Disclaimer: I do not own Metroid, Star Wars, Mass Effect.

Chapter 1: A Simple Job Made Difficult

"This was supposed to be a simple job." Samus Aran said through gritted teeth as she sidestepped a blast of red energy and returned fire with a missile killing the reptilian space pirate that shot it in the first place. She had killed at least a hundred of the damn things just to get here. Quickly she looked around the area. She was currently within what appeared to be a courtyard of an ancient Chozo temple with at least two dozen different kinds of space pirates whose weapons were pointed directly at her. There wasn't a lot of cover in the courtyard either other than a large statue of some Chozo shaman in the center. There were a few waist high walls of what appeared to be sandstone and some of the Galactic Federations equipment and crates. As she was assessing the situation she heard a loud boom coming from the other end of the courtyard, like a grenade had just gone off. Turning her attention to the sound, she saw what her suit's scan visor confirmed.

"It seems they managed to get the Elite Space Pirate's working without phazon." She muttered to herself as she doge-rolled, behind one of the low walls as all of the other pirate's had begun to open fire on her. Samus knew that her suit's shields could have tanked all of the shots but she had no idea if these were all the pirate's. Activating her suit's phantom cloak ability she became translucent and practically invisible. She peaked her head over the wall. The pirate's were still firing on her position but none of them could see her so she looked towards the Elite. It was one of the more reptilian based pirate's and twice as tall as she was. Parts of it were augmented with technology and had a shoulder mounted cannon. Currently it was facing away from her and was continuously punching the large sandstone colored doors to the temple each strike sounding like a small bomb going off.

"Samus." Adam her ships on board A.I. spoke to her through her suits short range communication radio to speak to her. "The Galactic Federation researchers have barricaded themselves within the Chozo temple. At the current time there have been no casualties on our side. Unfortunately the few combatives within will be unable to protect the researchers from all hostiles. Those doors may not hold very long under the Elite's assault. Your objective is to deal with all hostiles. Any objections Lady?"

As Adam gave the objective, Samus had been letting her arm cannon charge. A few of the space pirates had started to approach her position. She stood up, still cloaked, aimed at each of the five approaching pirates, her suit auto locking on each.

"No objections, Adam." As she said this she let the phantom cloak drop and before the pirate's could react she activated another one of her suit's abilities, the storm missiles. Fifteen miniature missiles came flying out of her cannon homing in on each of the pirates, killing each of them.

If the other pirate's cared that their allies had just gotten blown up they didn't show it beyond adjusting their aim and a few rushing her to get into melee range. She responded by shifting into her morph ball and dropping a few bombs as she quickly rolled away from her previous position. The lead space pirate jumped over the wall to bring its blade down on her original position only to have been killed by the energy bombs going off in its face. She shifted back to standing and aimed at the next pirate only to stumble forward a bit when she felt something hit her from behind. She twisted around and smashed her fist into… open air? Her fist did connect with something though.

"Shadow pirate." She muttered as she activated her thermal visor allowing her to see the enemies heat signature. She looked down at the ground and saw the invisible reptile on its knees, its hands over its stomach where she had struck it. The last thing the pirate saw as it looked up at Samus was the barrel of her fully charged arm cannon.

"Why do they only use melee?" She thought to herself aloud. "That bastard Trace was smart enough to combine invisibility and long range."

She heard something rapidly approaching from behind. Quickly turning around she knocked aside the oncoming blade of the insectoid space pirate with her arm cannon and kicked the pirate's side, the carapace cracking open with a sickening crunch. As the pirate fell to the ground howling in pain Samus finished it with a shot of purple and green plasma to the head. As soon as she finished that enemy she turned to see three more pirate's running toward her, these looking more crustacean like in appearance, their lobster like claws opening up to fire beams of green energy at her. Using her flash shift ability she disappeared in a flash of bluish white light and reapeared a few yards to the right of her original position. She easily avoided the volley of green energy bolts, which she responded to with a super missile. The explosion killed all three of her opponents.

Several bolts of energy crashed down into her, her shields taking the hits with little draw on her energy. Her attention drawn upward she saw that three of the pirates had taken to the sky with jet packs. Dodging a ground unit's fire she fired off a volley of missiles at the flyers. One of the flying pirates threwgh what at first looked like a grenade. Upon its "explosion" it turned into a sphere of black energy that pulled in her missiles, all of them quickly disappeared within.

"That's new." Samus thought aloud as she fired off her grapple beam which latched on to the lead flying pirate. The beam entirely unaffected by the sphere, pulled him down causing the flying pirate to collide with the sphere. Its body sucked into the sphere which blinked out of existence a moment later. One of the other flyers had pulled out another of those bombs but seemed hesitant to use it after seeing what happened to it's friend. This hesitation cost the other flying pirate it's life as Samus shot him down with a charged shot of energy. The remaining flier acted quickly and threw the bomb only for it to go off in his face as Samus shot the thing as soon as it left his hand.

Samus ducked to avoid a beam of energy and returned fire at the enemy only for it to crash against a hand held energy shield. She could see a pair of pirate's huddled behind it looking smug as the shield held off the attack. She fired a missile at the shield; the two were pushed back but the shield held. The two were a bit rattled by the shove but ultimately just started laughing now believing themselves invincible. That belief quickly died as Samus fired another grapple beam which she used to yank the shield out of their hands and was flung into another enemy. The pirate's looked genuinely shocked that their genius plan had failed, so much so they didn't even register the super missile that exploded in their faces.

Two more space pirate's rushed her; they were bigger than the others but were smaller than the Elite and had yellow glowing energy blades on each arm. She fired several shots at them. They tanked the blasts and tried to cut her down when they got in range. She knocked aside the lead pirate's blades and shoulder checked her attacker which knocked it back. Her cannon was fully charged and she blasted the alien in the face which sent it flying back. The next one tried to do the same but as it approached she started to charge her cannon. Samus stepped back dodging the first slash then leaned to the side just barely avoiding the second slash and she ducked under the third, then entered a crouched position. As the pirate pulled back its blade to slash at Samus again she jumped back up and delivered an uppercut to the pirate's jaw releasing the charge shot as she did, which sent the pirate flying back towards the other one.

Samus started to let her arm cannon charge again as she watched the two pirate's get back on their feet. She raised an eyebrow at the pirate's condition. The first had half its face blown off and the second one had entirely lost its jaw both looking at her enraged.

"Made you bastards more durable then the rest didn't they?" She asked rhetorically. The two pirate's roared at her… well one of them did anyway. The one that lost its jaw just kind of gurgled out its response. They started to rush her and Samus raised her now fully charged cannon. "Not much smarter though."

As she was about to fire upon them something suddenly yanked her arm cannon to the side, sending the shot off course completely missing the approaching enemies. Reactivating her thermal visor she saw a shadow pirate clinging to her arm cannon desperately trying to keep her from aiming. Samus looked between it and the other pirate's approaching her then back to the one holding her.

"Want to go for a ride?" She could practically feel the pirate's confusion as the other two brought their blades down on her. Samus proceeded to flash shift through the enemies and started running forward, dragging the pirate along with her. After a few seconds of running, her thrusters activated, and she was surrounded with energy, causing her speed to increase drastically. The pirate was still holding on but just barely. Samus suddenly stopped dead in her tracks losing all her momentum now floating off the ground now wreathed in purple energy. The pirate, however, still had its momentum, which sent it flying forward and crashing head first into one of the waist high walls, killing it upon impact.

Samus didn't waste a moment and turned back around towards the two previous enemies who were looking around confused. She launched herself towards them with her shine spark moving faster than speed boost before it. The two turned as she approached but by that point it was too late and she slammed into the two like a runaway freight train. The two enemies become nothing but a fine mist of blood.

Samus once again stopped on a dime but let the energy die out this time. Her thermal visor still activated she saw four more Shadow pirate's rushing her on all sides. She let them approach as she killed the last few pirates that were keeping their distance but when the closest one got in melee range she once again knocked aside its energy blade and grabbed the thing by the neck. Pivoting to use the pirate as a shield for the one coming to her right it ended up stabbing its fellow pirate. Samus fired a volley of energy bolts into the stabber before letting her cannon charge and fired a large ball of plasma killing the pirate that was coming from behind.

She then turned to the one that was rushing to her left. It had stopped in its tracks a few feet away, its arm blade raised. She couldn't make out its face with the thermal visor but she could see the thing shivering in fear.

