The Furry Forums
Creative Arts and Media => Roleplay => Serious RP => Topic started by: BusterBuizel on December 07, 2011, 04:11:06 PM
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Federation’s Side:
With the successful defense of the Pokemorph homeworld of Ultimax the Federation counter attacked Lylatian fronts all over their galaxy. From Katina, to Sauria, to Fichina the Federation’s all out assault caught the Republic off guard. Task Force Frostbite was sent to defend a UPF outpost in the frozen tundra of Fichina from Lylatian forces.
“Aegis Outpost, this is Captain Micheal of Task Force Frostbite over,” he paused as the Type 23 jeep rocked, being constantly hit with small arms fire, “Fleetcom has authorized a squad of Helljumpers and ESFP for reinforcements. We’ve also got a squad of marines in our backseats. Coming to assist over!”
“Aegis Outpost to TFF! We’re taking heavy fire from enemy gunships over! Get those Guass 23s over there!”
“Roger that! Over and out!” Mikey cut off the mic while trying to defend his jeep from the Guass turret of his Type 23, “Haul ass sis! They’ve got guided RPGs!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice bro! Do we got enough chaff in the pods?!” Tanya, Mikey’s twin sister, yelled through the noise of the battlefield.
“Two reloads left! Ghost! We got Speedmasters 12 o clock! Hit those jeeps man!” he warned his friend.
“Zak! Evasive driving! They’ve got RPGs riding shotgun!”
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Meanwhile in the UPFS Tower of Fall a certain ESFP Soldier was preparing to drop into Aegis Outpost with her squad along with the Helljumpers. Fresh off training, and finishing first in her class, Althea Voss stood by her Pelipper and looked out at the fleet. One of the Drop Troopers approached her. He was a Dewott, clad in lightweight ballistic armor carrying a distinctive ARP-5C pulse carbine.
“Sir, my squad is ready to drop. Are the vehicles secured on the drop ship?”
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With no real conscious thought, Althea began to check her gear, mainly by feel. The comfortable weight of her Vintorpup Para lay across her back but did nothing to impede her mobility. The familiar feeling of her Tundra Hawk counterbalanced the magazines, communication equipment, motion sensors, and other toys that completed her load out.
The thrill of getting into the fight began to seep into her blood, but was stilled almost immediately by equal parts of training and personal force. Now was not the time to allow nervous energy to drive her, now was the time for technique, training, and superior strategy take the helm.
While she waited for a response from Dewott, she began to re-run the plan in her mind. Over this however, another train of though smiled.
They won't even know what hit them.
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Federation Side:
"Roger that! See you planetside!" a look of zeal shot across the soldier's face as he staluted from Althea's reply. He jumped into his pod and launched as soon as possible.
The pilot of the Pelipper dropship motioned for Althea to get on board with the squad of marines already on. There was a Type 38 Zoroark antiaircraft vehicle on the underside of the craft. A squadron of Gu-1 gunships were ready to escort the insertion.
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Althea nodded to the pilot. Turning to her squad of Helljumpers, swung an arm towards the Pelipper.
"Let's move it! Go," she yelled and motioned everyone to get into the dropship. She waited for everyone else to get on before jumping on herself, slamming the doors shut, giving the pilot a thumbs up that they were secure and belting herself in. Throughout all of this, she smiled softly to herself. She had remembered a quote that had been in a book she had read long ago.
"I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive, but I can promise you this. When we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the and I will be the last to leave. I will leave no man behind"
To Althea, it seemed especially apt. They were going in as reinforcements and a makeshift rescue squad after all.
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Federation Side:
As Task Force Frostbite arrives at the base a firestorm of activity they ordered their passengers to dismount and establish a perimeter around the airfield to ward off enemy resistance. Lylatian gunships were pounding UPF positions all over the base. They could not afford to lose this vital outpost, as the experimental weapons from within could be captured by the enemy.
Mikey and Tanya were huddled together beside their destroyed 23. He was covering his sister with a pulse carbine as she used her X8 AMR to down light vehicles at range.
"Things are really heating up down here! Where are those Arceus damned reinforcements?!" Mikey continued his suppressing fire.
"Dunno man! Hand me a few more micro shells will ya bro?" Tanya asked her brother as she picked off a Speedmaster's wheel.
"Here! Where's Ghost anyway?"
"Guarding the hanger with Zak and the Marines! That's the main objective."
"This battle looks grim, you think they're gonna authorize the suits?"
"Wouldn't be surprised," Tanya was cut short by an explosion that knocked her back.
"Sis!"
"Don't worry about it! My shields are still up. My bots locked up due to EMP though."
"Can you stand?" Mikey braced his sister.
"Major cramping in my legs man! The damned bots are short circuiting!"
"Where the hell is the reinforcements?!"
"I'm right here boss!" Mikey's headset came to life as a familiar voice spoke.
"Ghost! Tanya's hurt, her nanobots are offline."
"I heard you the first time," a massive power armored suit rushed over the snowbank above the jeep. The suit was armed with an arm mounted gatling gun, missile launchers, and a guass cannon. He rushed into battle trying to defend his squadmates, "Go on, pull back..."
"Ghost, who authorized you to use the suit?! You're disobeying a direct order! Get your Zorua butt outta there!"
"Zak authorized it. You can't argue with that General Bradley," Ghost replied as he poured 20mm rounds into the masses of infantry storming the base, "I'm buying time for the reinforcements! Tanya needs to pull out too!"
"Fine, this doesn't mean you're off the hook soldier."
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Althea closed her eyes while the dropship zipped over the battlefield and, even through the shielding between them and the sounds of the engine, she could hear the sounds of battle. That feeling of energy returned quickly. Through closed eyelids, she saw the drop light in the cabin turn green. With the speed born of practice, training, and no small amount of adrenaline, she prepped herself and her pod for a combat drop.
Within seconds, the uncomfortable feeling of gravity drastically increasing as the pod shot out of the belly of the Pelipper.
They were now deployed slightly off to the side of the main enemy advancement, a perfect spot to flank and set up an L-shape flank. The original idea was to see if they could push the attackers into a smaller area so the UPF's fire could be more concentrated.
Althea quickly extricated herself from her pod, tore the rifle off her back and began to run. She ran to the nearest hill and placed herself down upon it. To her left the fortifications of the base stretched off into the distance. In front of her, light armor and assorted vehicles mixed in with infantry charged the defenders.
Putting an eye to her scope, Althea first saw a pair of UPF soldiers bunkered down behind a destroyed 23. They were doing very well protecting themselves, so Althea paid them little mind, or at least she did until one of the battle suits that had been stored here came into view.
They must be harder pressed than we thought, Althea thought as she quickly readjusted her aim down range.
Now to work.
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Tanya took notice to the glint off Althea's scope. She peered through her own rifle scope to see Althea in the distance.
"Yo bro, reinforcements are here," she waved to her ally, "Ninetails on the hill there."
Zooming in with his ocular lenses he could see Althea camouflaged in the snow, "Great timing mate, Althea can you hear me? This is Capt. Micheal of the ESFP Task Force Frostbite. One of my squadmates caught a severe EMP blast, her nanobots are freaking out and disabling her movements. Provide some cover fire while I drag her outta here!"
"You're not alone man! I've got your back!" the same Dewott from before was alongside Mikey as he dragged his sister away from the fight.
"Thanks Andrew."
"Go on! Backup is almost here. They've sent in a whole armored division to this outpost!"
"Which one?" Mikey asked through his radio.
"Your dad's. The Legendary 82nd Corps."
"Yup. We've won," Mikey couldn't help but laugh, "C'mon sis, hotcakes and tea for you."
"That sounds lovely. I can't feel my legs."
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Althea allowed the muscles in her finger to loosen after her fourth shot. She had focused mainly on the drivers of vehicles so that their quick advance would stop. Gunners could always be dealt with at a moments notice and with little effort.
Lifting a hand to her headset, she responded quickly with a quick glance down towards the beleaguered defenders. "Copy Captain. Providing cover." With a deft movement of her hands, she switched the channel from open to the squad of Helljumpers she had come in with. "New Plan: form a wedge and get down to the fortifications immediately. They need covering fire and we don't have the time for flanks and superior positioning."
She set her comm back to open channel quickly and began to run down to the base herself. She stopped every 50 feet or so to take a shot or dodge into cover as the situation demanded. With quick glances, Althea verified that the soldier the Captain had identified as injured was being evacuated.
Setting up behind a Speedmaster that was missing a wheel (and crew due to some excellent firing from the base defenders), Althea returned to her sniping duties. Instead of looking for targets of opportunity, now she shot for volume. The more rounds she could put into the air, the more chaos that would ensue, and the more cover Captain Michael would get.
"Captain, this is Voss," Althea said as she began to tear into a Lytlatian squad. "I have you covered and have redirected a squad of Helljumpers to your position. What are your orders?"
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Mikey just got into the base when Althea radioed in. He set his sister down near the medical room and gave her a few painkillers to numb the cramps, "Orders are to hold the base! I've left you a gift in the back of the two-three; a missile launcher to take out any enemy H-wings. Keep the gunships off the main facility! If we lose this outpost we lose the planet, got it?"
"Too many! There's just too many!" Ghost was trying to use the remaining power in the suit to shoot down as many gunships as he could, "Shit! Not now you stupid piece of junk!" The suit started to lose power and lock up. Ghost was still trying to fight to the last bullet.
"Pull outta there Ghost! Leave the suit!"
"Better idea. Your uncle's gonna kill me for this but... Voice Authorization: Self Destruct Sequence Activated, Delayed Time; 30 seconds. Voice Authorization: ...Be Human..." Ghost unlatched his harness and bailed out, "Happy Birthday Samus..."
He was armed only with a magnum and took cover beneath the wreck of a destroyed Pelipper. He took in a breath of relief and panted. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
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"Acknowledged Captain."
Althea immediately fired off two more rounds, enough to open up some time, and ran back into the base. Using speed and no small amount of luck, she jump, climbed, and skirted obstacles in her path before she fell in behind the 23 that Captain Michael had been taking cover behind. As she took her cover, there was a massive explosion nearby as the suit detonated. Althea paid it little mind however beyond a quick hope that the pilot got out okay.
"Helljumpers," Althea put out over the comm as she slid her Para back into its holster. "Hold the line. Fall back to defensible positions, clump up, and let none of them through. Focus the officers and work your way down. Call out any targets."
A chorus of affirmatives came back through the comm, but Althea barely listened. She was far too busy loading the gift the Captain had left her. She was beginning to set it down when someone called in through the comms.
"Enemy air at 3 o'clock. Coming in fast and low!"
Lifting the launcher to her shoulder, Althea turned and locked in the incoming squad of H-wings. It was a four man squad, coming in a two-by-two formation with strict wingman cover. They were moving fast, expecting their speed and maneuverability to keep them safe.
Althea aimed at the one in the lead and pulled the trigger.
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Federation Side:
One of the gunships streaked past Althea and broke off from the formation to launch flares and evade her missile. The rest of the flight concentrated on her position, she started to receive a full barrage of plasma fire erupting out of the gunships. In the corner of her eye she saw her Pelipper. It had crash landed near the treeline, a squad of marines still trying to scramble out of the destroyed craft. She took notice that the antiair vehicle was unharmed by the impact and inferred that the armored hull of the tank would be enough to ward off the plasma fire of the gunships. Being an ESFP Soldier, she had the training to operate any vehicle the Federation deploys and even had some understanding of how to operate Lylatian vehicles. Pinned down by the gunships she could only wait for a moment to seize.
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Well, Althea thought to herself as she tried to curl up into a ball under the swiftly disappearing cover of the 23. This sucks.
All she had to do was wait for the gunships to pass over her in their strafing run, then she could break cover and sprint to the AA vehicle and cause some damage. All I have to do is cause enough confusion that the 82nd can assert themselves to good effect. All I need to do is-
Althea jumped up and sprinted across the open ground towards the marines extricating themselves from the crashed Pelipper. The gunships had roared over the crashed 23 and she only had a moment to spare before they either moved onto their next target or returned for more fun.
"Come on" she yelled at a few of the Marines. "Get in!"
Althea jumped into the tank and began to turn it on. She needed a crew for the AA and now she had one with the Marines that began to file in.
Come on, come on! The vehicle needed a moment to warm up and activate the systems. Come on, they're coming back around!
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(OOC: I forgot to mention that the Type 38 AAV has a crew of two, one gunner/commander and one driver. It has an AI to manage the systems)
The systems of the AAV turned operational; the AI stating the startup sequence.
*ZOROARK ANTI AIR VEHICLE OPERATIONAL*
*ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONING*
*THREAT DETECTED: H-WING GUNSHIPS*
*CREW: ENGAGE*
Taking a hit from a bolt of plasma the AAV shook, offsetting Althea in the gunner seat.
*SHIELDS: 66%*
*RECHARGING...*
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Excellent, now we've got something.
Althea grabbed the controls for the weapons systems and brought up the missile locking system. "What ever you do," she said to the Marine driving. "Don't stop for anything."
Focusing on the missile system, Althea began to lock on just as the Zoroark began to move. As soon as the lock was made she fired and moved to the next H-wing in the squad. She didn't wait for a confirmation from either. Instead moving immediately to the guns and opening up.
Although she would never really admit it to anyone, Althea loved the sound of quad-linked guns firing. It was something about the staggering of shots. It just felt... powerful.
She focused on splitting the fighters up. If they couldn't form up or line up a shot, they were less than worthless; they were a liability.
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Federation Side:
From behind a gunship dove at her with guns blazing. As her 23mm quad cannons ripped into the unshielded craft the pilot of the gunship tried to kamikaze himself into the AAV. Erupting into a ball of flame, the H-wing pulled apart as the last bolts of plasma disabled the shields on Althea's tank. In a millisecond she could see the gunship in her gunsights careening at her. As adrenaline kicked in a brilliant flash of light erupted as the gunship seemingly disintegrated into fragments without impact. In her earpiece there was zealous Soviet accent exclaiming on the open channel.
"Zaryadka vpered! The glorious 82nd as arrived from the beautiful motherplanet of Ultimax!"
Hundreds of armored vehicles bulldozed the treeline, all sporting the flags of the UPF. The roar of their repulsor turbines echoed dispute the thick snow on the ground. Tanks of all types drove in to reinforce the outpost, from agile Type 35 'Busters' to deadly Type 37 Zorua MBTs, to Type 59 APCs to 3-9 Muramasas, the 82nd spared nothing; not even a kitchen sink that was firmly welded to one of the vehicles as comedic decoration. As she opened the top hatch of the AAV to get a better look she noticed the division was made up solely from the homeworld of Ultimax. She could make out flags of many of the province nations that made up her homeworld. Flags of Sovia (Slavic), Aqulia (Latin Europe), USTN (North America), and even that of her home province of The Luna Isles (Developed Asia) adored the vehicles as insignias and accessories. Infantry poured out of the APCs as they provided cover fire and the mixed railguns of the LTs, TDs, and MBTs resonated in a deadly symphony. The sounds all around her filled her with joy, all those familiar noises of friendly gunfire put her at ease. Whines of miniguns, charging shots of railguns, and the brisk clitter-clatter of automatic cannon fire sounded like the sweet melody of an orchestra.
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Althea cheered when the 82 cut a swath through the base and dove into the fray. Even though she spent most of her time in the shadows and behind the scope of a rifle, the advance of an armored division was a thing of beauty. And catching the colors of Luna Isles on the side of a few of the tanks only made her cheer harder.
Taking a moment to breath as the reinforcements bowled over the weakened front lines of the Lylatian forces, Althea brought her hand up to her comm.
"This is Capt. Voss. Captain Michael, are you still there? The 82nd have arrived and have reinforced all lines as far as I can see. What are your orders?"
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"No further orders friend. Unless they try something big, which there's little chance. I don't think they'll be back for a while. And thanks for the Assist! I got my entire squad to pull out just in time and we're all okay. You ESFP? I saw your moves all the way from the base. If you're up for a challenge later we can fill you in on a classified mission. In the meantime I guess you can do some close protection duty. My dad, The President, is in town and we could help with keeping those assassins off him. Didn't know I was THAT Capt Micheal Rivers now did you?"
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Althea pulled herself out of the AAV and reached down to help the Marine out as well. "Good job soldier" she whispered to the Marine as he left.
Jumping off the AAV and onto the ground, Althea breathed a sigh of relief. I'm glad I landed here as opposed to ordering the pilot to drop us off on the other ridge. I should have known that this Captain Rivers was the son of the President... Putting a hand to her ear, Althea responded.
"Yes Sir, I'm Captain Althea Voss of the ESFP. Glad to hear that you and your men are safe. And, if it isn't too forward sir, I'm always up for a challenge. I'm coming into the HQ, where can I meet you?"
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"Medlab in block A4. Second hallway, take a left, follow the signs. You've seen my face on TV before, that handsome Glaceon with the dorky sister," Mikey joked. Tanya opened up her channel.
"Oh shut up bro! Don't make me tell her about the-"
"Alright! Alright! Geez, One time Tanya, One time! Don't worry about that, we've had our sibling rivalries since we were in the womb. By the way, you can call me Mikey. That's a privilege, I give to my friends. You're a brave soldier to be selected into the ESFP and you've earned my respect just by passing that."
"And I'm Tanya. Glad to meet you fellow Luna Islander. You from the North (Japan), East (SKorea), West (Taiwan), or South (Philippines)?"
(OOC: Check the Sign Up Thread for NPC Profiles)
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Althea had to mute her set for just a second to stop her laughter from being broadcast across the channel. She entered into the HQ and, instead of going directly to the Med bay, headed to the armory instead. It makes no sense to walk around without able to defend the base at any moment. Once I get some ammo, I'll head up to the Med Bay.
"Roger Captain Mich - I mean Mikey" Althea kinda wince at the familiarity. It just seemed strange to talk to the son of the president that way. "I'm glad that you count me among those you name friends. And to respond to your question, I come from the Northern Isles."
Althea picked up her ammunition quickly and jogged into the Med bay just a few moments later. With the help of a nurse, she found her way to Micheal and Tanya. Opening the door and moving forward into the room, Althea made a short bow allowing her fox tails to spread out behind her a bit. "Hello... Mikey and Tanya. I hope you are not too grievously wounded Ms. Tanya. How are you feeling?"
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"Little sore from the cramping, but otherwise I'm feeling great," the Vaporeon replied, "The one disadvantage to this mechanical augmentation is vulnerability to EMPs. The Lylatians use genetic augmentation in their Spec Ops and their soldiers can't breed because their genes are too twisted up. The thing about the nanobots; sure they may hurt like hell when you get EMP'd but after all this when we return to civvy life we can settle down and have a family. And hey, in the long run I bet most of those genetically superior children will join the ESFP too. All natural farm raised organic badasses ready for the fight."
"You gotta love the UPF," Mikey smiled as he helped his sister get back up.
"Guys..." Ghost came into the room, blackened with singed fur, "I blew up the suit..."
"Good job," Tanya glared at the Zorua.
"Man, this is gonna be the third week in a row I'll be washing toilets with my toothbrush."
"Actually, you saved us quite a bit Ghost. The suit was malfunctioning, and upon further inspection it was gonna blow on its own before you happened to jump in it," Mikey explained.
"...So you're telling me that I was driving a walking nuke?! Holy crap reality bitch slapped me hard today."
"Good thing you managed to activate the weaker self destruct before it did."
"No kidding..."
"PRESIDENT ON DECK!" Andrew yelled and saluted, his squad doing the same.
Escorted into the base with a squad of Civil Guard Agents, President Rivers surveyed the base intently as he made his way to the medical room.
"Keep your eyes and ears peeled for anything comrades," Andrew whispered into his mic, "This is still a hostile area."
The nurse in the medlab stood at attention as the President walked in.
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Althea laughed quietly while Ghost spoke about his most interesting day and his run in with a very combustible piece of equipment. She could at least sympathize with the punishments within the military. Not to go too far into it, but there were some incidents when Althea had gone through explosives training that cost her instructor his eyebrows.
Upon hearing the call of VIP on Deck, Althea made a quick side-step so that she stood next to the wall as she snapped to attention. No kidding Andrew, she thought as she heard the whispered mention of this still being a battle field. There were probably still Marines out there dying while she was standing here.
She sneaked a peak at the President as she stood there at attention. Call it a childish inclination, but it used to be a game between her and her sister when they were children to try and sneak peaks without being noticed. Kimiko had always been better at it than she.
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"At ease everyone, return to your duties," The President seemed a bit nonchalant today even though he knew that he was very much in danger, "You okay Tanya?"
"Just caught a blast of EMP, I'll be fine," she sat up as the residual soreness faded. She got up and hugged her father.
"Your mom called me here to check on you guys and see how you're doing. Plus I've got to survey the aquaculture facilities behind the lines to make sure we're getting enough fish on the tables. You know how bad the food crisis is back home, everyday some people don't get enough rations to survive. These are hard times for everyone, especially for me and your mother. As Vice President she has to sift through more paperwork, more forms, and more letters just to run the UPF. Believe me, both of our heads are spinning at all the time consuming issues that float around the Capitol."
"How are the quarantines of the Reaper Plague?" Mikey asked
"Bad. Another outer moon colony was hit even though the quarantine was in effect there. First our food production planets and now the outer systems. It seems like someone, or something other than the collective intelligence of the Plague is spreading these mutagenic viruses. The whole UPF is in paranoid lockdown. If anyone is seen coughing up bright yellow blood they get executed on the spot and their body cremated. No exceptions. No cure. At least people understand that much. No riots, no civil unrest, just suffering. I'm here to make sure to ease and relieve that suffering. If my people are unhappy then you bet your sweet sorry ass that I'll be pissed as a Gyrados on roid rage. Don't get on my bad side today. I'd like to just relax and chat with a few soldiers and civilians to get my mind off things."
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Even though Althea knew the President was a bit of a laid back individual, she thanked her lucky stars that she had the foresight to go from full attention to relaxed attention with her hands folded behind her and her feet spread shoulder width apart. This followed the command of "at ease" while still remaining at attention.
Just from looking at the President's face, he looked tired. His was not an easy burden to bear, and Althea could see that it was wearing on him. She respecter her leader dearly and because of that wondered about his health.
Upon Captain Micheal's mention of the Reaper Plague, Althea stiffened. That was one subject that generally destroyed her good mood. She had lost a few friends to that disease. It was troubling that the disease continually seemed to jump quarantine, even across planets. As far as she knew (and she would be the first to admit that she knew little about immunology or virology), plagues like this don't jump from planet to planet and bypass the quarantines.
Her current theory was that someone was purposefully transmitting it. Call me paranoid, but...
"Captain Voss reporting Mr. President."
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"Ah yes, Althea Voss. Sniper and designated markswoman floating around from unit to unit. It's good to see the EFSP my cousin set up in full affect. You know, these kids of mine always wanted to follow in their dad's footsteps. And my cousin, General Bradley, put them into his very own pet project. To be honest I thought the ESFP was gonna be a huge waste of money. But in reality you guys do things not even Helljumpers can do. And that is why I need you-say? Where's Zak? he needs to hear this. Oh hold on, let's meet in the briefing room in fifteen minutes. I need all of you ESFP to come to the meeting."
"Roger dad!"
"Arf!" Tanya barked in agreement.
"Cute," he smiled at his daughter's yip. Althea got a good look at the young appearance of the President. Although he was 42, he could almost pass as someone of his late 20s. Althea noticed that his wariness made him look much older than face value.
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You know what, Althea thought to herself as she watched the President leave the room, I like him. He does his job well. That, and apparently everyone likes the Experimental troops. The President is giving me his personal opinion on the matter, the Presidents son was their biggest fan, and Tanya was ready to birth a whole litter of candidates. Oh well...
Althea waited until the door finally closed before relaxing fully and turning back to Michael and Tanya. She raised one eyebrow at Tanya and asked a question with a smile.
"Yip?"
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"What about it?" she asked, "Always did that since I was a pup. I really look up to my dad you know?"
