F.Y.I.-Sorry for not telling you guys, but to get an idea of what the BPFs look like, picture the ODSTs from Halo 3.

Those are the guys in black for those of you that don't know.

Also I'm sorry it took so long to get this one up, renovations are a BITCH!

Starfox Evil

Chapter Ten: Breach!

The next day…

Fox stood on the holo-deck, waiting for the Hellraisers to arrive. That morning, Fox had been giving his strategy some thought and he came to realize that he had been going about this all wrong. So when the marines entered the massive chamber he said, "Gentlemen, I've been thinking. And I've come to realize that my strategies yesterday were the wrong way to go. A large group just attracts too much attention. A small group of say, three or four soldiers should be able to slip by much easier and quieter."

Private Mayson said, "Permission to speak sir?"

Fox rubbed his temple with one hand, "Go ahead Sam. And stop asking for permission, just speak up."

The other vulpine nodded, "Yessir. Won't a smaller group be more easily overrun by a swarm of infected?"

Fox nodded, "This is very true. However, I was awoken this morning by Slippy, who told me that some scans he had been running of the target area show several shafts leading from the surface to the hive below. It has been determined that these are the airshafts for the facility. The air passes through several filters to sift out the virus. We can gain access to the hive through here. And further scans have revealed that the infected humans seem to have little to no knowledge of these points. That is why I want a small team. It would take forever to squeeze all of us down those pipes."

Suddenly Slippy's voice came over the intercom, "The Tranquility is here Fox."

Fox sighed, "Great, they got here ahead of schedule", then he looked at the marines, "As you just heard our friends have arrived. That means we will not be able to run a drill with the new parameters. So we'll just have to play it by ear. Greer, McClain, Buckinson. You three go down with me. The rest of you will be assisting the crew of the Tranquility in rounding up the humans. Try to be civil with them, I would like to see most of them on board when we leave. Suit up and move out."

They all snapped to attention and left the holo-deck. As the last marine left the Silver Queen came floating through the door, "Captain, I have come across another flaw in your plan."

Fox groaned and rubbed his temple, "Diana, can I get a chair please", one materialized and Fox sat down, "What is it now Silver?"

The child drifted closer, "The facility undoubtedly has an AI as powerful and resourceful as I and my sister are. That means that he or she will have access to blast doors, mini-turrets, alarms, air supply, laser grids, and if all else fails, bio-weapons, anything to protect the data in his or her files. I suggest you take one of us down to the surface with your team, in order to bypass the system."

Fox folded his arms as he leaned back in the chair, "I already thought of that Silver. Slippy's already prepping a data-core for Diana. And before you say it, your sister got in through a hole in Diana's firewall, which Slippy has already corrected. Now what I want you to do, is confer with your sister and compile a file on anything she might encounter while in the hive systems. That way she can be prepared for anything they might throw up to stop her."

The AI nodded, "Be warned captain, each of us AI differs from the others. We can only give her general points to look for, just as we can only give you general points to look for in the facility's layout."

Fox stood up and said, "That'll have to do then", he tapped his COM-badge and said, "ROB, patch me thru to Commander Smith."

There was a pause, followed by a quick burst of static and Commander Smith's image appeared, "Captain McCloud?"

Fox said, "Commander. Now that you have arrived we can begin this final run. I am taking three of the Hellraisers down to the surface with me. Now once we are down there you are to take the other marines and start sending shuttles down to the surface. Do not take any hostile action unless absolutely necessary. And if the humans choose to stay you are not to force them, it is their choice."

The lynx answered, "Yes sir. Anything else?"

Fox sighed, "Yeah. Once you have the humans you are to head back towards the wormhole. Take them straight to the Beltino orbital station, where they will be given induction papers and become citizens of the empire."

Again the commander said, "Yes sir."

Fox sighed, "And one more thing. This morning I read through the procedures for biochemical and viral outbreaks. When an outbreak is total, with no cure or treatment available, and the number of infected outnumbers the number of immune", he paused to take a breath, "The SOP is sterilization of the effected area", he sighed, "Am I clear in my meaning Commander Smith?"

The lynx nodded, a grim expression on her face, "Crystal, sir."

Fox nodded, "Good. Be sure your shuttle teams make this clear to the humans."

Commander Smith stiffened her back and said, "Understood sir."

Fox nodded, "Go to it", then he killed the link and rubbed his head. He left the holo-deck and entered the medical bay to say goodbye to Krystal. He leaned over her shoulder as she sat in one of the chairs reading a story off the info-net. He kissed her cheek and said, "Wish me luck."

