A/N: Well, I did have a bit of a longer update planned for today, but then I got called in to almost 18 hours of work over the July 4th weekend short notice. Yeah, I'm pissed if you couldn't tell. Killed all of my time I planned to work on this chapter, and turns out that anger coincided with the ease to work on this chapter, as much as it pains me to say it.

Like I said, I planned on having another scene in here, but then that happened. Don't worry, that scene will be in the next chapter. In the meantime, how about you guys check out this update. I'll admit, I did have a lot of fun with this one.

As usual, feedback is encouraged and welcome. Glad to see you guys are on board with this, and I hope you enjoy this shorter-than-anticipated update. Hope my American viewers had a fun and safe 4th (cause mine was soiled by work), and if you didn't (or are not American), hopefully this will cheer you guys up. Take care fellas!


Chapter 4: Professor


Fox pushed open the front doors to the CDF HQ and was greeted with a rather chilly gust of wind that rustled his fur and lab coat. He rolled down the sleeves of his coat as a result and instantly made his way to clock himself in. As soon as he stamped his card in, he was startled as a light gray paw slapped down on his shoulder gently.

"Professor McCloud," a gray pit-bull chortled in a surprisingly non-taunting tone, getting the vulpine to perk his ears up as he recognized the voice.

"Oh, hey Bill," Fox said right back, clutching at the canine's paw and leaned in for a friendly hug. "Haven't seen you around in a while."

"I could say the same thing to you," Bill admitted, twitching his rather long and slim ears as he followed the vulpine out into the main lobby. Bill Grey, a rather young but gifted pilot, was no stranger to the orange vulpine. When Fox was still at the academy, he was paired up with the rather tall but slim pit-bull as a simulation partner, and although those two were always trading victories back and forth, they seemed to leave the rest of the class behind in terms of skill. Once they graduated, Bill became one of the fastest promoted pilots in the entire CDF, and it was all because of his immense skill and talent. He was clothed in his usual gray and green flight suit, with his helmet wedged underneath his arm as he spoke to the vulpine scientist.

"Sorry, I've been a little busy on the other side of HQ," Fox explained, giving askance glances to his wrist transmitter. "You know me: once I get stuck on something it's really hard to get me away from it."

"Come up with anything yet?" he asked, running his thumb across the visor of his custom-made helmet – one that Fox himself actually perfected for him as a matter of fact.

"Actually, I have, but it's still early in development and I'm not too sure if it's completely done or not."

"You got a prototype you wanna show me?" Bill suggested. Fox hesitated for a split-second, then shrugged his shoulders and nodded as he trotted over to the rather tall reception desk. Bill smiled and laid his helmet on the desk as he watched Fox pull up the holographic HUD screen on his transmitter. Right as the vulpine nonchalantly started inching his finger towards an option on the main screen the pit-bull didn't recognize, another voice shouted out from behind them and startled both canids.

"Ah, Professor McCloud!" an unmistakably urban sounding voice shouted, and before Fox could even process his next move he felt two hands wrap over his shoulders and around his neck, threatening to cut off his airways.

"I already gave him that title Falco," Bill chuckled. The blue avian shrugged his shoulders momentarily, then gave a playful slug to the vulpine's shoulder after retracting his vice grip from his neck.

"Fine then. How's it goin' Foxie?" Falco asked with a smirk, ruffling his feathers. Another good friend from the vulpine's academy days, Falco Lombardi was your stereotypical full-of-himself ace pilot, albeit restrained from holding a higher position in the CDF because of personal and/or disciplinary reasons. His father held a rather important position in the force as a matter of fact, but he wasn't a chip off the old block as much as he claimed himself to be. Fox found that, despite his numerous socialization glitches and massive ego, Falco knew how to keep a good friendly relationship interesting, and usually not in a bad way.

"I could ask you the same thing Fal," Fox laughed silently, giving the taller avian the same friendly gesture as the gray canine moments ago.

"Same thing, day in and day out," Falco answered unenthusiastically, crossing his wings. "I swear man, if we don't start gettin' some action or somethin', I'm gonna go fly solo."

"Aw, don't be like that little birdie," Bill smirked. "CDF's not all about action."

"I know, and that's what's drivin' me insane," Falco replied, flaring his feathers out. "I used to have a patrol route and that kept me sane, but ever since I "screwed up" with Fichina's route, they kicked me off."

