Welcome back, readers new and old. i'm just letting yall know, i updated a good portion of this story, fixing consistency errors and other edits, but more will eventually follow, and i hope you enjoy!
January Earth, 2023
My eye's wandered across the horizon, seeing nothing but destruction as far as I could see. The entire planet was in turmoil, conflicts having erupted across the globe, virtually tearing what humanity knew as society apart. In the distance, amongst what used to be a prosperous city, I could see an armored column of M1A3 Abrams tanks, the large angular tanks having been modified with cutting edge plasma weaponry and micro fusion plants, technology decades ahead of everything humanity had known even a decade ago. But, those modified tanks were nothing compared to the three story tall mechs walking with them. They looked much like people, with angular lines and armor. They also carried various weapons, almost like their infantry counterparts. Most carried a massive assault rifle, firing large twenty-five millimeter rounds. There were also shotgun like weapons, pistols, chain guns, and all sorts of different weapons to suit any pilot's needs. They also had a set of thrusters built into the craft, in the feet and on the back to name two of the main places, that allowed for sudden powerful movements and limited flight abilities. The craft were extremely mobile, and quickly had taken the spot of the deadliest craft on the battle field. Thankfully, this convoy only had two escorting it. Although, those two looked way beyond the boxy machines that I usually saw and fought. They were entirely smooth and angular lines, the head being almost like a helmet with a set of red glowing eyes under the rim of the visor. It almost looked like it was wearing a flight mask with the way the face stuck out. I quivered slightly, now completely unsure about the fight that lay before me, unable to shake the fact that I didn't recognize the model of mechs that were before us. I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced over to see my dark haired brother beside me, grinning as he usually did, his sharp features seeming to fit the expression perfectly.
"Nervous?" I quickly shook my head, trying to swallow, even though there was no liquid in my mouth.
"Not at all Matt. Just want to get this over with." He smirked, cycling the bolt on his M4A1. His brown eyes locking with mine as he spoke.
"Bro, you look scared shitless. It's alright to be scared. You're only fourteen." I shrugged, looking back through the rubble we were using as a fighting position. Although I was scared at the moment, fear and I had already come to an agreement of sorts, it no longer being a problem for me. At least, after the shooting started that is. And although I thought of him as my brother, and the feeling was almost undeniably mutual, we really weren't. Both of us had lost our family's at the start of this war, and had been fighting together almost since the I had started fighting, almost five years prior.
"I aint scared. Just want this shit to be done. I'm tired of fighting." I heard him grunt behind me, my eyes glancing back to see him shoulder a simple AT7, a model very similar to the AT4's that had been standard issue. He had another of his indomitable smirks on his face, it honestly being unsettling how excited he seemed in a fight. But it was just a façade to hide his own fears. We were both wearing the same digital patterned camouflage, faded and torn from years of wear. Although mine barely fit, being too baggy for me. We also were both wearing light, black, tactical vests with old worn out pouches carrying ammo for our weapons and various other equipment, a pouch on our left shoulders holding a radio, his only visible to me as a black antenna sticking out over his shoulder, the rest hidden on his back.
