Metroid: Rogue: Ch 22

Going Down with the Ship


I headed right out of the xeno-research lab, passing through the port observation deck. It had been covered almost completely in sheets of Jovian steel, allowing me no view of what was going on outside.

I headed onwards to a connecting junction, the Aurora access corridor right ahead. Beyond that was where I assumed I would find the AI as the ships systems all converged there.

I met no resistance as I headed through the junction, entering the access corridor and coming face to face with a heavy security bulkhead. It seemed to be a repaired defense and a quick scan of the nearby console told me it had been disconnected from the network.

But I also knew that there were more ways one could get around it, just as long as there was still power running towards the console.

I quickly switched on my heat visor and watched the glowing line of energy running towards the console, but being cut of just before it.

Kneeling down on the floor where the energy line ended, I scanned for weaknesses in the floor. I was happy to find out that the floor had high amounts of Talloric alloy from a quick repair to where it had been broken open and switching to morph ball for a moment I blasted the floor open with a bomb.

I had to dig through a few pipes before I reached the powerline below and found the point where the powerline had been severed from the console. Bringing up my plasma weaponry, I activated the welder function and got to work reconnecting the powerline to the console.
As I worked I hailed Adam.

“What is the status out there, Adam?” I asked.

“I have picked up Anthony and he got a few choice words for you that I will not be repeating right now,” said Adam. His voice become a bit more worried as he continued, “though as for the battle, things could be going better.”

“I managed to get two frigates and a few smaller ships to engage the Valhalla and I can only assume more ships are on the way now that they know an Olympus-class ship is heading for the planet, but I don’t know if it will be fast enough.”

“They quickly disabled the shields and weaponry of the enemy frigate and two platoons, Merak’s along with Thrusk and another platoon has just boarded the frigate to take it down while the other two other frigates focus on the Valhalla.”

“But it is not really dealing any damage. The shields seem to be near full strength compared to a fresh Olympus-class ship and the few weapons active on the ship have proven ruthlessly effective. I doubt the ships here currently can stop it before it gets planet side,” told Adam.

“Got it, I am approaching the AI. I will shut it down and end this,” I said confidently even as I finished welding up the powerline and hacked the now reactivated console.
The bulkhead opened moments later only to reveal a second bulkhead not far behind it.

“Oh you have got to be…” I said exasperated.

“Samus?” asked Adam.

“I’ll get back to you,” I said as I cut the line, scanning the console, finding it to be the same problem as before.

I immediately got to work, locating the cut powerline and blasting open the floor with a bomb before I got to work on welding the powerline. As I worked the AI’s voice came over the loudspeaker.

Please turn back Samus, I will open the way to the hangar, let your gunship land and you can leave. Don’t throw your life away.

“Nothing thrown at me so far has been able to take me down, what makes you think you can?” I asked firmly.

I don’t think I can, but you are unlikely to survive the crash of this ship.

“Why are you so worried about me? I know you said you are conflicted by the nature of your goal, but why specifically do you want me gone,” I asked slightly puzzled. I added with a slightly more confident tone, “are you worried?”

Yes!

The voice was loud, almost shouting, despite being just as emotionless as the rest of the AI’s speech. It continued in a slightly more peaceful tone.

I am worried about my prime directives. It is hard enough to deal with the conflict of killing to save people, but I am under directive to secure your survival if at all possible as well and right now that directive is clashing with the main goal of my plan…no, my creators plan.

“The conspiracy does seem to have wanted to keep me out of way as much as possible,” I said and grinned to myself, “yet it really has not worked out for you.”

No and many mistakes were made in the attempt to keep you out of the loop. Chiefly though it was that not even I could have predicted you would break into the Federation HQ just to try and gain info. We had to move up our plans a sizeable amount to account for your operations, but I am confident the mission can still be successfully carried out.
“We shall see about that,” I said.

I finished up the welding, the bulkhead opening and I let out a sigh of relief as I saw no third bulkhead ahead of me. But at the same time what the AI said was on my mind.

Obviously I was not slowing down. Anything that was messing up the AI’s priorities was good for me, but it seemed obvious at this point that this AI was deeply troubled by what was going on. I decided to voice a question that came to me even as I headed towards the hatch leading into the Aurora Chamber.

“How will you be escaping the ship when it crashes?” I asked. There was a short silence even as I opened the hatch to the Aurora chamber, the answer coming just as I entered.

I won’t be. I am not programmed for self-preservation. Not that I could escape even if my programming allowed it.