"Can you walk sis?"
"Yeah, gotta sit this next mission out man. My new nanobots won't be in for quite some time. Gonna head home and help mom with her stuff. Althea, you can take my place in the squad. Go on to the meeting."
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"Alright," Althea said kindly, "as long as you are alright."
Althea couldn't really call her on "yipping" at her dad, she had done just as many silly things to her parents when she was little. For instance, right when she had learned that she had some ability with fire, she had accidentally set her father's suit on fire. Suffice it to say that he wasn't overly pleased with her performance.
"You stay safe Tanya," she said as she helped the Vaporeon to her feet and embraced her in a quick, sisterly hug. "Try to stay away from the line of fire."
She turned to Captain Michael. "Shall we Sir?"
She and Mikey walked to the briefing room. They were a bit earlier than the President's fifteen minute deadline, so that gave her an opportunity to ask a few questions of the Captain. Like for instance...
"What is the son of the President doing on the front lines of a battle," Althea asked as she took a seat in the briefing room. "Not that I think your combat ability is lacking, far from it. I just wouldn't think that such a VIP would be stationed anywhere near a battle."
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"You obvious don't watch a lot of TV don't you?" Mikey flashed the ESFP insignia on his shoulder, "Been wanting to be a soldier since I fired my first Tundra Falcon. See this magnum? I've had it since I was seven. Me and my sister wanted to be soldiers just like our parents during the Federation Civil War. My mom, VP May, was a rebel sniper and my dad a tank commander. My sister is a sniper and I'm not just good with tanks, I'm good with anything. ARs, SMGs, DMRs, anything I can get my hands on will help. I was selected into the ESFP when I was 16. I was in ROTC in high school along with my sister. Originally I wanted to be a drop trooper like my friend Andrew over there. But then when 'uncle' decided to form the ESFP he hand picked me to be the first. Boot Camp was brutal to most, but me and my sister found it to be a cakewalk. It just felt natural to pick up a rifle, crawl through the mud, and march for hours. I felt at home. Ghost and Zak, well, Ghost is actually immune to the Reaper Plague and Zak is a Hybrid Pokemorph, a reproductive experiment. Half Absol, half Char. Ghost is crafty, cunning, and devious. He struggled with the training, but in the end his brains made him come out on top. Zak was far more superior to anyone who applied in the ESFP. He's as faster and more evasive than an Absol and stronger than a Charmeleon. Sorry, whenever I talk about myself I talk about my friends too. I'm not just in the service to earn my Citizenship, I'm in it because it's a career choice I love."
"You know Federation policy: You wanna vote; you gotta serve. The whole Civilian/Citizen system makes sure the voters care about the way the UPF runs. You know how good of a job Mikey's dad does? He has kept in power for 18 years and nobody gives a complaint about it," Ghost explained a bit more, "His commitment to the nation is his obsession. He wants to make the people happy, he wants to keep this great socialist democracy great. Everyone loves the guy. You simply can't hate him. Well, unless you're Lylatian or some former Rising Tide. Then everyone hates him. Xenophobic assholes."
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Althea listened quietly as Mikey spoke of his previous life. And it was true, she had never been much of a tv-watcher. Instead, (even though she had singed a few of the pages of some of her favorites) she had always been a bit of a bibliophile. With a warm feeling, Althea thought back to her small library full of historic classics, texts, and (yes, it was silly but) poetry.
Althea shifted a bit in her seat as she checked the small waterproof notebook that she had tucked into one of the pockets of her suit by feel. It was nearly full with her small attempts at true literary art, but none of them were very good in her opinion...
As Micheal continued to speak, Althea remembered the training. At first, she had hated the mud and grime that seemed to have been mated to the basic training course. But that had all gone away once she had picked up the marksmen rifles. Then she was willing to slog over miles of the thickest slop that the sergeants could throw at her for just the chance at a rifle. That was also before the survival and Close Quarters Combat training (both of which she had surprisingly excelled at due to her pyroclastic abilities).
Although she tried to hide it, she was a bit suprised to find that Ghost was immune to the plague. As far as she knew, you were either immune to a disease due to some genetic mutation (which meant that you basically won the steepest lottery in existence) or you had survived an encounter with the disease, which seemed a lot harder to do. When she heard that Zak was a hybrid experiment, Althea knew that her surprise showed on her face. He would be formidable on the field if given the right direction.
Luckily, Althea thought to herself happily. The ESFP get some of the best leadership available. I guess that's what you get when you have elite units leading the way into battle...
"I can't agree with you more," Althea said once Ghost had finished talking. "I voted for your father Mikey every chance I got. I think he's among the best things to happen to us as a culture, you know next to sliced bread and the invention of plasma shielding. I'm just glad that I was able to meet his son and name him among one of my friends, as fast as this has all happened." Althea looked down to the small clock on her wrist. "I wonder where the President is?"
-
Lylatian Side:
In the briefing room of a Lylatian battleship Sergeant Olaris is on the recieving end of a barrage of scolds from his CO.
"NO NO NO!" Admiral Fox McCloud banged on his desk in anger, "How did we lose Fichina?! I sent my best troops, talked with my best advisors, and I even sent you there! As a Star Paladin I expected you to take that base with little resistance. Before I make a judgement on you, explain this: What the hell happened down there Sergeant?..."
(They sent in their special task forces, elite armored corps, and destroyed all the gunships thrown at the less fortified base)
-
Inside the office with the Admiral was a smaller white fox who was dressed in a slim black armor suit tailored for his body. The suit held to origional Cornerian Emblem from the Lylat wars, and was clearly in use for a long time. One of the Fox's large ears were bandaged to the side of his head over an injury. When he was addressed to explain what happened, he thought over it for a moment. "Sir..." he started off then quickly inhaled through his teeth seeing how he could easily be courtmarshled for just a slight understatement under the circumstances, "there is hounestly no way I can explain this to well without you getting a bit more... sevearly disgrutled."
Olaris raised his hands by his sides with the black palms up diligently and shook them lightly up and down in a small gesture as he continued to explain in a streatching tone, "These wern't.... the average troops that you typically see from our lovely adversaries. They had some pretty extensive training, comparable to our speacil forces in the Lylat Wars. BUT! They had some phenominal equipment. It took maybe about... three or so good men just to take one down who caught us off guard, then another 7 or so just to kill another... after that we couldn't hold out for more then... a good while. So I would say... we were attacked by their Armored Elites."
He scartched at his bandaged ear for a split second before expecting the worst.
-
Lylatian Side:
"Clearly I was the one who made the mistake," Admiral McCloud sighed, "A full frontal assault with air support was no match for the more than average defenders. Really, I didn't think that pull so many reinforcements just to protect a stupid fish hatchery. But I have to say; why put so much effort to do so? Something isn't right. Either the UPF is planning this as a diversion or... Nevermind, such a thought that occured to me would seem traitorous to think that our President dragged us into this war. Either way, something doesn't seem right and I think the Federation is all at fault."
He sighed, "I'm assigning you to guard this outpost, Zoness Sea Base 887. One of our biological research plants there have found a new virus the Federation fears. And recently it was found to be forerunner human bioweapon. It's called the Reaper Plague, I'll brief you about it right now."
Preparing a slideshow McCloud boots up his holographic projector, "The Reaper Plague: this mutagenic virus causes an infection unseen in regular diseases. The virus is a swarm, an intelligence. It causes those who have been infected to rapidly morph into twisted and mutated forms, called Necromorphs. Since the virus itself has control over the host body, simply destroying the brain is not enough to kill the individual infected. You have to either dismember, disintegrate, or incinerate the Necro to kill it. The virus itself cannot survive once the host is stripped of offensive means. The virus will selfdestroy itself once it finds that the host can't kill to reproduce."
As spine-chilling as this was Olaris was interested in such a powerful weapon. Although his thoughts on using biological weapons were bitter.
Post Merge: December 11, 2011, 02:22:10 AM
Federation Side:
"Alright guys, this is a top secret mission and I've selected only the finest ESFP soldiers, you guys, for the job," The President stood in front of the whole squad, "I have some bad news," he paused, "Our recent intelligence reports have found out that the Lylatian Republic has found the existence of the Reaper Plague and has already set up a major research plant on the planet Zoness. Your mission: Blow the **censor** place up. I'm not gonna sugercoat this presentation, this is extremely serious business. Sea Base 887 is the primary, and only, research plant that has the virus. Ghost will come in handy for this mission, because he's immune those Necromorphs can't see him, nor acknowledge him. In case of an outbreak he'll wipe the floor with them. Your sidearms will be replaced with plasma cutters, Althea you haven't dealt with this threat before. If you see one of these freaks DON'T aim for center mass or headshot. Cut off their LIMBS."
Ghost was a bit shaken at the thought, he remembered his dead mother, morphed into one of those abbominations. He couldn't hide his fear and was shaking badly.
-
Althea listened with little emotion. Right now, there was no place for fear, no place for joy, no place for apprehension. Instead, she did the same thing she had always done when learning about a mission: assimilate information. Although it was terrible to think that a virus (or would it be more apt to call it a parasite?) could assume control of a host in such a gruesome fashion and then perform such ghastly things to the body, it was illogical to react to it now. This moment was reserved for gathering, sorting, and understanding information.
Fire for the limbs. Check. Dismemberment. Check. Avoid physical contact at all times. Check...
With a glance she noticed Ghost's obvious fear. Althea leaned over and nudged him in the shoulder.
"Don't worry about it Ghost," she said with a confident smile and a soft voice. "We are the best trained, best equipped, and most elite soldiers that the UPF can field. The enemy is a virus. It's unthinking, instinctual, and probably something like the old zombie b-films from way back when. If we can't finesse our way through the facility, we can always begin to play a war of attrition and eliminate them all. Besides, I can't imagine that we would have to deal with any of them anyways. It's a research facility, not a breeding pit. Any that we come across will be behind closed doors with over-exaggerated fail-safes everywhere. You'll be fine. I'll protect you."
Turning to the President. "Sir, if I may? Would it be possible to outfit the squad with HazMat protection to try and protect against accidental exposure? Also, if I may keep my Tundra Hawk, if only for close quarters work with non-..." Althea had to search for the word, "Necro...morphs? Lastly, may I ask how we will be inserting, what the projected pathways are, and what the plan for extraction is? Do we have any maps?"
Althea already knew the value of this mission. The obvious gains were that they would stop Lylation research into the Reaper Plague (she shuddered to think of what those brutes would do with such knowledge) and that set back any progress they had made an immense distance. There was another gain that Althea felt driven to at least attempt for. If the Lylation scientists had made any progress, any at all, on identifying, cataloging , or (dare she even think it?) curing the Plauge then they could bring that back to the UPF and maybe, just maybe, stop the Plague in their homes.
-
Olaris's eyes narrowed slightly upon the mentioning of bio-weapons. The memories he held of fighting such things were already gruesome enough, but the idea to defend one was nearly repulsive to the fox. “Sir... with all do respect. I am interested in a weapon that is effective, but a bio-weapon,” he asked as he placed both hands on the desk and leaned forward.
“Don't you remember the damage one can cause? They are uncontrollable! You yourself should know! You have had more encounters with them then anyone in this entire army Fox! Remember Andross's little pets?! You're going to recreate history with this," the fox half heartedly scolded knowing that this probably wasn't going to matter in a few seconds. With a sigh, he shook his head and straightened up, "I am sorry, I am soldier first. I will leave immediately sir."
-
Federation Side:
Ghost growled at Althea, "It's not okay! These things ARE thinking, sentient, and downright deadly okay?! I don't need someone to tell me otherwise! Those things killed my m-mother!" he was almost in tears.
"Control yourself man!" Mikey held him down, "She didn't know, okay? Take it easy. She didn't mean anything."
Ghost wiped the tears from his eyes, "I never want to see these things ever again. Any mention of it makes me think back to how I managed to get off the Ishimura with Clarke. I was only a week old and I remember everything. I have nightmares, depressive states, and I just break okay?... I was just a scared little kit following bloodsoaked footprints to get out alive. I saw things I wiill never unsee and I hhad to eat uninfected corpses just to stay alive. Continue with the briefing, I really need to go for a walk."
Mikey turned to Althea, "You didn't know, it's okay. Never comment on his fears unless they're true."
With a look of understanding Buster dismissed Ghost out of the room, "Now as we were saying, you will be inserting in via an underused method: midget submarines. Maps of the facility will be available en route. And yes, you will be issued the usual H-1 HazMat/Undersea rebreather."
Mikey took notice at the peculiar look of the helmets, "This looks like a freakin' SPARTAN II helmet off Angel Wing."
"Hey man, I ain't the one who designs these things. It shows you how much Video Games are taken seriously here in the Federation," The President casually replied back to his son.
Post Merge: December 11, 2011, 04:45:19 AM
Lylatian Side:
McCloud sighes, "It... Wasn't my decision. I voted against this program, but my superiors chose otherwise. Now go. You'll be on guard duty, so stay sharp."
-
As Ghost left the room, Althea opened her mouth to say something, an apology, anything, but decided against it. I'll just have to make it up to him later. Right now is not the best time.
Althea's attention (although she was distracted by the feelings of guilt in the pit of her stomach) returned to the briefing when midget subs were introduced. The President was right, Althea couldn't remember the last time midget submarines did much more than underwater surveillance, salvage, and maybe a sabotage mission on the side.
When the conversation moved on to the helmets, Althea's attention was almost completely gone. The only part of her mind still actively engaged in the briefing was the part of her mind constantly taking notes anyways. Everything else was preoccupied with Ghost and his haunted past or with trepidation about the submarines.
Althea had never liked swimming much. In fact, all the portions of Basic that contained water had been the hardest part of training for her. Sure, she could swim, but the fear of drowning not knowing what's in the water always ate at her resolve and made her hands visibly shake if she wasn't careful. Althea didn't know why, she had always been that way.
Yeah, but my little child hood hydrophobia can't hold a candle to Ghost's fear. Wow, that was stupid of me! How could I have thought that a little "Oh don't worry 'bout it" peptalk could have helped?!? Hell, he ate corpses to survive...
Note to self: never mention ANYTHING to Ghost ever again.
Note to self: remember to remove foot from mouth before bed.
-
“Yes Sir,” the fox barked as he gave a thumbs up solute before turning to the door and jogging out of the office, “First I need to get better equipped sir!” His first stop came to the large thick high security door way that lead into the armory. After a quick swipe of the card, he slipped inside and walked down the small crawl space created between two very large shelves and many different drawers and cabinets.
He stopped when he spotted the cabinet he was looking for and promptly opened the door to and quickly rifled through the packages, reading over them quietly to himself.
“Bio-Shield Module, engages within proximity of toxins and harmful materials,” he murmured quietly as he quickly tossed it into his bag, “Zoness... a toxic dump... I'm gonna need it if I don't want my butt talking to me.
“No... no no... no... Research Software...,” he mumbled once again as he gave it a cocked look. He pondered over it seeing how it could come in handy even though it may be completely useless to him. He started to put it back, but then hesitated as his gut began to wrench it's self at the very thought of a horrible irony. He slowly turned back around and tossed it into his bag, and peered at the gun selection.
“Hmm... Rifles... shotguns... we still have kinetic weapons and rounds, pulse rifle... “ he finished as he snatched the Pulse Rifle off the wall as well as a hand full of cells, and added them to his bag. With his selection done, he quickly slung the bag over his shoulder and made a quick sprint to the Docking Bay.
-
Federation and Lylatian Sides:
On the toxic planet of Zoness the seas raged and a fierce storm swept through Sea Base 887. Fully sealed in their minisubs, Task Force Frostbite was ready to be dropped into the atmosphere along with a salvo of missiles as a decoy.
"Feels great to be an honorary member of the famous Task Force Frostbite eh Althea? Too bad this planet's a toxic waste dump and the seas are just rife with green sickly crap," Mikey chatted through the rebreather and sealed suit.
"Soo looking forward to this," Ghost rolled his eyes.
Meanwhile on Base 887 the fennec, Sgt. Olaris, grimiced as he stepped out of his transport craft. He was greeted by some of the guards of the facility all wearing HazMat equipment.
"You look like you could use a suit. Here, put this on once you're inside," a soldier handed him a bulky, yet mobile HazMat uniform, "Don't get to close to the cages either. These things make vomit look like rainbows."
-
Althea hands gripped her knees as the minisub fell into the atmosphere.
Yep, she thought to herself. This is great. Please don't remind me about the seas. Soon I'm going to be surrounded by that toxic junk and I can't help but imagine that it's worse than water. Excellent, there go my hands now...
Forcing a smile (or what passed as a smile through the helmet's visor) she turned to Mikey. "I'm proud to be a part of the team Mikey! Though I can't help but find the irony of the situation." She indicated herself with a wave of her hand. "I think I'm the first Ninetails on Team Frostbite, for obvious reasons."
She glanced at Ghost, but made sure to keep it at a glance. Althea still felt terrible about her earlier crudeness. She needed something that would stop her from reaching out to Ghost to make amends. She still hadn't thought of anything she could say. So, to occupy herself, she began to play with the Plasma Cutter that she had been issued. Luckily, this also forced her hands to stop shaking as it gave them something to do.
She held the strange weapon in her hands and began to turn it over. She admired the simplicity of the weapon, but was a bit leery of its weight. Though she had yet to fire it, she did admire it's effectiveness. It would be an interesting weapon to use on the field.
-
The fox frowned as he slipped the hazmat suit over his own modular armor, and tossed on the helmet as well. He began fiddling with his pulse rifle as he moved forward, adjusting the attachments he took from his original rifle into a better position. He slowly rotated the gun to the left to expose the side mounted flashlight and the under sling plasma saw. The plasma saw was originally intended for soldiers who ventured through the thick forest of Fortuna to open path's or cut away at branches to free a trapped soldiers. However, some soldiers have found interesting uses for such a device when it comes to conventional warfare much like Olaris.
When he passed by the cages he took a quick glance to the side seeing only darkness inside the cage. He came slightly closer to it but still out of range, and the bare silhouette of the creature was plainly visible. Every sharp, intricate detail was plainly visible over the deformed, and misshapen body. “That's the Necro!” the fox demanded as he pointed to the thing. His eyes meeting the creatures directly. The lifelessness of it was apparent, leaving the undescribable blood lust unexplainable to natural physics.
-
Lylatian Side:
The intercom suddenly opened communications, "Atttention! A Federation ship has been sighted above the planet and has fired a missile salvo at the planet. Missiles have damaged one of our defense towers, but otherwise most missed or malfunctioned. Just giving you guys a heads up."
-
Olaris's ear flickered lightly inside the Haz-Mat suit's helmet before looking to the other guards in the area. “You've heard em. Were at large everyone!” he told them, motioning for them to move to their battle positions while he sent a quick command to his ship for it to submerge and send him constant radar feed back.
-
Federation Side:
Too small to be noticed by sonar the fish-like minisub mimicked large fish native to the planet. Mikey looked about the submarine's systems.
"Everything checks out. Okay guys, dead silence. We're almost to the facility. Remember: we've only got enough RX4 (Plastic EXP) to blow up the powerplant of the base. Ready?"
"Someone set them up the bomb," Ghost replied back, Zak still silent in the front seat of the second minisub.
Lylatian Side:
Detecting nothing out of the ordinary the guards returned to their usual duties. But Olaris caught a glimpse of one guard who was coughing badly inside his helmet. The soldier took off his helmet and started to vomit a bright yellow fluid. Olaris backed up and paranoia kicked in, checking the seal on his helmet.
The soldier was in agony and cursing, "Why me?! Oh great Forerunners why me?!"
The rest of the guards didn't hesitate and threw him into one of the empty cages. With odd curiosity Olaris peeked in as his comrade ached and started to bleed out the yellow liquid from every opening. Sharp cracking of bones could me heard through the screams of the infected soldier, his ribcage twisting into a bat-like wing, lungs swollen with hydrogen, and jaw peeling. All the while the soldier screamed, which then turned into an eerie alien sound upon the full transformation. The sergeant was afraid to vomit, as the removal of his helmet could mean a fate similar to that of his fellow guard. The now deformed Infector lunged at the side of the cage, poking the spine-like probosis through a gap in the solid plasma bars.
-
And now we're submerged...
Althea forced a chuckle at Ghost's little quip, but there wasn't much effort behind it. Hopefully, everyone else would think that was a product of speaking through a rebreather.
"What's our ETA Mikey?" Althea put away the plasma cutter and began to fiddle with one of the motion sensors.
-
The fox quickly reeled back to avoid the probe that lashed at him; he was startled completely by it's sudden movements and the virus's quick progression and quickly tapped a button on his armor's helmet just by prodding through the material of the mask he wore.
“Research Software initializing....” a computerized voice responded to him as a loading bar came over the scouter just above his eye. The optical screen blurred for just a minute as new messages displayed across the screen to show the software's current booting progression.
When it was finished, the scouter quickly began to scan over the morphed creature and quickly went to work with various other processes of x-rays, heart monitoring, and even cellular evaluation. He quietly read over the results to himself, the readings being absolutely unheard of to the systems database it's self. He began to grow disgusted by the creature as he began to slowly realize that the soldier is now just an animated corpse.
However, with the software came to an immediate halt, as it displayed a bounding box around the creature with the words labeling it a high threat just above. With this, Olaris now slowly backed out of the room keeping the eyes on the creature before turning around to head outside into the open toxic ocean, and opened his radio to speak to Admiral McCloud.
“Fox,” he growled lowly into the communicator as he leaned onto the rails looking out into the toxic ocean that laid before him. “These bio-weapons your superiors wants protected do not discriminate,” he yelled into the radio as he looked over his shoulder, his paranoia starting to grow out of control as he looked back into the ocean. “This is a double edged sword we are dealing with. I just watched one of our own troops become an infected. You're not serious about defending these... abomina...” he trailed off for a moment as he could have sworn he saw a blimp for a split second received from his ships remote radar connection, and began to watch the sea carefully for anything odd.
-
Fed & Lylat Sides:
"Poor Bastard," one of Olaris' comrades walks over, "Must have took off his helmet outside the designated area." The soldier took notice to the sonar screen of Olaris, "The fish on this planet are getting really huge huh? Good thing the toxicity of the water is enough to kill this virus if it ever leaks. Just leave that thing, it's obviously a fish. I can tell by the frequency and sonar patterns."
In their minisubs Task Force Frostbite was undetected, "ETA five minutes, they haven't caught onto us."
Upon approach the minisubs surfaced underneath the research rig. Surveying the area, they were still undetected, they docked near one of the pylons and got out, "Holy crap this planet stinks," Ghost whispered while readying a grappling hook. The subs resumed autopilot and continued the facade of mutated fish.
"Subs are gone, radio silence cancelled but stay quiet, climb up to the rig. Watch for sentries," Mikey spotted one such sentry and zoomed in with his silenced subsonic magnum, "Good night."
He aimed at the sentry's no-reflex kill zone and dispatched him with the headshot. Using the grappling gun, he disposed of the body by sending it over the edge. Once they had reached their infiltration point the group bunched up behind some shipping containers and huddled around a map. Mikey continued with orders, "Okay, the powerplant is located in the lower section of the facility. We're on the middle tier of the rig. Remember, this is a stealth mission, don't engage unless neccessary."
"M-Man this place gives me the creeps. It's all dark, rainy, there's Necros in this place, and it just stinks of rot. Worst of all, it looks like the Ishimura," Ghost shook.
"Stay focused on the mission... No time for fear now. Everyone got it?"
"Roger," Zak and Ghost agreed.
-
Althea forced herself to wait for everyone else to get out of the sub before jumping out herself. She didn't want to appear too enthusiastic did she?
Once Mikey described their path, Althea nodded but remained focused on the map. She was trying to memorize it so that she could navigate this facility with ease.
As they began to move out, she reached out to grab Ghost's arm and held him back for just a bit. She turned off her radio and moved her face close to his ear so he could hear through the helmet.
"I'm sorry about what I said Ghost," She said as loudly as she dared. "I've got your back down here."