The Shadow pirate that she still had by the neck groaned in pain as Samus's hand started to glow with a reddish pink light. She stared down the final Shadow pirate as the one in her hand had its life drained from it. The pirate watched as its fellow Shadow pirate's invisibility flickered out, its energy blade died, its body rapidly aging, and finally decomposed till there was nothing but dust, all happening within seconds. The two maintained eye contact only for a few seconds, neither moved. Samus took a single step forward and the Shadow pirate bolted in the opposite direction.

For a brief moment she considered pursuing but was stopped when she heard the Elite striking the doors to the temple again so she thought better of it. After quickly confirming that the Elite was all that was left she shifted back to the basic combat visor and made her way over to the Elite. It hadn't turned toward her during the entire fight. Whether it trusted the other pirate's to have taken care of her or it was to dumb to tear its attention away from its task was anyone's guess. Standing behind the Elite she once again turned into her morph ball. Samus rolled between the giant's legs and was now between it and the door. The Elite looked down at her briefly confused. The morph ball lights up with a golden fire like aura. The Elite's eyes went wide with realization. Samus drops a power bomb. The world around them went white. The Elite pirate went flying back slamming back first into the large Chozo statue and fell to the ground.

Samus shifts back to normal and looks around. The sandstone ground beneath her was thoroughly destroyed; the spot beneath her had melted to glass from the heat; the doors to the temple however were remarkably unscathed. She turned to look at the Elite and it was slowly getting back on its feet. Whatever shielding the thing had, seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage. But it was hardly unscathed. What was metal was dented and scorched and what was flesh had second degree burns.

Deciding to finish this quickly Samus once again took aim with storm missiles, her suit auto locked on different parts of the Elite Space Pirate's body and she fired her cannon. To her surprise the Elite's hand shot up, a yellow light enveloping its hand pulling in all of the incoming missiles.

"Damn…" Samus muttered.

It was using its beam absorption system to defend itself.

'At least it doesn't benefit from any of tha…!' Samus's thought was cut off when the yellow light enveloped the missiles and turned into a yellow sphere of energy which it threw right back at her. Using flash shift again she darted to the right avoiding the sphere which exploded against the temple doors, again still unmarred by the blast.

"That's new… saying that a lot today." She fired off a super missile at its head before it could use that ability again. It brought its arms up to block its face, further damaging its arms but still alive. The Elite returned fire with its shoulder cannon and began to slam its arms on the ground resulting in an energy shock wave with each strike.

This forced Samus to jump over each shock wave and doge mid-air with a double jump and flash shift, firing off beams of energy and missiles between each.

'They've definitely made these things stronger. The old ones couldn't spam that move.' Samus thought as she quickly grew annoyed with the back and forth and chose to get aggressive. She jumped towards the Elite pirate and began spinning and became a buzzsaw of purple and blue rotating energy with her screw attack.

The Elite just barely avoided having the attack slice its head off but ended up having its shoulder cannon scrapped instead as she passed over it. The Elite turned around to face Samus as she did the same, launching herself at the Elite's chest this time. As she got close its hand shot up once again cloaked in that yellow energy and grabbed her out of the air, the screw attacks energy entirely absorbed. Then the Elite began to try and crush her.

Seeing her shields rapidly drop, her left hand once again began to glow reddish pink and began to drain the Elite of its energy. The pirate quickly realized what was happening and chose to spike Samus like a football. The ground cracking and splintering upon impact.

"Ok." Samus groaned. "I felt that one through the suit." Looking back up at the Elite her eye widened upon seeing it raise its giant fists over its head ready to bring them down upon her. Acting quickly she fired two super missiles in rapid succession. The first hitting it fists knocking it off balance and the second hitting it in the chest knocking it on its back. Samus activated the thrusters on her back, sending her through the air and landing on the Elite's chest. It was too dazed to react so she slammed her glowing hand on its chest and watched as the Elite space pirate's life was drained out of its body.

Upon the Elite's final breath she pulled her hand away from the Elite, choosing not to absorb the remaining energy in the corpse. The Galactic Federation would want to look at the body to find out how easily the pirates could recreate these things. Plus this one was obviously stronger than the ones she dealt with in the past so that was something to be concerned about.

She hopped off the body of the Elite pirate and once again looked over the area. The courtyard reminded her a lot of the Chozo ruins that were on Tallon IV. There were paths made of sandstone slabs that were flanked by the waist high walls that she had used for cover. What wasn't sandstone was grass or shrubs. The statue of the Chozo in the middle, was a combination of the same sandstone and a bronze like metal with two yellow glowing gems for the eyes. The temple itself was a few stories tall, about three or four if she were to hazard a guess. It is once again being made with the same sandstone like material mixed with the same bronze metal used to decorate parts of it with various designs. One thing she couldn't help but notice was how well maintained the place was. Besides the damage that the recent battle had caused the place looked like it had been untouched by time.

"This place doesn't feel like ruins." Samus said aloud. "More like it had only recently been abandoned."

Samus's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a distant boom and about a minute and a half later her ship came flying overhead. She looked up at the gunship as it hovered over the Courtyard. She had upgraded the purple star ship that the Federation had given her by combining it with her old gunship that she hadn't used since the last incident with phazon. The glass of the cockpit was now green like her visor and the metal plating hand had been changed to red, orange, and gold. The cannons from her old gun ship had been mounted to the sides of the starship to give it more fire power. Finally the autopilot has been put in this ship so that Adam could take control of the ship when needed. A feature that was really needed since her past two major missions had nearly gotten the ship destroyed and had only got away because of luck.

"I have destroyed the enemy drop ship. All hostiles have been dealt with on your end as well. Excellent work Lady." She heard Adam praised over her radio. "Preparing to land."

As the gunship landed at the other end of the courtyard Samus turned to the temple doors. As she approached the large doors began to open outward. Samus resisted the impulse to aim her cannon at the sudden movement as she watched several individuals in power armor walk out; they all had weapons drawn but they weren't pointed at her, just giving the area the once over themselves.

Most of them were wearing the standard Galactic Federation power armor. Which mostly consisted of gray metal with a blue face visor. Though, one had a modified version of the standard armor. It still consisted mostly of silver plating but the armor's shoulder pauldrons were bulkier and was a brassy orange in color, reminding her of some of the older design of her own power suit. Adding on to the reminder was that the visor was the same green as her own.

And finally the one leading the group wore the Federations special forces armor. Which was a sleeker, more form fitting, design. Consisting of dark blue and black metal with a gold face plate.

The lead officer, upon seeing her lowered his weapon and took a more welcoming and friendly demeanor.

"Well if it isn't the hero of the universe herself." The man said in a jovial tone. "Long time no see, princess."

Samus eyes widened in recognition, only one person in the galaxy has ever called her princess without making it sound like some kind of jab or insult.

"Anthony?"

The man tapped a button on his helmet which caused the face plate to be pulled up and revealed a man with dark skin, brown eyes, and a bright friendly smile. He gave Samus a small salute.

"In the flesh."

Anthony Higgs of the Galactic Federation Military was someone she was close with back when she herself was part of the military before becoming a bounty hunter. He was also one of the few still living friends she had in the universe. Anthony glanced over his shoulder at the other soldiers; his voice took a more commanding tone.

"Secure the perimeter."

The officers in standard armor responded immediately and moved to each corner of the courtyard. Anthony and the officer in the modified armor approached Samus.

"Thanks for clearing up the riff raff princess."

Anthony said as he clapped a hand over Samus's shoulder. "Might have actually been in some trouble if you hadn't come along."

Snapping out of her surprise she looked up at Anthony, the blast shield of her visor shut off revealing her face and gave the man a smile.

"It's good to see you again but what are you doing here?"

"Command didn't give you the full rundown? I guess that's not entirely surprising." Anthony crossed his arms in thought. "Well I was stationed here as head of security. Meant to keep an eye on the research that goes on around here."

Samus raised an eyebrow in confusion. "They put someone from special forces in charge of security for a research outpost?"

Anthony gave a nod. "Yep, they wanted the Elite to keep an eye on this place. It's apparently of interest to the Federation and for good reason I'd say." He motioned over to the area where the Elite pirate had slammed her into the ground. Samus turned her gaze to the area and her eyes widened in shock. The damage was slowly disappearing. A soft green light was flowing out of the cracks and it seemed to be causing the stone to, for the lack of a better word, to "heal" itself. Samus had activated her scan visor to let her suit identify it but beyond the fact that the source seemed to be coming from within the temple the scan told her very little about the energy. Except for…

"The energy seems to be similar to aeion energy." The hunter said aloud as she turned to look at the point of impact of her power bomb. It was doing the same as the creator. The glass was slowly turning back to sandstone.

