Chapter Twelve: Aurora Heights

Ridley, Kraid, and the troop of Space Pirates continued to trudge through the snow on the mountains of Aurora Heights. Ridley was silently pondering different matters of concern to himself, Kraid was trying to play “I Spy” with himself, and the troops were singing an annoying tune. It was obvious that boredom has got the best of them.

“Sir, I have a question,” a troop asked Ridley.

“What?” Ridley immediately replied, sounding dreadfully irritated from being interrupted from his train of deep thought.

“Did you, by chance, acquaint with that blue figure back there?” the troop wondered. Ridley sighed in what sounded more like an annoyed roar, and started to talk to himself quietly as he racked his brains for any memories of the figure he had recently decapitated.

“No, I did not. But I do know that he was famous, and that his name starts with an ‘n’,” Ridley replied.

“Noxus?” Kraid suggested. Ridley sounded mildly impressed.

“Yes! That was his name. Gah, I’m already losing my memory. Explain Noxus’s back-story to these poorly-informed soldiers, Kraid,” Ridley commanded.

“Weeeeeeeell….” Kraid started. “You see, Noxus was a Vhozon bounty hunter who, much like our newly-acquainted bounty hunting friend, only aimed for the greater good. He rivaled against Samus and Weavel and plenty of other bounty hunters back in the famous Alimbic Expedition only about fifteen years ago. Noxus specialized in utilizing ice-based weapons, the most well-known being the Judicator. Noxus was also known to fold into an alternate form that could swing a hefty scythe out to cut his foes apart. Noxus was one of the only bounty hunters whom wanted the Ultimate Power for good reasons…too bad the rest of his race is corrupt.”

“Damn, sir Kraid. For someone who just sits around so much---no offense---you really seem to get around,” the troop who originally started the conversation said. Kraid grinned.

“Are you crazy? The Alimbic Expedition was history being made, and it was one of my favorite historical events,” Kraid replied.

“Too bad this ‘Alimbic Expedition’ turned out to end quite horribly…and do I even need to bring up that it wouldn’t help us much to begin with?” Ridley remarked.

“Silly Ridley, the Ultimate Power would have been our delicious ticket to destroying our enemies had it been more than a selfish cry for help. And…”

“Kraid, just shut up. Please, shut up,” Ridley interrupted. “Honestly, you are so into history that it makes you talk more than I would like you to.”

“What’s wrong with me talking? Do I sound funny or something?” Kraid asked.

“No…let’s just say you sometimes don’t seem to know how to be quiet,” Ridley answered.

“Bullshit,” Kraid retorted. “You don’t know---“

“I would shut your trap if I were you. All you’re doing now is further proving my point,” Ridley said in a very serious tone. Kraid grew quiet. Soon enough, the group of Space Pirates stopped at a ledge overlooking a cliff that stood an unfathomable depth. Across the chasm that stood before them, they could see multiple cylinder-shaped structures made of ice popping up. Kraid soon jumped.

“Ooh! I remember this place now!” he shouted. Ridley turned at Kraid and narrowed both eyes, one eye slightly more than the other.

“You’ve been here?” Ridley asked, not convinced by Kraid’s sudden revelation.

“Not physically,” Kraid said. “But I saw this place all across the Internet when I was looking up Vhozon culture.”

“This is a cultural landmark?” Ridley wondered. “Continue.”

“Well, Vhozon warriors prove their capabilities as a warrior by venturing off from the infrastructure, then meditating carefully on these cylinders. If they fall off the cylinders, then, according to their religion, their god is saying that the Vhozon was not ready to become a warrior. When training is completed, warriors often return to the towers of ice to meditate on top of them. I have also read somewhere that Noxus mastered the art of tower meditation, and was considered a warlord in the eyes of a Vhozon Pope---“

“Shut up!” Ridley stopped Kraid. Kraid huffed. Ridley sighed, and facepalmed. “Look, Kraid, all you had to say was that warriors meditate here. Hell, even then, you could have denied answering the question, because I simply asked out of curiosity.”

“Well why do you have to be such a douche about it?” Kraid barked. Ridley told Kraid to suck it up. He then turned and looked at the cylinders.