-
Even with the soldier disregarding the small blimp, Olaris's suspicions remained in tact as he turned around to look at the guard through his helmet. “It's a radar, not a sonar. The difference between the two is, that a Radar uses a radio wave, and would never see a fish because it won't deflect the emission,” he sighed as he tapped the scouter through his helmet's material once more with a frown.
He continued to fiddle with the device, upping the RoE of the ships radar remotely as he turned around to walk along the catwalks outside the facility. Taking the moment to glance around, out into the ocean first then ahead of him, then back to the radar.
-
Federation Side:
Ghost hesitated a bit and look into the open visor of Althea. For a minute he only stood there, paralyzed at the sight of Althea's face. A memory flashed by, thoughts of his mother, who looked similar to Althea. He couldn't move, and with a drop in blood pressure he collapsed. Mikey rushed in and caught him in time.
"Shit, this is too much for him. He must have had a relapse. This place reminds him too much of his childhood fears," Mikey popped a revive pill into Ghost's mouth and shook him awake, "You sure you're up for this man?"
"I'm fine, just Althea, keep your visor closed. You look like my mother, that's why I passed out. She turned into one of those... Things," his heart was racing, fear overfilled him, "Mission, the mission. C'mon Ghost, what's keeping you."
"You're not up for this, guard our exfil point and use your Illusion ability to disguise as one of the guards. Preferably the one I just killed."
"Roger, I'll stay near the landing pad," Ghost changed forms into a Lylatian Soldier with Illusion, stationing himself were the other guard was.
Lylatian Side:
"Ya know Derreck, these things are actually kinda fun to mess around with," one soldier was throwing some fish at the angry Necromorphs.
"Dude! What the hell are you doing?! Get away from the cage rookie!"
"Oh c'mon, what's the worst that can hap-" he was cut short by a probe that had been stabbed through him by an Infector. Within seconds he turned into Slasher and lunged at the other guard, killing him. The Slasher knew how to operate the controls to get the rest of its kin out. Upon deactivation the horde screamed in unison and began to spread across the facility.
Federation Side:
Ghost heard a familiar scream of the Slasher and jumped, "Ohhhhhh shit... M-Mikey, the Necros! They're out!"
"Ghost, relax man, pop a few tranquilizers to get your nerves down I don't- Wait, on your guard team,, he may be right."
Lylatian Side:
"See that? It's swimming away, nothing to worry about rookie, you're obviously just stressed out from the battlefield. Say, do you hear a flapping sou-" again, the guard standing next to Olaris was stabbed through the head with the probosis of another Infector. Olaris jumped back and grabbed his rifle to shoot at the undead soldier and the monsterious beast gripping onto him. His rifle shots did nothing, and in his panic he had accidently used the plasma cutter to slice the limbs off his friend, as well as the probosis of the Infector. Immediately the two Necros hissed and gruggled in pain, the viruses self distructing because they could do no harm. His heart was pounding and he watched the door, aiming his rifle at the expectant Necros.
-
Althea hung her head and closed her visor. I just can't catch a break with this guy, can I? Althea turned her radio back on just in time to hear that the Necromorphs may be loose. Whether or not it was true, they needed to be careful.
Althea flexed her fingers and wrists in preperation to move quickly and drew her Para. Sure the range was a tad enthusiastic in such close quarters, but the integrated silencer would help and if they could get the drop on a guard, the accuracy would help. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a magazine that she had taken from the armory before leaving and loaded it quickly.
Hollow point rounds. This should give the Necromorphs some pause at the very least. Hell, if I'm lucky, it may even knock off an arm or something.
Althea signaled Mikey that she was ready to move out. The Plasma cutter was on her left hip, ready to be quickly drawn if needed.
"Ready to go Captain."
-
The fox quickly shook the blood from his suit and began to slowly round the corner, aiming the saw blade towards the doorway as he made sure to keep his guard up. He quickly raised his voice inside his helmet to speak through his scouter's com link a series of voice commands for his ship. "Command Lines Open! Initiate Program Xerxes, Operation Scout and Mark!" he yelled out.
"Voice Command Received and Initiated," he received in response as his ship rose from the surface of the toxic water and began to slowly rout around the facility, scanning the area for any other escaped infected, or anomalies in the system. And relayed the information to the fox through a visual stream.
"All able bodied soldiers, this is Sgt. Olaris. The Necros are now roaming freely, eliminate them on sight immediately," he ordered through his team's radios before finally charging through the door after being sure that nothing was waiting for him on the other side, and quickly ran down the hallways to meet up with the crew.
-
Lylatian Side:
"Roger sir! we're just abou-OH SWEET CORNERIA! HELP ME!" The soldier and the rest of his squad were wiped out by some Necros that came from above via air vents. As far as he knew, Olaris was the only one left. As he ran away from his post he could hear a few voices coming from a hallway. He made his way over to the voices and screamed for help.
Federation Side:
Upon the sighting of Olaris Task Force Frostbite aimed their weapons and told him to stop, in a panic Olaris hesitated, just enough time for Mikey to grab him by the throat, icy claws poking at his neck, "Listen, I don't know who you are and I don't care, but if you wanna make it out of here alive you better not shoot us, got it? We've got a telepath, and you'll be damn sure that if you try anything funny she won't hesitate to shoot you. Now... Tell us where the powerplant is and we'll cleanse this infection."
Upon passive scanning Mikey deemed it safe to remove the soldier's helmet, "Wait a minute... I know you. Your boyfriend gave me quite a sore throat a few months ago. He'll be happy to see you in the POW ship. Unless, you know, you try to resist and we just cut you down. I don't usually do these types of favors for grunts like you, but right now this is a matter of survival, not loyalty to your country. Got it?"
-
After getting over the surprise of having a Lylatian soldier jump out of nowhere at them, Althea allowed Mikey to take care of it and scanned the surroundings.
The halls were clear of any traffic, but that meant very little if a Lylatian officer (if her guess was right from the uniform) could just pop out of nowhere and get the drop on them like that.
Turning around, Althea ran down the next crossroads and laid down a motion sensor before running ahead and doing the same up there. She checked her satchel and saw she had a few more of the things.
I'm going to have to lay these along major paths on our route. We don't want to be followed and this will at least give us a head's up.
-
The fox realized the severity of his mistake, and found himself now captive to the Special Forces of the UF. "Oh yay me," he cursed at his own luck as his hazmat helmet was promptly removed, only to quickly be replaced by his Armor's helmet quickly expanding into it's full cover form under the current hazardous conditions. The helmet served as a barrier between his thoughts, and the telepath's as his eyes began to count them out very slowly. He already had enough trouble with this group then he is willing to admit, and even lost several friends to them. And he is not exactly the most forgiving type when it comes to the enemy choosing execution over imprisonment of his closest friends. He lightly took a breath, his mind settling on the thoughts of assisting his enemies even after all the trouble that has been created.
But, he was quiet sure about his own talents after having to survive some of the most gruesome intergalactic wars of history, over what the special force possibly had endured. Without even changing a single thought his left hand came up to grab hold of the pokemorph's hand, while the other came in an upwards on the elbow to break the soldier's grip in a quick blur. If he was successful, he would quickly toss the man into his own ally's and disperse his bio-shield to create a blinding flare of light while he dives and rolls through the group to make a quick escape.
-
Federation Side:
Althea sensed the fennec's thoughts and quickly shot off a round, barely missing his paw and discouraging him from making the same mistake. Mikey gripped harder and was now choking Olaris, "Listen you, I try to offer you a chance to save your life but instead you turn on us! Can't you see that your nation has brainwashed you? I know Lylat history, you've suffered from bioweapons and now you're using them yourselves to kill innocent women and children. You remember Toxic Fox? He's defected to us now because he's seen the truth, President Aaron is a liar and a deciever. He himself started this war by shooting an innocent scouting vessal." Mikey hesitated for a second as a new transmission came to him. Hold on, I think your CO wants to talk to you.
Turning the radio up Olaris heard Admiral McCloud's distinct voice, "Olaris, stand down. He's right. Aaron is a liar and dictator. He rigged up all of his elections and funded his bioweapon program himself. Me and the rest of Star Fox and Star Wolf have defected to the UPF."
"Yeah, so get your grimy butt outta there noob," Falco stated, as cocky as ever.
"Come back Ryan," Marcus added, "Dad's right."
-
The fox quickly jerked back to free his throat so he could breath and speak into the com link through his own helmet. "You can't be serious sir," he growled angrily into the microphone as he turned to look to the group. "The bioweapons are one thing, the president is another which I am willing to believe you upon, but my stance with them remains the same. I will not work with the group who ruthlessly slaughtered my own com-rads. I promised a recruit he would return safely, instead this fox thing here shot him down after he cried for mercy! Do you seriously believe that I am in any mood to work with them!"
-
Tapping into other people's thoughts always made Althea a bit queezy. She hated the entire process.
Hearing someone's deepest emotions seemed like a terrible breach of their privacy, it made her ill as her senses tried to perceive two inputs at once, and she was just bad at it. The deepest she could ever go was primary emotions and some motor control prediction.
Kimi was always better at that I...
To hear that, effectively, the best squads of the Lylation forces had defected was a bit of a surprise though. She backed off, rifle still leveled at Olaris and gave him some time to think.
Now to see if his loyalty goes to Admiral McCloud or to the President.
-
"Listen to me Olaris! This is a matter of survival, not a question of whose right or wrong. Get your ass out of there soldier. That is an order," Admiral McCloud spat out of the headset.
"Looks like there's no time for chit-chat, We've got a hoard of these things coming!" Zak revved up his plasma cutter with a slight look of glee, "Love the sound of this thing."
"Now or death Olaris, choose your side," Mikey held him down with a quick freeze of his neck to the hull of the rig to prevent his escape. Frozen in solid ice only Zak could melt and with a Tundra Falcon .50AE Magnum to his forehead Olaris faced a tough decision ahead of him.
-
His anger's cauldrin at this point had became overboiled, flowing a flurry of swears that coursed his mind as he glared through his visor to Mikey. The fox's rage becoming evident as a blood vessel had poped in his right eye before he finally growled lowly to the fox with an indescribable amount of venom behind his tone,"Remove your gun, I'll help. But this will not change anything." and with that he simply bat the gun away from his forehead and pushed himself off the wall. His eye flicked to the screen of his radar, as he watched a horrifying influx of dots swarming there location. "Just as bad as The Many..." he mumbled to himself recalling the Valahala Quarantine incident he was scent to clean before revving his plasma saw mounted to the under-sling of his rifle, and began to slice a Square out of the flooring and dropped down into the level below. "Come on... an explosion won't do anything but benefit these creatures. You need to sink them."
"There are six main pillars holding the structure up, destroying three on one side will be enough to collapse the entire lab into the Ocean."
-
"Exactly the plan! We're going after the powerplant to topple this rig into the ocean! We'll talk about these issues later. Right now we have only one objective," Mikey used the shots from his Magnum to dismember some of the Slashers with giant hollowpoint bullets. He bought some time with a freezing Blizzard attack to stop the Necros coming in from the East corridor. Zak was doing his best with his Flamethrowers to torch anything that came near him, "Zak! You/me, fire/ice combo!"
"Like the sound of this," Zak put away his plasma cutter and put his paw forward to boost Mikey above the hoard of Necros coming in from another corridor. Mikey shot off a blast of Blizzard in the epicenter of the hoard, freezing them all. Zak charged up a Spitfire Bomb, one of his special moves.
"Armor Lock!" Mikey tripped a maximum surge in his shielding, temporarily engaging a state of indestructability, and pinning him to the ground. Zak fired off a Spitfire Bomb at the frozen Necros, incinerating those in caught in the middle of the explosion and shattering the rest in a brillant display of inferno blue. Mikey walked out of the flames unscathed with a Mirror Coat to guard against them.
"Now that's teamwork man," Zak smiled as he fist-bumped his friend.
-
"Avoid using the flamethrowers, you are not destroying the virus, your making it airborn," he yelled into the open channel furiously as he waited for the others to come down. His head snapped to the side when he saw movement and quickly found a necromorph swinging one if it's blades clear for his head. Quickly, the fox ducked the blow and grabbed the creature by it's arm and redirected it's own momentum so it slammed it's self into the ground. While it was down, he quickly reved up his saw and hacked it apart. He quickly pulled away from it and swung the saw to his side to catch an infector by it's waist, effectively cutting it in half and stomping on the remains of it's body.
"Get your freaking butts down here now before I completely leave you behind and blow this entire facility up with everyone of you on it, with forerunner knows how many freaking nova bombs I have in store on my freaking ship!"
-
As soon as Mikey began to fire on the Necromorphs coming down the corridors, Althea dropped her Para and grabbed at her Cutter. The first few shots had little effect as she wasn't entirely sure about the weapon, but she learned quick. It was a strange weapon and an even stranger set of targets to shoot at.
After the... explosion of the "Fire/Ice" combo. Althea brushed some frozen Necro off her suit with barely veiled disgust. Well, that was fun.
Holstering the Para and keeping the Cutter out, she flicked her radio over to a private channel so that she only spoke to Captain Mikey. "Are you sure about this," she asked as she positioned herself where she could cover the now captured Lylatian officer while she shot at the incoming Necromorphs.. "I'm all for taking prisoners and not killing, but we can't afford to be slowed down or spare the personnel to babysit a combatant. I can knock him out and we can leave him here. It's cruel, but it saves our mission. The chaos of battle is full of accidents..."
Althea focused on thinning ranks as opposed to striking individuals. Sure, their enemies didn't really care about casualties or injury, but firing into the front rank and eliminating those while the ones pressed in behind received the penetration from the plasma sure helped.
Seeing a particularily thick clump of Necromorphs, Althea unhooked a grenade and lobbed it at the target.
"Grenade out!" She yelled into the chaos.
-
"The virus only exists in a liquid state when subjects are infected. Trust us, the Federation knows more about this virus than you guys do. The only time that it's airborne is if there's a spore cyst nearby. We've got a warning beacon if it detects spore traces," Mikey replied to Olaris, "We're coming! We're coming okay? We WILL talk about our differences later, right now we need to get to work. Can you show us the quickest way to the powerplant?"
Following Olaris the squad was double-timing it to the powerplant of the rig. As they turned a corner the sounds of metal scrapping above them could be heard. The Necromorphs had prepared a trap, a full hoard of them came after the group out of the air vents.
"Come at me bros!" Mikey aimed down the sights of his plasma cutter, but in disappointment the mining tool merely beeped empty and drained of power cells, "Oh shit... Zak!"
"Out of plasma cells! All I got are bullets!" He laid down enough fire to keep the hoard at bay, but it was a futile effort as an Infector grappled him to the ground.
"ZAK!"
A shot rang out from behind the thinned out hoard in front of them, hitting the Infector with a Bolo shell fired from a shotgun. At the other end of the hallway was Ghost; zeal in his eyes, breathing heavily, and growling angrily, wielding a triple barrelled MZ-58 automatic shotgun.
"Don't you fucks touch my friends..." He rushed forward and dove through the crowd of Necros, landing on his feet on top of a Slasher in a display of agility Althea and Olaris haven't seen before. Balancing on the Necromorph he flipped it with a suplex and broke both its attacking limbs, killing it instantly. He rushed forward to drop kick an Infector as it flew by him, balancing himself on his shotgun and recovering in a 180 degree spin. Showing off his combat parkour he used it as a unique and flurried defensive CQC technique to ward off the Necros from his friends, bouncing off walls, spin kicking, and using the momentum in his movements to chain together melee combinations, with deadly shots from his shotgun to supplement the blur of energy that is Ghost. In only 20 seconds the corridors were filled with yellow stained blood, broken Necros, and body parts. Ghost merely stood there panting as another Infector came flying in from an air vent, only to be axe-kicked to the ground by his foot, "**censor** off..."
He used the last shotshell in the barrel to blow off the head and proboscis of the Infector. He looked at Mikey and gave him a detonator, "Let's go... We're done here." He took off his bloodstained helmet and looked at Althea, "Hey."
-
Note to self, Althea thought as she pushed the last plasma cell into her cutter, Don't push Ghost.
Althea flashed Ghost a thumbs up (as she still didn't trust herself to speak or show her face to him) and returned to being the rearguard of the group. She was there mainly to drop motion sensors every hundred meters or so and she could watch this Captain Olaris.
Yeah... she usually was pretty trusting, and she like the guy's dedication, but fate had placed them across the board from one another and that was more than cause enough to be a bit suspicious. Especially since their ammo was getting low and they hadn't even completed their objective.
Come on guys... pick up the pace...
-
The fox quickly slamed his fist into a fire alarm button, causing a heavy steel door to drop down behind them, closing off the path. He remained in place as he took the time to draw his palm to his face mask, and slowly shook his head. "First I have to work with you... now you insult all of my comrades by revealing your incompetence," he groaned as he looked over his shoulder to make sure nothing is coming closer and finally unloaded his own rifle, and tossed the fuel cell to Mikey before pulling out another and tossing it to Ghost. "I am starting to wonder if the special forces are just a group of kids. Shoot what you must," he gestured ahead of them, and then to the door, in which loud clashing sounds could be heard against the surface, "leave the rest be."
His voice quickly raised to the degree of a Training Officer who quickly became furious with a few rookies and there errors, "You... We are only six soldiers! We do not have the resources to blow through the entire mass of these things. If you want to have some fun then you should have stayed home and played some god damn video games. Your guns are the difference from you standing now, or you lieing on the ground watching your blood pour out of you because you failed to realize that your ammunition has to last you for the entire mission! Be efficient you sorry excuses for soldiers!"
-
"That's enough Olaris..." Admiral McCloud heard every word, "You're starting to piss me off at how belligerent you are. LET IT GO soldier. That is an order, they're our friends now, Got it?"
"Yeah, first of all, These plasma cells can't fit in our weapons, take them back you asshole. Second, we didn't think that there would be a need to fight off masses of these things, so is it still our fault for not bringing assloads of ammo in a small dinky submarine barely enough to fit two people?! I mean, we've got a shitton of bullets here, but only enough plasma cells to down one or two hoards of these things. I know, I know," Mikey sighed as he set up the charges in the fusion room, "You hate us, we get it. We've probably killed your friends, family, maybe your trust too. But dammit, listen to me, it isn't our fault. Blame Aaron. He's the one whose sending his sons and daughters to die, not us. Here, take a listen from this intel tape recorded before the war."
Olaris held the smartphone up to his ear and listened. It was a recording of the UPF President having a meeting with President Aaron.
"President Aaron, I humbly ask that you help my starving people by reallocating some of my food production to some of your planets. You see, our major bread bask-" Buster was cut short by a gunshot.
"Get out of my sight you mutant otter! I want nothing to do with you or your race!"
"But Mr. President! The UPF has a vast mineral resource industry and popular destination sights that the Lylatian Republic could benefit from! We can work out a deal of somesort, now just put down the handgun and ARGH!" Buster yelled.
"Listen! I want none of you, NONE OF YOUR DISGUSTING HIDES on or near this planet ever again! Do you understand me?!"
"You proved your point asshole! My arm!" the transmission cut short and Olaris looked up at Mikey.
"See, your President is nothing but a xenophobic racist. The scouting vessel never got the message. And that was the first strike in the war. Your beloved President murdered innocent men, women, pups, and children. Are you happy about that? We're not the one's at fault. We tried negotiating, bargaining, and deals. Instead we were met with firearms and plasma rifles."
-
The fox held a light grimace as he listened to the recording, and when it was over, he simply let his arm drop to the side in deep thought. His breathing became heavy as he looked over his shoulder once more and back to them. When he took the plasma cells back he looked down to them and pulled a small screw driver from his pocket and began to dismantle lock for it, Eventually he came to the point where he had completely torn off the lock, and began to bend it out of it's original shape. He glanced back to the rifle the UEF soldiers where carrying, and readjusted the probes shape to match the socket roughly before coming closer to Mikey and forcefully locked the plasma cell in place. And repeated the same for Ghost.
"The amount of ammunition you carry doesn't matter, nor the size of the cell... they typically all have the same charge and voltage." he finally said, however this time he was no longer yelling, but more so offering advice."You have the concept locked in mind that you need to kill everything to survive. While this is normally true, there is a better option that will allow you to last. I was a member of the Lylat System's TACT during the Lylat Wars with Venom. It's not a cherry picked group of soldiers, but just a group of hat drawn soldiers chosen for suicide missions with a very small chance of survival. No special training, no special weapons or vehicles unless authorized. During my time in the TACT I learned that it's typically better to do a half assed job or use only one or two rounds when compared to five. This small tip had helped me through Valahala's 'The Many' bio infestation. So... please just shoot a leg off, and then an arm. Focus on only what's ahead and right next to you.That could easily make a single clip last longer then you would think it would."
He quietly disconnected his helmet's radio for only a split moment, and took it off revealing the white fox's head. A tear was rolling down the man's cheek as he looked sternly to Micky. "Your right, my trust for all five of you is highly damaged. But only on the war-zone, and ground zero. Any other place, then maybe we could easily get along. It's just offensive to learn that the UF Special Forces that were feared, and the ones who killed my friends that I have known for years, have made more fatal errors then our average veterans."
-
"Sorry about that, standard UPF protocol calls for elimination of all infection. Still kinda stuck on that mindset. Ghost, you scout ahead. They can't touch you."
"Roger Boss," Ghost smiled at Mikey, then at Althea, "We're cool."
Mikey turned his head to Olaris. This time in his casual, calming voice, "Ghost is the only one in the whole UPF to be immune to the virus. We're trying to synth a cure from his blood. I dunno if it will work on Anthros though."
-
Althea had never heard that particular recording before. It didn't change anything for her, in fact it only reinforced the view that the Leader of the Lylatian forces was the "bad guy" in this scenario.
Even though I learned long ago that there are not "good guys" or "bad guys" in war. It's never that simple. This however, as far as wars go, is pretty cut and dry...
Althea smiled through her visor when Ghost said that they were cool. I'll still have to do something to make it up to him, she thought to herself, but now it's to seal the friendship, not to bridge a gap.
Althea checked her ammo, just in case. Since she had been using the cutter primarily she had almost full for her Para and her Tundra Hawk. Not that the hollow points did much against the Necromorphs, but they were something. Certainly better than going toe-to-toe.
"You know," she said as she stood up from arming a charge. "As much as I appreciate the fire alarm that put massive portcullises between us and the Infected, how do you propose we are getting out? It really sounds like poor planning. Fire breaks out, seal the area, kill everyone still in the area."
-
"Haven't you seen how I opened a route? We cut through the floors, and the doors or walls. Why make the journey longer then it has to be," the fox responded as he avoided whiping the tear from his eye to avoid infecting himself with his own armor, and slipped his helmet back over his head. "It's time for the UPF protocol to end for now. We do not have the resources to just blow through everything. When Ghost comes back, prepare to run and aim. Shoot to slow down the mesomorphs, not kill them."
-
Ghost came in with a frantic look on his face, "Umm..."
"Ghost, what is it now?"
"Mikey, don't be alarmed, but there is a FREAKING BRUTE(?) COMING DOWN THAT HALLWAY!"
"Does lack of protocol still not apply now?!"
"No worries man, I got this," Ghost grabbed some of Althea's spare RX4 explosive, "Just run! Go! Get outta here! I'll stall the guy! I'm calling for Evac!"
"Roger dude, don't freak out on us now."
"I won't," Ghost nodded as the monsterous Necromorph bashed through some pipes, "Go!"
-
When Ghost went for Althea's spare explosives, she couldn't hand him enough. The the thing began to bash its way through pipes, making a horrible clamor and she drew her Para. Seeing it come into view, she put a round into what looked like an open spot on its left shoulder. There was no effect, but now they had it's attention.
She turned and ran with the group. "Hit it hard Ghost!"
-
"A what..." Olaris asked in a confused tone as he glanced over his shoulder. He recoiled for a split second as a monsterous demon had finally punched it's way through the pipes. "Oh Uhm... yeah that is nice," he grunted as he edged away from the creature. He quickly drew out his blaster and waited for the creature to finally pull through the pipes, before running completely around it and heading into the tunnel it created. "Power Station this way! Twenty Meters Out," he yelled out as he checked the minimap over his visor.
