#cylosis

[sepublic]

So apparently one of the guys who worked on the Metroid Prime series mentioned how he wants to make a game about time travel on a planet with mechanics similar to the Light/Dark worlds in Echoes and. We're all agreeing this is what Beyond will be about. We see portals in that jungle location. Its logo is based off of a black hole, which are known to distort time, and famously this was even a major plot point in the film Interstellar a while back, which had a black hole be used to travel back in time.

This could be a lot of fun narratively, because I think of how we learned Bryyo's history in the previous game through lore scans. So what if the time travel mechanic was used to show the development and collapse of this new world we're exploring, but in real time as Samus visits different periods in history? It could be a form of environmental storytelling, in addition to the more direct scans she uses.

It also makes me think about Sylux; I don't think we have any confirmation on what his home planet of Cylosis is like. I know some of us assume the icy world he appears in during the intro of Hunters is Cylosis, but it isn't necessarily. So what if this jungle planet is Cylosis? What if the time travel mechanic is used to explore Sylux's backstory, in a way to really flesh him out as a character? We fight different versions of Sylux across time. Maybe even two at once. We see how Cylosis could've fallen apart because of the Galactic Federation.

Maybe we even get to visit the future and that’s why the game is called Beyond, because we’re exploring beyond history. Samus could see a version of herself where she won or didn’t, same with Sylux who’d still hold a grudge. Maybe Sylux is using time shenanigans to change Cylosis’ future because maybe it isn’t doomed yet. Maybe he’s from the future, even, after accidentally flying the Delano 7 through a black hole!!! And his knowledge of the past allowed him to slip past Federation security, know what they have stored and where and when, etc. It’s why nobody’s heard of Sylux, he hasn’t happened yet. And what made him hate the Federation hasn’t happened yet either, which is why most are baffled regarding his motives.

On a final note, and this is getting into some mad, silly, conspiracy theory territory. But given the hype of Sylux's mysterious identity, and don't take this too seriously. What if Sylux is future Samus. What if it's Samus after experiencing Fusion and possibly more yet-to-happen events, who became deeply disillusioned with the Federation and even saw them as the true cause of the Space Pirates from a systemic sense. And as a result she became more sympathetic to the Space Pirates, opting not to blame the symptom but the root cause (That, or she's just using them and plans to betray the pirates as well).

At some point in the future, she got sent back to the past, landing in Cylosis but without her Chozo power suit. So she used her knowledge from working with the Federation to infiltrate a facility and find a substitute, replacing her power cannon with the Shock Coil, and the morphball with the Lockjaw.

She can't just tell or warn everyone about the truth, because she came from the future without any real physical evidence, plus this is stuff that has yet to happen; She'd just be dismissed as yet another conspiracy theorist, plus being open about the time travel stuff could be a whole can of worms. Sylux hates her past self for her mistakes and foolishness, because she’s got hella self-loathing; She’s trying to prevent the monster she helped create.

Sylux uses her knowledge of the past to infiltrate the Federation and hatch a Metroid when they have one; At this point she's already awakened her Metroid DNA, which we know has Queen potential, and that's how she can control them. The Mochtroids are an attempt to boost Metroid numbers while she oversees other methods.

Present-Day Samus defeats Sylux and learns the maddening truth, wondering what the Federation has done, or will do, to break that trust so completely. Beyond's story ends with Samus prepared, but also wary of who she might become if she doesn't get a handle on herself and become Sylux all over again. Knowing her future gives her insight to prevent it and create a better timeline where she isn't pushed to that desperation, so in a way maybe Sylux DOES succeed.

Plus, you could combine this with the full circle theory that Sylux will be revealed as a woman just as Samus was at the start, but take it a step further by having it be the same woman behind the armor all along!!!

[cloudychaodubs]

Translation from @aquapitch and their team.

VAs : Cylosis as Ryuusei and Dan as Rukia

Everyone did a fantastic job of bringing this scene to life. It was so amazing to be work on such a childhood dream series of mine.

