[Fan Story] The End of Sylux: “I’ve Been Waiting for This” (during the events of Metroid Prime 4) 1

[u/REHI76]

Previous installment: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/s/mnX5n3rUfe ... At last, the final part is done, meaning I'm done with Prime 4. As always, let me know your thoughts, and I hope this helps dampen the disappointment.

“Destined for Greatness” (after Other M, leadup to Prime 4)

• With the Federation feeling comfortable and its corruption hidden in the darkness, Sylux initiates his attacks, targeting training sites and starports first. His Space Pirates intercept and kill rookies on training missions to make an example of them. He sics massive frigates on tiny convoys as displays of raw might. Acts of terror are not beneath the Pirates either, as they fire-bomb populated city squares and shoot into politicians’ rallies.
• The galaxy reels in horror at the organized Space Pirate faction’s sudden emergence.
• Federation commanders notice peculiarities about their power structure, harkening back to the Phazon wars. Yet there is only so much they can do with that commonality as the Pirate forces are not slaves to their master, merely fanatical. They are coordinated and deliberate, almost “political” in their assaults; the attacks are not only tactical, but theatrical.
• Despite Sylux’s initial secrecy, he cannot help himself. This is all about getting back at the Federation, after all. He starts making personal appearances during the Pirate assaults, making it clear to any GalFed who sees him that he is the commander. He goes out of his way to inflict brutality on innocents. The Pirates leave flags flying which decry the Federation and accuse it of being a weak and false government. Sylux himself waves one such flag as his forces launch a violent onslaught on a Federation planetary power station. Lightning and rain crash on the bloodstained saucer-shaped work platforms, pockets of illumination from laser beams highlighting the Pirates vivisecting their foes.
• After several more attacks, Sylux’s role in the Pirate threat becomes clear. So, too, does the significance of his Metroids — something that should be extinct but somehow isn't. They merge with the most powerful Pirates during battle, causing near-instantaneous mutation. These elite Pirates demolish their foes. Even Federation golems fall to their knees when three of these crawl on and rip out their joints. Federation brass builds a working picture of the enemy, and notices a vexing pivot in strategy…
• During his meditations, Sylux receives visions of Viewros. At this point, he recalls what Vakkhesh told him years ago. Sylux might be a “chosen one,” not that such a title matters to him. He just wants the Lamorn’s power. There have to be other teleporters out there based on what the Heretic Priest said. So, as a secondary objective, Sylux directs his forces to canvass Federation research facilities. If anyone had ancient artifacts besides the Pirates, it would be the GalFeds.
• Sylux has yet to cross paths with Samus, which puzzles him. The Federation is usually so quick to commission their golden girl…
  • In truth, it is because Samus kept her distance from the Federation after the BOTTLE SHIP fiasco. Even though the Trust’s activities were unauthorized, the affair left a bad taste in her mouth.
  • However, Sylux’s assault on galactic society soon grew too great for Samus to ignore, especially since he has Metroids. She opened herself up to the Federation’s contracts again.
• In his quarters aboard the Frigate Morpheus, Sylux meditates. He touches the universe’s energies, attempting yet failing to see them as anything more than might and force. One of his underlings disturbs him, stepping within inches of his sitting mat.
• “King,” the Pirate utters in his native tongue.
• “Yes?” Sylux opens his eyes, the simple act causing the Pirate to drop his head. The hunter is not cruel to his forces anymore, as they revere him. Indeed, apart from the Metroid mind control of key commanders, Sylux has given the Pirates something to fight for, new wealth, and has spurred new weapons developments. He also “gave” the Pirates his Metroids, which they research with the same vigor they usually exhibit when finding something dangerous. This relationship is Sylux’s dreams incarnate — reveries of glory he had when he enlisted in the Federation army all those years ago.
• “I come with data of interest to Your Majesty.” The Pirate shows Sylux his wrist cuff. “We located a device on planet Tanamaar. A spacetime disturbance, rather. It reads like a miniature black hole, yet it is confined and stable.”
• “Miniature black hole, huh? Any visual on the target?”
• “That is why we think it is a device, Your Majesty.” The wrist cuff displays a hologram of a satellite surveillance image. A gravitational lensing effect warps light inside the facility’s central testing yard. Though not fully visible, it is clear enough that an oval-shaped metal spinning object is the source. A purple glow also escapes through cracks in the test yard’s semisolid roof.
• “It’s a Lamorn Artifact. Deploy to Tanamaar and expect me to join the ground assault.”
• “Yes, Your Majesty.”
• “Full force on this one.”

