Old fragments, new horrors. (Post MP3, a year after)

Bored.

Definition of "bored": Feeling weary because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one's current activity.

He had to hand it to the humans, they had a word for just about any and every situation. If Rackus were to look in a mirror, he would no doubt fit the bill of "bored" right down to his very internal organs. The Space Pirate had been travelling for almost a week now, and he had officially run out of routines he was willing to do aboard his ship. The Art of War? He read it so many times that he could recite the entire book from start to finish. YouTube was also dead until further notice, when he mistakenly watched "Two girls, one cup" under the very misguided notion that it was an instructional video on the multiple uses of beverage containers. As for the ship itself, it had been cleaned three times that week, and all systems had been double, and even triple checked.

All he could do was sit, and wait until his ship approached its destination: Tallon IV

Why his superiors were sending him there? He had a few guesses. Granted, they had said that once upon a time "The Hunter" happened upon the planet, and took out their team that had been stationed there. Not only that, but she had killed their leader, Ridley, again (which at this point wasn't really as news worthy as it use to be). Yes they had told Rackus that there "may be some clues left behind by our fallen comrades", and "something that could give an idea as to any possible weaknesses that Samus might have".

Sounded legit, right? Hell no. Even a blind trooper fresh out of basic training could see that was a load of crap before it even came out of their mandibles. The way Rackus saw it, standard protocol stated that when a whole squad, especially one stationed on an alien world went dark, that an immediate examination had to take place to:

(1) Figure out just what happened.
(2) Recover any useful tech left behind.
And most important of all, (3) Remove any trace that they had been there.

No, this was definitely one of those times where they sent Rackus on a shit mission with nothing there, just to get him off of their backs for a few weeks, or months as the case sometimes was. It didn't happen often, but it didn't stop from really cheesing him off when it did. As much as he hated to admit it, he missed the good ol' days when he was no different than a mindless drone. Back then they took him more seriously. Of course back then he had not discovered "The Art of War". So, as much as it pissed him off to be treated a little differently because of his hobbies, he was use to-

"ETA to destination "Tallon IV": two minutes. Brace for deceleration." the ship navigation system announced in the pirate's native tongue

The sound that Rackus had made was somewhere between a high pitched squeal, and a battle cry. He hadn't been so happy in such a long time. Of course the one time he was before, he had been smart enough to keep himself from doing such a disrespectful noise in front of his squad. But this time, he couldn't give less of a damn since he was on his own this time.

Not long after, his ship decelerated as it had previously announced. He was now in a whole other solar system, heading toward a large, bright, orange-dirt colored planet that seemed to glow with a bright, white-blue aura.

"Approaching atmosphere, brace accordingly." the navigation system announced again a few moments later

Rackus was already strapped in, so all he had to do was wait with excitement for his mission to finally start.

As the gravitational pull of Tallon IV grabbed ahold of his ship, Rackus watched through his ship's viewport as the hull caught on fire from the friction around it. The whole shook violently, causing the Space Pirate's mandibles to click together repeatedly in rapid succession.

Eventually, his ship landed in what appeared to be a grass covered clearing highlighted beautifully by a nearby waterfall, as well as glowing, bright blue flora. Rain gently sprinkled over his ship's viewport, falling from the gray skies above. "Landing successful. Status of atmosphere: non-toxic. Nearby life forms: none detected in the vicinity." the navigational computer told him, as he hurriedly unfastened his harness, and moved about his ship toward the stern, where the exit was located. As the large door slowly swung open, Rackus grabbed his helmet, which was situated atop a nearby desk, waiting to be used. He grabbed it with his left hand, and it slid it over his scarred face, giving him the appearance of a faceless monster with a slick, smooth, dark blue surface.

Immediately, his helmet synched to his armor, activating his navigational HUD. He then quickly fiddled with his arm canon, making sure that it was primed and ready to go, holo-suit functions included. Once the Pirate was done, he turned to the door that was now fully open, and proceeded to head out. The grass outside was soft and wet, and the air that made its way through his visor was crisp.