[jestergirlbosom]

So my discord username is Cylosis (planet from Metroid) and my steam username is Twin Tabula (also planet from Metroid) and I discovered this username trend dates all the way back to fifth grade when I used the nickname Brinstar for lazer tag

[ambiguouslyart]

HAVE YOU MET MY LORD AND SAVIOR, FEM SYLUX HEADCANON

Okay but actually like Samus is the only strong female character besides Gandrayda and she’s dead now so we could really use another one (who isn’t a clone of Samus). Also, of the two characters we’ve met who are leaders in the Federation, one of them Adam who’s weirdly sexist and is constantly calling out Samus on stupic shit and sassing her in a way he sees as banter but is actually annoying and insulting. That, coupled with the fact that the only ones in the Federation are humans and we’ve maybe seen one female trooper ever, it wouldn’t be farfetched that the Federation is, at best, really old-fashioned, and, at worst, crippled by casual xenophobia and sexism.

I feel like having a character who’s an alien attempting to join the Federation (possibly with some shapeshifting ability) but is eventually outted could be a compelling character. In my headcanon, Sylux is a trans girl from Cylosis who tried to sneak into the Federation so that she could serve and put up with years of verbal abuse from both her peers and her superiors before eventually being outted.

In her eyes, the Federation would be the most corrupt shithole that someone could ever be a part of , and for this reason she looks down on Samus, Rundas, and any other bounty hunters who are willing to work with them, as well as hating the Federation itself. Maybe she even takes missions specifically from people who are rejected by the Federation. Idk, gay robin hood style. But yeah, I’ll probably never see this version of the character given that they refer to him as he and his gender is listed as male everywhere BUT A BOY CAN DREAM! <3

[planet-bryyo]

Sylux

The planet Cylosis, the world on which Sylux was first identified, has been in a state of war and revolution for years. A group of Cylosians decided to revolt against the Federation presence and break apart from the Federation, but neither side has made much progress in years due to the relative lack of effort the Federation put into defending it- they don’t see it as a major issue, and Cylosis isn’t a significant nor threatening planet.

Some think that Sylux may be linked to the rebellion, maybe a rebel fighter striking back against the Federation, but there is evidence from inside the rebel forces to suggest that Sylux has his own independent motives and is not linked to the war at all.

[metroidheadcanons]

Sylux was originally a GF Soldier turned scientist who helped develop and test new weapons programs on its homeworld, Cylosis. Cylosis was a hotspot for Neutrinos, which were the base components and power source for the experimental Delano 7, the Shock Coil and the experimental suit that went along with it.

The lead scientist, unbeknownst to Sylux, used many of the colonists as slave labour. This naturally lead to a lot of death and illness amongst the population. When Sylux found out, it stole the experimental suit and killed most of the research crew. Due to the untested nature of the suit and Shock Coil, Sylux can’t remove the suit, and suffered major mental trauma and physical injury to the brain. Because of this, Sylux now hates the Galactic Federation with a burning passion.

[sepublic]

I’m convinced the planet we see Sylux at the beginning of Hunters is his listed homeworld of Cylosis, because it’s probably the same one we see at the start of Beyond:

Rocky, barren cliffs…

Even a dust particle effect! Very subtle in the Beyond screenshot I took, but dust is sent when Samus’ gunship flies off. Similarly, Sylux sends dust flying when he rams into a Federation marine, and the fogginess of the Hunters setting translates to the clouds we see in Beyond.

Plus? Given it’s basically confirmed that Beyond will revolve around time travel as a mechanic, I bet you this rainforest is Cylosis before the Federation rendered it barren from colonialism. This may even be the same area Beyond begins in, unrecognizable because of the lack of Federation touch, all of the flora and fauna present again, etc.

Sylux is probably a native of Cylosis who personally experienced the Federation’s destruction of their home. Maybe we’ll see them and Samus interact, under Sylux’s original identity; And as we hop through time, Samus might do something pro-Federation, contributing to the destruction of Cylosis. At the very least, Sylux becomes Sylux, and finds out the friend they made would end up working for the Federation, or already did.

This factors into their intense hatred for Samus; They were a friend to her first. And Sylux feels used and betrayed by Samus now. They’re bitter at what Cylosis and Samus have become, and have since been attacking Federation bases on their planet to fight back. They may have even proclaimed Cylosis as their home to the Federation invaders, which is why Sylux’s homeworld is somehow identified but not their identity.

