Samus Aran: Beam Saber Beauty by Jade Gretz

https://www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai/art/Samus-Aran-Beam-Saber-Beauty-1127016114

Luminous Bleed

Boiling cerulean steam squeezed through the porous basalt of the subterranean gorge, carrying the undeniable scent of melting copper and electrified ozone. Far below the crust of the dead planet, the caverns did not dream in darkness. They writhed in a blinding, radioactive luminescence. The geysers here violently expelled pressurized veins of liquid Phazon, painting the jagged stalagmites in nauseating hues of neon blue and toxic violet. Standing at the precipice of this glowing abyss, Samus Aran calculated her descent.

Within the protective shell of her Varia Suit, her features were cast in the soft, amber glow of her heads-up display. She possessed a striking, sculpted beauty, a serenity of sharp cheekbones and piercing azure eyes that stood in severe defiance to the grotesque world she had plunged into. Her golden hair was pulled back perfectly, undisturbed by the lethal hostility waiting beyond the glass of her visor. She was the pristine hunter surrounded by primordial rot, an elegant weapon descending into mutating sickness.

"You are running out of solid ground, Aran," a voice crackled through the secure comm-link. The audio was thick with static, distorted by the immense magnetic fields of the geysers below.

"My scanners show a lattice of obsidian bridges spanning the lower vents, Doctor Vance," Samus replied, her voice smooth and entirely devoid of the panic that had claimed the stranded Federation geologist. "I am seventy meters above your geology pod. Keep your thermal dampeners engaged."

"Thermal dampeners," Vance echoed. A wet, rattling cough punctuated his words, followed by a sound like tearing wet canvas. "Right. Because they see the heat. But they don't just see it, Samus. They drink it. They taste the kinetic friction of your joints. They are waiting in the pools."

Samus dropped from the precipice. She fell through the suffocating blue mist with the lethal grace of a diving raptor, her thrusters flaring in a controlled burn just before her boots struck the obsidian bridge. The glass-like rock spider-webbed beneath her weight. Instantly, the glowing pools of liquid Phazon below began to froth and bubble with unnatural aggression.

They did not emerge with a terrifying roar. They came with a sickening, wet sloughing sound, like rotting meat peeling away from bone.

Phazon leeches. They were abominations born of radioactive misery, each the size of a grown man’s torso. Their bodies were translucent, rubbery tubes of pale, necrotic flesh, laced with glowing blue veins pulsing in rhythm with the erupting geysers. They possessed no eyes, only a yawning, lamprey-like maw filled with concentric rings of jagged, crystalline teeth that ground together with a horrible clicking noise.

"Movement detected," her ship’s tactical AI whispered in her ear, a redundant warning as the cavern walls seemed to detach and come alive.

Three of the parasites launched themselves from the shadows of a massive stalactite overhead. They moved with terrifying elasticity. Samus pivoted, her arm cannon snapping up in a blur of gold and crimson metal. She unleashed a volley of plasma fire. The superheated energy bolts struck the lead leech mid-air. It burst like a pressurised balloon, showering the obsidian bridge with glowing blue viscera.

But the other two landed on the rock mere feet away. Their bodies contracted into tight, pulsating coils, and from their maws, they spat streams of highly concentrated, Phazon-infused acid.

Samus dashed laterally, but a splash of the glowing green bile struck her shoulder pauldron. The energy shields flared violently, screeching in a high-pitched mechanical protest as the acid ate through the outer energy layer and began scoring the zero-durium plating beneath. The stench of burned metal filled her helmet.

"They spit," Samus stated calmly over the comms, executing a perfectly timed somersault over a secondary acid volley. She landed in a low crouch and fired two Super Missiles directly into the feeding cluster. The explosion rocked the cavern, sending a shower of glowing rock into the boiling abyss.

"They adapt," Vance whispered over the radio. His voice possessed a hollow, floating quality. "They consumed the native rock-borers to learn how to melt stone. Now they are tasting your armor, Samus. They are learning the exact flavor of your shields."

"Maintain your perimeter, Vance. I am advancing to the secondary ridge."

"It is so warm in the pod, Aran. But the glass is getting thin. The blue light is inside with me now.
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