Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“To anyone in the Mars aerospace: This is a distress signal from the I-93 research facility on Phobos! We've been breached, possibly by space pirates, or some other kind of- The Galactic Federation has been contacted but we’ve received no- Someone plea-“

Samus rubbed her chin, “That was the last we've heard from the facility” the Federation commander informed her, “we've sent out a recon team to investigate, but we've heard nothing yet”. She watched the hologram displaying the layout of the facility, flickering as the scan-lines waved over it, many of the sectors and wings of the research facility were deemed ‘confidential’, she raised an eyebrow. The UAC were a private energy harvesting and distribution corporation, there’s no reason to believe the space pirates wouldn't be interested, but no previous attempts were made to attack their facilities, she wondered what could've driven them to attack now.

“What information have the UAC given us about the I-93 facility?” Samus queried.

The commander shook his head “Nothing, only that you are to investigate and eliminate any threats, the destruction of their equipment is strictly prohibited.”

Her eyes narrowed, whatever the UAC were up to, they weren't keen on telling them what the facility was for, she wasn't interested in legal documents, but an attack of this magnitude to sensitive research meant this was more than the average corporate scandal.

“I’ll take the job” she affirmed “it’s clear the UAC won’t communicate with us, but any activity from the space pirates is worth investigating for new data on them.”

The low hum of her ship’s engine rumbled, sitting in the cockpit always gave her a sense of confidence before landing anywhere, but something felt wrong when she looked down at Phobos. It looked as derelict as ever, but the facility was still sending out new data packets, and these looked fresh, none of them looked to be sending anything out of the ordinary, and the usual space pirate signatures were minimal. She glared at the screen in front of her, and runs another scan to be sure, with it reporting back of firefighting within the facility. At the first mention, she prepares to land.

This feeling of dread wouldn't shake however, this felt far more sinister.

As she descended to the only spaceport left on the facility, she saw traces of smoke dotted across it, whether it was the aftermath or beginning of its destruction, she couldn’t tell. Once her ship had landed, the exit port lifted her up, clad in her power armor, Varia suit enabled, fully stocked, she looked around at the port, with no life signs around. She flipped off her ship, landing into a crouch, and clutching her cannon at the door in front of her. Still nothing. She stood, waiting for something to attend to her arrival, and yet she could only hear guttural silence except for the wind waving across the landscape.

Opening the door, she was met with a gruesome hallway, littered with human corpses, strewn from place to place, unnatural crimson shades painting the walls, and the dead body of a creature at the end of the hallway she had no way of identifying the species of. As she walked through the grim room, her boots becoming more splattered with the blood below her, she slowly raised her cannon at the creature, it had some kind of red carapace, with pinky skin, and a large head and jaw, strong tusks protruding from its under-bite jaw. As she reached to touch it, she suddenly heard what could only be the screaming of thousands all from one maw, and aimed her cannon to the other side of the hallway, there were numerous wild footsteps of multiple bipedal beings, one seemed heavier and faster than the rest.

She charged down the hallway, shooting at the door and blasting it open, grinding to a halt once she found her way inside the room, a large surgical facility, dissecting a different creature with an exposed stomach, large carapace arms that looked to be cannons, it was filled with strange orange and purple beasts. One turned to shriek at her, lunging towards her, charging her cannon, she pierced the beast, leaving its corpse in littering body parts. Rushing further into the room, she noticed a survivor clad in green power armor similar to hers, holding what seemed to be a ballistic firearm, a shotgun of some kind, he seemed as inhuman as the rest, the way he tore through these things terrified her to her core.

One of the creatures threw some kind of fireball towards her, she quickly crouched to steady her aim and destroyed it mid-air, then focusing her aim on the creature and fired a missile at it, splattering it against the wall. The man in green jumped down and fired another shot into a human-like creature with a hole in its head, it seemed to be an undead life-form, he lined his back up with hers. She aimed under his arm, while he crossed over her arm with a double-barrelled shotgun, both firing at the same time, destroying the last of the beasts.

