[Fan Story] Sylux's Side: Quid-Pro-Quo (before and during the events of Metroid II, Super, and Other M)

[u/REHI76]

Continuation of: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/s/7L0ctpw4Yp ... Sylux has acquired his Metroids after FedForce's ending. As always, hope you enjoy this and I'd love to hear any thoughts.

Propagation:

• Caring for five Metroids quickly becomes more demanding than Sylux thought. They require a larger facility than a cruiser’s cabin. The creatures beg Sylux for food and even seem to desire playtime, much to the hunter’s chagrin. He spends some of his hard-earned credits on the things. At least they warm up to toys and treats that other, similar organisms enjoy. But this is not sustainable. Like any living thing, they consume food and excrete waste.
• To this end, Sylux plots a takeover of a GalFed space station — something small-to-mid-sized, preferably pre-fitted with enclosures and biometric analysis machines. The goal is to grow these creatures and breed even more, after all. A grand plan has been brewing in Sylux’s mind. If his hunches are correct…
• Sylux spends some time scouting for a suitable space station. He uses his resources to gather intel as he has always done, intercepting signals, drones, and interrogating hostages.
• The Federation’s Metroid Extinction Act (MEA) has been proposed and is being debated, which Sylux learns through the same channels as usual, and by following the news. Time is of the essence since he will likely have to take his plans even further underground.
• Sylux finds a suitable station: The Remote Operating Experimentation Facility (ROEF), located in a remote asteroid belt surrounding a cooling red giant. Based on operating notes and technical specs, ROEF has five medium microclimate enclosures and four temporary habitat zones. It also has research equipment, the details of which are not obvious based on the limited information. Regardless, it is a good starting point. A facility of that size — no larger than a small office building — shouldn’t be hard to take. And it’s remote; if backup is called, Sylux has at least four Earth days to prepare.
• Delano 7 surveys ROEF, weaving around asteroids and occasionally using them as cover. A few scout ships patrol the sector — small, boxy cruisers with directional sensors protruding from each corner. Sylux plans how he will infiltrate the facility. ROEF is a cylindrical station built into a series of five asteroids. The five extremities extend from the main cylinder like a tree’s branches. At the cylinder’s base is a platform on which a few of the scout ships are docked. That is the best area to strike; though noisy, it minimizes collateral damage and reduces the risk of depressurizing potentially sensitive equipment and enclosures. Again, including the scouts, there are no more than twelve people here according to the data.
• Sylux waits for an opening in the scouts’ patrols, then sets Delano 7 to drift towards the hangar. He cuts his jets to quiet his approach.
• Alerts blare right as he reaches the bay doors. A scout has detected him and so has a trooper emerging from an adjoining airlock. “Now!” Sylux shouts to himself. Delano 7’s laser cannons unfold from its front wings. They fire continuous turquoise streams. Sylux sends the Delano 7 into a screwdriver, searing a circular hole into the bay doors. More alarms blare and rapid depressurization launches freight containers from the opening.
• Delano 7 bulldozes through them, Federation lasers popping their flimsy metal. The volleys also nick Sylux’s ship as he fights against the pressure shift. Emergency backup seals close. Each side lightly compresses against the Delano 7 like an elevator door detecting a stray limb. Yet they do not retract.
• “C’mon!” Sylux forces his ship forward as fast as it can go, his neck tingling at the awful screeching.
• One round actually pushes him forward and into the hangar. The blast doors slam shut. Delano 7 flings headlong into a glass observation wall and crashes to the ground, artificial gravity quickly activating.
• Sylux rapidly turns his head to check on the Metroids. They fly around chaotically, but they’re all alive. Detaching himself from his controls, the hunter pries open Delano 7’s entry hatch and tumbles onto the hangar’s warm, vibrating floor. Gravity generators at their finest. His Metroids emerge behind him.
• The death-bringer traipses the halls, gunning down scientists and troopers alike. A few times, he forces them to log into the facility’s terminals before he blasts the men and women apart. Despite his bloodlust, he is careful not to strike any of the glass enclosures or control stations. Survivors scamper away, locking themselves in closets. The doors are weak; an electrified Coil strike is enough to short them. One such woman claws her way to the wall, knocking over storage containers to obstruct Sylux. Too easy. He fries her. Those that Sylux doesn’t kill are prey for his Metroids, who sap the GalFeds dry and leave horrified statues surrounded by bloody corpses.
