The new team had barely just gotten back to their ship, battered and bruised all over. The attack from Star Wolf was not entirely unexpected; as Falco had told all the other members of the team that there were likely to be many space pirates desperate for anything they could get their hands on.
For Greg, though, it was different. His former classmate and, for a while, a friend, had joined the "bad guys" and teamed up with Star Wolf to try and take down the Republican Army. It was a betrayal that he couldn't completely comprehend in his mind, but somehow Greg knew that there were many unspeakable horrors Marcus could have done since he last saw him back at the Academy in Corneria.
Greg wasn't sure how to best bring it up. Clara, as Greg recently found out, wouldn't probably take it very well, being that Marcus was her twin brother and everything. Falco, having been told to try to get Marcus on the team, would probably flip at the news, and then would try to hunt him down, not to recruit him, but to either kill him or turn him other to the authorities. But something had to happen to Marcus, one way or another. Things couldn't continue on the way they were at this point.
The rest of the team were exhausted from the fight with Star Wolf. Jonathan said that his matchup was the toughest opponent he'd ever faced, even after working with the Republican Army. Falco said Wolf was just as tough as he was many years ago. Clara suffered the worst of all; having no combat experience, she was overwhelmed by the pilot she was faced with before Falco went in and helped her out. Her ship was damaged pretty badly in the fight.
Greg could see Clara and Jonathan talking to one another, trying to make sense of what happened during the fight. He decided it was best to leave the two alone for the time being, and break the news about Marcus a bit later when things weren't so traumatic.
Inside the room, Clara was in shock, not just from the fight, but also from the near-death experience she had outside. She thought endlessly on the fact that any exposure to her cockpit would let in the emptiness of space into the ship, taking away her oxygen and killing her in an instant. She saw documentaries on the effects of being exposed in space enough times that it stayed permanently inside her mind, which affected her during the battle enough that she blanked out and didn't know what to do. She sat in there, cuddled up with Jonathan, not really saying anything at all, but simply staring into the walls, stunned and scarred by the events. Jonathan could do nothing but remain by her side, never quite feeling the need to let her go.
In his mind, Jonathan felt he had the urge to say something along the likes of "everything will be all right" or "things will eventually get better," but somehow he felt saying that to Clara would be lying. Every time he was told that by anyone, no matter how much they loved him, they usually meant to say the exact opposite. If they told anyone things would be alright, it usually meant "things are going to get worse" or "something very terrible is going to happen soon." There weren't any exceptions.
"What can I say to her?" thought Jonathan, tormented by his own questions. "I can't tell her the truth, that Star Wolf is on their way to take over the Lylat System again. But I can't give her empty words of comfort, either…"
So Jonathan was left staring at the same wall Clara was, not knowing what to do or say, and not wanting to tempt fate, one way or another.
A small tear came dribbling down from Clara's eye. Jonathan noticed this and looked down in shame, when he also noticed Clara was shivering in fear, shaking and quivering from her bones. Jonathan leaned over to Clara's ear and shushed her to try to get her nerves down, and to try to stop her from crying any further.
As much as Jonathan wanted to think that the world would simply resolve itself from this phase and return back to normal, deep down inside Jonathan knew that things wouldn't ever be the same again. Soon enough, he too started to have tears coming down from his eyes as well.
He figured the best thing to do was to rest his eyes for even a few minutes, take his mind of the impending doom of the Lylat System, and worry about fixing up the ships tomorrow. Tomorrow would be another day, after all.
Jonathan then felt the mother ship they were on shake around a bit, almost as if it was being caught and towed by another ship. Jonathan looked around, even though the room they were in was windowless and couldn't look outside, but found no immediate cause for alarm. "Probably the autopilot correcting itself," dismissed Jonathan.
Jonathan's mind started to drift again, going further and further into sleep, where his troubles would be away from him for a moment. Then he heard the noises again, only this time the ship shook around more violently, as if now the ship was being wrestled down to the ground. A warning message blurted across the ship, saying, "INTRUDER ALERT, INTRUDER ALERT."
"What's going on?" cried Clara is disbelief.
"I don't know!" yelled Jonathan, searching his pockets. "Where's my blaster?"
Without saying a word, Clara went over to the dresser in the room to go get it, and in her panic, stumbled over the ground as she hurriedly went over. Jonathan then went over to Clara and Clara carefully handed over the blaster over to Jonathan.
