Story
The Archive of Travelers' Tales
|
|
The Legend of Zelda
Metroid
Story
Starfox
Earthbound
Kid Icarus
Questions? Comments? Concerns? E-mail Me.
|
 THE METROID STORY
The Chozo... Over millennia, this bird-like race of creatures made incredible technological and scientific leaps. Traveling at will through space, they built many marvels across the universe-technological wonders of unfathomable complexity and cities unmatched in beauty. They shared their knowledge freely with more primitive cultures and learned to care for and respect life in all its forms.
Even as their society reached its technological peak, however, the Chozo felt their spirituality wane. Their culture was steeped in prophecy and lore, and they foresaw the decline of the Chozo coinciding with the rise of evil. Horrified by the increasing violence in the universe, they began to withdraw into themselves, forgoing technology in favor of simplicity. Tallon IV was one of several refuges they built-a colony bereft of technology, built of natural materials and wedded to the land and its creatures.
The years passed, and in time a great meteor crashed into Tallon IV, sending a massive spume of matter into the atmosphere and impregnating the land with a cancerous element known as Phazon. This element immediately sank into the earth and water, poisoning life wherever it bloomed. Most plants and animals died, while others mutated into hideous forms.
The Chozo called upon all their knowledge and technology to control the power of the Phazon, but their efforts were doomed to fail. All they could do was build a temple over the crater at the impact site, separate the Phazon core, and seal it away. Believing that someday a savior would return to the planet, the Chozo left for an unknown destination, leaving nothing but engraved accounts of their time on Tallon IV.
In the year 2000 of the history of the cosmos, representatives from the many different planets in the galaxy established a congress called the Galactic Federation, and an age of prosperity began. A successful exchange of cultures and civilization resulted and thousands of interstellar spaceships ferried back and forth between planets. But space pirates also appeared to attack the spaceships. The Federal Bureau created the Galactic Federation Police, but the pirates' attacks were powerful and it was not easy to catch them in the vastness of space. The Federation Bureau and the Federation Police called together warriors known for their great courage and sent them to do battle with the pirates. These great warriors were called "space hunters." They received large rewards when they captured pirates, and made their living as space bounty hunters.
It was the year 20X5 of the history of the cosmos, and something terrible happened. Space pirates had attacked a deep-space research spaceship and seized a capsule containing an unknown life-form that had just been discovered on planet SR388. This life-form was in a state of suspended animation, but could be reactivated and would multiply when exposed to beta rays for 24 hours. It was suspected that the entire civilization of planet SR388 was destroyed by some unknown person or thing, and there was a strong possibility that the life-form just discovered was the cause of the planet's destruction. To carelessly let it multiply would be extremely dangerous. The Federation researchers had named it "Metroid" and were bringing it back to Earth when it was stolen by space pirates!
Deep below the surface of Zebes, the Space Pirates researched Metroids for many years, even as a young girl orphaned by their raid on the neighboring planet of K-2L was growing up among the Chozo. Trained as a warrior and infused with Chozo blood, Samus Aran donned a Chozo-made Power Suit and cut a swath through the Space Pirates' operation, destroying everything in her path, including the gargantuan mainstays of the Space Pirate army, Ridley and Kraid. She eventually made it to the core of their base, destroyed all the Metroids she saw, and seemingly blew up the Mother Brain.
But the Space Pirates were far from finished. They immediately split their survivors into two camps. One remained on Zebes to begin rebuilding their ravaged facility and resuscitating Mother Brain, Ridley, and Kraid. The second set out in search of a planet with powerful energy resources. They didn't search long before they discovered Tallon IV, which was still emanating huge pulses of energy from the Phazon contained beneath the Chozo temple. Entranced by the massive potential of the strange mutagen, they immediately moved in, retrofitting their laboratories, transporters, and life-support systems into the Chozo Ruins.
As the Space Pirates mined the Phazon and experimented with it, they found that its capacity to mutate was unlike anything they'd ever seen, and they promptly started combining it with indigenous life forms. They refined their operation; powering their machinery with thermal-powered engines sunk deep in the molten depths of Tallon IV, they drove deep mineshafts and mined more and more Phazon, shipping it to their two main labs in the Phendrana Drifts, where sub-zero temperatures made specimen containment safer. Research leaped forward: by harnessing Phazon's power, they were able to create untold horrors that soon patrolled the dark caverns below Tallon IV's crust.