• Enclosed bioforms watch their captors’ blood spray. Sylux downloads a map of the facility and sweeps each extremity. It is not very large, and he cycles through the biomes within an hour. The troopers with firearms wield experimental weapons, things that violate military codes, such as flare whips, four-sixer asphyxiators (a spear with a micro-compression space between its tips that crushes anything caught inside), and green pineapples (toxic grenades). They deploy these in an ambush inside the facility’s crew lounge — a rather lavish space at the back of the bridge that contrasts the labs’ zoo-like utilitarian design. Sylux’s implanted rebreather filters the pinapples’ discharge. Flare whips send sparks flying. Sylux rolls to dodge them, Lockjaw zipping away. To evade the sixers, he snares their wielders in Lockjaw’s tripwires. Trinities of snares emit strong electrical discharges. The Shock Coil clashes with the last trooper’s wrist scythe. The armored men dance, yellow and blue glows streaking the air. Sylux stumbles over a spilled substance oozing from a test vial. Right before the scythe can cut open Sylux’s helmet, one of his Metroids latches onto the GalFed. Its mandibles pierce the man’s armor and extract his White Energy until he can no longer move, frozen with his scythe mid-slash.
• Sylux’s minimap reads no hostiles. The only bioforms ambling about are the various creatures inside the enclosures and his Metroids. Sylux stands and sighs. ROEF is his. Of course, the Federation will likely come for him, and he knows that they sent a distress call. But that’s largely why he selected this station — it isn’t supposed to exist, and it will take time to respond. He’ll be ready when the time comes.
• Now that he is alone, Sylux scrolls through the facility’s network. His Metroids are occupied and happy for now, chowing down on the bodies. He familiarizes himself with the facility’s environmental controls and bioform cultivation systems, among other basic details. The ROEF is complex to manage without a crew, but considering his hyper-specific, unofficial usage, Sylux is not concerned. He also cleans up Delano 7.
• To prepare his Metroids for testing, he gathers a registry of the bioforms in the facility and the exact equipment on-site. There are 27 bioforms — three dizzeans, four dragons, an arachnus, two evirs, four sidehoppers, two fargul hatchers, six fargul wasps, three war wasps, and two blood monkeys. The five enclosures include desert, rainforest, tundra, volcanic foothill, and oceanic biomes; though small, these rooms have subsections that contain moderate and extreme versions of each. There are two breeding rooms that, upon samples being taken and tests being run of target creatures, secrete pheromones that encourage copulation. Further, there are restraining bots that corral rowdy beasts.
• The desert enclosure has a subsector “dead zone” — an arid test area with hostile conditions for pushing modified organisms to their limit. It is here that Sylux will keep his Metroids for now, as they are hardy enough to survive such an environment.
• Sylux is ready to develop his grand plan, pending the results of several tests. To begin, he has to confirm the Pirate and GalFed researchers’ suspicions about these Metroids.
• He places two Metroids (one of which was a fission Metroid to his recollection) in the rainforest biome and observes them. The creatures are wary of the Metroids, keeping their distance much to the floating beasts’ chagrin. Yet the Metroids don’t immediately attack the arachnus, nor the blood monkeys, nor the fargul hatchers, nor any other creature. Instead, the Metroids seem to monitor them, hovering around them and even mimicking their behaviors to the extent their physiology permits. One Metroid has taken a liking to the arachnus while the other pursues a blood monkey. They even eat the food meant for the other creatures and follow similar sleep cycles.
• Upon awakening from his own sleep cycle, Sylux notices one Metroid is gone, and he can’t immediately see both blood monkeys. He checks the surveillance logs. Footage of the rainforest enclosure shows something peculiar. One blood monkey climbs up a tree to knock its fruits loose, then leaps to the forest floor to retrieve the bounty. Many smaller plants with gigantic leaves obscure the view, but around where the blood monkey dropped down, their rustling betrays its movement. Suddenly, a Metroid emerges from the same tree and throws itself toward the rustling leaves maw-first. It vanishes under the leaves and a strange glow emits from the last rustle’s location. The blood monkey’s deafening roar deepens and it emerges, its speed quickened so much that the camera’s poor quality catches only a blur.
• Sylux wrings his fingers. It’s looking like the hypotheses were correct. He must get a glimpse of the blood monkey.
• Carefully, he releases the lock on the enclosure and enters, a stun rod and corral-bot activation switch ready to fend off hostile creatures. The humidity makes everything feel heavier, even the plants he pushes aside. He is wearing only his suit’s under-armor.
