Well I all, Here's Chapter 10 and I hope you enjoy
But first thanks to the following people for following/making he story a favourite or both
Users: Blitzfoot, CP020, Kaymin Wolf, November Red Angel, RedstoneLP2, SilverWingedPhoenix, TheQuestionMark101, cosmicsafe74, thefox123, the warrior405, trebor1212, xwingace1234
Thanks to all these people, Also bryan mccloud and cosmicsafe74 will have their OCs In this story, bryans in around 2 chapters and cosmic's in around 5 because of the plot I have.
No onto the story...
Chapter 10 Alerting the Good and bad
Mercury walked out the Medical room in full armour, his last 30 minutes in there had been quite... intimate, but the actions he had done filled his mind and heart with so many emotions, naturally as he was a guy, there was the Lust and Desire to do it again, but there was also Shame and Guilt as he thought of Aura back in the Fleet.
He walked slowly back into the atrium just in time to see Fox jump of the treadmill and roll across the ground. Mercury chuckled a little as he watched Fox struggle to get up. He walked over and joined the pack who greeted him, Fox finally managed to get up and he walked over, Mercury noticed that everyone in the pack were sweating like crazy, Fox must of been the last to go.
"So Mercury, you were gone quite a while" Falco said mischievously, the others looked at the large round clock above the door of the atrium and realised Faloc was right
"Yeah, where'd you go?" Miyu asked
"Medical wing" Mercury said quickly and nervously
"Okay.. but what took you so long?" Fara asked tilting her head a little
"I had ALOT of Tread burns" Mercury said
"okay... truthfully" Fox said grinning
"That is the truth" Mercury said defensively, Meanwhile Krystal had read his mind and searched his memories and knew what he had done, she had to stop herself from gasping in shock
"No, its not, and we all know it" Bill teased everyone nodded in agreement
"I ain't telling" Mercury said
"So something did happen?" Fay said chuckling
"Does it involve a certain white Cat?" Katt asked, Mercury didn't answer which only added to the questions
"Oh.. it does, Tell us hat happened please" Slippy begged
"N-NO" Mercury said loudly, the others laughed until Krystal said
"Come on guys, if he wants to keep his life private so be it"
Fox then sighed and said "Well... okay, lets drop it... for now" Fox said, knowing he could bug Mercury all day and night once they got home.
"Thank you Krystal" Mercury said, but inside his helmet his HUD was going CRAZY about warnings of Mind Wave Activity.
"No problem, But now you owe me" Krystal joked
Dr Mya then walked into the Atrium, she looked like she did before, dressed smartly, but her fur on her uncovered legs seemed a little messy, the others spotted this once Falco pointed it out.
"Getting Frisky with the natives on week 1 are we Mercy" Falco teased making the others giggle, Mercury was blushing a deep crimson under his helmet.
"N-No" Mercury said nervously and embarrassed making the others burst out laughing, Great they probably guessed what happened now Mercury thought
The lesson ended soon after and Mercury Followed Fox and the others to 'The Range' which is basically what they called the Weapons class. According to Fox the Instructor was a former Drill instructor or soldiers who fought in the war with another Planet called Venom, Mercury walked in the room expecting a harsh looking Tiger or Bear... but was met by a short Pug guy who came up to his waist.
He was dressed in green camo combat cargo pants with a black T-shirt tucked in and a green beret on his head.
"LINE UP KIDDIES LETS GO GO GO" he shouted harshly, his voice was the loudest thing Mercury had ever heard... not literally, but it was one of the top things.
Mercury fell in line with the others, two rows of 5, The pack of friends had all been coincidentally put into one group. Mercury was stood on the end of the front row with Fox, Fara, Miyu and Katt inline with him and Falco, Slippy, Fay and Krystal behind.
"OKAY KIDDIES, LISTEN UP. I am Instructor Briggs, your first and last words of a sentence will be SIR got it, you will do exactly as I say when I say GOT IT"
The group responded with 'Sir Yes Sir'
"GOOD, Now I understand that our Metal friend here is unfamiliar with our weapons... IS that correct" Briggs asked
"Sir yes Sir" Mercury said
"I also see you got your own weapons with you... I want a demo, stand over there in row 3 of 5 and wait for the targets, and yes live ammo is permitted" Briggs said harshly, Mercury obeyed and stepped up between some wooden dividers that separated each of the 5 stalls, he pulled out two of his guns and held them facing the barrels up, ready to shoot the 'targets' whatever they maybe.