"So Chris, you want to start this party?" I gulped and nodded, cycling the bolt on my M468, just before resting the large tube connected under the barrel on the rubble, that being an underslung M203 grenade launcher. I took a deep breath as I looked through the short range ACOG scope, the small red triangle seeming to glow with an inner light. I lined it up on one of the infantry of the column, his white body armor and kit looking straight from a science fiction movie. At the end of my breath out, I gently squeezed the trigger, the rifle discharging with an incredible bang, breaking the relative peace of the area. I saw the soldier drop, his comrades panicking as rifle shots erupted from all around us, as well as the sounds of dozens of missiles hitting the air, the concussive waves off the weapons launching sending my head spinning. Several of the convoy's vehicles detonated, blasted apart by their reactors being ruptured. But, several more had the missiles detonate harmlessly on the hull, the shaped charges not hitting anything vital with in the tanks. Without thinking, I shifted my rifle again, firing another shot at the infantry, knowing I missed as the soldier kept running, another shot hitting him and tearing through his armor. red bolts of plasma began ripping away from the soldiers in the convoy, the mechs turning to engage. I felt more than heard my brother's rocket launcher fire, watching the shot race out, headed straight for one of the mech's, only to detonate harmlessly several feet from hitting it, a wispy blue energy marking a powerful energy shield guarding the mech. I heard him swear, his hand grabbing the handle on my vest as he yanked me away from the small sheltered nook in the rubble. "Come on, we gotta go! Those mechs will tear us a new one if we hang around!" I needed no second invitation, seeing hundreds of our fellow resistance fighters scrambling to run, red bolts ripping into them, as well as explosions following the blue bolts of the tank rounds. Screams were amazingly out powering the zipping sounds of plasma bolts, until the booms started. Rapid flurries of booms, almost like the bursts of an assault rifle or machine gun, only much louder, followed by yellow tracer rounds lancing into clusters of soldiers, the massive rounds fired by the mechs literally tearing the gruella fighters apart. Dirt and gore was blasted skyward with each and every burst, rapidly diminishing the number of fighters that were still retreating. Suddenly, as I scrambled across an open street, the massive booms became unbearably loud, my body being tossed about like a rag. I groaned as the booming came to a stop, my entire body aching as a ring filled my ears. Broken rock and asphalt caused sharp spurts of pain as the debris rained down on me. Dust lazily drifted around me as I rolled over onto my back, my rifle still clutched tightly in my hand. I slowly sat up, seeing the corpse that used to be my brother, half his hip region missing along with the leg, one round having nearly torn his body in half. Tears stung my eyes as I sat there frozen in place, unable to move or think as the sight was burned into my memory. Sound slowly returned to my ears as the dust settled, the sound of a fighter jet's engines screaming over head, followed by a loud sharp buzzing sound, and several powerful explosions rocking the area. But even that didn't break the trance I found myself in. I didn't fight as a hand grabbed me and yanked me to my feet, dragging me away from the violent battle ground.
August 2025, Corneria Orbit, Great Fox.
Fox McCloud groaned as he sat up, an alarm buzzing in his ear. He slapped the alarm clock beside his bed, groaning yet again as he realized that it wasn't his alarm clock ringing. He rolled off his bed his tail catching on the blanket and forcing him to stop for a second to pull the blanket off his bushy appendage. He groggily moved over to the intercom by the door, silencing the alarm in his room and activating the intercom at the same time.
"Hey, what's the alarm for ROB? I'm trying to sleep here!" the robot's mechanical voice spoke, filling his room.
"Incoming transmission from General Pepper." Fox sighed, glancing down at his bare body, his fluffy almost burnt orange and cream colored fur waving slightly as the air conditioning drifted by.
"Alright, fine, I'll take it on the bridge in a few. Out." He groaned yet again as he slipped over to his office chair, quickly slipping into the flight suit he had left there, slipping his white jacket and plated boots over it before clipping his blaster belt on. His feet quickly carried him out of the room and into the main hall, taking an immediate left turn and heading for the bridge. It wasn't a far walk, the doors sliding open as he approached. The team's newest member, and only non-pilot, was the only other one on the bridge, silently waiting for him. He was a human hailing from the turbulent world of earth, having grown up fighting. He may only be seventeen, but he was likely the most experienced ground fighter on the ship, most of Fox's near decade as a mercenary seeing less action during it than he saw in a single year on earth. He was an expert in ground combat tactics and equipment, leading them several times already too easy wins in ground operations. Although, that may have had something to do with the massive battle mech he brought from earth, heavily modified by Slippy to hybridize human and Cornerian tech. he had proven to be able to annihilate entire companies of enemy troops on his own with the mech, something unique to humanity. Even though most of their technology was centuries behind Cornerians, having not even developed their own Warp drives, but had created incredible leaps in weapons technology after a pair of Cornerian Destroyers wrecked on the planet. The loss of those destroyers had introduced them to the galactic community a few years after, once the Cornerian Defense Force discovered their fates. The planet was already in the process of tearing itself apart at that point. A select set of nations had hogged the wrecks of the destroyers, using their enhanced military tech to attempt to create a worldwide dominate force. A massive resistance started, creating a planet wide civil war. Out gunned by the technologically superior force, that resistance was slowly crumbling, becoming more and more desperate in their fight. That resistance was how their human had gained so much experience at such a young age.
