Location: Florence.

Time:0200

View point: Falco.

I crept to the side of the town, waiting for the the que from fox to breach the motel. The sound of human gunfire was ever present in the background. Fox hit me up over the radio to tell me to get him on the scope. I shifted my aim, to see him on the roof blaster in hand. The landmaster decoy plan worked to a fine point. We moved, Krystal also played her part extremely well, I caught a quick look at the guys by the tank. They were just sitting around smoking, not really doing much more than likely none the wiser to the battle plan we had in store for the bastids in the motel. Fox hit me again and told me to take the spotter on the left. Afterwards to get in the Arwing and take to the air. Hehe morons, Krystal has been in contact with me since we split up.

I leveled my reticule on the man's head. And squeezed the trigger and. *KRRRZZZSH* the bolt went sailing through the air.

View point: Kieran.

I woke up and set the rifle back on kill, I moved over to where the tank was to realise it was still there. I guess Jonny and Jeff would have to wait. I smacked Stevan to wake him up. He jolted to consciousness and went back to looking through the scope. I looked to a dune line to see something that wasn't there before. It was about 700m away,

"Hey Steve, was there a bush right there when we first set up?"

"Lemme check." He peered into his scope, a moment later his eyes widened.

"KIERAN, WE'VE BEEN-HRK." He was cut off abruptly as a red flash filled the room. I looked over to see him laying on the ground with his eye hanging to the side of his head. The bolt hit him right in the left eye socket. Blood started to pool around his head. A moment later a grenade came sailing through the window. I threw it out towards the parking lot but it exploded 15 feet from the deck, sending frag right into my face. I got splashed pretty bad, I could feel a piece of metal sticking in my cheek. I yanked it out, some blood came with it, I was hurtin pretty bad.

*BOOM* the bathroom wall was blown in. I knew it, I've been out played. They've known we were here the whole time. I looked up to the explosion to see what caused it. Shit it was a breach, One guy roped into the head and drew his weapon on me. I Dove towards the bed grabbing the M1A from the table. I threw the rifle into my shoulder and shot 3 times into the bathroom. He rolled out of the way and shot twice. The first blast hit me in the helmet and stumbled me, at least it wasn't completely useless. The second one hit me in the magazine. Spraying rounds all over the room. I took it from the weld and threw it at his head. I fired the round left in the chamber He kicked my muzzle away and it sent the round Into the bedroom where the kid and Krystal were. He walked up to me, grabbed me by the collar and said;

"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!" As he threw me into the wall. I couldn't see his face. It was masked by a balaclava. He then tried to kick me in the face. I got hit but the brunt of it was blocked by my forearms. I caught his Foot and pulled Him Towards me. But he quickly responded to that with a heel kick to my cheek. Knocking the sense out of me. He repeated

"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!

I came to and grabbed him by the balaclava yanking him snout first into the wall. I comboed with a kick of my own hitting him in the back of the head. I tried to draw my sidearm but he tackled me into the wall breaking it into the next room. I grabbed the back of his head and wrapped my legs around his waist putting us in the mount position. He broke free of my grasp and sent a punch towards my face. I rolled to the side and popped my hips up, and the punch that was going to hit me right in the nose went right into the hardwood floor. He grunted and winced at the pain. He didn't dwell on it long as he was about to swipe at my face with his claws. I blocked it and slammed my knee into his balls as hard as I could, he was lifted into the air a little on that last hit, so I used the opportunity to throw him off so I could get back to my feet. He rolled for a second clutching his groin in pain. He didn't dwell on it long, he got back to his feet and drew a knife on me. He charged without hesitation, trying to stab me in the gut. Parried it into the wall before drawing my knife. I cocked back and slammed it into his hand pinning him to the wall with it. He screamed out in pain and now I had his knife. The moon light shifted a bit as I was about to strike the final blow to where I could finally see who it was. It was that fox, the fox I saw the day I captured Krystal. He looked at me with pure hate. Such an intense hate that it could burn through the armor of an aircraft carrier.

He pulled his hand from the wall and struck at my face with a flurry of blows knife still going through his hand. One cut across my nose, I recoiled and he unleashed a spin kick again. Hitting me right in the chest and onto the bed of the next room. He jumped on top of me again while pulling a the knife from his hand. He thrusted down towards my chest, but I caught his wrist before he stabbed me in the heart. He was stronger than me, and I was sure I was gonna die. But in a sudden burst of motion the boy took his switch blade and stuck it in the back of the fox, he yelped in pain and the back of his fist hit the boy in the jaw and knocked him across the room .I was finally able to draw my pistol and started firing into the first thing that came into the line of fire which happened to be his femur. I shot twice, he screamed and fell off of me clutching his leg in pain.

I kicked him off of me and he fell straight legged onto the floor. I stood up touching the cut across my nose. It felt like just a scratch, blood was dribbling down my face but I was the victor of this barbaric squabble. Krystal walked into the dining area of next to the broken down wall, no doubt curious about all the noise. When she saw me standing above the fox about to squeeze the trigger on his head.

She yelled out "STOP, YOU'VE WON!"

I gave a quick glance up and another shot went right past my head. The Fox then got up, and quickly jumped to the balcony, I leveled my sights on him as he jumped off, I shot once and hit him in the shoulder as he fell. I thought that he was just going to fall onto the pavement and to leave nothing but a red and orange smear. But instead a low swoop of what appeared to be a ship flying by leaving a purple contrail in its wake. I grabbed my 416 and returned fire at the soldiers shooting at us. I returned fire as best I could but anytime I tried to get a shot off I was suppressed by heavy plasma fire. Soon the whole room was alive with bolts. One hit the outlet and sparks spat out of the hole in the wall setting the rug a blaze. The blaze spread to the wallpaper, which also begs the question "What kind of professional establishment still has wall paper?" The room was now an inferno. The gas line blew up in the next room, The ceiling collapsed and krystal was pinned to the ground by a burning piece of scaffolding. I grabbed the kid and threw him onto the balcony to get him out of the blaze. I Then moved the burning wood up with my bare hands burning them badly. She crawled out, coughing and gasping for air from the smoke that now filled the room. Acting purely on instinct I ran and grabbed her and the boy under my arm. Diving back first to take the brunt of the fall. The last thing I saw before I passed out was the building we were in bursting into flames.