-
"Hmm... There's gotta be more, oh hey! Conveniently placed Thermite grenades! I'll take that," Ghost snatched up some Thermite from a dead corpse, "Yo! Hey! I'm talking to you you mutant meatloaf! Come at me bro!"
Disregarding Ghost as a target the Brute merely stepped out of his way, giving ghost enough time to latch onto it and strap the RX4 and Thermite on.
"Dumbass Necromorphs, hope you like Thermite Casserole," Ghost triggered the explosives and the Thermite ate through the Brute's carapace, hissing and bubbling as the thermite burned, "Rejoining the squad. By the way, Mikey the charges are set, sorry I didn't mention that earlier. Heat of the moment. Althea, I want you to meet me up after the mission, alright? You can talk now."
-
Althea laughed as she ran with the group, Para raised and continually moving as she checked for movement. "Yes Sir," she said with some happy sarcasm. "Is that a date, Ghost?"
-
"Gonna have to get back to you on that one. We got a mission to do," Ghost cut his transmission and made a break for the Helipad on the deck, "Looks clear! Evac is coming in."
Within the storm was a Federation Pelipper dropship under a cloaking field, barely visable to radar, let alone the naked eye. The ship hovered near the edge of the pad as a Buneary gunner presented a large .50 cal minigun mounted in the back.
"Who's the Anthro with you guys?!" she screamed through the noise of the engines and the storm.
"Defector Stacey! Just get us all outta here!" Ghost yelled.
"Gotcha! Everyone get inside! The storm is getting too fierce to fly!"
Once aboard everyone gave a sigh of relief as they flew away from the sea rig. A massive nuclear explosion rocked the sky as the craft left the atmosphere. Mikey walked into the cockpit to find his sister in the co-pilot seat.
"Hey Bro, miss me?"
"Nah, your replacement did her job like a Voss," he joked.
"Haha, very funny," Tanya paused, "Heads up! Lylat fighters!"
-
Althea chuckled into her headset, not caring if anyone heard when Ghost replied. Everything was looking up, now they just needed to get out of her.
Once outside, Althea felt a shiver run down her spine, the result of seeing so much water and knowing that the thing that separated her from it was about to disappear.
Once on the Pelipper, she made sure that she could take a seat where she could see Olaris, but then fighters were spotted and priorities changed. She undid her safety harness and moved over to the Buneary gunner.
"You need an extra gunner?"
-
"Does it look like there's another gun at the back of this thing? I'd love the help but we only got one turret!" the gunner spun up the barrels and started to fire at the oncoming craft while Tanya and her pilots took evasive action. Suddenly the radio transmitter recieved a message.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Stop firing! We're on your side. We intercepted Admiral McCloud's transmissions, while airborne. We'd like to defect to the Feds and provide escort. We can fill you in on what just happened with the Uprising."
"Uprising you say?" Tanya asked, "What's that about? Why are you helping us?"
"President Aaron's gone bonkers and a small portion of the Lylatian military as broken off from the Republic. My squadron's officially part of the Lylatian Resistance Movement now."
"Glad you guys finally see the light. Name's Tanya, callsign Vio. And you guys?"
"Star Reaper, 115th Naval Strike Squadron Zoness. I'd like to speak to my old sergeant, Olaris. Can we video transmit?"
"Copy that, patching you through," Tanya flipped a few switches and pressed touch screens on the control panel.
-
Althea shrugged. "Guess it's all unnecessary anyways..."
She sat back down and strapped herself into her seat where she could watch the Lylatian Sergeant. "So Ghost," she said as she turned to him. "It's later and you never answered my question."
-
Olaris frowned as he watched the Video feed through a cracked visor, having to make out the person who wanted to speak with him earlier. "This is Sargent Olaris, I read you loud and clear," the fox responded through his helmet's microphone as he began to fiddle with his scouter to bring his own ship closer.
-
Ghost looked toward Althea, "Huh? Oh, I thought you were being sarcastic. I mean, I'm a little young for you don't you think? I'm only 18, I got into this ESFP with my friends when I was 16. But if you're up for it, well, now that I think of it; since we live up to 200 years I guess the age difference is halved? Sorry, not good with Math. I dunno Voss, it just seems weird. You like my moves out there? I've been practicing."
Meanwhile a video transmission came through Olaris' headset, "Sir! reporting in!"
(Please feel free to name this guy for me, just make him avian)
-
Althea laughed, and laughed hard. "I'm sorry," she said when the giggles began to die down. "I was just playing with you, a little mid-firefight banter. I found that the first squad I worked with, a group of Helljumpers, they loved to harangue anyone that they thought could take it. Imagine me, a brand new, young, Ninetails in the middle of a veteran squadron of Helljumpers. I heard more rumors about what I had done to the Wing Commander than I could fire a rifle at. Instead of getting upset, I nearly broke the Sergeant Master's arm and started to play their games."
Althea tapped Ghost on the knee. "That doesn't mean that we can't be friends though. I've been a part of this team for a couple of days now and I already feel like I'm where I need to be. Just don't expect me to work well with ice and water. Natural aversions you understand."
-
"Well don't expect any of that on the next mission, we're going for Titania next round," Tanya informed, "Not looking forward to that, being a water type and all."
"Same here sis," Mikey nodded, "I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb out in the desert, I ain't a fennec."
"Least I'm the closest, I don't mind the heat. Hey Zak, you looking forward to desert warfare?" Ghost asked.
"Hell yeah man, I'm up for it. What's a little sun and heat for a half dragon half panther eh? Sounds like my kind of battlefield."
-
"You can stop with the Sir, Jason." the fox grumbled as he looked on past the destruction of the old rig. "Do me a favor will you and make sure that facility over there is dealt with completely. I don't need anyone scratching up some old cells or finding a live infected do you hear me?"
-
"Titania..." Althea said as she leaned back in her seat. Despite her compatriots reluctance, Althea felt a surge of unconditional happiness. She loved the desert. Arid environments never really bothered her (sure it wrecked havoc with her fur, but it was worth it when it was warm...) and such a hot place always made her feel more... alive.
To make it even better, a flat, arid, plane was a sniper's playground. You set yourself up in a natural hide and you rule the land for miles... You could stay out there for years with no one to bother you. A perfect get away...
She was barely listening as the Lylatian Sergeant. She couldn't agree with him more (which kind of bothered her. He had been the enemy not three hours ago!) about the destruction of the base. That kind of weapon was never meant to have been made. If she had the control and and ability, she would have immolated the entire place down to the subatomics...
-
The fox shook his head lightly as he heard the private's response over the coms, and began to remove his helmet. "I am going to authorized the use of..." the fox trailed off as he looked on out through the window to the remains of the base to analyze the damage before speaking once more, "The use of Heavy Mortars." And with that he disconnected himself from the video feed.
Olaris heaved a light sigh as he soon began to think about all that just happened today as he brought his left hand up to tap a button just underneath a metal collar bone plate. "Degeneration process beginning," a voice from the speakers of his helmet whispered softly in a rasping tone. The suit, along with the helmet, began to glow in a blueish color and soon pulled away from the fox's body all into one device that was strapped to his back all while revealing a very small and sleek fennec fox dressed in camouflaged cargo's and a grey beater. While the bulk lost wasn't that much, it was very apparent though that the suit did make up most of the fox's overall appearance. "Whats this about Titania now," the fox asked as he began to adjust his
-
"Intel has found another logistics base. This time it will be a joint insertion between us and the Helljumpers. Andrew and the rest of his Alpha Team will be joining in from Fichina. We're suppose to take out a CO in charge of requstitions. We will be dropping in via pods during a meteor shower, sniper mission, Althea you're up to the plate first. I'll be your backup shooter, can't be at 110% in that heat so you'll have to take the shot. You up to break my mom's record?" Tanya explained, hinting at her mother's universal 2 mile killshot record, "2.1 miles, we're gonna be using the Mk3X Balistics 8mm Round for our X8 Railrifle. The perch is the closest sniper spot available for assassination."
"What the hell are we gonna do Tanya? Squad's gonna be too big," Zak asked through the noise of the engine.
"Make some friends with the LRM, you've got Olaris there, say hi."
Zak kicked his foot back on a nearby crate, slipping his hands behind his head with a neutral look on his face, "Yo, Zak Sintari. Look, about what happened on the battlefield. Not just on Fichina, but everywhere else we've been. You probably have some reservations of us, and it probably isn't that great. You probably see us as murderers and shit, and we might have killed a lot of your buddies out there. And for that I speak on behalf of the team. We're sorry... I know it won't bring them back, but... Maybe the UPF can."
-
Althea had no words for the Captain. She knew enough to know that speaking about those that had gone before with the ones that were held responsible for their crossing only opened old wounds. She kept her eyes on Olaris as he responded. She wanted to know what caliber of a person he was. Was he going to lash out and break the already terse peace that was forming?
As she studied the Captain, her mind began to go through the logistics of a 2 mile shot.
Everything has to be taken into account. Everything. Wind speed and direction along the entire pathway of the bullet. One errant gust can knock it off course. The rifle has to be perfectly sighted before the shot. But to make a Cold Bore shot, that's going to have to be done well before hand. Probably will have to carry the Railrifle in with a carrier to minimize bumping. Air temperature has to be known. Particulate count. Thermal locations. Hell, even the curvature of the planet has to be accounted for when making a shot that long...
Althea kept her eyes on the Captain. His reaction would either make her go into this mission with a sense of calm for she knew he was going to watch her back or a sense of terror for they will have invited a predator into their midst. While she did that however, she began to download as much information as she could about Titania for review on the way back.
-
Everyone became silent as they awaited Olaris' response. They noticed that he was in deep thought and was indecisive on how to handle the statement.
-
The fox shifted a little, and glanced behind him as he heard the room oddly go silent and all gazes but his own had fell upon him. His ear twitched nervously as he turned his body to face them after finally coming to a conclusion. "Fine," Olaris sighed as the storage device over his shoulder began to activate. Instead of releasing his usual armor, a light blue grid like object formed around the fox's neck much like a piece of cloth that soon took the shape of an old tattered orange scarf that completely covered his mouth and nose.
"Dress lightly or suffer the heat," the fox stated plainly as he swiftly began to send a new command to his own ship to come closer, "remember, what you bring with you, you must haul it with your own weight. Meaning, loose sand you will sink, if we need to climb a cliff and you are carrying a hundred pounds worth of equipment, it's not going to be all that fun. Also, get something to cover your eyes with later, and something to help filter the dust. If your new to heat, then get something long sleeved and light."
-
"Alright guys, our frigate is here," Tanya pointed to the blankness of space, hinting at the stealth capablities.
"Take five guys and save your strength. Next mission is gonna be a long one, got it?"
"Yes sir," Ghost and Zak nodded.
-
Althea allowed the last few files she had picked for review to download in the background as she looked out into the depths of space that supposedly hid their ride. To tell the truth, she had skimmed a few of the environmental files and was already feeling the excitement of the upcoming mission. Titania sounded like a fantastic place for a Ninetails.
"Hey, you mentioned a Helljumper group we're tagging along with for the insertion. While we set up a post and do our business, I'm guessing they're doing what they do best. Namely, make a nuisance of themselves?"
-
Olaris took a look outside the ship to the frigate, wondering what exactly he had just agreed to over the mission. "I am sorry, but I am afraid no one has informed me of what we are doing," the fox commented as his own ship adapted to the situation as well. He came closer to the small group looking over the shoulder of Althea. "And what the heck is a helljumper."
-
Mikey glanced over at Olaris, "Huh, I didn't expect that you'd tag along for the ride. Then again, maybe you have your reasons. And no Althea, they won't make themselves trolls. I know Andrew and his team better than that."
"We all went to the same highschool together. Ghost, Zak, Mikey, Me, Andrew, and the rest of the 1st Airborne Platoon. Helljumpers are drop troopers, lightweight equipment, special training, and fancy gear. The ESFP has a little rivalry with them caz they were the original spec ops of the UPF," Tanya explained, "Yo bro, who's tagging along in the first platoon? The mission is obviously restricted to a 10 man team."
"All of Frostbite and the First Platoon will have Andrew, Haley, Nightwing, and Greg along for the ride."
Later that day Ghost was on his way back to his room when he happened to notice Olaris and Althea conversing in the hallway. His natural curiosity took hold as he joined in, "So what do you guys think about the setting of the next mission? Shouldn't bother us too much since we're all close to/are fennecs."
-
Althea had found the Lylatian Captain to ask him about his abilities to survive for long periods of time in an arid environment. She turned as Ghost spoke.
"Well," she said as she glanced over at Olaris. "Personally, I think I've got it the best. My body deals with heat much more... efficiently than either of you. That being said, I'm actually looking forward to planetfall. I've always loved deserts, the emptiness was actually one of the reasons that I wanted to become a sniper. You can see for miles..."
-
Olaris' brow rose as the woman bragged, and only smiled as he leaned against the wall. “Be that as it may be, I was born and raised in Titania. I am as friendly to the heat as I would be with my own mother. But seeing that you...” the fox trailed off as he looked over Althea with words escaping his own thoughts. He couldn't even begin to describe the odd ninetailed creature. He remembered distinctly that they had some affinity to fire, but that was just about it. “Actually, I don't even think I even have you beat in anything other then geography and non-tourist information,” Olaris chuckled as he gave his head a slight shake.
“But I will say that Titania is not as open as you think. Don't get me wrong, it's still open, you just need to find the best vantage point, and then a secondary because of all the plateaus and canyons on the surface.”
(I remember Assault with Titania. God that map was so horrid for snipers. You had to climb or use a ship to get some points, even then you had to move to see other people.)
-
(BTW: it was Ghost commenting, not Zak)
"So you're from Titania, I guess you'll come in handy for the mission then since you know the terrain better than anyone here. Why don't you guys come to the mess hall to meet and greet some of the more famous Federationites. It's the twins birthday today, April 15th Ultimax date. Tanya and Mikey are having a party and everyone on the ship is invited," Ghost announced, "So we're just friends then Althea?"
-
(Derp...)
Althea smiled when she heard that Olaris was from Titania. Truth be told, she like the Captain's style and dedication. She didn't appreciate that fate put them on opposite sides of this ridiculous conflict.
There I go again, she thought to herself. One of the major ironies of being me. I hate warfare but love to be a soldier. I love to stand in the path of danger so that others don't have to, but the necessity of the action is appalling to me.
She snapped back to reality when Ghost mentioned that it was the Mikey's and Tanya's birthday. Her first reaction was panic (and she feared that her tails went rigid with her surprise).
Oh no! I haven't gotten them ANYTHING! What to do? What to do? Oh dear... Facepalm...
She looked up at Ghost and offered her arm, if he wished to escort her. "I would love to join you at the party Ghost."
She purposefully didn't answer his last question.
-
“Brilliant,” Olaris commented to himself as he watched the almost humorist spectacle. He leaned against the wall once more, waiting for the two to finish their 'lovers' session before finally speaking up. “I might not be attending this one. It just seems disrespectful for me to walk in on another day without even knowing their names.”
-
"Well, why don't you join the party? Everyone's here including your boss," Ghost offfered, taking Althea's arm, "Have some fun for a bit and get to know everyone. Ease the tension, you'll fight better next round."
"Hey Ghost!" a Jolteon Pokemorph caught up to them. His face seemed familar, slightly resembling that of Mikey's and Tanya's. Althea concluded that he must have been related.
"Sup David, what did you need?"
"Have you seen our instruments? I can't seem to find them anywhere for the show tonight."
"You left your turntable and synth in my room when we were practicing. And your siblings have their's set up."
"Thanks man. Say, who are these new friends of yours?"
-
Olaris seemed a bit interested to the phrase 'everyone is here' as he gave the poke-morph a smile. “Everyone hm?” he asked as he rested his hands on his hips. “Say, you wouldn't happen to know a toxic green colored fox that is related to Mr. Fox in some way now do you?” the captain asked in a very curious manner.
-
When Ghost took her hand she got the opportunity to whisper into his ear without too much notice. "Friends for now," she said kindly. "But don't stop trying."
Althea offered her free hand. "Captain Althea Voss," she said with a smile. "ESFP. Forgive me if I make too grand an assumption, but I guess that you are related to the Rivers family?"
-
"Why of course miss, I'm David. Happy to meet you," David held out his paw, "Teen genius, inventor, DJ, and support operative of Task Force Frostbite. I've invented most of the deadliest weapons known to the UPF. Those Type X fighters in the hanger bay, those are my design. Those AIM-210 Altaria long range anti-ship/anti-aircraft missiles, mine too. Twenty round RPG-45S missile pods, I developed the guidance systems for that. But I don't just make weapons. For every weapon I make I make an invention that goes to the consumer market. See that smartphone you use? Lead designer for that. I can make anything from toasters to electromagnetic railguns. I graduated collage at the age of five."
"Blah blah blah, listen to you yap Davy," Ghost joked, "Now off with you porcupine dog! Go forth and Troll the masses."
"Me Gusta," David replied.
"I'm sorry about that. Now what were you saying Olaris?"
-
“Toxic Green Colored fox...” Ryan stated plainly as he gestured a random height in the air with his left hand. “About ye-heigh, goes by the name Tohaku, adopted son of McCloud,” the fox asked through a small sigh as he once again slumped against the wall, and adjusted the scarf. “The one that apparently either you or one of your friends owe a punch to?”
-
Althea chuckled at David's expertise and his temperament. "Well then," she said as her hand brushed her phone in her pocket. "I guess I now know who to thank for that. You have interesting friends Ghost."
Althea turned and listened to Olaris as well. She couldn't remember this "Tohaku" that apparently deserved a punch, but then again, they were all friends now anyways.
-
"Yeah, I get that a lot," Ghost smiled, "And I think Toxic might be out helping the LRM. Afterall, he's one of the first defectors ever since he learned what your President's been doing."
-
And with that, the fox merely blinked as he was left unanswered once more, and started to stiffly walk away from the small group of three to meet some of the other guest on board the ship.
-
As they walked into the mess hall they noticed little decoration, aside from the numerious presents in the corner and the large buffet of assorted Luna Isle/Treasure Nation foods like sushi, chicken wings, burgers, pizza, rice, adobo, and all sorts of paralleled Asian/American food. Everyone was wearing a nametag and casual wear, even the President who was known for wearing the same type of formal presidental outfit, a trademark of sorts. The only thing he kept from his suit was his blue beret. Video game systems were set up on one side of the room all linked up for a LAN party. Dubstep and techno filled the room with the sounds of drum and bass, and many of the party goers were mainly the drop troopers from before, friends and family of the President, the ship's crew, and a few officers from the LRM.
"Watcha think guys?" Ghost introduced, "Pretty cool huh? I love this song!"
Ghost entered the room to breakdance to the sound of a paralleled version of Showdown by Pendulum. His deft moves and flurried momentum caught everyone's cheers.
-
Althea had to stifle a laugh as she entered the room. Forget that they were all professional soldiers here and just enjoy life seemed to be the general theme. She took a moment while standing near the door to take it all in. The buffet bar was lovely and would definitely be worth a visit. The video games would definitely be of interest as the night wore on. She would be good for a game or two, not that'd she win anything. She would be watching with interest though.
The name tags were would nave been a problem, if they hadn't been right next to the door. She picked up hers and moved into the party when Ghost left her to break dance. She watched him for a few seconds as she moved into the crowd and towards the Presidential family. He wasn't that bad and she joined in the general cheering with a few claps of her own.
Reaching the President, Mikey, and Tanya, she came to attention and saluted. "Happy Birthday Captain Rivers and Captain Tanya. Hello Mr. President."
-
The President turned toward Althea and smiled, "Please! Call me Buster. It's a party, go on and have fun! Have you met Admiral Fox McCloud yet? He's quite the commanding officer. He reminds me of myself during the Federation Civil War. We happened to share a lot in common you know?"
"Admiral McCloud at your service, glad to meet you Miss Voss," Fox smiled as well. What was strange to her was the fact that the Admiral was only a tad older than President Rivers, but he looked as if he was in his late forties. Compared to the President, McCloud was showing signs of his age, "Now tell me again how you Pokemorphs managed to stay so young?"
"It's simple really. Pokemorphs are one of the most resilient beings in the galaxy well, our galaxy. We can survive radiation better than most terrestrial organisms and not only that, we naturally have a long lifespan. Some Pokemorphs, like Althea who is a Ninetails, can live almost forever because our cells are extremely tough and/or replicating. On average a mammalian Pokemorph can live up to 200 years or more with healthcare. Once we reach 18 we practically stay looking 18 until sometime in our 30s. Couple that with socialist healthcare and you've got one hell of a long life. Hell, some people have been alive since our species first expanded into space. Speaking of generations, currently ours does not have a generation gap. You know, now that I mentioned it, there hasn't been a generation gap since the 2100s. It's been culturally locked ever since. We regard video games as an art form and sport, personal electronic devices are widespread and varied, the internet is also taken as an art form, techno and alternative have been the most popular forms of music, the vast majority of the populous own intercontinental aircraft, what you see on the buffet table is what we usually eat, that sort of thing. I'd say we're a bit culturally advanced don't you think?"
"Why yes, back in Lylat we also take video games quite seriously. But we usually eat Western food and not everyone gets a personal aircraft. Music is different too, people prefer pop and that hip-hop and rap crap. Also, not everyone uses a PDA or smartphone or that sort of thing. Generally those are reserved for the military and the well to do. Sorry, is Olaris here? I wish to speak to him."
-
Ryan had soon spotted his CO, and soon drew closer to him. He raised a brow as he eased drop into the conversation, then soon enough a small smile had been creased over his lips. "I beg to differ sir," Olaris chuckled as he gave his ear a flick, "I have found some Jazz and Ragtime clubs in existence around the Lylat system that is still pretty active. And sir... I am right behind you. I know I am short and all... but you should be able to see the only photon-white fox with large ears in an entire party am I right?"
-
"Ah! Olaris, have you met President Rivers yet?" Fox introduced.
"Please, call me Buster," he smiled. His wife came over and kissed him on the cheek.
"He likes it when he can just be a party goer and enjoy himself. Afterall, it's our kids birthday. We're all friends here. Say, where's the rest of your group Fox?" May asked.
"Falco was preparing a surprise. He said he had to get a few things back from Lylat. My wife is over there by the sushi and my son is with Falco picking out a gift. Young Star Wolf is in the hanger bay chatting with the other UPF ESFP soldiers of BlackClaw Squadron."
"Where in the world is Nick? He should have been here by now," May looked around looking for their friend.
"Dunno, I'm gonna go grab a vodka with Mark in the hanger bay if you don't mind," General Bradley mentioned. Olaris noticed the insignia of the UPF Elite Corps pinned to his BDU and a scar that crossed over his left eye. He wondered slightly about the odd general who looked vaguely like the President. He was of the same species, a Buizel, but he was orange in color, not red, and also had peach colored secondary fur, unlike Buster's red and white coloration.
Meanwhile Althea was browsing through the buffet when she bumped into two other foxes, Krystal McCloud and Robert Lee. She took a glance at Robert to see that he was most likely related to Ghost. The two almost mirrored eachother, aside from the slight difference in age look. She also noticed that the scouter he was wearing was of a different model than Ghost's rectangular eyepiece.
-
Didn't think I'd see so many VIPs here...
Althea had stepped out and away from the small knot of people she had originally sought out when Adm. McCloud (Whom she had always respected as a warrior) began to ask about the biologics of Pokemorphs. It was a conversation she couldn't add much too and besides, she didn't like to be in the middle of the spot light with all the "Big Wigs". Maybe it was part of being a sniper...
Thanking her lucky stars that she got to meet them though, she headed over to the food to get something to eat, but apparently her lucky stars weren't quite done with her yet. Right as she moved down the table to retrieve a bowl so that she may have some rice, she literally bumped into someone.
