A/N: For anyone that bothered trying to read that clusterfük earlier. I deeply apologize, hopefully I posted this before anyone thought I had simply lost my mind LOL. Enjoy. ^^

The Macbeth Incident

Macbeth City

Hanger14

0902am

The bright morning atmosphere of central Macbeth was something that Skye wasn't accustomed to seeing. Her adopted family had only taken her there once when she was younger and they were only there on business that lasted less than a day. It was nothing like Corneria, almost like taking a short step back in time, sure there were skyscrapers but, they were spaced out and fell short in comparison to the crowning city of the Lylat System. She imagined that, had her birth parents been living she'd have called the planet home, however, as it stood she felt no deeper connection to the place than the strange beauty of the orange glow given off as Sol set over the distant horizon. Their hanger, as she looked out over it was more an open field, a sort of massive parking lot just outside city limits, a fact which suited her just fine seeing as how she planned to stay clear of the inner workings of the city itself. Southhaven being much further south of the city made it simple to avoid anyone learning the group's true motives, and besides their real operation, it seemed like the best course of action.

Not far from where the team had landed their dropship, a small utility vehicle pulled to a sudden stop. It's length and size made it recognizable as a military transport, though the individual behind the strange jeep's wheel was clearly not military. He was possibly just taller than Fox McCloud, yet, his body was wide and thick, laid down with large groups of muscle uncommon to someone his size. The wolf's fur was pitch black, yet did nothing to hide the width of his unnaturally large biceps. Pulling a pair of visor shades away from his deep amber eyes, the wolf nodded in their direction…

"You the crew from the Colletta?" He asked, "Maryk Steel, I was sent by McCloud to take your drop team to Southhaven. Is this the whole crew?"

Skye nodded in response as she approached the jeep, "Pretty much, how far's Haven from here?'

"About 20 miles," The wolf replied, "might wanna pack light."

Standing beside the vehicle, Skye noted the wolf's attire. Cargo pants with camo print, thick leather belt with a large knife strapped at his side, a light grey tank top, and heavy leather boots. He was military but, she couldn't place his origin of operation at all. As the group approached the car, Tilly stopped with a large collection of supplies on her back causing the wolf to pull his shades down the slope of his muzzle as he slowly watched the Hadeian walk toward the back of the vehicle…

Skye could only hear his lighter words, "…gonna be hard concentrating with that one around."

A moment or so later, Skye's team was loaded and aboard, "Well if we're all set I'll explain on our way. Hope you folks like off-roading cuz the high ways to Southhaven have been closed for days."

Upon leaving their landing site Skye became almost instantly aware of how bad the situation had become. Far in the distance smoke rose from the horizon in several large plumes; in the distance in most directions, the roads were cut off by barricades and armed soldiers as well. Military lockdowns were rare, maybe not as rare for Macbeth as Corneria but, still it was not a known everyday sighting. It wasn't hard to see that something was monumentally out of place, but, Skye's concentration was broken as the smooth ride transitioned to a rather messy, very rigid one as the vehicle's wheels altered somewhat into an off-road mode. At this moment Maryk looked across to Skye…

"I'm with Sigma Nine…" He half shouted over the loud engine, "…we were called in just a few short days ago. I'm guessing you were sent because our intel officer went quiet about twenty-four hours ago," He said passing her a photo of a white furred vixen with jagged black sox about her hands and forearms, "Sierra Dark, infiltration and intelligence officer. Our captain is still out looking for her, but, said I should meet up with you guys myself. As you can see most routes into and out of the City are cut off...so we've got free roam so long as we stay away from Macbeth Central."

Skye passed back the photo, "What the hell happened here? All we were told was that this could cause civil war."

Maryk shook his head, "Cover story," He pointed out, "you were given seventy-two hours because that's all the Council was able to buy before the military starts sticking their noses in it. In truth, we scarcely know anything about it ourselves. We found a single ship, looked like a scout ship on a rooftop near the center of Southhaven…we're still not sure what was on that ship but…" He paused handing her another photo this of a grizzled scene where several civilians were splayed open from head to toe, "…first five looked like they were turned inside out. Several internal organs were missing; brain, liver, kidneys, heart, and one of them was completely drained of their blood. She was shriveled up so bad we couldn't even positively I.D her."

Skye shook her head while handing the photos back, "Did you find out who was doing this?"

"S-sort of…" Maryk chuckled nervously, "…not so much a who though, more of a what," He replied passing her one last photo, "we can't identify what it actually is, but, it's aggressive. Doesn't look quite biological either."

