[Log File 001: Aether] Approximately five hours ago, I picked up a distress beacon from a Galactic Federation outpost located on the planet Aether. Upon entering Aether's atmosphere, my ship encountered a violent storm. While trying to control my vessel during final descent, a bolt of lightning hit one of the engines. I quickly put my gunship down in a secure area, initiating the auto-repair function before leaving to find the origin of the distress beacon.

After combing the caverns, I came across the makeshift base that the Federation troopers had made, but no sign of any personnel. After disabling a few security measures, I met the first trooper; but there was a problem. He was dead. When I looked around, I noticed that all the troopers, approximately one squad, were dead. I knew this wasn't good, but I needed to find out more before continuing.

I turned on my Scan Visor and started to record the log files of the GF squadron. After reading the final log files of my fallen comrades, I couldn't believe what I had discovered. Small predatory wildlife, which normally left bigger prey alone, had suddenly attacked the compound without warning. At first, this didn't make any sense to me. But reading over the log files again, more carefully this time, one detail that eluded me before made me start to worry; apparently the creatures were, as one trooper put it, "possessed". I immediately turned on the vicinity threat sensors in my Varia Suit. That was when the situation hit the fan.

My threat sensors started to go crazy; I looked around, arm cannon at the ready. It was then I noticed what appeared to be a swarm of small purple bugs hovering over the troopers corpses. I was considering what to do, when the swarm split and landed on each of the troopers, and then faded. Suddenly, the troopers began to stand up. One by one, my former comrades turned towards me, weapons aimed in my direction.

I wasted no time in letting my arm cannon do the talking, knowing that there would be time to grieve later. The GF troopers went down quickly, although not without a pang of remorse. After dispatching the reanimated soldiers, I noticed a dark mass of energy nearby, one that wasn't there before. My threat sensors weren't going off anymore, so I decided to investigate what it was. As I got closer, I felt the energy mass pulling me towards it, and I realized that it was a portal. I entered it, doing my best to prepare myself for what I might encounter on the other side. I could not have been less prepared…

When I came out the other side of the portal, I immediately noticed that everything was darker. The landscape, the sky, even the air coming through my suit filters felt heavy with a dark energy. What was surprising about this was the fact that the landscape, though dark, looked exactly like the area I had just come from. I also noticed that there was a wall of pure phazon near me. But what really shocked me was the entity standing in front of the phazon. I was shocked because the entity looked like, well… me…

I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first. The entity looked almost exactly like me, but was composed entirely of phazon. Also, it looked like it was absorbing energy from the wall of phazon. I wondered how this creature could look like me, but then I remembered how it must have come into being. During my battle with the Metroid Prime on Tallon IV, the defeated beast was able to drain some phazon energy from the weapon with which I killed it. It was during this flashback that the creature noticed me.

My arm cannon was armed and aimed at the bio-form, but the creature was faster. It fired a shot of phazon at a crystal I was standing near; at first I couldn't figure out why, but then the air around me started to feel heavy, even hostile. My suit's warning sensors started going crazy, and that was when things got even worse.

All of a sudden, these dark… THINGS… started swarming around me. I realized that these must be the creatures that possessed the dead GF troopers. As I fought my way out of the hoard towards the portal, I heard my phazon clone laughing. Its laughter, deep and foreboding, echoed through my head as I made it back through the portal.

I came back out to where I had originally been. The air got lighter, my threat sensors stopped, and everything seemed fine. But something didn't feel right. I did a quick system check, and found out that many of my weapon systems were missing. Apparently, the dark creatures on the other side of the portal had managed to steal my weapons.

[End Log File]_