Chapter IX: Survive

Chapter IX: Survive Pt 1

Mission Clock: (CPL A. Umos) 1959 hrs

Date: July 3, 3023

Location: Cornerian Training Area 49

Sub-Location: Unknown

"(Heavy Breathing)" "(Heavy Gunfire)" "(The slamming of a door.)" "That was too close. A quick break and I got to get moving again." Axel said to no one in particular.

Training Area 49, the training grounds for Corneria's Space Marines; The objective: Axel and the others had to survive for 3 days. No outside support, no pick-ups, no supply drops, nothing, just them against the raw forces of Mother Nature. He'd heard the General say something about a last stand or something but Axel dismissed it.

He'd worry about it when the time came. He did a check on his equipment: 1 combat survival knife; 1 day's worth of MRE; a pair of binoculars; and 2 weapons of his choice. He went into the humans' weaponry and chose an H&K USP Compact .45 ACP pistol.

Granted it was weaker than the Cornerian weaponry, but it made up in knock back and piercing; and he chose his personal sword: "The Blade of the Dragons". He looked out the window of his position and didn't see anything.

"Doesn't mean nothing is there," He said drawing his pistol and he fired at the wall behind him 4 times.

He then Tiger clawed a hole in the wall and jumped out. He safed his pistol and holstered it and ran away from he shack. He wasn't sure how these things were tracking him so easily especially since he wasn't running much and it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit. He didn't care though. He needed to find a place to sleep before nightfall or freeze his ass off.

"Screw this," He said. He stopped jogging and broke into a full-fledged run. Whatever was trailing sent lances of laser fire after him. The heat radiating from the lasers caused blisters to form on the back of his neck and exposed areas, but he ignored the pain he had to keep moving.

"What the hell do I do now?" He asked himself. "Let's see I got a look at the map and I remember a lake. Okay so that's our plan, find the lake and dive in. It's cold enough so it'll cool me down but it's warm enough so I won't die of Hypothermia. The only problem left...how do I get these things off of my six?"

He was running into a heavily tree populace. "That's it!" He kept running but started to jink and zigzag. The drones tried his tactics and 2 of them crashed into the trees. He looked behind him seeing wavering in the air.

"There are about 4 left. Time to get more technical."

He said sneering. He jumped to the trees and started wall-jumping off of them. The drones couldn't keep up and 2 more fell to the trees.

"Time to go."

He ran faster and jumped to the branches of the trees. As he landed on a branch laser fire broke and Axel fell, but grabbed a branch and swung from it and landed on another and started jumping from branch to branch. Axel started to sniff the air and smelled freshwater meaning the lake was nearby.

"Finally something is going my way." He yelled happily.

He heard the whining of a charged shot. "(Sighs) never mind." He dropped to another branch and the ball of energy flew past him.

"Too close." He flipped from the branch to the forest floor. "Gotta keep moving!"

He kept running and he looked back at the remaining 2 drones. He eyes widened as the last 2 were carrying big, fat, fire-n-forget missiles.

"COULD THIS GET ANY WORSE!?" He yelled. He was about 10 feet from the lake and the drones fired.

"Only got one shot at this," He whispered.

He drew his pistol and stopped for 5 seconds and fired the hollow tipped rounds at the missiles and safed his gun and continued to run. The rounds connected and they exploded and blew Axel into the lake. He stayed below the surface as the drones continued to search for him and they left. He waited 30 more seconds and he blasted out of the surface.

"If I'm doing this good, I wonder how the others are."

Time: 2010 hrs

Amy and Gina stood back to back firing their plasma rifles at the incoming drones. They fired at 2 more and started running away.

"I really wish one of the guys was here right now." Amy said.

"I know what you mean," Gina replied. "Come we need to find somewhere to sleep or we freeze to death."

They kept running until they found a small drop off that led into a hole in the ground.

"Drop a flare." Gina said. Amy popped a flare dropped in the hole. It fell for at least 3 minutes.

"I'd say it's about 6 feet down," Amy stated.

She hopped inside and lit another flare and checked around inside

"And it's spacious too. We're in luck. We just make a ladder to get in and out, and put some over the hole to keep ourselves protected from the cold and enemies."

"That's great. Now we just need food."

"We live off the land Gina...we live off the land."

Time: 2021 hrs

AJ Leos was one lucky SOB to find a cave stockpiled with food, weapons, and ammo. Too lucky maybe? He didn't care though he did keep his guard up incase his temporary crib went up in smoke. Sure he'd spent 3 hours running from the drones but it was all worth it.

But he couldn't help but feel guilty; here he was sitting in the lap of luxury and his were out there evading enemy fire.

"I'm going to find them. I have to find them. I will find them." He loaded up his Rapid Assault Shotgun and grabbed a few HE grenades. "Let's go."

Time: 2034 hrs

Marcus and Skye stood back to defending their new base of operations from drones.