"Yeah, the eggheads inside said something similar." Samus turned back to Anthony as he continued his explanation. "This place is full of stuff like this. That's why people like me and 'fan girl' here were sent to keep an eye on this place." Anthony clapped his hand on the other soldier's shoulder to emphasize the words "fan girl" which caused the soldier to flinch involuntarily.

'Fangirl?' Samus's thought to herself.

Anthony gave the other soldier an obviously teasing smirk. "Why don't you introduce yourself, soldier?"

'Fangirl' shrugged off Anthony's hand and gave a sigh and pulled off her helmet. Her shoulder length red hair tumbled out of her helmet a small scar marred her caucasian skin. It crossed the bridge of her nose each end of it stopping just under each of her emerald green eyes.

"Jane Shepherd of the Galactic Federation Army. Please call me Shepherd. " She gave a salute as she introduced herself. "Elite trooper of Operation Golem and currently second in command of security for all operations here on planet SCR-346."

"At ease, soldier." Anthony said with a chuckle. "She's been just dying to meet you again."

"We've met before?" Samus questioned.

"Yes, Ma'am." The woman's posture relaxed. "We never actually spoke, but you saved my squad and my lives. We were the ones in the Mechs that were floating in space after the destruction of the space pirate's super weapon, the Doomseye."

Samus's eyes widened in recognition. "Oh, yes. Don't worry about it, you and your squad managed to snap me out of their control back then so we're even." Her hand waved off the issue.

Shepherd looked like she wanted to say more but was interrupted when all of their radios went off. "Captain Shepherd! The technical problem with your mech has been rectified and has been cleared for combat! Sending it now!" After the frantic voice cut off they heard the rapid thumping of heavy metal footsteps coming from the temple's entrance. After a moment a large suit of armor came rushing out and came to a stop behind Shepherd ready for use. It was only a little bit taller than the Elite pirate had been and designed to look like a combination of the Galactic Federations standard power armor and Samus's own armor. Though the mech's most notable feature was its color scheme it was the exact color scheme of Samus's old power armor. Consisting of reds, oranges, yellow and green for the lights and visor.

Shepherd didn't turn to acknowledge the obvious sign of hero worship.

"I think you're going to need to update your paint job, Fan Girl." Anthony said as he pointed out Samus's new power armor color scheme.

She simply turned to a chuckling Anthony with a stoic look.

"Sir. Don't you think it's about time we gave the all clear signal?"

Deciding he had teased his subordinate enough Anthony began speaking into his communicator. "Thankyou Tali but the situation has been dealt with. We are going to all clear." Anthony turned his attention back to Shepherd, his voice becoming serious again. "Fully reestablish the perimeter and security functions. Once done, standby for more orders. The Hunter and I are going to talk to the head of operations if you need us."

Shepherd gave the Federations thumbs up salute in understanding then turned to Samus giving her the more traditional salute.

"It was a pleasure meeting you Ma'am."

Samus gave it a few moments of thought before she placed her hand on the woman's shoulder and decided to try something with her Metroid abilities. "By the sound of it I'm going to be helping out around here for at least a few days. We can talk more later if you would like." As she was talking her hand once again was wreathed in reddish pink light but was far duller than before.

"I… I'd like that Ma'am." Samus pulled her hand away from her shoulder and Shepherd's eyes went wide. The place that Samus's hand touched now had an engraving of a circle with a stylized "S" within it. "Thank you ma'am!"

Samus simply waved over her shoulder as she followed Anthony into the temple. The head of security was laughing as they walked inside.

"You know you just made her whole week right?"

Samus gave the man a light punch to his shoulder. "Stop teasing your subordinates." She said with a chuckle. "You're supposed to be setting an example now, you know."

The two continued to talk as they walked in, blissfully unaware of the multiple sets of footprints that followed in their wake.

The inside of the temple reminded Samus of the frozen temple she found Tallon IV. The main difference being that the room was a lot bigger, big enough for Shepherd's Mech to walk around comfortably The temple had proper stairs to reach higher levels and had paths that were raised out of the flowing water. Not to mention the gaps between the bricks were a glow with the same energy she had seen before, some places having a crystalized version of the energy sprouting from random places ranging in size from as long as her pinky to one that sat in the rushing water raised all the way to the ceiling. There were various rooms that branched off the main hall where she could see scientists of different species getting back to work on their own research and experiments.

"There's more than just humans?" Samus asked with mild surprise.

Anthony nodded as he led her up a flight of stairs that passed by the Chozo statue that was acting as a spring for the water. "Yep apparently the Federation is thinking about having each species work together more closely. So our operation has been set up to see how well we work together. Some of the fellas in armor back there weren't even human."

Samus was rather surprised by this. For the most part each species of The Galactic Federation didn't really do a lot of military operations together. Not for any racist reasons mostly for convenience as each species had different ways of doing things and different needs during operations. The sole exception being when they worked with bounty hunters of other races.

"Is that going well?" She asked as she looked towards a blue skinned alien, an Asari if she remembered correctly, who was looking over a Chozo mural.

"Surprisingly it's going really well." Anthony gave a casual salute to an gray skinned alien that had horn-like protrusions and pure black eyes, Salarian, which waved back to him in response. "A few bumps here and there with cultural and biological differences but everyone is getting along well. Shepherd has been a big help with everyone getting along. She has been getting really friendly with everyone here."

Samus nodded in approval. "Seems she's here for more than just being a skilled mech pilot."

"Yep," Anthony replied "She's been a real help with getting people to work together. If she continues like that during the rest of the mission I'm thinking of recommending her for a promotion. Ahh here we are."

Anthony had taken her deep into the temple and they found themselves in front of a large ornate door flanked by two Chozo statues. The statues were of warrior Chozo and were wearing what looked like a primitive version of her power suit. They held their spears in an X shape in front of the door. As they were approaching the door Anthony started to pat himself looking for something.

"Damn it. We're did I put it?" He muttered.

"Something wrong?" She asked.

"Na. Just looking for the key." Anthony motioned towards the door. After a moment he pulled out what looked like a key card with the Galactic Federation Military insignia on it. "Here we go. Those statuses act like some kind of scanner that keeps the doors locked. The eggheads managed to make this as a work around but…!" Anthony was cut off when the statue's heads suddenly snapped to look directly at Samus.

Samus pointed her cannon on instinct at the sudden movement and Anthony's hand had shot to his side arm. After a moment of nothing happening the eyes of the statues flashed green and they moved their spears aside as the doors opened. The two slowly let down their guard and Anthony let out a nervous laugh. "That was unexpected."

"They don't normally do that?" Samus had lowered her cannon but was ready at a moment's notice.

"No. That's what they do when they see the key but… they never moved that fast before." He gave Samus a questioning look. "Looked like they scanned you instead. Any idea why?"

"I could hazard a few guesses but best not to speculate without someone looking it over." She replied as the two started to walk inside.

Jane Shepherd

Shepherd had left her Mech in sentry mode so she could help the others with whatever needed to be done. She had just finished helping one of her human soldiers reactivate one of the sentry guns. She noticed one of the soldiers had taken off their helmet and was crouching as he was looking over the corpse of the Elite Space Pirate. He was one of her alien soldiers, a Turian, the best description of their species was if you gave a human both insectoid and reptilian features. His gray carapace had a blue tattoo in a similar place as her scar and had a targeting visor over his left eye. From what Shepherd could tell he had a grimace on his face.

"Everything alright Garrus?" Shepherd asked as she approached.

"Captain." Garrus got back to his feet. "I'm just… taking it all in. I'd heard stories about how good that hunter was but I thought they were just exaggerations now I'm not so sure."

"I've seen Samus's abilities first hand, trust me when I say there's no exaggeration." She said with a nod.

"I can see why you'd respect her." As he spoke he brought up his arm and became covered in an orange hard light construct. After a few taps it brought up a holographic screen that was replaying Samus's fight with the space pirates. "I mean look at this. She took down the lot of them and only took one major hit from the big one and even then she bounced back immediately."

