Maximus Kolan: Chapter 8

There stood the monster in front of Maximus Kolan, the monster responsible for the death of the 31st Squad. He would pay for what he did, in Maximus' mind, it was imperative. It had come to this, a showdown with this Pirate and his Commandos that accompanied him. Kolan waited patiently as the four combatants stood in silence, with his glare staying only upon the Pirate Commander.

After a few moments, the Pirate finally broke the silence, charging at Kolan, who was waiting for this. Maximus Kolan avoided the assault by sidestepping out of the way and then delivering a hardy elbow strike to the Pirate Commander's back as he missed his attempt at hitting Maximus. As the Commander was stunned, Maximus immediately opened fire on the Commandos, dealing out as much damage as possible while he had an opening. He picked up the Commander coming toward him again on his radar and sidestepped again right as the Pirate Commander attempted to impale Maximus from behind, and then kicked the Pirate in the chest, sending him backwards again. The Commandos attempted their attacks, the first lunging at Maximus, who simply grabbed the Pirate's arm and re-directed the Pirate and caused it to skid onto the floor. While he did this, he prepared a charged shot of his Particle Beam, and fired it into the second Commando's face right as it tried to jump onto him with its melee weapon.

Before any more damage could be dealt, the Pirate Commander called in several Troopers that were on standby to assist the Commander and his Commandos, knowing that they wouldn't be able to defeat the Silver Wraith by themselves. Maximus took in the odds as fast as he could, quickly realizing that the chances of completing his goal just became slimmer. It mattered not, this Pirate operation had to be stopped.

The Troopers immediately commenced attacking on Kolan, weapons firing ablaze and energy scythes slashing madly. Kolan managed to hold his own though. As one Pirate charged, with its melee weapon prepared to stab, Maximus turned his back to the Pirate and moved out of the way, lifting his arm up and allowing the Pirate's weapon arm to go under his own. He swiftly wrapped his arm around the Pirate's, and then proceeded to break the Pirate's appendage, rip the melee weapon out of its hand, and then swing it around to stab the Pirate in the back with its own weapon. The next Pirate was no less fortunate, it tried to slash Maximus, only for Maximus to avoid it, wrap his arm around its head while it was hunched over, and then swung his leg up into the Pirate's chest, stabbing it with his knee-spike, allowing him to finish the wounded Pirate with a charged shot of his Power Beam. Maximus Kolan then dealt with the next few Troopers by firing a shot of his Concussion Beam behind him where they were at, the ensuing shockwave sending them off of the large platform and into the abyss below.

More waves of Troopers were dropping in everywhere, trying desperately to defeat Maximus. While Maximus fought off another Trooper, the Pirate Commander made his move, he lunged at Maximus and pinned him to the ground before he could react. He spoke in Federation tongue this time, instead of his native Pirate language, threatening Maximus. "You will die Wraith, you can't stop us this time! And once you're finished with, next is the Hunter, and then those Federation dogs!" the Pirate Commander proclaimed. Maximus became enraged, yelling "get out of my face!" in response before breaking the Pirate's grip and dealing a powerful uppercut with all his might to where the Pirate's jaw would be under his helmet, and as he did so, he released a Concussion Beam shot at point blank, throwing the Pirate across the room and slamming into the wall, releasing a shockwave as he made impact and disrupted some of the electronics.

The Pirate Commander was mortally injured, but much to Kolan's surprise, the electronics affected by his Concussion Beam's shockwave were none other than two Alpha Pirate tanks. The electric wave awoke the titans, and shorted out the tanks' lock systems. It didn't take but a few moments for them to tear out of their containment units and turn their gazes upon the being that freed them, none other than Maximus Kolan. To them, he resembled Samus, so it must be her, they thought, being that their intelligence was downgraded by brain cell damage from Phazon mutation. They were implanted with the mindset to kill Samus, and so they began attacking Maximus, who looked similar.

Disappointed by the consequences of his attack towards the Pirate Commander, he nonetheless knew that these two Alpha Pirates were his priority to bring down now. As he began to combat the two giant Pirate monstrosities, one grabbed hold of Maximus with its snare beam, pulling Maximus toward it while the other Alpha Pirate prepared to smash him. Maximus struggled to keep his ground, but the tractor beam was too strong for him. He had to think quickly, he looked at everything on the Pirate pulling him in. From what he remembered in the information scan he and his team got during their first mission here, he knew that none of his beams would have any effect, the concussion resistant armor plating would prevent the Concussion Beam from doing any harm, and their energy siphoning shield would protect against any other beams. But wait, Maximus thought, the scan didn't say anything about defense against physical attacks or lasers, did it? As he pondered this, he spotted an opening in the neck area of the armor that belonged to the Alpha Pirate that was pulling him in, a design flaw, and a weakness he could possibly exploit. He had no time to lose; he switched to his Imperialist while struggling to delay the pull of the snare beam, and took aim, prompting the Pirate to activate its energy siphon shield, a natural reaction. He fired his weapon with great precision at the Pirate's neck, wounding it and freeing Maximus just in time to leap out of the way of the second Alpha Pirate attempting to crush him with its Quake Generator charged arms. It was exactly as he thought, the Imperialist, being a laser, was far too fast for the Pirate's shield to draw in.