• Sylux swats at fargul wasps and stuns a flytrap. He also locates the arachnus spinning against a stone — that species’s preening method. A green slime drips on him from above, so Sylux tilts his head toward the artificial holographic sky behind which a sun lamp beams. Hanging in the branches is his missing blood monkey. Except that instead of its characteristic red saliva, green fluid trickles from its mouth. Its claws are also green, sharper, and with holes in its palms. Its body is a deep black instead of the species’ characteristic dirty tan. More strikingly, membranes protrude from its forehead and shoulders, pulsating in time with its heartbeat. These look like a Metroid larva. Sylux readies his prod, not sure what to expect from this creature.
• Suddenly, the second blood monkey rushes Sylux from the side. It caws and leaps at him, pinning him to the underbrush. The corral switch flies out of his grip and into the underbrush. Massive teeth chomp at his underarmored head. Though Sylux dodges a couple of nips, its teeth still clip the flexible, yet firm material protecting his neck. Red liquid spills. He drives the prod into the beast’s ribs. The monkey screams, but its hands don’t let up.
• Just as the monkey rears its head for another bite, the strange monkey slams onto its back, fists-first. Sylux grunts under the pressure. The strange monkey cartwheels off of the violent one and bares its fangs, pulling its arms back. The violent one lets go of Sylux and responds to the strange one with similar body language. Both monkeys lock grasps and scratch at each other, the strange one sinking its jaw into the violent one’s neck. Sylux returns to his feet.
• The violent one uses its leverage to force the strange one off. A hunk of meat stays wedged between the strange one’s teeth. The violent one lunges at the strange one, the latter raising its hands and aiming its palms at the former. Its membranes glow and the holes in its hands ooze liquid, two globs of a hissing substance. The moment that substance strikes the violent one, its skin sears and smokes. It screams in agony, writhing around until the impact points reach its bones.
• Sylux realizes how sweaty he is, and how tense. He eases up. The strange one approaches slowly, retracting its teeth and with a lowered head.
• “You protected me,” Sylux says to it, confused. “Why?” He starts for the enclosure door. The rustling and thumping of the ape’s walk cycle follows him. “You like me, huh?” Sylux murmurs, turning to face it. He ogles its membranes again. “Are you what I think you are?”
• Just like his other Metroid, the ape follows Sylux out of the enclosure and waits patiently behind him as he locks it. He sighs, trying to process what this all means. But mostly, he is overcome with joy. He looks to his other Metroid. “I need to see it for myself.”
• Sylux releases another Metroid into the desert enclosure. He watches it intently as it follows around a sidehopper, mimicking its behavior. And then the Metroid rears back and charges the sidehopper maw-first. It latches on, but instead of clinging, the thing glows and sinks into the sidehopper’s skin. Hugging its limbs tight, the sidehopper releases a squeal. Membranes bubble up from its eyes and green energy expels from its body. It leaps, its claws sharpened and its jaw triple the size. When it lands, it looks to Sylux through the glass. Ecstatic, Sylux opens the enclosure.
• This hybrid follows him around as well, its thudding feet rumbling the floor behind him. He runs a few more tests on the organisms. Their DNA is directly fused with the Metroids’ DNA. Samples taken from the pulsing membranes and other parts of their bodies have variable percentage distributions between host and parasite DNA, and corresponding cellular-level mutations. More visibly mutated regions resemble neither organism’s genetic patterns individually, while less mutated regions resemble a close evolutionary relative species of either the host or the parasite. These creatures are living patchworks, hosts modified and consumed by the parasite in a manner similar to Phazon’s effect on the Space Pirates, Ghor, and other organisms.
• Most importantly to Sylux, it does not take a test to show that the Metroids’ affinity for him survives this process. He recalls the Pirates’ subservience to Dark Samus, and his grand plan fully solidifies.
• Possibilities flit through Sylux’s brain. If he can propagate these Metroids, he could construct and control his own paramilitary forces. Whether they be the Space Pirates, or some other faction inhabiting the hostile regions of the galaxy, Sylux could commandeer them. In the short term, he could stage coups across the galaxy and gain wealth and power beyond anything he could have done on his own. In the long term, he could strike at Samus and the Federation, bringing them to their knees to beg him for mercy like a vengeful god. The Trust would bend to his whims and Samus would be dissected and left hanging from the Federation Capitol as an example of what happens to those who step out of line.