"You think you could send me a copy of that?" Shepherd asked, sounding eager.

Garrus gave his species a version of a smirk. "You know this is why Commander Higgs calls you fangirl right?"

Shepherd gave him a flat look. "Laugh it up Vakarian. Anyway, how's things going with reestablishing the security system?"

"Already managed to get things started just waiting for the system to reboot." Garrus tapped a few more commands into the device which brought up a progress bar to show how much longer it would take. "Still can't believe how everything shut down from that power surge."

"From what I understand one of the researchers tried to hook up the temple's power source up to our power grid. Apparently thousands of years old tech nearly overloaded our stuff. We would have been able to see the pirate's coming if that hadn't happened." She crossed her arms as she looked over her shoulder at the temple. When she looked back she noticed Garrus was looking intently at the video of Samus.

"Something on your mind?" She asked again.

Garrus was silent for a moment before he answered her question with one of his own.

"I assume you know what a Hunter is right? Not just your run of the mill bounty hunter or mercenary?"

"Yeah, it's a position in the Galactic Federation that is given to individuals of extraordinary combat ability. You don't necessarily need to be military to get the job, just show you're good enough. Samus Aran was given the position after her first job on Zebes."

"A simple answer but accurate. To put it simply I was qualified to become one."

Shepherd's eyes widened at that. "You were? Don't take this the wrong way, but how'd you manage that Garrus?"

"Well…" Garrus paused for a moment as he glanced upward, his eyes zeroing in on something. Shepherd looked up as well and it took her a few moments to see a small black speck in the sky. Garrus looked back at Shepherd and asked. "Weapons free Captain?"

Shepherd raised an eyebrow before responding. "All weapons authorized Garrus."

Rather than go for the sniper rifle on his back he went for his sidearm, a standard issue pistol and aimed straight upward as he took off his targeting eye piece. Shepherd looked between Garrus and the speck in the sky.

'There's no way he makes this shot with that.' Shepherd thought to herself.

Garrus' body was still as a statue, she could barely see him breathe. After another moment of silence Garrus took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. Holstering his weapon he began to count. "1-2-3-4…"

Shepherd's eyes went wide as the dot became bigger and bigger until eventually some avian creature unceremoniously crashed into the ground about a dozen or so yards away from them. "Holy shit…" She muttered.

"That took ten seconds to hit the ground and the planet's gravity is similar to planet Earth. So that was about 1600 feet in the air." Garrus said with a grin as he put his eye piece back on.

"That was a hell of a shot Garrus."

"Best in the academy back home." Garrus crossed his arms as he continued to grin. "I may not be a walking armory like that Hunter but I think I could keep up with the best of them."

"I can see why you'd qualify for it but why didn't you take the position?"

Garrus stopped grinning and sighed. "My chance to be one was blocked by my father. He despises Hunters, even normal bounty hunters. Thinks they are given too much freedom for the power that they possess. They can cut through a lot of red tape and ignore so many regulations and procedures. My father hates that. 'Do it right or don't do it at all.' Is a phrase that he drilled into my head growing up. I can still hear his complaints on how much the Federation relies on Hunter Aran."

Shepherd gave it a moment of thought before speaking. "I can see where your father is coming from at least."

"You can?" He sounded surprised.

"As much as I respect Samus Aran I can understand why regulations exist. It's to keep people safe after all."

"Even if those regulations are followed at the cost of innocent life?" There was a bit of a bite in his response that caught Shepherd off guard. "Sorry Captain I just… remembered something."

"You want to talk about it?"

At that moment Garrus's omni tool pinged. He brought it up and showed that the reboot sequence had finished. "I'd like that but it's better to have the conversation later. Thanks for listening, Shepherd."

"No problem Garrus." Shepherd looked over her shoulder towards the temple and noticed a few familiar faces walking out with a large box. "Looks like they got something. I'm going to see what's happening. Talk to you later."

"Sure thing Captain." Garrus nodded to her. "I will just be here calibrating the security turrets if you need me."

Shepherd gave the Turian a small salute as she walked towards the new group. The one carrying the device was one of her alien soldiers. He was a reptilian-like species with tan skin, and a boney orange head plate and red reptilian eyes. His face and head crest were covered in scars and was wearing a modified version of the Federation armor that accommodated his species shoulder hump.

"I said I got it, runt." The Krogan grunted out at the smaller alien that was trying to help the large lizard. This alien had an obvious female form appearing more human in shape other than them having three fingers rather than five. She was wearing a helmet that was under a hood with a glass face plate with dark purple tint to it. You couldn't really make out any facial features through the glass other than her glowing purple eyes. She was wearing a white lab coat over her clothes signifying her as one of the researchers but had a shotgun strapped to her back.

"I just don't want you dropping it Wrex." Explained the quarian. "This is really delicate equipment, you know."

"Tali," The now identified Wrex grumbled. "I can lift this machine, you and your entire family, without breaking a sweat. I can handle it."

The last alien was a Salarian; he had a few small scars on his face and one of his horns was shorter than the other. As for what he was wearing, it was the standard researcher attire. The Salarian began to speak rapidly.

"Ms. Tali'zorah has a right to be concerned with you Wrex. That equipment is extremely delicate. You could easily trip smashing it under your bulk or even-"

"Mordin, I will drop this stuff right now if you start." This quieted the chatty Salarian.

"Everything ok over here?" Shepherd asked as she approached the group.

"Ah… Shepherd." Tali replied. "We have something that could be useful to you."

"And that is?" Shepherd asked as she glanced at the large box that Wrex placed on the ground.

"Something that Ms. Tali'zorah and I have been working on. It started as a simple experiment with some of the Chozo technology we have discovered here. When we noticed an interesting side effect of our experiment that Ms Tali'zorah claimed would help in your work. We had hoped to get it working earlier but with the power outage, then the attack, messed everything up."

"Just give us a minute to assemble it and we'll explain in more detail." The Quarian gave her own reply as she approached the box and began to take out some other equipment. Shepherd just gave a shrug as Mordin and Tali were putting the machine together. So Shepherd turned to Wrex. He was looking over the battlefield like a grumpy child that missed a party.

"I still think we could have handled those pirate's ourselves. Power outage or not." Wrex muttered out.

Shepherd thought about it for a moment.

"If we didn't have to protect the researchers I might have been inclined to agree with you. Not everyone here can fight like you or me."

Wrex glanced back at Tali and Mordin though more at the shotgun at Tali's back and a heavy pistol holstered on Mordin's hip. "You sure about that. I've seen those two on the shooting range we got set up here. They've got good aim."

"There's exceptions to every rule."

"There's an Asari in there that can fling around borders twice as big as me with her biotics."

Shepherd rolled her eyes and decided to change the subject. "So what else do you think about all this?"

"Well personally I'd like to shake that Hunter's hand."

"For…?"

"Killing Ridley." He said with a deep growl.

Shepherd was caught off guard by that. "The old space pirate leader? I know he needed to go but this sounds personal to you Wrex."

"That's because it was." Weex grunted out. "That bastard single handedly killed off half my tribe."

"What happened?"

"Not much to tell. I used to lead a small tribe of Krogan years ago. He came to my home planet by himself and offered a lot of the clans the chance to join the Space Pirates. I refused for my clan and as soon as I said no he torched the nearest Krogan with his fire breath. When we fought back he killed them too and when we were entirely beaten he left." Wrex pointed at a particularly deep scar on his boney crest. "Gave me this before he went though."

"You sound more angry that you lived more than the death of your clan."

"It's not like I'm not glad I'm alive. I'm angry because he had me at his mercy and just walked away. There's no greater insult to a Krogan than saying you aren't worth killing."

"Sorry to hear that Wrex."

"Why? It's not like you were responsible."

Their conversation came to an end when Tali spoke up. "Captain, we're almost done. Wrex you mind grabbing the power cable?"

"We'll talk more later, Wrex." The Krogan just gave her a nod in response as the two went in different directions. As Wrex brought over the power cable from the power generator, Shepherd approached Tali.

"So what is this thing?" She asked as she looked over the machine.

Tali had activated her omni tool and started activating a program. "Well, we don't have an official name yet but I just call it the DNA detector."

"Far too simple a name." Came the salarians' rapid injection. "A far better name would be-" Mordin was interrupted as Wrex slapped a hand on the salarians shoulder.

"No one cares about your complicated acronym Solus." He said as he handed over the cable.