The man started to walk into the next room, Samus stood and turned to him “What happened here?”, he stopped, and pointed at the UAC logo, then at the corpse on the operating table, pointed his thumb at himself, then pulled out a pistol and shot the corpse. Clearly, he wasn't one for words, but he got the point across, he walked a bit further, and then turned to look at Samus, he signaled to the next room with his thumb and a directional nod, she nodded back.

Trailing behind someone else’s lead was odd in these situations, usually it was to her own discretion to go her own way, however it felt obvious this man knew more about what was happening than he was willing to let on. Quietly, she scanned his suit with her visor for any signs of his origins, only to be told it was of a yet undiscovered material, however her scan didn't mention what species he was, it was obvious he wasn’t human, yet his instincts kept telling her otherwise. He reloaded his shotgun, turning back towards her, they stared at each other for a moment, Samus slowly drummed her fingers on her cannon, waiting for something to happen. He shrugged, as if waiting for her to say something, she tried to loosen the tension by standing straight “If you’re not going to co-operate, I’ll take the biological wing of the facility, good lu-“ he shook his head in disagreement, pointed at himself, and then twice at her.

She stood still for a moment, figuring out how to introduce herself “I’m Samus Aran, I’m a bounty hunter taking a job directly from the Galactic Federation to investigate the facility”. The man stared at her, looked down and stroked the chin of his helmet, looked back up to her, then her cannon, and tossed her a keycard, pointing her towards a hallway to his right, and turned left to exit out of the opposite door. She watched him walk out, and made her way over to the door, scanning the keycard, granting her access, she turned back to the man in green, who gave her an informal 2 finger salute and made his way through. There wasn't a good way to make heads or tails of who he was, and maybe that was for the best, but with him around, this mission makes things a lot easier, as well as harder.

Leading into the next room, the Doom Slayer was met with another gore nest, cocking his shotgun, he fired 2 shots into the fleshy growth, which helplessly wiggled in response, knowing it had worse to come. Something cluttered from above, he aimed his shotgun skyward, ready to take down whatever miserable imp was trying to ambush him. Nothing, only thing that could be heard was the gore nests pathetic whining, he took another step forward, cocking his shotgun for a third shot.

With no quick way to react, something sharp slams him from behind, sending him toppling towards the gore nest, dropping his shotgun. He shakes his head, hoping to clear his head for whatever Hell had spat at him next, and to his surprise, he was met with a strange purple beast, gangly with large wings, a strange cranial neck, and a large thin jaw that opened widely to roar at him. He rolled over to his shotgun, cracking a shot at it, only to have it block it with its wings, he stood up, blasting another round at it, it swiped its wing away at the shot, one of the bullets whizzing past his head and landing into the gore nest behind him.

Its jaw cracked open and spoke to the Slayer “Well you’re a strange one”, he aimed his shotgun again “It’s been a long time since anyone’s used a ballistic firearm against me”, the slayer popped another shot, again, it seemed ineffectual. The creature stood straight and tall, fully facing the slayer “would’ve called you human, but you’re a lot more than that it seems”, the Slayer waited with a deafening silence, “have it your way” it spoke, and prepared to lunge at the him. Quickly he turned to grab the gore nests eye, ripping it out, making the infestation scream wildly, causing the winged beast pain, and for a hell knight to be willed into the arena, landing on top of it, it clumsily started to fly, carrying the confused knight into wall, slamming its back against it, crushing the demon.

It roared once again, unhinging its jaw to unleash a devastating attack from its mouth, the Slayer quickly diving out of the way as the fireball from its mouth wrecked the spot he was standing in, as well as unfortunate zombie. The Slayer tried to fire micro-missiles at the beast, only causing it to barely flinch, and clearing the smoke left behind by the explosions with a roar, it darted towards him, swiping its tail to split the green clad warrior in 2, with him only latching onto its tail. The creature roared in frustration and slammed its tail into the wall to remove his unwanted passenger, launching the Slayer off, if only to crush a poor imp with his foot.

Again, the beast prepared to spit another fireball, opening its jaw wide, the Slayer aimed his shotgun, firing a grenade into its mouth, largely damaging the beast, and tried to recover, shaking its head. In its embarrassment, the creature opened its maw, shooting a last explosive fireball into the wall, and swiftly flying through the hole it left, leaving the Slayer with the room full of demons. An imp on the other side of the room pathetically roared at the green warrior, he slotted 2 rounds into his double barreled-shotgun in response, he’ll have to get back to the winged beastie later.