The others watched as Briggs pulled a lever and suddenly Holographic, round, red targets began floating round the 30metre range, Mercury unloaded both clips, each shot sounding like a small explosion, into the targets, around 50 of them Gotta love extended clips Mercury thought, more targets appeared as he had to reload, instead of reloading though, he dropped his guns and pulled the other two from his thigh holsters and unloaded those clips, but when he had to reload and switching wasn't an option, his hands moved like lightning, he pressed the clip release buttons with his thumbs, letting the clips drop, he then slammed the pistols to the small pockets attacked to his thighs which held spare pistol clips, he pulled the guns back up and opened fire again.
This time when he was done, the session ended, Mercury slowly reloaded his two guns and put them into his thigh holsters then picked his other two from the ground and did the same to those. He turned round and sa the others covering their ears as they looked at a holographic screen which said
Targets 200
Accuracy 99.5%
Misses 1
Hits 199
KIAs 199
Mercury was pleased with his score, even Briggs was shocked,
"well.. that was unexpected" Briggs finally said "But why do your guns sound like someone detonated a bomb each shot?"
"Oh uh... sorry for not telling you that, anyway they use a powder called Meteor powder which detonates behind the Energy beam Bullets and propels them forward, then the bullet heads up the barrel which has Electrical 'spinners' which rotates the inside of the barrel as the bullet goes through, giving it extra power and thrust, we used to have a thing called gunpowder, but we ran out of the stuff to make it, so we scoop up Asteroids and Meteors and melt the ice to water, then use the natural chemicals in the rocks center to make the powder these use" Mercury explained
"I see, now is he here? okay he is, Fox your the best shot.." This made Falco a bit annoyed ".. show him our weapons"
Fox approached the same stall Mercury used, but on the way he picked up two standard laser pistols and some energy cells, he repeated the same test as Mercury but his lasers made a kid of 'peow' and 'poosh' sound, when he finished the board showed...
Targets 200
Accuracy 99%
Misses 2
Hits 198
KIAs 198
Fox was a little bit annoyed that Mercury had 'beaten' him by 0.5% but he shrugged it off. The others looked on as they all took turns operating various Cornerian Weapons from the pistols Fox used, to a long sniper rifle thing that Mercury spent most the lesson trying to get to work for him, it just seemed Alien snipers did not like him... AT ALL, he couldn't get a shot out of it.
The lesson ended and Mercury followed Fox for another 3 hours, from another lesson, then to break then to 2 more lessons, each were boring, The first one was Simulation safety lesson, learning how to ENTER a simulator properly, then break which was uneventful and Mercury discovered something, HE LOVED CORNERIAN FOOD, then the lesson after break was another examination, but this time instead of health and fitness it was knowledge, so Mercury found that boring, and was rather confused by Cornerian history, then finally it was Formation studies, learning the several... HUNDRED different formations of Cornerian flight patterns.
By time Mercury, Falco and Fox left that class, Mercury was struggling to stay awake because of the boring nature of the class, the three got onto their pair of bikes, Fox and Falco on one and Mercury on his own. The three set off towards the McCloud residence but as they were lane splitting through the heavy traffic of the Corneria afternoon rush hour, they came to a junction, they parked and waited for the light to turn green, which Mercury found interesting as all the Human colonies used the same system. The Light turned green and the to bikes shot off, Falco's leading, Mercury shot off after them, but suddenly a Big Blue Truck like vehicle came from Mercury's Left, it almost hit him, missing his back wheel by a few centimetres. Mercury looked back and saw the truck crash into a wall, but then the oddest thing happened.
The Truck driver, a Dark muddy swamp green lizard got out and... RAN. What in the Hell? Mercury thought was he Trying to hit me? and why'd he run? Ah, its probably just another Racist... Racist
The two bikes arrived at the McCloud residence, Fox got off Falco's bike and walked through the front door while Mercury took his bike round the building to put back into his ship. He loaded His bike back into his ship, secured it with the heavy duty ropes and then walked out the ship and to the back door of he McCloud house, but he heard voices, not James', Vixy's or Fox's, he couldn't make out what they were saying but they were definitely male.
