Samus Aran (Metroid) by MidbossMan

"The Galactic Federation appreciates your cooperation."

The bounty hunter, Samus Aran cut off communications without saluting. Her saluting days were long behind her.

Missions from the Galactic Federation had turned out to be a mixed bag for her in the past and nowadays-- both in terms of undue danger and, more distressingly, ethical quandaries. For that reason, she tended to turn them down out of hand if her gut told them they were anything less than harmless. Bounties paid fine and tended to do more for the general good than whatever they thought up.

Still, she remembered that the federation was just that: a federation. It consisted of multiple players, not just one party. There may be corruption and bad actors within, but it didn't change the fact that they should, in general, serve the general good.

"I'll throw them a bone," the bounty hunter resolved, sitting back into her cockpit seat with her legs uncrossed and her face forward on the monitor. "I need credits. This is the rare mission that doesn't require me to blow anything up, which minimizes the chance I'm being used for something devious." Ordinarily, Samus would keep these thoughts to herself, but this time, she had a handler to speak to, connected over comms. It was an odd communication stream: she spoke, he listened. He called himself "K" and had refused all attempts at a meeting-- so far, she only had a few messages from him to go by.

The guy wasn't a part of the Galactic Federation-- not officially. When she'd decided to hear them out on the mission, they'd immediately put her into contact with K. She got the vague sense she couldn't trust him, but was there any reason to be nervous? The location she was being sent to was a newly deployed Federation base. She wasn't being sent there to hunt anyone down or even to provide extra security. Whatever the real reason was, it was kept so tightly under wraps that she wouldn't know until she was past the third security level inside the facility. K's cooperation would be essential there.

In a sense, this mission wasn't optional either... her suit had been badly damaged in a previous mission, disabling many critical systems. Weapons had been expended and lost during the fighting. In her current state, until she could afford the repairs, the form-fitting blue zero suit she wore inside the ship was as well-suited for combat as the power armor. She needed enough credits not only to repair her armor, but also, to restock her whole arsenal. The mission had to be one without a firefight, too.

"At least I managed to get the ship out safely, for once," she mused, wearing a humorless frown.

Her frown deepened as the ship suddenly sounded warning alarms. Her ship might not be going without damage after all. Samus remained calm, checking her radar. No enemy ships in sight... no pirates on her tail. There wasn't even so much as a debris storm or fast-moving space rock in sight. What was triggering the alarm?

"... I think I remember something like this happening when I was dragged into the subspace emissary," she spoke to herself. In that instance, there hadn't been anything to dodge. She'd moved straight into another dimension without even realizing it.

Had the same thing just happened again? The space map showed no anomalous readings. Planets and stars in the distance all appeared to have maintained their exact location. The alarm had stopped.

Only her instincts told her that something was amiss. K hadn't sent any communications either, even when she'd explained the situation. She knew now that this mission wasn't going to be as open and shut as she figured.

"Samus Aran," the guard posted at the front of the new facility greeted the famous bounty hunter, snapping a salute. It was good to feel appreciated for once, but she didn't return the gesture-- she didn't want anyone to equate her work here to her rejoining the Federation. "Thank you for coming. The chamber's deep inside the facility, so you've got a good walk ahead of you. All alloy paneling and federation gray, all the way down-- not much to see, but it'll be a little friendlier than you're used to, I'd wager. I was going to give you instructions regarding your power suit, but I see you've left it behind anyway. Makes things easier."

The woman stood with one hand on her hip, clad in the well-recognized zero suit and tall, neon-yellow heels. She didn't have her arm cannon, but she did have the paralyzer strapped to her hip, just in case. Thankfully, no one begrudged her the weapon. Her sharp, blue eyes scanned the environment for any potential danger out of habit, finding none.

The guardsman couldn't help but be impressed by her beauty as a woman-- the stories didn't do it justice. Her ponytail-styled blond hair, long legs, and womanly curves were all usually hidden by power armor, and seeing her this way, it was hard for him to think of her as the maven of combat the whole Federation knew she was. Seeing her like this... he almost wanted to shoot his shot.

The stern look on her face as she walked by shot that idea dead. At least it was a nice view as she walked off. The zero suit was... very flattering on the rear.

The woman ignored his lingering gaze. She had a mission to complete. "K... Just what is it he really wants from me?" she asked herself in a quiet whisper, looking discretely for any clues as to what she was about to walk into.

As she rounded the hallway, headed towards what she thought would be the first security gate, the lights suddenly went off. She heard the guard from earlier panicking and assuring her to stay calm, but she was already well out of his reach. Furthermore, she was calm. She would sense if anything was approaching that was dangerous.

Nothing touched her. Nothing changed. Until... a message. It had come from K.

"Welcome to a new game, Samus. You've just past the starting line, so we're going to make you look the part."

Samus felt a brief chill... then nothing special. The lights came on. It was as though nothing had ever happened. A loud sigh of relief came from well behind her, as well as in front of her, where she was about to encounter new guards.

As she reached for her paralyzer instinctively, looking for the culprit behind the blackout, she found that something had changed... but it defied explanation. Her zero suit, along with the self-defense handgun, had been replaced, leaving something else entirely.