I then woke up in the truck. I had a sling around my arm, and a bandage around my head. My vision was blurry and the wound in my side was burning like a thousand suns.

"Holy shit you're He's awake."

I moved my eyes over to the driver's seat, to see Jonny with a similar sling around his arm.

"Where's Steve?" Is what I tried to say but my mouth was filled with blood so it came out in some devil speak as blood cascaded down a the t shirt I had on.

I swallowed the rest and finally spoke my question. Jonny got quiet, I knew what that meant. I tried to keep a straight face, and failed miserably. Tears washed the dried blood down my face. Because I just lost my childhood friend, I tried my hardest not to sob and quietly wept in into the window. Jeff touched me on the shoulder. I looked to the back seat to see tears welling up in his eyes too, with that Krystal was sobbing into her hands. I had a feeling it was over something else though. The boy had his teeth gritted and kept clutching his knife, through his perfect poker face, I could see tremors in his hands and legs. I knew what they were, I have them every time in in a firefight. He was scared I could hear his heart thumping like a war drum. The weather turned to snow, Winter has begun, on a note of violence and now the cold would claim many live as the fortune of the homeland for tells. It's going to be brutal without proper shelter, and many more will succumb to the elements. Atleast thats what my grandfather told me. It seemed like hours passed before I started to come across a familiar sight.

"Stop the truck." I mumbled.

"What?"

"STOP THE TRUCK!"

He brought the 6 ton vehicle to a halt. "We need to go in on foot follow me." I tried to step out of the truck but as I stepped down my leg gave out from under me. I fell on my back onto the wet dirt road. Breathing hard I propped myself up on the tire.

"Come on Kieran get up." Jeff said picking me up under his arm.

"Where are we going?" Jonny asked.

"I can't tell you until we get there, Just head straight east from here."

"Well for how far?"

"three miles."

"Shit, this better be worth it" Jeff belched.

After 20 minutes of walking there was already an inch of snow on the ground. The wind howled like a wolf and the snow came down harder. I was leaving a light blood trail occasionally dripping into the snow. I must have looked like 7 kinds of hell. My fingers were starting to go numb. The cold was starting to bite all of my open wounds. 40 minutes later there was now another 6 inches of snow on the ground. Everyone was feeling it now especially the boy, Krystal took him in her arms in an attempt to keep warm. We hobbled for another 20 minutes before I finally couldn't move under my own power anymore. I collapsed into the snow, ignoring the cold.

"Damnit, we're gonna freeze to death out here. " Jeff said

"Come on K, we need to know where we're going."

I retorted with "We're here, and she's right on time."

"A figure in a white snow jacket and pants popped from behind the trees."

"STOP, PUT YOUR HANDS UP." the figure said.

"Put your guns down." I told the guys before they squared up.

"Kieran is that you?" the figure said again.

"Yeah its me."

"Bozi moi" the figure dropped the rifle, grabbed a thermos and poured some hot liquid down my throat. The familiar taste reminded me of the end of summer.

" Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on here."

"Jonny this is the one of the only people in the world I trust. And that is a very small circle"

"I still don't follow." he quipped

" Everyone, meet my Sister."

Location: Corneria high command

"God fucking damnit, are you telling me that they haven't found it yet?!" General Pepper yelled throwing the contents of his desk to the floor. "I gave you morons one job, one goddamn job and that was to find that weapon."

"Sir, We're doing our best but we just can't fight an enemy we can't see or distinguish from normal civilians."

"Bill Your task as division commander is to get the job done by whatever means."

"But sir, we don't want to commit war cri-"

"Don't give me that shit Bill, these are not Venomians, Cornerians, Saurians, or whatever. These are nothing more than primitive hairless apes!"

"Sir,I-"

"Before you continue, I give you full authorization to bomb suspected targets of any means, the shackles and red tape of the lylatian treaty do not apply here."

*knock* knock* knock*

"Aww for the love of, What?!"

"Permission to enter sir!"

"Enter, what is it?"

"The report from the starfox team."

"Finally some good news."

The young lieutenant placed the holo disc on the desk careful to avoid the debris from the generals ire. Pepper pressed the button to see the face of peppy instead of the leader of the team to his surprise on the recording.

"General Pepper, we have encountered the enemy you sent us to eliminate, so far they have sustained 1 confirmed casualty. Dogtags confirm that his name was Stevan D Markson."

Pepper smiled and thoughts of triumph swept over him, as the biggest thorn in his side lost manpower. But his smile would soon fade from the news to come.

"However, we have 2 casualties, and one in deep cover, the casualties are Fox and Slippy, the extent of the injuries are as follows;Slippy sustained major injuries during first contact when he tripped a swing trap, he had both legs perforated and broken, his legs were hanging by strands before he was boarded onto the casevac bird. Fox sustained 3 gunshot wounds, 2 to the left leg, and one in the shoulder, he survived but he'll be out of action for at least 2 weeks . with our current equipment we're being torn to shreds. We need new armor, and weapons, this current armor is useless against their types of weapons, additionally cold weather gear, the winter is starting to set in here and we could use something other than our winter fur coats. Peppy out."

Bill and the young lieutenant stood silent shooting a quick gaze to one another in attempt to negate the anger they could feel coming across the old hound dog. Looking like he was about to throw the nearest thing or person out the window. But his professional disposition retook him and he calmly picked a case from his trouser pocket. He opened the container and pulled out a cigar. He lit it and put the case back into his pocket, he took a hefty drag off of the stogie and took a deep breath before addressing his subordinates.

"Lieutenant, make sure you see to their gear request, and get the macbeth armory on the line to get the new armor in production, you are now dismissed."

