Chapter 22

"Oi! Wake up!"

Keeler lazily rubbed his eyes. "Aw, Blaze! What could the time possibly be?"

"You've been sleeping for 10 hours, night's falling again and we need to move." Husky Seven replied.

"All right, all right. Let me get my wits about me first." Said Keeler groggily.

Matt was quite accustomed to sleeping in broad daylight. It was something he got used to during some of his classes at the Academy.

The dugout they'd used as shelter provided both protection from the elements and camouflage from the enemy. Blaze had rigged it up in less than an hour. He was quite a survivalist.

"Come on, or I'm bringing the shelter down on you."

"I'm up!" Keeler yawned. "Geez, ease up, willya?"

Blaze didn't comment. He covered up whatever traces were left of the dugout and went back to the survival supplies stacked against a tree. He passed Keeler a rifle, a pistol, three grenades, a day's worth of rations and a small shred of paper.

"What's this?" Keeler asked, turning the paper over in his hands.

"Crude map." Replied Blaze shortly. "I did some exploring during the day. The base is five hours' trek down that way. We'll be splitting up, so this is our navigation."

Keeler nodded. Groundside navigation had been one of his stronger points in the academy.

"The base is set in a valley, has a circular perimeter, with walls around 14 feet high. The free fire zone is nearly a quarter as big as it should be from the southern approach, since the forest hasn't been cleared there yet, so they'll be expecting an attack from that side."

"Yeah, and who'd be expecting two downed pilots to assault a whole base?" Matt muttered.

Blaze ignored him. "I need you to pull an ambush. We'll try to skirt around their patrols here…" He said, pointing at the map, "…And we'll split up. I'll go around the outside to the other end. They have a tank there. I want you to fire down on any base personnel you see from the high ground here when I give you the signal. They'll dispatch forces in that direction. I'll take out the troops inside and around the tank, then hijack it. I'll drive into the base to 'reinforce' it, make for a fighter that's powering up to strafe you, hijack that and rush over here, then I'll pick you up and we make a break for the lines at Solar."

"Fun." Said Keeler. "So basically I'm bait?"

"More or less." Blaze shrugged.

"How do I withstand the assault that's sure to come?"

Blaze pointed at the map again. "The tank team's not too far from their base. I can be in and out to you before they can organize a team to hit you. It's my guess they'll think that there's a whole rebel force out here because no-one's crazy enough to attack single-handedly."

"And what makes you think you can take on a squad of troops and a tank crew?"

Blaze's face went from intense to expressionless. "I'll do my job if you do yours."

Keeler rolled his eyes. "Come on big guy! Drop the act and just tell me what it is about you! I mean, are you insane, did you fail at the Academy, what?! What the hell are you hiding?!"

"Hey, does it matter?"

"Yes, it matters!" Keeler said desperately. "Listen, how can I fully trust you if you don't open up? I mean, we're squadmates! We're a team, remember?"

"And we work as a team. I don't know why you're pressing the matter." Blaze said defensively.

"So maybe something bad happened in your past you don't want people to know about! Fine! At least tell me how you plan to take out those troops so I can have some peace of mind."

Blaze seemed to struggle with Keeler's words for a moment. Blaze knew that if Matt was going to function, he would have to know something, at least.

"All right, have it your way Keeler. I DO have some… physical aspects that are not shared by those hostile troopers."

Keeler blinked. "Like?"

For a moment Blaze looked ready to say 'Go to Hell'. But he bit his lip and continued, "You were right before. I did set that trooper on fire, with my bare hands, and I can do it again readily. I'm also virtually immune to very high temperatures and I can rip apart titanium using my claws and arm strength."

Keeler didn't realize his jaw was hanging until Blaze finished. "Wow… err, anything else to top that?"

Blaze almost grinned. "Plenty, but you've had your share of details for tonight. Now enough chit-chat, let's get moving."

Keeler set off in Blaze's wake. Those abilities are nothing to be ashamed of. I wonder what he's REALLY hiding. Matt wondered.

The duo proceeded silently towards the enemy base, unseen and unheard in the dark Macbeth night.