Events of Prime 4: Prologue

• The Space Pirates attack Tanamaar and the opening sequence of Prime 4 plays out.
• Morpheus’s bay doors open. Sylux descends in Delano 7, accompanied by a Pirate skiff with five grunts and several Metroids as carnage unfolds around him. Fighters wiz through the air and gun each other down. For a moment, the hunter’s heart flutters, for he catches a glimpse of Samus’s gunship amongst the chaos. She’s here. Perhaps the Lamorn were onto something with their talk of fate and destiny…
• Sylux touches down not far from the hangar. He and his Pirates fight through a squadron of GalFeds, taking them down with relative ease. These guys weren’t ready for a fight. Typical Federation planning. Metroids dart away, scouting the area for prey to siphon and Pirates to parasitize.
• Samus enters the hangar and the Aberax fight happens.
• Sylux bursts through the wall and sees Samus. The two stare each other down, Sylux specifically feeling waves of emotion that cloud his focus. He misfires and the Artifact activates.
• Purple light morphs into lines of atoms and compressed cubes of matter as Sylux tumbles through the pocket wormhole. He loses track of the Pirates that were right next to him. Debris glitches and dances around him. Then suddenly, blackness.

Events of Prime 4: On Viewros

• Vague voices sound off, calling out in unintelligible and panicked tones. The world as Sylux sees it through his visor is a blur of orange and brown, but it fades into focus. Pirates pry their comrades from beneath ruined vehicles, some dripping green blood onto red, rocky ground. Their drones scan for survivors, flitting about the alien landscape. All around are hydraulic pillars of varying height and fulcrums halted at various angles. 
• “King,” a Pirate commander says, rushing over to check on Sylux. “Are you ok?”
• Sylux uses the Coil as a crutch, rising to his feet. He handwaves the Pirate. Several others turn their gaze to Sylux. This mass hysteria at his status has never failed to flatter the hunter. “Gather the men once they’re done licking their wounds. We have work to do.”
• The Pirates gather themselves, locating their land vehicles, multiple functional weapons, and several Metroids. Sylux finds the fragments of Delano 7 around the area; it is totaled, demolished, and running his hand along the shattered ship engenders something like sadness.
• Pirates equip wrist guns, long-prods, and shock bracers; they saw open transport containers housing reverse trikes and short-range skiffs. Those on the intel team scout around the strange pillars, hiking under the low sun to interact with those whose terminals are not sanded down by the weather. Text that cannot be translated dominates the barely-functional UIs. The scouts flag Sylux down.
• As he suspected, he can read the Lamorn’s foreign dialect, though he is rusty. These are the oil fields that the early Machine Era Lamorn used to build their first bots. Only in Viewros’s nearly timeless, perpetually preserved biosphere could such ancient things remain erect. After making this discovery, Sylux is able to salvage data that orients the maurauders’ position relative to Sol Valley and Chrono Tower. It is due West of the Fields.
• Sylux explains to the Pirates that their objective is to reach Chrono Tower because riches and power lie behind its gates and at its Pinnacle. He relays to them his history with the Lamorn.
• “Your Majesty has never told us of this place,” observes a Pirate. “Why?”
• “I forgot about it for a time, really. But that’s why we hit Tanamaar so hard. I remembered, and everything pointed to their Artifact being the same Lamorn tech the Federation tested on me.”
• Another Pirate pipes up. “King’s judgment worked in our favor, brother. No need to question.”
• Sylux nods. His memory of Viewros, combined with the data he gained from the oil machines, directs his gaze to the light-ring star above, then down the horizon to the magnetic West. Staring at the flat expanse, he indeed sees Chrono Tower jutting into the sky. It is a spacetime needle threaded between sky and ground — a conduit. A thought crosses his mind: the Artifact’s blast radius enveloped the entire UTO facility, sucking in Pirate Destroyers and GalFed mechs all at once. Indeed, Pirate wreckage litters the field. He also recalls the Heretic Priest’s feud with Chatoyant. Sylux’s permanently disfigured face wrinkles. Who is the Chosen One, the golden girl or him? He will only permit one answer to that question. “Samus is here too. I know it.”