Krystal rubbed her cheek against his muzzle, "Be careful."

Fox rubbed back, "I promise."

Then he left and went to the armory, where he met up with his selected team, "Everyone grab a SC-20K, ammo, and a silencer. Be sure to grab shotgun attachments, shells, and grenades as well. Once we get into the hive I doubt we'll be able to keep our silence very long", once the soldiers had collected their gear they all headed to the launch bay, rifles clamped to their backs and helmets in hand, where Lemming was waiting in the drop-ship.

"We all set", the pilot asked as he stood in the troop bay door.

Fox was about to respond when from behind him he heard Alice say, "We are now."

He turned with the marines to see her dressed in a spare set of BPFs with her own rifle clasped to the front. She had a headset on, with the HUD monocle locked down over her right eye. She was fidgeting with one of her gloves, pulling it tight and flexing her hand. Fox eyed her over and said, "What are you doing?"

Alice finally fixed the glove properly and flexed her hand one last time, "What does it look like? I'm coming with you."

Fox shook his head, "No you're not."

Alice looked him square in the eyes, "Yes I am."

The marines looked between each other quickly before slowly sliding away from the two of them. Fox narrowed his eyes slightly and crossed his arms over his chest, "Give me one good reason why I should let you come."

Alice stepped right up in front of him, stopping just shy of taking an offensive posture, "Because you don't know what you're doing. I've been in these facilities multiple times, you're going to need a guide. I can give you specific details on what to expect."

Fox shook his head, "The Queens have already given us that information. You'll have to come up with a better reason."

Then the human's position did shift into an aggressive one, "Listen you furry fuck! I want Wesker dead just as much, if not more than you do! Simply because of the fact that he made me what I am! If it hadn't been for him then I wouldn't be…"

When she stopped short Fox said, "Wouldn't be what? Infected? So what? Your DNA bonded with the virus. You're no threat of infection to anyone."

Alice looked at him and said, "You knew?"

Fox nodded, "Diana scanned you when you first arrived", then he read her mind and upon finding nothing left for her to argue with he smirked and said, "Fine. But you stay with the rest of the squad. No going off on your own. Understand?"

Alice nodded, "Fine."

Then they stepped onto the drop-ship.

As they broke through the atmosphere Fox pulled up a map of the city on a view screen on the back bulkhead. He pointed at a building that was shorter than all the surrounding ones, "This is the LZ and target structure. Scans have shown that the infected have still not become overly attracted to it. We have to go down eight flights of stairs and into the basement, where", he tapped a spot on the screen and an approximated view of the basement interior popped up, "We will have to make several close range scans to determine the exact location of the opening", touching and dragging the image away he pointed at the roof of another building four blocks away, "This is the extraction point. We go in, kill Wesker, and get the hell out. And we need to be as fast as possible. It is highly likely that once we get back out of the hive we will be spotted by the infected, so we really have to haul tail to this building", he looked at Alice, "You need to be on your toes Alice. We don't screw around here."

She crossed her arms, with her rifle now clamped to her back, "Neither do I."

Fox nodded, "Good", then he pointed back to the map, "Now that that's out of the way", he tapped on the target building. Suddenly it cut to a transparent view and a shaft appeared, driving several hundred feet down into the ground, before it started to level off, "Now we will have to cut through several grates and filters here, here , and here. After that we should enter the environmental control center. There will be no security while we are in the shaft, but once we cut through that final grate and drop down into the control center we will be in full view of the system and it's AI. It's at this point that I will insert Diana into the system and she will assume control."

Lieutenant Greer said, "What about the humans sir?"

Fox sighed and scratched at the back of his head nervously, "Unfortunately there is no way for them to get out with us. Every human in there is to be treated as hostile", he looked pointedly at McClain, "And there is to be no unnecessary cruelty. Treat them as if they were infected, aim for the head so it'll be quick. At least then we'll keep them from a fate worse than death."

Lemming's voice came over the intercom, "ETA sixty seconds Boss!"

Fox said, "Lock and load marines!"

At the back of the group Lieutenant Commander Greer's COM beeped, signaling an incoming message. He tapped the node and whispered, "Greer here."

Over the COM came the voice of Rear General McNeal, "Hello soldier. You know who this is."

The alligator didn't respond outside of answering the call, "What do you want? Sir."

"I need you to do a favor for me."

The alligator snarled behind his blast shield, "And why would I do anything for you? You hung me and all my men out to dry."