The biological wing seemed to be mostly devoid of humans, and whatever these strange creatures were, the database in her suit had no record of them, no matter what she could gather, the only consistent trait was the presence of an energy signature all of them had. She tapped the side of her helmet, trying again to scan the corpse of a large eyeless beast with a domed head, seemingly this energy signature lingered more in its hands, maybe as method of attacking? It’s possible that the UAC were trying to harvest this energy from these creatures, maybe a biological modification, it’d explain why the space pirates would be more interested. Curiously, she hadn’t seen any of the space pirates in the facility yet, not a corpse or trace of them, yet her suit was still picking up signals of their activity.

Abruptly, her helmets visor fizzled, and a small monitor appeared in the bottom left corner, “VEGA, did we establish contact?” a robotic voice spoke, though it sounded gruff and vaguely human, “Yes, Dr. Hayden” a chirpier but subservient voice said. Samus paused, staring into the corner of her visor, “Hello Samus Aran, I’m Dr. Samuel Hayden, I’m the head of this facility”. Samus paused again with a frown. “I’m well aware”. The robotic head in the monitor fumbled, “As you can see, we've been overrun with this demonic presence, we’ll be giving you directions on where you’ll be aiming, but do not fire until we say you can”.

She narrowed her eyes and started walking forwards, tapping the side of her helmet and running diagnostics, ousting Dr. Hayden’s location, and his personal system, “Seems like you've got yourself in quite the mess, doctor”. If the distressed man on the other side could grumble, he would've, “That’s none of your concern, you’re only to-“, Samus muted him “You’ve committed multiple acts of fraud, manslaughter, illegal biological manufacturing and modification, and tax evasion”, the man in the monitor seemed seething with anger, “If you didn't have a bounty before, you’ll have one soon”.

Alarmingly, the doors exiting the room slammed shut, with blast doors shutting them further, turrets funneling themselves out around the perimeter of the ceiling. Her visor fizzled again, the monitor seemingly refreshed, and Hayden unmuted, “How DARE you accuse me! You’re no better than the Slayer destroying what valuable material exists here!”. Samus smirked at the frustrated man, “I’m willing to comply if you help me stop this ‘demonic’ invasion”, the man seemed to huff a sigh of frustration “That was my intention all along, but I suppose if you've co-operated with the Slayer before now, there really is no stopping you”. The turrets retracted, the blast doors lifting, and the main doors unlocking, “You’re on thin. Ice. I’ll help you, but only because we have a mutual goal, nothing more”, Samus nodded “Agreed”. The connection closed.

The space warrior moved north, determined in her stride, if Hayden wasn't going to co-operate nicely, she shouldn't have much use for him outside the information she can get out of the UAC’s computers. She thought to herself briefly, there’s a lot of implications to be made if what she’s been fighting have been demons, though she tried not to dwell on it for long, more importantly she was picking up more data packets referring to the space pirates, they must've had some kind of presence in the facility. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed a message in the listing.

“WARNING: SLAYER Present. COMMANDER RIDLEY Rendezvousing.”

Her blood started to boil like never before.

Hayden watched from his office upon the landscape of Phobos, considering the coming moments, and how to prepare for them, Hell had undoubtedly made a mess of his research and company, no longer was he a visionary to his employees, just a figurehead of a hollow corporation. A hologram representing VEGA appeared behind him, “Dr. Hayden, the Slayer and Samus are approaching the Space Pirates center of operation”, Hayden looked towards the hologram, thinking to himself for a moment, “Samus has more knowledge of the entire facility than he does, if the 2 meet, then there’s no hope left for the UAC, manipulate his path to prevent Samus’ way forward, internal destruction is recommended, whatever it takes”. Usually VEGA was quite fast in his responses, the AI took its time to respond, “As you wish, sir”.

