I knew that landing area looked too much like an arena!
Not all of the landing areas in this game are arenas, but quite a few are, including the very first one. Ghor needs a bit more space than the Pirate Lord, but he’s thankfully not that much tougher. Unfortunately, he got there well before Samus, so the ship takes quite a beating. Given what happened in Metroid Prime 2, I think I know how Samus spent her money. (Her fees are never shown, nor is her spending ever discussed, but her ship has much faster self-repair in this game.) It probably helps that the ship was also just taking blunt trauma and a little piercing instead of an electromagnetic storm in this case.
That’s two of the three Hunters down, and I doubt Gandrayda is doing any better. With her disguise abilities, the real question is who/what she’ll look like when we arrive. I imagine the Space Pirates will be sorry to see her go, just as the galaxy mourned for Ghor, the compassionate bounty hunter. At least we got the Plasma Beam off of him, and much earlier in this game than most others. Since it’s a permanent upgrade, it doesn’t do much more damage like in MP1, but neither is it any slower to fire than the Power Beam. The main difference is that several enemies are weak to flame, especially early ones. And since we have an infinite supply (unlike Ice Missiles), expect to see a lot of obstacles asking for a charge shot.