"Oh dear," she said turning. "I'm so sorry..." And that's when she saw who she had run into. One was obviously Lylation. Althea's eyes shot down to her name tag and saw "McCloud". She looked over to the the man's and saw the name "Robert Lee". He looked to much like Ghost to be anything short of family, maybe even his father.
"Terribly sorry about that," Althea said as she offered her hand. "Captain Althea Voss at you service Mrs. McCloud. And at yours Mr. Lee."
-
The fox held his hand out to the president all while making eye contact as he shook the other's hands, "It's nice to meet you..." the fox trailed off as he held a slightly confused tone as he finished by simply saying, "...Buster?" He found the name abnormal and just plain out odd as it held a very tight resemblance to the verb Buster. His eyes soon turned to look over the General's appearance, and then the president and back as he found the close resemblance between the two. His first thought was they might had been the same species, but they both held identical traits and looks. "Uhm... excuse me for asking..." once again he says, "Buster," in an awkward tone before continuing "Are you two brothers?"
-
"We're cousins," Buster replied, "We used to get that a lot you know. Is there anything you'd like to know more about the Federation Sergeant?"
Robert glanced at Althea, "It's no problem. I see you've met my son." He took another glance at Ghost, who was still busy breakdancing.
Krystal smiled and greeted Althea, "No trouble at all Ms. Voss. I'm just glad we're gonna be working together to overthrow our corrupt government. Now that we're allies, I'd like to know more about the Federation's special forces."
-
Althea smiled. "Absolutely Mr. Lee. Your son is a strong and brave warrior. I've only known him for a short time and I already owe him much."
She turned back to Mrs. McCloud and made a small bow to give her a moment to think. "Oh, I wouldn't know what to say Ma'am."
What can I actually tell her? We may be allies now, but it's still not a good idea to go about spreading state secrets...
She gestured to the food. "It would be my pleasure to speak with you about our nation's respective elite troops. I would offer a dinner with the conversation, but there doesn't seem to be much chance of that. Let us find a corner to speak while we eat?"
-
"I'm probably the luckiest father in the Federation to have a son like that. I mean, he's immune, he singlehandedly escaped certain death on numerous occasions, and he made it to the exclusive ESFP program. Do you know how proud I am of that boy?" Robert smiled as he picked up a cheeseburger and bit into it. He finished his mouthful and looked back at Althea, "By the way, I couldn't help but notice that my son has a thing for you."
-
Althea glanced over at Mrs. Krystal McCloud with a bit of embarrassment before turning her gaze back to Ghost's father.
I hope that she can't see my blush through this fur...Althea took the moment to review Mr. Lee's words. Also, that's strange to be proud of his ability to escape death. Wouldn't it be better if he never found himself in a situation where he needs to escape death? It's almost congratulating him for getting into trouble as opposed to having the foresight to be prepared for it...
Althea once more made a small bow to Mr. Lee. "You have a right to be proud of your son," she said with a smile to hide her blush. "I have noticed that I have caught his eye, almost by mistake it seems."
-
Ryan's gaze shifted off to the break dancing Ghost with a raised brow, then slowly turned back to the General in front of him. "Uh... yes," the fox stated as he adjusted his stance a little bit, placing his hands on his hips. "How many military branches does the Federation have?"
-
"The Federation has four branches to its military; the Army, Navy, Elite Corps, and Air Force. The Army is our reserve branch that deals with plantary defense and civil engineering. The same is true of the Air Force except that they deal with relief missions to disaster affected areas. The Navy is home to 65% of our fleet and ulitizes ship classes from Dreadnought to Frigate and it's also home to our very best pilots, usually avian Pokemorphs with a few exceptions. Last but definitely not least is our pride; the Elite Corps. Basically a Marine Branch, the UPFEC is in charge of first response defense. They are the best of the best soldiers gathered from all four corners of our Blue Spiral Galaxy," The President explained, "Anything else?"
Robert nodded, "By the way, did he happen to freak out during the mission?"
-
"So... in other words, you have a standard setup within your military reserves," Olaris asked with some form of interest. "Do you draft your soldiers, or do you only draft them when your galaxy's way of life is directly in the line of a threat? Oh, and what are your science programs like and it's regulations?"
-
"The Federation has a unique set of draft laws. You see, each child, even those of political figures, is born a Civilian. By the time they reach the age of 18 they can choose to apply for Citizenship which gives them the privilege to vote. This is where the draft comes in, as part of the Citizenship program you have to either enlist in the armed forces, the mining industry, or any other noteworthy hardcore civic action. If you can prove that you're intelligent enough to weigh the variable and vote then we'll give you the green light and pass you up for a Citizen. This system is basically foolproof and it makes damn sure that individuals who can do their jobs get elected to office. In fact, today marks the 19th anniversary of my years in office. I've never done anything wrong and people never get tired of me. They're too afraid of upsetting the whole Federation with someone new, which is why we have the a tradition of Monarchy we have to uphold. It's limited, of course, but even still I wish we could do without it," President Rivers continued to explain, "Go ahead May, you can explain to our guests about our science and tech. I'm gonna hang out with our kids."
"Alright! Can you play on my profile? Level up my Recon class will ya?" May asked.
"Of course sweetheart!"
"Warzone 3, just came out. I love DICE games. Well then, as you can see, we have an affinity for technology. Our science programs are mostly handled by non-military agencies. We have strict and safe regulations and forbid any form of biological weaponry. One thing though: since we can survive radiation that would outright kill other mammalian beings we have less strict rules regarding atomic use. Of course, we have a nuclear stockpile, but we only use them as antiship weapons and tactical strikes. We never kill civilians on purpose and we have laws against that. And since we're a socialist nation our medical sciences are extremely well off. What else?," she paused, "Well, there's the military. As you may have noticed on the battlefield we favor projectile weaponry as opposed to directed energy weapons Lylatians use. Railguns, guided missiles, caseless bullets, that sort of thing. All our land vehicles are made in my homeland, the Luna Isles, and they use electromagnetic antigravity panels instead of wheels and tracks. That's why we never use surface boats, a big old Type 37 Zorua can still go top speed above the water, and the plasma shielding helps our vehicles float by trapping air. Although we still somewhat use a surface navy for home defense."
-
"Huh..." the fox huffed in an impressed tone, "I have a friend in Titania who is a scientist. That cat might enjoy moving into the federation if your regulations aren't as strict as ours."
-
Althea looked directly into the eyes of Ghost's father and gave him a smile. She poured into all of the strength that she could and spoke in a clear, calm voice.
"During our previous mission, Ghost performed most admirably. I personally witnessed him throw himself at the enemy repeatedly and without reserve. Without him, we would have suffered greatly against such an implacable foe. It is sad to say, but true nonetheless, that we had arrived at our mission woefully unprepared. It was your son's implacability, ingenuity, and bravery that won the day."
-
"So he conquered his fear didn't he?" Robert nodded quietly, "The boy's been having nightmares ever since he was kit. He's gonna counselling and I've made sure not to even have a picture or mention about his mother around the house. I can get pretty lonely while he's away and we only have eachother for company during our time off."
meanwhile on the other end of the room May and Fox were still conversing about the Federation to Olaris.
"Olaris, can we maybe extricate your friend if he/she is willing to work for the Federation? Is there any intel they can offer?"
"Another thing that sparked my curiosity are your weapons. Could you train my associates on the use of your guns?" Fox asked, "Also, as the leader of the Lylat Resistance Movement I'm going to need supplies for my soldiers. Things won't be so easy, they've always relied on energy based physics and might not adapt to ballistics as well. Our current blasters and plasma rifles are incompatible with Federation cells."
"Ahem..." David overheard the admiral's problem and promptly present a solution, "I've modified some of your weapons to accept Federation electron charge packs as opposed to Lylatian microfusion cells. Your weapons will do less damage, but you'll be able to fire faster and not worry about them overheating. I've also modified your blaster carbines to work in a similar manner to our own pulse rifles. Instead of relying on a microfusion breeder there are thermal panels fixed to the frame that automatically recharge the cells with each second a shot isn't fired. I've also added weaver rails compatible with Federation accessories to the top, bottom, and sides of the weapon as well as a folding stock and a fitting paintjob with the colors of the LRM. What do you think Admiral and Sergeant? take a look."
-
Olaris gave some thought over the matter, as the feline did work directly for Government in some high security facilities. If he were to do any simple form of mutiny it was highly possible that someone would know and send the TURKs or assassins after him to wipe him off the face of existance. It couldn't possibly be fair to ask the cat that, then again the scientist has been known for his lack of personal welfare. “Why yes, it is very possible to extract him from the research facility in Titania, and he does have plenty of intel to offer. The only issue is... well... never mind... I doubt he could care less if someone sent an entire battalion, no... Legion to claim his life. He might seem unstable at first, but he is a brilliant cat.”
-
Althea could feel for the man; she really could. There was little more traumatizing than loosing a parent (and in such a macabre fashion).
"I can understand his pain Sir," Althea said as she reached out to Mr. Lee. "But you must understand. Ghost hasn't just conquered his fear; he has routed it. He found the strength within himself to take control of his own world and change it as he saw fit. Your efforts to protect your child were valiant, but I fear misguided. He didn't need to be so completely shielded from his grief. That only served to bottle up the emotions deep inside of him."
Althea dipped her head and spoke to the man's shoes. It would be difficult for him, but he had to know. "When we made first contact for the enemy, I had made a slip of the tongue and Ghost was immobilized by his fear. We had to leave him behind for his own protection. He had no serenity, no solace in life; and all I said was a few misguided sentences." Althea returned her eyes to Mr. Lee's. "He needed a chance to confront his fear, to combat the terror on his own terms. Your efforts were guided by your heart, but only served to weaken him."
Althea looked into the man's eyes and knew that her own were filled with sorrow. A thought occurred to her suddenly. It was brash and it was misguided, but she knew that it was the right thing to do now.
"If you will excuse me," she said with a slight bow, food completely forgotten.
She headed over to the dance floor to watch Ghost.
-
As soon as the song ended Ghost lept up to his feet and greeted Althea face to face, "Hello there!" he backed off a little, "Sorry about that, Swe-" Ghost abruptly stopped and blushed, awkwardly surveying the room for anyone who heard that.
"Acknowledged Olaris," May nodded to the Fennec, "And this is my son, David. He's the genious of the family and the inventor of many Federation weapons and gadgets. Say hi Davy."
"Mom! Why you treat me like kid?"
"Oh hush puppy, you know I'm just kidding," May smiled.
"Alright, Sir David Maxwell Rivers at thine service. Shall I promply further introduce myself?" David brought out a monocle and a bubble pipe, like a sir.
-
Although Althea was a master of her own body, she must admit the truth. When she heard Ghost almost make a slip of the tongue and call her some form of pet name, she blushed deeply.
Here I am, able to slow down my own heart rate till it's barely noticeable so I can fire a round over a mile but unable to stop a blush... I guess the question is: Do I want to?..
She reached out and placed a hand on Ghost's, slightly pulling him forward, as he surveyed the room.
"Care to teach a poor girl how to dance?"
-
The fox only smiled and shook his head to the kids behavior before speaking up. "No... I am sure thy kingly name and prowess is all I require. But I must say that you are missing a 't' in promptly. So if I am not mistaking, you are an engineer? How old might you be? Oh and I am sure you would love to meet one of Lylats most.... notorious scientist who is on the verge of being seen as a threat but he hasn't came close to it. I am sure you two can exchange some knowledge. This one made some of our strongest weaponry that was soon banned from use by the actual main army due to it's power, but the design was nerfed and sent to Starfox. Luckily he doesn't care much for weapon creation, so he doesn't exactly create anything that often for military use."
-
In war, friends grow unfamiliar. It takes a heavy toll on its soldiers, ally and foe. During the assault on the Federation Tohaku Blackheart, adopted son of Fox McCloud, was lost in enemy territory. After being taken POW, he was soon shown the truth of this war and the effect it had on this planet. Enemies of yesterday were suddenly becoming allies. Upon recovery, Tohaku began questioning the authorities of his homeworld and it's leader. It wasn't long befor an assassination attempt was secretly planned to take out Blackheart. Fox, having heard of such a plan and wanting the safety of his son, allowed Tohaku to steal his repaired R-Wing and secures his escape. Now in hiding on the planet once called Venom Tohaku survives. He lives on edge, defending against assassins and bounty hunters who seek his head for money and glory. He has had no contact with his father or newly found allies in the federation......until now.
-
David's PDA phone rang out, "Sorry, gotta check this one. Oh..."
"Hm?" May looked over to her son, "What is it?"
"Looks like one of my long range scanners detected a distress beacon on one of the nearby planets, Venom. That place is still a hotbed of insurgency even though its well behind Federation lines. Origin is Lylat, but it's transmitting in a semi-secure Federation frequency. There's a message."
The music stopped and everyone paused. It wasn't often that a distress signal was sent on that channel. Usually it was reserved for Federation commanders or VIPs. The message came through, although a bit patchy.
"To..ku...ca...you...ed...over!...ackup...quest..g...evac!"
"Son, can you patch us through," May glanced.
"Trying, hold on," David ran to one of the open consoles to bring up a holographic screen, "This is Systems Analyst David Rivers of the UPF, state your emergency, name, and callsign do you read me over?"
Responding to Althea Ghost paused in silence, "Awkwardness broken, serious time now."
-
Althea could pick up on Ghost's tension and had heard a bit of what was coming through as a distress beacon. She nodded quickly, not wanting to block out anything important with something as unimportant as a verbal affirmation.
As she listened, she wished that she had spent the few extra minutes to actually pack her rifle away before she came down to the mess hall. She never forgot to care for her weapon, but it was laying out on her bed instead of packed away in its case right now. If they needed to go quickly, precious seconds would be wasted while she packed.
I'm ready, she thought. Just tell me where and when.
-
Tohaku slowly stepped from his shelter, his pistol in hand. He looked around and smiled lightly, pain hidden noticeably behind his lips, as he looked to the sky. "I wonder if I'll have a visitor today." he looked to the ground and then to the gun. "Thanks dad. I.....I wonder if they ever found out." he silently chokes back a tear as he brushes dust from his beaten uniform. Venom, Hell for any visitors, has conditioned him like Fleet Training never could. He looked back at his shelter and holstered his pistol. "Damn I miss flying." he chuckled to himself as he started a new fire for breakfast. Suddenly a small series of beeps caught his attention. His R-Wing was receiving a message. He ran to his ships concealed location and climbed into the cockpit listening in.
-
Ghost looked at Althea and remembered something, "Voss, your rifle. If we get orders to head out you should probably go get it," he notices his squadmates running back to their rooms to ready their firearms, "I'm good, you go on. Open up your comms to squad chat."
"I'm on squad chat," Mikey informed.
"Ditto," Tanya as well.
"Dammit! And I thought we were done for today," Zak joined in.
"This is the UPFS Glacier, come in Venom. You are transmitting on a VIP frequency. State your name, callsign and emergency over," David continued.
-
Althea made a quick motion to turn on her comm unit. She smiled at Ghost and tapped her ear to say "I'm listening".
She turned quickly and quickly walked out of the room. Once she was in the hall, she ran. She burst through the door of her room and immediately began to take apart her Para rifle and began to stow it in it's case for transport.
A soldier's job is never done...
-
Tohaku chuckled as he relised who it was. "what are the odds of speaking to a ghost who doesn't want to be found?" he chuckled lightly as he thought of all the precautions he had taken over the last few months. For this to happen he should kick himself. "Ya found me so I might as well ask where you are. This was a channel I was given if I ever needed a helping paw.....or a firing squad."
-
"Tohaku! It's me, Fox. I'm on board of the UPFS," McCloud paused, "The Glacier?"
"Yes, The Glacier," May nodded.
"I am on board of the UPFS Glacier and we have recieved your beacon outcopy? We're tracking your signal now but assume the loyalists are on to you. We'll send over a squad to assist and evac ASAP. Get moving Toxic! Get outta there now!"
Mikey rushed back into the room, "Task Force Frostbite is ready to deploy sir! Olaris is also coming along for the ride as an honorary member."
"Good, now on to the briefing."
"Tohaku is located in here in the Red Forest Mountain Range. Our orbital platforms have surveyed the area and have found numerous loyalist insurgents dug in around the area. My twins will provide air support via Gu-1 gunship on this mission, so Zak you'll be in charge of the four man squad on the ground. You, Althea, Ghost, and Olaris will be dropped in via stealth cargo plane at low altitude. Can't use drop pods on this one, the insurgent AA systems are optimized for hard kill defense of orbital munitions and pods alike," May briefed.
"Roger that mom!" Mikey smiled.
"Black Wing Squadron will assist in Bomb Buizel runs against the AA encampments. Intel suggests a lot of Low Frequency Radar SAMs so keep your jammers and chaff at the ready. Once the AA is down the drop troopers will secure sights around the evac zone. At the same time, Frostbite will move in and make damn sure Tohaku is safe. Clear?"
"Clear as Tanya as a puddle," Ghost joked.
"Roger that, get to your transports," May finished, "Oh, and sweeties."
"Yes mom?" Mikey and Tanya asked.
"Let's finish the party some other time. Get some rest when you get back."
-
Althea listened to all of this while she threw some extra stuff into her jumpsuit's Personal pockets. She made sure that she had her small notebook, a few pens, the like as she never left home without them. The rifle and her tactical gear was already packed. That was the easy part. She could construct, deconstruct, and construct her rifle while blindfolded and falling to the surface of a planet in under a minute and a half (was necessary once...).
Once she was sure that orders were done being handed out, she clicked on the mic of her comm link.
"This is Althea. I'll meet you in the hanger I assume? I'll be there momentarily."
-
"Dad!?! I.....yes sir. Setting the R-Wing to self destruct. I'll hold my position but will prepare to uproot as soon as things go fubar. I'll be ready in 10 mikes......and......I missed you dad." a tear silently rolled down his cheek as he set the ship to blow and began marching toward the Evac zone. His body felt heavy but full of energy, renewed by the thought of seeing his family again. "See you soon pops."
-
"You heard the fox! Ten minutes Frostbite!" McCloud ordered.
"Sir yes sir!" Mikey and Tanya stepped into the teleporter to be beamed down into the planet. Inside the filtered airbase they readied their equipment and strapped on their re-breathers to ward off the terraforming sulfurous atmosphere.
"It's a miracle trees grow here," Tanya grimaced as she got into the gunner seat of the gunship.
"Lylatians were terraforming this planet. It still stinks but at least the air is kinda breathable," Mikey commented as he activated the craft, "This is Frosty Actual we're ready to take off and awaiting orders. Ground team are you set?"
"Negative Frosty Actual, Still gearing up in the hanger. Bo-1C cargo craft is still refueling," Zak informed, "Ghost! Althea! Hurry up you two luvdiscs!"
"Ready man! Everyone get in!"
-
Olaris had detached his scouter from his head and allowed it to dematerialize into the storage unit strapped to his back that also contained his personal armor inside. He readjusted the tattered scarf he had around his neck so that it was now over his maw, then made his way to the hanger bay. “Could you give Tohaku a call and tell him that Olaris warns him that he -will- need an Ice pack or a medkit the moment I see him after all this time,” the fox said gruffly, clearly happy to finally see the Toxic Fox again, but at the same time agitated by his disappearance.
He saw the breathing units neatly laid out for those heading down to the surface, but he decided not to grab one. Not out of sheer stupidity but for being lucky enough to being one of the well adapted lylatians soldiers from the Lylat wars. “If we are not using a pod, then how are we landing on the surface. A parachute?”
-
Althea strapped the last stabilizer on her pack and tore out of the room just as she and Ghost were called "luvdiscs".
She ran down the corridors and towards the teleporters as her mind considered the connection between Ghost and her. He was pleasant and cute. He deserved a chance, at the very least.
"This is Althea," she said as she got onto the teleporter. She had never liked this machine. She knew they were completely safe, the technology had been perfected ages ago, but she couldn't shake the fear that something would go wrong and wouldn't come with her...
"I'm getting down to planet now. See you on the ship soon."
-
He set camp at the Evac point, ready for anything. Months of living on Venom has become bearable, allowing him to breathe the semi toxic air. He quickly popped his arm with an oxygen pack to help prepare him for the shift to a new atmosphere. "Almost sad to leave this rock" he thought to himself jokingly. He would soon see familiar faces and reunite with lost family. "Skyward and three stars to the right. A jump past the Gi-pon nebula and heaven isnt far away. Never told me what that meant old man."
-
Zak responded to Olaris, "Low altitude supersonic stealth cargo plane. All our cargo planes were once supersonic stealth bombers. C'mon! We've got eight mikes and every second counts!"
As they ground team boarded the transport craft the gunship team took off to scout the area and engage enemies. The single Gu-1 in the expert paws of Micheal Rivers would prove to be a formidable and effective close air support weapon.
"This is Frosty Actual, clearing away the low-freq SAMs."
"Copy that Frosty Actual, Big Bird Five is taking off with the ground team over."
The lumbering aircraft taxied its way to the runway with Zak and the others. The flight control tower gave the final thumbs up.
"Big Bird Five, you are cleared for takeoff!"
"Hold on muchachos, you're in for a trill ride," Zak smirked as he lowered a restrant harness over his vest. Ghost and Althea doing the same while Olaris doubted the acceleration capabilities of such a large, old aircraft.
"Roger that! BB5 full throttle!," The large craft went from a slow crawl to almost 60mph in less than a second. Olaris was thrown from his seat, surprised.
"Told ya," Zak chuckled, "Federation aircraft are very surprising and second to none. This thing can go up to Mach 2 in a normal nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. We'll be at the dropzone in six mikes."
(http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac65/BusterBuizel/UPF/Bo-1UPF.png)
-
Althea made sure to take a jump seat near Ghost, if only to tease him during the flight. For example, as she had buckled herself in, she let her hand rest for a mere moment on Ghost's knee. She pretended not to notice the touch, but made sure that she could see his face in her peripheral vision the whole time.
When she felt the kickback from the jet as it roared to it's flight speed, she threw her head back and laughed in joy.
"You ready Ghost?"
-
The fox had managed to regain his composure in his seat, and heaved out a sigh. Well now that the speed wasn't a concern, the landing bit would be if this aircraft could even manage to hold together. Now relaxing, the fox leaned back in the seat and gazed up to the ceiling humming to himself for a bit. “What exactly is the federation lacking in,” the fox asked seeing how most of the technology actually outmatches some of Lylats finest.
-
He waited patiently through the longest 10 minutes of his life, knowing anything could happen at a moments notice. His pistol rested nervously in his paw. "5 mikes.......Just 5 mikes." he watched his surroundings closely waiting for friend or foe.
-
"The Federation lacks directed energy weapon refinement," Ghost explains, "Lylatian energy weapons outmatch Federation attempts. Your laser rifles are extremely powerful and the bolts from your plasma rifles fly as fast as bullets. I noticed that your current sniper rifle is in fact a laser weapon, but for some reason it has the force and stopping power of an anti-materiel rifle. Not only that but the heavier, so called Demon Rifle, strikes fear into a lot of our soldiers and crewmen. That was one of the first and only weapons powerful enough to tear through our tanks plasma shieldings. And since it's an energy weapon our hard-kill defensive systems couldn't counter it. Your guys learned quick to put those in the hands of your AT soldiers. Oh, and by the way. We've improved your new machine gun for use with the Federation. The new-new one right here. Your guys call it the Casten, but the Federation reversed engineered it and gave it a new designation: the MG5. And yeah, I'm ready."
"Four mikes!" Zak exclaimed, "Mikey how's the strafing?"
"Low Freq SAMs are cleared! Mopping up the manual AA guns! Sis! Demon Launcher up on that building!"
"Oh shit! Where?!" Tanya frantically scanned, "I see him! He's got us locked!"
"Going cloaked! We'll pop out from another position!" The gunship's hardpoints retracted into the craft and it faded into a transparent state, hiding it from the launcher's laser guided targeting, "Tanya, switch to TV guided missiles once we're behind the hill. Then we pop out and kill 'em."