"Come with me and back me up," Jonathan said to Clara.
Jonathan went over to the door, and typed in some settings near the side of the entrance so that he was able to open the door partially, so that he could look outside without exposing the whole room. Jonathan couldn't see anything on either side of the hallway, however.
"Let me see what's going on over on the bridge first," Jonathan said to Clara.
Greg wasn't very far from where the mother ship was being blasted in. He immediately went over to the door and went into the hallway, where he was able to access the security protocols. He noticed that the intruders were entering near the back of the ship, around the storage compartment. The intruders were able to bypass the sealant that kept the door from being opened in case of a drop in atmospheric pressure, and were able to make their way inside.
Greg went over to the entrance of the storage compartment, with his blaster in his hand. When he got to the entrance, he couldn't see anyone within sight. Then one of the intruders came down from the ceiling and wrestled with Greg, sending him flying into the walls and punching him until he went down into the ground.
Greg was barely able to get himself back on his knees when the intruder put a blaster in front of his face, and Greg realized that he didn't know where his own blaster was. It probably got lost during the skirmish.
Greg, wanting a simple explanation, said, "what are you doing –"
"Shut up," said the intruder with the blaster, with his voice clearly distorted under his spacesuit. "Get me to the fuel room."
Greg didn't respond, not wanting to trust the mysterious intruder.
"Now," the intruder insisted.
Greg was about to walk back and lead the intruder to the fuel room, but was stopped by another man in a spacesuit, one much like the first one. They looked about the same, except the first one had red stripes on his helmet and the second had yellow stripes on him. Not that it mattered much, but the red striped intruder was much more aggressive than the yellow striped intruder, as the red striped intruder shoved his blaster down his spine as Greg led them to the fuel room.
Once they were there, the yellow striped intruder got into the computer mainframe and bugged the security systems so that the fuel room door would open up. The red striped intruder then turned Greg around so that they saw each other face to face, and the intruder help up his blaster to his face again.
"Tell me where the bridge is," demanded the red striped intruder.
"Just down the hallway to the right," answered Greg. "Now, what are you –"
Before Greg could finish his question, the red striped intruder took the end of the blaster and whipped it right at Greg's forehead, knocking him unconscious and sending him down to the ground. The yellow striped intruder looked at the other, stunned and not knowing what to say.
"What are you waiting for?" the red striped intruder demanded. "Get rid of the fuel system!"
The yellow striped intruder then went back inside the fuel room, taking a look at the number of computers and sensors inside that made the ship move.
"You got your own blaster?" the red striped intruder asked.
"Yeah, I can take care of myself if I need to," the yellow striped intruder replied. "I'll need a few minutes, but I can disable the fuel system no problem."
"Doubt there's going to be a lot of people who will try to be smart," suggested the red striped intruder. "Meet me on the bridge when you're done, it doesn't appear to be very far from here."
With that, the intruder left the fuel room and immediately made his way onto the bridge, setting a short-distance mine on the door leading up to it. Afterwards, he ran back a few feet before letting it explode, using just enough power to send the door flying off its hinges and allowing an entrance to open. The intruder went inside and found Falco staring right at the front of the bridge controls, looking out into the vastness of space.
"Arms up, show your hands where I can see them," the red striped intruder said under his distorted voice.
Falco duly put up his hands and waited for further instructions, looking as if he had gone through something like this before. "All right, wise guy," he mocked, "what do you want?"
The intruder turned Falco around where he could see him, and pointed the blaster directly at him. "Give us full security clearance and step away from the console. Don't make me do something you'll end up regretting."
Falco stepped away from the controls very carefully so that he could hit one of the alarms located near his feet to alert anyone inside the ship, letting anyone with access know where the intruders were located. He walked away from the console without saying another word.
The intruder walked to the front of the console as Falco looked at him, not certain what to make of him. The intruder looked at the controls briefly before looking straight back at Falco. "Do you want to say anything?" the intruder threatened.
"No," replied Falco.
"Good," said the intruder, as he whipped his blaster around his face, sending him flying over the platform they were on and sending him crashing down into the lower level, where Falco was left grimacing in pain.
The intruder returned to the console, typing away to access the nearest patrol cruiser and sending out the co-ordinates for where the mother ship was located.
"I'll get the evidence planted shortly," said the intruder quietly, reiterating the plan to himself. "The authorities should take around than 20 minutes to arrive, which should give us plenty of time to get out of here."