After Maximus got clear of the shockwave that came from the second Alpha Pirate's arms, he then steadily moved toward the Pirate, avoiding the missiles that it fired at him, and then avoiding its claws and scythes. Maximus was able to mount the Alpha Pirate's back, and then with tremendous effort, he tore its helmet off. With its head now bare and open to any form of attack, Kolan finished it off with a charged Particle Beam shot. As the behemoth fell to the floor, Maximus leapt off of it and headed to the next Alpha Pirate. The Alpha Pirate slammed its fist into the ground and sent out a shockwave toward Kolan, who simply jumped over it and activated his energy scythe and ran at the Pirate. The towering Alpha Pirate tried to slash Maximus with its own blades, but he proved too quick for the Pirate to hit. Maximus knew he couldn't possibly match the creature's strength, so he stuck to dodging and parrying the Alpha Pirates scythe attacks to keep himself from getting cut to pieces.

Maximus finally got the opening he needed. The Alpha Pirate tried using an overhand swing to hit him, but he moved out of the way and used the Pirate's arm while it was on the ground to boost himself onto the Pirate's back, trying to repeat what he did with the other Pirate. However, as he did, the Pirate swung its arm upward, sending Maximus toward the ceiling and disorienting him, but he quickly regained his focus and prepared to strike. Right before he hit the ground after falling, he grabbed the Pirate's neck and swung around onto its back and then drove his melee weapon into the weak spot of the Alpha Pirate's armor. This ended the Phazon empowered mutation's life, and it fell to the ground, lifeless.

The fight was over, but not quite yet the battle itself. Maximus was beginning to grow weary from fighting for so long, but he had to continue. The Pirate Commandos that assisted the Pirate Commander, along with the other Troopers that got clear of the area during the Alpha Pirates' skirmish with Kolan, rejoined the battle. Maximus delivered a haymaker to the first Pirate Trooper to come his way, and then downed several more Troopers with his Power Beam. The two Commandos closed in and went for their chance to strike, determined to kill the Silver Wraith. As they did so, however, Kolan killed the one that he shot in the face earlier using his Concussion Beam in the same spot where he had shot it previously, the force from the blast and the electrical properties of the weapon horribly destroyed the Pirate. Maximus then shoulder-rammed the second Commando, throwing it to the ground, and then finally disposed of the Pirate with his scythe while it was stunned.

As Maximus Kolan finished with the Pirate Commandos, the Pirate Commander finally regained consciousness and rose to his feet, weary, but awake. The Commander shot at Maximus wildly, only to have his target move out of the way of his poor, injury-affected aim. Since the Pirate Commander was still heavily dazed, Maximus had the perfect opportunity to finish him off. With that in mind, Maximus Kolan charged at his weakened opponent. As Kolan closed the distance within the large room, the Pirate made one, last ditch effort to put Maximus down, he activated his Phazon infused Hyper Mode and fired rapidly at Maximus. As these Phazon charged shots flew at Maximus - some hit him, some didn't, but for the shots that did, the V.A.R.I.A.31's energy reserves suffered a heavy amount of depletion from the damage of the shots. Maximus felt it through the suit, too. The Phazon was excruciatingly painful to feel, but Kolan kept running toward the Pirate. He adjusted his scythe to its full intensity level and within seconds was finally upon the Pirate. Before the Commander could do anything about it, he lost his weapon arm to Maximus' scythe, and then had the immensely hot blade driven into his chest. His Hyper Mode deactivated, with its power source in his armor's chest plating destroyed, it couldn't be sustained.

Through his visor, Maximus Kolan gazed into the Pirate's face with a cold stare. A moment of silence passed, in the same manner that the battle began, before Maximus finally whispered to his enemy, "that was for my team." With that final statement, Kolan threw the Pirate off of his blade into the pit below the room's platform. As the Pirate Commander's now lifeless body fell, Maximus ran toward the two generators. While holding off any other Pirates that tried to stop him, he slashed away at the alloy protecting the generators. The casing finally began to melt away from the prolonged corrosion of the intense heat of Maximus' energy blade. When there were big enough gashes in both generators, Maximus fired a Concussion Beam shot into each opening, shorting the generators' systems and causing them to explode.

It was done; Maximus had destroyed the generators and defeated his enemy, the Pirate Commander. Maximus ran out of the room as the generators began to overload; an alarm was blaring, stating that the facility was about to self-destruct. The Space Pirates that were left didn't care about Maximus anymore, they were concerned with getting out alive, and so long as they ignored Kolan, he would ignore them too. All that mattered now was escaping in one piece.