The rather sour inflection Falco put on the "screwed up" part of his sentence piqued Fox's interest. "How'd you mess up?" he asked.

"It wasn't my fault," Falco quickly added with no pauses, almost like he was saying one singular word, holding his wings up as if he was being arrested. "They told me to pull my position to stay away from a Verian patrol squadron that was campin' out around Fichina. If they didn't pull me back, I would've been dragon food."

"Again, how'd you mess up Falco?" Fox repeated.

"They never gave me the command to resume patrol," Falco explained sourly. "They claim they told me to go back after it was over, but I still to this day have never gotten that confirmation message. Pisses me off since it wasn't my fault, yet I got punished for it."

"Damn, sorry Fal," Fox said softly.

"Wait, patrol routes for supply shipments?" Bill asked.

"You should know, dog-boy, you've got one too," Falco retorted. "Yes I had protection duty for those supply transports. What about 'em?"

"Well I knew we retracted food transports during the war, but I didn't know we called them off if there was Verian activity."

"They picked the wrong planet to set up shop," Fox butted in. "Remember what happened to Fichina during the war?"

"Yeah, we were too busy supplying the warships over Earth and we didn't send any supply ships there for months," Bill answered, but Falco's obnoxious sarcastic laughter cut him off.

"Is that the story they're tellin' ya dog-boy?" the avian choked through laughter, wiping a feathered digit under his eye. "Heh, don't believe any story the CDF tells ya."

"You've got a better explanation, bird brain?" Bill shot back.

"Why don't'cha ask Einstein over here," Falco quipped, pointing at the orange vulpine. Fox shrugged his shoulders in response.

"I was always told the same thing," he admitted, cocking his ears. "What do you know that we don't?"

"Careful Fox, I wouldn't trust this bird as far as I could throw him," Bill whispered, causing the avian to flare his feathers out.

Falco let out an impatient sigh and shook his head. "The CDF intentionally cut ties with Fichina."

Fox's jaw dropped. "Come on Falco, don't say that we intent–"

"We sure did," Falco interrupted with a proud half-smirk. "Fichina's senator disapproved of the war on humanity, so Prime Dickhead Muzzin grounded supply transports to that planet to forcefully change their viewpoint of the war."

"Are you serious?" Bill asked in disbelief, causing the blue bird to roll his eyes.

"My father has a copy of the paperwork sittin' at home," he answered. "You don't believe me, then you can go and see Muzzin's signature under the groundin' ordinance."

"Wow," Fox gapped.

"They reauthorized the transports when Senator Enroth changed his vote," Falco continued. "Dude had to live with starvin' his people, but can ya blame him? Hell, I'm pretty sure everyone livin' on that snowball supported him in his decision to stand up to Parliament, but unfortunately people started starvin', so he had no choice but to change his vote to keep his people alive. I heard it was close to being a genocide over there."

"That's insane," Fox remarked.

"Now you see why I can't stand Parliament, or the entire Defense Force for that matter," the blue avian explained, folding his wings over his navy blue flight suit. "Fuckin' corruption man. You wonder why I'm gonna quit after my contract is up next month."

"But, you can't just quit the CDF because of that," the vulpine argued. "They need everyone they can get right now."

"Ha! As if!" Falco scoffed, ruffling his feathers. "As far as I'm concerned we're expendable."

"Come on Falco," Bill grunted.

"Don't Falco me, dog-boy," the avian snapped. "Sooner or later we're gonna get deployed against the Verians because of Parliament's mindless and impulsive ideas, and that'll be the end of us. Simple as that."

"Don't be so pessimistic," Fox half-grinned, but Falco was right there to cut him off.

"I'm pissed-imistic, thank you very much," he retorted, causing Bill to crack up laughing. "Don't you be laughing, dog-boy, 'cause you're gonna be right behind me."

"Easy birdie," Fox said calmly, pawing at the avian's back. "Calm down. We'll be fine."

"Fox I'm not fallin' for–"

"Falco, calm down," Fox repeated. "Nothing's gonna happen to–"

"Paws off!" Falco squawked, forcing the vulpine's arms away from him. "Who am I, your girlfriend?"