"Yes sir." the lieutenant said before about facing and moving at a brisk pace down the hall.

"Bill…"

"Yes sir?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this but get me Falco's old gang and… Ugh, starwolf."

"Sir isn't that a bit rash?"

"Are you questioning me captain?"

"No sir, but working with wanted mercs is a bit…"

"I don't care at this point, we've wasted too much time already, God knows what will happen if they figure out how to turn that weapon on."

Location: Great Fox med bay.

"GAH FUCK"

"Hold still Fox this is hard enough without you squirming"

"God damnit, I saw her, she's alive Falco, I saw her."

Falco dare not say the plan they devised in event of her cover being blown.

"I have to go get her before they do god knows what."

"You are in no condition to be going after those guys. You can barely stand let alone get in another scuffle with them. You saw what the two guys hiding in the trash did to that tank."

"Well what the hell am I supposed to do."

"Sit here and get better." Peppy called out. "Don't rush head first into danger Fox, plan every move accordingly."

"Ugh fine."

"Now to business at hand, we're getting some backup and a little money for equipment. Slippy said something about a new eye shield that will assist in targeting and detection."

"Who's the backup?"

"We are also going to move further into the mountains east of the coast."

"Pep-" he started but cut off by peppys continued stream of stalling news.

"We are also upgrading the great fox to-"

"PEPPY! Who is our backup?"

Peppy groaned and muttered under his breath.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you."

"Star wolf."

"OH FOR FUCKS SAKE."

"Now fox settle down."

"Really Peppy, of aallll the disposable and nameless mercs, you went with our arch rivals?!"

"I know fox but General Pepper insisted on us working with them."

"Ugh this mission can't possibly get any worse."

"Hey Fox."

Foxes blood ran ice cold, his heart started to beat faster and faster feeling like it would burst with the slightest excitement. He knew the voice, it was an ominous feeling hearing it after all these years. Stepping through the doorway was a feminine figure, a little shorter than Krystal, she removed her scarf to reveal 2 large ears and the face of a long lost flame.

"F-Fara?"

"In the fur."

'Shit shit shit shit shit' Fox said in his head over and over again

"Well I, didn't think I'd see the ceo to Phoenix corp here."

"Well it's kinda in my job description"

"What do you mean Fara?"

"Actually, its commander phoniex of the CSF."

"Oh well that's cool, it-... Wait, what?"

"Thats right, got a position designing tech, for black operations, nepotism, am I right?"

"That still doesn't explain why you're here."

"I was placed in charge of you and your equipment."

Fox only blinked at the comment, he didn't know how to react. He was being assigned an overseer that was his ex, and wingmen who would shoot him down for pleasure. This was either a sick joke specifically tailored to urk him in the worst way possible , or the good general had a large streak of cruelty to him.

"Well uhh, The guest room is down the hall to the right put your stuff in there, we welcome you aboard commander go get settled in, Falco will give you the rundown."

Fara smiled and turned to go to set her stuff in her room, he smiled back and as everyone started to leave, He gripped Peppys arm.

"We need to have a chat."

"Alright"

"Peppy I'm not going to beat around the bush, what the fuck are we doing here?"

"How do ya mean?"

" First my ex girlfriend and now my arch nemesis shows up on what is probably the most costly mission that I have had, and I am just supposed to sit here and hope they won't shoot me in the back while in combat?!"

"Now Fox, I know that this is an odd order in an even odder mission. But we can't just let this opportunity pass us up."

"OPPORTUNITY,ODD MISSION?!" Fox yelled hoarsely "The Girl of my dreams is there having god knows what happen to her while, my best friend is sitting in the next room nursing his legs that a few days ago we're hanging off by a few strands of meat. Now my fucking ex shows up in a volatile mission, while we have to go up against some bandits from some bumfuck backwater planet. In fact what the fuck is this mission, why do these guys need to die so bad that I need to put the lives of everyone I care about on the line. We've bombed every previous suspected encampment shot up every human camp we've come across and these guys keep slipping through our grasp. Why is Corneria even here? what is so goddamn important about this shit ball of a planet?"

"Don't get snippy with me young man!" peppy barked back making the todd shake a bit.

" Listen carefully, you are a mercenary. We don't mean shit to anyone. I know that, Falco knows that, your father knew that, and hell even Slippy knows that. The moment you get it through your thick skull that we are just paid to kill because the other soldiers can't do it due to high risk, they couldn't be bothered or there is too much red tape, whatever the reason it amounts to the same thing, we are hired guns. You should have expected this when you first became a merc. If you can't handle the questionable missions or tough calls, you shouldn't be sitting in the captain's seat."

Peppys words cut deep, really deep. Up until they came here it's been relatively smooth sailing. Space combat was child's play compared to ground to ground engagements with a desperate cornered enemy, with no compassion to his comrades or himself. At least there was morality when it came to dealing with other Lylatians, some form of common ground. But here he hated the enemy, but still knew that they hated them at least tenfold more. They were on their turf and they knew it well. Every step further, every inch they took further, more casualties would form, more than likely his fellow teammates. The humans would get meaner and meaner the longer this would drag out.

"But this makes no sense" he said solemnly

"There is no sense, only us!" Peppy said grabbing him by the collar

"B-but"

"But nothing, if we are all to die tomorrow so be it, but I expect you to lead us no matter what goddamnit."

Peppy then stormed out of the room. Fox though very carefully. About his next move. He was in a situation where he was wrong either way. He needed answers, and he knew where to get them

"Rob, get me general Pepper."

"Initiating transmission." The robot droned in a monotone voice.

He waited a few seconds before general pepper's face popped in on the holo screen.

"Fox I, didn't expect you to call so soon."

"General I'm gonna be frank with you, I need answers, what is Corneria's purpose here. Why now, why this planet?"

"That's a little above your pay grade Fox, so I'm not at liberty to say."

"NO General, I've been given nothing to go on, only names and a price. Ethier tell me the answers or I'm grabbing my MIA teammate and leaving this mission for good!"