Jonathan, meanwhile, was already on his way over with Clara to the bridge when he heard the buzzer coming from his communicator from Falco. "The internal alarm's activated on the bridge," said Jonathan, looking at his communicator. "Falco must have been disarmed by the intruders."
Jonathan got to the bridge in the lower levels, noticing Falco lying down and bleeding from his face, but he didn't have time to take care of anyone. He found the intruder typing away on the console above him, but couldn't get a clear shot, especially from an awkward angle. He carefully made his way up, being especially sure of not making any noise at all up the stairs leading up to the upper level.
Clara stayed back on the lower level, noticing Falco as Jonathan crept up the stairs, but before she could go to see Falco, Falco waved Clara back, not wanting to speak or say anything to her and distract the intruder. Clara complied and stood back, going up the side entrance to try to sneak up on the intruder.
As Jonathan got to the top of the stairs, he slowed down considerably and readied his blaster, going through the steps of taking aim and making a shot. He was certain the intruder didn't notice him at all as he was making his way up, so all that he needed to do was to get out and make the shot. The blaster was set so that the person would be stunned significantly so that it wouldn't immediately kill them, leaving them alive enough to be turned over to the authorities.
Jonathan gripped the blaster right before he got to the top steps. The stairs were aligned so that anyone going up would come out of the sides, and the only way to get a clear view of anyone in front was to go into the middle of the path. But Jonathan felt he didn't need very long. All he needed to do was to go out quietly, take aim at the intruder and hit him anywhere – it didn't matter where – and the immediate threat would be over. Jonathan crept out, crouched down and being very still. Just about ready to fire, Jonathan took one more quiet step in the middle of the path, but the intruder turned around and shot right at Jonathan's shoulder, sending him lying on his back on the ground in pain, and his blaster out of his hands.
The intruder hurriedly went towards Jonathan, holding his own blaster in his hand. Even though Jonathan's shoulder was in tremendous amount of pain, Jonathan went to reach for his blaster, which was lying in front of him, but the intruder was able to kick it out of the way and have it thunk down into the lower level below. Jonathan, now running out of options, started crawling backwards staring point-blank right at the intruder's blaster, but the intruder took three direct shots right at him, one at his forehead and the other two into his chest. Blood spattered right across the pathway where Jonathan lied. He was dead.
Clara knew immediately what had happened. There was so much blood it dripped right down the stairs and even leaked through the platform and down the lower level. As the intruder walked his way back to the console, Clara was leaning on her knees and sobbing profusely, muffling her cries on her knees.
Soon the intruder had returned to the console, and begun typing away at it again. Clara, in her rage and anger, found a way to quietly climb up to the upper level by going on top of some boxes laying around in the area and grabbing onto the edge, all doing so against Falco's wishes. She slowly got herself up in such a way that she was able to sneak up on the intruder. The intruder noticed Clara straight away, but also noticed that she didn't have her blaster, and was just one keystroke away from sending all the information necessary to pin the whole operation all on Falco's team. Once he was finished, the intruder turned around and Clara attacked him, as the intruder wrestled and punched her, sending her backwards and on the floor, giving the intruder enough time to grab out his blaster and point it towards Clara.
"Put your hands up," said the red intruder, "if you want to live."
Clara didn't immediately respond, instead she simply stared right at the red intruder, trying to glare through his mask and his shadowed voice, as the yellow striped intruder came out from the entrance.
"Fuel system is out! These guys won't be going anywhere any time soon," the yellow striped intruder declared. "Got the communications going?"
"Yes. Just had to deal with a couple of wise guys," the red intruder sneered, pointing his head at Jonathan lying motionless on the pathway.
The yellow striped intruder took a quick look at Jonathan, and even through his mask, everyone could see his disgust at the sight. "Christ, Marcus, was that really necessary?"
Clara took immediate notice of this, and slowly got back up from the floor, with her fist squeezed tight in fury. Her face started to compress more and more as her blood boiled to a crisp. Amidst all the rage, the only words she could muster out to the red striped intruder was "…you monster."
"Don't make me shoot you," the red striped intruder threatened. "You're worth more alive than dead."
"And why is that?" Clara snarled.
"Because you're going to have to be the one who will explain to the authorities why Falco betrayed the Republican Army," answered the intruder. "Now put your hands up where I can see them."