(On a lesser note, we’ll probably call the new breed of purple, insectoid Space Pirate the ‘Cylosis Pirates’.)

[sepublic]

And again to add to the name Beyond, if we explore the history and life of this new planet, maybe even going as far back as the beginnings of life, maybe even briefly to before life… What if we end up traveling so far into the future that we arrive at like, the death of this planet; Its star is going supernova and everything has been scorched clean. And this is the climax where we fight the final boss, probably Sylux.

It would make the planet a character in and of itself; We personally experience the birth, the life, and death of a world. And it makes this planet, probably Cylosis, feel so much more personal and with a life of its own. Makes you appreciate it almost the way Sylux does, since they’re apparently native to it. Indeed, while we consider Samus’ POV, it’s possible Sylux has their own adventure and thoughts exploring the history of their home, on their end; Seeing where Cylosis came from and what it will eventually become. How it grows and dies.

It could make Sylux a very somber and humanized antagonist to Samus, and further their parallels because they’re lonely af and watching the loss of a home they loved; In Samus’ case, she’ll really get to see Zebes be destroyed later, and actually play an unfortunate part in that. Plus, imagine all the fics and comics of Samus wishing she could use this time travel mechanic on other worlds, especially Zebes… And maybe even K-2L. She probably can’t change the past but maybe she could see her family from a distance one last time, as well as herself back when she was happy and not alone…

Man; Imagine time travel being used as a way to communicate Samus and Sylux’s mourning, their regret, their loss and nostalgia. Wanting to go back but being unable to. Being able to visit the past in memories but never able to change it, and the same applies with a literal visit. In the end they must confront their own inevitable mortality as well, and move forward regardless of the fate they know lies ahead; Because there’s stuff that happens between now and that, that they can change. They must go… Beyond. Beyond even their own deaths, hence the climax in the far future.

Maybe they venture into the very heat death of the universe, maybe into a universe reborn anew, that goes through that same cycle all over again; In homage to that theory that when the universe ends, it is reborn as the exact same timeline that preceded before it, an infinite loop. And going beyond all that into the next universe gets them back to where they all started, full-circle. We call that Metroid Prime Remastered-

[sepublic]

People have speculated that time travel will be used to bring back Phazon, to justify the Metroid Prime title.

What’s interesting is that in Corruption’s climax, Dark Samus planned to force Phaaze into launching several leviathan seeds at once, knowing this would kill Phaaze; And later we see the death of Phaaze means the death of all Phazon. But between Dark Samus’ plan, and the scene of the Leviathan battleship being destroyed by Phaaze’s explosion (unlike the Space Pirate ships who fall due to their Phazon dying)…

It seems Phazon can live on via Leviathans, which are meant to become their own independent Phaazes; And presumably, their Phazon would live on as well. The problem is that by the time of Phaaze’s destruction, Samus had destroyed all leviathan seeds, and the last one was obliterated by the force of a planetary explosion.

Why is this relevant? Because I’ve thought to myself, even if Sylux used their Metroid to become a Metroid Prime, wouldn’t it die once it returned to a present without Phaaze? But maybe not…

What if Cylosis suffered a Leviathan impact in its ancient past, well before contact with the Federation. Despite Phazon’s power, they made it last the leviathan’s guardian and destroyed the core, curing the planet. The leviathan would fade into ancient Cylosis legend…

But Sylux is a native of the planet, they see the Phazon Crisis unfold and realize: What impacted Cylosis in the past was a Leviathan seed. And based on research and hacking into Federation databases, Leviathans can support their own batch of Phazon even in the death of Phaaze, that scenario was simply prevented.

Sylux plans to go back in time to when the Leviathan landed, and feed its Phazon Core to their Metroid so it becomes a Prime. This won’t change the past much because the Leviathan is still destroyed when Sylux’s Metroid Prime, its new Phazon Core, leaves to future; This prevents a paradox.

With the power of a core, the new Metroid Prime can sustain itself and a new generation of Phazon without having to worry about Phaaze’s absence in the present-day. It’s possible it doesn’t have to worry about Phaaze’s death period, as the Aurora Unit’s death throes sending a chain reaction might’ve been what killed all Phazon connected to Phaaze, and not just Phaaze’s destruction!