"No, that's my job," Arcene spoke up from across the lobby, causing Fox to crank his head around to the hallway to the barracks and see her leaning up against the rather wide corridor. Fox instantly felt his face warm up as his eyes rested on her silvery frame, only covered by a pair of black cargo pants and a similarly colored tight tank top, complimenting her gorgeous looks better than ordinary words could describe. Even with the distance the vulpine had on her, he could still see her curves wrinkling the top of her shirt and the lack of coverage around her midsection, which was the main cause of his cheeks beginning to blaze.

Bill noticed his expression and nudged him playfully. "Go get her professor."

Fox growled in the back of his throat as he gave a particularly hard thump to the pit-bull, then after a quick goodbye to both pilots he trotted over to the vixen. Arcene crossed her arms and smirked as the vulpine kept inching closer, but right as she tried to speak Fox grabbed her and embraced her warmly.

"I missed you too Fox," Arcene giggled, wrapping her bare silvery arms around his neck. Fox intentionally wrapped his arms low around her, so that he could feel the luxurious fur on her body that was always hidden away by her usual uniform.

"What are you doing here?" Fox questioned in a low voice. "I thought you had training today."

"I do, but I got a break to come down here and tell you something you might want to hear."

"What's that?"

Arcene poked at his transmitter and grinned. "I got word that General Jaeger loves your reflector idea," she said in a smooth, silky sounding voice. "He wants you to do a few more modifications to it first before he can sell it to SD to get it mass-produced."

"Seriously?" Fox exclaimed, widening his eyes. "That's incredible!"

"I never got to see it," she admitted pitifully with puppy-dog-eyes, lowering her ears for good measure. Fox was never able to argue with that face. Ever.

"You want me to show you?"

"Please?" she yipped quietly, tugging on Fox's sleeve. "Oh, but not here. Come on."

Arcene practically dragged the tod by his lab coat as she traversed down the numerous hallways down to her intended destination. Fox could only let out a few sheepish chuckles as she kept yanking on his clothes to tell him to walk faster.

"What are you doing?"

"You said this can reflect laser fire?" she asked, opening the large iron door to one of the many firing ranges inside the HQ building.

"We never really tested it on that," Fox said nervously.

"Now's the time," the vixen instantly replied, dragging him into the room.

"Wait, Arcy, I don't think this is a good time to–"

"Professor McCloud!" a deep feminine voice cooed as Arcene shoved him into the light of the firing range locker room. The voice that spoke up resounded from the bench on the back wall, where a tan and black speckled lynx was sitting with her arms and legs crossed. Fox smiled and let out a nervous laugh.

"Hey Miyu," he spoke, watching the lynx readjust a rather long carbine rifle in her lap. 'Why does everyone feel the need to call me that?' he thought to himself, just as he felt a sharp jab into his stomach that made him wheeze hoarsely.

Arcene gave a particularly hard elbow to the orange vulpine as she stepped in front of him. "Hey, what gives?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow at the feline. "Where did everyone else go?"

"They're in the range," Miyu answered, pointing a clawed digit at a soundproof iron door that separated the small locker room they were standing in from the large firing range. She stood back up and started examining the holographic scope of her carbine. "We got a new weapons shipment today, so they're having us test 'em out."

"Another weapons shipment?" Arcene asked in disbelief. "That's the second one this month!"

"Well, when you've got Foxie here working on all this tech, it's no wonder they keep upgrading."

"Actually, I don't work with firearms," Fox corrected. "I do, however, still work with weaponry, although I don't really consider this thing a wea–"

"Ah, you got another toy for me to test out?" Miyu said in an extremely seductive voice, one that Fox was amazed that Arcene didn't get up-in-arms about. Fox chuckled nervously once again and fidgeted with his sleeve.

"Well, it's not done yet," he answered. "The mechanics work, but I'm not sure if it's–"

"What is it?" the lynx interrupted yet again.

"It's some kind of energy shield," the silver vixen answered for him. "He told me it deflects laser fire."

"Bullshit," Miyu scoffed, inadvertently starting a challenge. "Show me then."

"Guys, it's not done yet," Fox pleaded, but he ended up finding himself in a surprisingly not uncommon challenge between two female soldiers.

"I will," Arcene answered, giving a friendly glare to the feline. "Come on Fox, show us what you did."

