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| - Perhaps it’s time to reevaluate my options, Samus thought. Three years had passed since she had run away from the Galactic Federation. In that time, the bounty hunter had taken several jobs from more clients than she ever had while on retainer for the GF. Needless to say, she had completed each and every job successfully, earning millions in payment. Most of her fellow hunters would agree that she had done amazingly well for herself. Of course, most of them hadn’t signed on to bounty hunting solely for revenge; she had. Having recently wiped her nemesis, Ridley and his lackeys from the face of the galaxy, however, the bounty hunter faced a new dilemma: now what? She had achieved her lifelong goal of avenging her parents, but that had been the only thing that had kept her going for all these years. In fact, Samus had been known for deliberately seeking out jobs that involved kicking Space Pirate bum. Any cash received was a bonus. Either way, without the cold energy of revenge running through her veins, bounty hunting had lost its pleasure. Perhaps she could quit, and get a normal job, like a video game designer. God knows she had plenty of material. The sound of Adam’s voice jolted her out of her reverie. “Samus, there’s a long-range communication coming in on a secure frequency. Should I tell them they have the wrong number, or what?” She frowned. If it was transmitting on a secure frequency, then it was probably a client. Or a marriage proposal. She had gotten plenty of both, but she typically tended to respond violently in the latter case, ensuring they’d never call again. Still, might as well take a chance. “Fine,” she replied irritably. “Establish the link.” She heard a beeping as Adam activated the communicator, and then her client’s visage filled the screen. She had never seen stranger beings than the one before her, which is saying something, coming from a girl who spent most of her adult life chasing a big, sentient alien dragon. The bronze creature facing her resembled the unholy offspring of a tank, a saltshaker and R2-D2. It appeared to be the same size as a human, but instead of legs, it had a cylindrical, skirt-like structure, elongated in the front, with fist-sized hemispheres adorning its every inch. Its midsection was covered with slats, save for the wide metal bar on the front, which housed, in place of arms, what resembled a sink plunger and a whisk. Above this was a stretch of black, mesh-like material, with two metal rings. To cap all of this off, a metal dome stood in for the creature’s head, which featured two small lights on either side and a long metal eyestalk extending from the front. Inset at the stalk’s end was a glowing blue eye, which was currently focused on Samus. “You are boun-ty hun-ter Sam-us Ar-an?” the being demanded in a harsh, staccato voice. She showed no emotion. “Correct.” “We re-quire your as-sis-tance in the app-re-hen-sion of a dan-ger-ous in-div-id-u-al,” it stated. She sighed through her nose. Another petty criminal. Great. Being a fugitive from the GF meant that she had at times been forced to accept jobs from less-than-admirable clients. Nothing too illegal, though. After all, she had ethics. Unfortunately, those ethics were the reason why she was in this predicament. “He goes by the ti-tle of 'the Doc-tor',” it elaborated. She had heard the “dangerous individual” spiel more than 100 times. “Yeah? What did he do wrong?” It was quick in its response: “He is res-pon-si-ble for the an-ni-hil-a-tion of mul-ti-ple -ci-vil-i-za-tions, in-clu-ding his own." This was a bit more interesting. It appeared that her mission, then, was to save the universe from a mighty being capable of destroying it. Again. “So, where do I find this ‘Doctor’?” Samus asked. Her employer paused for a moment. “His next des-tin-a-tion is the pla-net des-ig-nated E-ly-si-a. We will up-load the co-or-din-ates to you now". Her navi-computer flashed once in response to the received data. “ONCE-YOU-HAVE-CAPTURED-HIM, YOU-ARE-TO-BRING-HIM-BEFORE-US,” the metallic being ordered. “YOU-ARE-NOT-TO-EXTERMINATE-HIM.” “And what will you do with him?” Aran asked wearily. “WE-WILL-EXTERMINATE-HIM!” it ranted. “WE-WILL-MAKE-HIM-SUFFER-FOR- EVERY-CRIME-HE-HAS-COMMITTED-AND-EVERY-CRIME-HE-WILL-COMMIT!” “Right. Got it. Whatever.” She cut the transmission. Locking in the coordinates, she looked into the dashboard mirror she had recently installed. Pushing back the blond tresses that so often got in the way, she noticed that there were dark circles under her eyes that hadn't been there before. She made a mental note: once she had brought this "Doctor" to justice, get lots of sleep. And a haircut.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)