The Space Pirates also transported many species to their orbiting ship for zero-G Phazon experiments, unaware that Samus Aran had finally tracked their ship to its low orbit. As they continued with their unnatural experiments, Samus sped toward Tallon IV, preparing to wipe them out once and for all.
Arriving at the station in orbit around the planet Tallon IV, she found a laboratory in shambles, overrun by strange mutant creatures and full of wounded and dying Space Pirates.
The pirates had been conducting all manner of ghastly experiments in the labs- experiments that very clearly went wrong. After a run-in with a giant mutated parasite queen and a newly mechanized version of Ridley, Samus barely escaped the station's self-destruct sequence. She then pursued Ridley to the surface of Tallon IV, hoping to discover what the Space Pirates were up to.
Samus' one advantage against the enemy came from a remnant of the Chozo civilization: a temple that was built to block access to the meteor's impact site. This impenetrable temple is all that was stopping the Space Pirates from gaining the full amount of Phazon they needed. Samus collected the 12 artifacts necessary to open the temple, in the process facing down the Mecha-Ridley and all manner of mutated and enhanced pirates.
The villains' ultimate goal had been to expose juvenile Metroids to Phazon and see what sort of mutations occurred. Samus found the most hideous result of their efforts at the impact crater in the form of Metroid Prime, an enormous, incredibly powerful Metroid mutation. After a lengthy, heated battle, Samus defeated Metroid Prime and destroyed the Space Pirate menace on Tallon IV, returning the planet to its natural state.
After serious consideration of how terrible and destructive the Metroid life form was, the Galactic Federation sent another research ship to SR388. This trip was to make sure their was no more Metroids left on the planet.
After a short time the Federation received an emergency notice from the research base. They had lost contact, and the research ship was missing. The base had already sent a search and rescue party, but after their initial contact, the rescue ship was not heard from again.
A special combat group was assembled consisting of armed soldiers from the Federation Police and was immediately dispatched to SR388. After transmitting their primary landing data, they also were never heard from!
Rumors spread fast, and again, the whole galaxy was seized with the fear of Metroids.
With this limited information, the Federation was positive that a Metroid must still be surviving, hiding deep in the planet underground. Even one living Metroid could easily wipe out an entire planetary civilization. So, the Galactic Federation called its members to an urgent conference to find a way to overcome this menace. They quickly came to one conclusion, which was unanimous and simple....Give Samus Aran the order to exterminate the Metroids!
Samus, charged with her mission from the Galactic Federation, hurried to the planet SR388.
The Metroids on SR388 were more advanced than the creatures on Zebes. These monsters could shed their skins and grow even stronger. Samus worked deep below the surface and blasted all of the Metroids in her path. Her final victory was against the enormous Metroid Queen. When the queen was defeated, Samus discovered a Metroid egg which hatched before her eyes. Even this hardened bounty hunter could not destroy the Metroid larva. When the larva sensed Samus' presence, it clung to her as though it had found its mother. Samus packed up the Metroid larva and took it with her to the Space Science Academy on the Galactic Federation Space Colony where scientists study the creature and understand its special organic structure.
The Science Academy scientists found out that the energy-producing properties of the Metroid could benefit humankind. Their report suggested that the Metroids may have originally been created for peaceful purposes. Just when it seemed peace and order had been restored, Samus received an emergency directive from the Galactic Federation:
EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! Return immediately to the Space Science Academy!
When Samus made her way to the research facility, she found the building in ruins and the Metroid larva was nowhere to be found. Out of the darkness came a group of Zebesian space pirates and their leader, Ridley, who had the Metroid larva in tow. The pirates fled to a rebuilt planet Zebes and Samus followed them, resolving to finish them off and save the hatchling!
In the final battle with Mother Brain, the hatchling saved Samus, giving up its life in the process. Samus succeeded in defeating Mother Brain, but the universe lost the promise of using Metroid for the power of good.
SR388, former home of the Metroids. After so many years, the remaining creatures on this planet still seemed to be trying to recreate a natural hierarchy, one without Metroids at the top.