He opened the door and stepped through and turned towards the voices, there sat round a table to his right was the McCloud family and the Professor Toad, also Slippy's dad apparently sat there with them... along with Dr Mya.
"Oh speak of the Devil" Professor toad croaked happily "well don't just stand there, come on sit, we got to talk" Mercury walked over and sat down at he rectangular table next to Fox and Mya. James was at the head of the table with Vixy sat to his Left, then Fox to his right, then Mercury to the right of Fox and Professor Toad Opposite James and Dr Mya to his left, putting Fox in-between the two, in total the table held 8 people, 3 along the long sides and 1 on each end. Mercury and Mya gave each other a secretive and knowing smile while the others waited for Mercury to fully sit.
Professor Toad then started his ramble, not letting Mercury talk because of his extreme enthusiasm, "Now Mercury, I understand you have some beacons on your ship Correct? now I also understand your long range one is broken, but your short range is okay, I want to use your Long Range beacon to make another which could help lead your people here, this helps both party's, you get back to your people or atleast have a better chance to, and our people of Lylat and Corneria could potentially get Trade partners and Allies in Military and Science... oh I'm sorry I aint even let you talk"
"That's okay, and yeah sure you can have the Beacon, but You'll need a decent sized cargo holder" Mercury said, he had taken off his helmet and it was now on the table, the visor facing him
"Is it big then?" Prof. Toad asked
"Yeah, see the large Dome thingy with the 1 metre long antennae" Mercury said pointing out the window to his ship, and there on top, just above the bridge was the large perfectly round dome with an antennae.
"Ah I see, yes, our MC34s should do the job carrying that, now can I ask some other questions?"
"Shoot" Mercury said, getting confused looks from the others "Its like a slang word for 'go ahead'" Mercury quickly explained noticing their looks
"Well, we have info on your people, 78 billion of them, but we have no info what so ever on your military or scientist and religious beliefs"
"okay the first 2 I understand, but why do you want to know about our religions?" Mercury said raising an eyebrow
"Oh simple really, don't take this the wrong way but we don't really want... species that have.. sort of hateful or dark beliefs"
"Okay, fair enough, well for the military, we have just over 15 million Destroyer Class Cruisers with a Ship Crew force of 500 million, and we have around give or take 500 million fighter and troop transport craft ranging from Bombers and Interceptors to Large Scale Vehicle deployment Droppers and Tiny Single Crew stealth Deployment craft. That's just for the Space part of our Military, we then have around 20 million Barricader Class Cruisers and 5 million Barrack class Cruisers, Barricaders act as Troop Academies, and also as actual Barracks for the troops, then the Barrack class Cruisers, they are basically Armoury ships, they hold everything military, from guns to Air Carriers and Tanks. As for our science, we are pretty advanced, but not as advanced as yours obviously, anyway our Medical and Civil Technology knowledge is our top specialities. Then Finally the Religious beliefs of our people... oh damn where do I begin there are ALOT... When Britain took over in the 21st century there were already a lot, but most of them were allowed to continue, only hate groups and plain daft ones were outlawed, there some tiny iddy biddy hate ones left, but the Military Police on the ships find them and put them in Barricader Brigs and Prisons."
"Okay, thanks you very much, but tell me about the ones that were outlawed please"
"Well I cant actually remember, I didn't pay too much attention Ethics and philosophy historic classes about the religions back there, but I do know for sure the ones that were outlawed were mainly racist, cultist, sexist, homophobic, mainly just hate groups"
"Okay, thank you for that, now I must call the base and have them bring the things I'll need to build the beacon here"
"Wait here?" James asked
"yes of course, Come on James you of all people should know why, Pilot of a very strong military goes missing, they find his beacon they follow it and find an Alien Military base with it, it could end badly for us" Prof. Toad says sarcastically
"Good point" James said shrugging his shoulders
Prof. Toad stands and walks out the room and makes his call, leaving the others alone, then suddenly Fox says
"So Mercury and Mya, you seem to be getting along nicely" This makes both blush, and blush badly, Mercury has no fur to hide it and Mya's fur is white and does little to hide it. The Fox Parents look at each other knowingly... they had been in a similar situation when they were both young.