As the door closed behind him, he briefly analyzed the area. Just as his ship had said, there were no life forms in the vicinity. That didn't mean a perimeter check would be unnecessary, though. Especially after the long-ass flight he had. There was just one thing left to do...and that was to, as the humans would say, "put on some music". He pressed a button on the side of his helmet, and an MP3 file had begun to play:

He had stumbled upon the phenomenon called "music" a while back when he had done a search on the word "disturbed". Rackus was still new to it though, as this was one of eight "songs" he had downloaded, and he knew that there were other "genres", or groups rather, that existed. Each one unique in their own right.

This one was his current favorite among the ones he had downloaded, especially if he was doing something relaxing, like an old fashioned perimeter check. He headed North toward the waterfall...could be a good spot for an ambush...or maybe it wasn't. Either way, he was about to find out.

Elite Pirate Sigma (also known as Helix) pilots his ship, the Mjolnir, down to the surface of the planet Tallon IV, under orders from his employers (the Galactic Federation) to investigate the Pirate operation they had run on its surface and in its deep caves. He also had other purposes, namely the retrieval of any documents of the Elite Pirate program (Project Helix), and the destruction of any facilities still remaining, whether operational or not. Helix was tempted to ignore their orders for once, being unwilling to allow the creation of more Elites like himself, especially after having seen their successors (the Berserker Knights and Lords) during the invasion on Norion just over a year ago. But orders were not meant to be disregarded, and yet they should in this case, shouldn't they? His basic Pirate programming and his more newfound sense of self and logics were conflicting with one another, leading to confusion. But none of that mattered at the moment. One way or the other, he still needed to move to the same planet and find any remaining Pirate facilities, for whatever purpose he chose to enact. While waiting for his ship to reach the surface, Helix sits back and reminisces of his time on Tallon IV, a period in which he had been exposed to mass quantities of phazon and mutated repeatedly in order to become the Hyper-Elite he was today. It was possible, was it not? Could the phazon mines still yield their bounty after all this time, and the destruction of the planet Phaaze? Knowing that he needed to make a trek there in any case, Helix makes a mental note to himself to look over the phazon mines in their whole in order to find any phazon that may potentially still remain. Perhaps that other location as well, the one the Chozo scripts noted as the Cradle, that place would be worth examination as well. He would see to it eventually. For now however, he has much work to be done, and is rapidly approaching the surface of the planet, having already broken through the dense cloud layer. As Helix activates the Mjolnir's landing sequence, he notices a pirate vessel occupying the landing space nearby to his chosen position. A strange look overtakes his monstrous face, something of a cross between a scowl and a grimace, as he thinks of what this means in quite simple terms: "Damn Pirates." His eyes tracking the area, searching for the potential occupants of the ship. He notices a figure wandering around the area in a style he remembered from his days among his ex-comrades: a perimeter sweep. Perfect. He could take care of this nuisance in one swift action. He sets his ship to land in stealth mode, disembarking and moving along the ridge above the small landing site, walking stealthily (or as stealthily as a nine and a half foot glowing blue bipedal pseudo-digitigrade abomination of pirate science can be) to the waterfall and preparing to crush his target underfoot with one attack.

The waterfall was...well, it was a waterfall. From what he could tell, Rackus saw no sign of any life form nest nearby. There was a solid moss covered wall behind the stream of water falling from the cliff, so, no cave for anything to hide in. Additionally, the pool of water itself was shallow enough to hold fish, but not much else.

"Clear." he said aloud in English

He turned left, starting to head for what appeared to be an alcove, when he noticed a looming shadow from the corner of his cybernetic eye. Startled, he activated his thrust system, propelling him ahead, three yards away from whatever it was that snuck up.

His thrusters died down, and the Pirate immediately brought up his arm canon, ready to heat things up with a few plasma rounds...that is, until he saw what he was up against. Whatever it was, it was humanoid...and big! What really stood out though were the spots on the thing's body that had an unnatural, bright blue glow.

Phazon.