"Roger bro, then we proceed to take out the Orbital Defense Guns."
-
Oddly enough, Olaris seemed oddly relaxed in his seat when the phrase 'Demon Launcher' was yelled out in such a horrified manner. Not even the panic of his allies seem to have bothered the fox as he raised a brow when the ship was placed into cloak. "You do... know that the Demon branded weapons don't use optical sensors... right," the fox asked as he peered out the windows towards the area of alert.
"You're not exactly going to escape a lock from it to easily... that and the predator missles that may or may not be lined on the ground. Oh and demon rifles... yeah. You're waisting time, it's best to hit the boost, and sonic boom him off the building. If he shoots, then nose dive towards the ground untill we're about to crash, roll right or left and quickly pull up. It needs to hit the ground or we're dead."
(It's true... the demon launcher can lock onto someone without Line of Sight in the game. And the Demon rifle can shoot through several land masters like it's nothing.)
-
Althea noted the tension in Orlaris' voice. She knew that Demon Lancher's were terrifying, especially if allowed to get a lock. So she laughed.
"Come on Olaris," she said trying to relieve the tension. "We're not going to be taken down by something as silly as that. We've got some of the best pilot and counter-measure controller in the UPF. We'll be fine."
-
Tohaku stops as he notices something in the distance, a shimmer of light. Shock shoots through his body as he hits the dirt just in time to dodge a sniper bolt. "Shit! Bloody snipers. Just what I need." he says to himself as he rolls into cover. "You better get here soon old man." That sniper wasn't using an energy based rifle. Almost as if it were a Federation weapon. "Who the hell is this amateur?"
-
"Hey bro."
"Yeah Tanya?" Mikey asked.
"I think these insurgents are using Federation arms, don't you see all those tracer rounds?"
"Those are definitely 23 mike-mikes. I guess they ran out of batteries and they're robbing Federation supply convoys. Yo ground team, you getting all this?"
"A-firm Mikey. Rebels are using stolen ballistic weaponry. 30 secs 'till drop! Grab a bulletproof vest!" Zak commanded the team and pointed to some vests hanging on the wall of the craft. Ghost grabbed two and gave one to Althea.
"Everyone ready? Okay! On Three! One! Two! Three!" Zak dove out of the side hatch and pulled the rip-cord of his parachute only a few seconds after he exited. This was a low altitude parachute drop and speed was essential to the mission. Zak found himself caught in a tree overlooking Tohaku. The two glanced at eachother as Zak cut away his harness, "I'm Zak, UPF Special Forces. McCloud and the LRM sent me and my team in. What's the sitrep Tohaku?"
-
Althea got excited when they got near the drop zone. She loved HALO drops...
She took the bulletproof vest from Ghost and laid her hand on his for just a bare moment. "Let's go!" She yelled as she threw it on.
Instead of stepping out of the plane, she swan dove out of the hatch and fell to the ground. She landed with the group and busied herself gathering the cloth.
-
Tohaku pulled him to the ground as a round just grazes the soldiers cheek. "Tell your men to stay low. We have enemies closing in. Hostile sniper in position of about 175m at 12 of my position. They are using Federation arms and seem to be amateurs, perhaps mercs who found left over items. No less tell your birds to be careful and bring the rain." he then looked straight into the soldiers eyes with a light smile. "and it's about damn time you went fox hunting." he grew serious again, "now let's get off the God forsaken rock. These mercs usually give up after light casualties so getting the LZ secure should be a breeze." he holstered his pistol as he began to shoulder his pack. "Let's go soldier."
-
The fox shrugged as he grabbed a parachute for himself, and strapped it on over his armor-less body, as he watched Althea jump out of the ship. He quickly followed in suit with a dead sprint and a quick jackknife dive out of the ship and popping out his parachute while he was upside down. The parachute rose up and quickly flipped the fox over and slowed down his decent towards the ground in which he landed in a graceful roll. When he rose to his feet, he casually began walking towards Tohaku with a light grin over his face. But... something in his eyes immediately showed the pure amount of rage the fox had held back for so many years over the Toxic fox's Disappearance. “Hello, Tohaku!” the fox chimed as he stepped forward with some surprising speed that was just not possible wearing his restrictive armor, and aimed a right hook to clip the fox's lower jaw line. “TO LONG HAVE YOU BEEN GONE! Not even your father told me where you were or what happened to you. How do you think I felt when some guy walks up to you with a grim look!?," the fox growled in a low barely audible tone to the fox so it wouldn't give away there location.
-
Tohaku to the hit with a light smile. "Sorry old friend. I'm back for good. I promise." he pats the fox on the shoulder, "Trust me.......it wasn't all that easy for me either." he looks deep into the foxes eyes, "but welcome homes are for later. Let's get out of here. We.......have a lot of talking and catching up to do. All of us." he smiled charming and warmly at his companion as a small tear fell from is eye and a drop a blood rolled down his chin. "and how about you beat me up when we're not taking fire." he said as he upholstered and fire several times taking out 5 mercs.
-
The fox only rolled his eyes. With a low groan he upholstered the plasma pistol from his side and quickly shot at three behind Tohaku. His aim was quick and precise as a round landed on one’s shoulder, the other in a knee, and the thigh for the other effectively incapacitating and taking them both down to the ground. He quickly holstered the pistol on his hip and unslung his rifle and growled lowly to Tohaku, though a bit calmer now, “Right now they are not even on my list of seventy-nine problems, you really expect me to feel better after a simple apology?! You’ve been gone for what felt like ages, I’d personally enjoy kicking your tail through a brick wall, shoot you in the foot so you can’t just walk right on back into trouble, an-GRAH,” he yelled out in rage as a mercenary cut him by drawing within melee range of him. He quickly spun around, raising his leg in a quick kick to the soldier’s head to knock him into the ground, and proceeded to unload several rounds in his body before continuing, ”and tear apart the very person who thought it would be such a great idea to capture you. Because evidently you failed to keep a simple promise. Where’s the evac!?”
-
"Now now now boys," Althea yelled at the two Lylatians. "Deal with the Tangos first. Then you can beat the living tar out of each other."
She had dealt with her parachute and had pulled her rifle from it's case. She had heard Tohaku's comment about the sniper and his location. That was her first job.
She immediately went to a low piece of cover and centered into the sniper's position. As she locked onto his position (The amateur... Wearing no camoflage, no armor, not in cover... idiot) she shook her head in regret. To be the sniper of a squad was a great responsibility and this fool hadn't even taken a shot yet.
He was easily dispatched.
Althea turned her rifle on the rest of the charging Mercenaries. They were stupid and populous, so they made easy targets for the trained sniper.
Come on, Althea thought to herself as she scanned through her scope between shots. Who's leading you? Show me some rank...
-
"Enemy Orbital Defense is down! Calling in our birds!" Zak opened up the radio channel and gave the okay to the Helljumpers. Drop pods slammed into the planet and the familiar faces of Andrew's squad hopped out, "Yo Mikey! Pour it on 'em!"
"Decloaking, hold on to your hats guys, coming in for gun and rocket run."
The Gu-1 stealth gunship emerged from transparency and unloaded automatic cannon fire at the surrounded mercs and insurgents providing cover fire for the ground team.
"I've got clearance for wild buizel runs on enemy SAMs and IFVs closing in. Ga-1 planes inbound," Ghost informed, "Las those targets dar- Dammit! Almost slipped again! Get 'em Althea."
(http://www.thefurryforum.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=17067.0;attach=14845;image)
-
When she saw the pods coming down, Althea's face lit up. She took the next few seconds to put out another few rounds, following the Sniper's Creed (One Shot, One Kill). When she heard the gunship roaring over the field, she lowered her rifle and yelled her approval after the swiftly moving jets.
Gotta love that airpower...
Ghost put out that the next set of targets were the SAMs and IFVs. Logical choices really. If they could get air dominance, this battle was over. They could enter and leave whenever and where ever they desired. As much as she liked the sound of Ghost's voice, she didn't like to hear him curse... especially when he missed a laser designation.
"Roger," Althea said as she clicked the laser designater on her rifle and aimed at the nearest SAM. "Lasing target."
-
He grabbed gently grabbed the collar of the young soldier's uniform. "Then maybe this can help for the time being." he said as his lips met his young mates. "Don't you dare ever think I could leave you behind forever." he emptied his pistol into several more mercs, forcing them to retreat with their tails between their legs. "LZ clear and secure. Be on the look out for SAMs and remaining infantry. I want a quick sweep of the area as well. Those little creeps got have Federation weapons and I wanna know how." he then returns is gaze to Olaris "and when we get home........I'm telling my father about us."
-
"It's kinda obvious how they got these weapons. This planet was behind Federation lines since the invasion. They're stuck here and so they steal our equipment," Ghost commented.
-
Olaris went silent for a moment as he was kissed. His rage that had been over-boiled had quickly subsided into something flat. His ear flicked a little bit as he heard more gun fire coming from a sniper, but he didn't turn away to break the moment. When the kiss was finally over, the fox sighed and shook his head. “He already knows, remember?”
-
"Not about this..." he dropped to one knee and presented a plane dark gold ring. "Marry me Olaris. I never wanna be apart again." He smiled lightly as he looked into Olaris' eyes. "I forged this from Vemon gold. It's non-toxic and non- radioactive metal that is rare on this planet." he waited anxiously for his lover's response.
-
Althea, although visibly focused on the mercenaries leaving, was listening into the happenings on between the oddly-colored fox and her new Lylatian squad member. She couldn't help herself. She was trained to have complete focus on where she was placing a shot, but still catch on to the radio chatter. She couldn't BUT eavesdrop.
When marriage was mentioned, however, that broke her veneer of focus. She lowered her rifle and stared at the kneeling Fox.
What the... Couldn't you have found a better place to say that? Like on the transport shuttle out of here for instance!?!?
Althea forced herself back to the world around her. To be polite she ran a little out of their small ring to give the couple their privacy. She didn't wish to interfere with Orlaris (especially since she wasn't sure that he wanted her around when he said his answer...) and she wanted to find a spot where she could watch the mercenaries leave. If they were reforming and planning to come back, she wanted to be ready.
As she ran to find somewhere with some elevation, she flicked over to a private comm channel. "Hey Ghost," she said with a little effort. Her heavy breathing was only partially due to the recent exertion of battle. "Got a question I want to ask..."
-
"Later Althea, The dropship is here," Ghost noted the large craft entering the airspace and landing in the clearing, "Let's head home."
-
By all means the fox had found it completely emotionally impossible to answer at the moment. How could he? It’s not often someone proposes to another in the middle of a battle zone where others had continued to shoot at you. Olaris had remained motionless, all previous thoughts completely demolished in such a brutal manner that one would think that the fox had suddenly died from where he was standing. Finally he managed to twitch, but only slightly as he uttered a few words in shock as a single laser had bounded off the fox’s personal energy shield that flared violently signaling it was about to break (fortunately he did leave with some kind of protection), “I… don’t believe I can answer this right now… I… I will have to get back to you on that.”
(Congrats! You broke Olaris, again BlackFang!)
-
Although somewhat disappointed by Ghost's refusal to talk, she didn't lose her smile at all. She turned and began to make her way to the landing zone however.
"I completely agree that it's time to head home," she said through an open channel. "But I call the seat next to Ghost."
-
"I.....I see. Then let's move. The transport is here." he said as the Evac arrived. He threw a new bit of tech he had scroung together, a concentrated beam blade, at a near by merc and dropped him easily. He grabbed Olaris' paw and charged toward the drop ship, a small tear dropping from his jaw. "Let's move people."
-
Back on the ship after a long mission the anthros and Pokemorphs all settled down for the long days ahead of them. Everything was quiet with the exception of David who was working on unlocking the secrets of Lylatian energy weaponry.
"What a strange capacitor you have, my lovely... Your focus optics are quite queer and intriguing... Now how exactly do you work sniper rifle?"
"...Still talking to inanimate guns eh Davy?" Ghost leaned on the wall with Althea listening and giggling at David.
"BLAH! How long were you guys sitting there?! Oh damn! You made me drop a resistor assembly! These are fragile! And what are you doing here?"
"You know me Planet Prickly. I love energy weapons. Althea wanted to come along caz I heard you were working on a Lylatian sniper rifle," Ghost replied.
"Not just ANY sniper rifle. THIS! Sniper rifle!" David flashes them a blueprint of the dreaded Lylatian Demon Sniper, "If anyone can crack the secrets of this thing, it's me."
"What have you found so far," Ghost was meddling with the focus optics.
"Hey, can I kindly ask you not to toy this even though you're the quartermaster? I need to unlock the secrets of this thing first before I have you field stripping it," David swiped the lens from Ghost, "From what I discovered I found this to be an extremely unique and complex weapon. You see, this does NOT use plasma, lasers, or an EMP to harm targets. This is actually a solid-mass hologram rifle. It's dead on accurate and powerful, but it requires a lot of power to generate the projectile. It's amazing how such a small rifle can kill our most powerful armored vehicle with one well placed shot. If I can reverse engineer this for Federation use we'll reclaim an advantage over the Lylatians. Plus, I've got another project I'm concocting as we speak," David explained while still tinkering with the rifle, "Maybe if you could get that Lylatian scientist here I could have some help with recreating this."
-
When she had piled into the dropship along with everyone else, Althea's question died on her tongue. It just didn't seem to be the right time (especially with the question of marriage between the two Anthro Foxes hanging in the air) to be asking Ghost out to a date. So she stayed quiet and near Ghost until they landed. Once they were all docked back with the ship, she went to her room and got into something a bit more comfortable than combat gear.
When Ghost invited her to go and pester David as he looked at one of the most powerful rifle in the galaxy, she jumped at the opportunity.
She stood in the corner, more than happy to watch the scientist work, but Ghost had to poke away. She watched with a small smile as Ghost pestered the obviously engrossed David. She listened closely as David described the rifle and it's capabilities, amazed at how it works.
With a rifle like that, the 2+ mile shot that Tanya wants me to take would be a piece of cake. And forget compensating... I could hit the target's big toe and the force of the shot will disintegrate their body.
-
Olaris had finally recovered from his apihphany of emotions, looking back to Tohaku silently. He knew the fox all to well. And he knew that the answer he had given him had easily hurt his feelings after such a long time. Now guilty, he didn't even know if he could speak to the other but he had managed to muster up the courage by some sheer miracle that... that just might possibly not be enough to repair the damage he had already created.
"My... my answer is yes," the fox rasped lightly.
The air was already filled with awkwardness, thankfully the other two had left to talk about some of Lylats weaponry designed by the very scientist that the Fox had once mentioned.
-
A light smile comes acrossed his face as he take Olaris into his arms. "I love you." he said weakly as he fell to the ground. "Med.......Medic." is all he could force out before blacking out. He was suffering from atmospheric sickness, the condition one gets when moving from one atmosphere to another of a different chemical make up. His body wasn't used to the clean and oxygen filled air of the ship as Venom was a mixing bowl of chemical compounds. He would need help ASAP.
-
"Oh Arceus! Tohaku collapsed!" Ghost rushed over to the fox and checked all his vital signs, "Atmospheric sickness. Requesting a medic to hallway A1 Block 1 ASAP!"
"Yes sir," in response an Audino Pokemorph rushed into the hallway to provide medical assistance, rapidly transporting Tohaku to the medical bay with Olaris right behind.
"I hope he's okay," Ghost starred as they turned the corner, "Guess Olaris is out for the Assassination mission?"
"Change of plan Mr. Lee," the President came into the hallway overhearing the fox, "Mission aborted. Some how they found out. Which means that we have a spy on board."
"Say what?!" Ghost glanced back at him.
"Don't say a word. I've already talked to my twins about this. Althea, read my mind so that I can keep this a secret and share it with Ghost."
The President mentally explained that the spy posed as an officer in the LRM. He had been on the ship for quite some time now and has even tried to sabotage the ship itself with RX4 charges stolen from the armory. Only a select few know about what's taking place and the only person capable of searching for them is Althea. No other psychic or pseudo-psychics were on the ship at this time. The spy even masked his scent with an anti-odor agent, increasing the difficulty of detection.
"David knows this too. He's complained about misplacing a few parts of the demon sniper over the past few hours. It's not like him to forget where he places things."
"Particle Transformer... Resistor Assembly... Focus Optics... Wait a minute..." David looked about as he noticed something strange in the corner of his eye, "...I'm hungry..." he lied.
(Althea! The spy is in the room using a stealth suit! He took the trigger assembly and the only way out is through the vents and the door! You two need to stay in here, I'll get my dad out.)
"Hey dad, why don't we leave these two alone for a while and grab some midnight snacks and cake. I insist!"
"Not now David, I should-" he paused as David turned his back to the room motioned his lips for his father to read, "You know what, I've got time." (Althea, you know what to do...)
As they left the room the door locked behind them. The Jolteon and the Buizel looked toward the vents and drew their concealed firearms.
-
Tohaku moaned and twitched lightly, his temperature 102. His dreams were rittled with painful memories. He drempt of the day he disappeared to Venom and the loss of friends to war. His body ached as he restlessly slept. His mind was lost in his poisonous slumber. Luck and time were required for his recovery.
-
The fox let out a low sigh. He was leaned back against the wall with his left hand draped over the others shoulder. Being to venom several times during the war himself and having a prolonged exposure to the atmosphere after his armor's life support reserves had finally ran dry, he already knew of the painful condition that Tohaku was in. “Well... here we are again. A small chance I might loose you again... but I doubt it,” the foxed hummed quietly to himself but mostly to Tohaku which had probably fell upon death ears, patting the other's shoulder. “It's not a fun experience... I know. But... if it's one thing a lylatian does have is the ability to adapt. You can pull through this I know... and in the process grow stronger. I can only hope... no I know this will happen.” The fox's head turned to the nearby nurse who had motioned for him to leave, and reluctantly obliged and entered the hallway.
The fox's head turned around slightly to glance back to the door before slowly strolling down the hallway in deep thought unaware of the current events at hand. A small feeling of a possible problem did occur in the fox when he saw Mr. Lee's grim expression. An expression that seemed impossible for a guy like him, but this could simply be a personal matter as far as the fox is concerned.
-
Althea saluted when the President came in and her eyes widened as he described the situation about the spy. She would never have done this without permission, but she cautiously reached out to her President's mind. She made sure to make her touch feather light (it wouldn't have done to have her bumble around like an elephant and risk harming some facet of his personality...).
When David opened his mouth, Althea caught his thoughts too. It wasn't that she meant to, it was just that she wasn't paying enough attention to shield from the thoughts of others. She was immediately glad that she did catch it however as David gave her a major clue.
As David and the President left, she sent a final message to them. "I will do what I can. Do you suggest I notify Captain Orlaris?"
Turning back to the now armed Buizel and Jolteon, she extended her consciousness to them and tried to touch their minds lightly enough to communicate but not enough to delve into their thoughts. "Please allow me to communicate with you in this way. I can link us for telepathic communication, but only if you let me in". Her parents had always warned her about violating the inner sanctum of a persons mind, and Althea did not, under any circumstances, want to do that.
-
"Go ahead!" the President gave the okay.
"Word of advice Althea, I've got a dirty mind so you'd best not delve in too deep. On the surface it may just appear like detailed blueprints and technical descriptions of the various Federation technologies, but what lies beneath will put off any psychic type that comes near me. That's what the internet does to you. Plus, I am a well known galaxy wide internet troll and prankster. So please, careful with the psyonic waves," David warned.
As Althea drew her handgun Ghost sat unaware of the situation, "Wait, what's going on? Why are we?... David You Troll! Let Us Out Of Here! Blah! I guess he's gone by now," awkwardly looking about the workshop he whistled and scooted closer to Althea. He smiled and his face put her at ease, but only for a moment, "Well I guess we're alone until Mr. Prickles unlocks us outta here. You know, out of all the times David locked in me places. I don't mind this one one bit. Although knowing David he's probably doing this and watching us right now as a sick experiment of 'put two specimens of both genders in an enclosed space and see what happens.' Pfft, that guy bugs me ya know? Hehe."
Ghost noticed something in her eye at caught his attention. The reflection off her irises revealed the spy uncloaking and drawing his silenced firearm. Althea was, in that one moment, caught off guard by Ghost's smile, "LOOK OUT!" Ghost tackled her to the ground and behind a crate. He looked awkwardly at Althea in the position they were in, "Ummm, KILL SPY! awkwardness later."
He drew his own magnum and fired upon the spy, who cloaked and hid further in the workshop.
Meanwhile, as David viewed the camera footage of the room he couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Ghost tackling Althea to the floor, "PFFT! Hahaha!"
-
Fantastic, Althea thought as David described the terrain of his own mind. She made sure that the thought didn't pass through the link to David and the President. My mind is linked to a pervert... Fantastic...
Ghost approached her and mentioned that he enjoyed being locked in a room with her; a thought that didn't bother her one bit. She was bothered by the thought that she was trapped in a room with Ghost and a spy that would probably kill them both given half a chance. She prepared to link Ghost's mind with her own, but then was thrown to the ground.
I should have been expecting that. Should have extended the field first, then tried to make a communication array... Kimiko would have known that.
Rolling out from under Ghost, she closed her mind as she rapidly did two things. The first was that she threw her mind through the workshop to locate their Spy friend. This was simple enough as she didn't care much about how delicate her touch was, in fact much the opposite. If the Spy was hit by her mental shockwave, the Spy's mind would be disrupted, possibly leading to unconsciousness.
The second was to lay a mental link on Ghost so that she could talk with him.
-
Immediately the lights went out in the workshop. Ghost and Althea were left guessing at the location of the spy. Ghost allowed his thoughts to link.
-Great, you got a fix on him Althea? I could turn on my scouter's IRNV but the light would give away our position. Know any good psychic type attacks to incapacitate the guy?-
-
Ghost... Althea thought with a mental sigh. I'm a Ninetails not a Mew. My little sister was much better than I at this. We'll be lucky if I can hold this traitor still for more than a few minutes.
Althea quickly got to her feet and closed her eyes, letting her mind "see" for her. This was one thing that she'd excelled in over her little sister. It was probably because she didn't rely completely on her mental input. Using the sound of her own breathing, a hand running softly over the terrain around her, and a quick mind, she could almost picture he world around her. It was almost like sonar, except the picture was tempered by psychic "vibrations" that made somethings stand out in sharp relief to her and other things become gray and almost invisible.
For example, Ghost was plainly visible to her. His thoughts were like a beacon she could see even if she closed her eyes...
Ghost. You need to stay close to me and stay quiet. We're going to sweep the room. Keep your ears sharp.
Spending a second to sweep the area immediately around her, she sent her consciousness out to try and find the Lylation Captain Olaris. At the very least, he should be notified...
-
The captain remained silent on his stroll down the steel corridors of the ship remaining in deep thought. His own thoughts began rearranging themselves in a fight over priorities as he let out a soft sight. When the corridor ended and opened up to two more hallways, the fox made a left to head back to where he believed the group might be.
“Just great,” the fox thought to himself with his eyes narrowing in distaste at his own luck, “someone proposes to you, then goes under an atmospheric arrest. Furthermore, what else is terrible is that it was the same one you thought you we-,” his thoughts ended there as he felt an intrusion poke through his own mental state of mind.
“Arrrgh,” the fox exclaimed in surprise as his own vision became distorted for a brief moment. The fox had his mind intruded before from Kyrstal, but he hadn't had it happened enough to grow accustomed to it nor did he actually accept any form of personal intrusion.
“Who's in my head now?!
-
-Gotcha Althea. Staying close- Ghost tried to keep his left paw onto her shoulder. The room was pitch black and what might be worrying is the fact that the spy might have a night vision visor.
Meanwhile Althea connected her mind to that of Olaris, informing him of the situation.
-
"Ghost," Althea whispered into his mind. "Guard me for just a moment. I have to focus on something real quick."