Maybe Sylux will even transport the entire Cylosis leviathan to the present, to allow Metroid Prime to produce Phazon without as much of a hitch. And with this power, Sylux will destroy the Federation by bringing about a second Phazon Crisis, etc.

[sepublic]

I will say though; I love the design for General Alex Miles from Federation Force. It perfectly blends the Federation Marine and Federation formal attire together perfectly;

Given one is from Prime and the other from the mainline games, Miles’ outfit basically marries the two depictions of the Federation from either series together. The gold is such a nice touch too… I’d love to see fanart of Miles in a non-chibi art style, and as a full-body portrait too; I don’t think we ever see Miles in person, just from the chest up?

They’re an interesting character to me; Neither their gender or even species is clarified, but the latter might be human because of the name and build. Miles’ name reminds me of Adam Malkovich… Alex Miles… They’re the Federation Force’s CO, their own Adam, just as the pilots themselves are akin to Samus in terms of gameplay and being unique Federation assets. Miles notably wants the Metroid egg on Talvania, saying it could bring “good” to the galaxy… Big red flag of course.

But it IS worth noting that the primary objective of the mission is to destroy all Metroids on Talvania by activating the self-destruct; The egg is optional and secondary. And when the Metroids are released from containment after the Federation Force activated the self-destruct countdown, Miles tells them to forget about the Metroid egg and just focus on getting out of there; You have to go against their orders by retrieving the egg anyway, and risking yourself to do so.

So Miles is interesting to me in that they might actually be well-intentioned? Or at least care for their troops. Given their introduction in Federation Force, which sets up Sylux’s plans in Beyond, it makes you wonder if Miles will appear there too. Are they corrupt? Do they care, in a “The path to hell is paved with good intentions” sort of way?

Will we see them replace or work alongside Dane in Beyond? They’re a General, which means they command ground troops and infantry; Dane commands the fleet. I speculate the planet we see at the start of Beyond, as well as the rainforest, are both the same world; Probably Cylosis, possibly across different points in time. Which means we won’t see much of space nor the Federation fleet; Which makes Miles more suited as a CO for Samus here, since all Federation allies will be situated on the ground.

Then again, Miles is seen commanding a fleet during the Doomseye battle in Federation Force, so maybe the titles are being loosely used and the developers don’t care for real world accuracy when it comes to military ranking and hierarchy; Tbh I’ve normally never cared either and am only researching it for the sake of reconciling the different depictions and uniforms of the Federation, as well as considering how characters such as Dane, Adam, and Miles interact.

I remember seeing someone suggest that Alex Miles is Sylux; This is why they suggested getting the Metroid egg, and how they were able to sneak in, operate the tech, etc. But this makes you wonder, if they hate the Federation, why value the Force’s lives? Why help them defeat the Space Pirates in the Bermuda system? I guess it all boils down as to the exact nature of Sylux’s hatred for the Federation, if it’s because they’re corrupt but they sympathize with troops they know personally as good people.

Granted Sylux’s intro in Hunters might indicate otherwise, but there could also be other context to that scene, or they don’t know those troops and can’t take the time to evaluate them. As for attacking the Space Pirates, maybe Sylux is strategically maneuvering both factions into destroying one another; It would explain why they’ve never worked with the Space Pirates before and even competed against Weavel in the Alimbic Cluster; They hate the pirates too!

Miles is probably meant to be male and the developers just never considered the gender-ambiguity of the name Alex. But it’d be fun if Miles was a woman, maybe even an alien because Chairman Keaton has a name like that despite also looking like that. And we could meld this with Female Sylux speculation if they’re the same character after all. They’re both mysteriously masked too, though for Miles I imagine it’s because the developers thought a human face would look too silly in the Chibi art style, hence why everyone wears helmets, and Samus never takes hers off. I guess ‘Sylux’ and ‘Alex’ have similar second syllables…

[sepublic]

Given the speculation of Beyond involving time travel to explore different versions of a planet (probably Cylosis) across time, I wonder if there’s any connection to the scrapped pitch known as Metroid Prime 1.5?