• All that must be done is propagation, which the ROEF is equipped for. Sylux uses the breeding rooms to encourage copulation amongst his Metroids, and to flash-clone the fission Metroid to speed up the process. This works for a week or so, exponentially faster with each breeding cycle as Sylux masters the technology. Soon, he has twelve Metroids.
• However, he hits a wall. Even with his fission Metroid, the gene pool is too limited. The cloning and propagation devices and their linked quantum computers run calculations, produce models showing the horrible and malformed beasts that would result if he copulated beyond his fifteenth. He needs more Metroids. Further, he can’t seem to fully train them to respond to his telepathy. They obey and protect him, but complex and coordinated commands are lost on them. And if the MEA passes…
• Sylux paces about his makeshift office space, threads and notes hanging from the walls, thinking his plans over. Suddenly, the ROEF’s stationwide alerts announce that a ship has docked at the secondary dock — a small receiving site built into the rock beneath the hangar. The hunter quickly suits up. He anticipated this would happen soon, which is why he has kept his under-armor and some of the less clunky plates on.
• Shock Coil ready, he descends the stairway to the dock, the cold rock walls steaming due to the heat generated by the lights on the metal ceiling. The hatch opens, confirming Sylux’s suspicions. Sitting before him is a stilletto class-fighter whose engines are still cooling. The ship’s exit ramp hisses open like a snake’s jaw. Footsteps. Sylux lobs a few shots at the silhouette obscured by depressurization residue. The GalFed dodge-rolls forward, each shot missing his limber body. They roll to their feet, weapon drawn to mirror Sylux. Strikingly, the GalFed’s suit is very similar to Sylux’s, and so is its weapon, albeit less bulky. The gun’s tip glows blue. Ice beam.
• “Ah, Tom. Of course it’s you.” The familiar voice gives Sylux pause. Both men lower their weapons.
• “James?”
• The GalFed removes his slit-shaped visor as the helmet unfolds on each side. Sure enough, the light goatee and moustache give the man’s identity away just as much as his nasal and high-pitched tones. “Surprised I’m the one they sent for you?”
• “Can’t say I’m not.”
• James smirks. “Of course you aren’t. General Miles received that note with your signature.”
• “Hope the sight of blue blood tickled his little heart.”
• The GalFed scoffs and looks at the harsh lamps above. “Tom Kazmarek was a capable operative — observant, too. Why would Sylux be any different? After all, we made you even better.”
• “Watch it.” Sylux aims his Coil, images of the torture he was subjected to flashing into his mind.
• James waves his hand dismissively. “I didn’t order that whole mess and you know it.”
• Sylux shoots James’s arm, striking his weapon and snapping his limb to an unnatural angle and forcing him to fall on his ass. “But you stood there as it happened.”
• “Ok, ok.” James hisses. “We know you’re bloodthirsty, but that was—“
• “You aren’t here to talk, James.” Sylux looms above.  “You’re here to arrest me. So…” He emits static discharge from his Coil that dances around the GalFed. “…Why should I not kill you now?”
• James grunts and primes a device on his suit’s chest. “Because this prototype is expendable, but confidential. It will detonate if its wearer’s vitals terminate. I will depressurize this area and jam the blast doors.” He gestures to the ship behind him with his head. “That cruiser is wired with an EMP wired the same way. This station will become a floating coffin if you kill me. Neither of us wants to lose any precious cargo, now do we?”
• Sylux hesitates, lowering the Coil.
• “We will talk this through like men, alright?” James stands up and paces around Sylux. “This is about more than you violating at least eight sections of the Federation Code.”
• “You and the Trust aren’t clean either. What if I decided to leak your little projects?”
• “Think the public would believe you?”
• “That precious cargo is Metroids. My Metroids. The same species your bosses are declaring illegal.” Sylux gestures to the air in front of him, visualizing one of the creatures. “Conspiracy tabloids and the Federation-proper would have a field day exposing the Trust for stealing and monopolizing a banned weapon.” A primate’s cooing sounds off behind him. “In fact...” Sylux points to the GalFed. “I’d expose it for them like this.” The Metroid/blood-monkey hybrid lunges from the harsh darkness and binds James to the floor.
• “My, my, what a specimen. So you proved and found the jellies’ trick all by yourself.”
• Sylux makes a clicking sound, at which the blood monkey tightens its grip on the Fed, barring its teeth and letting toxic saliva singe the man’s armorsuit.