The hound dog sighed and took a drag off of his pipe for a minute before breaking the silence.

"I suppose that you have earned some straight answers, first I normally wouldn't send troops in unless we were attacked first, but a P.O.I has escaped from the Fichina super max prison. Him and a gang of rogue venomian forces, then stole a secret weapon called the four horsemen, this is a weapon that could destroy an entire continent in a blink of an eye if added with a special element. An element that is only found on a few planets, and this one has all the characteristics of having said element. We gave chase and he fled as fast as he could to the planet that we fight on now. But instead of turning him over like we asked, the leaders of the government here immediately became hostile when we tried to land. He was granted with asylum and any attempts to send in a small team on the surface to retrive were met with rather intense aggression."

"Ok that answers my first question but who is this mystery man that I should be looking for, and why the guys I'm hunting now."

"I have told you enough. Though I will peel more black bars off with the more results you yield."

"Very well, Fox out."

With a click of a button peppers face vanished.

'I don't want to have more of my friends hurt over this I have to do this alone, and I can't do it sitting here' fox thought to himself.

He bit down on his belt, grabbed the pain drugs and bone jell from the table and slammed the 2 pronged syringe into his leg. He made a muffled yelp and then pushed the plunger down. Bone jell even with pain meds was not a fun experience, it may accelerate the healing of a damaged bone by up to 1000% but it was a painful procedure to say the least. Usually only used for minor breaks and fractures due to the maddening pain of having to regrow sections of bone at a rate your body was not meant for. But this was a severe fracture from 2 gunshot wounds. He could feel his bones shifting and snapping in deep in his leg. Tears formed in his eyes from great strain. He bit down on thick pilots belt harder and harder until his teeth bled and the belt fell in two pieces from his muzzle. He would only hold in a blood curdling cry from biting down on the remaining piece of belt that was still in his mouth. This went on for 2 minutes before the pain meds kicked in and he. But by then he was already so exhausted from the pain that his leg went numb from pure shock. He would lay there for another hour before he tried to maneuver to the aid of a hover chair." .

'God I never want to do that again, but at least I'll be walking by tomorrow morning.', he thought as he floated back to his room, to turn in for the night.

'I can't take my teammates with me, I couldn't live with myself if they got hurt on my behalf. I have to search for her alone.' He thought to himself.

"Rob get my disguise, visor, and mobile g-diffuser ready for the planet, and set my alarm to go off at 0600"

"Affirmative Captain."

Location: undisclosed

Time:1700

POV: Krystal

I had thought long and hard about what I have been doing behind their backs. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find any right in it. These men, they treat me like one of their own despite our constant attempts to try and kill them. I have been relaying messages to the team telepathically and revealing locations to the rest of my team all except for Fox. Fox can't handle mission's of me in deep cover. It takes his mind out of the fight and places it on me, I have been cursed with this so called gift from the gods. Ever since we got to this horrid land they called Earth, all I saw in the minds of our people was fear and hate. Mutual feelings no doubt from the rest of the kind living here. It was a nightmare, truly this was no planet that I have ever experienced before. Everywhere we went there was misery, entire cities burnt to a crisp, makeshift graves on the side of the road, dead bodies strewn on the side of the road both Cornerian, and Human. Animals made ravenous from the imbalance of the new species entering from the stars and throwing their weight around. Upon the horizon there were huge pyro cumuluses from the burning cities and forest. Truly this was no planet. This was hell.

"We're here" the female quipped

"God damn Kooks, you didn't tell me your family was loaded." Jonny said in an impressed tone. Looking at the 3 housed plot with land as far as I could see.

He didn't give a response, all I saw was him slump down face first into the snow. I then realised that there was a rather apparent blood trail in the wake of the snowmobile that we rode in on.

"Kooks?" he said again looking towards the back of the snowmobile, only to see him face first in the snow more blood dripping down and soaking through his camo blouse. "Aww shit, get him up!" he commanded grabbing him by his legs under his injured arm.

His sister rushed to his side and grabbed him under the arms.

"Jeff get the door, we need to get him inside quick." The woman commanded.

He opened the door and they drug him inside. Then she addressed me.

"Hey you there, come with me and help me put the snowmobile and tow cart away."

I obliged her and we went to the garage and drug the snowmobile in and unhooked the cart. We made our way to the largest house that is now covered in snow. We walked inside to see Kieran on a table with his shirt off and a man standing over him.

"No no, these stitches all wrong. " The man spoke in broke version of their language.

I treaded lightly, until I stepped on a creaky floorboard alerting him to my position. He rubber necked and looked at me in surprise and then narrowed his eyes in an expression of pure hate. He lifted up his shirt and drew a pistol on me. I put my hands up, but that did little more than to anger him. He started yelling at me in a strange language that the universal translator installed in my ear couldn't pick up. It was gruff and harsh, and no doubt he was swearing at me. He spent about 30 seconds yelling. Before catching his breath and said in English.

"Why you here? You do dis? ANSWER!"

I couldn't speak, my mind was rushing in every different direction and I stood there with my hands up which felt like hours but was actually only a few seconds. From what I could tell he was an older man with a look of pure fire in his eyes.

"ANSWER!" he yelled even louder.

"Woah woah, easy there Grandpa" The woman said from behind her in the doorway.

"Lucy, why is solbaka here." he said referring to me

"She is here because she saved my brother."

With those words his expression softened and he set the gun down onto the table with a sigh and went back to work on the comatose marine.

"Sorry about that, Grandpa Misha doesn't trust new… well anything for that matter"

"It's alright, it's not the first time I've had a gun pointed at me."

"Yeah, but that never makes it easier, by the way I'm Lucy, Kieran's sister." she said as she extended her hand.

"Krystal" I said shaking her hand.

"Well now that the formalities are out of the way let's get down to business"

"Such as?"

"You getting into that shower, no offence but you stink." she said as politely as possible.