Vixy decided to change the topic and save the Human and Cat, "So how old are you two, you both look young"
"I'm 17, 18 in like 3 months" Mercury said
"I'm 21" Mya said
James looks shocked as she says this, he then says"Your 21 and the head of the Medical Science department for the military?! How?!"
"I'm... Gifted with science and Medicine, plus my mother and father were both top medical scientist aswell" she says blushing from embarrassment, she didn't really like people acting shocked about her age and position.
"I see" James said
"Well Mercury, why are your people furless may I ask?" Vixy said raising an eyebrow
"I... don't know actually, maybe because of our home planets climate... no that's a lie, we got tons of different climates on Earth, Forest, Hills, mountains, Snow, Deserts, Tundra's, Rainforest... everything basically, so I don't really know"
"Weird" Mya said thinking out loud "Oh sorry I didn't mean to offend you if I did" she said quickly
"Oh no you didn't" Mercury said smiling
"And how could he after how well you two get along" Fox said grinning, James then decided to do something
"Fox, cut it out and don't be rude" he snapped
"Sorry" Fox mumbled
"Now Fox, go check on the Great Fox and get a report from ROB" James said, but it was obviously an order
"Fine" with that Fox got up and walked out the door
once sure Fox was gone, James asked
"So did you do it?" which earned him a hard nudge from Vixy "OW WOMAN"
"James, you could be subtle you know... but anyway, so did you two make love?" Vixy asked kindly
"NO" Both Mercury and Mya said together
"I'll take that as a yes" James said smiling
"You can't lie to us by the way, we were actually in a similar situation in the Academy years ago" Vixy said
The Human and Cat looked at eachother and then both turned to Vixy and James and nodded
"inside or outside" James asked which earned shocked looks from the two but another elbow to the ribs from Vixy "JAMES" she said annoyed
"What HE means is, did you climax in THE way that could get her pregnant if possible" Vixy said 'correcting James'
"Well... um...-" Mercury said rubbing the back of his head but then Mya spoke
"N-no he didn't, I made him pull out last second" she said looking at her lap
"Okay, because I don't think most the public would be 'thrilled" James said, this time he didn't get an elbow nudge from Vixy
"Yes-" they heard footsteps then Prof. Toad appeared "The ship is on the way"
60 minutes later
A Ship about the same size as Mercury's but more triangular shaped landed nearby and a crew of around 5 different animals were unloading various large blue crates of equipment from the large rear ramp door. Mercury then helped the scientist and Crew take his beacon off his ship, it was very tedious and annoying, the beacon finally came off leaving a large circular hole in the top of the ship, luckily the hull was 2 metres thick and the beacon port was 1 metre deep o the hull still remained intact.
They used some James Arwing as a crane of sorts to pick up the Beacon from the top of the ship, then gently place it down on the ground. The crew... who were actually engineer began stripping all the working components. Mercury was about to ask hat hey were doing hen Prof. Toad explained
"We're taking the damaged parts, then we analyse them to find out how they WOULD work if functioning properly, then we'll use the A.I.C.E, known as ACE to build parts of our own tech that would work similar to your parts that we scan."
"ACE?" Mercury asked
"A.I.C.E is an Artificial Intelligence Constructional Engineer" Prof. Toad said again as the Crew/Engineers opened the largest blue crate, it was big enough to just about fit Mercury's Jeep in comfortably. The crates side all fell down, the back piece taking the top with it, to reveal a large cube, pure black with dome white marking on the front and a small tray sticking out. The Professor took one of the parts of the Beacon, a signal encrypter module, a small black dome like thing that encrypted the signal to the fleets mayday signal, basically it was there to confirm it was a Human Distress beacon and not someone trying to replicate the signal and possibly lead humanity into a Professor placed the part on the tray and the cube suddenly made a loud humming noise as a small door opened and the tray retracted into the cube.
Mercury watched a the Cube made multiple noise from high pitched machinery squeals to loud noises that sounded like bass drops in Dubstep Music.
The process lasted around 4 minutes until the small door opened and the tray reappeared with the Small Black dome like module, but there was also another, that looked exactly alike but blue with white vein like lines glowing around it in weird patterns. Prof. Toad picked both up, handed the old one to Mercury and attached the other back onto the antennae where the old one went.