For context: Before Retro Studios settled on Echoes, they had different ideas as to what the sequel to Prime would be. One of their first ideas was 1.5, which was about Samus being trapped on a big spaceship. The idea was for the map to be quite small compared to Prime’s, only the size of the Chozo Ruins and Phazon Mines combined.

How can you get a full-length game from such a small map? The ship would be controlled by an AI with four personalities; Each time a personality took control, it would alter the environment in some way, so when Samus went back through the same rooms it’d still be a different experience. So for example, the gravity might change, allowing Samus to walk along the ceiling of previous rooms; Literally exploring them from a different angle!

There was even mention of time being reversed, causing enemies and environmental actions to occur backwards; Think a water faucet pouring back into itself, which could’ve been exploited by Samus to go through it in Morph Ball mode, and see what’s on the other end without the water pushing her away from it.

Retro pitched the advantage of being able to have a more compact game (in terms of space) while still having more or less the same gameplay experience as Prime. More space on the disc could be left for other functions and the like. Nintendo did turn it down and we got Echoes instead. But now…

If we go with this time travel mechanic, we could get one single, giant area for Beyond. And time travel would be used to explore different versions of it, progressing through this altered area from a different direction, etc. The general shape is still there, but the environmental overlay, enemies, and various other elements are different, which changes the path; You’re not just retreading the same one from before from a different direction.

You know how in Fusion, environmental events could change the same rooms you’ve visited, railroading you into a different path? So like B.O.X. smashing a hole in the ceiling, the SA-X destroying a door, or the indestructible Kihunter cocoons blocking passageways, before opening them up again once the Kihunters emerge fully-grown. It’s like that.

Who knows? Maybe Beyond could have segments requiring you to hop across various eras in time, across different versions of the same map, just so you could get into a room that is normally inaccessible from the rest of that era’s version of the map. A simple version of this: In the past, a giant tree is grown over a room with an upgrade. Samus enters a different era where that tree is gone; Then goes back in time, and the tree is there again but so is the upgrade! It could lend to a fun puzzle-solving experience, especially if you have to era-hop a bunch for one particularly elusive room. And making time flow backwards for individual elements could be brought back, as mentioned earlier.

And as a callback to that time reversal mechanic I mentioned earlier, Samus could be able to prompt that herself in select locations, using an upgrade; Replace the water faucet with a waterfall, that she can now ride up! Like Tears of the Kingdom, Samus can shoot down a branch or rock, climb on, and then use the time reversal to ride all the way back up. In fact, maybe that conspicuous pipe in the trailer is meant to set this up; Use the time reversal mechanic while inside the pipe in Morph Ball mode, to access the rest of the piping it was attached to in order to find an expansion on the other end!

By having just one base map, and most of the difference coming from environmental overlays and other assets, it could save a lot of space on Beyond’s cartridge for other things as well; Maybe this is part of the reason it looks and runs so well on Switch! We could explore the planet from different eras; Think an ice age for a frozen level, or a prehistoric era such as the rainforest. And the Federation base built over in the present.

We could see how this planet has grown and changed and evolved, maybe even see enemy species literally evolve across time, evolution diverge or converge, etc.! The jump from rainforest to the present’s different terrain seems drastic, until you find an era in-between that better transitions between the two’s different layouts.

Instead of named regions or planets, it’s named historical eras; Like how we have the Jurassic or Mesozoic. Instead of exploring a region called Torvus, it’s a historical era named Iketh, something like that. Maybe Sylux was plucked from their life in the past by Federation experiments with the Black Hole device, and they’re just trying to get back to a specific time range, right when they disappeared, to resume the life stolen from them. Sylux can’t just undo their chrono-abduction because that’d create a paradox, so they have to settle for having survived a brutal future.

[sepublic]

Adding to my Shock Coil theory/fanon, imagine if you will that the weapon the Federation used to exterminate the natives of Cylosis needed a living sample to work with; Someone to analyze, and apply to all targets in the vicinity. What if Sylux was kidnapped and used for this, hooked to the Shock Coil? Forced to aid in the genocide of their own people?