I sniffed my shirt to find that she was right, I was as ripe as a week old puk puk egg. A shower would be nice too considering my clothes are tattered and I was covered in sut, grime, dust and some blood here and there so I took her up on the offer. She led me down a long hallway to a large bathroom. Actually it was more like a zonian spa. The bathroom was a brilliant shade of green. The floor was polished granite and there were pleasantly smelling in cast iron stands. On top of the wondrous glass work on the shower there was also a large spa bath carved into the floor Lucy giggled and I snapped back to reality.

"Yeah that's the usual reaction."

"I was barely expecting you to have running water, let alone this. How did you manage-"

"The other buildings a pump house and food store. We get all of our water through the spring running deep underground. The pumps filter out any rock and dirt so we have a huge supply of clean water. There is also a stream about two hundred yards behind the edge of the tree line."

"Oh, well that's interesting."

"Well get sorted I will fetch some clean clothes."

" Thank you for your hospitality."

"Don't mention it." She said as she turned to leave, but stopped once she got to the door. "Oh and if you give away our location to anyone from your kind or god forbid you try to hurt my brother , I won't hesitate to install a sunroof in your skull."

I was taken aback from that comment, I tried to retort but all I could do is stare like a frightened kit. She gave a look just like her brothers, a cold gaze from those abyss like eyes. I bored a little bit into her mind to see any trace of doubt to her threat. She was completely sincere, her resolve was iron clad. Then she just left without another word, shutting the door behind her. I lingered on the thought of a team showing up in an attempt to eliminate the threat, only to discover her dead on arrival.

'What will happen if Fox shows up? Will he be okay, will I be okay? What were these humans willing to do if cornered? Will I even still be able to go along with the fight against them?... No, don't think like that, the mission comes first'

I steeled myself and then started the shower, I couldn't afford to back out now, I was in too deep. I might as well enjoy my stay here for however long it would be. The shower quickly got hot as steam filled the the room. Discarding my tattered clothes and old bandages on my leg to the garbage, I slowly stepped into the cascading water. It felt like a dream, as if all my worries washed away from my fur with the dirt, grime, and blood. I must have just stood there soaking for 30 minutes before I actually decided it was time to get clean. There were multiple shampoos that smelled pleasantly like fruit and flowers. It was finally nice to get the smell of war and sweaty human off of me. It was nice to escape, I could finally focus and relax. The constant stress of being shelled, shot at, and overall miserable for the last few days had finally faded away. I stepped out in time to receive a knock on the door. Lucy had returned with a pair of sweatpants and and a t shirt. They looked like the my size but they were human clothes so they would need some modifying, so I tore a hole in the back of the pants with my claws before shimming my way into them.

They still had power so I used the blow dryer on the counter, I don't think they'd mind. Finally finished, I trotted down the hall to explore the small mansion. But I thought it wise to take a step back and ask for a proper tour from the hostess, lest I incur her wrath.

I found her setting a large table in a red walled dining room lined with bookshelves, an interesting opportunity to delve into some human culture through reading when you're not trying to set everything on fire, maybe it will help me to understand some of the things they do, quirks and imperfections of their species, the little things that make humans human. I will be sure to ask if and or after I get the grand tour.

"H-hey, um Lucy"

"Yeah?"

"Would you mind showing me around?"

"It'd be a pleasure" she said in a cheerful tone.

She took me on a quick tour of estate, Showing me the den, the large and rather glamorous kitchen. There was a delicious smell coming from what I gathered to be the oven. I was extremely hungry, it had been over a day since I last ate. The smell danced around in my nose. I was lost in it and couldn't move on my own, I was walking towards the source and couldn't stop myself from salivating. Lucy noticed this and quickly stood between me and the oven giggling.

"Woah woah, down girl." She said as she gently shoved me away. "Chow ain't gonna be ready for another 20 minutes and we're not done with the tour.

She led me to a spiral staircase that went into the ground, when we stepped. On the stone steps to see a bar with various bottles of what appeared to be various flavors of alcohol.

"And this is the bar, don't drink all of it like you did with my brother"

My face had all the blood shoot out of it and I looked at her causing more giggles.

"How did you-"

"Jonny told me."

"Oh." I couldn't look her in the eye after that out of sheer embarrassment.

Corneria had alcohol too but I wasn't the legal age to drink there, and no one on the team other than Falco drank, so I never touched the stuff. The familiar drink that she had tasted like a familiar drink that they had on her home planet, but that didn't nearly have as much punch to it.

"How old are you?" she asked me catching me off guard.

"What?"

"How old are you?"

"I turned 20 just before we got here."

She sighed lightly and shook her head. "Not even old enough to drink and you're fighting wars, it's a shame."

"No bother, I like flying and the missions."

"By the way how did you go about becoming a merc, because no offence, you don't seem like the type to be a hired gun."

"Well It all started when I sensed a distress signal on a Sauria, I had to get a Krazoa spirit to its shrine, I was then Imprisoned in a giant crystal by a man named Andross."

"Heh, Is that why you're called Krystal?"

"No I was given that name by my grandfather Randor."

"Ah well thats ironic."

"Indeed, anyway I was rescued by my current team leader, Fox McCloud." I couldn't help but to sigh with delight when mentioning his name.

Lucys expression went stone, and she cocked her head to one side. Giving me not so much an angry look, more over a "why would you do that?" look.

"Not my idea of a good relationship, but whatever."

"Hey, he saved my life I can't just quit on him, he never has mistreated me or even talked out of turn."

"That's not what I mean"

"Then what do you mean, look if this is about Kieran then I-"

"She means a job where you put your life on the line dealing with various types of scum that want you dead is doomed to fail" Kieran said as he walked down the stairs.

"Jesus christ, you scared the fuck out of me, and what are you doing up, an hour ago you were rapping on death's door." Lucy scolded.