The human nodded to Fox, Fox returning the small gesture of respect, curious as to why the kid was already fully dressed in his usual garb, grey army fatigues with black armored vest, covered in pouches. He had a beat up human assault rifle on his back, as well as a human handgun, having a strange hatred for plasma weapons. The only thing he would ever use them with being his mech. Fox's fingers flew over the small keyboard on his command chair, even before he had managed to sit down. The quick commands opened up the main holo screen, covering up the star field out the main viewport with an image of General pepper, a brown, saggy skinned canine wearing his usual red formal uniform.
"Sorry to wake you Fox. I have need for the Star Fox team." Fox waved it off, still groggy from being awoken.
"It's alright. What's going on General." His image shrank to half the screen, several images of what seemed like several different people, ranging from young to mid aged, and of all races, including human, appearing on the screen. Large numbers of humans had ended up in the Lylat system, fleeing from the carnage on their home world.
"We have been noticing several odd disappearances lately. After some investigating, it is believed that Andross's forces are behind them, but we are unsure as to why." Fox thoughtfully stroked his chin, responding as soon as Pepper was done speaking.
"Alright, so you want us to hunt them down or something?" General Pepper shook his head, the images changing to that of a human girl, clearly still in school. She had very dark brown hair, falling down to the bottom of her shoulder blades. In one of the pictures, she was smiling, a canine beside her laughing about something. She was also brushing her hair away from her very deep blue eyes, and even Fox had to admit that she was a very pretty girl.
"No. the CIA thinks that this girl is one of their next targets. It's unknown why, but they intercepted these images last night. I want you to protect her. I'll be paying by the day, four thousand Liat a day to be precise, and a bonus of twenty thousand should you actually prevent something." Fox snorted at that, realizing just how much such an easy job was going to make them.
"Alright, you got a deal. Whats the target's name?" his console dinged as files began to download to it.
"Samantha Warren. She's sixteen, second year into her school. I'm open on how you decide to protect her, so long as it works. She moved to Corneria six years ago, shortly after we discovered humanity. She speaks Cornerian fluently, as well as English. Decent grades in her classes, as far as we can tell, a perfectly polite and normal student." Fox nodded, a plan already forming in his mind.
"Alright, I'll stay in touch General." The comm line cut, Fox turning his chair toward the human standing quietly in the corner. He had dark almost black hair, and near silver grey eyes, fitting well with his short hair and sharp features. For being so young, he was already scarred from warfare, the only currently visible scar being across his cheek, a graze from a kinetic round. "Chris, go get Peppy, then prep yourself some gear and clothing."
"Yes sir, should I prep the MICS?" Fox raised an eyebrow at him, shrugging at his response.
"Do you really think you need a battle mech in a civilian city?" the human shrugged, leaving the bridge almost immediately after. Fox let out a small sigh before quickly flicked through the data as he waited for Peppy to arrive, unable to not smirk as his earlier idea began to form into a coherent plan.
I dropped the duffel bag of gear into the back of the grey SUV Fox owned, looking up at the blue sky above me. It was crisscrossed with spacecraft and air craft, all using the spaceport the vehicle was parked out front of. A blue bird like individual dropped another duffel bag beside the stack I had created, groaning with effort. His dark blue feathers were all puffed out in total annoyance as he did so, his green eyes damn near staring daggers from his red eye sockets.
"Shesh kid, how much did you pack?" I boredly stared right back as I closed the tailgate, speaking very plainly.
