Maximus Kolan: Chapter 7

Maximus once again entered the atmosphere of SR388, the very same planet where that fateful day involving his team's demise occurred but only two months ago. It felt like it was only yesterday that it happened to Maximus, painful memories began to well up in his mind yet again. There were so many times he wished he could forget, but to remember is what motivated him. He was finishing a task that was assigned to him by the Federation, one that he learned was never completed. With the help of Samus' ship, he was able to keep track of any Pirate activity on SR388 via scans from her map of the solar system, and it never stopped during the two months he was training and monitoring it. Instead, it only increased. If not for the Federation, he sought to finish his "postponed" mission for his team.

He finally landed, this time further away from the Pirates' facility than last time, as it had become more heavily fortified. He activated his ship's radar jamming system and set it down far from sight, and then exited the vessel. SR388, he thought, this forsaken rock... this, is where I was created. He began jogging to where the base was. The sky soon began to grow dark, the night was approaching, to which Kolan knew he could use to his advantage, for he had been trained to use the shadows for stealth. As he arrived at the base, he avoided the spotlights that searched the grounds, making his way to the nearest wall and then pressing hard against it. He studied everything he could see on the large facility's exterior before finally coming across a high-up ladder but a few yards away from him hanging down from the top of the base. He slowly moved towards it, while still remaining vigilant as he did so. Once he reached the ladder, he used his energy scythe to help him scale the wall; once he was close enough, he lunged upward and grabbed it, and then continued to climb up it.

Kolan reached the top of the facility; he took a look around the area before fully getting onto the platform. Several basic Pirate Troopers stood at their posts, overlooking the ground as Maximus sneaked up behind them and assassinated them one by one with silent precision. Now that the platform was clear, he opened the hatch that was near one of the spotlights and dropped inside the dimly-lit base. His eyes scanned the area, checking for hostiles. When he saw he was clear, at least for the moment, he continued on. I've traveled this far, no turning back now, he thought. A few moments later after walking through many of the compound's corridors, he ran into the inevitable, several Pirate Troopers jumped out from behind the corners of the walls and dropped from the ceiling, making it clear that they had found out about his presence there. They all stood there, readying their weapons. Maximus paused for a moment, before unleashing his Concussion Beam on the Troopers directly in front of him, throwing them into the far wall and killing them.

While they were distracted, Maximus took the opportunity to disappear into the shadows, turning off the glowing parts of his suit, such as his visor, which were meant to give him light in dark areas, so he wouldn't be seen. No more than seconds after the Pirates had started looking around, Kolan began eliminating them from the darkness, pulling them into the shadows quietly and ending their lives as his confused enemies searched for him. Then when there were only two left, he grabbed one by the throat directly and pinned it against the wall. He then turned to the last Trooper who spotted him, and then burned its armor with his Particle Beam and then finished it off with a charged Power Beam round. Finally, he killed the Pirate in his grasp by activating his scythe, releasing his grip, and then deactivated his weapon, allowing the corpse to drop to the floor.

Unbeknownst to him, another Pirate had observed the entire scene from a window above the room in a small control center. Panicking, it fled to the nearest computer and typed out a log to the command room of the base as fast as it could, which when translated into plain language read: "Alert! An unknown life form resembling The Hunter, but appears to be male in proportions, has breached security. He has killed several of our stationed Troops already, eliminating them from the shadows using stealth tactics, and has his own distinct beam weapons as well as a quantum charged energy scythe that seems to be stolen technology from us. The entity is silver in color, and again bears similarities in appearance to The Hunter. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight! We must stop this "Silver Wraith" before he causes any further damage to our facility, this is imperative!" With the message sent, the Pirate ran to the alarm switch and activated it.

Maximus' eyes widened as the alarm blared throughout the facility, "Wonderful", he said in an irritated tone. He didn't have any time to waste now, he sprinted as fast as he could through the base, rushing through doors, and slaughtering any unfortunate Pirates that got in his way. He came to the room where he remembered the first generator to be, or at least, it used to be. Blast, they moved it, and the other one too I'm sure, he observed. He reacted to the Pirate coming up behind him on his radar by quickly turning around and firing his Imperialist at the creature's head to take it out, and then continued running through the corridors. He stopped at a room with a map station and downloaded the facility's layout while he had a moment. He quickly looked for where the generators could possibly be, and as he hoped, he found them, stationed on the lowest level. He started sprinting again, going as fast as his legs could carry him.

After what seemed like a never-ending race of going through room after room, and having multiple run-ins with Pirates, he finally reached the bottom floor of the base. Strangely, the Pirates seemed to stop following him. Either they were getting ready to strike in a different way, or there was something in the generator room ahead that kept them from going in after him. He blew open a few crates and salvaged the few energy capsules he could to restore some of the V.A.R.I.A.31's power reserves. He needed as much energy as possible, in order to complete his task, confront whatever it was that awaited him if indeed there was some large threat, and still escape.

After taking a few moments to regain his stamina, he opened the door in front of him and entered the generator room. As he suspected, both of the generators were built into the same room. They were on the back wall, side by side, providing power not only for the base, but for the transparent cylinders that were along the side walls, which contained towering monstrosities inside them. Only two of them seemed to be armed and fully grown, while the rest appeared incomplete. The room was enormous, with the floor simply being a large grate, with a large abyss below it, which Maximus figured was a cave that the base was apparently built over. Kolan finally came to a conclusion: the creatures in the cylinders were none other than the Alpha Pirates that were spoken about in the log entry that he and his team reviewed during their mission here.

He began walking through the room, and then picked up more hostiles on his radar, and they weren't the Alpha Pirates around him either, they were from above. He swiftly aimed at the ceiling and confirmed his targets, three Pirate Commandos and a Pirate Commander, the same Pirate Commander from his previous encounter months ago. They dropped from the ceiling and landed, Kolan's weapon staying on the Pirate Commander, and him only. Maximus' eyes narrowed in concentration and anger, as this foe that seemed like an ancient enemy that was responsible for his pained heart stood before him, preparing to fight. This time, however, Maximus was not taken by surprise, this time, he was prepared to fight back.