As they continued to drive Skye studied the photo; the creature was far away from whomever snapped the image, but, even from a distance it was possible to see that it was slightly taller than an average Cornerian. It's back was arched and its neck gave into a small, narrow head arching out in front of it. It's knee joints were pointed behind it, and several bits of its body were clearly covered in metal. The strange rifle it carried was connected to its back via a long cable, most oddly enough however, was the fact that it's lower legs were beginning to fade into its surroundings…

"Far as we can tell it's capable of a visual camo we're not fully familiar with," He replied, "luckily Sigma 9 is a special Viper unit, sort of experimental. Each of its members are…oddities. They're not sure how to classify me yet," As he said this he rose his hand from the steering wheel only to have jets of light blue electricity begin to pulsate up his thick arm, "age 5 I accidentally electrocuted a bully in school…didn't kill him but…well the military and government took a strange liking to me. One of us is a pretty powerful telepath, and the girl that went silent is a really powerful breed of pyrokinetic."

Skye chuckled, "Well now I know why your team is so new but so well known."

"Military started working on a team like this ages ago," He reassured the young canine, "Point being, if she was somehow detained and kidnapped we can't let an enemy take her. If she's been captured, we haven't got long until she acts on the third precept of the vipers…" There was a long pause as Skye looked at the wolf with uncertain eyes before Maryk shook his head with a sigh, "…never get taken alive. If there's a point that she realizes that we can't get her out and she's about to be permanently taken…she will kill herself."

"So we're just there to get her out, then right?" Skye asked.

Maryk sighed while shaking his head, "Not exactly, first and foremost we're responsible for taking out the thing that's running through Southhaven, getting Sierra back is more a side note, the captain isn't about to leave her behind but, at the same time he sort-of tends to do things by the book. I guess that's why you're here though. I hate to put it like this but, if McCloud sent you then there was a reason for it beyond what you know about, something tells me it's got something to do with our little visitor too."

"I'll be the professor all but begged the Council to let him keep the body at least." Skye laughed.

Maryk nodded, "Beltino did seem pretty crazy about wanting to study it, unfortunately we don't have a body yet. I'm all up for giving it to the Professor myself, the way I see it, the more we know about that thing in Southhaven the better."

It felt like no time at all had passed before the jeep skid to a halt just overlooking a small cliff, nothing more than fifty feet down, but, another mile ahead lay the city of Southhaven. Huge plumes of black smoke rose from the skyline, the air was filled with silence, spare the ever so unannounced reverb from a distant gunshot. Turning to the others behind her Skye nodded causing them to unload their gear…

"Gryf," She called, "someone'll be dropping you an Arwing near this location, once you have it get in the air and give us an update on the city," She finished looking to the others, "Art, Tilly, Lamont, set up a perimeter and a grid. If this thing so much as approaches the boarder of the city, I want it in pieces. Just try to make sure they're big enough chunks for the professor. Dax, you're coming with me and Maryk to meet up with his captain inside. You know this place, right?"

Dax nodded with a smile, "Course I do, like I said I was born in this area."

"Good," Maryk replied, "Cap says he's somewhere near Central Eskill Park. I haven't found it on any maps though." He said producing a small hologram of the city.

Dax shot a finger through the screen, "That's cuz you're looking for a park. Eskill Park is a mall on fourty-fith and Dehar Drive. Call it a mega mall but, doesn't make any sense to me."

"Why's that?" Skye asked.

Dax chuckled to himself, "S'not that big. If you can swing us around to the east entrance to town, that's your quickest route."

It didn't seem like much before the small vehicle slid into town only to drop into a gear that caused the engine to go nearly silent. Skye could not believe her eyes; the damage to the city was almost too random. Buildings here and there weren't destroyed, simply damaged almost as if the creature that she'd seen photos of was not certain of why it was there. At first she had figured that it was all a part of some sort of plan but, seeing the burning vehicles, the destroyed walls, and randomness of the corpses that lay strewn about the streets. A long, uneasy trip through the ruined streets led the group to the site of a large mall, unfortunately one with a massive hole through the front wall it's insides had been torn asunder and the vehicles in the parking lots looked as though they'd been parted by a passing train. A massive trench was dug into the asphalt, at the beginning of the scene stood a slightly tall, thin black panther with pale white hair. The stale wind of the area blew through his long coat. A stiff drag from a lit cigarette and he flicked it away…

"He only fired it once," He shook his head, "I didn't even see the weapon. Tore right through the parking lot and punched a hole in a shopping mall. I've never seen anything like it."

"Captain?" Maryk asked as he approached cautiously, "it has a weapon this powerful on it?"