Fox didn't have an opportunity to reply as he was pushed through the iron door and into the massive metal firing range. The sounds of charged laser shots echoed and reverberated in the room, which made the vulpine's ears twitch, and as soon as Miyu shut the large iron door the gunfire instantly ceased. The first one to poke her head out of her station was a sandy brown fennec vixen with incredibly large ears. At the sight of Fox she let a warm, but forced smile surface, adjusting the white tank top she was wearing so that she could intentionally show off her toned stomach.

"Nice of you to drop by Fox," the sandy brown vixen said, removing the insulating headphones from her ears. The tone of voice she spoke with gave the allusion of her friendliness, but her body language would say otherwise, and that simple gesture put a sour taste on the tod's tongue right off the bat.

"You're here too Fara?" Fox asked, trying his best to visibly show the concern in his voice.

"Fay is too," she added, balling her gloved paw and knocking it against the wall separating her lane from another. Seconds later, the face of a pure white spaniel popped into the vulpine's view. She was clothed in the same set of apparel as the sand colored vixen and the lynx, that being a thin and small tank top and some navy blue cargo pants. She instantly squealed in delight as she recognized the vulpine in the lab coat.

"Ah! Fox!" she yipped, adjusting the bow in her curly white locks. "What are you doing here?"

"He's got something he needs to test for SD," Arcene piped in. "It's a brand new energy shield, and he's letting us test it with him."

"Forced against my will might I add," Fox remarked under his breath.

"Hey, you're a crack shot with that rifle of yours, eh Fara?" Miyu questioned, pointing at the blocky looking assault rifle balanced in the vixen's gloved paws. Fara glanced down at it, adjusted the sliding stock, and then gave a particularly sly smirk at the vulpine. Fox nearly pissed himself.

"You want me to shoot him?" she asked, licking her bottom lip as she primed the weapon; the sound of the charging weapon increasing her grin ever so slowly. "I was afraid you'd never ask."

"Guys, come on, you can't be serious," Fox complained.

"I wanna see this too!" Fay shouted in a bubbly voice, instantly bolting around to stand right next to the lynx. Miyu giggled again and poked at his transmitter.

"Come on Fox, go over there and turn it on. Fara won't get hit if that's what you're worried about."

"I'd be lying if I said that she was the only thing I cared about in this current time," Fox muttered, lowering his ears as he hesitantly made his way to the fennec's station. Fara gave him a particularly hard jab in the butt with the barrel of her weapon as he climbed over the protective counter, getting him to involuntarily let out an uncharacteristically sharp yip. All four of the females in the room giggled to each other as Fox dragged his feet across the gravel all the way down to the end of the firing range over one hundred feet back. Fara adjusted the holographic scope of her weapon before assuming a proper stance in front of the counter; shoulders square, eyes up, and the stock of the rifle pressed against her bare shoulder as she kept the barrel level with her paw.

"You better turn it on Fox, my fingers are getting twitchy," Fara cooed, caressing the trigger gently and longingly. Fox groaned loud enough so that his displeasure could echo throughout the firing range, then lifted his wrist up to his chest and pulled up the HUD. As soon as the pale blue hexagonal filed enveloped his frame with an audible screech, the fennec snickered to herself.

"Heh, if your science doesn't work, then you've got nobody to blame but yourself," she muttered under her breath, inaudible to the rest of the room as she shifted her stance yet again. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before dumping the daughter of the head of Phoenix Industries, you shallow, uncaring, waste of–"

BANG

The blue laser sprung from the vixen's rifle, and within moments had reached the vulpine's energy shield. Fox shut his eyes as the loud ping resounded from his transmitter, and all he heard afterward was a high pitched yelp that didn't slip from his muzzle. Fox cringed as Fara's voice echoed in the firing range afterward.

"FUCK!" she shouted, then instantly dropped her rifle and covered her left shoulder. Fox immediately retracted his Reflector and sprinted through the range to get to her, while Fara crumpled to her knees and whimpered in agonized pain as both Arcene and Miyu dropped down to check on her.

"I thought you said it wouldn't hit her!" Fox growled at the lynx. Miyu instantly cupped her head in her paws as she stared wide-eyed at the vixen who was writhing in pain, guilt evident in her expression.

"Fara, I'm so sorry," Miyu instantly apologized, helping the fennec put pressure on her shoulder wound. "Are you alright?"