“Crap,” Ridley said. He turned to Kraid again. “You will have to wait for extraction to progress, Kraid. Unless you feel like walking a few hundred or thousand miles to get around this chasm.”

“Oh, now you’re calling me obese?” Kraid asked. Ridley looked deep into Kraid’s eyes, and clearly saw that Kraid was, in fact, trolling. Kraid always enjoyed picking on Ridley in bizarre ways. This situation was no exception.

“Quit whining, troll,” Ridley spat. With that, Kraid shut up---and stayed shut up, too. Kraid sat down and made the glacier underneath the group tremble. Ridley turned to the troop.

“Can you troops handle this minefield?” Ridley asked to be sure. The troops didn’t respond, thinking about the question. With some thought, the commander stepped up and shook his head.

“To be safe, sir, no,” the commander replied. Ridley spat.

“To be safe? What the hell do you mean by that? Why do you think I never hired you, or you, or you, or even you to be our primary bounty hunter? Because Weavel does not care if anything is safe or not; not even Samus does! What we are enduring here is the kind of bullshit Samus deals with nearly every day. Survival, instinct. The ability to pull through anything! What kind of army am I raising here? A first-class elite group of ultimate soldiers? Hardly. You’re all just a bunch of pussies, that’s what you all are. I cannot believe I recruited this troop to follow me,” Ridley barked. The troops were quiet, but the commander surprisingly retorted.

“Damn it, sir, we are not Samus Aran! We’re just a bunch of well-trained crustaceans. Forcing us to cross this chasm is murder! You will lose an entire troop!” the commander retorted. Ridley narrowed his eyes, looking extremely surprised. Ridley got onto all fours and slowly crawled toward the commander as he spoke.

“Do you really think our entire empire would just fall apart from me losing a damned troop?” Ridley spoke in a quiet but sinister tone. “We have lost hundreds of troops and squadrons all throughout our empire’s history, even all in a similar time frame. Even then, our empire never even came close to collapsing!”

As Ridley approached the commander slowly, the armored bipedal crustacean cowered and took steps back. Ridley had a sinister glare in his eye, with a hint of fury. In the Space Pirates, going against the leader---Ridley---if you were lower than the class “Hierarch” was considered a “lethal violation”. Ridley was a mastermind. He knew what he was doing. The commander had no say in the future of the Space Pirates. Unfortunately for the commander, a terrible exhaustion he had never endured before took the best of him.

Ridley was now face to face with the commander. He spoke in a very calmed and quiet tone, while sounding very unforgiving all at once. “Do you have the balls to raise your voice to me again?” he whispered. The commander shook his head. “I am willing to spare you this once, commander. But if you allow a weak force such as exhaustion to take control of your common sense in the future, your jugular artery will find a link missing. Understood?”

The commander nodded. Quickly, Ridley pulled his face away from the commanders’. “Alright then,” Ridley said. “You can sit here to wait for extraction, while in the meantime you get to hear Kraid bitch and whine about how much of an ass I am.”

On that remark, the troops of Space Pirates were already hopping off to the towers of ice. Ridley grinned.

“The hell is this?” Kraid whined. Ridley flew over the chasm with ease, and landed on the other side. He looked back at the troop. To his dismay, there were only three Space Pirates left in the troop. And the commander was gone. They had already fallen off the towers. Ridley turned around and walked off, as the final three slipped off the ice.

--

Samus climbed out of the river in an entirely different location than she was in before. Samus stepped out of the cave, as an exit stood before her. In front of her were ice pillars sticking to the ground. She looked up, and pondered how tall the pillars were. She then noticed dead bodies on the ground. Based on the colors and appearance, she could tell they were Space Pirates. But their chests were ripped open. Thankfully, there was no blood, as it was all dried up. But Samus wondered just why their bodies were torn open. Samus soon heard a mysterious growl. She searched for the source.

