Corruption of Heart Ch 7
The Fallen City

(Rundas' POV)

I was beginning to regret my fight with Samus. Not just because of her battle capability, but because I felt guilty; I shouldn't have insulted her like that. When we separated she turned off her tracing beacon so I couldn't find her, and it hadn't reactivated; I was beginning to worry. My conscious getting the best of me, I swallowed my pride and tried to reach her with the COM link. However, no answer came.
"Is she still mad at me?" I asked aloud.
Then something odd occurred; the ground began to shake! Although weak, it was a tremor nonetheless. Although this planet had the same composition as any other, earthquakes were very rare here; plus, it did not feel natural. I recalled a mission I had a few years ago. I was working with the G.F. to set off a bomb in an enemy camp; my job was simple: keep the creatures at bay while the bomb was being placed. I was about 10 miles away when it suddenly detonated, sending a shockwave through the ground; much like the one I was feeling now.
Although my suits systems were not as good as Samus' I immediately activated them. And just as I thought, there had been a large explosion somewhere ahead of me. I quickly rushed to the area that the explosion had occurred, using my gliding ability to get there as quickly as possible; I didn't care if I was spotted or not, there was only one being on this planet that could have made such an explosion.
"Samus..." I said as I glided toward the epicenter.
Soon it came into view, and once again, my intuition was correct; it was without a doubt the pirate base. I touched down close to the entrance, but what met my eyes surprised me. The walls surrounding the base had multiple breaches, and in some places were completely demolished. I also noticed several turrets on my way here that should have at least attempted to shoot me down, but none even activated. Space pirate corpses littered the area; fleshly strewn blood covered the ground before me. Suddenly my suit gave me a warning; the area had dangerous levels of phazon.
Normally this would be understandable for a pirate base, but even at this distance the levels were extremely high. I entered the base, running into even more dead bodies then were outside. But what frightened me was that the all seemed to be pointing in the same direction. This meant that they were all running away from something when they were killed, some even had outstretched arms reaching toward the gate.
"What in the hell could have done this?" I thought to myself as I walked through what remained of the base.
The bodies were not the only things that disturbed me; the buildings had also been destroyed. But it was not normal destruction; the buildings looked like they had been vaporized, rather the wrecked. The ground within the base had no vegetation growing from it; it was not even composed of earth; it was more like pale white sand. I looked up to see that smoke from the explosion had filled the sky, blackening it. I continued to travel through the wreckage pools of phazon began to appear, they soon became larger and more concentrated. Even stepping in a drop of the substance caused me great pain.
It was then that I realized all the destruction was pointing in one direction: the exact center of the base; it was there that my questions could be answered. On my way I ran into nothing alive, everything I touched disintegrated into dust. It was as if the life had been sucked away from the entire base. Large pieces of shrapnel littered the area, stabbing into the land in such a way that made them looked like they had rained down from the heavens. This was much more then a battle; it was a massacre.
"This is madness..." I said to myself.
Soon I came upon the center of the base; it had become but a barren wasteland; merely a flat circle of sand, nearly a mile in diameter. I could see something in the center of the circle, but I couldn't make out who or what it was; the distance was too great. I began to walk toward it, thinking that whatever it was had to be dead. I was about half way there when I began to make the figure out. I began to walk faster, then I broke into a run; I had figured out what the figure was, but I wished I hadn't. I called out as I came upon it.
"Samus!" I yelled.
There she lay, unmoving, in a pool of blood...

To Be Continued...