"NO!" she barked, nearly snarling at the orange vulpine. "That asshole made me shoot myself!"

"It wasn't my fault," Fox said shakily. "I didn't know the laser would come back and hit you."

"Don't you think you've lied enough to me?!" she snapped, letting her seething rage surface. She almost couldn't feel her shoulder wound because of the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

"Can you take her to the infirmary, Fay?" Arcene asked, gently lifting the injured vixen off of the cold cement floor.

"Of course," she replied with a worried expression, then gently wrapped the fennec's uninjured arm around her neck and coaxed her out of the firing range, much to the fennec's displeasure and discomfort. Once the steel door shut behind their tails, Fox hopped the counter and glared at the lynx.

"Thanks for that," he said as seriously as he could as he curled his eyebrows downward, displeasure painted onto his muzzle like a mask. "As if she wasn't pissed with me enough."

"I'm sorry Fox, I had no idea that was going to happen," Miyu tried to explain, but Fox uncharacteristically cut her off with a low growl.

"I tried to tell you, but you didn't listen, now did you?" he fired back, making the lynx's ears fold behind her head. She had never seen the vulpine so upset before, and it honestly frightened her because he was usually calm and caring in ordinary situations. His anger was evident, albeit restrained, but it really did worry the feline because she didn't know what he would try and do next in his current state.

"Fox, seriously, I'm so sorry," she whimpered, tucking her tail in between her legs. "I know you and Fara aren't on level grounds ever since you broke up with her last month, and I know I shouldn't have instigated this, but I thought it would've been a good way for her to let out a bit of her frustration without hurting you. Maybe try to get you guys on even terms faster. I was only trying to help."

Fox exhaled and let his head hang low. "I understand… Sorry for snapping at you… I was just making such good headway with getting her back on my good side again, but… guess I gotta start from scratch again."

"I'll go talk to her again and explain that this was my fault," she said, slowly backing towards the door. "Really Fox, I'm sorry I did this to you."

"It's fine," he said absentmindedly. "I really appreciate you going to talk to her though. Thanks."

"It's the least I can do," Miyu said before slipping out of the room. Fox sighed again and found a seat on the bench in the back of the room, and within moments Arcene was right by his side.

"Fara is still mad at you?" she asked, wedging herself under the vulpine's arm.

"Yeah," he answered tersely, letting her rest her head on his chest. "She didn't take the breakup last month all that well."

"What happened?"

"We just got in another fight," Fox answered with a hint of sadness in his voice. "Afterwards I told her I was tired of fighting with her, and she took that the wrong way and dumped me on the spot. She claims I dumped her, but that's a Phoenix daughter for you; always blaming things on others to make yourself seem better."

"I'm sorry Fox," she said reassuringly. "I could tell you really took time to try and love her just like me. All that effort you put towards her went to waste."

"Yeah, I tried, but it just didn't work. She was just too jealous of you."

"Hey, that's what you get for trying to see too many people at once," she said rather playfully, giving him a reassuring nudge.

"I'm just doing what our species is known for," Fox answered, finally grinning for the first time in a while. "You know that monogamy isn't male vulpine nature. My father tried to get a second mate before he was killed. My father told me that even my grandfather had more than one wife too. I know of a lot of vulps enlisted in the force that are seeing multiple women, so it's not uncommon or looked down upon."

"I know," Arcene giggled, nuzzling closer to his chest. "And you… you just have such a big heart that you can't just pour it all into me. Honestly, it warms my heart to see you try and reach out to others that don't have anyone at their side, like I was before I met you."

"I love you too Arcy," Fox said with a smile, sneaking in a quick kiss on her forehead. "And believe me, I'll never forget you… ever. You will always be here," he pointed at his heart. "You'll always be my first love, no matter who else comes into our lives."

Arcene let out a relatively loud purr as Fox embraced her head and held it warmly, stroking her cheeks with tenderness and compassion. She relished in his warmth and love for a few extra seconds before she spoke again.

"You think we should check up on Fara?"

"Wouldn't hurt," Fox admitted, picking himself off the bench. "Maybe afterward you can come watch me fix up the Reflector?"

"I dunno Fox, I might just distract you," she admitted lowering her ears.

