CHAPTER SIXTEEN: PROJECT CEERN (II)				
	It was a beautiful day on Planet Ghanis. Children were playing in the 
streets, people were going about their business, and overall everything 
was going perfectly right.
	Parcimar Taibos sat down on a bench and unfolded today’s newspaper. It 
was a joy that paper wasn’t completely obselete now.
	All of the headlines were about the Kihunters’ more recent assualts on 
wherever. Parcimar sighed. Couldn’t one day go bye without mention of 
them? 
	As he thought this, something came in and blotted out the sun. It 
looked like a total eclipse.
	Parcimar Taibos put down his paper and looked up. This was no eclipse. 
Within minutes a small shuttle landed in the middle of West Park, and 
people started panicking; it was definetely Kihunter.
	Parcimar, though, stood up and looked at the shuttle. It was totally 
different from any known Kihunter ship. It looked as though it could be 
carrying some sort of cargo.
	The backway opened.
	Metroids poured out.
	Parcimar dropped his morning tea and panicked with the croud. it was 
known what Metroids could do if given the chance. 
	Panic set in of the worst kind. People were running everywhere, 
trampling each other, daily business forgotten.
	Parcimar Taibos watched in horror as one by one people, children even, 
were flailing around with Metroids attached, sucking their lifeblood 
away.
	As Parcimar turned to run away, he felt a hard shove in his right arm 
and fell over. A rather large woman (Evidently the cause) ran over him, 
causing his bad knee to act up again.
	Taibos started to get up in spite of the pain but was soon trampled on 
by more and more large women.
	Is there some sort of weight loss convention going on? he thought to 
himself, before turning and seeing a Metroid eyeing him in the chaos.
	“Easy now,” He said rather calmly as he moved back, trying to find a 
handhold with which to pull himself up, “Nice Metroid. Very nice.”
	The Metroid only let out a sort of low growl. Parcimar’s hands found 
the bench that he sat on, now completely knocked over.
	Parcimar pulled himself up, “Nice Metroid. Very nice.” he repeated.
	Just as he turned away it struck, slamming him into the pavement and 
sinking its teeth deep into his body.
	Parcimar Taibos let out one last scream before everything went black.

				*		*		*

	Everything turned into sort of a fuzzy haze. Samus squinted to try to 
see better. She was in a hospital room, all right. There was an IV unit 
next to her, feeding her calming drugs (Or so she could tell from that 
lightheaded feeling she was experiencing).	
	Where was she? How did she get here? WHAT ON EARTH WAS GOING ON?!?!?!? 
Those were the only questions going through her mind at the time.
	Samus sat up and found that she was sitting on a hospital bed (big 
surprise). What’s more, with the exception of Samus, the entire room was 
empty.
	A few fuzzy memories came back to her, and she remembered flipping out 
and getting drugged by Hardy.
	“Great! Just great!” She said out loud, falling back into a reclining 
posture and falling asleep minutes later.

				*		*		*

	Ridley sat alone. He had decided not to commit suicide, but had no idea 
of what to do now. Things were beyond his control. He assumed that 
eventually he would have to get off this asteroid and do something, but 
what that something was he could not answer.
	Meanwhile, on Tsebnash, thousands of ships left towards their next 
target. Earth.
	Although Earth was bothing more than a medium-sized little blue planet, 
it had historical significance. It was the Humans, that weak little 
Earth race, who started the federation. Earth was look at as a 
historical landmark. It has also been recently restored To its former 
beauty before space travel (gotta love those historians). The main 
Federation headquarters were also in that system. To destroy or conquer 
it would Break the back of the Federation and end this war.
The ships traveled slowly, for the sake of cover.

		CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: DAZED AND CONFUSED

	Dr. Myff stepped into Samus’ little hospital room and woke her up.
	“Hello, ms. Aran. Feeling better? I hope so. I am taking the liberty of 
adding a few heavy tranquilizers to your dosage, just to keep you from 
doing anything rash. Please hold still, although this will hurt a lot, 
you’ll fell better in no time.”
	He raised up a dripping syringe. Always one for those old-fashioned 
hypodermic needles, Dr. Myff was. He seemed to enjoy it.
	Samus was already feeling better, thank you very much, and she hated 
needles. Besides, she had a little plan cooked up in the back of her 
mind.
	Samus knocked the good doctor out with an extremely good backhand, 
considering the fact that she’d been officially on prescription drugs 
for the last several hours, clumsily unhooked the IV unit (Remember, the 
drugs), and also clumsily put on Dr. Myff’s labcoat. Samus rushed back 
toward her quarters, hoping against hope that no one would recognize her 
along the way.