The voice responded with, "Because I'll take that all back. It'll be like it never happened. You'll all get your careers back. I'll even give you choice of posts."

The alligator narrowed his eyes, even though the COM was audio only, "What exactly do you want again?"

"That's more like it, heh heh heh", there was a pause, "I want you to collect some samples for me."

"Samples of what?"

"I want a vial of that virus. And you are to get it by any means necessary."

The gator growled, "Are you out of your mind? That virus killed over six billion people and…"

Fox shouted, "Touchdown in Ten!"

Greer glanced over at his CO and smirked into the COM, "Rot in hell general", then he killed the connection.

Fox glanced around at the marines around him. He walked over to one of the seats and grabbed his new helmet, placing it on his head. He thumbed the activation node and the visor blinked on. In the corners it showed the vitals of each of his teammates minus Alice, as she didn't have a helmet. He pulled his rifle off his back and looked down the sights. The sensors in his suit scanned the weapon and registered it in the memory banks, which allowed a targeting reticule to appear on his visor. He replaced the rifle and pulled out his Blacktail, which also had a silencer, and repeated the process.

They swung down over the square structure and the drop-ship sunk as low as it could, leaving them thirty feet above the roof, "We have arrived folks. Please enjoy your stay."

McClain smirked over the team-COM ,"Yeah fuck you Mike."

Fox stepped out first. Then the three marines jumped down, each landing in a crouch and drawing their rifles. Fox looked back up to the troop bay at Alice and said, "Well? What are you waiting for?"

The woman tapped her earpiece and said, "I can't make the jump. Not without breaking something."

Fox rolled his eyes inside the helmet, "Yes you can. That uniform has inertial compensators in it. You can survive a drop of twice that so long as you're wearing those."

Alice looked at her suit briefly, before she shrugged and stepped off the door. She fell like the others, and just like the others she landed in a crouch, "Wow! After we're done here can I keep these?"

Fox laughed, "Sure. Now come on", he opened a COM to the Tranquility and said, "Commander, start sending down your shuttles."

The five of them moved over to the blue steel staircase door and Fox quietly turned the knob. The door swung open quietly, revealing a straight staircase leading down to another blue door. They moved silently down those stairs where again Fox turned the knob.

The door swung open and they slipped into the corridor. Broken glass and pieces of loose paper littered the floor. There was blood splattered on the walls and scorch marks where something had burned. They didn't stop to look in the rooms, they only glanced in the open doors to ensure that the room were empty before moving on. Inside nearly every room they saw books, abandoned laptops, and desks.

"Must've been a school", one of them said.

When they did find a room that was occupied Fox said, "Hold up. Don't shoot. Save your ammo for the hive. Just close the door, nice and slow."

Buckinson, who had tagged the zombies first, nodded and reached inside to close the door. As his hand settled on the knob there came a shuffling from just to the left of the doorframe. The buck had just enough time to mutter, "Uh oh", before his arm was grabbed in the surprisingly strong grasp of one of the undead.

John dropped his rifle and ripped his hand back, which pulled the zombie out into the hallway, and straight into his fist. The undead man fell flat onto his back, his forehead caved in. However the others in the room had noticed and moaned loudly as they shuffled quickly towards them. Buckinson snatched his rifle up before he slammed the door on them. From down the hallway the sound of more moaning could be heard getting louder. Fox growled and slapped the wall in frustration. The action took a chunk out of the concrete and he barked, "Well great! We keep going. Shut every door you come to. They seem to be reinforced so these guys won't be able to break them down in those small of numbers."

The marines and Alice nodded and set about shutting doors. They moved to the next set of stairs and started down. They ran down the stairs, shutting the access doors to each floor and jamming the locks for extra strength. When they hit ground floor they found that there wasn't basement access there.

"Well crap", McClain said, "What do we do now?"

Fox tried to open a COM to Rob on the Great Fox, but the concrete was blocking it. As he tried to amplify his signal strength Alice shifted over to the door quietly. She cracked it open and saw a few infected ambling around a large lobby, roughly forty feet across. And across the open space stood a door that said, "Basement access/Employees only", in English, along with the corresponding characters in Japanese above it. She looked over her shoulder and whispered, "Captain", jerking her head towards the door she said, "I see the door. There's a couple zombies but nothing we can't handle quietly."

Fox stepped over and looked for himself. He pushed the door open a little further, taking a quick count he said, "I count six", he nodded and muttered, "We don't have any other choice", set his grip on his rifle and said, "Let's go."