The hatred, the violation, the grief and self-loathing; Of course Sylux had to stop the Federation when they advanced that technology, creating a handheld Shock Coil that didn’t even need a living sample, just a user to point it at a single, desired target of whatever nature. And Sylux used it themselves, turning it against the Federation as karma.

They use the Shock Coil as an expression of self-loathing; The guilt of being used to power that weapon, with Sylux deciding that if all they’re good for is destruction via that damned machine, then they’ll weaponize that for themselves against the Federation, because if that’s their power then it’s their turn to use it. It’s a twisted reclamation of agency, and finally getting to enjoy for yourself what others exploited you for and kept to themselves; It’s your body, why shouldn’t you get to use it, just as the Federation used Sylux’s body for program the Shock Coil.

Sylux was used to kill their loved ones; That inherent destructive property to themselves, to destroy everything they touch, can at least be made useful in stopping the Federation. So embrace it, make them regret that nature of yours they’d repurposed to their benefit. Being a weapon is all Sylux is good for, they are now a bomb that has gained self awareness and repented for past slaughter by firmly planting itself in the heart of the creator. Sylux’s existence is intertwined with that cursed weapon.

It’s like how Samus is intertwined with the Metroids, a bioweapon; Eventually becoming part-Metroid herself. And Sylux has a Metroid imprint on them, uses it to clone Mochtroids, because they relate to being a living weapon against their will. Maybe Samus should too, because Sylux posits that the Chozo treated her as a tool to turn against their enemies, just as Sylux had been; The Chozo fittingly helped found the Federation.

Like man I just think there’s soooo much potential for Sylux to be a recurring female rival to Samus, a series mainstay alongside her. Transitioning into an antihero after Beyond, as they become just a bit more forgiving towards the Federation; Leniency towards the common citizen, but continued ruthlessness towards the system and its perpetrators. Because if Samus is going to have a complicated relationship with the Federation itself, imagine her and Sylux having the awkward team up every now and then as Sylux challenges her worldview and sometimes vice versa.

In general, I wonder about the Metroid series’ potential for spin-offs about others, to expand the world? We did get Hunters and Federation Force, but they’re both still the same gameplay style, and I’m afraid Federation Force’s bad timing killed any hopes for the developers to get a bit more creative and experimental. We could get something within the universe that changes the focus and the gameplay.

[sepublic]

The Shock Coil Theory

Sylux’s Shock Coil is a weapon based off of the classic Tesla Coil concept; Thing from which arcs of lightning just shoot out from randomly, usually being drawn to any target(s) that enter range. The Shock Coil is said to be an “unauthorized prototype” that mysteriously disappeared from a Federation laboratory, like the suit he wears.

The phrasing makes it sound as if these were separate incidents; And they also sound a lot like the circumstances in which the Metroid egg was hatched and ‘lost’. Sylux really knows his way around a Federation facility… Furthermore, the fact that the Shock Coil is unauthorized makes me wonder if it’s a banned weapon; Meaning Sylux is wielding blatant evidence of the Federation being shady.

Corruption does mention a Horus Rebellion said to be ‘nasty business’ and it could just be a reference to Warhammer 40k, so I’ve heard, it could also be relevant.

Because to use an example from another piece of media, Star Wars had an Arc Pulse Generator that also functioned like the weaponized Tesla Coil trope…

This thing incinerated victims into ash. Its bolts were drawn to the unique alloy of their armor, but could also be programmed to target other materials as well. Because this armor was made of a unique substance, allies wouldn’t have to worry about being targeted.

What if the Horus Rebellion used a much larger version of the Shock Coil, meant to target multiple people at once? But its use was much less precise, and perhaps accidentally (or not) disintegrated civilians who weren’t supposed to be targeted. Maybe Federation troops were even caught in accidental friendly fire as well.

It could’ve been that the Shock Coil wasn’t tested properly, or maybe it did exactly what it was supposed to. But the wider Federation found out and decried it as a war crime, so the Shock Coil was banned. But some Feds still wanted to use it, so they funded unauthorized development of a perfected, handheld version of the Shock Coil; One that can only target one person at a time, but still deadly, and even capable of draining electricity to refuel itself and whatever it was attached to.