The pirate took a few steps back, just in case the thing tried to go after him.

Rackus had never seen the contaminate first hand, but there had been documented reports of it both at Pirate Command, and in the Federation's files. It was highly toxic, and prone to causing instant mutations. "Good to know..." Rackus thought to himself, "But what the hell is this thing??"

Or what had it been was probably a more accurate question. But as soon as he thought of it, Rackus seemingly came up with an answer all his own. Yeah, his people and the Federation both may have had files on Phazon, but only one of them was brave enough to do experiments with it: the Pirates. And while it was a long shot, Rackus was willing to take a stab in the dark.

"Are you-" he stopped himself, and hurriedly shut off the translator. From there, he continued speaking through his native tongue, "(Are you an Elite? Can you understand me, comrade?)"

Rackus had heard of the Elite Pirate program, although he wasn't as familiar with it as he should have been. After all, this thing may very well be an Elite, but that didn't mean it was necessarily a friend. After all, there was no telling how the phazon could have affected it.

Helix's eyes narrow dangerously as the pirate leaps back, daring to call him comrade "(I AM NO COMRADE OF YOURS PIRATE!!)" he shouts loudly, his voice echoing through the (canyon?) before jumping down, slashing at the commando like pirate with his enormous clawed hand, his landing leaving cracks in the ground.

Talon Erashous flew his ship down to the surface of the world. He was given a simple mission by the Federation, which was pretty much the same one that Helix had. Which sounded like easy money to him. He was wearing his full Elfen power suit, the helmet concealing his appearance. While the feminine frame of it, matching his body type, made it very easy to mistake him for a woman. The heel spikes didn't help.

He landed Killer Queen in a rather grassy area, dropping down from it and looking around. Hearing a nearby fight going on.

(It's not a canyon, it's more of an enclosed clearing)

The music had shut off right then, just in time for his ship's navigation to announce "Large bio-form detected."

"(Thanks nav-ACK!!)" Rackus had shouted when he saw the large thing lunge at him

He activated his thrusters again, although this time he wasn't as fast. His feet had just lifted off the ground when the Elite had slammed its massive claw into the ground, kicking up dirt and some loose rocks. The force of the attack had actually sent Rackus a little of course, causing him to spin in mid air. His thrusters deactivated, just in time for him to slam his left shoulder into the hard ground beneath him. It may have hurt like hell, but that didn't stop him from shifting his body weight, landing on his feet, and getting into a combat stance.

The commando had heard what the Elite had said just before it had lunged at Rackus, but it was only just now that the words had processed through Rackus' mind. Of course, the attack was an indicator too, but that was besides the point.

"Sow bee eht!!" the commando had shouted, his English garbled without his translator

He began to fire his arm cannon, sending blast after blast of super heated plasma energy.

Unbeknownst to Rackus, his ship's navigation system alerted that a ship had just landed nearby, but Rackus was too engrossed in his fight to take notice of the alert.

The pirate's (rather failtastic) use of English, a language that Helix had learned some about recently while working with the Federation (It seemed to be some language from the human's home planet, nearly meaningless now with the Galactic Standard in full effect), did cause Elite Pirate Sigma to take momentary pause; why would a Pirate commando be speaking human tongue? But that was a thought quickly pushed off for later as the commando fired at him, blasts of super-heated plasma striking his armor plating, raising the temperature at an uncomfortably quick level. Helix rushes forward towards the commando, huge claws swinging down in an arc at its (relatively) lightly armored body. This thing couldn't compare in the slightest to one of those Berserkers, it had no chance against him "(DIE!)" Helix screams, his bellowing voice echoing through the clearing as he continually rushes at the Pirate, his greatest enemy among all races.

Talon scanned the environment before looking toward his ship. Using his version of a command visor to send it to low orbit. It was much more convenient to just call his ship in when he needed it, after all. Blasting one of the shielded doors with a bolt of lightning, he walked toward the area the fighting was at.

(I imagined he was like a hallway away from their clearing, if that makes sense.)