Chapter Text

The Slayer put his hand to the door with some false hope, another locked doorway, looking around the area, there were no vents, or ways to enter. He pulled his hand away and walked towards the hole left by the strange beast from before, jumping onto boxes and clambering through it, the other room seemed deserted, though there was a hole in the ceiling, likely from the same creature. Not a gore nest in sight, an imp, a hell knight, nor a pinky. Jumping down, he was once again disturbed by the voice of Hayden, “The next Argent Cell is through your door to the west”. The Slayer paused, the man seemed more… calm than before, whatever drove him to push his pawn all this way seemed to have withered, just a direction and nothing to warn him about the ‘danger’ he would be in for not following his instructions to the letter.

He pressed on regardless into the next room, finding a gore nest, something to entertain him in the meanwhile, ripping out its eyeball, it screamed a thousand screams, flooding the room with demons a dozen, cocking his shotgun, he immediately pumped lead into an overzealous imp leaping towards him. A hell knight attempting to attack from behind was only met with failure as the Slayer leaped forwards, turning in the air to give it a taste of double-barreled justice, twisting again to slug a zombie in the jaw, ripping it off in the process. Finally feeling the beauty of fury again, he pumps his shotgun, preparing to launch a grenade into the mouth of a charging pinky, but was suddenly met with disappointment as turrets emerged from the perimeter of the ceiling, and destroying everything in the room except for the Slayer himself.

He remained motionless, poised to fire that grenade, statuesque. He slowly looked to the turrets which hadn't retracted yet, Hayden’s voice returned “Don’t bother with distractions, just keep moving”, it wouldn't have mattered what he said, all he could hear was white noise. His anger only boiled further and launched the loaded grenade at one of the turrets, destroying it. Tossing aside his shotgun for a moment, his frustration had to be vented somewhere, and the hapless corpse of the pinky he wanted dead himself would've done, violently beating its skull in until it was a fine paste, skin, muscle, bone, flying everywhere. He stood from the corpse, and tried to bring his breathing back to normal, before giving a final kick to its stomach.

The room began to violently shake, an explosion to the west had caused the Slayer to tumble onto the corpse, before regaining his composure as the ceiling above him buckled and partially gave way to the rock the room was built into, causing small stones to fall from above. Avoiding the risk of being crushed, he rushed to the room west, thinking the argent cell had been destroyed, missing out on the opportunity to further power his suit. The door jarred open slowly, smoke pouring in, the argent cell was thankfully intact, however something else caught his eye, glimmering in his visor behind the argent cell.

A strange alien, with a green gelatinous shell, red flesh, and 4 teeth, it squealed softly at the sight of the Slayer from within its glass jar. From behind it, bug-like creatures emerged, with crustacean shells, and claws on their left arms that seemed to gently pulse with plasma, slowly aiming at the Slayer, approaching the green alien’s container, and from the moment one of their right hands placed themselves on the jar, the Slayer suddenly aimed his shotgun. The creatures stopped in place, moving forward slightly, claws raised and ready to fire. 2 of them removed from formation to pick up the argent case, the Slayer stepping forward again.

They remained motionless. He was steady. They looked to each other. His aim unflinching. Their hissing became louder. He drummed his fingers on the pump. When finally, one of them screamed, and the first shot was fired.

Samus dashed through the facility, blasting doors open, and rushing past the pillars of flesh, their low screaming echoing away, she couldn't hear them, only the sound of her footsteps and thumping heartbeat. There’s no way in hell he’s getting away, not this time, not after Zebe’s destruction, how the hell he survived, she didn't want to think about it, all that mattered was making the bastard taste his final death. Launching a barrage of missiles at the door, tearing a hole through it that she jumps through, she lands in a hallway full of biological specimens in cells, each filled with the corpse of a demon that had been brutally experimented on, some cells however were empty.

She started charging her speed boost until she heard a violent cough from one of the cells, to which she redirected the gathering power to her cannon, aiming towards the source of the noise. A dying space pirate laid within the cell, surrounded by its own blood, and the corpse of a dead imp at its side with a still simmering hole in its chest, Samus marched her way towards it, “Not you… anyone but you…” it wheezed. She grabbed its collar, pulling its head close to hers “Where’s your center of operation”, it coughed again, she shook it impatiently “WHERE”. It looked down briefly, but finally replied “Its further north, we… they went too far this time… they don’t know what they’re messing with”. She dropped the pirate, collapsing on the floor, and coughing more blood in response, “There’s no stopping someone like you Samus, but there’s no stopping them either…”, she aimed her cannon in frustration, “What’s Ridley here for?”.

