this is SO funny, but tbh an in-game explanation might be that they don't want people to escape. the coup part of the galactic federation went through great lengths to get rid of any witnesses, including the researchers, so i think it's pretty safe to say they just didn't want anyone to escape.
it's still stupid to put a self-destruct sequence, though, i get that it's supposed to act like a fail-safe if the facility is beyond recovery, but if that's the case:
then why didn't they just task the double agent, James, to initiate the self-destruct sequence? sector 0 had it's own self destruct sequence, and considering the metroids were near indestructible with their new genetic coding, the explosion designed for sector 0 must have been different than the explosions designed for the rest of the facility
the self destruct sequence for the bottle ship opens up a bunch of unnecessary ridiculous questions, and this all could have been avoided if they just didn't insert a cheap game mechanic for the sake of tradition.
like, yeah, it's a staple for metroid games to have self destruct scenes, but when it cheapens your already cheap story? like, come on!!!
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