Suddenly, a blue armored lizard popped out from behind a pillar. It roared, and three other blue armored lizards jumped out. They all looked at Samus with an evil stare, and roared in unison. The roar echoed all the way through the cave she believed she was still in. Samus quickly scanned the creatures.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Herpetology: Helmraptor. Helmraptors are vicious, highly intelligent, territorial monsters which are dangerous when alone, and deadly when in a pack. Despite being reptiles, they have a velociraptor-esque posture and build, and they are easily amazingly endothermic. Helmraptors attack very much in the same fashion as velociraptors, with claws and such, and they sport a thieving mentality. The armor Helmraptors are almost always found wearing is stolen from the Vhozons, particularly from ancient armories found in the Vhozon Ruins. Bitter cold has absolutely no effect on the Helmraptors, but extreme heat proves useful. It is a better idea to fight the Helmraptors in close combat, as otherwise you will find that they will dodge most shots taken.”

Samus was surprised to find a reptile native to Vho. Then again, Metroids could be called reptiles, so Ice Metroids would be her first reptile found native on this planet. Adam spoke up.

“So, based on the given information, you should engage in melee combat with them. So you should use…ah, forget it. I’m almost certain you know yourself,” Adam said. Samus extended her Plasma Sword. The Helmraptors continued to growl. She slowly but carefully walked toward the four beasts. Soon enough, one of the Helmraptors took Samus on. It lunged at her, slashing at her suit. Samus accumulated major damage, and recoiled from the pain. Quickly, she swung her Plasma Sword and created a large, gaping cut in the Helmraptor’s side. The Helmraptor’s deep, pitch black eyes seemed to widen, and it fell over. Samus walked over and put the lizard out of its misery. With that, the remaining three pounced Samus at once, and started to tear and shred at Samus’s Subzero Suit. Samus fell over as she felt the pain, and quickly jabbed one of the lizards through the skull. The lizard stopped slashing, and fell over. She stabbed a second lizard into the belly, and threw it aside. She then cut the final Helmraptor’s head off. The second lizard that which she stabbed in the gut was still alive, but dying. Samus walked over, and shot the lizard in the leg with the Acid Beam. She then touched the area with the acid, and felt her energy replenish. That ambush seriously almost injured her to the point of no return.

“Well they seem quite simple to kill,” Adam pointed out the obvious.

“Yeah,” Samus replied. “And if I found them here, I’m probably close to reaching the Vhozon Ruins.”

“Possibly,” Adam said. “But this icy plain could be the equivalent to a desert for a velociraptor. Velociraptors were well known on Earth during the late Cretaceous period to trek across the Gobi Desert in what became Mongolia around sixty-five million years later. They traveled ridiculous distances that would kill a normal man for running too much without stopping. This could be the Helmraptors’ desert.”

“So…you’re saying that the Vhozon Ruins could be farther away than expected?” Samus asked.

“Precisely, Lady,” Adam answered. “Taxonomically, the Helmraptors may be hardly related to the velociraptors. But they’ve represented them in almost every other way possible.”

Samus then pointed something out. “A normal man can die from running too much without stopping?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m not a normal man. I’m not even a man,” Samus said. “I’m a superhuman female.”

“Gah, you women and your tendency to point out that women are not men, as if trying to prove a point,” Adam spoke. Samus glared.

“We don’t have to prove a point,” Samus said. She then realized how disgustingly feminine she sounded right then, so she changed the subject. “Adam, are we still in Aurora Heights?”

“Indeed we are,” Adam responded. “Particularly, in the pillar area, where Vhozon warriors train and meditate.”

Suddenly, something popped up on Samus’s visor, notifying her of an unpleasant disturbance. The notification said as follows:

“Unidentified species migration taking hold.”

It then opened her virtual map of the area, which was still mostly hidden due to a lack of a map station. Sure enough, it pointed to a dome-shaped chamber on her map, which she did not know the path to. The remnant notification stated that an anomaly resided in this room. To Samus, the word “anomaly” could mean practically anything, ranging from a big boss battle to an unidentified item upgrade. She called for Adam.

“I see it,” Adam spoke ahead. “The anomaly is emitting both organic frequencies and non-organic frequencies. Your best bet is to investigate.”

Samus agreed, and pressed on. She walked through the chasm she was on the bottom of, and entered an oddly-placed door. The door led into a small passageway with its walls covered in purple-blue tiles with exotic symbols all over each tile. Adam spoke up.