				*		*		*

	Hardy ran towards Keaton, sweat pouring down his face in little rivets.
	“Chairman!” he shouted, “Something has been detected, moving towards 
us! We think it’s a Kihunter fleet, but no fleet is that huge! Here! The 
readings!”
	“Stop babbling and give me the sattelite readings!” Keaton grabbed the 
pad from Hardy. He stopped.
	“Sound the alarm! I want as much of the fleet possible here! Help!”
	Apparently, The chairman could panic too.

	Samus ran full speed down the hallways of the station. Luckily for her, 
everyone seemed too absorbed in some emergency to notice a brunette in a 
labcoat running sideways down the hallway, crashing into everything in 
sight (remember the drugs).
	Well, one person noticed her. Houston, who was fully suited up and on 
his way to his ship.
	“Samus, what the heck are you doing!” was the best he could manage.
	“”no timetotalkI’ve....drugged.”
	“Ahh. I see. I know they drugged you. Now, what are you doing here?”
	“Running off the effectsofhtedfrugs, can’t you see? I thought your 
rightarmwas impaled;”
	Houston took a minute to understand what his best friend was saying, 
then finally answered.
	“They gave me some happy pills!!!!!!!!!!” He held out a pill bottle. 
This conversation was getting very interesting.
	“givemeon-” Samus slurred.
	“What?” Houston said.
	Samus somewhow managed the coordination to grab the pill bottle and 
down a little white pill. She handed the bottle back to Houston.
	“Here,” She managed to say, 
“ifyouwoulden’tmindineedtogobacktomyquartersandsuitupsopleaseeitherhelpmegetthereorgetoutofmyway/”
	Samus stumbled past him and would have falled had Houston not caught 
her.
	“Here, I’ll help you back.” He had long ago realized that arguing with 
Samus was not a good thing.

				*		*		*
	
	Dr. Myff Ran to Hardy. 
	“Sir,” he said, “Samus escaped! And what’s worse, I fell on m,y own 
hypodermic needle and...”
	He fainted (because of the drugs).
	“I can’t deal with that right now! I have to lead a bunch of ships! 
Bye!”
	Hardy ran out of there as quickly as his short stubby legs could take 
him. Today just wasn’t his day.

	Houston waited outside of Samus’ quarters while she got into her suit, 
taking much longer than usual (gee, I wonder why).
	Eventually, though, she stumbled out the door.
	Grabbing Houston’s shoulder for support, Samus said,
	“I think the happy pill is starting to work. I can speak coherently 
again. My ship’s around the corner. let’s go.”
	“Uh, Samus, exactly what are we doing?”
	“going to my ship, of course!”
	“To help Defend Earth and all of the Federation?”
	“Of course!”
	“So we’re fighting with the Federation fleet?”
	“What?”
	“You don’t know?”
	“Know what, Houston?”
	“You have been out of it for a while! A massive Kihnter fleet is 
heading towards Earth! We’ve been called to defend it!”
	“That’s odd. I was thinking of heading to Tsebnash to finish this!”
	“Those drugs really did a number on you!”
	“Think about it,” Samus said, “If there are so many ships leaving 
Tsebnash, then it should be relatively empty, right?”
	“Right...”
	“Then, now’s our time to strike! We have one chance to destroy The 
Master! Besides, do you really think we’ll win out here?”
	Houston thought for a minute. “No, you’re right,” he said, “We’ll take 
your ship. Let’s go!”

		CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE FINAL ASSUALT

	Samus Aran and Armstrong Houston entered Samus’ ship to leave on what 
was obviously a suicide mission.
	“Felling any better?” Houston asked Samus.
	“I think so. Those drugs have about worn off, and that happy pill...”
	Samus interrupted herself to run over to the single restroom in the 
ship and vomit.
	“I think I’d better drive.” Houston remarked.
	The ship left the docking bay and wentout into deep space. Samus 
returned slowly to the cockpit and sat in the copilot’s seat. 
	“Houston, punch in Tsebnash’s coordinates, then press that little red 
button that doesn’t look as though it belongs there.”
	“What?”
	“Just do it. it’ll get us there faster.”
	Houston looked at the controls. They all seemed fine, except for this 
red button obviously put in fairly recently hanging from a cheap piece 
of metal that was nailed to the control panel.
	He muttered something and complied.
	The ship roared off somewhat faster than those little racing ships. 
Both people were lurched back into there seats.
	“We should be there several hours early!” Samus shouted above the roar 
of the engines, “It’s a custom job! Do you like it?”
	Houston didn’t hear. He was too busy trying to keep his stomach from 
emptying its contents on the dashboard.

				*		*		*

	Chairman Keaton looked at the full fleet that he could get. At that 
point he realized that there really was no way for them to win this war. 
But they would fight. That was already decided on. They were all going 
to die, but why not take a few with them?
	Warpgates upon warp gates opened in front of them, and thousands of 
Kihunter ships and Planetkillers emerged. Keaton turned a paler shade of 
green. He gave the order to fight. This was the beginning of the end.

				*		*		*

	While Keaton gave that order, a lone yellow ship came out of maximum 
warp drive in front of Tsebnash. It sped down to the planet, the last 
beacon of hope. But it was not alone.

				*		*		*

	Samus’ ship touched down in a valley as close to the strongest 
underground energy reading as possible. Samus and Houston emerged. There 
was a light rain.
	“Samus, are you sure that you’re all right?”
	“Yes, Houston. I’m fine. You?”
	“As fine as I’ll ever be. Does this remind you of anything?”
	Samus looked around.
	“Yeah, it does. It reminds me of the ruins back in Zebes after the 
space pirates came in.” She looked around and saw a familiar blue door 
in a rock wall. “Well, shall we go in?”

				*		*		*				

	The battle raged over Earth. Multiple ships on either side were being 
constantly blown up. Five planetkillers had gone down. So had ten 
Federation flagships. Hardy looked down from the ship that he was 
commanding. His particular ship had sustained more than enough damage, 
but was holding its own. A kihunter ship crashed into the one kink in 
its armor, and knocked out most of the deflector shields, broke the ship 
in two, and totalled the weapons. Hardy prayed a silent prayer that this 
nightmare be ended soon, whichever way it was to end, may it end soon.
	
				*		*		*

	The tunnels on Tsebnash were incredibly vast, but empty. Samus and 
Houston went slowly through them, as though a sound would cause the very 
walls to attack.
	Eventually, they ended up outside again, where there was a small 
insectiod robot. The robot looked at them, and muttered a bit in some 
binary language. Lights above the doors turned on, and the trap sprung.

	Hundreds of Kihunters poured in from everywhere, coming after Samus and 
Houston.
	“Well, Houston, this is it!” Samus said as she armed her arm cannon.

				*		*		*
	Back over Earth, a huge warpgate opened. The largest planetkiller 
imaginable came throughOut of it poured more Kihunter ships. Its shields 
were too strong to take any damage. It moved towards Earth.
	
	“Sir! The main weapons grid just crashed! We can fire one more shot, 
then we’re through!”
	Hardy looked gravely at the admiral who just gave him that order. This 
was it. One shot. One last cigarette before the firing squad.
	“Ready all weapon systems. Aim at the large ship. We have one shot 
left, let’s make it count.
	“Fire on my mark. Three... Two... One... What the...?”
	Suddenly even more warpgates opened, but emerging from these were not 
Kihunter ships. They were of a different kind.
	A voice came over the intercom to all Federation ships, “We are the 
Chozo. We have prepared for this moment for all of history. Our word is 
broken. Now, we can kill. Kihunters, feel our wrath!”
	“Gul’Gen, is that you?” Keaton shouted.
	“Yes. I am here.”
	The Chozo ships started tearing through the Kihunter forces as though 
they were dried up leaves.
	“Forget firing that last shot for now,” Hardy said, “Concentrate on 
repairing this ship while we can. I want to be able to get back in the 
fight!”
	The battle raged on, but for once there was hope.

