Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Plot synopsis:
Six months after the events of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Samus is having a nasty dream: Dark Samus, her most recent nemesis, thought to be dead, breaks out of a pod on an unidentified ship. Samus awakes with a shock aboard her new Hunter-class ship built by the Federation for long distances. A transmission summons her to the GF Starship Olympus, commanded by Fleet Commander Dane. Three other bounty hunters, the ice-generating alien Rundas, the cybernetic Ghor, and the shape-shifting Gandrayda, have also been summoned. The four are taken to the Aurora Unit (AU) 242, an artificially intelligent computer mind that controlls the Federation core network. This AU has distressing news: in the past 6 months, the Space Pirates have implemented various Phazon-based weaponry into their arsenal, and are conquering more terrain every day. The GF Spaceship Valhalla has gone missing 4 months before, and the Federation fears that the Pirates have stolen the onboard AU. This suspicion is fuelled by the fact the AU on Skytown above planet Elysia has been infected by a Pirate virus. The Pirates are obviously trying to cripple the Federation's communications, while preparing a major offensive. Dane gives the four bounty hunters the task to deliver a computer vaccine to Skytown's AU. But before the briefing ends, the Pirates start attacking the Olympus with ramming space ships, and a large meteor is on its way to the planet Norion below. Samus and the other hunters fight their way through the ship to the planet surface, in order to fire a large cannon on the meteor. Samus has a brief but fierce encounter with her old nemesis Meta-Ridley again; the creature has obviously been rebuilt, but she fights it off. With the help of her fellow bounty hunters, Samus reactivates three generators that power the cannon. When the hunters are about to activate the cannon, suddenly a large flash of light enters the room. Another old acquaintance: Dark Samus, this time able to fly through solid walls, knocks them all out with heavy Phazon attacks. Samus remains conscious just long enough to activate the cannon, and destroy the large meteor.She awakens a month later onboard the Olympus. The attack by Dark Samus has left an unexpected scar: Samus and the three other bounty hunters were infected with Phazon, and their bodies are now generating the dangerous substance! This fortunately means that their bodies have also become immune to it. And the Federation researchers have found a useful purpose for the Phazon: the Phazon Enhancement Device (PED), a suit addition which allows the wearer to harness the Phazon energy, and enter a Hypermode, which provids strong Phazon-based firepower, matching the Space Pirates' new weapons.The AU 242 tells Samus that during her coma, the Federation has found out that two other meteors, dubbed 'Leviathans', have impacted on the surface of the planets Bryyo and Elysia; they are producing large quantities of Phazon, which corrupts the planets' surfaces. Ghor and Rundas have already been sent to the planets to investigate, while Gandrayda went in search of the Pirates' home world. However, contact with all three of them has been inexplicably severed, so Samus is ordered to go after them, find out what happened and get rid of the Leviathans.Bryyo is a planet comparable to Tallon IV, with old civilizations built amidst lush vegetation. Through old text engravings on the wall, Samus learns that the once thriving civilization devastated itself in a civil war between followers of modern science (the Science Lords) and keepers of the old traditional magic (the Primals). The Leviathan impact and subsequent Phazon spilling have corrupted what little remains of the planet and population. Elysia is a former Chozo colony, where they built a population of self-conscious androids in Skytown, a city floating above the stormy planet surface, before they left for other places. The inhabitants appear to have been corrupted by Phazon too, and the Space Pirates who have invaded the place have, against their better judgment, continued their experiments with the deadly Metroids again. Several dead Pirates are found, some of them sucked dry to the point where their bodies pulverize to the touch. The Pirates have foolishly produced a very dangerous breed of Metroids that is able to enter a trans-dimensional state, and even fly through walls. But Samus makes short work of them. The Leviathans on both planets are protected by generator-powered shields. While searching the generators, Samus finds out to her dismay that there is an unexpected side-effect to the PED: when staying in Hypermode too long, the suit can overload and fully corrupt Samus into a Dark Samus if she doesn't not release excess Phazon. Samus eventually destroys the generators on Bryyo, and she constructs a thermonuclear bomb on Skytown to destroy the shield of the Leviathan on the stormy surface of Elysia. These journeys lead to an encounter with Rundas on Bryyo, and Ghor on Elysia, who are evidently corrupted and mind-controlled by the Phazon infection. She is forced to kill both in battle. Upon death, their bodies disintegrate into Phazon particles, which are absorbed by a floating Dark Samus. Samus eventually enters both Leviathans and defeats the inner guardians inside with the Hyperbeams, destroying the Leviathans, and dispelling the source of corruption on Bryyo and Elysia.She receives word from AU 242, that the Pirates' home planet has been discovered, as well as the wreckage of the Valhalla. Samus infiltrates the Pirates' industrial complex, where she meets the corrupted Gandrayda, who also has to be defeated. Samus finally learns the truth about the Leviathans; they came from a planet immensely far away from the known Galaxy, from a sentient planet dubbed Phaaze. The planet has hurled its seeds through wormholes to distant planets, in order to spread its corrupting Phazon; they were, in fact, Leviathans that had struck the planets Tallon IV and Aether, all those decades ago. Apparently, the core essence of the planet Phaaze is now symbiotically linked with Dark Samus, who had stowed away on a Space Pirate freighter, and had started to brainwash a large group of them. They had helped her attack the Valhalla, killed the crew, and taken the onboard AU to Phaaze.It is clear now that planet Phaaze is Samus' final target. She disables the defences of the Pirates' stronghold, so that Commander Dane can start an invasion. Afterwards she destroys the remaining Leviathan on the planet, and Meta-Ridley guarding it. A trip to the Valhalla gives her a code to control an unused Leviathan that is discovered to be still in orbit around the Space Pirates' planet. Samus reprograms it to open a wormhole to Phaaze itself. The entire Federation armada enters the wormhole and engages the Pirate forces stationed there, while Samus lands and enters the bowels of the planet itself. Landing on the planet causes her suit and PED to go into a permanent state of Hypermode. Not even her ship recognizes her in this state, but she needs this Hypermode badly in her final battle with her dark twin. She arrives near the center of the planet, where the Leviathans were created, as well as the Metroid Prime that had stowed away onboard the one that had once hit Tallon IV. There she encounters Dark Samus again. After winning her first battle, Dark Samus merges with the corrupted AU, but Samus destroys this hybrid, and with it the core essence of Phaaze. The entire planet becomes instantly unstable, and all Pirate ships in space start to explode. Commander Dane orders an immediate retreat to Federation Space. The Federation armada just barely makes it through the collapsing wormhole as Phaaze and the Leviathan explode, destroying every bit of Phazon in the Galaxy with it.Back in Federation Space, the armada makes up a damage report. There are considerable losses to the ships, but all Phazon has disappeared from the scanners. However, Samus has not called in. Commander Dane stares silently, fearing the worst. But then, Samus' familiar ship appears from behind the Olympus. She salutes the crew, and enters a message: Mission Accomplished.Samus lands in Skytown for a brief moment of reflection in the setting sun: the Phazon threat has finally been eliminated, but at the cost of three dedicated bounty hunters. She enters her ship again and flies off, not noticing that Sylux' ship lays in a pursuit...

Tags: sci-fi

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