The pirate turned to look at her, shock on its face, until its tiring eyes began to shut, she grabbed its collar again, pointing the cannon closer to it head. It was too late, it was as dead as the imp beside it. She clenched her fist, walking out of the cell, she began charging the speed boost again, until a deep low rumbling sound echoed through the hall, and the once corpses of demons began to self-repair, surrounded by a red energy. Aiming her cannon at the bull-like demon before her, she heard a murmuring from behind her, turning to be met with the fallen space pirate, its corpse rising and pulsating with the same red energy, as its face caved in on itself, hollowing out its skull, leaving only its mouth left.

Quickly she fired a missile at the reanimated corpse, splattering it against the wall, and turned her attention to the bull demon charging at her, its maw wide open, her arm cannon reconfigured itself, firing a super missile into its mouth, causing it to internally explode, she caught the severed tail flying towards her, using the momentum to chuck it at an imp, crushing it. She recomposed herself, aiming down the corridor at the hallway full of demons, clambering out of their cages, scrambling towards her.

‘Now or never’

Speed Boost Charge: 20%

She started hurrying down the hallway towards the demons, they roared in response.

Speed Boost Charge: 53%

Leaning forwards, ready to push through the blockade.

Speed Boost Charge: 82%

Almost face to face.

100%

Her suit started beeping, and flashed violent as she left blue visages of herself trailing behind her, crashing through the flood of demons, the resonating energy shattering them piece by piece, their gibs littering the hallway, and finally firing 2 missiles, one to create a hole in the hell knight, and another to shoot through it, destroying the doorway, finally severing its lower half with a final bash. The next room over had one of the flesh pillars, and in her haste, she dared to fly above it, only to her surprise to be sucked into its portal, her hand desperately trying to grab its edge and pull herself out, only for it to be too late, and her mission delayed, as she was sent to Hell.

A last triumphant smash to last of creature’s skull, and the room was clear, their blood splattered across the floor and walls, much less the case containing the smaller green alien, the Slayer wiped his hand across it, clearing it of viscera, the thing inside seemed invariably elated to see him. He gave it a quick nod, and began pummeling the glass over and over until finally it shattered, releasing the small alien to float around the room lazily. The Slayer watched it, it seemed quite young, and curious, investigating the argent cell case with its teeth, until it finally approached him.

He stared into its gelatinous shell, watching the nuclei gently pulsate, it floated silently, both waiting for a response, until the alien finally gave out a happy chirp, and playfully bumped into the Slayer’s shoulder, he recoiled momentarily, but hesitantly gave the young thing gentle pats of reassurance. The alien floated away from him, and began feeding itself on whatever was left of the pirates corpses, with the Slayer tilting his head slightly in worry, before opening the argent case, crushing the cell inside and absorbing its energy, upgrading his suits defensive capabilities.

Making his way out of the room, the alien following close behind, he was met with another gore nest, though the room seemed to have been burnt out, there was markings of carbon all over it, like an explosion centered around the gore nest occurred. On the other side of the room seemed to be more holding cells for demons, the trail seemed to have been made from the burnt remains of the demons, but it didn't explain the marking throughout the room. Hesitantly, he advanced towards the gore nest, his shotgun raised towards it, popping a shot into it, the shimmering window into hell vibrated momentarily, seemingly spitting out some blue sparking energy.

He popped another shot, it spat out more energy, although less than before, the alien squeaked, and rushed to the nest, and startled, the Slayer rushed to stop it, but the claws latched itself into the nests eye, with it responding by shaking violently, as its structure decomposed before his very eyes, and the portal shimmered out of existence. He adjusted his stance, ready for the onslaught of Hell’s minions, and yet nothing came, not even a lost soul. The alien chirped, and returned to the Slayer, waiting for him to continue, he gave it a pat, which it nuzzled into, but he couldn't help but feel disappointed at the lack of a fight.