			CHAPTER TWENTY: TSEBNASH

	While the battle raged on above Earth, another battle was fought on 
Tsebnash. Samus and Houston had been driven back into the turning 
passageways of the planet by the hordes of Kihunters, and the situation 
was intense.
	To conserve ammo for The Master, Samus had switched to her grappling 
beam and was now using iit to electrocute any nearby bugs. She also cut 
them in half with her built-in screw attack.
	Houston was just shooting everything, everywhere. What neither of them 
noticed was that the Kihunters were driving them back, and slowly 
seperating them.
	The texture of the ground beneath them had changed to rock. Samus 
noticed that there was a room directly below her, telling from the 
echoes. She also noticed that the floor was cracking.
	But she noticed it too late.
	Before Samus could do anything, her portion of the floor gave in, and 
she plummeted down with it.
	Houston turned towards he. “Samus!” He shouted, before one of the bugs 
picked him up and threw him against the wall, no, check that, threw him 
against a door. A door! Houston opened it, all the while blasting bugs, 
then took out something special that he had kept in his suit: a power 
bomb.
	Houston braced himself against the inside of the door, ready to jump 
back. He froze a couple Kihunters that were directly in front of him so 
they would block any more bugs, and threw the power bomb into the crowd.
	“Here’s a present!’ He shouted, as he turned and dove for cover.
	The explosion shook the caverns. Light and flame emanated through the 
room that held the bugs. The entire room that Houston was just in caved 
in. It would never be used again.
	The man who was Samus’ brother (without even knowing it) breathed a 
sigh of relief and prepared to rest a bit before going on. His breather 
was short-lived, though, as a missile hit him from behind and threw him 
to the ground.
	Houston looked up to see another bounty hunter, this one in a black 
suit. 
	Schneider.
	“Well, well, well, Houston. Fancy running into you here,” Schneider 
sneered. He kicked Houston.
	“Well, enough of the small talk. Now, I must bid you adieu.”
	He leveled his arm cannon at Houston and prepared to fire.

				*		*		*

	The battle over Earth continued. The addition of the Chozo was 
wonderful, albeit mysterious, but it obviously wasn’t enough. The 
Kihunters would eventually win by means of sheer number.
	Hardy’s ship had been somewhat repaired to the point that he could sit 
in the outskirts and shoot down ships, but any major use of firepower 
would crash the ship’s systems.
	The huge Kihunter Planetkiller had actually retained some damage, and 
its shields wre down to the point that people could damage it now, but 
it was just too big to take any damage. The only real damage done was 
when a Chozo ship managed to crack the central orb just before the 
Planetkiller destroyed it.
	Even though the situation was impossible, the Federation kept fighting.

				*		*		*

	Samus woke up with a jolt. She couldn’t tell where she was, or how far 
she had fallen. Telling from the sound that got her up, Houston had 
succeeded in blowing something up. She couldn’t be that far down, but it 
was too dark to tell. Samus turned on her night vision and started to 
step through the room that she was in. It was vast, incredibly vast, and 
dark, so dark that she couldn’t see very far anyway.
	What was worse was that it was quiet. Completely quiet in an eerie way. 
Then she heard it. A chirp. A single chirp. She recognized that chirp, 
but couldn’t place it. Samus picked up her pace and began to scan 
everywhere, if only she could see!
	
	Schneider laughed to himself soflty as he started to pull the 
trigger...
	And was knocked to the ground hard by Houston’s fist.
	Houston got the rest of the way up and charged at Schneider, who was 
getting up. Hurling himself on schneider, the college footballchampion 
easily tackled him like an insect.
	Houston wrenched off Schneiders helmet and sterted pounding on him with 
a metal gloved fist. Now he would get him back for all of the slimy, 
tratorious things that he did.

	Samus heard another chirp right next to her, and turned around to see 
what she had least expected.
	A metroid.
	The Metroid lunged, and with her lightning-quick reflexes Samus froze 
it with her ice beam and blew it up with a couple missiles. She looked 
at its remains and wondered to herself how on Earth...? She was 
interrupted by several more chirping Metroids swooping in for the kill.
	Samus froze them and ran for the door. If her ears were telling the 
truth, this place was a virtual nest of Metroids. Bad news.

	Houston got up when he was convinced that Schneider wasn’t going to 
follow him. The man was a bloody mess. Houston thought that he could 
have killed him. It would have served the creep right, but Houston 
didn’t want to waste the ammo. He ran forward, tracking down that energy 
source. It was very close, and the sooner it was destroyed, the better.