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| - As the Space Pirate base was being attacked by the Star Bandits, the Federation Reaper Squad had arrived in the Metara system. On board, their ships scanners detected an unusual reading from a nearby asteroid belt surrounding the volcanic planet of Maul. As the squad ship approached, a base quickly became visible, though scans showed that there were no signs of activity, even though there was still power running throughout the base. Their ship slowly hovered before the hangar doors, which were sealed shut for unknown reasons. Uploading a virus, the doors slowly opened as their circuitry was affected. The ship entered, and after the doors closed shut, the squad exited the ship as the hangars interior atmosphere was reestablished. The team was lead by squad leader O’Brian, a veteran of the Crion wars. The other members of the team included Jonas, Horatio, and Nor as riflemen. There was also a sniper, Sara, a heavy weapons expert, Graunt, an explosives/mechanic expert, Canden, and a medic, Tala. Canden quickly hacked the security system for the nearby door, causing it to open. Suddenly a dead Space Pirate fell forward from behind the door, nearly landing on Canden, who leaped back. As the team surrounded it, they noticed vicious claw marks covering its back, some of which were nearly an inch deep, and it also appeared something had attempted to eat it, due to scanners indicated corrosive digestive acid burns on its arm. As they looked into the hallway, they noticed multiple dead technicians thrown about, many of whom were torn apart, most likely as massacred as they attempted to unlock the door. Slowly moving forward, the Reaper squad checked every shadow as they headed towards the generator room. As they were about to enter it, Nor thought he saw something move at the end of one of the hallways, but when he looked, nothing was there, causing him to quickly dismiss it. Suddenly he saw something else move, and he was sure of it this time. He signaled the rest of his team seconds before dozens of Space Pirates rushed them, however, their bodies were heavily mutated as they were infested with numerous Rin. The marines opened fired upon the Necrophytes, causing several to instantly fall to ground as they were torn to shreds. Canden quickly tossed an incendiary grenade into the swarm, igniting several and creating a temporary barrier, forcing the rest to come down the other two hallways. Using this to his advantage, Graunt aimed his mini-arm cannon down one of the remaining hallways, sending a mass of energy bolts that tore through the undead, sending limbs flying everywhere as the Necrophytes were obliterated by the attack. Eventually most of the Necrophytes were eliminated, when suddenly one crawled out of a vent behind the group and lifted Jonas into the air. As Jonas struggled, the Necrophyte slammed him against a nearby wall seconds before O’Brian knifed it in the back of the neck, killing it instantly. As its body crumpled to the ground, Jonas was helped back up after Tala checked him. O’Brian said, “You okay, cause we have the power on in the rest of the building.” as he checked the nearby hallway for more Necrophytes. Jonas said he was okay, so the group headed towards the med labs due to their sensors picked up a strange energy source emanating from that area. As they opened the door, several Necrophytes suddenly came running down the hallway they had just exited from. Canden, upon seeing this, tossed another incendiary grenade down it, which created a massive barrier of flames, cutting the undead off. With them taken care of, they continued on into the med labs. The room was extremely dark, even with the power turned on. Sara headed over towards a nearby computer council and activated the data files. The most recent data file was a video file that showed the events that had occurred just before the devastation of the base. The scene was of several technicians working diligently on an unknown regeneration project. Suddenly shouts were heard, and a Necrophyte burst into the lab, roaring. Two commandos followed it in an attempted to kill it. The Necrophyte managed to slam a technician against a computer monitor, causing it to malfunction, before it was killed. As the commandos surrounded its carcass, a massive roar was heard. The pirates suddenly looked at something obscured off-screen in complete horror seconds before the camera shut off. Graunt began to say, “What do you think happened?” when suddenly something fell behind them. Turning around, the marines saw that a power conduit had been freed of a bit of rubble, causing the lights to turn on, revealing massive scratch marks on the walls and shredded Space Pirate corpses littering the floor. However, something much larger had caught their attention, for in the middle of the room was Kraid, his eyes filled with blood lust as he awoke from his slumber. Stomping forward, Kraid roared in hunger, its intelligence greatly diminished due to the earlier malfunction caused by the Necrophyte had disrupted the memory upload. Now it was no more than a giant savage beast, following its natural instincts to defend his territory and feed. Roaring, Kraid swung downward, nearly hitting the marines as he tore a massive slash into the metal wall and damaged the door. Graunt quickly rose from the leap he had performed in order to avoid the attack and quickly aimed his arm cannon before he began to fire super missiles