"I'm fine." he said straining. " Anyway let me elaborate on what I just said, you my blue friend are a merc, worse off is that you want to start a life with your team captain. Your first thought should have been, 'wow, my life is in constant danger and a relationship would be a distraction and unfair to the other person.' Instead your body is an idiot, because the danger it has in mind is a leopard coming to eat you. So it says 'oh my god I almost died, commence to having sex'. We are made to pass on our genes and this may not be true to your people but it certainly is for our people, so you try to make a copy of yourself. Maybe you'll buy a house get married and start a family, but a career as a merc is not the greatest thing to have to start such a life, especially when you are both mercs on the same team. Best case scenario the pressures of the job drive you to a divorce. And worse case…"

"How is a divorce best case?"

"Because worst case, is when you have to put a bullet in the other one… Because it's the kindest thing you can do for them."

Those words jolted my mind, the mere thought of having to even level a gun on Fox was unimaginable, let alone pull the trigger. The look on his face said it all, you didn't have to be a telepath to see that he had to done something similar in his mysterious past. Then he walked behind the, bar grabbed two small glasses before grabbing a bottle of brown liquid from the shelf.

"Trust me Krystal, you're better off breaking it off now." He said solemnly pouring the liquid into the glasses, before producing 3 more, glasses behind the counter and pouring more. I then heard light footsteps coming down the stone stairs to see the boy, running down to see him. He looked over his shoulder, and addressed him.

"Hey bud, could you go get the rest of the guys and bring them down here."

The boy gave a sloppy salute and ran back up the stairs. A few moments later, Jonny and Jeff came in tow behind him. Jonny didn't look much better than kieran with that busted wing of his. Jeff was the only one who looked like he didn't need to be in a hospital bed but wasn't without his injury.

"Thanks bud, by the way, you still haven't given me your name."

The boy shifted nervously shooting a quick look to me, then to his toes. "My names Declan."

"Well thanks for getting my friends Declan, Lucy could you take him upstairs."

"Sure, come on now there is someone I want you to meet."

They walked back up the stone stairs while Kieran continued to pour the liquid in the glasses. He passed out the 2 glasses to the guys sitting at the bar and then placed the other two in front of 2 empty seats. He put the bottle back in the rack and sat down at the counter next to the other men before putting two small copper coins in the glass in front of the empty seat. Thinking the last seat was for me and it rude to not partake I took a seat next to Jeff. Or at least tried to, because as soon as I sat down and reached for the glass Jeff quickly drew a large knife from his sheath, and stabbed it into the counter right between my fingers. He only looked at me with an expression of pure hate. I retracted my hand and slid it into my lap.

"DON'T TOUCH, FURRY!" he barked.

"Now now, easy jefe, she doesn't know the rules so there is no need being cruel, aww now look at what you've done. You've gone and scared the poor girl." Jonny said looking at me.

"Hmph, if you can even call this space monster a girl." he spat, that one really hurt.

'Woah, dude… That's like, fucking mean.' Jonny whispered in his head.

"Jeff shut the fuck up, you've made your point." Kieran said calmly.

"DON'T TELL ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP, IT'S HER FAULT WE'RE IN THIS MESS!"

Kieran finally lost his cool and backhanded him out of the chair. He hit the ground with a thud, and spat a little blood from his mouth.

Kieran breathed heavily while shaking his hand out, before piping up. "Let me make one thing perfectly clear Jeff. This whole fucking place is my house, and you will not dare to speak to anyone like that In this house especially not me. It's by my good graces that I let you even see it. You are my best fucking friend, but just because we're tight don't think I won't make you sleep outside in the freezing snow if you make one more childish outburst. You are a fucking recon marine, start acting like it. Now bite your tongue and sit back up on the stool so we can finish the honors.

He extended his hand and got him off the floor with a grunt. With the look on his face and a quick peek into his mind I could see an image of him beating Kieran to the ground. I thought for sure a fight would break out, but before that he took a deep breath and sighed "I'm sorry Kooks, that was uncouth of me."

"Don't apologize to me, do it to her. I mean just look at her, she's fucking shaking." He said as he gestured to me.

"I'm sorry Krystal, I shouldn't lose my cool at someone who doesn't know any better."

I wiped the tears out of my eyes before saying. "Apology accepted."

"Good now let us continue."

They sat back down and picked up their glasses.

"Friends, we are here today to remember our fallen brother, Steven was a good man and even better marine, we've been friends for almost 20 years. You can even say that he was the guy who walks in when the whole world walks out. He always put others before himself and was honorable even if a bit loud mouthed. It genuinely pains me to send him off to the great feast without us. But even then I take solace, that he has someone to drink with up there. Rest in peace my friend." Kieran said before the rest joined in unison saying; "And may we meet again in the great halls valhalla." Before quickly downing their drinks and slamming the empty glasses on the counter.

"UNCLE UNCLE!" a high pitch voice called out coming down the stairs.

"Theres my girl!" Kieran said expression going from grief stricken agony to pure joy in a heartbeat.

"I missed you Cady. You're getting so big too, the last time I saw you you were no bigger than a sack of potatoes." He said embracing the little girl, giving a slight grunt from pain. "Easy there grily, uncles not doing so good from your bear grip."

"Oh where are my manners." The little girl squeaked "I'm Cady Kieran's niece." She said going around shaking everyone's hands. But stopped when she got to me.

"Umm, hi." I said weakly. 'Really Krystal, that's all you have "umm hi." Gods, no wonder people don't warm up to you fast, you don't make it easy.'

"HI" she said bubbly. "I've never talked to an alien before, it's nice to meet you."

"Likewise"

'good, awkward moment averted.'

A call came from up the stairs "Lasagna's ready!"

"Aww yeah baby, you haven't lived until you've eaten Lucy's cooking." Kieran said charging up the stairs like he didn't have a large hole in his side.

The rest followed suit, so I walked up with them. Once I got to the top I saw the other marines laughing at him doubled over in pain after his sudden burst of energy.

"Well what the hell did you think was gonna happen? You were one foot in the grave an hour ago." Lucy scolded.