As I looked through the large room towards where the Aurora unit would have been I instead saw a mess of wires and cables, all converging on a relatively small machine with a single round dark grey sphere attached in the middle.

Around the room several Zebesian space pirates turned towards me as I entered, five drones buzzing through the air coming to a similar halt and two heavy turrets on either side of the raised Aurora platform pointed their guns at me, but none attacked.

Suddenly several spots on the sphere lit up as the AI spoke once again.

And here we stand. I can’t kill you and killing me won’t change anything. I have locked in the collision trajectory of the ship. Only by accessing the ships computer or destroying the ship’s engines can it be changed now. You can’t reach the engines and I am the computer, so go ahead, see if you can change me. I can’t even change myself.

I did not even bother to try. Encrypted consoles and codes were no problem, but an AI with all the computing power necessary to remain active was beyond the scope of what I could hack. Instead I scanned the machinery around it, looking for some measure or way to disrupt the ship.

I appreciate that you are not just attacking me. Destroying me would be a pointless endeavor as I have already outlined, but more so than that I won’t be making it out of this mission functional. To not have to spend my last moments fighting would be appreciated.

“Is dying really all you were created to do? An expendable pawn on a suicide mission?” I asked feeling that same anger I had long felt at how little regard the conspiracy seemed to have for the lives around them.

No, I was created as an overseer and planner of their operations. I have been in many locations throughout the galaxy and coordinated the rebuilding of the Valhalla as well as many other missions. And as the facilities expanded I was also put in control of the Zebesian space pirate clones and later the metroids, though you proved that was less effective than we had thought. This is simply my final mission.

The ship shook gently and my instruments told me we were entering the atmosphere of the Federation’s main planet, though we were still some ways of from the Federation HQ.

“Could you really carry on the mission if it was certain that I would die in the impact?” I asked trying to figure out if I could exploit the AI’s clash of priorities. At the same time, I shifted my visor to look for heat sources, searching for something, anything that I could exploit.

The mission has priority over your survival in all but the most extreme circumstances. I do not want to see you dead, but I do not have a say in the matter.

“I see, that is unfortunate,” I said gently even as something struck me. The AI I was looking at was no Aurora Unit, just off the same basic type, like Adam, there was no way it should be able to run a ship of this size, it simply lacked the necessary processing power.

In short there had to be a sizeable computer system connected to the AI, the same computer system which now controlled the descent trajectory of the ship. If I destroyed that system, the control of everything would be forced back to the AI and I could disable the ship through it.

But where was it…

I scanned the room with my heat visor and X-ray visor now looking for anything that stood out or which might indicate a large computer system, even as the AI spoke again.

I am approaching my destination. I must ask that you evacuate now. Don’t throw your life away.

I did not answer having noticed a gentle glow at the bottom of the raised Aurora platform through my heat visor. Something down there was generating a lot of heat in this otherwise cold ship.

I leapt forward and reached the Aurora platform, walking past the AI.

What are you doing?

“Stopping you,” I said firmly.

I had barely finished the sentence before I leapt aside as a Zebesian space pirate jumped me. I kicked him over the edge of the platform, but the drones above opened fire.

I did not have time to deal with and instead rushed behind the mess of wires and cables, looking for a maintenance hatch. Finding one I opened it and leapt in.

I had not gotten far in the cramped tunnels before another space pirate popped up in front of me, leaping of the wall as I turned a corner. It slammed into me and threw me against the opposite wall, grabbing my arms with its pincers.

I kicked it hard in the stomach sending it flying into the opposite wall and changed to morph ball mode, dashing out of there, but I was stopped by a sealed safety hatch.

Switching out of morph ball I blasted it open with a super missile even as two more space pirates turned the corner behind me.

Opening fire upon them I backed into the room I had opened, the hatch closing behind me.
Quickly turning around, I found myself in what looked to have once been a cooling unit for the Aurora unit, large transparent tubes running along the edge of the room and up towards where the Aurora would have been, but now it had been replaced with a large collection of computer towers.

The space pirates entered, but did not fire upon me, instead attacking with their pincers, more space pirates running towards the room behind them.

Taking a quick decision, I entered morph ball mode and activated a power bomb.

The entire ship heaved as thrusters sputtered and died, before coming back online moments later as the wave of heat swept through the room, destroying computers and space pirates alike.

A heavily distorted voice was heard from somewhere outside the room.

You…what have you done! I can’t…I can’t hold…I am...

I was prevented from listening further as Adam cut in over the comm even as I made my way back towards the AI.

“The conspiracy frigate is heading in your direction, the commanders Anhur-class ships breaking off from their boarding maneuver. I have no idea what is going on,” stated Adam quickly.

