Samus Aran: Bounty Hunter

A sequel to The Hatchling

By Nate Thorn

New Beginnings

"Welcome to Happy Fun Burger. May I take your order." The last part was less of a question and more of a statement. Her voice was boring and monotone.

Samus' new lifestyle was of blatant contrast to her previous life. She was used to spending hours each day in intense physical and mental training. Now, she spent each day flipping burgers and asking boring people what they wanted to eat. She hated the job, as it was not stimulating in any way, but she needed the money so that she could pay her rent.

"Do you want fries with that."

As Samus was nearing the Ceres Space Station two cycles ago, her vehicle caused great alarm. She had stolen a small space pirate craft and used it to escape the bad memories that plagued her on the planet Zebes. She left behind all that she had ever known to start anew somewhere else.

The Galactic Federation police apprehended Samus, fearing her to be a pirate, but she was soon released when she explained her story. They took her to the nearest civilized planet, Enlyst, and the Galactic Federation gave her an identity and five-thousand Galactic Federation Standard Currency (simply referred to as GFSCs.) They set her up in a small apartment in the crowded city of Treik, and had a representative meet with her three times a week for a cycle to teach her the ways of life in a Galactic Federation-run planet.

The Galactic Federation was the governmental body that ran the vast majority of the civilized world. It was composed of over seventy planets, some large, some small, and it formed the largest nation in the galaxy. It welcomed all species of intelligent life forms, of which at least twenty-three had been discovered. In general, the Galactic Federation did an excellent job in maintaining peace between planets and other nations that were not necessarily aligned with the Galactic Federation.

Samus was just one drop in a vast sea of intelligent beings associated with the Galactic Federation. The Chozo (the people with whom Samus had grown up) had managed to remain relatively secluded: The Galactic Federation knew that they existed, but knew little about them. While living with the Chozo, Samus had felt a good deal larger. While living on Enlyst, Samus was a nobody, wandering aimlessly in a fruitless search for recognition amongst other nobodies.

Looking at her watch, Samus realized that it was getting close to quitting time. She pulled off her striped hat and hung her apron on the wall with all of the other workers' aprons. She trudged outside without a single word of farewell to anybody. Samus had not made friends with anybody on Enlyst. How could she, after all? She had learned the hard way that you cannot hold anything too close, as it will eventually be torn from your clutches. Such had become Samus' lonely personal philosophy.

She walked down the busy Treik streets, bracing herself from the cold wind that was whipping up. She wished she had brought a coat.

Samus stopped at the post office on her way back to the apartment. She checked her number, and found a few bills there. On her way out the door, something caught her eye. There was a piece of paper posted on a billboard near the exit.

"WANTED: Url-Krym. 100,000 GFSC Award." One-hundred thousand GFSCs was a lot of money. With it, Samus could easily afford her own home somewhere, and get some education for a better job. The paper listed a website that could be visited for more information. Intrigued, Samus pulled the paper off of the wall and made her way back to her apartment.

As Samus ascended the stairs leading to her room, her thoughts drifted to the piece of paper in her pocket. What was she thinking? How would she be able to catch someone that was able to evade the ever-present Galactic Federation police? She almost threw the paper away, but something told her not to.

She reached the door to her apartment and unlocked it. She shuffled into the bleak room and shut the door behind her. There were no decorations or fancies to be found anywhere: There was simply a stiff, wooden chair in the center of the room facing a dormant television. Against one wall was a desk with a cheap computer sitting atop it. There was a small, square table on the other side of the room with a nondescript lamp and a small, white telecom resting on it. There was a large, virtually empty closet next to the door to the kitchen which contained boring cupboards and a refrigerator with only the bare essentials of life in it.

Samus pulled the paper from her pocket and headed over to the small computer. She turned it on and pulled up the chair while she waited for it to boot. After a minute or so, she opened up her web browser and typed in the URL listed on the paper. It loaded slowly on her dial-up connection, but it was not long before Samus found what she was looking for. She saw a picture of an ugly, insect-like creature on the screen labeled "Url-Krym". She read the description on the screen.

"Url-Krym is wanted for running a crime ring on the planet Enlyst. It is rumored that he is behind many of the recent bank robberies experienced in some of the major cities of the planet." The site went on to explain various small details and events that were linked to Url-Krym. Samus stayed up into the early hours of the morning researching this criminal, trying to learn everything that there was to know about him.

One site was of particular interest. It was a rather crudely built site, very unprofessional looking, but it held some of the most valuable information Samus read that night. It appeared to be a journal or blog of some sort, and it was dated for last night.

"Our recent run was a failure. The GF caught on to some sort of lead and raided Gryph's apartment. I guess they found something important, because they took him in for questioning, and I haven't seen him since. We decided to go on with the operation anyway, but the GF were waiting for us. We all managed to get away, and nobody's been apprehended since Gryph, so we figure they couldn't ID any of us. Apparently, old Url still wasn't very happy, and he had a couple of guys beat up for it. He wants to send out our crew again in three days to hit the same bank, and he's made some pretty big threats this time. He won't accept another failed mission."

Hurriedly, Samus checked for any recent attempted bank robberies. She found one, not too far away from where she was now, that had occurred a few days ago at the Customers First Bank in New Criaven.

Putting everything together, Samus figured that there was going to be another robbery at the Customers First Bank in two days. She immediately decided to notify the authorities, but then she had another idea. She realized that she would be off work in two days, and free to go wherever she pleased. If she wanted to get that reward money for Url-Krym, she would have to get creative…