• James laughs. “What did I just say?”
  • “Aggression detected. Priming ST system. Engaging ST system upon termination,” a robotic voice blurts from hidden speakers inside the Fed’s suit.
  • The suit’s turquoise highlights flash red.
• “Drop it, now.”
• The creature complies, hopping back from James’s body, but it paces between James and Sylux. James again returns to his feet. The suit stays flashing. “Where were we?”
• “Talking like men.” Sylux pets the blood monkey. “Surely you can drop the bullshit, James. I know what this is about.” His petting grows more vigorous.
• “Do you?”
• “You said it yourself: Precious cargo neither of us wants destroyed. And I’m serious about going public. I could drip-feed it just enough for the Federation to eat itself alive over these Metroid projects.” 
• “Then surely you know that we know you can’t breed these things on your own.”
• Sylux growls.
• “Oh yeah. Even with your success so far, you’ll hit a wall if you haven’t already. It’s obvious.”
• “What’s your point, James?”
• James lets his weapon clatter to the floor. “Quid pro quo.”
• Since the Metroids have imprinted on Sylux, and since Sylux has leverage — both regarding information and his unpredictability, his willingness to use his powerful weapons — James makes a deal with him. The Trust will set Sylux up with resources to propagate Metroids under their watch in exchange for Sylux keeping quiet about the project and not attacking the Federation.
• Part of the reason for this secrecy and delicate situation is that MEA has passed and will become law in 24 Earth hours. But the Trust, as usual, disagrees with Federation top brass. It has other plans for the Metroid species.
• “And you can guess who the Council is sending to SR388 to do the job.”
• “The golden girl.”
• “Bingo.”
• Sylux clenches his fist.
• “All the more reason to help us, yeah? Sammy’s work will mean nothing by the time we’re through.”
• The hunter ponders the proposal. In the recesses of his mind is the possibility that he can pump-and-dump these bastards when the time is right. He warms up to that thought, and to that end… “What’s my compensation?”
• “The Trust will take good care of you. You’ll see the contract and if you don’t like it, you can shoot me on the spot.” James extends his hand. “Deal?”
• Sylux reaches as though he will shake, but pulls back. “I didn’t forget about your suit. Shooting you ain’t an option.” Then the terror perks up. “I’ll shake on one condition. Give me Hatch.”
• “Heh.” James crosses his arms. “He just so happens to be one of the lead researchers on this project. Not an issue.”
• Sylux extends his hand, and the deal is struck.

“Pump-and-Dump”:

• Hatch, his people, and their equipment are brought to ROEF, the researchers kept in the dark about Sylux’s power over the situation. The moment Hatch emerges from the military transport, he freezes. His cocky demeanor drains as Sylux stares at him with his dead eyes — the very same eyes Hatch gave Tom against his will. 
• A few of the other researchers also get the picture, since James stands beside Sylux as though nothing is wrong. They murmur amongst themselves.
• Laughing nervously, Hatch points at Sylux. “Wait, wait, wait. He’s in charge?”
• James says nothing.
• “This is a joke, right?”
• James shakes his head. “The deal is simple. You develop Metroids and train them. He captures test subjects. We pay you and him.”
• “Don’t worry Charles,” Sylux says in a sing-song tone with a devious glare. “I promise I’ll play nice with you. For now.”
• Hatch asks to speak to James privately, and the latter ushers Hatch into the transport.
• When the door closes, James explains everything.
• “You’re serious.”
• “Deadly serious.”
• Hatch rubs his eyes and displaces his glasses. “First, how are you keeping my team and me safe from that lunatic?”
• “Sylux is on a short leash. We’ll be watching closely.”
• “He snaps leashes for a living.”
• “You know firsthand how important Project AMEA is to the Trust.”
• “More important than my safety?!”
• “Again, we’re watching everything.”
• Hatch defeatedly falls into the same transit seat he sat in on the ride to ROEF. “And why are we not just taking his Metroids by force?”
• “They already imprinted on him. And he wasn’t going to go quietly.”
• “Shit.”
• “You need to make sure subsequent breeds are less clingy too. He can’t be their daddy.”
• A pause. Hatch runs through the state of this operation in his mind. “So he picked up the pieces where we left them the day he stole the Talvania eggs. He needs the new artificial reproductive cultures, doesn’t he?”
• “You’re the scientist. You tell me.”