"I don't know what I expected" he wheezed. "I think my my ribs are broken."

"Yeah no shit, you fell 20 feet onto a parked car, you ontop of that blue fur landed on you along with Declan." Jeff said holding down laughter.

"You should rest grandson, is not good to push self past limit."

"Noted, now let's eat."

The table was set nicely, the food was set in front of me. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. It was a square of noodle and meat covered in a thick sauce that looked like blood. That thought sent chills through me, I never liked the sight of blood. But at the risk of being impolite I reached for the fork and cut the piece. I slowly lifted the food to my mouth, and finally took a bite. It was wonderous, they didn't have anything like this anywhere in lylat. An unauthorized moan escaped my lips before swallowing. I then noticed everyone was staring at me after the fact. Then they started to snicker, they had all watched and waited for me to take a bite before eating themselves. I was a little embarrassed about that whole display. But the mood settled after the fact.

"Nice one Lucy, you've outdone yourself again."

"Thanks, Kooks."

"Seriously what keeps bring up my old nickname"

"It rolls off the tongue better"

"Eh, fair enough."

"So what brings you to our neck of the woods."

"Declan"

"Ah okay."

"Speaking of which do you still have it?"

"Do I still have what?

"The M1 Garand"

"Oh yeah it's in the gun bag" he said scooping more food into his mouth.

"Well… We're gonna need it."

"Why, did something happen to great grandpa?

"No, but he's not looking so good. He's upstairs you should go see him before we go to bed."

"Lucy can we please not talk mortality at the table."

"Fine, fine, just thought I should tell you"

"Anyway, now that we're off that subject what's been goin down In y'alls lives."

"Well so far we have had minimal trouble with this war, in fact Krystal here is the first cornerian I have seen up close"

"See, I told you this place wasn't a waste of money." Misha chimed.

"Yeah well I obviously didn't expect freaking aliens to invade."

"Speaking of which, what is this place?" I finally asked.

"Oh this place? This place is a fallback plan it is also my summer home." Kieran said finishing up his garlic bread.

"Yeah but how did you afford this?"

"Heh he, I didn't, the man I just mentioned did."

"That still doesn't answer my question."

Kieran finished his meal and then took a deep breath. "Well, for starters this land is completely inaccessible by normal means of transport . This is why we had to walk in, even the quads would not make it up here due to the fact that it's so densely wooded around here. While not my idea strictly speaking. Once a lone shack only stood here around 60 years ago, we were dirt poor back then. That was before grandpa Il'ya. stumbled in this little cave around the edge of the property, ended up finding a shit load of gold. Great grandpa and grandpa misha here, decided to go for broke and build a fortress deep in the wilderness. And so at the height of the cold war this place was built so that we could live out our days of the nuclear holocaust. Expecting total annihilation we made this place as cozy as have food for at least 10 years of food and almost unlimited clean water at our disposal, not to mention the ample game that lives all around the property. At the first signs of an incoming missile we would retreat here and become the last happy people on the Earth. Combat wise it is very defensible, the building we sit in has a layer of thick steel in between the stone walls, so nothing but the highest caliber weapons such as artillery shells and tank cannons can get through. Much more firepower than any normal man can be expected to carry. Additionally I also put a little time and effort in this place and built the pumps and installed the solar panels a year before I enlisted."

"Ah, well that clears things up a bit."

"In all honestly we all thought this was a huge waste of potential, and now anyone would beg to differ." he said taking his plate into the kitchen.

"I'm going to take some time to say goodnight to great grandpa, I'll be back shortly." and with that he went up stairs and disappeared into the hall.

"Dessert anyone?" Lucy asked softly.

" What is?" misha asked with a thick accent,

" Sundaes."

"Whats a sundae?" I asked

"Delicious." Lucy replied with a smirk

About 10 minutes later lucy came back with 2 dishes with what appeared to be snow with mud on it, a strange fruit lay on top. If anything I've learned while I was here is that never judge the humans food by looks. So I took a bite of it and immediately was stunned by how good it was. Another out of control moan left me which brought forth more giggles from the rest of the occupants, all accept for Cady and Declan who were too busy scarfing down their sundaes to notice.

"Isn't it odd that we are eating sundaes in the dead of winter?"

"WOAH GODS!" I yelled

"Actually it's just me, Kieran."

"How long have you been standing there?"

"About 5 minutes."

"We need to put a bell on you or something."

He simply responded with a throaty laugh and put what they called a 'cigar' in his mouth and lit it.

"AH AH!" Lucy warned "Not at the table.

"Alright alright, I'll go outside." he groaned.

"Hey wait I-" I tried to say but I turned to see him gone.

"Wah? Where did he go?"

" Oh yeah, he does that sometimes."

"Yeah, take your eyes off him only for a second and he will seem to vanish into thin air"

'Gods he's better than prince tricky at appearing and disappearing.'

"How did he even do that?"

"Years of practice" he said standing next to Lucy.

This time Lucy jumped about 3 feet in the air when he reappeared.

"God fucking damnit Kieran, stop that! And what did I say, OUT OF THE HOUSE!"

"S'not my fault you can't hear me." He said nonchalantly as he walked to the door.

This time I kept my eyes on him the whole time as he strolled to the door. When he finally exited I went back to eating the 'ice cream'. I ate everything and drank the melted puddle in the bottom of the dish.

"That. Was. The best. Thing I have ever eaten." I said with a small squeal of delight.

"Well that is very nice of you to say." Lucy said with a triumphant grin.

"I'm going to go talk to Kieran, see if he can tell me more about the planet."

I turned and tried to walk away but I felt my tail hit something on the table and knock it to the ground with a crash.

"Crap" Lucy said lightly smile disappearing

"Oh my, I am sooo sorry."

"Eh don't worry about it." she said picking up pieces of plate and bowl off of the ground. "Just try to control that thing." she made a gesture at my tail.

"Sorry its involuntary." I said grabbing my tail to stop it from swinging too and fro.