They repeated this 7 more times with other pieces until the beacon was fixed and looked like new. They used James Arwing again as a crane to lift the piece back onto the ship, Mercury climbed the steel ladder up to the top of his 7 metre tall ship, he secured the Beacon with the multiple wires and some bolt that held it in place before. Once done, he slid down the ladder, hands and feet on the sides of the ladder, then walked up his entry ramp and into his ship with Prof. Toad, Fox, Vixy, James who had now landed his Arwing a few metres away and a few of the engineering crew following. He entered his control room and said
"Ship, Beacon status" as he sat in his chair and the pillars of controls rose from the ground and the white box room with windows lit up with blue vein like energy line erupting throughout the room.
"BEACON 2, SHORT RANGE. ACTIVE. BEACON 1, LONG RANGE. AVAILABLE." Came the feminine robotic voice of his ship
"Activate Long Range Beacon" Mercury said
"ORDER CONFIRMED... BEACON ONLINE" The occupants of the room let out a sigh of relief...
Human Fleet, Ship 2,947,832 The Persian Curse, Battleship Class Cruiser,Operating room. Fleet Location 1 month from Mist Asteroid Belt
Private Neil Jones, a new recruit being trained for Cruiser operations sat at his console, he was being tested by the instructors to see if he could pick up phantom signals they would purposely let out using Fighters in the fleet.
One more week to go then I got the job The Tall stocky brown haired boy thought. He then looked at his state of the art console, sleek and grey, covered in hundreds of buttons and switches for the thousands of frequencies the Fleet used. He then looked behind him as he heard heavy footsteps, there approaching him was Captain Alexander of this ship, but he was also joined by Captain Cradle, the beautiful Captain of a Barricader Class Cruiser which he had spent his first few weeks training on before he chose to switch to the Cruiser Training.
"Jones" The harsh voice of Captain Alexander came, he was a Well built man, very top heavy with muscles and a great big bushy moustache.
"Yes Sir" Jones said looking at his superior
"As you can see I've got Captain Cradle with me, I believe you know her already"
"That's correct Sir, Its nice to see you again Ma'am" Neil said politely
"Good to see you too Neil, now your probably wondering why I'm here, well there's a certain pilot who works on my ship, she is part of OP1 and is the top stealth pilot of our fleet, so I'm letting Captain Alex here borrow her for you to train, if you can detect her ship then you instantly get the job here on this ship and won't have to worry about the last week of training"
"Okay Ma'am... but may I ask, OP1, I've heard it before but I can't remember"
"OP1 is the squad Orange Pathfinder 1, the Squad which Mercury McRanger the Scout trained in"
"Oh, well I better get looking for... who?"
"Her name is Emily, now get searching for her ship"
Neil began searching all radars he could, from his own ship to multiple other ships in the fleet which was allowed, he couldn't find a trace of a signal anywhere... but when he came back to his current ships radar, he got a signal...
"Got'cha" Neil said, the 2 captains heard this and looked quite surprised, Neil did what he was trained to do and he brought up an image and specs and stats of the ship he had the signal of, he pressed a few buttons, and a small holograph appeared infront of him... but what he saw shocked him, the screen was quite small and was hidden from the captains' view by Neil's head. He remained silent for a few moments until Captain Alexander asked.
"What's wrong with you boy" he said annoyed, he stepped forward and then saw the screen "Oh my" he said quietly in shock
"Cradle, you better see this" he said not looking away from the screen, Cradle approached and looked at the screen, she gasped in shock.
There on the blue holograph was a slowly rotating image of the HMS Pathfinding Fox, on the left of the image there was a status and location text.
Ship Class: SCOUT
Ship Name: HMS Pathfinding ox
Designated Pilot: Mercury McRanger
Status: Grounded/Heavy Interior Damage/Light outer damage
Location: Planet Unknown/System Unknown/10 lightyears/2 month Travel at current pace
Signal Type: Long Range Distress Beacon
Weapons: 80 Functioning defence Turrets, 19 functioning Plasma turrets
Location Life Form population: Extremely high/Population of Earth year 2023
Signal Encryption: Confirmed Human Signal
A.I Status: Unknown
Food, Fuel and Ammo systems: All Online and fully functioning
"Get the Admiral NOW" Captain Cradle shouted to the Comms operator on the other side of the large bridge.