"It would be a distraction to me if you weren't there," Fox said confidently, outstretching his arm. Arcene let out a lighthearted giggle as she grasped the vulpine's arm tightly and followed him out of the firing range.


\/##########\/


"Such a beautiful sight," Joel muttered to himself, inching closer and closer to the absolutely massive window that stretched from the floor to the ceiling of the main bridge. All he could see was stars. Stars for miles and miles. Stars that were not concealed by clouds or light pollution, but bright, unbounded, and unrestricted stars, shining into the window of the USS Great Fox. He could only dream of seeing this sight before, but now his dream of interstellar travel was finally a reality.

"Ain't it?" Erik piped in, startling the Lieutenant a bit. Before Joel could question the larger man, he was quickly back to speaking.

"To think these bastards we're about to take out can travel like this effortlessly," Erik muttered, crossing his arms as he stared out of the same window, gazing out at a pure black canvas dotted by various colored dots and formations. "They take this shit for granted."

"I never really thought of that," Joel admitted. "When you think about it, they could've had this technology for decades… centuries even… They got used to stuff like this, while we're still improving kinetic weaponry."

"True," Erik grunted, then cracked his knuckles loudly. "But the fact that they attacked us, knowing good and well that we weren't as developed as they were still pisses me off. They slaughtered everyone they could in the short week they showed their ugly muzzles, then leave us to clean up the damage… Anyone with any sense of moral would have at least attempted to show a bit of sympathy after they just tried to shove an entire county under the rug."

Joel growled to himself and glanced at his watch. "They deserve every bit of the hell we're gonna put them through. They want to hit us and run away? We'll hit 'em back, and this time we'll stay to finish the job we started. They won't be able to run away from us this time."

"You sound like your dad, Joel," Charlie remarked, glancing down at the numerous screens lining the bridge's main control deck. Joel snickered to himself and inched away from the large window.

"How far out are we Charlie?"

"Not far at all," he answered. "In fact… I think we're close enough to see the planet from here."

Joel turned his head to the other window, then felt all of the air leave his lungs as he saw a brilliant view of the planet in question. Its vibrant whites, sky blues, and silvery grays melted together and produced a beautiful swirling masterpiece in the shape of a planet. However, Joel stared at it with hesitance, as it looked absolutely frigid considering the colors and how far away they were from the system's main star.

"Damn," Eliot piped in. "Stunning view."

"Looks cold," Erik muttered. "You sure they gave us enough equipment to survive against that?"

"I trust my father," Joel replied. "He planned this attack for years. I'm sure he gave us more than enough equipment to tackle this climate."

"I sure hope you're right," Erik remarked.

"And the jammers are working, right?" Eliot asked.

"Should be," Joel answered. "We're under the radar right now. We won't be able to be tracked so long as our ship stays online."

"Oh, hey, Eliot," Charlie awkwardly spoke up. "Can you run down to everyone's quarters and tell them to buckle down? We're about to enter the atmosphere."

"Alright," the dark haired man grunted, then slipped out of the main bridge with Stryker closely pursuing. Joel snickered again once the bridge door shut behind the massive shepherd's tail.

"Was it a good move for Eliot to bring him along?" he asked.

"Eh, I'm not sure," Erik answered with hesitance, scratching the back of his neck. "Think those dogs will be afraid of our dog?"

"Hell yeah," Joel smiled, pumping his fist in the air. "Stryker's one badass canine. I've got no worries when it comes time to deploy–"

"Guys?" Charlie interrupted with a worried inflection.

"What Charlie?" Erik questioned.

"We've got company," he said in that same tone, staring at his radar screen with eyes wide.

"Fuck," Joel blurted out, jumping over a low guardrail and instantly rushing up alongside the specialist. "How many?"

"Three," Charlie answered, still practically choking on his words in fear. "Looks like two… wait… what are those? Those don't look like Cornerian ships."

"Ngh, you're right, they don't," Joel grumbled, glancing out of the large window and taking in the sight of the three warships in formation a long way's away from their current location, but it still sent a shiver down the bearded man's spine as he studied the ships intriguing construction. "What the hell are we gonna do?"

"I don't know, commander," Charlie retorted. "What should we do?"

"Yeah, you're the commander here Joel," Erik added.

"Nobody told me there would be a patrol unit around the damn planet, guys," Joel snapped. "I don't know how we're gonna get around them."