The panther shook his head, "No, it fired this…from its chest. Hidden compartment, I'm still not sure what this thing is but, we should get Sierra back before she goes off. Last thing we want is for her to show us why her dad turned Varsek into a burning ball of slag."

Skye paused for a moment, "Wait…" She scoffed, "…Dark…Dark? Varsek? The guy that went to Styx of his own free will?"

The panther nodded, "His only daughter…and just as destructive if she's driven there. I'm a bit more frightened about her going off while on an inhabited planet, than if she was to be taken. She doesn't have anywhere near the same control over her abilities that her father does," He pointed out noticing a disappointed look on the canine's face, "can I help you with something?"

Skye sighed while shaking her head, "No…I was just kinda hoping your team's captain was someone else but," She chuckled, "you know where this thing headed after…well this?"

The panther flicked his cigarette away, "Looked like this took a bit out of him. He did his whole invisibility thing again and started off toward Valor Square. Luckily this whole area has already been heavily evacuated. Let's get going so we can find it…hopefully it hasn't gotten too far. God only knows why it took her in the first place. You all well-armed?"

Skye nodded as a single Arwing shot across the sky, "Well enough, and he's up there just in case."

"ZT-101 model?" The panther shrugged his shoulders, "artillery of that caliber might be capable of helping. How's the pilot?"

"Falco Lombardi's son…" Skye replied.

The captain chuckled, "Monroe huh? Third in his class next to McCloud and Artimus Toad. Make sure he knows what he's aiming for."

After a short time, the group, having paired up, began to make its way along the streets, now without the assistance of a loud vehicle. A more silent approach to such a situation seemed to be for the best; as they did so Skye still couldn't help but to observe the wanton destruction. She'd never heard of an alien race that was so unnecessarily violent and hell-bent on destroying its surroundings. Several times during their long walk the Viper captain brought them all to a stop to scout their surroundings. It wasn't however, until they'd traveled a good few miles that Skye noticed the scanner the captain was not wearing over his right eye before. It wasn't until they approached a half destroyed public park when the panther rose his hand in a sign to stop. Before anyone could say something, his rose hand pointed to Maryk before pointing toward a nearby alleyway with three fingers. This caused Maryk to tap Skye on the shoulder…

"You come with me," He whispered, "Dax you stay with the captain do whatever he says and you'll probably live."

Dax looked between them, "Gee thanks for the startling vote of confidence."

"Don't take it personally, there's just no guarantees at this point. After what the Captain's said, there's no telling what that thing out there is still capable of."

"Well we can all hold our own," Skye interrupted, "let's just get all this over with so we can get that thing out of here. Something about this whole scenario is starting to make my skin crawl."

Splitting the group once more, Skye's bad feeling only increased the further along Maryk lead her through an alleyway before he stopped and leapt for a nearby fire escape, pulling the ladder down for access. Skye shook her head, of course they wanted higher ground, if the creature wasn't familiar with the area it stood to reason that it wouldn't be watching the rooftops. What she was expecting however was far more overwhelming than what she received upon crossing onto the rooftops. Splayed out in front of her was a wake of destruction like nothing she'd ever seen; the massive impact zone was clearly the sight of something that had hit the planet with amazing velocity possibly even re-entry. Even the building her and Maryk stood on was missing its entire northern face as well as a massive crater where foundations lay upheaved and turned over, a single water main still spray water into the air though just barely after having lost much of its since it'd begun several days prior. Near the center of the chaotic scene, a single object lay half buried. A large cylinder of gray material, a single hatch stood barely dangling from its body…

"Near as we can tell its pod broke open on entry," Maryk pointed out, "and it was eventually dropped near the outer edge of town. That warpath we showed you was it just trying to get back here. We're not sure why, but it's hell bent on getting back to this pod. It was just down the block when we last lost track of it, that was the mall you saw. We've managed to keep it occupied, but, so far the captain has only managed to detour it long enough for you all to get here…" He paused for a moment, "…speaking of which. You don't know the captain from, somewhere do you?"

"You mean the black cat down there with Dax?" She asked shaking her head upon his nod, "no…I only know two panthers in my life and he's nowhere near a bitch as they are. They'd never handle this kind of work. Why?"

Maryk shook his head, "Maybe it's just me. He just seems a little on edge with the lot of you around, he's not the sort to back down from that sort of thing."

As the young wolf scanned over the area with a high def device over his eyes, Skye chuckled, "Maybe it is you. How long have you known your captain?"