Of course, the Elite started to charge. He would have just used his thrusters to back off while continuing to shoot, but they weren't made for backward hops. Plus this Elite was quite fast for its size. "I might have to use the Argonaut..." he thought as he strafed to the right with his thrusters at the last second, firing away.

"Then again..." he thought, "After that last swing...he just might be too powerful for my suit..."

Rackus new that he couldn't strafe forever. Eventually he would run out of fuel gel for his thrusters, which meant that he would have to use his suit anyway. Not to mention that his normal shots seemed to just be making the Elite angrier as opposed to just dead. No doubt about it, he would have a better shot at putting this mutant down if he brought out the Argonaut sooner than later.

"Holo-suit it is then!" he thought, and gritted his teeth as he ceased firing, whipped around, and began to use his thrusters to increase the gap between them

Once he was a good distance away from it, he quickly reactivated his translator software, and then pressed a few buttons on the left side of his arm cannon. "(Argonaut Blitz: Activated. Prepare for combat!)"

"You like to hit heavy?" he called out to the Elite

Within seconds, a bright silver light came from his arm cannon, that quickly moved across his body, from his arms, to his chest, then simultaneously to his legs and his head. Now covered in a bulky, metallic armor that gave him a larger height of six-foot-three, he took aim with his arm cannon. This time, instead of firing a few small shots like before, the energy began to bubble up and form a sphere.

"Then snack on this!" he shouted

He released the energy, sending out large, cone of searing hot plasma. After that, he prepared to charge up for another shot.

As the hot plasma struck Helix's armor, it began to heat up to dangerous levels. For any normal creature. For Helix, it was just extremely (unbelievably) uncomfortable. "(That won't do anything to me PIRATE!)" Helix shouts out, beginning to become enraged, the fact that his suit was literally boiling on the inside wasn't exactly helping his temper either. "(DIE YOU LITTLE SHIT!)" the elite yells out, pulling a large twelve barreled Gatling machine-gun from what appeared to be nowhere, activating the spin and preparing to rain hot death upon 'this little shit'.

Talon shocked another door open, walking into the area where the two were fighting. With no knowledge of either person, he figured they were just a couple of space pirates who got in a stupid fight between themselves. So he just stood back and watched, leaning against a wall.

His eyes widened when he saw the gatling gun. Now, not only was this a shit mission, but a shit fight as well. This Elite was too powerful for him to do anything, even with the charge shots he had available. He would have used his grenades, if it weren't for the fact that they weren't the throwing kind.

Yeah...he was pretty much screwed.

With what little time he had left, he brought up the massive left arm of his suit, and used it to block whatever shots may come. His only hope was that the bendezium would hold up, even if the rest of the suit didn't.

At the same time, he took off running to the right, admittedly rather slowly. Rackus hoped he could find some suitable cover, or at the very least die trying.

(I never even actually said he fired . Everyone's just having him shooting ! I Can't keep my internal laughter in any more! HAHA!! But on a more serious note, did I end up bringing in a character who's too powerful? I've had the shots doing more than I thought they would to his bendezium/denzium alloy armoring, but should I have just had him unarmored or something?)

(I did say "Preparing", I never once said he would immediately let rip. That actually is picking my words, it is a strategy for a person to dodge, or stop the firing, or something in that vane...vain? vein? How many spellings do we need for one word sound darnit! But that wording is meant to give the other person time to do something, spinning the barrels isn't a quick process after all. And I actually didn't remember...I still don't remember writing that his gatling can break bendezium, I remember his claws being able to cleave it, and the gatling being able to bust open extremely tough blast shields, but I don't remember ever writing that it could bust bendezium (or its Aetherian counterpart Denzium). I may have, but I don't remember it)

(...What the hell? Psychoscissor, I know you just posted, the post above was a response to that post you made, did you delete your post? Or have I finally gone crazy and started hallucinating things?)

(I updated my post to cut out the part where he hears the gun firing)

(I edited my post as well.)