"Just the usual necessities, a few rifles, ammo for them, ammo for the 203, my handgun, a stun pistol, couple of AT7's, C4, M67's, flashbangs, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, traps, detonators…." He cut me off, one eyebrow raised.
"You realize you are guarding a highschool girl, not going to war, right?" I nodded gesturing at the bags again.
"Yes. It's best to be prepared for any scenario. So, I have anti tank and mech capabilities, as well as anti-infantry, counter-sniper…." Falco cut me off again, one palm pressed up against his forehead, just above his beak.
"Chris, you need to chillax man. You aint gonna need to fight tanks or mechs, or aircraft, or anything! Maybe a sniper, maybe some shady guys with blasters, not a friggin army!" I looked around, suddenly feeling even more unsure as to my role in the mission.
"But, it's good to be prepa…" he cut me off yet again, placing a hand on the SUV to lean on it, his arm fully extended.
"And what's up with that get up? You need to look like a teenager, not a paramilitary bad-ass!" I looked down at my gear, a mid-weight armored vest designed against both plasma and ballistic weapons, which had several pouches on it, all empty at the moment. Underneath was my usual grey uniform, a form of fiber-armored clothing to provide a small amount of protection from debris and shrapnel. This was all topped off with my black combat boots, and dropdown holster for my pistol tightly secured to my side. "Fox, gimme a hand here!" I glanced up at the orange and white fox, his emerald eyes bouncing between us. he had a small assault pack on his shoulder with some cloths, nothing more. He rolled his eyes at me, looking up and down my clothing.
"Seriously kid, you need to drop the paramilitary act, loosen up a bit, actually act your age for a bit." I groaned, giving Fox a pitiful look.
"Can I at least keep my forty-five?" Fox's shoulders slumped as he gestured at the interior of the car.
"Yeah, I guess, come on, lets get going, Peppy is at the school, getting you registered. You need to get into that apartment." I dropped into the passenger seat, Fox taking the driver's seat, Falco forced to one of the back seats. With in minutes, the quiet trio were racing across a highway, Fox finally breaking the silence. "When we get there, you are changing clothes, got it?" I grimaced, speaking in a very quiet voice, almost ashamed of myself.
"I don't own anything other than tactical wear. I haven't needed it before." Fox sighed as well, easily weaving through the slower traffic.
"Alright, I guess I gotta take you shopping. Joy. Falco, you're in charge of getting the gear upstairs." Falco groaned as he responded.
"Fuuuuck. Why me? They don't got a janitor service or something that we can make them do it?"
"Falco….." he groaned again at Fox's voice when Fox's wrist began ringing. He answered the call and instantly groaned, his ears dropping back.
"Hi Mom." His transmitter was linked to an earpiece in his ear, letting him be hands free while talking. By the way he cringed, there was clearly an excited response on the other end, but none of us could hear it. "Yes, I'm on Corneria…. No I have not said hi to Fara, no…. mom, no, I don't want to say hi to her….. we did break up mom… yeah….. yeah, I'll swing by, tell dad I said hi….. yes, I got to go….. yes… mom, I'm on a job, I gotta go….." Falco chuckled behind us as the conversation dragged on and on until Fox finally just hit the end call button. "Shesh, I love her to death but she just doesn't shut up sometimes." Falco burst out laughing as I looked away, unable to not feel sad. Wish I had a mother still…. I shoved the thoughts and memories that thought brought up away, trying to suppress them once more. Fox guided the car off the highway, easily navigating the streets until we reached a small multistoried apartment building. We all got out heading up stairs with as many bags as possible to a room Peppy had already rented out for us. He had picked this particular apartment because it overlooked the apartment the girl we had been tasked to protect lived in. I dropped the two duffels I had been carrying, quickly dropping the vest on them. "Drop your pistol too. Yes, it's legal to carry weapons on Corneria, but you aren't of age yet." I groaned and dropped the tactical belt as well, Fox beckoning me to follow. We marched back downstairs, quickly pulling all of the bags from the back and dropping them on the sidewalk before jumping back into the vehicle.