"Like I was saying." Tali resumed. "This little device is something Mordin and I have been working on. We utilized some of the Chozo technology we've come to understand."

"It's not going to knock out our power like the last time, is it?" Shepherd was nervous after hearing that the machine utilized Chozo tech.

"No no no." Mordin quickly replied as he plugged in the machine. "This isn't going to be like with 'STEVE'S' rash decision." The salarian shouting over his shoulder at the temple's entrance. They could hear a whine of 'I said I was sorry!' From inside before they continued their conversation. "This device has been thoroughly tested to ensure such things do not happen." Shepherd watched as the machine started to light up without everything else suddenly shorting out.

"Well that's good." Shepherd let out a small sigh of relief. "So besides the obvious, what's this thing do exactly?"

"I'm sure you're aware of Hunter Aran's scan pulse ability from your numerous inspections of her mission reports." You could visibly see Shepherd deflate at the Salarians' words. "It utilizes a more powerful version of that technology so we combined it with the map data we have of the temple and the DNA profiles of all personnel and lifeforms in the area. Using the pulse like a sonar we can not only make an accurate map of the area, hidden areas included, it can give us the exact location of everyone here and let you know if any unknown individuals have entered the area of the pulse range. Even let you know what species you're going to encounter."

"That could be useful." Shepherd said as she looked towards the machine. "Knowing when an enemy enters the perimeter aside; The exact position of both enemy and allies can give one a better idea of how to command your forces."

"Exactly." Tali affirmed as she tapped a few more commands into her omni tool. A moment later Shepherd's own omni tool pinging let her know Tali had sent her something. "That's the program we use with this thing. Boot it up and give it a shot."

Shepherd activated her omni tool and loaded up the program. After a quick startup sequince a single button appeared on the screen labeled 'pulse start'. After a quick nod from Tali, Shepherd tapped the button. The machine lit up and let out a whining sound. A few moments later the antenna atop the machine released a pulse of pale blue light that spread all across the area and into the temple. Shepherd watched as a map began to appear on her screen with various dots with names next to them.

"This is really impressive." Shepherd complimented as she scrolled around the map. "There are rooms on this that aren't on our own maps. We'll have to report those to the others later."

"Excellent, the device has already proved its use for our operations. Perhaps in future updates it can be used to…"

As Mordin began his long verbal thought process Shepherd was messing around with the new map function. She tapped the dot that represented Garrus and a new screen popped up with a some of his information. Mostly just his name, age, species, blood type and a box that was labeled 'personal anecdotes'. One thing that stuck out was just the word 'calibrations' in bold letters. She chuckled at that and tapped the dot that represented Tali and in that anecdote it said 'it's an induction port not a straw.' She had to hold back a snicker as she tapped her own dot and her amusement died as she read the part that mentioned her interest in Samus. She resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose at the bit that questioned a 'possible sexual attraction?'

"Tali?"

"Yes Captain?"

Shepherd gave the screen a flick in Tali's direction and it showed Shepherd's screen on Tali's omni tool.

"... I'll have those removed in the next patch."

"Thankyou." Shepherd went back to looking through the map and went deeper into the temple's map eventually she came across two dots that were in the room that had the chief of staff in it. One was Anthony Higgs and the other was… questions marks? Context obviously told her it was Samus but curiosity compelled her to tap the dot. Once again question marks on all categories even the one labeled species.

'Didn't they say this thing could identify species?' She thought to herself but before she could ask about it she noticed five more dots approaching the room that Samus and Anthony were in, these two having question marks. Her eyes narrowed as she decided to tap one of the dots and her eyes shot open in alarm as she read the species name. Kriken, a species that was almost as bad as the Space Pirates and one that definitely was not welcome here.

Shepherd activated her radio. "Security breach!"

Samus Aran

The room that Anthony and Samus entered was very large. It was about the size of a baseball diamond and was about two stories tall. It was domed and the floor was made of a much darker sandstone with a few emerald green glowing crystals dotting the ground. As for the domed ceiling and walls they were made of a mirror like gemstone. The walls were tinted blue on the far end from the two that were tinted red on their side. There was a statue of a Chozo in the middle of the room that was facing the blue tinted side of the room. There were several tables that surrounded the statue, having various research materials and notes. There was a human woman standing next to the statue and she was talking to someone that was standing behind the statue. The conversation seemed to stop as Samus and Anthony approached.

The visible woman was, quite frankly, beautiful. Her shoulder length raven black hair contrasted with her flawless pale skin. Her black and white clothes did nothing to hide her hourglass figure that would make most supermodels jealous. Though her face displayed a smile that would make lesser men weak at the knees, her ice blue eyes reminded Samus too much of a Federation scientist that "gave her suit a polish".

"Ah, Anthony." The woman approached the two. "I heard the all clear signal announced. All those pirate's have been effectively dealt with?" The woman asked.

"Yes mama." Was Anthony's professional reply. "We are no longer under attack and are currently reestablishing the outer security systems. As for the enemy they were dealt with by the Hunter." Samus raised an eyebrow at Anthony's professional tone. He was normally a lot more amiable even during mission briefings.

The woman turned to Samus and offered a handshake which she took. "Hunter Aran, I've heard much about you."

Samus accepted the hand. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage in that regard Ms…?"

"Miranda Lawson. Second in command around here. Well besides security they have their own set of rules."

"You're not the chief of staff?" Samus asked.

"No, that would be her." Miranda answered as she guided the two over to the statue.

Samus's eyes widened at what she saw. The first thing that caught her attention was a woman that Samus thought she'd never see again. She was more average in appearance compared to Miranda. She had short reddish brown hair. She had a thin and boney figure and had the same kind of researcher clothing that she was wearing back the last time Samus had seen her though she had swapped out shoes for brown boots. This was Madeline Burgman. She wasn't really looking at them but was changing focus between her omni tools holographic screen and the statue before her.

As for the statue it was a similar design to the one outside though this one held an ornate bronze sword at its side. Though what really caught Samus's eye was what it was in the other hand. It held an oval shaped full body mirror up like it was a shield. What was reflected in the mirror though wasn't Madeline. It was a girl that looked like she was barely out of her teens. There was a pink clip in her long blond hair. Her white clothing was a researcher's attire with pink highlights. Though her face was inviting, her blue eyes held a mechanical coldness to them. Though she was easily seen, the area around her was wreathed in shadow so that the girl was the only thing visible.

"MB?" Samus said aloud, confused.

"I said her name is Melissa -!" Madeline cut herself off as she turned to look at Samus and gave her surprised look. "Ah. Hunter Aran it's… good to see you again."

"Doctor Burgman." Samus gave her a polite nod. "You seem to be doing well. Though I didn't think I would see you as a part of another big operation like this."

"Yes, well after the… events from our last meeting. I had decided to shift my focus from biology to archaeological work." Madeline scratched the back of her head nervously "I had a minor in Archeology during college. As for how I became chief of staff I was the one that had initially discovered this place. Then the research grew from there."

"I see. Glad to see that you recovered… after that." Samus looked back at the mirror. "So… what is this?"

Madeline turned back to the mirror as well and let out a sigh. "That's the million dollar question isn't it. Truth to be told, we don't really know what exactly this is. What we do know is two major things. One is that the energy that flows through this whole temple is especially potent within this statue. The second is… well… this." She motioned to the mirror. "Commander Higgs, would you mind?"

"Sure thing." Anthony replied with a shrug. Madeline stepped away from the mirror. Samus took note of the fact that the image didn't change until Anthony stood before it. Once he was in front the mirror picture went white. After about half a minute the light faded, showing an apartment building. Anthony gave the image a fond smile before turning to Samus. "That's where I grew up back on earth." He turned back to the mirror. "Place is cleaner than I remember though. I should check it out during my next shore leave."

"You see Miss Aran for whatever reason this mirror seems to show the one standing before it someone, someplace, or something that is related to them." Madeline explained, she gave her omni tool a few taps before bringing up the holographic screen on the tool. Samus read the screen.

Test 34:

Subject: Garrus Vakarian.

Result: Shows subject's father, Castis Vakarian. The area around him showed a C-sec office.

Test 35:

Subject: Urdnot Wrex

Result: A ruined throne made of white stone. The area around it is in a similar state.

Note: Subject would not elaborate on the significance of the image.

Test 36:

Subject: Jane Shepherd

Result: Two individuals that the subject identified as her parents. Area around is wreathed in shadow.

