cole's radio came to life.

"Captain Cole, do you copy?" asked the strong voice of Bridge Officer Nolan.

"Loud and clear. What's the situation?"

"A couple miles out, past the asteroid belt is a huge gathering of Space Pirate forces. Looks like they have several raiding vessels, Captain."

"I assume the pilots are already preparing for combat?"

"Yes sir, but in the case of a raiding party, we need your men to be ready."

Cole looked at the table where his men had been playing poker. The seats were vacant, and the hands face down on the table.

"I don't think you'll have a problem with that, Nolan."

"Good," he said.

"Make sure your Navy does well out there, Nolan."

"Only if your Marines hold up their end in here, Captain Cole."

There was a moment of silence.

"Good luck, Captain," Nolan finally said.

"Good luck, Nolan."

The radio beeped out.

Cole loaded a clip into his assault rifle, and strode out of the Marine's Quarters towards Operations Deck A.

...

Yuri's heart was pounding in his chest. He gripped the yoke of the GFS War Wasp, a slender starfighter that could unfold to increase combat effectiveness. He closed his eyes, and exhaled, trying to calm his nerves.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the docking bay doors open, and all calm vanished. He shakily reached for the throttle, and shot out of the hangar, pressing a button as he flew out. The wings of the War Wasp, which were folded back, came out to form an X shape with a single wing between two, for six wings total. From the bottom, a missile rack descended. The transformation made it look like a big mechanical War Wasp from Hell, with six wings and a stinger at the bottom. The other War Wasps in the fleet transformed as well, preparing for battle.

In a few moments, he could see the Space Pirates, which flew small fighters that looked like spiky teardrops, in his mind. The cockpit was spherical, and had a long tail protruding from the end, with long spines sticking out from the sides. A few tenths of a second after he could see the Pirate ships, he could see the small bursts of light as they fired at the incoming Federation Fleet.

That was when all panic fled from Yuri, and instinct and adrenaline took over.

He rolled to the left, dodging a hail of fire, and fired a constant stream of shots into the Pirate swarm. Several of their ships detonated, debris drifting endlessly through space. He dropped down, through the swarm, firing at a single target until it exploded. All around him ships were exploding, flames reaching out and licking his cockpit window.

Then he saw it:

The boarding craft.

It was large, with long tentacles protruding from it. From what Yuri had heard of these crafts, they latched on, and then detonated a charge to blow a hole in the siding of a Federation ship, deploying the Pirates inside.

He had no intention of allowing that to happen.

He locked onto it, tracking it on his screen, and followed, firing several rounds at it, but they did hardly anything. The boarding craft was accelerating towards the Mordecai. He had to do something.

He fired a missile from the bottom rack, and watched as it flew towards the boarding craft.. At the last minute, the craft rolled out of the way, and the missile soared harmlessly by. He tried another one, but missed that time as well.

He tried one last missile, praying it worked. He lined the shot up perfectly, and put his finger on the trigger, hoping that it would happen.

He pressed on the trigger, firing a missile straight at the enemy. He kept his eyes glued to the trail of the missile, watching as it flew...

Suddenly he felt an intense blast of heat, and all went black as his ship was shot down.

...

Cole stood in front of the company, ready for the boarding party. They stood just past a large blast door, which faced one of the ship's outer walls. He nodded to one of the Marines, who pressed a hand scanner on the wall, and the blast door sealed itself tight. Cole stood, waiting, his heart pounding slightly in his chest.

Suddenly the ship rocked, and they could hear an explosion. The boarding craft had penetrated the hull.

"Here they come!"

They could hear the beastly howls and shrieks as the Space Pirates beat on the door, trying to get inside. They sounded like wolves, snarling as they ripped their prey to shreds.

All of a sudden, the noises stopped.

"What's going on?" asked Gauge.

"They're looking for another way in. Seal off the other doors into this room," replied Cole.

A couple of the Marines moved to different areas of the room, sealing it off completely.

"Now what?" asked Andricks.

"We wait."

Suddenly the lights went out in the room. All of them froze, their breath catching, waiting for a strike.