“Apparently, a patch of ruins takes up some of the Aurora Heights area, Samus,” Adam said. “But don’t think this is the official ‘Vhozon Ruins’ quite yet.”

Samus nodded as she continued down the hall. The next corridor was large, and very much lined with the same mysterious tiles she found in the previous hallway. The corridor was mostly vertical, with multiple steps and other bridge-like structures leading to the top. But out of instinct, Samus went into the nearest room that was not where she just was. The room was dull and round. In the center resided a mysterious glowing station. Samus walked into it, and was greeted by a shock of pain. A strange device plopped down and forced Samus’s arm cannon to insert itself into the device, mysteriously seemingly designed for her arm cannon. When the device detached, Samus calmed down from the sudden pain shock, and saw this notification on her heads-up display:

“The map for this area has been downloaded.”

Her visor then pulled up the newly-downloaded map. To Samus’s surprise, it was not just Aurora Heights’s map; it was the map to practically everywhere on Vho. The Frostbitten Wasteland, Aurora Heights, and even some areas Samus didn’t know existed appeared on the map. As expected, Settlement Zero showed up nowhere, seeing as it was made by the Space Pirates. But still, this map would be very beneficial. Now, the rooms connecting where she was to the dome-shaped room she was notified to visit popped up. Samus jumped when she saw a lot. But she sucked it up, and continued. Carefully, Samus climbed the steps and crossed the bridges that brought her to the top. To her surprise, there was no form of animal life in here. She forgot about that fact, and entered through the door at the top of the shaft.

Samus then found herself outside. She looked up, and all around. But she soon saw clouds forming above her. Precipitation? she thought. Shortly after, pellets of ice fell and hit Samus hard. When what seemed like a trillion pellets of ice fell, Samus felt her energy drain.

“Samus, you must take cover,” Adam said suddenly. “The hail will hurt your energy terribly.”

Samus thought fast, and ran over to a nearby cave. She sat down.

“What now, Adam?” she asked.

“I suppose you could wait for the hail to subside, or you can try to run through it,” Adam responded. Samus poked her head out of the cave, and looked at where she was about to go. It was just an icy plain, with no spots to take cover whatsoever. But soon, Samus saw an enormous shadow cast on the plain, and it flew across the plain. She looked up into the sky, and saw an enormous white bird. It flew over the plain without being harmed by the hail. Samus then got what could hatch into a successful plan. She scanned the bird.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Ornithology: Gargun. Garguns are enormous birds that are harmless to everything except the prey it feeds on. They are not affected by the bitter cold atmosphere of Vho, nor are they harmed by the extreme precipitation that is known to damage most other life forms on Vho. The Gargun actually prefers the extreme precipitation, and as such is most commonly found in Aurora Heights, where the hail commonly falls.”

The precursor to Samus’s plan hatched and became official.

“What are you thinking about, Lady?” Adam wondered.

“If I stay in the bird’s shadow, I can remain safe underneath the hail!” Samus spoke.

“Ah, yes,” Adam replied. “The bird is large and slow, so it will be relatively easy to stay underneath it. Just be careful.”

Samus nodded, and ran out to be under the bird’s shadow. She had accumulated some massive damage, but not enough to be a huge issue. She looked down, and tried her best to remain inside the shadow. The bird flew slowly, and Samus ran as soon as she figured she was close to the next door, and ran in after she opened it. Shortly after, she slipped down a slope. The bottom of the slope greeted Samus harshly by making her crash into a thick wall of ice. Samus stood up, and took the next door. The next room was, in fact, dome-shaped. She was surprised, seeing as that the map made her conclude that more rooms sat between her and her destination. But when she pulled up the map, it said she wasn’t in a recorded room. Instead, she was directly above her destination. Assuming she had to turn back, Samus turned around, but only to be yanked to the ground brutally. She recoiled from the massive pain surging down her back. She turned her head to look behind where she lay, and saw a large, aggressive, white monster that had a lizard build and sported fins on its hind legs. Samus scanned it before the inevitable attack.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Morphology: Omega Ice Metroid. Omega Ice Metroids are vicious, brutal, and merciless hunters, being the fear of many harmless people as they trudge through the icy wasteland. They often hunt in small packs usually consisting of three Omega Ice Metroids. When a blizzard is out, packs of them hunt through the blizzard. Since the Omega Ice Metroids are blind, finding prey or possible natural competitors via heat is quite easy considering how rare heat is found throughout the surface of Vho. The ice variant of the Omega Metroids is far more aggressive and assertive when they are protecting the Queen Ice Metroid. These hunters attack with their claws and teeth, along with burrowing. The only known way to kill an Omega Ice Metroid is to break its core membrane with a concussive blast, while subsequently forcing a heated blow into the core.”