"Alright, let's go get you looking the part." Fox said, backing away from the building and pulling back into the hectic city traffic, myself sighing as he did so. "So, you realize this will be a lot easier on us if you get close to her, right?" I glanced at him, going back to staring out the window, trying to remember the streets and areas we passed.
"I hope you are not meaning friends sir." He chuckled, seeming to be barely paying attention to his driving.
"Of course I mean friends dip shit. You'd look weird just following her around all the time if you weren't friends."
"I'm supposed to be guarding her. it's not that odd." Fox groaned, narrowly missing a car as it pulled out from a space.
"She isn't supposed to know we are here. We don't want to cause a panic. People are finally calming down after the whole Andross business a decade ago. No one thinks he's a threat anymore. So if a famous mercenary outfit was seen guarding someone for unknown reasons, people would start panicking and trying to figure out why. So, you cant let her know you are guarding her. get me?" I nodded, him finally bringing the car to a stop almost at the same time.
Samantha groaned as her alarm rang, her fist smacking the device until it finally shut up. She groggily slipped out of her bed, heading straight for the one bathroom in the small apartment she shared with her older brother and mother, not that her brother was really there anymore. Their father had been killed as they fled earth, shot dead feet from them by a resistance fighter. She sighed, fighting those memories back to the back of her mind as she showered for the day. It didn't take her long to slip into a set of skin tight black yoga pants and an hourglass shaped t-shirt she got from a friend, a Cornerian music logo faded on the front of it. she grabbed her back pack, finding herself not very hungry, and deciding to just head out. It didn't take her long to leave the apartment and reach the bus stop, staying a short way away from the other students that were gathering there. Most of them didn't even notice or care, having known that she was a bit of a loner. A lot of humans stuck to themselves or in little groups. Most kept away from the Cornerians entirely. Suddenly, one of the Cornerians, a black and white border collie, came practically bouncing her way too her. the female canine was a little shorter than Samantha, with incredibly deep brown eyes and wearing a yellow dress that fit her bouncy personality better than words could describe. She was practically screaming at the top of her longs as she approached, Samantha smiling and blushing at the exuberant canine, despite this being a regular occurrence with her.
"Sammy! How's it going girly!?" the girl rammed Samantha into a hug, which she full heartedly returned, despite the fact that it felt as though the canine was trying to crush the life out of her.
"Callie, it's been what, two days? Why so excited to see me?" the collie let her go and shrugged, still grinning, her not surprisingly wagging like it would never wag again.
"I'm always excited to see you! Did you hear about the new student we are getting!?" Samantha sighed, raising an eyebrow at her.
"How would I have, I just got here Callie." She grimaced for a second, her ears dropping what little they could.
"Oh, yeah, well he's over there, he looks kinda creepy to me though…." Samantha followed the line of her thumb over her shoulder to the guy in question, who was leaning up against a street light well away from everyone else. He seemed to be watching everything around him at once, and Samantha couldn't shake the feeling that his eyes kept flicking to her for some reason. He had a back pack on, and was wearing grey cargo pants and a blue short sleeve button up shirt, a white t-shirt poking out from beneath it. all of his clothing was baggy on him, hiding his frame very well. He had a scar on his cheek, just beneath his right eye that made her think it was a bullet graze, which honestly would not surprise her. very little of the human population was untouched by war at this point, given the global conflict that was consuming earth.
"Not that creepy. Besides, who cares? We get new people from earth all the time. Come on." She gestured for the Cornerian to follow her as she headed for the bus that was now arriving. Cornerian buses were nothing compared to what she was used to, and were very sleek affairs, with pointed fronts and very comfortable seats within them. She was silent for most of the ride, ignoring her peers, as was also a usual for her, simply watching the familiar streets pass by, a small smile on her face. The bus eventually passed a gate and wall that frankly looked like it belonged at a military base, not a school, but that was due to the recent past. A terrorist organization used to target schools a lot, the Cornerian government posting guards at their schools and locking them down like fortresses, something that was now obsolete and unused. The school campus itself though was fairly familiar even though the school worked a little differently than she was used too. The students didn't move from classroom to classroom, the teachers did. So the classrooms were much nicer than she was used to back home, even at a public school like this one. As soon as the bus stopped, she slipped out of her seat following her friend out of the bus and toward the school.