Maryk chuckled as he continued his survey, "I was in training three years in a row. I kept failing but, the higher ups kept saying it was marginal so they allowed me to stay in the program. Third year we got a new cadet fresh out of the Academy. Tore ass through basic training so hard they practically begged him to join Viper. He was kinda put off and everything though, always trying to do everything for himself rather than work with a team. After we were put together with Sierra for our first training mission, we got a little lost in the jungles on Zoness. We were there for five days and spent a lot of time together. Course later we found out that our trainer…the dick that he was, planned the whole damn thing and sabotaged our dropship just to make sure we'd, as he said "learn to appreciate your teammates" but, it did work, and after the shit we went through I'd follow that moron to Venom and back if I must. So, shorter side of a few months at this point."

Skye shook her head at the thought, to command such loyal friendship of his teammates in so little amount of time was a few in itself, "Hope I can be that kind of leader. So far being Captain of the Colletta has been more than I think I'm ready to han…"

Maryk's strong hand gently clamped the young canine's mouth shut as he lay down his binoculars and pointed into the distance. At first the figure seemed hesitant to enter the area; the far-off hole blasted through the walls of the distant buildings almost perfectly camouflaged its figure. It's long, angular head whipped about in a bird-like manner scanning the area before moving slowly forward. Clutched in a fist of talons; the long red hair of a black vixen's unconscious body that dragged painfully along the ground. The few times the creature scanned the building they stood upon, Skye was certain it knew they were there, which meant the worst, it saw none of them as a threat.

The slight click of a stock being assembled caught Skye's attention as she took note of Maryk snapping together what appeared to be a long rifle while conversing with himself under his breath. No, not with himself, it was almost as if he was communicating with his captain. As he continued whatever conversation he was having, Maryk lay on his stomach before lining himself up with the rifle scope. After a few fleeting moments of surveying the creature however, his sights moved to other locations causing Skye to become unsettled. What she began to see was a small light of bright red beginning to charge and pulsate from the creature's pointed head. In an instant, however, the pulsating stopped and Maryk, without warning found himself violently rolling to one side with Skye perched atop him. The beam had fired with a speed she'd only just managed to predict. It had started low and traveled upward, leaving a now searing line along the floor where Maryk's rifle lay smoldering in a perfect set of halves, the slash had been cut by a beam thinner than Skye's pinky yet, it had cut the building perfectly in two, just missing Maryk and herself by a hair.

"Call me crazy but that didn't look like it was used to blow a hole in a shopping mall." The black wolf raved, "what the fuck was that?"

Skye shook her head, "I don't know but, it didn't start attacking until it noticed the rifle."

"Thanks for the save but, I wasn't talking to you," He replied dusting himself off, "what do you mean you're going in? SON OF A BITCH!"

Standing up Maryk shoved a smaller rifle into Skye's hands, "What's going on?" She half shouted.

"Captain about to get himself killed, not enough time to explain," He replied leaping from their perch, "cover fire!"

Skye was forced to watch on as Maryk hit the ground with a heavy thud before breaking into a threatening charge. As this happened, a second figure broke from the side of another building, clearly the panther who'd initiated the attack. The Viper Captain shot from the ground like a bullet the moment his feet touched the ground, closing the distance between himself and the machine in the blink of an eye. Even from a distance the movements were difficult to follow as he passed before the creature's right side, planted his foot, shot back to the left, and spun into what would have been an otherwise lethal kick toward the creature's tiny head. The snap reaction from the thing locked the panther's foot in a clawed hand before whipping him violently into a nearby pile of debris. Maryk's charged became no more effective, as the vixen clutched in its talons quickly slammed into the wolf's ribs causing him to tumble across the ground before coming to a halt. Whatever it wanted Sierra for, it clearly didn't care whether she was alive or dead, as her much smaller frame was not likely to hold up to hitting something as solid as Maryk for long.

After a moment of thinking Skye took aim on the creature, studying everything she could while activating her communicator…

"Dax you there?"

Though a bit static heavy the voice did respond, "Yeah, what's the plan?"

"If you can find a way, get behind it," She replied, "just don't approach it. I have an idea that might work…or it might just piss it off. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about it to deliberate," She sighed, "Gryf…you read?"

"I am in the air," The avian responded, "what's the situation?"

Skye sighed, "I need you to swoop that thing over this crater. Low enough to get this thing's attention, but fast enough that it can't hit you. Most of its weapon systems seem pretty hands on so I don't think you'll be in that much trouble. Just don't fire on it there are friendlies in close proximity."

"Rodger," Gryf responded, "I'll do my best and get its attention."