Biologic Space Labs was hired by the Federation to observe this restructuring of the ecosystem. And because of my experience on SR388, the Federation governor for this sector hired Samus to provide field assistance on the planet. So, once again she found herself drawn to the planet.
The biological sample collection was going smoothly on the planet's surface when Samus came into contact with an organism she had never before encountered. The organism was an undiscovered unnamed parasitic life form, which the researchers later called “X.” Thinking little of it at the time, Samus boarded a ship and set out for the next collection point.
Suddenly Samus felt her entire body seize up, and she lost consciousness. The ship began to drift away from planetary orbit toward an asteroid belt.
Thankfully, an auto-escape pod jettisoned Samus from the craft before the ship was destroyed. The researchers in the newly constructed research station orbiting SR388 sent a shuttle to recover the pod shortly thereafter. However, in the time since Samus's infection, the X had multiplied rapidly in her body and had even infected her Power Suit.
Her heart rate and blood pressure dropped rapidly as she fell into a deep coma. The Onboard Medic Simulation predicted only a 0.873% prognosis for survival. Samus was transported to Galactic Federation HQ for emergency medical treatment.
The fact that the Power Suit contained biological components and was also integrally connected to Samus's body seemed to worsen the matter. The Federation surgeons were unable to remove the suit while she was unconscious. Their only choice was to cut and remove parts of the infected suit from her still-unconscious form; immediately after, they sent the suit parts to the Biologic Space labs research station for study.
Even with the parts removed, however, the X infection was spreading rapidly through her nervous system, and the researchers monitoring her deterioration knew of no cure.
Someone proposed a desperate treatment: create a vaccine from Metroid cells. Apparently the Federation had preserved a cell culture from the last Metroid. The scientists quickly prepared and administered the vaccine. The symptoms of the infection disappeared instantly, and all of the X parasites within Samus died in moments.
When Samus woke, the scientists told her that the hatchling had saved me once again.
Almost immediately after Samus awoke, she received a distress call from the research station.
“Emergency! Explosion of unknown origin in the Quarantine Bay!”
The screams from the com receiver were loud enough for Samus to hear even in the infirmary. She knew that something terrible was about to happen. She immediately boarded the ship the Federation had provided her and sent a reply message:
”Docking with Biologic Space labs station in 10 minutes. Prepare the landing bay!”
Upon arriving, Samus found that the X were somehow brought aboard the station and had overrun it. She then began a frantic mission to look for survivors and neutralize the X before they destroyed the research platform entirely. Samus was aided by a remote supercomputer, which she dubbed Adam, who gave her mission objectives and supplied her with new weaponry. Adam guided Samus through the various areas of the station as she battles the X in its various incarnations.
Once her mission began, Samus learned of the X's horrifying ability to mimic any organism that it has infected, including her. She soon encountered an X that had taken the form of the pre-infected Samus, complete with all her former weapons and abilities. Adam called Samus' nemesis the SA-X, and this doppelganger haunted her steps throughout the mission. In addition to the SA-X, Samus fought all manner of other infected creatures in the various sections of the station.
As Samus gained the upper hand against the X, she stumbled upon a shocking secret - a research lab containing Metroids was hidden inside the station. She found the SA-X fighting a host of juvenile Metroids as the lab area began to self-destruct. Samus barely escaped the lab section before it detached, destroying the SA-X and Metroids, but then Adam informed her that there were even more replicas of the SA-X on board, and worse, the Federation had been using her mission to study them and their application as a bio-weapon. Samus knew that when the Federation came for the X, it would infect them and spread throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in its path. She resolved to destroy the station, and herself, if necessary, to end this menace.
Adam advised Samus to start the station's self-destruct sequence after altering its orbital trajectory. This would capture SR388 in the radius of the station's explosion, destroying the planet as well. Samus did this, and then encountered another SA-X as she tried to escape the explosion. After defeating it, she approached her ship to find none other than the Omega Metroid. Amazingly, the essence of the SA-X she destroyed arrived and merged with Samus, enhancing her powers and allowing her to destroy the Omega Metroid and escape the station just before it destroyed both itself and SR388. Finally, it seemed the threat of the X and the Metroids had come an end. But of course, such things always have a way of coming back to haunt Samus...
|
Nothing here is endorsed or sponsored by Nintendo of America Inc. All pictures, game titles and related names of characters are trademarks of their respective owners.
|