After some morph ball tunnels and elevators, I arrive in a room with another of those quick space-pirate-ish enemies, who retreats backwards and fires shots at the ceiling to dislodge stalactites and cause them to fall into the water, making platforms for you. Some you have to dislodge yourself, but otherwise this could probably be considered the most helpful enemy in the game. Sadly, I can't proceed without delivering him a quick death. You were a true bro, four-armed space pirate blasty man. A save point in the next room symbolically allows us to save after such a tragic event.
After nabbing an annoying missile tank in the previous room involving Samus gripping a ledge before she can plunge into the god-forsaken water, I head into the next area which is yet another generic corridor filled with enemies and proceed.
Samus finds the remains of a large creature inside the next room, which looks like it was killed by a metroid. She remarks that metroids can't survive in this environment and, more importantly, that they're extinct. The baby metroid was the last of its kind, wasn't it?
I freeze some vents in the room and acquire another missile tank, then run down more long, linear corridors with no enemies. I end up in an area with another helmet biped which is a little more annoying due to the closed quarters and the flying bugs that shoot icicles at you. After dealing with everyone you get to ride a lift to open the door nearby. The next room is pretty much uneventful as well, you just missile an ice block then bomb it and platform your way to the next area, called the Water Tank.
After jumping into the aforementioned water and killing the fishes, you can missile open a drainage pipe and jump in in morph ball mode. I have no idea how Samus even begins to consider this safe, as she seemingly clings for life as the water drains her into the previous room. I backtrack to the water tank and fight two space-pirate-goonbros then climb up the right side of the room to find a missile tank.
More. Linear. Corridors. With. Nothing. In. Them. At the end is a barrier requiring the Speed Booster. Well, time to head back, can't do anything! Thanks for sending me here Adam! As I start to go back though, Samus has her speed booster authorized by Adam along with the Shinespark. Whoo-hoo! I wonder if this upgrade works well in a 3D environment?
Samus looks pretty awesome when speed boosting. Good upgrade overall I'd say. E-recovery tank found after charging through barriers and sounding oddly like a train. This item lets me recover more energy with Concentration when I'm nearly dead. Yay. I run along the way back and shinespark up to a missile tank. There were a few long corridors in previous rooms, so I begin to finally treat this like an actual Metroid game and see if I can backtrack.
I return to the confined corridor with the armored biped and let off a speed boost, allowing me to shoot straight up to find a pesky missile tank I was wondering about earlier. Before dropping back down I lay down a bomb, back up, and ram into it as it explodes to propel me to the other side of the pipe and roll down it just to see if anything is there. Turns out there's a missile tank, excellent. I explore around the areas a bit more but find nothing, so I decide to continue with the mission. The area I decided to backtrack from is actually the area I first met the evil goats in, so I continue from that point.
After the plant room again (what is with that thing anyway) I speed boost to the north and shinespark to get across a chasm. You know Adam, authorizing that earlier would have saved us a lot of pointless travel! I drop down a nearby hole and find an energy tank. After bomb slotting my way back up (it's good the scientists on the Bottle Ship accounted for ball-sized objects that wanted to propel themselves upwards) I find a save room and decide to stop the area for awhile.
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Geologists will date anything.