But the humans weren't the only ones to intercept the signal...
Meanwhile, Lylat System, Planet Venom
A Dark swamp green lizard man was bowed down infront an old white furred ape who was sat on a dark steel throne, a large portly pig stood by his side.
"Sir, I'm telling you, there Is an alien from a very powerful race on Corneria, My informant has told me that his people are searching for him currently but his ship is damaged"
The Ape spoke, his voice harsh with annoyance "and I'm telling you, unless you bring me hard proof then I won't believe you"
"I have personally seen him sir, I almost got him, but his bike was too fast-"
"YOU tried to KILL IT... why did you think to kill an ALIEN without consulting ME FIRST" The ape shouted
"I'm sorry, so sorry Lord Andross.. please forgive me, I thought it'd be the best cause of action for that moment"
"Well your wrong" Andross the Ape said, he then turned to the fat pig on his left and said "I have had enough of this fool... he is no longer needed in my army, you know what to do"
The Pig dressed in a red body suit with silver metal armour vest of sorts and black glasses merely nodded, drew a blaster from his waist belt and aimed at the Lizard.
"NO PLEASE SIRE PLEASE FORGIVE ME" The Lizard pleaded, but his pleas fell on deaf ears as the Ape nodded to he pig and a Loud PEW followed... followed by the thud of the lizards corpse hitting the ground. The Pig holstered his Blaster Just as the large black doors at the end of the large hall opened to reveal a large wolf dressed in black Cornerian combat armour.
"Ah, O'Donnell... how are you doing" Andross said to the middle aged wolf
"Good thanks Lord Andross"
"How is your son... Wolf" Andross asked, as the middle aged wold in armour stepped over the corpse of the lizard as if it was not even there
"Good, he and the other 2 are in their final year of the Academy, then they'll have all the battle formations of the Cornerian military, but he has told me of an Alien attending the Academy"
"Humm... the lizard was also speaking of an 'alien' tell me details"
"Same build and height as our races, but no tail, very minimal fur, all in all, he looks like a furless ape with shorter arms and a smaller torso and no snout or muzzle"
"I see, is that all?"
"No, we intercepted a signal, I personally traced the signal to the McCloud residence, don't worry I wasn't seen, and my source in the Cornerian Military tells me the Alien's ship is currently parked in the McClouds backyard, I believe he may have activated a beacon for the rest of his kind to find him, my source also says the Alien's race is extremely powerful, 78 billion of them, over a 100 million big cruisers or so, and nearly a quarter of them are military ships, there are also apparently even more fighter and landing craft on these ships aswell, basically, they've got the force of Lylat 100 times over"
"This is very good..." Andross said, his evil twisted scientific mind working on a plan
"I beg your pardon?" The wolf said
"Simple Fang, we stage an attack on the ship of this Alien using the Cornerian ships and weapons we have stolen and brought from the black market, we attack the main fleet first, then as they approach the planet, the Cornerian military will try to greet them, but just being attacked by similar ships will make the aliens attack the Cornerian's, if we kill the Alien here, just as his people arrive, we could force Corneria into a losing war, once they are killed, we make an alliance with these aliens and then Corneria will be ours for the taking. we could then sabotage the alien ships, but then make it look like a freedom fighting group for Corneria, then when we see a weak spot in their forces we attack and betray them, there armada under my control and there people forced to work for us... but we need to capture this alien first, we kidnap him for a night, get some more info, then we drug him to make him forget then return him... and he'll be none the wiser of what WILL happen"
"that is a really good plan Lord Andross, but how do you make them so quickly? it is quite remarkable" The Wolf called Fang said
"I'm just good at being bad... now lets prepare" Andross said grinning evilly "Pigma... we might need to get the McClouds out the way first, take them out"
Andross' dream of revenge on Corneria was now finally happening.
DUN DUN DUHHHHH OH NO Andross is here with Venom oh damn
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, don't forget to leave a review and etc, tell me what you think and yeah :D
Also thanks for almost 2000 views in under 3 weeks :)
Mr Foxer Signing off :D