He silently pushed the door open. There were actually twenty infected in the room, along with a pair of dogs. Fox froze himself upon spotting the two canids. He motioned for the others to do the same as he and Alice slid slowly around to hide behind the front desk. Fox sighed, "I'd hoped we could get into the hive before having to start shooting", he slowly slid up the wood object. As his rifle came over the top he looked down the sights and said to Alice, "You take the one on the left."

The woman nodded and aimed her own rifle. Fox said, "In three. Two. One."

They squeezed at the same time. Their silenced rifles gave a muted cough, sending the bullets flying into the heads of the undead dogs. As soon as their bodies hit the tiles Fox waved to the marines. The other infected had not noticed the quiet gunfire and continued to wander around the room. Using the cover supplied by desks, chairs, and file cabinets the six of them slipped over to the door. They all crouched by the wall, trying to keep as low a profile as possible. John grabbed the knob and gave it a quick turn. It simply rattled and the deer groaned, "Wonderful. It's locked!"

Fox reached for his knife, but suddenly had an idea, "Cover me", as he traded spots with Buckinson he placed his hand against the wall, just to the side of the knob. He took his glove off and placed his fingertips against the concrete and pushed. His fingers sank in like he was pushing against butter. Suddenly he felt his hand punch thru the other side. He grinned inside his helmet and pulled his hand back out, before replacing it on the wall, this time parallel to the floor and just above his previous mark. He repeated the process until he had made a box around the lock for the door. He gently slid the cube of concrete out of the wall, and the door swung open. He smirked, "Instant access."

He set the piece of fabricated stone down and they moved through the doorway. Inside was a small bar lock up near the top of the door. After they were all inside Fox slid the lock closed and they started searching for the air shaft. It took them almost twenty minutes to find the cleverly disguised grate. They moved the cover aside looked down the dark shaft and they watched Alice's hair sway slightly in the breeze from the intake. Greer took his helmet off and scratched the back of his scaled head, "How far down is it sir?"

Fox rolled his shoulder before pulling his small pack off his back and pulling out his decent cables, along with a small cylinder, "Far enough."

As he secured the steak into the ground Alice gestured to the cylinder and said, "What is that?"

Fox looked up at her and sighed, "That's right. A greenhorn", picking up the device he said, "It's an ascension motor. This is how we're getting back out this hole", he locked it to his decent spike and then connected his cable to a latch on the side of the device. Then he looped the end of the cable around his waist and legs before starting to lower himself into the hole, "Grab hold of me Alice. We don't have time to teach you to do this properly."

He held out his arm and the human grabbed his hand before swinging herself down so she was pressed against his chest. She rested her hands on his shoulders and said, "Don't get any funny ideas."

Fox scoffed as he started to lower them down, "Why does everyone think that just because I'm famous the only thing I'm after is T&A?"

Alice shifted nervously, "Geez. Sorry I touched a nerve."

Fox was silent the rest of the way down until they hit the first filter. As they settled their boots on the surface Fox activated his helmet light, illuminating the confined space. He saw that they were standing on a cross section of metal about four inches above a fine mesh filter, "Alright. The Silver Queen said that this system has a very poor compensation rate. If one filter fails then the rest in that line do as well. That means that once we cut through this then the rest of this circuit should fail shortly after that", he reached down and touched his gloved hand to the surface and gave an ever so gentle push. He felt that it was simply a mesh fabric. He smirked and pulled out his knife, driving it into the fabric and cutting it easily. When he had a fabric square cut large enough for the two of them to fit through they settle back into the rope. As his hands were occupied holding their combined weights Fox said, "Alice, COM the guys and tell them to start coming down."

The woman nodded and pressed her earpiece, "The Captain says start heading down."

When she cut the connection Fox said, "Just call me Fox. I'm not much one for formality."

The woman nodded and they continued their descent. They came to stop at something they hadn't counted on, a large, fast moving fan. Again Fox and Alice set their boots on the cover grate and the vulpine said, "Wonderful", he opened a COM and said, "Hold tight guys. Got a minor hitch here."

Alice looked at Fox's visor and said, "How're we going to get past this?"

Fox's tail twitched behind him as he thought. Then he once again looked at his hand. He pulled his glove off, detached a few armor plates, and rolled up his sleeve. As he looked over his light orange fur he said, "Well, here goes nothing."