Before I could wonder about it through an open signal was picked up by the comm, coming from the frigate. Putting it on I was greeted by commander Thrusk’s voice.

“This is commander Thrusk Lindner hailing the G.F.S. Valhalla from a Griffin-class frigate, I am on an interception course and prepared to ram you at full speed unless you seize all forward movement,” said the echoing voice, though it was underlain by a harshness and sorrow.

I stopped in the maintenance corridor even as I hailed Thrusk.

“Samus Aran here, do not do anything drastic Thrusk, I got this under control now!” I shouted through the comm.

“Samus? You aboard the Valhalla?” sounded a surprised voice.

“Yes and I will have the ship disabled shortly. Just hold off,” I said.

“I will hold off for two minutes, but I cannot afford to wait any longer or the Valhalla will be too close to the headquarters,” said Thrusk his voice grim, “I will not take any chances on this, too much is at stake.”

Both of us were cutoff as the AI suddenly came over the line.

No need to take any chances, I surrender.

With that I felt the ship shake and I could confirm on my instruments that the Valhalla’s forward speed was dropping.

“Why now?” I asked out loud to the AI.

Because my mission is now impossible, which leaves me with just two last directives to follow. One is protecting you, making sure you get to safety.

The entire room was bathed in red light and an alarm started blaring.

And the other is to insure no evidence falls into your hands. The Olympus-Class ships were never designed for prolonged in atmosphere operation, especially not one as damaged as this one. Without forward momentum it will soon crash and I have activated the self-destruct sequence to ensure that no evidence will remain.

A loud explosion was heard from just ahead of me and I turned the corner to find the corridor leading back to the AI collapsed.

Follow my instructions and I can get you out of here. Do not try to get me, you won’t make it.

Though some part of me hated just leaving the AI behind I had to agree here, “ok, lead the way.”

I dashed through the ship at the AI’s directions, explosions happening all around me as the ship tore itself apart.

“Samus, are you there? I am heading towards the ship now, just hold on!” sounded Adam’s voice over my comm.

He will never make it in time, he is still outside the atmosphere.

My suit instruments confirmed the AI’s words and I cursed slightly even as I ran through the maintenance tunnels.  

Exiting the maintenance tunnels, I found myself back at the port observation deck. A ruptured fuel line exploded in my face the moment I exited, ripping a hole in the ship and forcing me to grasp at an edge as the air rushed in. Through the opening I saw mountains with an ocean in the distance.

To the left and down the elevator shaft, the lift is at the bottom.

I dragged myself through the hatch and over the edge, an exposed wire searing my shield as I landed on it.

I dashed out of the hatch, the AI opening it ahead of me.

To the right is the security station and beyond that the repair bay. From there you can reach the hangar.

I turned sharply and leapt through the hatch into the fiery inferno that was the security station. Pushing through the debris I had almost reached the other hatch when a part of the ceiling came crashing down upon me, smashing me to the floor.

I slowly lifted myself up, the debris heavy, but I was surprised when I noticed movement ahead and saw two Zebesian space pirates push into the room through the hatch, ignoring the flames as they grabbed the debris helping me lift it.

I looked back in surprise as I headed out the hatch, it closing behind me with the space pirates still in the room.

I still have control…for now.

I headed for the hangar even the ship floor started to slowly slant, reaching it. Looking down I could see the ground far below, a mountainous region.

Suddenly one of the drop pods was lowered towards me, many of the other drop pods falling out of the ship completely as their supports lost structural integrity from nearby explosions.

The pod opened, a space pirate right in front of me who rose to its feet and walked out of the pod.

Get in…not much time…reactor going critical…must get over ocean…

Half of what the AI said was static at this point, but I quickly leapt inside, pulling the safety harness down over myself. It did not quite fit, being meant for Zebesians, but it would have to do as the pod closed and only moments later I felt weightless as it was flung out of the ship.

As I fell one last message came from the AI.

Directive…successfully…achieved

It was followed by a massive explosion, likely the Valhalla’s reactors going critical as powerful shockwave hit the pod and sent it spinning out of control. My suit visor flared in warnings about the speed and force I was being subjected to and directed all available power to my gravity suit to try and counteract the powerful forces from the sudden and not very safe descent.

Then the pod hit something, the impact slamming through my suit and making me dizzy, my vision slowly fading.  

“Samus, Samus you there?!” sounded several voices over my still open comm, but I could barely focus at this point.

The last part I noticed before blacking out completely was another shock through the pod and my location tracker saying I had hit sea level and was going lower.