'Awkward'

I quickly made my leave. Too embarrassed to look back, I got to the door and walked onto the porch. He wasn't there, where could he have...

"Don't even think about it" I said lightly.

"Aww, you're no fun." he said walking up from behind me. "So do you need something?"

"No just wanted to talk"

"All ears." he said taking a puff off of his cigar.

"Well for starters, I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?"

"Well not shooting me in the face the day we met."

"Don't mean nothin, what kind of man would I be if I just put one in your head without parle?"

"Well you'd b-"

"Rhetorical question sweetheart, regardless of what the briefings have told you I do not kill in cold blood."

"From what I have seen I beg to differ."

"Look, I don't like fighting but it's the only thing I've ever been good at."

"I know the feeling."

"Hm."

"Yeah, growing up on Cerenia we had a rather distinct culture of battling our problems out"

"Sounds like my kinda place"

"It's not like your type of fighting, it's with sword,staff, and magic and-"

"Wait, wait, wait… Did you just say magic?"

"Yeah magic."

"Like genuine throwing fireballs with your hands and making the ground shake like an earthquake by stomping right?"

"Actually we needed our weapons to do any of that."

"That's even better, fuck its must be like d&d on the regular there."

"d&d?"

"Nevermind that. Anyway continue."

"Well we were also not the top species there, we had regular attacks from bandit wolves and giant winged beast that breathed Ice."

"Holyshit, you had fucking werewolfs in armor and fucking ice dragons?" He said getting more and more giddy like a happy puppy.

"Well they were called blade tails but I suppose, and what's a werewolf?"

"A werewolf is a giant wolf turned from a human, honestly I keep thinking that some of the soldiers we ran into the past month were werewolfs."

"Anyway, I also wanted to thank you for standing up for me in the bar earlier."

"I would have done the same for anyone, its impolite to talk to a lady like that."

I shuddered at the sudden cold wind, fingers already going numb from the cold, before saying "A lady? Y-you don't think I'm just some weird alien space monster?"

"Listen Krystal, I may have mentioned this before but seeing out here in this huge mess of a war is like seeing a diamond in a bucket of shit. The real reason I came here was so my family could be safe."

"What about Jeff and Jon?"

"They're my family too, closer than the tightest blood bonds. I can't stand losing anyone else, too many have already been claimed by this war. Lucy told me that almost all of the major cities airports, have been bombed to hell even If we could get airpower re-established We can't touch you guys way up there." He said gesturing to the ships that were hundreds of miles above our heads.

"But why bring me here? Why to your family?"

"Why indeed? Perhaps it was because of a whim, perhaps it was impulse, perhaps it was because everyone needed a break, even you. And so far you haven't given me a reason to not to. But what would bring a question on, should I have not? The way I see it is that you have two goals for your mission to kill us. Gather Intel on us and the rest of the human race and try to relay it back by any means and of course to kill us."

I felt guilt in the pit of my gut, it was like a steel weight on my mind when he said that. Another cold wind swept by causing me to shiver.

"You should really put something thicker on." He said with a hint of concern, before undoing. His arm sling and removing his thick fur lined jacket. And placing it over my shoulders."Here you can borrow mine, if you're cold."

The jacket was furlined and extremely soft. "This is nice what type of fur is it?"

"Fox skin" he said dryly with a straight face.

And with that comment I immediately threw the jacket off and dove away from it into the now foot and a half of snow on the ground. And continued to back peddle on all fours. Kieran was laughing so hard that he was starting to cough up some blood.

"Ah, I've been waiting for that one for a while now, oh ho ho it hurts to laugh."

"What in the gods great names is wrong with you?!" I said panicked "you sadistic ass."

"Easy easy, it was just a joke, it's not really fox skin."

I was fuming, so angry that the snow around me was melting around my feet.

"Then what the hell was it?!"

"Its elk skin lined, the outside is bear. Aww come on don't be mad it was funny." he said with an innocent look.

'Gods now I see why Lucy snaps at him.'

"Well I'm going inside for the night, you should come in too, I'll show you to your room."

"I get my own room?"

"Well yeah, with me is out of the question and I doubt you'd want to spend the night on the couch."

With a stunned look on my face at the sound of the news, I followed him into the house. But as he entered he quickly backed out holding his nose.

"Ugh it smells like a fucking dumpster in here. Jeff, Jon get your asses in the shower you smell like wet feet and hobo."

"I'll go first." Jeff said discarding his body armor and tossing it in the guest room he would be staying in before vanishing into the bathroom.

"Now that that's settled let's get you to your room." He said as he lead me up the stairs to the west wing.

"Is something wrong?" I asked seeing a concerned look on his face.

"Well there is one I was hoping to see here, bu-OOF!" He tried to say but was tackled to the ground by what appeared to be a dog.

"Nevermind, ugh, hi Beaux." He said as the dog whined and wagged its tail, while assaulting him with kisses. "Ok down, sorry about that, it's been over 2 years since he last saw me." he said continuing to lay on the floor.

"Are you okay?"

"No, that hurt a lot." he said slowly getting up off of the floor.

"Well this is it." he said opening the door to a room with a large bay window and a queen sized bed. " Bathroom's the door right there, the dresser should have clothes on your size, and don't touch the thermostat. Bayushki bayu."

"Goodn-" I started but he already left.

'That is gonna get really annoying, I better call Fox.'

I sat on the bed and crossed my legs, opening my mind to find him a short time later I could feel his presence.

'Fox, are you there?'

'Krystal? Is that you?'

'Yes I'm here.'

'Are you hurt? Where are you? Did they do anything to you?!'

'No, aside from some scrapes and bruises I'm fine.'

'Oh my god, I thought I lost you.'

'As for where I am I can't really say, I'm not really sure where we are.'

'Is there anything you can do to ease my search?'

'I heard them say wolf creek road, that's all I got.'

'Okay, I found it. I also sense where you are.'

'Good'

'I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Goodnight Fox.'

'Good night Krys.'