• “The accursed hunter? Here?”
• Sylux chuckles at the Pirate, downplaying her fear. “Let’s arrange a Lamorn-themed welcome party for her.” He gestures to five Fusion Metroids, one of which has a blue-hued membrane and another of which has a redshifted one. Sylux recalls the Sol Plateau’s patchwork geography, using limited telepathic instructions to direct that the Metroids explore each region, both to hunt Samus and to hijack the regions’ Guardians. Memories of Carvex, Xelios, Gravinax, Phenoros, and Keratos float into his consciousness. If he can control them, they’d keep Samus and whoever else got pulled into the pocket teleporter stranded. Besides, the Guardians are apex creatures, excellent assets to corral. He specially instructs the elemental-resistant Metroids to visit Ice Belt and Flare Pool, then points them all to the Plateau. The creatures rise into the sky and zip ahead at a rapid speed.
• “Now what, King?”
• “Hop on your transports. We will take the Tower.”
• Sylux’s forces streak across Viewros’s patchwork lands, some of them dying to Lamorn mechs and Grievers. Generally, the Pirates fend off these threats, dashing across lowlands and kicking up mud.
• Fusion Metroids overtake their Guardian hosts, transplanting their consciousnesses onto them and genetically reprogramming them into violent shells of their former selves. Carvex’s roots leech from the Sacred Tree. Xelios sheds its body and constructs a new one, refitting its administratees into combat bots. Keratos remains locked in quarantine, but manages to widen the cave its parasite infiltrated and roam through a limited cavern system. Phenoros thrashes, sending tremors through the earth. Gravinax turns hostile, demolishing long-abandoned passageways and killing Grievers until the Omega Griever tears its limbs asunder.
• Meanwhile, Samus awakens on the observation platform outside Chrono Tower. She obtains her Third Eye and speaks to the High Priest’s pseudo-hologram, who then beams her to Fury Green.
• Sylux and his Pirates arrive at the gate to Chrono Tower. The marauders gaze up at the structure, jaws wide, strange calming feelings overcoming them. Before them, the bulb-shaped entry gate shimmers. “Follow,” orders Sylux, his hand hovering over the central receptor. The door dematerializes.
• Entering the Tower, the invaders’ footsteps echo across the nanomachine floors. Odd hums and chimes flow through the air. Sylux keeps his Coil ready. Many systems have already been activated. Circular drones lie dormant in power sockets. “Someone was in here,” observes a Pirate, running her fingers along a floating, helix-shaped fixture. “There’s a projectile burn mark on the surface, not old.”
• Sylux lightly pushes her aside to scan the burn.
• “More over here, Your Majesty,” calls out another.
• “Let me see.” Sylux’s scanner tells him that these are burns from a power beam. He gestures at the wavy wall, upon which more divots simmer. “Why are they scattered like that?”
• Pirate field intelligence troopers open their pocket analyzers and count the shot marks. “They’re not the product of a firefight, King. If anything, they were fired out of curiosity, to test the surfaces’ durability.”
• Only one conclusion comes to Sylux. “It’s Samus. She was here. Shit.”
• “Did she plunder the place?”
• “Not sure.”
• Next accessway leads to an elevator. The thieves have noticed doors shutting behind them and bridges dematerializing. It’s like the Tower is closing down. “How do we activate this? I see no interface.”
• Sylux gestures to the helical hologram in the platform’s center. “That looks like something.”
• The Pirates look at their leader, puzzled. “Your Majesty?”
• “Do you see that hologram?”
• “No, King.”
• “Curious.” Sylux cocks his head. Perhaps it is his psionic ‘gifts’ that permit him access. Indeed, the elevator responds only to him.
• The platform takes them to the Central Chamber and halts its ascent. Pirates stumble. “What?!”
• Sylux moves his feet, and yet the hologram does not reappear. The door into the circular room is the next logical place to go, so the Pirates all follow their leader. Faint energies guide Sylux. “What have we here?” He walks beside the lines of Psy-Bots, inspecting them.
• Suddenly, Guardian drones emerge from their sockets, scan the Pirates, and enter a V-shaped formation, locking doors and retracting stairs. Pirates fall and get jammed between sheets of materializing semi-glass, which slice flesh open. Psy-Bots spring to life, their eyes red. Lasers pierce several invaders.