Feeling Olaris' mind respond to her touch, she increased the pressure on his mind a microscopic amount. It was always difficult to do this for her as she wasn't very adept at controlling her power. It was like trying to press into a soap bubble without breaking it, because if that bubble popped, Althea would break into Olaris' mind and she didn't want to do that.
"Olaris," she sent trying to be as quick as possible. "Guard yourself, there is a spy on board. Ghost and I are in pursuit, but be ready."
Keeping the connection, but bringing her mind back to herself, Althea allowed waves of her thoughts roll out from her. She was searching for the sympathetic response that another, living mind would have when her thoughts made contact with it. She immediately felt Ghost's mind, and forced herself to ignore it. As much as she desperately wanted to search the avenues of his thoughts and peruse his desires she couldn't right now. Oh... to step into that... Althea panicked for the space of a breath.
With her mind spread out like that, there was a possibility that Ghost may have noticed her thoughts. Great Althea. Now he knows you're infatuated with him.
Returning to the task at hand, Althea focused outwards. It didn't take long before she found the vibrations of another mind. It was male, it was calm, and it was 47.6 meters to her right. He had no shielding for his mind, and even at this distance and with such a soft touch, Althea could pick up basic emotions.
He's... enjoying this? It's a... hunt?
-
Ghost keep watch as Althea contacted Olaris. In his mind he was not only focused at eliminating the spy but also protecting Althea. He thought about how life would be like if they got together. He even thought for a moment what it would be like to raise a few Vulpix kits with her as his wife. His mind trailed off for only a split second as he regained focus on the task at hand, only to be broken by the thoughts of Althea revealing her true emotions to him. There was a dripping faucet in the background.
"Althea... You-" Ghost whispered and was cut off by a gunshot. Althea felt a thud by her feet as Ghost collapsed to the floor, shot in the lung by the spy. She bent down and cradled him in the darkness.
Gasping for air Ghost was hyperventilating. Althea dragged him into a shipping container and closed it shut, keeping the tactical light on her vest from being visible to the outside. She could see the gapping hole in Ghost's ribcage, the bottom portion of his right lung had been torn and blood was seeping out onto her palms. He was coughing up blood and was trying his best not to go into shock.
-
Tohaku snapped out of his daze after hearing a gunshot. He jumped from the bed, ripping the plugs and wires off his chest and arms. He stumbled out of the ward, grabbing his pistol from the counter. Several doctors tried to halt him but to no results. His body ached as he slammed into the research area. He unsheathed his pistol as he shoved the door open to the room he heard the disturbance. He scanned the dark room. -three people........whos the third?- he questioned silently. He aimed to the corner of the room and fired three times. One hit the wall and the other two were met with a thud against warm flesh fall owed by a heavy thump. He flicked on the lights, the spies body appearing. "Hello? Where are you guys?" His eyes started to blur as he scanned the room before seeing the shipping container. "Shit. Ghost!" he moved toward the injured soldier but fell to his knees. "Hang on......I'm.......I'm coming......" he said crawling to ghost. His body fell short of his friend. "Althea.......get the med.......med powder from.......my wrist band.....Stop his.......bleed....." he passed out before he could finish, the pain too great to hold consciousness.
-
"Ghost..." Althea whispered. "Stay with me Ghost..."
Althea futilely tried to apply pressure on Ghost's wound, but the frothy, pink blood showed how ridiculous an idea was that she could assist here. The thought that she could cauterize the wound was quickly dispelled as she knew that a charred lung was not in Ghost's best interest right now.
She quickly followed the Toxic Foxes words and quickly applied the powder. But then the Fox fainted and she didn't know what to do.
"MEDIVAC!" Althea yelled both mentally and verbally. "DAVID, YOU BETTER GET A MEDIC IN HERE NOW!"
Althea stood quickly and flew threw the doors, almost literally. To say that she was upset would have been a gross understatement. She was fury incarnate now and it was reflected in both the waves of psychic energy that rolled from her body, creating a shield for herself and searching for the Spy, and the glow emanating from her body as the rage threatened to be released as flame.
With a quick flick of her mind, she located the Spy. He had frozen behind some crates, probably to confirm the kill, and was now paralyzed by Althea's display. Althea quickly turned her slight brush into an iron fist around the Spy's mind.
You are mine now. How dare you harm Ghost.
Not quite thinking rationally, Althea returned to one of her Psychic Warfare excersizes. Envisioning that her mind was a planet in space and the Spy's the only other object in this Plane, Althea created a ball of pure Pain and threw it at the Spy. This all happened along the mental connection between Althea and the Spy, but the response was physical: The howls of the Spy were music to her ears.
Tightening her grip on the Spy's mind, she stopped all communication between the Spy and his body. He went limp as a doll and collapsed, no longer even able to scream.
Spy captured Mr. President... Better come quick.
-
Tanya materialized from the puddle that had formed from the dripping faucet.
"Shit! I had it handled Tohaku! Althea, don't use the powder! OH crap!," Tanya rushed up to them and held her paw on Ghost's chest, too late to stop Althea from applying the medicine. She examined the powder and realized what Althea had done, "Althea! You just poisoned him! His body's not gonna accept the Anthro DNA of the regen powder Tohaku gave you! Pokemorphs and Anthros are different species and require different regenerative meds!"
A nurse came into the room and rushed the dying fox to the operating room, placing him in a stasis ball to halt anything else that could go wrong. Ghost dematerialized into a red beam of energy and was absorbed into the capsule like machine. His stasis ball was placed on a diagnosis machine.
"Right lung's been blown apart, multiple ribs broken, massive blood loss, and blood poisoning. If we didn't put him in the ball he'd be dead from shock," the Audino nurse explained, "I'm not sure he'll make it. But as long as he's in stasis he'll be alive. The bodily damage we can fix, but we might need to do something drastic or else his immune system will overreact to the artificial Anthro stem cells. There's no way he could recover quickly, if he even recovers at all."
"Oh no..." Tanya gasped as she cupped her forehead and cried deeply. Mikey burst into the room with Zak as well.
"Is Ghost Okay?!"
Tanya only looked at her brother and friend with a look that petrified them both.
"NO!" Mikey pounded his fist into the side of the room, denting the armored hull, "Dammit! He's not dead! Please Arceus! He's not dead!"
Zak only stood paralyzed and speechless. He slid to the floor from leaning on the wall. All he could do was stare blankly with tears forming in his eyes. Tanya snapped out of her daze and slapped her brother in the face.
"Stop! He's not dead! Not yet! Ghost lived through the Ishimura and he sure as hell will live through this! Snap out of it guys!" she grabbed a respirator for Zak and her brother. She fixed it to their snouts and told them to breath easy, quickly recovering from their panic attacks, "Pull together guys... We're a team. Stay strong for Ghost. Althea come here. Group hug and best wishes."
-
Tohaku gasped loudly and went silent, his body limp and cold. His breathing stopped silently. Tohaku's body had given out to the illness, his strength given to stopping the spy and attempting to save ghost. He had stolen poke morph stem powder from the ward just in case. Something had spoken to him in those moments, what we may never know. Tohaku's lifeless body lay quiet during the mourning for the young poke morph.
-
With his scouter rematerialized over his eye and activated into a life signature scanner, the captain had nearly tripped over the body of his lover when he ran into the room with his rifle drawn. However, instead of completely trampling the body he had managed to spot it at the last second and jump over him to avoid harming the Toxic fox and nearly crashing into Althea. “Holy... how the heck did you...” the fox trailed off as he noticed the body was practically motionless now. With a growing panic emerging in his gut, the fox quickly tapped his com link and called over a nurse to rush him into the operating room.
After that has been done, the fox re-raised his rifle and proceeded forward keeping his eyes on the scouter. Eventually, he found the invisible spy that Althela had mentioned, his body was outlined and highlighted in a digital sepia over the single lenses of the scouter clearly labeling him as a valid entity over the surrounding. Olaris raised the pulse rifle to a fatal target on the spy's body, having no quelms of killing him if he has to for the amount of trouble caused. “I take it you got him,” the fox asked as he slowly moved around the crates to get a better shot.
-
Althea, still greatly upset but now beginning to feel the toll of her mental exertions, could still feel everyone in the room. Most notably and clearly the spy in front of her (still completely conscious and desperately attempting to recoil from the "ball of Pain" she held within his mind) and the fading light of Tohaku's mind. With everything going on around her, Althea didn't know what to do first...
Do your job, a voice called from her past. When your mind becomes clouded, fall within your training and do what needs to be done. When everything falls apart, control the situation, cut your losses, and rule your world. Save your men, do your job, and deal with the consequences later.
Yes... Father...
Althea spun and pointed directly at the fallen form of Tohaku. "Corpsman," she yelled at the Audino Nurse. She wasn't sure what title was appropriate, but now wasn't the time to mince words. "He needs help. NOW! His breathing has stopped and he doesn't have a lot of time."
She turned to Mikey. "Snap the Hell out of it," she said in a voice most assuredly not befitting for a Captain to be using with the son of a President. "Care for the living now and mourn for the dead when you can. Right now I need you to take the lead and do your job as a CO, not break your knuckles on a wall because a soldier has been injured. The same goes for you Tanya," Althea added. "Now is not the time to break down and 'group hug'. Ghost needs to be rushed to the Med bay, he doesn't need 'best wishes'. We have two casualties that must be cared for and a captive to interrogate."
Althea was suddenly struck by a wave of exhaustion. The effort of holding so many mental links (her mind was still connected to the Spy, David, Ghost, Olaris, the President, Mikey, Tanya, and Tohaku) compounded by the force necessary to stop the nervous signals of the spy from leaving the brain had finally caught up with her. Her eyelids fluttered and she stumbled as the world spun for a brief moment.
She quickly severed all her mental links save two, the necessary one to the spy and the one to Ghost (she refused to let that one go until she felt his heart stop beating). Putting her hand out to steady her body on a nearby storage container, she kept talking.
"I will need some time before I delve the mind of the spy. With your permission, I'd like to release my hold on him, but only after he is stripped of his cloaking gear and armament and bound. After that, I ask you leave to rest." Althea breathed deeply, settling herself for one last thing. Summoning her will one last time, she pushed herself straight and went to Full Attention and Parade Salute.
"I apologize for speaking thusly to a Commanding Officer. I humbly submit myself to whatever punishment you deem necessary for my behavior."
The only thing that gave her strength was the mental link to Ghost. She poured every thought of warmth and strength into it that she could muster.
Keep strong Ghost. Stay with me. Don't you dare die on me.
-
“Oh relax, I am no longer an Officer. By this point of time I have probably been deemed a traitor, and have a death sentence on my head,” the fox sighed in a very sarcastic manner, but it was possibly more than likely the truth as he drew closer to the Spy with his guns till raised.
When the fox was close enough, he quickly grappled the man and slung him to the ground onto his stomach, then pressed his knee in his back as he started to handcuff him. After his hands, then came the spy's feet which were then pig tied with his hands to prevent any further movement. Clearly the fox didn't feel like dealing with the spy as much as anyone else.
Now with the spy completely immobile, his cloaking gear was immediately cut off of his body followed by a quick and thorough search, in which the fox recovered pieces of a very familiar rifle. “Is this... Uhm... Althea why are there pieces for a Demon Rifle aboard the ship?”
(hastily typed... sorry)
-
Tanya glared at Althea and walked over to her. She grabbed her by the collar and pinned her to the wall, punching her face in the process. Tanya whispered into her ear.
"I can't believe you! Look around you! I'm trying to calm everyone down and here you are disrespecting all of us with your insolent tone! I have full faith in our medical officers and Arceus above to take care of this okay! They've got it covered."
Tanya threw her to the ground and turned away. Mikey and Zak pulled themselves together.
"Althea... This was a non-combat situation. If we were out in the field you wouldn't see us freak out like this. We didn't expect this. Have a heart and show some compassion you dumb bitch... Address me as your superior now," Mikey got up and crossed his arms.
"Wow, happy **censor** birthday..." Zak commented harshly, "Sorry guys."
"It's okay Zak," Mikey sighed.
The President only shook his head in disappointment and gave Althea a hand signal to cease, "I understand you were taught to follow conduct." He lead her out of the room, "But what you have to understand is that there is a time and place for emotion. Frostbite was grouping together to stay strong, yet you kind of sent a message that said; '**censor** you guys you're all just pussies.' Sorry to be blunt, but I'm just being honest. This wasn't a battlefield Althea. Things were handled and you didn't need to act in the way you did. What I'm trying to say is this: the group was bonding together and you refused to be part of it. They just wanted you to be a friend, and in their eyes you failed them. I'm sorry for what happened, but I'm not sorry for your actions. Correct what you need to do."
He walked away back to his quarters.
Meanwhile David turned to Olaris and collected the parts, "May I take these off your hands? Thank you kind sir!" David gently placed them back on his workbench and sorted through the parts, "As to the origin of this peculiar rifle: we captured this when the LRM allied itself with the Federation. I've been taking a look at this for some time and I wish to unlock the secrets of this weapon so that I may reverse engineer it for Federation use. Plus, it's a solid holographic rifle, I've only heard about these types of weapons in video games. I've never seen or tried to design my own, namely because I don't know how to solidify a laser or light beam."
-
Ryan couldn't help but to feel sorry for Althea for being chewed out when the spy that had been roaming freely had been captured. In his opinion, the spy had been successfully captured without any real data loss, and all chances of his escape now had been reduced to zero. He also couldn't catch the insulting tone mentioned behind the woman's respectful voice, and common soldier like behavior. The fox did remain curious as to why the two would behave in such an odd way until the pieces he had collected from spy had been recollected by David.
He slowly turned around to follow him, only glancing over his shoulders once to glance back to Althea with a grim expression before looking back to the scientist. His eyes wondered over the carefully dismantled rifle as David continued to ramble on. He carefully picked up the barrel and gave it a quick look over as he sighed lightly.
“I don't understand why you would want the Demon Series technology, with your own unmatched weapons... but the scientist you want is Professor Leo Kalihari Cyrule. Or just Professor Leo... or Schrodinger's Cat... or Gravity Cat... or Parodox of Reality... they gave him so many nick names. He's a good friend of mine, and he was also the lone engineer behind the Demon Series... including this rifle. You two might become good friends in two seconds though. I've fired this thing once before. It's something else, it ionized a group of aperoids in a millisecond, and tore through a mountain side like it was nothing on a single round.”
-
David turned to Olaris, "So they have similar internet Memes on Lylat? If so, is your scientist friend amused while he's alive and dead? Would that make him undead? If moonlight is just reflected sunlight then wouldn't vampires burn at night too? And one last question: What is an Aparoid?"
-
“According to him, the vampires are just a bunch of heliophobic sissies, who's bodies have never seen the light of day. And that they must fear being out in the day time because of their bodies slowly loosing melanin making direct sunlight hazardous,” the fox stated after a very blunt sigh. “They called him the Schrodinger's Cat because he ran several social experiments, one of which put his own life at risk in a situation similar to Schrodinger's Cat. I think he's amused dead or alive. Dying doesn't really bother him. You might love to work next to him, the guy is nuts. Nuts enough where the goverment he works for literally fears him changing his loyalty, or becoming a new andross, when really he doesn't have any intentions to. So... he's pretty much prohibited from leaving the research facility unsupervised, and he's only allowed to leave on some days. I'm not sure if that's his value to lylat or his sanity though.”
He then straightened up for a moment before slowly leaning over the desk heaving out another sigh as he tried to formulate a description out of words to describe them. “They are... creatures with an inconsistent form. They have the ability to take over machines, life forms, and mimic life. But they are technically not alive nor dead. Unlike the weird... bladed... monstrosities. Once a body is infected, it's pretty much infected until you manage to completely destroy it and the source. But... they are extinct now.”
-
Althea had steeled herself for discipline, but was caught off-guard by what actually happened. She had been expecting court-marshal, suspension, KP even; not being struck and thrown to the floor. But that was only the beginning.
She couldn't raise her eyes to meet Mikey's or Tanya's or the President's (a Pokemorph that she greatly respected) as they tore into her with their words. Only two things sustained her throughout her shame: her mental link to Ghost and her lack of regret. If given the same situation, she wouldn't have changed her actions one bit. But that didn't stop a stray thought or two from flitting across her exhausted mind.
How dare they call me out like this!? I captured the spy and did all I could. Our leaders fail in their duties to their followers. We don't need a figure-head to offer comfort, we need a General that will do what is necessary. Have they even read The Art of War? Go Rin No Sho? Bushido? They can't - NO! Stop that! That is too close to treason for comfort...
She had laid there, barely paying attention to the discussion about the finer points of Lylation culture going on next to her while she gathered what left of her dignity for what she knew what must come next.
With weak arms and a weaker stomach, she struggled to her feet once more. Her cheek was beginning to bruise where Tanya had struck her, her side burned where she had collided with the ground, and the back of her head ached where it had impacted the bulkhead, but she forced herself straight and stared Mikey dead in the eye with all the dedication she could muster and saluted.
"Aye aye Captain," Althea said as though on a parade ground. She made a slight turn and repeated the motion for Tanya. "Aye aye Captain." She turned to the President and performed the full salute one last time. "Aye aye Mr. President. Permission to withdraw?"
Althea remained perfectly still, a statue in the leisure uniform of an ESFP officer out of the Marines.
-
"Permission granted. I'll transfer you to a different squad. Olaris, are you up for getting back into the furball?" the President glanced at the fennec, "We'll have your friend back to normal in just a matter of days. We've got the medication and expertise to do so now that we've learned a bit about Anthro biology."
-
Olaris glanced over his shoulder, looking towards the president as he was addressed and turned his body to face him correctly. He seemed to have held a very confused expression to the “getting back into the furball” comment, but the expression was quickly replaced after hearing of his loves condition with something more nuetral, but secretly eccentric from the typical fox that everyone sees. His eyes did show a large amount of happiness as he made a quick response, “Thank you Buster. But if I may make a slight recommendation. The mission to Titania you had proposed, and I did mention a useful asset before. He actually has the full complete knowledge over the Demon Rifle, that David here is progressing with, and other weapons of the same series. I'd figure now would be a good time to retrieve him.”
-
Althea dropped her salute (and her link to the spy, now that he was well in hand) and turned towards the door. Taking the measured steps of a Color Guard Marine, she left the bay and went all the way to her room. Closing the door, she let her body lean against it. She let exhaustion rule her physical body as her mind wandered back down the corridors to Ghost, checking his vitals. Even with such a short time frame, he seemed to be getting better already.
One trouble being dealt with... the others... Althea covered her face with her hands. Stupid stupid stupid... Why'd you do that? Training? Disdain? Ugh... What to do? I don't think that Mikey or Tanya will be assigning punishments any time soon. They just aren't those kind of people. Tomorrow I'll have to go to the kitchens and ask to be put on the dish washer's roster for a week. That'll be good, useless labor for me.
Barely aware that she was still dressed, Althea stumbled to her bed now that she had a plan of action in mind. She somewhat flopped onto it and fell asleep, too tired to care about the lights. She did keep the presence of mind to keep Ghost in her mind however...
-
"I wish we could muster up the forces to do so," the President shook his head slightly at Olaris' comment, "Give the others a break, it's been a long day. We'll get your scientist back when we've got our star special forces back. You should do whatever you feel like, go see Tohaku, Ghost, or help David if you can. I'm interested in the capabilities of that rifle. If you'd like we can show you the new equipment the Federation is fielding. I think you've earned a place in the Federation. In fact, I have a plan for you, Tohaku, and Althea to be in the same squad along with a new recruit. I shouldn't really say 'new' she's been a soldier for quite some time. Nevermind, is there anything you need for me to do?"
-
Dreaming was always a magical experience for Althea.
Ever since the day that her psychic abilities had manifested, she'd had the most wonderful dreams. It was funny though, because even though she was older, her ability awakened at the exact same moment that her sister's did. She had always suspected that Kimiko had reached out to her that night and activated her mental powers, but she had no evidence. For days they had shared dreams and drifted through a void filled with light together, thinking it was the most normal thing in the world, until they had found the dreams of their mother and decided to take a peak.
That was when Althea learned about the privacy of other people's minds and why they should never violate the sanctuary of a person's most inner thoughts. That was also the day that Mother had purchased a Psychic dampener so that their minds wouldn't link during sleep. But that hadn't stopped the dreams.
Now, here in the barracks of a ship and with no Dampener, Althea "woke" into a familiar landscape of lights within a void. She knew that each pinprick of light was both infinitely distant but she could reach it with but a touch. Each and every point of brightness represented the mind of someone within her reach. Some she recognized because of linking with them previously, like Mikey's and Tanya's (both still colored from their emotions), the President's (firm and strong), Olaris' (turbid with worry about Tohaku, but focused), and the dim light of the spy. She'd hurt him more than he thought... But the one she was interested in was growing as she approached it. It was dim, it was dark, but it pulsed with life renewed.
It belonged to Ghost.
She hovered above the "bubble" of Ghost's mind, a hair's breadth away, and reached out with a thought. It was delicate what she did, not unlike trying to touch a droplet of water with a finger without having it move, but she reached out to Ghost's mind and touched it.
Hello Ghost.
-
In the pseudo-reality of Ghost's mind Althea's surroundings became swirled in a vivid green. Colors, scents, and emotions mixed around as the scene became clear. The whole cornucopia materialized into a forest of indeterminate location. She could smell the leaves, blossoms, and the crisp air around her along with the smell of grass to her right. She noticed a clearing beyond the trees where the slight outline of Ghost was sitting. She could hear a child's laugh and could see two other orange dots next to Ghost. As she approached Ghost took notice.
"Hello there sweetheart! Alyssa and Will missed you," Ghost smiled, playing with the two Vulpixes around him, "Isn't the war over dear? You're still wearing your battle dress uniform."
"Mommy, you look funny," Alyssa pounced on her and smiled. Will pawed at her foot and pointed up with his nose.
-
The fox gave the poke-morph an appreciative nod, “Uh... nothing that I can think of really, and I appreciate the opportunity of being apart of the task force. But honestly, depending on how things turn out after this mess, I do plan on returning home. As far as that rifle, I don't know the technical bits about it. All I know was that it was a small piece of that cat's research. It shoots well, and obliterates everything.” The fox would offer a small shrug and then finally giving the president a salute before making his leave to the medbay.
-
Althea's first reaction when she saw the forest was irritation with herself. She hadn't meant to step into Ghost's dream. That was definitely classified as breaking into someone's mind. But then, that irritation gave way to curiosity and a child-like sense of mischief.
Well... since I'm already here, why don't I take a look around?
As she approached Ghost and heard what he said, she froze in what she could only assume was dead surprise.
Alyssa and Will? Sweetheart? Dear? MOMMY? With almost numb hands, Althea reached down and patted the heads of her... children. Alyssa and Will. Such beautiful names. Such a beautiful name for my daughter and such a strong name for a son... This is so wrong, but I can't leave. I have to know if this is a true belief or if this is a fever dream. I must know...
"Ghost," she said as she picked up Will and held him in her arms. "What was our first mission together?"
-
"Which one? The one where I charred my fur on the walking nuke or the time we went on the research rig in the middle of a sewage ocean?" Ghost smiled as Alyssa jumped back onto his head. There was a flight of fighter jets with a paint scheme of the UPF Flag.
"Daddy, what's that?" Alyssa looked down at her father.
"Fi-2s. Daddy flew one a while back. Those are the Patriot Angels."
"Are they fast planes daddy?" Will turned to Ghost, still within his mother's arms.
"Very fast buddy," Ghost smiled to his son.
"I wanna fly one! I wanna fly one!" Alyssa jumped repeatedly on top of his head.
"What do you say dear? You think these kids could try out for the JSFP? What's wrong Althea, you look like you saw," he chuckled, "A ghost."
-
Althea dropped her eyes. So he remembers completely. This is no fever dream. He's completely lucid. Then there's nothing to do but continue the game. She looked up at Ghost with a smile that encompassed her entire face.