Clara reluctantly put her hands up as requested, but was still seething in anger. The two weren't very far apart, and as the red striped intruder stepped closer to disarm Clara of anything inside her pockets, Clara whacked the blaster out of the intruder's hand and punched him right in the face. The yellow striped intruder ran after the two as Clara took out her knife in her pocket, but the yellow striped intruder was able to push Clara back in time. Clara still struggled with the yellow striped intruder, stabbing her knife into his arm, causing him to cry out in horror as he stumbled into the ground. But the red striped intruder returned and grabbed Clara's hand that held the knife, then swung his other hand down on Clara's arm with enough force to fracture it, making her drop her knife in the process. The red striped intruder then punched Clara not far below where her eye was on the left side of her face, dropping her to the floor and causing a good amount of blood to come out of her face. This time, Clara was struggling to find her feet, writhing in pain and breathing very heavily.
"We got to go," the red striped intruder said to the other intruder. "Come on, get up!" The yellow striped intruder was able to get himself up on his own power, but had to be dragged across to the front of the bridge to help him go faster. Once they were out, they both ran towards where they came from in the storage compartment.
"You think you can make it with that tear in the spacesuit?" the red striped intruder asked to the other.
"My head will be fine, not sure about the other parts, though!" the yellow striped intruder explained. "It may be left exposed in space."
The red intruder took one of the fire hoses nearby and tore out enough of the hose so that he could wrap it around the yellow intruder's arm tightly, covering the wound and the opening in the spacesuit in the process. "It'll do for a few seconds," the red intruder conceded. He then radioed for the recovery vehicle, and Michelle was able to zoom by within seconds, and the two intruders were able to quickly jump in and seal themselves inside the additional seating at the back of the Wolfen, and they were able to blast off back to the main ship.
Once the yellow intruder ensured that the cockpit was all sealed up, he took off the hose on his arm and got some bandage from the first aid kit located inside the ship, and wrapped the bandage around the arm. Once the wound was resealed properly, he tore off his helmet and sat back on his seat, exhausted from the operation. He looked over to Marcus, who still hadn't taken off his red helmet, and thought about the person who attacked back at him. Robert wondered why she attacked so viciously at him, and wondered why Marcus didn't simply shoot her, like he did with the other guy he found lying dead on the pathway. It didn't make much sense to Robert, but he didn't want to get into any more arguments with Marcus now. He felt it was best to leave him alone for the time being.
"Are the authorities on their way soon?" Marcus asked Michelle.
"I saw some guys on radar just as you guys were exiting the mother ship," explained Michelle. "I'm not sure if they're from the Republic or not, but we'd better hurry and get out of here before we find out."
"Dad," Robert said on the intercom, "get out of the area in hyperdrive, we'll meet you guys at the nearest outpost."
The coordinates of the outpost lit up on Michelle's dashboard. "It's not far from here on hyperdrive. We'll be there when you are," Wolf said, as the main ship blasted off into the distance, while Michelle's Wolfen followed.
Back at the mother ship of Falco's team, at the lower level of the bridge, Falco figured that the intruders had finally made their way out and taken what they needed. It was made clear to him that Star Wolf had thought up of more things to terrorize people with than in years past. Falco struggled to get up from the floor as his back ached and twinged all around him, throbbing in agony. He noticed Jonathan lying up on the pathway, still motionless and still bleeding, with the blood making a noticeable puddle on the floor below the pathway. He looked to where the console was and saw Clara, turned away from Jonathan and leaning on the console itself, sitting still and had a blank look in her eye.
Falco had mustered enough strength to get up to the upper level of the bridge and limped towards Clara and the console. He looked at Clara, and she didn't take any notice of him walking towards her.
"Clara," Falco began to speak. Clara didn't move or reply, still staring blankly in the distance.
"Clara," Falco said, sitting down near her. "Whatever happens, -"
"It's him," Clara scowled.
"Who?" Falco asked.
"Marcus," Clara sulked. "It was him all along."
Before they could discuss this, the entrance to the bridge was broken into and a bunch of troops came in, searching around the place with rifles and full body armour. Out of the swarm of soldiers came Captain Meyer, who noticed Falco and Clara near the console and gave an evil smirk.
"Captain?" Falco said in shock. "What is this?"
"Doing what I should have done the first time I met you," Captain Meyer explained. "Bringing you to justice."