Note: At this point I believe that our hypothesis of 'if the area around the image is dark then the person or place is dead or destroyed.'

There were several more entries like this on the screen. Many repeat subjects with different results each time.

"This is one of the reasons you have been asked to help here." Miranda spoke up again. "Dr. Burgman believes that someone who had first hand experience with the Chozo would know more about all this."

Madeline nodded as she took back the conversation. "We would like your help with a lot of things around here but I was hoping you would have answers for this." She pointed to the statue.

Samus gave the statue a closer look activating her scan visor to see what her suit thought about it as well. After a few moments of thought and letting the scan finish she spoke. "A few things stand out to me here. Though most of what I have to say will just raise more questions. First…" Samus pointed to the sword. "Chozo don't use swords. Their melee weapons of choice were spears or their own talons. What's more it seems like something should fit into the butt of the weapon."

Madeline nodded as she tapped the information into her omni tool. "The later bit of that was something we suspected. Though the former is something we hadn't noticed. I wonder what the significance of that is. Continue please."

Samus simply nodded before continuing. "The second big thing is something my suit picked up on. The internal components are similar to a Chozo artifact statue. Which is an automaton that is used to protect and preserve whatever it's holding. It's where I received many of the upgrades to my suit."

"Makes sense." Anthony replied as he stepped out of the way of the mirror.

"Care to elaborate on that?" Miranda asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'd think it would be obvious." He said with a shrug. "A really important magic mirror would be something you want to keep safe, right?"

Miranda conceded the point with a shrug.

"Third…" Samus pointed out some writing that was written along the top of the mirror. "I'm assuming you haven't gotten this translated yet."

Madeline shook her head. "Unfortunately no. It uses similar symbols to the Chozo language but we have yet to figure out what it says."

Samus nodded. "Not surprising. This is an ancient Chozo which is very different from more modern Chozo. Same symbols, different spelling."

"So it's like comparing old English and modern English?" Miranda asked.

"Basically." Samus answered as she stood before the mirror not really caring what showed in the mirror and began to read the text allowed as the mirror went white. "Stand before me. See all that you love and hate. Behold all that is tied to you. Through the force all is connected."

"... OK I'll bite, what's that last bit mea-!" Anthony was cut off as the mirror suddenly bathed the entire room in a flash of white light. After a few seconds, Samus tried to blink the spots out of her eyes. She looked towards the others who were in a similar state.

"Everyone ok?"

"Yep!" Anthony replied sarcastically as he was rubbing his eyes. "Just had my corneas burned out of my eyes."

"Walk it off, soldier." Samus chuckled. She looked towards the others in the room. Miranda was hunched over muttering curses under her breath as she was rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms. Madeline had fallen to the ground and was just covering her eyes rather than rubbing them.

"I'm fine… mostly… just give me a moment. Is the mirror ok?" Madeline asked as she tried to get back to her feet.

Samus looked back at the statue. It was undamaged but the mirror it held now worked like a normal mirror simply reflecting whatever stood before it. But in the reflection she saw something behind them. Samus turned to look back at the wall, her eyes widened. Then she saw people, places, and things that she was at a minimum had a passing personal familiarization. All of which were now reflected in the gemstone like walls. Each was slightly tinted either blue, red, or gray.

"Woah…" Samus looked to Anthony who had stopped rubbing his eyes and was now taking it all in. "What is all this?"

Anthony was looking around confused before his eyes landed on something familiar. "Hey… isn't that…" He didn't elaborate as he rushed over to the wall.

Samus approached and her eyes went wide. There were four individuals surrounded by darkness and tinted blue. Two of these individuals were Chozo and the other two were human. The four of them were facing each as if they were having a conversation. The person that Anthony was looking at was a man in ceremonial military clothing. Which consisted of mostly white with sky blue highlights and gold trim. A military cap that was similar to his clothes in coloring covered his short black hair and the Galactic Federation Military emblem emblazoned into the hat. His face was stoic yet there was something warm in his blue eyes. This was Adam Malkovich, Samus and Anthony's old commander before he died. To Samus a father figure.

The Chozo were wearing similar clothing which consisted of simple brown robes. The first Chozo was very tall, almost towering over everyone. His feathers were brown and his eyes were a bright red. His beak was bigger than most Chozo and was gray in color. The other was far shorter and looked a lot older than the other Chozo. His feathers were gray but some had turned white in his old age. His eyes were red as well but were far duller in color, reflecting his age. These were Gray Voice and Old Bird respectively, a pair of chozo that had taken her in after her biological family had died.

Speaking of which, a man that looked to be in his mid twenties stood next to Adam. Unlike the others his clothing was anything but ceremonial, they where clothes fit for hard labor. Consisting of heavy duty jeans, a gray tank top, and a tuff looking work jacket was tied around his waist. He haz a pair of thick work gloves covering his hands. Along with his short messy blond hair it was covered in dust and dirt. His blue eyes revealed a far more welcoming nature compared to the others. This was Samus's father Rodney Aran.

Though she didn't show it Samus felt like a vise was gripping her heart as she looked upon the image. It only got worse when all four of them turned to acknowledge her. Her father gave her an easy-going smile and lazy salute. The Chozo placed their right hands over their chest and gave her a bow. Adam did something she didn't expect, he gave her a thumbs down. He had a small smirk on his face as he did so. Samus huffed with amusement and Anthony gave a laugh.

"Damn this thing is better than any picture or hologram. It's almost like he's on the other side of a plane of glass." Anthony spoke up before he looked from Adam to the others. "I guess you knew these guys?"

Samus waited a moment before answering. "The Chozo are named Gray Voice and Old Bird."

Anthony took a moment to think about the names before recognition showed on his face. "The ones who raised you?"

Samus nodded. Anthony looked at Rodney. "And I guess he's your…"

Samus didn't respond.

"..."

"..."

Anthony motioned back to the Chozo. "So did they feed you worms or-!" He got cut off from a punch to the shoulder. Anthony just laughed as he walked over to another image. That image being himself and then started flexing in front of it. Treating it like it was a normal mirror, saying things like 'damn I look good.' Samus just rolled her eyes before moving on.

Samus heard a yelp of surprise from the others. She swiftly turned back to see Madeline, her hands covering her open mouth as she should be for the image of something quite terrifying that was tinted red. The thing towered the scientist that was looking up at it. Its body was a mishmash of flesh and metal and was vaguely humanoid in shape. Its metal limbs are crudely attached to its fleshy body. Its long thin neck held up its massive head. Purple acidic saliva dripped from its fanged maw. Its exposed brain sparked with power along the metal spikes that stuck out from the flesh. Its single eye glared down hatefully at the scientists. This was Mother Brain, one of Samus's oldest enemies.

Samus approached Madeline's side. "You ok?" Madeline jumped at Samus's question before looking at the Hunter. The scientists took a moment to compose herself before answering.

"Yes, just surprised is all." She looked back up at the horrid monster. "This is her isn't it? The thing Melissa was made from?"

"Mother Brain, yes." Samus replied with a nod.

"I thought she was just a giant brain in a jar."

"She was but after I beat her the first time she thought upgrades were in order."

Madelines reply was a simple nod of understanding befor she looked down from the monster and saw Melissa standing in front of Mother Brain, she to was tinted red. Madeline's expression was unchanged as if she wasn't surprised that she would be standing before this monster. After a few moments of silence Madeline spoke again.

"She wasn't a monster." She said with a slight tremble in her voice. "She was just… protecting herself. I could have convinced her to stop."

Samus wasn't sure what to say. She was empethetic but she was never a people person so it took her a bit to come up with a reply. "If you believed that then you wouldn't have had to pull the trigger."

Madeline flinched at Samus's reply but tried to come up with an argument. "It was a freeze gun."

"If it had been something more lethal would it have changed your choice?" She asked. After a few moments of silence she spoke again. "It was horrible what they were going to do to her but Melissa pinned the sins of the Ringleaders on the entire Federation. If you hadn't Melissa would have become no different than her." Samus finished her statement by pointing her cannon at Mother Brain. Madeline didn't reply but the look on her face told Samus all she needed to know. Samus started to walk away but stopped when she had a thought.

"Stop thinking what you could have done differently. That question just makes it worse." She then made her way back to Anthony.