As if someone could read his thoughts, the ceiling began rumbling, with an explosion finally cracking open, with more bug-like creatures descending, some of them with wings, flying around the room with hands to grip blasters, while more crustacean creatures fell to the ground to attack the Slayer personally. Bringing out his heavy machine gun, he made short work of the few that had already rushed to him, firing micro-missiles at the flying creatures, the green alien rushed around the room, grabbing one of the flying creatures, grounding it, and taking the opportunity, the Slayer crushed its skull under his foot, before blowing a hole through the chest of another crustacean one.

One of the flying creatures swooped down in an attempt to grab him, only for the Slayer to grab its arm and swing it into the husk of the gore nest, smashing it and revealing a capsule being underneath it, which seemingly been jammed under the nest for too long, and rose out from the floor of the room. He cocked his head slightly, and rushed to it, firing several shots into the last flying creature, the capsule opened itself, revealing a strange light blue glowing energy, he could feel the cold of it through his suit, but bull-headed curiosity made him grab at it. His suit reacted violently, shaking wildly, until finally his body stopped shining brightly, a notification appeared on his visor, a simple question mark. He looked at his hands momentarily, when he curled them into fists, he could feel his hands getting colder, with an icy fog generating from his palms.

The last crustacean leaped towards him, arm cannons almost ready to fire, the Slayer responded by grabbing its arm, to his shock though, from its forearm up to the end of its arm cannons, it had frozen. He tore it off, the creature screaming, the Slayer smashing its frozen and dislodged arm against its head, before grabbing its neck, freezing it entirely, and smashing the frozen sculpture entirely with a punch to its gut. Once again, silence fell across the room, shards of ice clattering against the floor, except for the small squeals of the green alien, he looked at it, and gave it a thumbs up, the young thing bouncing with glee.

The howling wind awoke her. Her eyes blinking slowly, before she remembered her situation, and arose quickly, stumbling backwards, she could feel the edge of a cliff, and stones crumbling downwards, she spun around, and was met with an orange abyss, she looked down, nothing, and then up, nothing. She waited for a moment, and turned backwards, and was met a barren rocky landscape, with floating islands, dark hills, monuments to chaos, and an overshadowing sense of emergency, and worst, fear.

While staring at the landscape, she tried to scan the environment, nothing she tried to investigate gave a promising answer, all she knew was that there had to be a way out, something to return her back to her own universe. Something about this environment felt oddly hot, sparks flew through the air, the dust storms, the lightning crackling throughout the cloudy abyss around her, this was far different than what she usually dealt with. It was no or never, and time to make the step forwards, she raised her arm cannon in preparation for whatever attacked, she saw something in the distance however, it looked like a skull, it was burning, flying through the air, bumbling, as if it wasn't fully in control.

She tried to fire at it, however her shot missed by mere centimeters, it caught its attention however, with it screaming at Samus, and launching towards her, she quickly readied her weapon again, reconfiguring to fire a missile at it, which destroyed the skull into that sickeningly red energy again. Her visor fizzled, and Hayden returned to speak to her, “I see you've found your way into Hell, Samus, most impressive”

She gently placed her face onto her visor, wiping it down her head in frustration, “Please don’t tell me this was your intention” she groaned.

He shook his head “Hardly, if we wanted you gone, this whole operation would be much more difficult”.

Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowing “If anything, your lack of co-operation with the federation has stunted you, much less what I’ll do to you after finding your little alliance with the Space Pirates”.

“Their involvement is necessary to the future of argent energy, you have no place to talk about this”.

Her expression changed to fury “I HAVE NO PLACE!? Do you have ANY idea what they've done? How they've ruined so many lives, killed countless, all in the name of profit. They've committed genocide, destroyed so many civilizations, and-“

“and killed any kind of family you had?”

She paused in her anger.

“You don’t think I haven’t done my homework on you either? Your incessant violence, and excuses for ‘heroism’ is sickening.”

She clenched her fist “Why the hell did you send out that distress signal if you hate me”

“To fulfill my end of the bargain” he explained “To remove Samus Aran from the galaxy”.