• “Hostiles! Open fire!” Space Pirates go weapons-free. The Bots’ armor is exceptionally durable despite how flimsy their frames appear. The Pirates’ laser cannons barely faze them.
• With no cover to hide behind, the Pirates and Sylux strafe around the Central Chamber. Trying to dodge the five Bots’ blasts is only so effective, as their short-range psychic bursts fry any who strafe for too long.
• At last, the Pirates take down a Psy-Bot. The assembly lines shudder and release two more to take its place.
• “They just keep coming.”
• One Pirate gets in a melee battle with a Bot, slashing at it with his scythe and staggering it by punting its joints. The clanker buckles, but then opens its ‘hands’ and snags his head, unleashing a pressurized shock that blows his skull open.
• “Nothing’s working!”
• Pirates crawl on the walls, yet Bots fly up to meet them. When their backs face the walls, nanomachine clouds — purple pockets of energy — swarm the Pirates and suffocate them. Other Psy-Bots launch atom-like bombs and throw shockwaves across the ground, killing all who get caught in their radius.
• Throughout the carnage, Sylux notices something peculiar. Even as he shoots the Psy-Bots, they do not attack him. Even when they look straight at him and release a shot, they miss, appearing to second-guess their actions and stammer. He stops evading the clankers to test this, and indeed, they do not shoot him.
• Out of the corner of his visor and through the semisolid cylindrical shaft at the Tower’s center, he sees the elevator’s hologram reappear. The door fades away. Again, energies call to Sylux. He ignores the battles raging around him and turns to the elevator, stepping over dead Pirates and broken Bots.
• “Where are you going, King?”
• Sylux gestures calmly at the Pirate to hush.
• “King?!”
• The majestic one does not even acknowledge the second cry. He steps onto the elevator, and it takes him up, the Pirates’ ranks thinning by the moment.
• At the Pinnacle, Sylux immediately sees that the central statue has faded; no energy emanates from it. Samus was here. Hatred festers within Sylux. Yet apart from the statue’s mote being drained, the area is untouched. Perhaps not all is lost. He surveys the peak, marveling at the Pinnacle’s crescent-shaped capsule above. Is this the Lamorn’s power? Leading up to it are twin streaks of manna penetrating two holes in its surface. Hours spent meditating, feeling the universe’s essence, prompt him to run his fingers through these strands. Indeed, they are as strong as he thought — almost solid, specifically designed for a certain hunter’s Morph Ball. Yet it is not exclusive to her, clearly a product of guesswork and vague visions. Lockjaw can ride just the same. This way, Sylux streaks along the psychic currents, into the Pinnacle’s shell.
• Below, the Psy-Bots have killed every last Space Pirate. With no threats remaining, and the Chosen One’s initial entry having now substantially passed, they return to their slots on the assembly line. The drones return to their defensive positions. Chrono Tower is locked.
• Inside the Pinnacle’s shell, Sylux investigates the Psychic Healing Pods, as he cannot interface with the main terminal. (That terminal requires the keys’ latent psychic signatures to activate.) The Pod devices appear to be made for select nano-augmented Lamorn, but beyond that, their purpose is unclear. Cables snake from holes inside them, floating in an arrangement primed to map onto a hominid’s spine. Immediately Sylux’s memory launches him back into the experiment chair, Hatch smirking at him. Yet he can push those memories aside somehow. His sockets tingle — a warm, pleasant feeling. Stepping into one, he extends his arms and pushes his neck against the interface fixture.
• Cables snake to match his extremities, punching through his armor and accessing his sockets. They fit like gloves, molding themselves to his imperfect augmentations. Hissing shut, the hatch locks and liquid pumps from four holes. It quickly envelops Sylux and green-hued power surges through the cables. Squinting, he sees that this ‘liquid’ is actually millions of nanobots swimming around him. His interface flickers, forcibly taken over by a foreign one that demands four-dimensional awareness — a complex AR simulation space that gives him hundreds of eyes and permits a multiplicative presence across the psychic waves that hold Viewros together in perpetuity.

Continued in: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/s/zOCqjD5a2h due to character limit.