The Official Backstory to Metroid Fusion
Compiled and submitted by Moonlight Sonata
Gifted bounty hunter Samus Aran had accomplished what many deemed impossible
when she eradicated the Metroid population of planet SR388. Now, several
years later, the ecosystem of the planet is a subject of fascination.
Biologic Space Labs (BSL) has been hired to observe and investigate the
shifting ecological hierarchy on this planet. The ecosystem seemed to be
struggling to establish a natural cycle that did not involve Metroids as the
chief consumers.
Even without the threat of the Metroid organism, SR388 was still an
inhospitable planet and the Federation governor for its sector deemed it
necessary for the BSL teams to have mission support. Only one person would
do. The governor sent in the only person known to survive the harsh
realities of SR388: Samus Aran. Finding herself once again drawn to the
forsaken surface of SR388, Samus led the mission. All was going according
to plan when the unexpected and unthinkable happened: the hunter became the
hunted.
Samus was attacked by a life-form she had never before encountered. It was
a parasitic life-form that was later named the X. Thinking little of it at
the time, she boarded her ship, headed for the next collection point. What
she did not realize was the X moved rapidly to infect the central nervous
system of its host, and was already at work on her. On board her ship she
felt her body seize up uncontrollably and then lost consciousness. Her ship
drifted off course, out of orbit, and toward an asteroid belt.
Luckily, the ship's emergency systems ejected the escape pod before impact
could occur. The Biologic vessel recovered the pod and moved quickly to
transfer the unconscious bounty hunter to Galactic Federation Headquarters.
As the X spread, her blood pressure and breathing dropped and she fell into
a deep coma. She was given a 0.873% prognosis for survival. In the time it
took to transfer her, the X continued multiplying rapidly, and had even
begun to infect the biological components of her Power Suit. The Suit,
which was integrated with her body, had become so corrupted that it could
not be removed while she was unconscious.
Large portions of the infected Power Suit had to be surgically cut and
removed from her body, which drastically altered her physical appearance and
abilities. The infected pieces were immediately transferred to the BSL
station in orbit around SR388 for research and analysis. But removing the
infected portions of the Suit had not stopped the X infection raging within
Samus. It seemed hope was lost, as no one knew of any cure. At last, in a
moment of desperation, someone suggested using a cell culture preserved from
the last Metroid to formulate a vaccine for the X. The vaccine was quickly
prepared and administered, and all symptoms of X infection disappeared. It
seemed that the Metroid was the natural predator of the X.
When she woke, the scientists explained how the Metroid hatchling had once
again saved her. To quote Samus, "As for me, one life ended... yet I
survived, reborn as something different." This act had radically changed
Samus Aran's genetic makeup, intermingling the DNA of a Metroid with her
own, in effect making her the ultimate X predator. Shortly after she woke,
a distress call from the BSL station orbiting SR388 was received:
"Emergency! Explosion of unknown origin in the Quarantine Bay!" Samus was
able to hear the screams over the com receiver even in the infirmary. She
knew something terrible was happening; even in her weakened state she
immediately boarded a ship provided by the Federation, bound for the BSL
station, prepared to find the worst...
|