"How of the damned things are here?" Skye yelled in fury.

"I don't know Skye." Marcus replied grabbing a drone and hurling it at another group of drones. "I do know we need to keep this position if we're going to survive."

"That's true bro." She said tearing the CPU out of the drone and threw the carcass at more drones. Just then for no apparent reason more and more drones started to explode.

"What's going on?" Skye asked.

"I don't know." Marcus replied.

A figure fell in front of them and the pair immediately started their attack on it.

It expertly dodged Marcus and pushed him away. However Marcus came back and Skye charged the being. The being caught Skye and tossed her in the air, and turned towards Marcus and tripped him. By the time he was done with Marcus, he turned and caught Skye in his open arms.

"Who are you?" Skye asked gazing into his vibrant violet eyes.

"You don't remember?" He said setting her down.

He pulled down the mask that was covering his muzzle and the other half of Axel's face appeared.

"Axel!" Skye shrieked happily. She gave a big hug to canine/lynx hybrid.

"Axel? Where've you been dude? And why are you wet?" Marcus asked.

"Hey you try dodging 2 FNF (Fire-n-forget) missiles and not get blown into the lake. Luckily that lake helped me. The drones are using thermals to track us. So by jumping the lake I ditched my hunters."

Skye felt the lynx shiver a little.

"You cold," She asked sweetly. Axel simply nodded.

"Come on dude, we found somewhere to ride the night out." Marcus replied happily.

They led the lynx inside their camp and he and Skye sat down. Marcus was busy securing the entrance and he turned on the lights. Axel shielded his eyes from the brilliance of the lights and he finally put his hand down and was amazed at the area the siblings had chosen.

"Whoa," He breathed. "Where are we?"

"We don't know," Marcus answered. "I think it was some sort of storage facility for the Marines."

"Cool," Axel replied stripping his upper body clothing. He then proceeded to rubbing his chest in an attempt to warm up.

"Axel what are you doing?' Marcus asked.

"I'm keeping myself warm."

"Yeah but you're doing it wrong. You should be rubbing your arms." Marcus replied.

"Yeah well that may keep your arms warm, but what about your heart? If that drops what good are your arms?"

"I see. We I'm pretty sure there's some Marine training fatigues leftover from when we raided it."

"There should be body armor too." Skye added.

"Really?" Axel asked intrigued. He got up and walked over to the stack of Marine clothing. He grabbed the clothing and picked up some body armor parts. He walked behind a stack of crates and changed into the under armor. He pulled on the armored leggings, and then he pulled on the groin protector.

Next he donned the chest armor with sleeves. And lastly he put on his neck guard. He then put on his Marine fatigues and they changed. His name was now etched in his left breast pocket.

"I like it." He walked out and in front of his hosts.

"Now that's better." Marcus said.

"You can be my soldier anytime Axel." Skye said smiling.

Axel felt his face warm.

"So what now?" Marcus asked.

"Well provided none of ate our MRE's yet, we can have that. So I suggest we try to find the others. After we should find more food." The siblings nodded. Axel was getting ready to say something when he heard a noise. He pulled out his magnum and whispered:

"Cover Me."

The vulpines nodded and Axel crouch dashed towards some crates and jumped on them. He hopped off the crates and landed on the ground. The brother and sister stayed up top on the crates covering Axel. His ears twitched as he heard whatever walking towards him.

"FIRING!!" Axel yelled. He fired 3 rounds into the door and the door exploded from the sheer force of the rounds. Axel waited and heard the boom of an Assault Shotgun and dove out of the way.

"Identify yourself!" The being didn't answer. "Who is this guy?"

AJ was prepped to leave when he heard a noise coming from behind the crates and he put the shotgun in his back-holster. He moved some crates out of the way and saw a door. He opened it and saw light gleaming from the door. He continued to walk until he heard someone yelling : "FIRING!"

He jumped to the side and the door exploded. "My turn..." He equipped the shottie (Slang for Shotgun) and pulled the trigger. After a moment heard the being say: "Identify yourself." He didn't comply and ran towards the light. It seems his foe had the same Idea and ran into the darkness.

"Now or Never..."

Axel's leg met a furry forearm and the lights turned on in the corridor. Axel's eyes adjusted to the light. "AXEL?!" "AJ?!"

PLOT TWIST!! Hahaha! Okay now I'm about to piss ya'll off. I won't be on the net for at least the next 4 weeks maybe. You might be able to catch me a Elementer's forums if they're not dead because off skool. Again anything ya'll wanna see just ask. SF0324. BTW the asterisks mean like a character change. Hope it don't screw nothin up. As to why i won't be here My pops is coming home( No my parents aren't divorced) ANd i'm visitin my big bro at the Air FOrce Academy in Colorado Springs. SO sorry. Okay l8rz!

SF0324