Just past Anthony Samus noticed Miranda seemed interested in one of the images in the wall. Unlike the last few images this familiar individual wasn't surrounded in darkness indicating this one was still alive. The individual was of Enoema species though he was notably bigger and bulkier than the rest of his kind. He was humanoid in shape but somewhat insectoid as well. Most of his body looked like it was made of yellow corded muscle with patches of black armor. Its face was just one large eye in the middle with four smaller ones over that one. Its right arm was covered in a black metal gauntlet over its right arm that served as his arm cannon. Samus wasn't sure where this individual was but it was in some alien city and was fighting against what looked like mercenaries. This one was tinted in gray.

"Samus." She called out to the bounty hunter. "Who is this?"

"Kanden. He's a bounty hunter." Samus replied as she looked up at her fellow bounty hunter.

"He's bigger than any Enoema I've seen before."

"Not surprising. He's a super soldier."

Miranda gave Samus a surprised look. "If he's a soldier, why is he a bounty hunter?"

"From what I was able to dig up on him he wasn't a willing candidate. They tried to reprogram him to be their weapon but something went wrong."

"Any ideas what happened?"

"Best guess, they may have filled his mind with commands and combat tactics but they didn't empty out his free will."

"I see…" Miranda gave the Enoema bounty hunter a look of… approval? Samus decided that it wasn't worth pursuing and continued to look over the gallery of familiar faces and places before her eyes landed on one in particular. It was a group of five different people though she only recognized three of them. The area around them could be seen indicating that these individuals were alive and were standing before a very familiar door. The one in the lead holding up a very familiar badge up to two very familiar Chozo statues. Samus' eyes narrowed as she turned towards the only door in and out of this room.

"Anthony."

Anthony stiffend at the hard edge in Samus's voice. "Yeah?"

Samus aimed her arm cannon at the door. "We have unwanted guests."

Anthony looked towards the image she was in front of. Before he could do anything his omni tools radio went off.

"Security breach!" Came Shepherd's exclamation over the radio. As that was shouted the door flew open and five individuals ran in. Samus reacted immediately and fired a super missile at the group. Rather than attempting to doge one of the individuals she didn't recognize ran to the front of the group.

It was a human man of what appears to be of Asian descent. His black hair was tied into a ponytail and what appeared to be a black mechanical mask that only covered his eyes. He was wearing mostly black armor with gray highlights and a yellow crest in the middle of his chest. As for weapons the only one Samus could see was the katana in his left hand. As the missile closed in on him he raised his right hand and created a hexagonal blue barrer. Upon contact the shield held back any real damage but the explosion caused the man to skid backwards and slammed into the door that had closed again.

"Told you that shield of yours isn't a catch all solution, Kai." One of the individuals that Samus recognized told the now identified Kai.

This individual was clad in dark green armor that was reminiscent of both Samus armor and the Federations armor. Its helmet had a gold face plate similar to Anthony's helmet and a long dark red ponytail hanging out of the back of their helmet.

As Kai got back to his feet he growled out a response. "You're not paid for your opinion, Weavel!"

Weavel just shrugged and pulled out his weapon and opened fire on Samus. She dodged the explosive green projectile with flash shift and started sprinting towards the group at an angle avoiding more of Weavels projectiles returning fire as she did so only to be knocked to the ground after get hit in the chest by a beam of red energy. Which came from another one of the familiar individuals.

This one was obviously alien with an insectoid and spiky appearance. It's completely red carapace was complimented with bright red glowing lights that flowed out of its chest, biological arm cannon, and its single eye. What could be considered its head wasn't attached to its body and just floated between its large shoulder spikes.

"Trace." Samus muttered to herself as she tried to aim her cannon at the kriken bounty hunter. Only to once again be forced to doge by turning into her morph ball and using her boost ball she zoomed out of the way of the falling form of the third individual she recognized. This one was humanoid and wore dark blue armor with green lights all over his armor like the lines on a circuit board. He raised his version of an arm cannon and fired an arc of blue electricity at Samus.

Samus used her jump ball ability and just barely leaped over the stream of electricity and shifted back mid air firing a missile at her attacker. The blue clad warrior moving the stream of electricity in the missile's path causing it to explode halfway to him. Before anything more could be done Weavel scored a hit against the mid air hunter. The explosion sent her flying. Samus managed to land in a crouched position and had her cannon raised at the blue warrior only for her cannon to get knocked to the side from another beam of red energy from Trace which left her open to more electricity.

Samus watched as her suit's shields rapidly began to drop as three of her enemies hit her at once. Her shields kept her from getting hurt but she was struggling to get to her feet from the constant barrage that was trying to keep her on the ground. Before she could think of a plan to get out from under from the attack two distinct shots rang out. The first was a shot of green plasma comparable to one of Samus's own charge shots, which crashed into the electric wielding warrior sending him skidding across the floor. The second was an ice blue projectile that struck Weavels weapon freezing his entire arm. Anthony rushed to Samus's side his heavy plasma cannon in his right hand and a freeze gun in his left.

"Don't you punks know how to treat a lady?!" He roared out.

Trace leveled his arm cannon at Anthony. In response Anthony's body became enveloped in blue light as he put away his freeze gun and raised his left hand which created a blue barrer of energy. The barrer held against Trace's attack.

Samus quickly shot to her feet and looked towards her friend, confused. "Since when could you use biotics?"

"I'll explain later." He replied not taking his eyes off the recovering opponents. "Shepherd is sending backup and Miranda is protecting ." Samus looked back over to the other women in the room seeing that they had knocked over one of the tables to hide behind. Miranda was generating a biotic barrier similar to Anthony's. "So, any idea who these guys are?"

Samus decided to take advantage of this moment of reprieve and activated storm missiles. She pointed her arm cannon at Weavel allowing her to auto lock on to them before rapidly explaining their opponents.

"Weavel. Space pirate. Primary weapon: explosive projectile called Battlehammer. Can split into separate combatants." She aimed at Trace. "Trace. Kriken. Primary weapon: sniper weapon called Imperialist and can turn invisible. Can shift into a fast melee opponent." She pointed to the blue enemy. "Sylux. Not sure of the species. Primary weapon: electric chain that can drain you of energy called Shock Coil. Alternate form can make electric traps. Not sure about the others." Samus pointed at the other opponents. As she did so she finally got a good look at the other attacker that she didn't recognize.

He was an alien species called a Drell. He looked like a human was given more reptilian features. His green scales contrasted with is black scales that were on his forehead and the reddish scales around his neck. His pure black eyes betrayed nothing of what he was thinking but for some reason Samus got the feeling that this Drell didn't really want to be there. Unlike the others he wasn't really wearing armor but his black and gray clothing looked fairly sturdy. He seemed to have realized what Samus was attempting so the Drell pulled out a small black pellet and threw it on the ground creating a thick cloud of smoke which ruined Samus auto lock. Deciding to take the loss she told Anthony to drop the shield so she could hit the others.

"Rodger." Anthony replied as he let the shield fade away though the energy that supplied it condensed into the palm of his hand. As soon the shield had dropped Samus fired her Storm missiles on her opponents forcing the recovering enemy's to deal with the oncoming homing missiles.

Kai had recreated his shield and braced himself better so that he didn't get knocked back again. Sylux slammed his cannon into the ground activating his shock coil, as he did it caused the electricity to shoot out ward like a pulse that caused the missiles to explode before they could get to him. Weavel threw a familiar grenade with his unfrozen arm, the explosion creating another black sphere of energy that neutralized the attack. Trace dropped on all fours, his back legs seemed to fuse into one, staying low to the ground and waited until the homing missiles were upon him. Then he lunged far to the side, the missiles hitting the ground where he had been standing, then rushed the two of them.

Anthony acted first and launched the sphere of energy at the approaching Kriken. Trace managed to lunge to the side once again avoiding the projectile. Only to be caught off guard as the sphere's "explosion" was bigger than expected but instead of causing damage Tace was floating, like gravity had been turned off just for him. It thrashed around confused. Samus chose to capitalize on this with a super missile, the explosion sending the Kriken bounty hunter into the wall behind its allies.

Samus noticed movement to her left and saw the drell rushing toward the statue. She fired a volley of plasma bolts in the aliens path, forcing him to come to a stop. He turned to face Samus and spoke.