The Shock Coil refuels Sylux’s health whenever they use it; This suggests it drains something from its targets. Given the life force that Metroids drain is meant to be a total enigma, showcasing how advanced and enlightened the Chozo are, the Shock Coil probably relies on bioelectricity. All shocks are just a closed current, a loop, being established for electricity to run through; So the Shock Coil uses neutrinos to close that gap between itself and a target, cycling its and the victim’s bioelectricity in a constant loop the user is shielded from. The victim dies, and their bioelectricity is added to the Shock Coil, which then feeds whatever power suit or other device it’s linked up to.

Corruption also mentioned a Project Dread, whose name was a tongue in cheek reference. But its purpose was to use Metroids as a power source for weapons. If the barren planet and rainforest we see in Beyond are the same area on Sylux’s homeworld of Cylosis, at different points in time? What if the large-scale Shock Coil was used to harvest bioelectricity from the local fauna, in order to fuel whatever the Federation wanted? And this mass death led to the collapse of Cylosis’ ecosystem.

Hell what if they even knowingly murdered a native population for it? Or maybe it was an accident, maybe they didn’t know sapients, Sylux among them, were present beneath the foliage when they swept the Shock Coil across the surface of Cylosis. Maybe they used the power to fuel other weapons to further genocide in a positive feedback loop of destruction.

And the Space Pirates, who have no pretenses of ethics, wanted to do their own take but with Metroids, who can transfer the energy they’ve absorbed into other things if they’re willing; As seen with a Metroid who imprinted on Samus, and used the energy of her enemy to heal her.

Sylux has a Metroid that imprinted on them. They might hate the Space Pirates but they need them to perfect their failed Project Dread, and it’ll be a success because their Metroid will actually obey orders. Maybe they plan to build an enormous Shock Coil, and augment it with the Metroid to absorb all of the life from the Federation, before using that power to finish off what’s left.

This is where the Mochtroids come into play; Just one Metroid is not enough. Mochtroids can drain energy and are obedient; They lack the invulnerability and gripping power of actual Metroids but they don’t need that. Sylux needs energy; Even their own suit’s giant shoulder spikes might function like the Shock Coil, to drain multiple targets at once; Something to pair up with and augment the prototype that Sylux wields. Or the spikes are meant to emphasize the Shock Coil in resemblance.

So why time travel? Does Sylux plan to drain all of this energy to create a super weapon that can stop the Federation’s harvest? In Federation Force, which set up Sylux and their Metroid and the Space Pirates’ continued losses, we got the Doomseye; A giant ship with a giant laser to blow up capital ships.

Maybe the Space Pirates will build another Doomseye and it’ll be even more powerful with Metroid/Mochtroid and Shock Coil compatibility. Maybe Sylux is here to harvest Cylosis itself, knowing their Homeworld’s fate is sealed regardless, but at least they can be the one to harness their home’s power (because if anyone is entitled to the blessings of Cylosis, if anyone is allowed to make that decision, Sylux is) to destroy the Federation with a weapon to make the Doomseye look like a firecracker. The weapon might not be a traditional laser, but a massive version of the Shock Coil to drain entire cities and fleets with; All as karmic revenge for Cylosis.

The only limitation to hypothetical weapons like that is sufficient power; Phazon could’ve made up for it, but it’s gone now. But vampiric assets can gather so much energy so easily… Normally, the time and power required is better spread out across multiple ships and soldiers, because you don’t need to invest in a cannon when a hammer is sufficient. But what Sylux needs is something to overwhelm the Federation totally and immediately; And with Mochtroids and the Shock Coil, the time and difficulty of acquiring such power has been drastically decreased…

Maybe Sylux dies sacrificing their own energy, which they may have a lot of given their ability to turn into the Lockjaw, to power a weapon to take down their enemies with; It could be the ultimate weapon itself, which while not powered enough for the intended goal, can spite a LOT of Federation ships by obliterating them. So the day is technically saved, the objective technically achieved, but Sylux manages to get a last laugh in by sacrificing a lot of Federation soldiers anyway.

(Sylux also destroys Samus’ gunship because Fuck You and that’s why she has to go back to using the older one from Echoes.)