"More like a specter. A shadow of what could be." She looked down little will in her arms and rubbed her nose against his. "Who? These kids? These little tykes could do anything they want. Fly Fi-2s? They could become the best pilots that the UPF can put in the field." Althea laughed as she hugged Will to her chest, but it couldn't last. She looked up to Ghost with as serious an expression as she could manage.
"Ghost, this is a dream. You've been injured by a Lylatian spy. I'm told that you are stable and will be back on your feet soon. I kept the mental link we held when you and I went after the saboteur and I was checking in on your dreams. I apologize for stepping into them. It is an unforgivable offense to invade someone else's mind. I simply had to check in on you and make sure your mind was intact."
-
"I know..." Ghost smiled as he put Alyssa down, "I let you into my mind myself. I wanted you to see that I was okay. Remember how Dark types like myself can chose to let psyonic frequencies influence them? When I'm dreaming I like to play along and believe it to be real, if it was realistic. But somehow I'm not in control of these little ones. Usually I have complete control of my dreams, but I can't complain. I truly love them," he picked a long blade of grass and started to tease Alyssa. She playfully pawed and bit at the elongation leaf, "Do you believe in Deja Vu Althea? Do you believe that, someday, this might actually be real?"
Alyssa giggled as Ghost rubbed her fur. Will yawned as he grew drowsy in his mother's arm, ears drooping forward.
-
"Are you suggesting that our fates are already sealed? That we are set along a path with no deviations. We have no free will?" Althea cradled Will in her arms and rocked him back and forth, just like her mother used to do to her when she was that small. "Then I would have to say no. I believe I forge my own path."
Althea smiled and looked down at Will as he started to drift off into sleep. "Are you saying that this might be a fate we choose for ourselves? That this is 'in the cards' for you and I? Then... perhaps." She shut her mouth and eyes tightly as she laughed a Recon laugh. Her body rocked in laughter, but she made no sound so that she didn't bother little Will. "I'd like to go on a few more dates first though!"
-
"Of course, but for now enjoy the dream. Look at the sky," Ghost smiled, ear to ear then relaxed as the sky turned a vivid orange from the sunset, "This is beautiful. I've never seen the sky turn this shade of orange. Then again, this is a dream."
Behind Althea was a young Eevee about Will and Alyssa's age. Ghost took notice to Tanya standing by a tree.
"Whoa, are we sharing dreams again Tanya?"
"Uh? Wait, this is a dream? Ghost, Althea? Quincy! Come over here puppy!" Tanya patted her thighs and her son came running towards her, "This is a weird dream. how'd I know your name puppy?"
Suddenly Mikey came out of the forest with a Buizel wrapped in his arms, "Hmm... Let me guess? David left the psyonic damper on reverse didn't he?" Mikey looked down at the Buizel and moved his head back in slight surprise, "I think this is my son..."
"Well, I guess since we're having a shared experience I guess this is the time to reflect and apologize for everything that happened yesterday. Sorry Althea. Hey, Quincy! Will you stop licking me!" said Tanya.
"Wait, where's Zak?" Mikey looked about. He was sitting by the edge of a pond fishing with a graphite rod.
"Here..." Zak acknowledged but didn't look away.
"...Oh... Yeah, you're a hybrid organism. I feel really bad for you man," Tanya came up to Zak and patted his shoulder.
"Doesn't matter, I've done a great service to the Federation. If nothing else I'm proud of that. It still doesn't fill the void," he sighed, "Thanks anyway Tanya... I'll see you guys in the morning, just leave me be."
-
Althea saw Tanya and Mikey and stood there, dumb-founded as they simply moved through the dreamscape. It took all her almost-subconscious dreaming to not exert her will on the world around her to make her fall into the earth beneath her feet and out of the dream. In a shared dream like this one, those with training and the original dreamer held power. Tanya, Mikey, and Zak were at the mercy of Althea in this world, but she could only function as Ghost allowed...
She snapped to attention with Will in her arms. Sadly, the motion woke him up. "Captain Mikey, Captain Tanya. I must suggest that you all leave immediately. This is not a neutral dreamspace, but Ghost's subconscious. If you wish, I can draw us into a neutral zone, but we must leave post haste. His body in it's current condition cannot handle the strain."
-
David appears from the top of a tall oak tree and hops down near the crowd.
"Actually," he paused, "Since I was concerned for Ghost, I turned the psyonic damper to vector all our dreams into a neutral space. Althea just happened to get here first. You're in stable condition Ghost, we'll have a new lung into you. And Althea, go ahead and ease up your psyonic powers, you're all good."
"Cool, thanks man," Ghost smiled.
"Daddy? What is the strange yellow porcupine thingy doing here?" Alyssa prodded her father.
"He's a friend. Hey Dave, can you explain to us why our possible future kids are here?"
"Couldn't tell you. The damper jumped off your dream. By the way, Tohaku and Ryan should be here soon."
Mikey looked towards Althea and smiled, "Meh, at ease Vo- I mean, Miss Lee. I didn't mean to snap. I could try to shake your paw again, but this little Buizel is asleep. Still friends?"
The Eevee in Tanya's arms jumped off and sniffed at Alyssa. The young kit and the pup started to play and roll.
-
Althea broke eye contact with Mikey and looked down to her "son". She needed the time to think. After clutching Will to her chest she bowed to Mikey and stayed bent. "I apologize for my behavior earlier. It was unnecessary and rash. When the lives of comrades are on the line, it was taught to me that speed is of the essence and you hesitated Captain." She rose and met his eyes with a slight smile. "But we are still friends if you can have me under your command."
Now that that's out of the way... Althea turned to David.
"Although I appreciate the effort of allowing us all to 'visit' Ghost in this fashion and allowing me to rest while still able to apologize to the Captains, this is bordering on the inexcusable. I don't know about the rest of us, but I certainly didn't give my acquiescence to allow you into my mind," Her voice dropped to an infuriated whisper "especially after what you mentioned to me!"
-
"Relax, relax. I'm just dozing off and needed to tell you guys why you're all here. Besides, I don't sleep until I'm done with a project. Have fun with your kids!" David faded from the dreamspace and awoke on his table, unknowingly drooling on the sensitive components of the rifle.
"Damnit! This is why I don't sleep during there jobs!"
Meanwhile in the dreamspace Tanya's pup was as curious as it was cute. He pawed at Althea and Alyssa, playfully teasing them. Mikey whispered to Althea.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped like that. As the Squad Leader I should have acted accordingly. Something about the unexpected threw me off," Mikey glanced down at his own son who was waking slowly and peacefully, "Go play with the others little guy."
They all sat down to view the sunset.
-
Olaris was mean while asleep in a chair next to Tohaku. One leg crossed over the other, and both arms folded across his chest.
-
Tohaku gasped loudly, sitting up quickly as if he awoke from a nightmare. He looked around panicked and focused his dizzied eyes on his young love. "I.......I........I.....saw the creator.......I......died." he coughed heavily as he tried to catch his breath. "Olaris.....tell me I'm alive." he said with tears welling up in his eyes. "Is everyone ok? Did we......did we get the spy?" his eyes were no longer the ruby red they usually are but instead gold.
-
Letting little William out of her arms to play with Tanya's child, Althea smiled as her little boy laughed. With a simple thought she changed the dreamspace and created a small play ground for the pups. She sidled up near to Ghost and watched the vision of the sun begin to set behind the horizon.
"Tell me a bit about your home Ghost," Althea said, ignoring the previous conversation. She had always been taught that once a disagreement as brought to a successful completion, you move on. There is no need to scratch and dig at a wound that needed to heal. "Tell me of your childhood. Why you are who you are."
-
Olaris woke up after hearing a familiar voice, and looked down to Tohaku. He studdied him for a moment, blinking away the sleepiness from his eyes before giving the fox a warm smile. Naturally... the fox wanted to play a prank on the other one as he leaned down to place a loving kiss on his lips. “No hun... we're dead. But everyone is peachy... I am glad to have you to myself though... we have each other,” he rasped as he wrapped an arm around him after hunching over his body.
-
He smiled lightly as he snuggled closely to his companion. "I love you. I missed you so much." he began to weep lightly. "I'm so sorry I left." he held Olaris close, trying to ignore his previous comment of their death. "Am......am I really alive?"
-
Ghost leaned over and smiled, "After I was brought home from the Ishimura I lived with my father in the United States of Treasure Nation. I grew up in the state of Arisona and often spent my time playing in the desert sun. When I was about nine years old my dad had to be stationed near the UPF Capitol, Emerald City. We moved into a nice one story house with a helipad in the back for his tiltrotor. We actually lived a hundred miles from the Emerald City so we needed a family aircraft to go from place to place. Everyone had a personal aircraft so traveling from country to country wasn't difficult or expensive. Thank goodness we live in this day and age right? As I was saying, My dad and I actually lived in Pearl City, which was were the Royal Family lived. I met Mikey and he became my first friend after I moved. I never really had friends back in the desert. My father would homeschool me and we lived far away from the cities on an old ranch house. Every summer we'd always go back and hunt in the desert. He might have sheltered me from others, but never from nature. He never fully recovered from my mom's death. Something about that old desert always captivated him. I forgot to mention how cold I felt after I moved to Pearl City. I honestly thought that when it was snowing there was a sandstorm of extremely cold, clumped white sand. What about you dear?"
Zak came back into the dream, still sitting by the lake and playing an acoustic guitar singing to himself.
"They keep playing sad songs on the radio
And I feel like I'm so alone
On this 15 hour drive
And all the while I tell myself to just believe
Cause nobody can give so much
And never get anything
Everyone I used to know
says they don't know what I've become
But I'm still the same
Not much has changed
I still know where I came from
I fell asleep with the lights on
And I can see that you're the first one in a long time
That had some faith in me"
-
The fox smiled, making sure not to place to much wait on Tohaku's chest, or anything that would cause him issues to breath before sighing softly, "You're ok hun. You're peachy for now." The fox's hands patted his side as he remained in the other's embrace, "You shouldn't have left..."
-
Althea looked down at her hands folded in her lap. As she had always been taught, she was kneeling comfortably on her heels, her tails wrapped tightly around her legs. Searching for a moment to think and order her thoughts, she glanced over at Zak and listened to his song for a few seconds.
"My childhood was... interesting," Althea said softly to Ghost. "My father was a wonderful, strong man. I always imagined that he'd wanted male pups, but that didn't stop him from doting on my sister and I. We lived in the Luna Isles far away from anyone else. We were isolated and lived in a home that had been built in a very old style. When I was young and my sister had just been born, my parents spent every effort to teach me art and poetry, but I excelled in the realm of weapons. By the age of 12 I was able to hit a bird out of a tree with a bow 9 times out of 10. My father pushed me to join the military after that and went with me to choose my first rifle."
Althea looked up to the sunset. "My sister, Kimiko Voss, was almost the exact opposite. She picked up the modes of poetry and literature quicker than I had learned how to field strip a rifle. Her realm had always been the mind. She's a skilled telepath and has been published many times over." Althea's hand casually brushed against the small notebook in her pocket, something so tied to her personality that it manifested here in the Realm of Dreams without a conscious thought. "I love my dear little sister more than anything and take every opportunity and shore leave to visit her."
-
"I think this is a good opportunity for all of us to discover ourselves. Zak, get over here. You're not alone man, I'm here for you," Mikey got up and rallied everyone around, even the pups as they nestled near their fathers and mothers. He walked up to Zak and helped him up.
"Mind if we all share Althea?"
-
Althea nodded her acquiescence. "Absolutely. Please feel free to tell a story or ask questions about my own." She tried to make her shyness at sharing disappear. "I think it's the sign of a fantastic squad if they know about each other. That is how the true bonds of brotherhood are formed and an efficient squad can become something more."
-
"I guess we're up sis," Mikey glanced at his sister, "Where do we start?"
"We were born the same day our father took office. Being twins, it's quite fun. We were never lonely and sometimes things would get interesting. Like what my brother said when we first met; we've always had a playful sibling rivalry ever since conception. Going back to the subject: since we were born on the same day the UPF was declared and united we served as the face of the Federation. Our faces are everywhere; TV screens, billboards, ads, patriotic inspirational programming. But enough about that," Tanya starts to pet her son resting on her lap.
"Tanya and I grew up in Pearl City (Portland) in the United States of Treasure Nation. Not the one in the state of Prime (Maine) but the one in Chinook (Oregon), just a couple hundred miles from the UPF Capitol of Emerald City (Seattle). We didn't live a life you'd expect from a celebrity, we were taught to enjoy simple things and honest values. It didn't matter who had the most things when they died, what mattered is what you did for the world. We were taught to put our trust in the Federation and help in anyway we could. I remember how I used to wrap the flag around my neck and use it as a cape. Something my father did during the Blue Spiral Galaxy Civil War. It was a sign of great respect just as long as you didn't try to get it dirty. It symbolizes the heroism of a true patriot. You remember the old footage of dad pulling off the flag from his neck and replacing the Rising Tide's from the top of the Soviet Statehouse in Volsingrad (Moscow), right Tanya?"
"How could I forget. Every Federationite knows how powerfully moving it was. Our father, a great leader he was, fought alongside his own men to the top of that building. He inspired all of them to fight for a future, for us," she paused and looked down at her pup, "for them... They say that true commanders fight alongside their men while still able to lead an army. Our father was no exception. Dispute what others told him before the battle he knew what he had to do. And that made him a hero. You can see how much we, and everyone else in the Federation, adore him. We really look up to our father, and being in the Special Forces is one way we can change the face of history."
"Although the Federation isn't perfect, it's close enough. It is a stable, fair, flexible, and a fine government and nation to call home. This is our home, our nation, our people. And we're doing all we can to keep it from collapse. Those are our ideals, personally Tanya and I enjoy a lot of the same things. We both like music, video games, technology, the internet, and snowboarding. As for our own interests I also like studying history. Mainly the 20th and 21st century. I know a lot about the First Global War, the Mandarin/Treasure war during 2020, and the Civil War we discussed earlier. Unlike what our scientists discovered about humans, our species thrives more on cooperation rather than competition. Something humans failed to understand. Oh well, we have to thank them for all the nuclear radiation and the few thousand years of natural selection," Mikey continued to jabber. Tanya waited for a chance to talk.
"As for me, I love hanging out with friends and traveling. I'm often at the mall or touring around a planet. I've also learned a few secondary languages such as Mandarin, Spanish, and Soviet as well as four languages of the Luna Isles. I would frequently visit Tokyo City in the Northern Isles because that's were my mother came from. All the bright lights, neon signs, the holograms, and tech surrounding the place gave quite a scene. The people there weren't afraid to express themselves. The Northern Isles are an odd bunch, but fun to get together nonetheless."
-
Althea nodded silently to herself as Mikey and Tanya spoke. It was interesting to hear about their lives and to see where they came from. The two were an odd bunch, no lies, but they were honest and that is what mattered.
Nno wonder he choked when the curse of command was dropped in his lap. He was never trained as I was... If my father had seen me hesitate like that when soldiers under my command were in trouble... Althea thought about what her father would do when she hesitated in her lessons about command and leadership and lost herself in thought for a moment.
"You must not hesitate Althea. Your men are looking up to you..." he would say.
"Yes Father." Her eyes were always cast down. His disappointment was always evident when she failed.
"Perhaps another day out here will do you good."
"Yes Father."
Katsumoto Voss held out his hand. "Your arrows?"
"Yes Father," she would say as she handed over her ammunition. It would be another long day of finding shafts straight enough for arrows and hunting for a meal.
-
"Go ahead Zak, tell Althea how you came to be," Mikey suggested. Zak nodded and shrugged.
"I was a genetic experiment from the start. They took DNA samples from every living Pokemorph to determine the best possible mutations for my creation. My dad was an odd one as well. You see, his mother was a Maganium and his father a Charizard. Normally the offspring is dependent on the mother's subspecies, but in this case my father and his twin sister were born as Charmanders, from the same egg no less since they were reptilian. Now my biological mother was an Absol that had a unique shapeshifting ability. So put two and two together and it made the perfect combination for a hybrid organism. They've been trying to get a hybrid Pokemorph for over five hundred years, but none of them were successful. The breeding groups are our main reproductive hurdle. You often see stories of reptilian/mammalian mixed couples, but none of them could reproduce. That was a concern from day one of our sentient thoughts. As you can see the experiment was a success and even had little complication or hinderance. I was born live, healthy, and expected to live a normal lifespan, that much was a success. But there's still one problem," Zak looked at all of them cradling their children, "Like almost all hybrid organisms I'm sterile. I can't have children, and don't bother giving me any in this dreamspace, the shock of reality will thrust me into tears. But at least David can relate to me. He doesn't want to have children at all. It's his state of mind, he said this: 'Children are organisms and organisms die. Why would I want to have kids one day when they're all going to be dirt? Now think about my inventions. Those last throughout the ages!' then he showed me his wrench, 'Now think about his wrench. It can be mass produced, replicated, and it exists indefinitely with careful maintenance. Sure some of my trinkets will go obsolete and that's why I make so many. Hoping that one will be in use forever, eternally patented and a lasting legacy.' As for me, I think I'll take a place in History. I was selected along with Tanya, Mikey, and Ghost as part of this program because I am stronger, faster, and more capable than the individual sum of my parts. I'm a supersoldier; like my father and grandfather before me."
He strummed his guitar and tuned it, "I forgot to mention that Task Force Frostbite is also a music band. Mikey is on guitar, vocals, or bass along with myself, Tanya is the drummer and secondary vocalist, and Ghost and David can drop beats on the synth and turntable. We mostly play for fun, covering our favorite songs, but now and again we come up with original work. Ghost was experimenting with a beat similar to Foster the People when he leads, I like to play more hardstyle alternative fashioned after A Day to Remember, Mikey likes punk rock and regular alternative same with Tanya. We often place a suffix at the end of our name for our albums denoting our individual styles. People go wild for us since we're able to copy the classics so well. Would everyone like to share hobbies next?"
-
Althea kind of blushed when hobbies were mentioned. It wasn't as though she had nothing to share, it was that she didn't really want anyone to know... especially not Ghost.
She tried to surreptitiously push the little notebook in her pocket deeper so that it was hidden. In that little book were her attempts at poetry (Kimiko is so much better than I) and art. She had gotten... proficient... at landscapes and architectural drawings but couldn't quite get faces down. The nose was always too big or the eyes too far apart for her liking. She had already tried to draw Ghost once or twice and she just couldn't get his ears right.
That, and whenever you get close to finishing you catch yourself staring at it!
"It sounds like Team Frostbite is quite the squad. I think the closest thing to a squad that doubled as a band that I've served with was a group of Helljumpers that never left base without the youngest member carrying around an old harmonica... it was lucky for them." She cleared her throat. "As for me, I don't have such a visible hobby. I read, I train, I meditate when the mood strikes me, but not much else..."
-
"I think it's almost morning, we're here," Zak faded out of the dreamspace and dissappeared.
-
Althea nodded. Although her psychic abilities were nominal at best (unless furious, but that held it's own dangers...) her dream-walking abilities were very good. Even when asleep, she'd been able to keep track of the time that had passed. She knew that it was three minutes before reverie.
"Good bye Ghost," she said as she stood up and brushed the grass from her uniform. "I will be checking in on you..."
She faded from the dream and woke on her bed. She was not groggy in any way, a blessing of dream-walking with experience. She went to take a quick shower and got into her leisure uniform, a simple affair of grey and black highlights with her rank and name across the left breast. As she zipped up the uniform however, there was a knock on the door.
"May I assist you," Althea asked as she opened the door.
A young, intense-looking Houndour Private saluted the moment she could see him through the door. "Captain Voss, I have been instructed to tell you that the person of interest that you were to meet this morning has been transferred off-ship and we have landed on Ultimax."
"Thank you Private". She gave the Private a salute before closing the door and grabbing her own gear. She headed out to meet everyone at breakfast.
-
A few minutes later in the mess hall of the ship the rest of Task Force Frostbite invited Althea over to the Special Forces lounge to dine with them. The giant lunchroom was typical for a ship interior with dull gray chrome walls and metallic surfaces, although the lunch tables were a folding, padded plastic type for easy storage. The Special Forces lounge was a different story. It was luxurious, although still matching the style of the ship's interior. There were numerous u-shaped booths situated like that of a restaurant with comfy leather seats. There were large monitors nearby which were showing the Ultimax Pokemorph Battling Finals. The lunchroom operated much like a buffet, with troops lining up to eat as much as they want. The usual international fair was present: pancakes, waffles, sushi, noodles, kebabs, scrambled eggs, biscuits, and other assorted breakfast foods from all the nations of Ultimax. Tanya was the first one to greet Althea.
"Morning, sorry about what happened yesterday. What do you have there?" Tanya was curious to what was on Althea's plate.
-
"Just some rice," Althea said as she tipped her plate to display her breakfast. "Old training regimens never die off right?"
That was only partially true. Her father had never starved or subjected her to privation as a punishment during her training (when she had asked why, he would always say it served no purpose beyond training her to resist the pain of the body and was an ineffective punishment). Instead, she would receive only the bare minimum: rice and water. Hence her bland and rather small meal.
This will be harder than I thought... especially as the ones I wronged are already forgiving me. I'll just have to be the best on this next mission, but a few days of tasteless meals will do me good anyways.
"I would ask how everyone slept," Althea said as she took a seat next to Tanya. Her back was perfectly straight and her hands folded in her lap for the moment. "But I think I already know the answer. Has anyone seen Captain Olaris?"
-
"He's still in the medbay caring for Tohaku," Tanya replied, "You should eat more Althea, in a few hours we're going flying. Ever flown a fighter before?"
-
Ignoring the comment about her eating more, Althea dug out her chopsticks. "Me? A fighter pilot? Last time I was behind the controls of one of those it was a simulation. I was never very good at the dogfighting aspect of it. I can get from point A to point B and I can line up a bomb run, but that's about it. My place is behind a scope." Althea took a large bite of her rice breakfast. "Maybe I can fly Reo for one of you guys, that way you don't have to come get me when I accidentally hit the eject!"
-
"Well in that case I think I have you on the ground team along with Olaris if he's up for it. Otherwise we're understrength. Hmm... Tell you what, why don't you introduce yourself to our friends and rival ESFP: Black Claw Squadron. You can tag along with them for the ground ops while the rest of Frostbite covers you from the air and space. Sound good Althea? And can you check up on Olaris first? I what to make sure he's okay," Mikey suggested, "Dismissed."
-
While Mikey spoke, Althea had been transferring rice into her mouth as fast as etiquette would allow. With such a bland meal, there was no need to savor every bite. It was fuel for the body, nothing more. The plan sounded weak, but she was sure that as they got closer to it the plan would get fleshed out.
She nodded as Mikey asked for her opinion (she had rice in her mouth...). "I think I'll go to the Med bay first if that's alright," Althea said as she moved to put her dishes where the cleaning staff would pick it up. Since she'd be off on a mission, her thought on self-punishment of cleaning dishes now sounded impossible.
Guess I'll just be on permanent KP for this mission...
She left and headed down to the Medbay, hoping to catch Orlaris checking in on Tohaku. Maybe she'd be able to contact Ghost one more time too...
-
"Hey sis," Mikey glanced over to Tanya.
"Yeah?"
"Optimistically where do you see the Federation five years from now? That dream got me curious."
"I'd say this: our great nation was forged in the fires of war, driven by a passionate, loving leader who proved to the nation that he was gonna get the job done and do whatever he could to protect his citizens," she paused, "The tradition of excellence goes to us and our children Mikey. One of us is going to be the new President and we've got our whole lives ahead of us. If I had to guess then we'd form an alliance with the Lylat system and restart foreign policy. We've been out of touch from the rest of the other civilized species out there."
"I wonder if there are any humans out there."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Tanya added, "Records show a few of their crude ships escaped before the whole mass extinction. Plus we've got strands of their DNA locked up in our vaults. If we ever find any then they might want their planet back."
"Hmm..." Mikey looked out into space and pondered about the future of the Federation, "We're not gonna give up Ultimax are we?"
"They may have been our creators, but our homeland is our homeland, and if they seek no compromise then there's no choice but war."