He then proceeded to shove his hand down through the grate and into the spinning blades. His hand punched through the metal grate easily, though the jagged chunks of metal did tear long bloody lines up his forearm. And his hand entered the fan with a series of metallic clangs, followed by a strained grinding sound as the blade hit his wrist, bent slightly around the metal encased bone, and jammed. The motor in the center of the machine sparked and smoked for a second before something snapped inside and it went slack. Fox gasped in pain and pulled his hand back through. Blood ran like a river down his arm for several seconds, before it just stopped. The two watched as his skin sealed up around the gleaming silver underneath, and fresh, glossy fur sprouted up to cover the bald spots.

This process was repeated twice more before the only thing that separated them from the control center was a final grate. Through the bars Fox could see several humans sitting at computers. But there were also four armed guards walking about the room. Fox looked at Alice and said, "You'll have to take them out. I've got to get Diana into the system."

Alice nodded and readied her rifle. Fox saw a few bolts on the top of the grate and unscrewed them. He stuck his fingers through the grate and held on. He looked at Alice and the woman shouldered her rifle. She nodded her head, "Ready."

Fox let the grate fall. As soon as it had cleared the opening Fox was sliding from the hole and Alice was shooting. She fired single shots, and each shot was dead on target. As Fox ran over to the nearest console, Alice was taking down the final guard. Fox reached the table and grabbed the scientist by his head, twisting it to the side. Several snaps later the man was dead on the floor and Fox was plugging in the finger sized data core that held Diana into a USB port.

As Alice and the marines filed out of the hole one of the security cameras panned across the room. In his private quarters Albert Wesker was administering his viral dosage when the system's AI appeared next to him suddenly. The man didn't even flinch at the sudden appearance, only sighed, "What is it Blue?"

"Chairman Wesker", the child said, "We have a security breach!"

Wesker stood up and cracked his neck, "Someone else trying to get to the surface?"

The child shook his head, "No. Someone has gotten in."

Wesker blinked, "Show me", an image of the environmental control room fazed into view in front of him. It showed the marines executing the remaining scientists, "What the", he looked each of the marines over, "What are they", he pointed at the screen, "Is that a tail?!"

The child nodded, "I managed to get a flash scan of DNA from that one. If the others are like him, they aren't human."

"Not human", he thought, "Like me."

Then he saw one of them turn around, "Alice", he smirked, "I guess we'll get a chance to complete Isaac's little experiment after all."

He smiled and looked at the child, "Kill them all."

The child nodded and said, his voice echoing over the intercom, "Security breach! Intruders in Environmental Control!"

Fox was busy helping connect Diana to the main system when suddenly there was a short crack of static and then, "Security breach! Intruders in Environmental Control!"

Buckinson shouted, "Shit!"

Fox jerked his head towards the door shouting, "Cover that doorway", the marines and Alice all turned desks, file cabinets, and computer towers over and took cover. They all aimed their rifles at the lone door. Suddenly the lights turned out. Fox clicked on his night vision, just as the others did. Fox was glad to see they hadn't thought to kill the system uplink. Finally Fox got the confirmation blip on his HUD that told him Diana was in the system and he plucked the core from the computer. Just as he turned around the door parted. And in walked several Umbrella guards. Unfortunately for them they must have been counting on the sudden flash of light from the hallway to blind them.

Instead the first few black clad humans were cut down by silenced rifles. Of course their friends were smarter about it. One guard fired blindly to make the marines duck down behind cover, while several others ran quickly in to take cover. Then Fox said, "We don't have time for this!"

He promptly plucked a grenade from his vest, depressed the trigger, and threw it. It struck a guard coming through the door in the facemask of his helmet. It hit with such force that the shatterproof visor, well, shattered. The grenade had punched a hole thru the visor and now rested in the unconscious man's helmet. His comrades were apparently unaware of what had struck him because they drug him back around the corner out of the line of fire. This was quickly followed by an explosion and the resulting chunks of flying flesh, bone, and metal. The explosion rattled the walls and killed the power to the corridor. The resulting lack of light blinded the remaining guards, and they were quickly shot down. The marines moved over to the door and Greer stuck his head out the door, "Clear!"

Fox opened up his link to Diana, "Where's Wesker?"

The AI said, "Hang on a second. The AI is putting up a pretty good fight. Damn it! He already fried several of the defense systems", there was a pause of thirty seconds, which to an AI feels like several lifetimes. Finally the bearess's voice came back, "Alright. He's not a problem now. Wesker is here. I've got him tagged, just in case he moves. It looks like an auditorium."

Fox said, "Alright. Give us the shortest route to his location."

Diana just smirked and said, "Just follow the yellow brick road."

On the soldiers' HUDs a bright yellow line showed up and they moved along it down the darkened hallway…

End Chapter ten

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