"So, have a good weekend Sammy?" she glanced at the collie and nodded, returning the canine's smile.
"Yeah, my mom actually got time off, so we went to the mall and saw a movie together. It was great to actually spend time with her again!" Callie smiled back to her, clearly happy that her friend had fun. "So how'd that date go Callie?" she seemed to shrivel up where she stood, her tail tucking itself between her legs, and not even looking at Samantha.
"I spilled soup all over my dress! I'm fairly sure he doesn't want to see me ever again!" Sammy chuckled, patting her shoulder. Callie was surprisingly cute when she was down.
"Well, what about the rest of the night?" she shrugged, still looking ashamed.
"It went fine, I think." Sammy smiled to her yet again as they stepped into the building, just feet from their classroom.
"Then I'm sure it will be fine Callie. I'm sure he wants to meet up again!" Callie sheepishly returned the smile as she spoke, a subtle wag accompanying it as their feet carried them into their classroom. It had rows of desks, just like any classroom, but each desk had a holo-viewer built into it that could be used as a video screen or display three dimensional models. Although, most classwork was still on paper, the computers helped with learning the material. They only had a few minutes before class started, so they both moved to their desks, close to the long windows that dominated the left side of the room. Straight ahead of them was a massive electronic board that could display video, and be written on with a stylus, or operated via touch. Just in front of the screen was the teacher's desk, about as normal as all teacher's desks were. The second she reached her usual seat, she dropped her bag under it and plopped into the seat, the collie dropping behind her. Two of her other friends were already sitting in their seats beside herself and Callie, one being a turquoise eagle, who had a very long and lanky frame. She was sitting directly beside Callie, and her name was Ava. Beside Samantha was a fellow human girl, Maria, who hailed from mexico originally, but had learned English when she was very little. She had short, straight black hair and deep brown eyes, matching very well with her dark skin and slightly plump features. She quietly waved hello as her class mates filed into their seats, the teacher about to silence the class.
"Alright, hello class, we got ourselves another new student today." Their main teacher was an aging bulldog with white fur, and despite his somewhat aggressive appearance, was quite friendly. "If you would, come up here, introduce yourself to the class." Sammy watched as he stood from the very last seat in her row, all the way in the corner of the room, making his way through the class room, and to the front. As he passed her, she noticed that he had small scars on his arms as well, curious as to what they were from. He seemed very uncomfortable at the front of the class room, looking like he would want nothing more than to disappear right there. "Well?" he sighed as the teacher spoke again, speaking in a low but fairly powerful voice.
"My name is Christopher McGlocklin." And his voice dropped off after that, him clearly thinking that was enough.
"And anything you think we should know about you?" he turned bright red, getting a chuckle out of most of the class. Samantha didn't though, totally understanding not wanting to share anything about oneself.
"Um….. I'm from earth, um….." his voice dropped off again as the class roared with laughter, Samantha unable to help but feel sorry for him, seeing that just how uncomfortable he was up there, shifting back and forth between his feet.
"Well, does anyone have a question for our new classmate?" someone instantly shouted out a question from the back, Samantha being unsure as to who had asked it.
"How'd your face get all messed up?" she wanted to glare at whoever it was, but she was surprised when he responded quite calmly.
"I got shot by somebody who didn't survive my reprisal." The amount of venom in the statement got the entire class silent, to which his head turned toward the teacher. "We done now?" the teacher nodded, clearly slightly shocked himself. He moved to the back of the class again, Samantha giving him one last glance before her attention returned to the front of the classroom, forgetting all about him within minutes.