"Turn the helmet's lights on," ordered Cole. Their visors illuminated, allowing them to see a couple feet around them. Cole turned around, and surveyed the room, looking to the rear of the force, and froze, raising his assault rifle. The Pirates were in the room, crawling out of a floor vent.

"There!" he cried, and the Marines turned to face the oncoming threat.

They were tall, about six feet tall, and were dark skinned, with glowing orange eyes and sharp teeth. Their claws, five on each hand, were about five inches long, and they had sharp, raking claws on their feet. On their right shoulders they carried mounted guns, and on their left arm a long, glowing blade.

Space Pirates.

The Marines fired into the attackers. One of them leapt into the air and swung his blade, decapitating one of the Marines. Andricks shot the Pirate in the head, but then cried out in terror as a hand burst from the vent near his feet and grabbed his ankle. He aimed into the vent, trying to fire, but suddenly they were all reaching out and grabbing him, pulling him inside. Cole could see their arms go up and down as they stabbed him to death with the arm-blades. As the group of Pirates killed Andricks, several of them climbed out of the same hole, wreaking havoc in the middle of the Marines.

Cole felt something knock him over, and he rolled onto his back, and shot the Space Pirate through the lower jaw. It's rancid blood splattered on the ventilation shaft above that it had dropped down from. More of them were dropping into the room from above. Cole got to his feet, and ran to the vent that the Pirates originally used to get in, the one in the floor. He dropped to his stomach, and peered beneath the floor down the length of the shaft. Inside were about a half a dozen Pirates, crawling towards the opening. He got back on his feet, went to the other side of the hole, and rolled a grenade. Suddenly it exploded, sending one Pirate flying out towards the opening. The floor tore apart from the explosion, knocking several Pirates down, blowing off the legs of a couple of them.

Across the room, one Space Pirate took a Marine's corpse, and sliced off his right arm. He took the severed arm, and placed the hand on the scanner. The blast door opened, and another wave of Pirates swarmed inside, firing their shoulder-mounted cannons at the Marines.

Cole dropped to his knees, watching as the last of his men were slaughtered.

The Pirates came towards him, and two of them pushed him over, taking away his weapon and removing his helmet. In front of him, the Space Pirate force separated in half, making a walkway straight through the middle of the crowd.

A large Space Pirate walked in between, stepping over bodies. He paused in the middle, and looked down at a Marine that was clutching a wound in his stomach, shaking. The Pirate snarled and swung his blade, ending the Marine's life. Then he moved forward again, stopping in front of Cole.

Cole looked at him. He wore black body armor, and had twin arm blades. He had a symbol painted in green on his shoulder, but Cole couldn't tell what it was.

The Pirate snarled, speaking to him in the hissing and growling that made up the Space Pirate language. He held up his hand, and a voice translated for him from a speaker in his palm:

"Where are they?"

The voice was that of a human woman, but it sounded artificial, lacking emotion.

"Where are what?" replied Cole.

The Pirate paused, as if the voice was translating for him. Then he began to speak again.

"The organisms that the Federation carries aboard this ship," replied the female voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The Space Pirate kicked him onto his back, and raised one of his arm blades, ready to strike.

"Wait, General Weavel. This one may be of use to us," said the female voice. "We may be able to extract information from him, and if that does not work, we can use him to see the effects of our mutagens on the humans."

Cole felt his heart stop beating. Mutagens didn't sound like a good thing.

Weavel pulled back his arm, and lowered it. He pulled his foot off of Cole's chest. He growled, pointing to two Pirates, and then gesturing to Cole, and they moved forward and picked him up, dragging him away.

Weavel lowered a visor down over his eyes, and looked through it. It had a motion detection tracker, and could lock on to the heat and energy levels given off only by living organisms. He activated it, and found the motion and heat he was looking for: eight signatures, each one drifting slowly through the air. He calculated the location of the Metroids on his map, and followed a path to them.

A few minutes later, the Space Pirate ship, called the Ripper, flew from the ruined hull of the Mordecai, Weavel sitting, watching the Metroids float inside their new cell. Cole sat in the cell next to them, unconscious.

Weavel couldn't help but grin, revealing his razor sharp teeth.

Today had been a very successful day.