Most GF soldiers respect Samus, but this girl goes above and beyond.
In Metroid Prime 2, we read the personal log of a soldier who idolized Samus, but her coworkers didn’t believe Samus existed—and Samus showed up after they all died. I think this is the first time Samus has had to personally deal with this sort of interaction. (The soldiers she’s met in MP3 and 4 before this point were respectful and composed.) She takes it pretty well, though I feel like she’s a little embarrassed behind the helmet. I’m not really sure what Private Armstrong expects she’ll be able to do to help with the retrieval of the fifth teleporter key, but I’m sure it has something to do with the repair of Becky.
I like how this game actually has an explanation for the fact that we’ve got holes sized perfectly for the Morph Ball everywhere: they’re for use by the equally-sized Maintenance Tanks that are such a nuisance. Other games have made reference to “Kinetic Orbs” but I felt like those didn’t really make much sense considering the Morph Ball slots and so on that you find in those spaces, especially ones that Space Pirates designed knowing Samus would be able to fit through there. We see Maintenance Tanks actually using the various tunnels throughout the place, and we see quite a few of those foes regardless: the Lamorn actually had a reason to create the tunnels.