(I saw. I'm in the midst of three RPs, and have had to go through several PMs, so it's taking me some tim...Taken, it's TAKEN me some time to get back here.)
Helix watches as the armored commando slowly runs to cover...Wait. Armored? When did that happen? It must have been before that large blast, but when? ...He had to test this thing. It wasn't every day one gets to fight against the newest technology of the bastards who betrayed you and left you to die after all. Helix puts away his Vulcan, running to the now heavily armored commando, claws prepared for slashing. This ought to be the most fun he'd had in ages, since he was ejected from his former comrades in arms and into the cold of space in that tiny pod. Something like a grin overtakes Helix's face, so similar to other Elite Pirates and his "brother" Elite Pirate Upsilon, the Omega Pirate.

Talon continued to watch the fight. He plopped down on a tree stump, taking off his helmet and just getting comfy. He thought this would be pretty entertaining to watch.

Rackus was running as fast as he could with his heavy suit, which really wasn't all that fast. He had noticed that the Elite hadn't fired his gun yet. Was he toying with the commando? Rackus couldn't tell. In fact, he was trying to figure out why that toxic thug was even here in the first place.

That was when a crazy idea entered his head: What if he was hired to kill Rackus?

Had his superiors finally had enough of his existence to the point that they sent in someone that could not only kill Rackus easily without weapons, but had the significant firepower to knock out his suit? Did they surgically alter its face to that of a humanoid to add further insult to Rackus and his hobby?

Rackus lowered the massive arm of his suit, turned around and started to head for the Elite. While it was in fact a relief to see that the other pirate had put away its gun, Rackus was too angry to notice.

"Argonaut, activate Humility System!" he hissed

"(Affirmative!)"

A turret sprung up on the suit's right shoulder, and began firing a slow barrage of mid-caliber rounds. Meanwhile, Rackus brought up his arm cannon once more, and began firing un-charged rounds as he stormed after his enemy. While this happened, he kept the palm of his suit's massive left hand facing away from the Elite. The palm suddenly flipped open, revealing what seemed to be some sort of explosive. A little surprise package for the thug before him, once the commando got close enough.

"I don't care if they sent you to kill me!!" he screamed, "I refuse to go down so easily!!"

Helix roars as he is peppered with plasma shots, his armor getting uncomfortably hot again, raising his left arm to block some of the fire as he prepares to attack with his right claw, dragging it through the ground and leaving massive gashes in the stony floor of their arena. "DIE BLOOD OF THE TRAITORS!" Helix screams as he lashes out with his bendezium rending claws, not paying enough attention to aim, making the likelihood of a hit or miss up to mere luck.

(Just proceed unless one of you interacts with Talon(or the fight ends or something), I don't want to hold you guys up just to wait for a "he watches" response. He's not an active player in the fight at the moment and he's not really doing anything other than watching.)

((..Aright, I'm cool with that. Psychoscissor? What about you?))

He charged in, ready to slap the grenade right onto his opponent, when suddenly the Elite swung it's massive claw at Rackus. At first Rackus prepared to brace for the impact, but he was significantly unprepared for the sheer force. The claw tore right through the chest of the suit, and even nicked the front of Rackus' standard chest plate, and ultimately knocked the commando off his feet.

"(Heavy suit rupture detected! Deactivating Argonaut Blitz. Repair system activated.)"

In a white flash, his suit and gun turret had vanished, leaving the Commando dazed and flat on his back. Dizzily he started to take aim with his arm cannon, only to lower it once more, knowing full well a few more shots wouldn't do any good.

"Fine then, I submit!" he said aloud, "Just tell those scumbags that hired you to kill me that I'll see them in hell!"

He closed his eyes, and braced for impact.

"The Federation needn't pay me to kill a Space Pirate." Helix says in Galactic Standard as he walks over to the prone commando. "I do it for free." As he raises his right leg, aiming it at Rackus, prepared to crush him like a bug beneath his heel.
(I'm sorry this post is so short, but I actually feel it provides all the information it needs to, while not putting Rackus in so bad a situation he can't escape, which was the balance I needed to strike not to kill your character. Or at least come too close to it.)