"Maybe they'll let us around if we just keep course," Charlie suggested. "Ya know, if we don't fire at them maybe they'll leave us alone."

"Are you insane?" Erik growled. "As soon as we try and get any closer they'll open fire. We need to change course."

"If we change course we'll be thousands of miles away from the military base," Joel remarked, scratching his beard. "But if we keep course they'll spot us and say that an unauthorized ship landed without clearance, or worse. We're fucked either way."

"Well, Joel, you realize what we have to do now, right?" Erik questioned.

"I'm not opening fire on those ships," Lieutenant McClellan responded instantly.

"What choice do we have Joel?" Erik snapped. "We can't let them tell their HQ that we're here. We need to take them out."

"They do look weaker than Cornerian ships," Charlie piped in. "We could take them."

"Guys, I'm not shooting at those cruisers," Joel argued.

"We're out of options," Erik said softly, trying to relax his commander about the situation. "Charlie says we can take 'em, and I believe him. There's only three small ships. Guaranteed the weapons aboard our ship can rip those ships to shreds."

"Erik's right," Charlie added. "This is our only option."

Joes hummed and curled his lips into his mouth, then gave a slight nod. "Alright. Lock on to them Charlie. On my word."

Charlie obliged and did what he could with the limited knowledge he had. He managed to activate all the weapons, as well as the energy shields, and before he even knew it he had locked the numerous weapons onto the first cruiser in formation.

"Ready?"

Joel nodded again. "Here goes nothing. Take 'em out."

Without a moment of hesitation, a broad spectrum of numerous colors of lasers lanced out of the Destroyer and impacted the enemy ship. Only, what happed was the energy shields of the enemy cruiser gobbled up the lasers launched at it like the shields hadn't eaten in weeks, making Joel's heart practically stop.

"What happened?"

"I-I-I don't know," Charlie stuttered. "They're shields must be more powerful than I–"

Charlie and the other two soldiers in the room were forcefully thrown to the ground as the enemy ships took that failed offensive attempt as a threat, and commenced their own fire. However, the lasers being shot from two of the three cruisers were a silvery green color, and what was even more disheartening was that they just phased through the shields that enveloped the Destroyer like they weren't even there; each shot impaling the warship like bullets shooting through paper.

"Shit!" Joel barked. "Charlie, get us out of here!"

"Where the fuck do you want me to go Joel?!" Charlie snapped back. "I can't do anything when we've got three warships on our asses!"

"Just do something–"

BOOM

A loud, ear-splitting explosion tore through the ship as one of the lasers impacted one of the main thrusters of the Destroyer, detonating it instantly. That explosion caused Joel to get launched backwards over the guardrail and hit the floor with so much force that he couldn't see straight afterwards. Loud alert sirens started blaring as another one of the silvery green lasers impaled the hull and left a hole as big around as a tractor's wheel. Erik cursed loudly, but it was still drowned out by the alert siren and the sounds of explosions tearing through the Destroyer.

"We're not gonna hold out much longer!" Erik bellowed. "Get us to the fuckin' surface Charlie!"

"I'm TRYING!" he shouted back, practically laying on the control panel to keep balance. "Their lasers killed our thrusters! We're stuck!"

Erik managed to look out of the window towards the cruisers, then felt his heart drop into his stomach as he saw one last projectile slowly make its way towards their ship. He instantly grabbed onto the railing and held on with a vice grip as the projectile inched closer.

"Buckle the fuck down!"

BANG

A colossal explosion rocked the entire Destroyer, but what caught the soldiers on the bridge off guard was that the projectile had more forcing power than it did destructing power. Basically, the enemy warship launched one last projectile to send the human's Destroyer less-than-comfortably gliding towards the surface of the snowball planet. With the lack of propulsion the human ship had, they could only sit and watch their ship plummet towards Fichina, much to their dismay and, surprisingly, relief.

"At least they stopped attacking," Erik muttered after the alert sirens stopped blaring.

"We're on target with landing on Fichina too," Charlie added. "Looks like those ships didn't want to finish the job."

"But… why?" Joel asked, standing up off the ground while rubbing his head.

"Beats me," Erik grunted, dusting his own clothes off. "They didn't look like Cornerian ships. Obviously whoever was behind the wheel of those ships realized we stopped attacking them after that first shot, then just gave up after they crippled our ship."