Samus stood up clumsily. She pointed her arm cannon at the Omega Ice Metroid, and stood there. The eyeless lizard simply growled at Samus. She launched a diffusion missile at the core membrane of the Metroid, and the membrane subsequently cracked. The Omega Ice Metroid responded to the move by moving in to rid of Samus. It started to tear her with its claws, and then it picked her up with its teeth. The Omega Ice Metroid shook Samus as she was in its jaws, and then threw Samus to the bottom of the uncharted dome-shaped room Samus was in. Soon enough, Samus fell through a small hole in the center of the dip in the dome. She stood up, finding herself in a different dome-shaped room. Samus looked all around as many small Ice Metroid larvae popped out of the snow and pursued Samus. She reacted by entering Morph Ball and bombing them all. With that, Alpha and Gamma Ice Metroids appeared in fewer numbers. Samus tried a new tactic, and extended her Plasma Sword. Samus shoved the blade into the core of the Ice Metroid pupae, one by one, and they died. Right after, five Zeta Ice Metroids and three Omega Ice Metroids climbed out of the burrows they dug. They pursued Samus at a rapid speed, and Samus simply cowered. She could not handle an ambush of Metroids this large. But soon enough, a large tremble took place. Samus fell, and soon shut her eyes hard as an earth-shattering roar surged across the dome-shaped roar. Subsequently, the swarm of adult Ice Metroids cleared up, and an awkward-looking creature resembling a narwhal dug itself out of the ground. The monster had a vicious set of teeth, two front arms with nasty claws, two hind legs with fins attached to the end, and a spiky-ended long tail. It was heavily armored as well. It had nasty red and black eyes, and a deadly-looking horn on what could have been its nose. The monster had what looked like eel-like structures hanging from behind its eyes. The monster roared again, making Samus cringe. Samus struggled to pull up the Scan Visor to scan the beast.

“A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Morphology: Queen Ice Metroid. The only female Ice Metroid in its population, the queen is quite the tough opponent. It will not go down easily. Though proven to be a difficult contender in itself, the Queen Ice Metroid is heavily guarded by vicious Ice Metroids of each metamorphic stage. The Queen Ice Metroid handles all migrations the Ice Metroids undertake, so there is no confirmed hive meant to allow Ice Metroids to reside there. The queen fights in numerous brutal ways, often holding its prey down for it to rip the internal organs of the victim out with its set of teeth. The queen is very dangerous and no one should attempt to handle one. They say you can kill the Queen Ice Metroid similarly to terminating an Omega Ice Metroid, but it cannot be confirmed for sure.”

Samus held her arms apart, as if allowing the queen to attack her. And sure enough, the queen started to dash toward Samus.

--

“Where the hell is Samus?” Ridley asked into the intercom. He was now on the new replacement mother ship, as was Kraid.

“We’re searching, sir,” the Recovery Squadron commander spoke back. Ridley roared and sighed at once.

“Once you find her, pick her up. Never let the chance pass!” Ridley exclaimed. The commander agreed, and the transmission was terminated. Ridley facepalmed. “Gah…if we don’t find Samus in the next sixty hours, we are just going to have to go to the Vhozon Infrastructure, and hope she will catch up.”

“What if she doesn’t show up? Should we assume the worst?” a pilot asked. Ridley grinned.

“With Samus? Never assume the worst.”

Author's Note: Sorry about how this chapter just dragged...there wasn't much to include in it. This chapter is easily not my best, so don't think I believe I excelled with this one.