[X] Use Ice Beam to Freeze it, then use missiles to shatter it.
-[X] If more show up, focus on freezing them while our Allies use missiles to finish them off.
[X] Tell allies to keep their distance from it/them.
You don't hesitate for a second, firing off an ice beam shot just as it closed in on you. The creature freezes instantly, dropping to the ground with a dull "thunk." You don't stop, firing a missile to shatter it which causes your companions to leap back in alarm as what had happened in the space of a second finally registers.
"Why'd you kill it?!" Laser dream shouts, her voice shaking in shock and anger as Velocity stumbles back, hitting his elbow into the access panel for the maintenance door.
You can't answer, your chest seizing as you struggle to breathe. You're afraid. Afraid of those things. The two halves of your being, Chozo and human were reeling, terrified at what this creature represented. Your human half was screaming from that ancestral line, recognizing a predator that saw you as only food. While the Chozo half was thinking, analyzing and coming to one horrible conclusion.
That... that thing is.... If they get off Antarctic humanity... all life on earth... they'd devour it all.
And the Pirates. The pirates brought them here, the pirates found demons somewhere in the void and made them
stronger.
And worst of all some small part of you was seeing the potential of such a creature. How it might save the universe. How it might do good if only someone could
control them.
A potential only matched by the evil they could unleash.
Whoever controlled these creatures determined the fate of the universe, for good or ill.
It was enticing,
seductive thought but you threw it away. You needed to wipe them out, all life on earth was in danger!
Something that was affirmed as the hatch to the maintenance tunnel opened and Velocity stumbled back, not believing what he was seeing.
It was a pirate, frozen in reaching for the hatch in a moment of blind terror, its body gray and lifeless. Other Pirates were behind it, frozen in their final moments of terror and pain. You were reminded of the remains of the people of Pompeii you had read about, how the volcanic ash had preserved its inhabitants as haunting impressions, their fear and despair preserved for all eternity.
The others looked to each other, forgetting the creature you had just killed. Questions were on every one of their lips, and Velocity began to reach out, his hand brushing the grey statue.
It vanished with no fanfare, no dramatic crumble. Just the act of touching it reduced it to a cloud of ash that quickly dispersed.
"What the hell..." Was all Velocity could say.
"The armour, the weapons..... how could all of it..." Armsmaster muttered, a naked sense of horror edging into his voice.
Lady Photon turned to you. "Samus, you scanned these remains right? What did... this?" She asks, though you were certain she already knew the answer.
You still look down at the shattered fragments of the creature.
And then immediately jump as a roar shakes the very foundations of the building, causing the other pirate remains to vanish in clouds of dust.
You all rush to the window overlooking the courtyard, trying to look through the blizzard and see what made that noise.
You first see them as clusters of light emerging from the darkness. Massive shapes, dozens of them. They resembled in many ways the dinosaurs you had seen in the museum so long ago, but twisted into an alien form. Glowing eyes swept back and forth, taking in the area, its lamprey-like mouth dripping slime, the light catching off its thick armour. Others appeared, either warping in like the floating creature did or
outright flying in. There were smaller, humanoid sized ones scuttling about at their feet in a manner you almost thought implied they were the babies of the larger creatures. All of them seemed to huddle together for warmth, shivering in the oppressive cold.
There had to be dozens of creatures in this herd, and you suspect it wouldn't be long until they sought shelter in Pirate base, like the floating creature did.
After all, their glowing gelatinous bellies told you all you needed to know about their relationship to the creature you had just killed before you scanned them.
"What did the Pirates do here?" Lady Photon asks, staring at the herd of creatures before her. You hadn't shared the scan yet, unsure of how to break it to them but Armsmaster figured it out.
"They all died. This base, this
continent is a tomb. The Pirates aren't hiding anything here, they aren't manipulating global temperatures like we thought. They're quarantining Antarctica to keep those things from the rest of the world. We need to leave,
now. The others need to know of this threat."
But... you still had questions. What was feeding these creatures? How were they breeding? Did the Simurgh die here?
Should you stay for a moment longer or should you leave before the monsters notice you?
[] Leave
[] Stay and search.
[] Write-in.