"You aren't my target here hunter." His voice had no heat to it, simply stating a fact. Samus just started to charge her cannon in response. The drell sighed. "Very well." He un-holstered a pistol and started to rush her, opening fire as he did so. With Anthony standing behind her she decided against attempting to doge and tanked the hits, then released her charge shot. Instead of blocking or going to the side the Drell fell to the ground and slid; he just barely avoided the large ball of plasma. The Drell fired again this time hitting Samus in the visor and to her shock her vision went dark. It only took a moment for her to register that he had hit her visor with some kind of ink. Rather than waste time rubbing it off she once again activated her thermal visor. She could see the Drell approaching and it had just thrown something at her. Samus knocked aside the object with her arm cannon and sent it sailing toward Kai who by this point had managed to get in close to the both of them, Anthony was too busy trying to keep Sylux pinned with his freeze gun.

Whatever Samus had knocked into Kai latched onto him and suddenly electricity arced out of it. Kai screamed in pain as his body seized up before he fell to the ground. Anthony took the opportunity and froze him to the ground. Samus looked back to the Drell who had stopped and was looking at the downed Kai. She took the chance to get the ink off her visor before switching back to her combat visor.

"Are you smirking?"

"I must thank you hunter." The Drell pulled a machine gun that was strapped to his back. "If I survive today that will be a memory I will enjoy reliving." The Drell then threw another smoke pellet only this time he threw it at the two of them obscuring both Samus and Anthony's vision. Samus decided it was time to go on the offensive and dashed forward expecting machine gun fire to hit her only none came. As she exited the smoke Samus realized that the Drell had continued his path to the statue rather than continue the fight before she could pursue she had to duck under a Battlehammer bolt from Weavel who had managed to get his arm out of the ice.

Samus returned fire with a volley of missiles. Weavel dodged the volley though his method was unorthodox. Instead of lunging to the side or dropping to the floor the top half of his body suddenly split away at the waist. The missiles passed through the gap and instead of the top half of his body falling to the ground to run around on his hands like he used to do a jetpack that she hadn't noticed before ignited, letting Weavel hover in the air.

"You fly now?!" Samus couldn't help but exclaim.

"I fly now!" The space pirate responded with a cackle in his voice. He pulled a second gun off of his back. Samus looked down to his legs and saw that they had become a turret like before. Samus suddenly found her staring down the barrels of three separate Battlehammer guns. The pirate began laughing as he opened fire on her; she dodged to the side with a flash shift and returned fire as she started to run.

Samus decided to deal with Weavel's auto turret before anything else, then fired a few missiles at his legs but to her surprise the legs jumped to the side avoiding the barge and started to sprint towards her firing Battlehammer bolts as it did so. She would find it comedic if it wasn't so effective. She had to duck and dive under each shot from both Weavels legs and Weavel himself. As this was going on she noticed that Tace had gotten back to its feet and was aiming its cannon at her. Acting quickly she fired off her grapple beam at Weavels upper half and though he tried to doge she managed to latched on to his arm and with yank flung the flying pirate into the path of the Imperialist beam knocking the pirate out of the air. She then fired off an ice missile that pined Trace with ice.

Before Samus could do anything else she heard a scream ring out. She turned to see Anthony writhing on the ground with blue lightning from Syluxs shock coil. Sylux approached the downed soldier as he continued to shock him. Samus bolted toward Sylux firing off a volley of plasma bolts as she did so which forced Sylux to stop. Before Sylux could do much else besides backpedal Samus jumped towards the blue bounty hunter and activated her screw attack. She slammed into him, sending him flying back. Samus leaped back and stood in front of Anthony guarding him from any further attacks. She heard him groan as he got back to his feet.

"You alright Anthony?"

"Shields at 20%, freeze gun half empty, splitting headache from using abilities I'm not used to. I'm just peachy." Anthony perked up when his heavy plasma cannon let out a loud beep. "Good news I can now use one of those big shots again without my canon overheating."

Samus looked at her own heads up display. Shields at 55%, only a few super missiles and regular missiles left, plenty of power bombs left but those couldn't be used in this situation. She looked towards her enemies again by this point Kai had gotten himself free from the ice and Trace was in the process of doing the same. Weavels top half took to the air again and Sylux had gotten back up with his cannon sparking with electricity all four ready to continue the fight. It was at that moment the door shot open and in ran several of the soldiers from earlier and a few moments later hearing the heavy clanking of Shepherd's Mech could be heard as it walked in as well its arm cannon humming with a fully charged blast ready to be released at a moment's notice.

"More good news!" Anthony said with a laugh.

Kai looked between Samus, Anthony, and the other soldiers. He had a look of obvious frustration. "Any time, Thane!" He shouted out. It was at that moment that the room lurched causing several people in the room to lose their balance and some even fell over. The gems embedded in the floor were shining brighter than before and the rest of the floor was suddenly glowing with green light. The light was coalescing on the four other enemies in the room.

Samus was able to stay on her feet so she turned to look at the Drell who was standing before the mirror now. The now identified Thane had put some kind of gem into the gap in the butt of of the sword; the blade was a light with a green glow humming as well now. As for the mirror the reflection had been replaced with the same green light. He was holding his hand up to the mirror as this was happening. Unsure of what was going on Samus tried to put a stop to it with a super missile. Thanes form became a glow with biotic light, the green light began to mix with the blue, and he created a barrier with that energy. The super missile exploded against it leaving the Drell and the statue completely unmolested.

'Damn it!' She thought to herself.

"SAMUS DUCK!" The sheer level of panic in Anthony's voice led her to not even question the command. As soon as she dropped to her knees she heard the sound of a sword swing over head. Samus responded instantly by using flash shift but did so in reverse and was now standing behind Kai aiming her cannon at his head. The man twisted around so fast she almost didn't see it, his blade slashing across her chest.

Shield integrity 10%.

'…shit.' Samus acted quickly and used her grapple beam and yanked the wannabe Riden ripoff toward her. Her hand glowed with red energy once again latching on to the man's neck. Her Metroid abilities began to drain him refilling her shields but just as quickly as her Metroid abilities drained the man the green energy replaced it. Kai fired a blast of energy from his palm that forced Samus to let the man go. Shield integrity 15%. She had to flash shift again to get out of the way of the next slash and fired some of the few super missiles she had left at point blank range. The blast sent Kai flying back but she could tell the man was mostly unmard by the attack. Samus heard an extremely loud boom and looked towards the others. Her eyes went wide. Shepherd's mech had a hole punched through its shoulder the size of her head. Trace was pointing at that spot, its cannon smoking. Sylux was firing his shock coil but the electricity was more like real lightning now. Weavel had reattached himself to his legs and had put away his guns and began using the pirate's signature energy blades and they were far larger than they should be. The soldiers were barely holding on to their lives right now. Samus knew that this needed to stop now.

"Anthony!" The special forces soldier had been charging his heavy plasma cannon aiming it at one of the attackers. "That shield needs to go down now!" Anthony didn't even question it and turned to face the Drells shield. His form lit up again with biotic power.

"Never tried this before but…!" The power began to flow into the cannon.

Samus started to sprint directly at the shield, her glowing red hand held before her as she did so. Had she paid attention to it she would have noticed that the armor around her hand had turned green and looked more like an exoskeleton. Her fingers were now claw-like and the light had changed to a light purple. Anthony fired his cannon, the large ball of plasma was enveloped in biotic light and just as it passed by her Samus's thrusters activated her speed shooting up to the point where she kept pace with the plasma. Seemingly on instinct she grabbed plasma with her claws and the energy suddenly doubled in size. Samus didn't know how or why but she didn't question it. She slammed the large ball of plasma into the barrier, it shattered like glass. Thane was smart enough to drop to the ground as Samus and what was left of the plasma sailed over his head and punched the mirror with all her might. It cracked and the world around them went white.

A/N

And that was the first chapter of this Star Wars, Metroid and Mass Effect crossover. This story was inspired by free man writers story Avengers: Infinite Wars when he kind of challenged people to write more interesting stories in chapter 92 of that same story. This was my answer to that challenge and because I can hardly find any good Metroid crossovers.

Something you probably have noticed I have strengthened some of the characters in this story. Like giving Shepherd a Mech, Garrus being an even better shot than he was in his own game, Weavel got some new features and giving Anthony biotics. This all so they can actually keep up with the likes of Samus. If you all have any ideas of how I can strengthen other characters that would be in character for them I'd love to hear it. One other thing there is more of a connection between Shepherd and Samus than I have said so far.

Anyway thanks for reading please favorite, follow, and leave a review. See you next time.