The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Samus Aran]

A ‘Liberator Aide’, the scientist had called it. Samus couldn’t help draw comparison to her own ‘Phazon Enhancement Device’: first fitted against her will by the Galactic Federation, now adorned on the chest of her suit of her own volition. Much like this ‘Dark Power’, phazon granted overwhelming power, but overuse could steal the user’s sanity or worse. The P.E.D. was supposed to control and channel that power safely … an extremely relative definition, as it turned out. She’d seen three intelligent hunters fall to its corruption. And yet, without it, she would almost certainly have died at the hands of the Stalker.

“No,” a familiar voice within her assured. “You would have.”

She knew everything the Stalker had known. Those memories had been absorbed into her, along with all the power and omnilium the Stalker had amassed. So she knew it was true.

Would she face the same forced dilemma here? A choice between possible death, and certain death?

The ship’s computer buzzed. “You have reached your destination.”

Samus clicked off the manual drive and stepped out of her seat, into the exit lift. The cool wind greeted her, and as it whipped she stepped over to the side of the ship and looked down.

It was not good. Many of the village’s inhabitants had clearly been taken by this Dark Power, and witnessing this scene made the knowledge of its having spread to every one of the Omniverse’s worlds all the more terrifying. They looked like wild animals, but they moved like insects; with united, frenzied purpose. It recalled another instance of Samus’s past — the planet Aether, almost destroyed by a same such force of corruption. Could these people be saved or were they, too, permanently a part of the hive now?

The source of their ire turned out to be a few figures fighting back. Those who had already answered the call, no doubt. They cut through the darklings as though they were mere blades of grass. If these people could be saved, then perhaps there was a reason Samus was here after all.

The source of the darkness wasn’t hard to spot. It spewed them like a broken oil tanker; slick shapes oozing into life and instantly moving to join the horde. The magus looked like a twisted minister, clad in black robes and a tall, ceremonial hat. Samus somehow got the impression he hadn’t been an unwilling participant in this.

The ‘heroes’ were making headway, but there still stood an army of darklings and darkspawn between them and the magus. An army they would be forced to cut down.

The correct course of action was an obvious one. Samus made the decision. She bent her knees and leapt from the side of the aircraft, pulling down and holding the trigger on her arm cannon as she did so. Her Anti-Gravity Engine pulsed into life and blue-flamed jets at her back angled her towards the mage. 200 metres. 100 metres.

He looked up just to see a ball of orange energy. Then his head was bouncing off the ground.

When he looked up, he found himself viewing the barrel of Samus’s arm cannon. “Call off the troops,” she said. “Or I’ll be forced to terminate you. Five seconds.

“Five.”