at the behemoth before him as Jonas and Nor opened fired with their arm rifles. Kraid roared in pain as several of the missiles entered his mouth. Seething with rage from the attack, it caused several of its belly spikes to shoot off. They missed their targets yet they did manage to separate the marines from one another. Kraid reached forward and grabbed Horatio and slowly pulled him to his jaws. Suddenly a bolt shot by the Sara's sniper rifle hit him in the right eye, causing a clear, reddish liquid to pour out. Kraid roared in pain as he dropped Horatio, who was luckily caught by Graunt. Kraid, now in a frenzy due to his partial blindness, swung wildly at the marines, when Graunt managed to fire a super missile down his throat, causing a spray of blood to come spurting out. Kraid gagged on his own blood for a few moments before the wound closed, and then he turned his attention on the marine, roaring in fury. Kraid slammed his claw downward, the impact sending Graunt flying into the nearby wall, knocking him out cold. Kraid then attempted another attack but was distracted when Jonas and Nor began to open fire on his face, causing several minor wounds. Angered, Kraid turned his attention to them and fired several more belly spikes. One spike knocked Nor aside, and a loud crack was heard before Nor grabbed his arm. Meanwhile Jonas had just managed to get out of the way, when suddenly Kraid knocked him aside with one of his claws. Kraid then took a step forward and prepared to crush Jonas under his foot when suddenly a missile collided with the side of his head. Turning towards his new attacker, O'Brian, Kraid swung his claws, sending several nails flying at him. O'Brian narrowly dodged them before once again returning fire, managing to strike Kraid in one of his two good eyes, causing him to roar in pain. Kraid swung at O'Brien, pinning him against the wall, but then it became stuck in the wall. O'Brian quickly pulled out his dagger and jabbed it deeply into the claw, drawing blood. Kraid instinctively pulled his claw out of the wall, along with O'Brian, and then lifted him towards his face, glaring at him in anger the entire time before he opened his jaws wide. O'Brien, not planning on being its dinner, shouted out "Choke on this!" and pulled out a power bomb. Activating it, he tossed it down Kraid's throat. Kraid suddenly made a gagging sound as he began to stumble about. He tossed O'Brian as he stumbled about before he began to claw at his throat. A sudden muffled explosion could be heard. A torrent of blood began to pour from his open jaws as he fell backwards into the main computer system. As he breathed his last dying breath, the computer he crashed into exploded, causing the bases auto self-destruct sequence to activate. Several ensuing explosions suddenly began to tear apart the area from within. Chunks of the wall and the ceiling began to crash into the ground, including a large support beam that cleared a path through the damaged door. Jonas yelled "We need to get out of here, we need to...no." He saw O'Brien, a massive pipe coming out of his chest. Jonas quickly ran beside him, attempting to help him, but was stopped by O'Brian himself, who said "No... its... too late... get the men out of here..." Jonas attempted to say something when he was interrupted by his next words "That’s... an order soldier... get out of here... get out... of... here..." His body shuddered, and Tala, beside him, suddenly shook her head. Jonas, after taking all this in, rose to his feet and yelled "You heard him, we have to get out. Now lets move it!" With this the remaining team made a run towards the ship, when suddenly the sounds of pursuing Necrophytes could be heard. They quickly entered the hangar and closed the door behind them, but several dents suddenly appeared in it as the pursuing undead attempted to break in. Opening his eyes, O'Brian coughed blood as his sights slowly turned upward. He suddenly stared at a massive cocoon that was attached to the ceiling. Prepping his weapon, he watched on as numerous Rin began to crawl out of, seconds before a much larger one dropped from it onto Kraiad's bloated corpse. A Rin Queen, it slowly opened its jaws and let out a shrill cry which caused numerous Rin to begin to dig their way into Kraiad's flesh. It was then that it noticed O'Brian. As the queen opened its jaws, O'Brian smirked from behind his cracked mask. Aiming his weapon at it, he said "Might as well... take you... out... before I... leave." As the queen leaped forward, he fired his weapon. The squad quickly entered the ship, and as they began to take off, the doors into the hangar broke apart as a swarm of Necrophytes burst forward. Several Necrophytes leaped onto the ship and began to attempt to tear it apart with their claws, causing Tala to take control of the gun turrets and began to shoot them off, but it was a hopeless effort as more and more leaped on. Horatio, however aimed his turret at the hangar doors, blowing them up and causing the entire atmosphere to vent into space, pulling out everything not bolted down along with it. As the ship was pulled out into space, behind them the base began to explode in several areas before finally obliterating itself and the asteroid it was on. The squad, however, ignored this, remembering their leaders sacrifice as their ship headed back to command. Meanwhile, as these events occurred, Dark Samus had reawakened.
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