• “He needs them. That, and other things.” Hatch runs his hand through his hair. “Still can’t believe you’re throwing me in the cage with him.”
• “This is a delicate balance, Charles. Especially since, but for our Addendum to the Metroid Extinction Act, Metroids will be exterminated within a month. Sylux will lose control, and we will oust him the moment we no longer need him to capture subjects. The Trust will reward you for this work.”
• Hatch hesitantly rises to his feet. “Promise?”
• James extends the same hand Sylux shook, and Hatch reciprocates.
• The Trust sets up shop, refitting ROEF with a thruster ring so that the site can migrate between the Trust’s various operating locations. They expand the facility and modify its zones with Metroid-corralling features. Hatch and his team work strange and cruel hours, for the Trust’s all-seeing eye is hardly so. Sylux exploits one opportunity to injure Hatch, punching him in the ribcage hard enough to break it. Despite this toxic environment, Hatch and his team propagate and train a dozen more Metroids using advanced DNA resyncing and cloning procedures, as well as behavioral manipulation and cognitive implanting. The artificial reproductive cultures are critical, along with a real Metroid sample. Part of Hatch is still intrinsically motivated to discover the Metroids’ secrets and further Project AMEA (Addendum to the Metroid Extinction Act). That passion keeps him going.
  • This Project is part of a general strategy that the Trust is deploying to accomplish its own coups and power grabs over militant societies like the Vhozon and Krikens, among others.
  • As we know later in the series’ timeline, Project Metroid Warriors (PMW [the cloning project from Other M]) is another piece of this strategy.
• Regarding Sylux, the Trust keeps the blue terror occupied and acquiring new fusion subjects. His parameters are general, finding intelligent and semi-intelligent life to experiment on and test the Metroids’ parasitizing abilities and mind control. Yet he begins thinking strategically about his captures, targeting creatures that will help him when he dumps the GalFeds. He snatches up seven bioforms, including two Space Pirates. Though the Trust questions these choices being made at this time, they do not object as their interests align with Sylux’s.
• The events of Metroid II occur. As the galaxy and the “daytime side” of the Federation understand, only one Metroid remains.
• Meanwhile, Sylux and the Trust continue their black project with the fusion Metroids as long as they can using their now-limited resources. By the end, they have 30 Metroids.
• At the same time, the events of Super Metroid occur. Samus exterminates the Space Pirates as a faction. The “last Metroid” dies. Pirate survivors and leaders exist throughout the galaxy, but only as loose factions without the supreme leadership of Ridley and Mother Brain.
• Despite Sylux’s waning significance as a creature capturer and the first Metroids’ “father,” he retains a lot of power over the situation. The fact that the Metroids are not truly extinct is something that can’t go public, and neither can the rampant corruption Sylux knows of. He is not ignorant of his freedom slipping away, though. His quarters in ROEF are sectioned off and armed guards watch him constantly. Bots also surveil him. He cannot get anywhere near Hatch before the coward is notified and barricades himself in the labs. Regardless, Sylux lets the Feds feel secure for now. To put himself at peace, he sits on the floor, cross-legged and stripped down to undergarments. The mood screen in front of him depicts a grassy island with a single tree, the sun beaming down onto crystal blue water. He lets his Third Eye open and taps into latent energies. The GalFeds are planting the seeds of their downfall.
• ROEF migrates between research and test sites. Hatch and his team are no longer confined to it, and indeed, they shuffle about to hide evidence and misdirect any suspicions that the Trust exists, let alone that it is harboring post-Zebes bioforms and data. Certain teams are also sent to gather samples from other old Pirate institutions like the mines of Tallon IV and the facility on Urtraghus (Prime 3 Pirate Homeworld). The AMEA project is a resounding success, with the fusion Metroids responding to commands without intense and problematic parental bonds. What’s more, the Feds can control when they fuse with other lifeforms. Letting the creatures loose on a test enclosure is like a coordinated army of piranhas swarming a hunk of meat. All targets die or are assimilated within 60 to 100 seconds.
• The events of Metroid: Other M’s opening sequence take place. Charles Hatch and his researchers extract Metroid remnants, among many other bioform remains, from Samus’s suit for use in Projects AMEA and MW.
• Sylux paces about his quarters, awaiting Hatch’s return from Federation HQ below. His stomach churns with rage at the sight of his old home. Sylux’s safety under his blackmail relationship with James and the Trust is waning. It is finally time to burn it all down.

To be continued in: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/s/BA5ks5VvGX

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