"Why didn't they just finish us off?"

"I wish I knew," Erik grumbled. "Obviously whoever that was wasn't Cornerian, 'cause we all know a Cornerian commanded ship would've finished us."

Joel growled and kicked at the railing. "And so much for our secretive arrival," he mumbled bitterly. "They've probably contacted every single person on the surface, and as soon as we land those fuckin' dogs will capture us."

"The only way to know for sure is to just sit and wait," Charlie said softly. "Luckily that ship didn't hit our ACS thrusters, so we'll be able to land on the surface without any problems. We'll go from there, right Joel?"

"That's all we can do," he admitted, letting his arms go limp. "You keep watching out Charlie. Make sure our landfall goes as smoothly as it can. I'm gonna go check on our crew."

Joel slipped out of the main bridge and slowly made his way down the hallway towards the living quarters. What disheartened the lieutenant was that some of the airlocks that prevented the entire hull of the ship from losing all of its oxygen if there was a puncture in the hull, and that in and of itself wasn't bad, it was just that numerous living quarters were on the other side of that airlock. He cursed to himself as he picked up his pace, but was relieved to see that one of the living quarters he took particular interest in looked perfectly fine. He didn't bother knocking as he barged in, and let out a breath of relief as he saw both soldiers inside picture perfect.

"You two alright?" he asked, transitioning his gaze back and forth between a tall and slim female soldier with brilliantly flowing brunette hair, and a shorter, but more muscular curly haired blonde male. He instantly made his way towards the female after both of them gave nods of approval.

"I'm okay Joel," she assured as he sat down on her bedside. Jordan Newgarden was one of the select few that were drafted over to Joel's recon team, and Joel did not have one complaint about it. He couldn't deny that she was absolutely beautiful, and her skill in combat only increased his feelings towards her. And for Jordan, she felt the same way towards her commander on this mission.

"What happened?" the other soldier asked. Samuel Hinchcliffe, another one of the soldiers drafted into the lieutenant's team, was much like Erik in personality. He was strong in hand to hand combat, but sometimes he let that power go to his head. Albeit huge at six foot six, he is rather timid when it comes to combat, and even more so this time around with their current mission.

"We just got into a skirmish with a patrol route," he answered in the most reassuring voice he could muster. "Punctured our hull, and we lost a few soldiers too, but our ship is okay. We're gonna land on the surface soon."

"Oh boy," Samuel remarked sarcastically, letting his head fall back on his pillow.

"This is where things start to get interesting, right Joel?" Jordan asked sweetly. The lieutenant nodded in approval and wrapped his arm around the female.

"Very," he answered, assuring her just by his touch. "Just promise me you'll be careful when we get out there, okay? I don't want to lose anyone, especially you."

Jordan blushed and stifled a giggle, causing Samuel to groan loudly and hold his hands over his face.

"Alright," he moaned impatiently. "Enough of the fluffy shit. You two act like that down there and you'll be the first ones in a body bag."

"You don't watch it and you will too," Joel retorted with a smirk. He waited for the blonde man's groaning to subside before he continued to affectionately rub the brown haired soldier's back and shoulder.

"You watch my ass, and I'll watch yours," Joel said with a smile. "We got a deal, babe?"

"I'll do more than just watch it," Jordan cooed, flipping her hair dramatically.

"That'll have to wait until we set up shop," Joel snickered back. "That a deal?"

"Deal," she smiled, giving another warm embrace to the lieutenant. "Thanks."

"Anytime," he said right back, then after the ship started slowly rocking and lurching he let out an impatient groan and stormed out of her quarters. A few seconds later, she could hear his bellowing voice echo in the hallway, causing her to erupt into laughter.

"God dammit Charlie if you don't stabilize this motherfucker I'm gonna have your ass on a platter, do you understand?!"


There's nothing simple when it comes to you and I
Always something in this everchanging life
And it probably always will
Now that time is getting harder to come by
The same arguments are always on our mind
We've killed this slowly fading light

Now the lines are drawn
Is this feeling gone?
The best parts of this have come and gone
And now that is all this is
With the reasons clear
We'll spend another year
Without direction, full of fear
But now things will be different

*Rise Against – Everchanging*