It seemed to take almost no time before the creature tilted its head to the sky; no way of telling wat it was doing; Skye was certain it was broadcasting a signal. Luckily it's progress seemed to be interrupted as a familiar looking silver and blue ship roared overhead, dipping down below the rise of the buildings before firing back off into the sky. In an instant, the same red charge of light appeared as before, this time aimed at the annoyance overhead, however, just as the beam fired a gunshot rang out causing the creature's head to violently shift to one side where the beam instead tore through a nearby building, etched a burning fissure along the ground and finally ended by severing its free arm half way up. Readying another shot, Skye was greeted by only a sharp click causing her to look to the rifle in amazement…

"What sick fuck gives you a rifle with only one bullet in it!?" She shouted hurling the weapon toward the creature.

Finding herself left with nothing but her firsts and a knife, the young canine dropped from the building and rushed in herself. Oddly enough however, her target had not changed its direction of focus for the first time it was looking as though it could not find a target. Clearly her bullet had done more damage than she'd hoped for. As she approached however, it's head finally did shift toward her general direction, however, as she stopped its head began to shift from side to side clearly searching for her. Something was up with the thing and she quickly pieced together what it was; her next move proved as much. Very slowly raising a hand to her pocket, Skye produced a small coin before flicking it away from her position. An orb of dense blue light fired in the direction of the sound the instant it met ground with the familiar metal chime leaving only a searing hot hole in the ground. Its sensors had been knocked out of whack by the bullet, much like a concussion hinders senses, this thing was sight blind but, had clearly taken a moment to refocus everything to audio sensory…she simply thanked whoever or whatever was watching out for her that it hadn't already done so as she had charged toward it.

Unfortunately, Skye found herself in a situation. The creature was not moving hence it knew she was still there. Yet, it refused to move under the acknowledgement that it could not see her. She on the other hand knew that it could not see her but, could not move under the thought that it could easily destroy her much like it had the coin she'd used to distract it earlier. As they stood the creature however, drew its attention elsewhere, to a place where Dax now relentlessly charged, barely managing to shift and dive to one side as another ball of plasma tore into the ground behind him. Realizing this was only an opening for her, Skye quickly leapt onto the creature's back. Its metal form felt strangely hot, and far too soft to be metal alone, but, flailed about madly the moment she wrapped her arms around it's thin neck for support. It whipped it's captive about like a flail, refusing to relinquish its hold on her while lacking another arm for any type of back mounted defense. As it flailed about, the black vixen again came soaring overhead however, as the arm passed over Skye took a single swipe of her father's knife sending the unconscious female sailing into Maryk's waiting arms, before finally running out of options and plunging the knife violently into the creature's neck. Shaking violently to one side, while releasing what sounded like a wail of pain. The creature tumbled its shoulders causing the young canine to roll aggressively off it's back. Not being finished however, Skye reinforced her grip on the knife and used it's biting hold to swing her body up and under its neck. The swing ratcheted the blade through before dislodging its head completely sending a shower of strange synthetic goo spraying in all directions as it's flailing body collapsed to the ground.

"Well," Skye chuckled, "that was a lot different than training. The hell was this thing anyway?"

Maryk's captain checked out the vixen he held before approaching the downed machine, "Not a clue but, we need to see to it that it gets to Beltino's station ASAP. If there are more of these things, we need to know how to take 'em down a little quicker than that," The panther chuckled, "great show by the way. That was some nice thinking on your part," He said turning to Dax, "you too. Managed to help your Captain without saying a word…I'll be sure to contact McCloud and the Council. Let 'em know this was all a big misunderstanding. You two should go before the locals catch up with what's going on here. Take the jeep, it'll get you to the dock a lot faster."

"You all keep in touch too," Maryk shouted, "I left our com channel with your Intel back on the cliff."

Skye nodded as she and Dax started back toward the others, "Don't worry I'm sure you haven't seen or heard the last of us."

As the two disappeared from sight, the remaining three were left with their prize; the captain turned his eyes toward the stars, "Sigma-9 reporting. Target Neutralized, agent Dark recovered. Rendezvous at the gate station with the body. Let the Professor know we have the body on the way."

As Mayrk stood by with the still unconscious vixen on his back, he patted his captain on the shoulder, brushing some dust from the blue fur of his right arm, the sleeve of his jacket nowhere to be seen, "She's one hell of a girl Marcus, I see your problem as clear as day now."

The blue fox huffed before turning and gently punching the fox's massive arm, "Whatever, don't tell me you weren't staring at her the whole time."

"Oh on the contrary," Maryk replied, "my mind was fixed on the sweet little Hadian up on that cliff. Now that's a woman," He whistled to himself, "so why the disguise? I almost didn't recognize the mind trick and nearly gave you away."

Marcus shook his head lightly, "It…nothing serious, just personal. You wouldn't understand," He sighed looking back off toward the distance, "hell I don't think I fully understand it."