I don't like this. Thought Matt. I'd rather be up there with the Squadron with two engines behind me and an array of laser cannons at my fingertips.

Matt swept his rifle before him nervously. Blaze didn't need to worry- it seemed that a blaster shot would do little more than sting him, or cause a light burn at worst. Suddenly Blaze stopped and signaled for Matt to go left. Matt hadn't heard or seen anything, but he nodded and complied anyway, carefully stepping over branches and sticks in the undergrowth. He kept his rifle aimed ahead, straight down his line of sight. Having lost sight of Blaze, he made sure to be extra cautious, since he was effectively on his own. It was just as he was clearing a bomb crater when he caught sight of something moving in the dark, down in the crater. He smoothly and quietly ducked low, out of sight, trying to control his breathing as he did so. Don't panic. No-one's shooting. A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. They didn't see me. Matt glanced around momentarily. Blaze was nowhere to be seen. He'd have to deal with it alone. Matt clenched his jaw and cautiously edged over the rim of the crater, exposing only the top of his head and his rifle to whoever was below.

Despite the distance and poor light, Matt could clearly see that whoever it was down there, it sure wasn't one of those freakish enemy troops.

In fact, it looked like a Cornerian… boy???

Keeler's eyes widened. It was a Cornerian boy! He was pottering around some large rocks in the middle of the crater, and Keeler could hear faint sobs coming from the young tiger. What's he doing out here?! Is he a refugee from some Macbethan city? Keeler stood and descended into the crater, lowering his rifle. The boy gasped in surprise and disappeared behind the rocks. A split second later, he emerged again, aiming a muzzled blaster pistol at Keeler. The boy's eyes were wide with panic.

Keeler kept his arms from reflexively going for his own weapons. The last thing I need to do right now is panic too. Even though his heart was pounding, he kept his voice low and even.

"Hey kid, put the gun down. Look carefully at me. I'm a Cornerian."

The boy's hands started trembling and his face remained contorted in panic. One false tremble could set off the pistol.

Matt raised his paws. "Easy kid, look, I'm not going to shoot you. I'm a Cornerian." Fancy that. Me calling someone else out here 'kid'.

Then Matt caught sight of something flashing through the tree branches above. Blaze!

Matt gestured with his palms for Blaze to hold off. The boy was frightened out of his wits- he didn't really mean any harm and Matt didn't want to harm him. Don't kill this one, I think I can work this out.

As if Blaze could read his mind, a dark figure in the treetops nodded and held still.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. Come on, just lower the gun." Matt repeated.

It took a few seconds, but the panic washed out of the young tiger's face and he lowered his gun, breathing heavily, and beginning to cry.

Matt sighed in relief. "Whoah. You had me worried there." He crouched down to the boy's eye level. "Hey, what are you doing here? What's going on?"

The boy kept crying. He couldn't have been older than twelve. What he was doing in a war zone with a blaster was beyond Matt.

"This is no time for a kids conference." Matt jumped. Blaze was standing behind him, having silently dropped from the trees above.

The boy almost panicked again, but Matt managed to calm him. "Don't worry, he's a friend."

Matt paused.

"Er, I mean ally."

Blaze's eyes narrowed. "Ha ha. I'd just like to remind you, Keeler, that there's three hours until daybreak."

"We can't leave him here, Blaze." Matt replied flatly. "Hey kid…"

"Damon." The boy sobbed.

"Pardon?"

"My name's Damon."

Matt nodded slowly. "All right, Damon, where are your parents?"

Fresh tears formed on the boy's eyes, but he pointed at a couple of crude headstones next to the pile of rocks in the middle of the crater.

Matt winced. "Oh, sorry." He had one more question, though. "Damon, what are you doing here?"

"I… I came with my dad. We… we used to live at Venom…"

"Make it snappy, kiddo." Blaze interrupted.

"He was an… in the army…" The boy continued between sobs. "He came to our place on… on a space station and said we were leaving… He was flying a different ship than he usually did… He didn't let us tell anyone we were going… We came out here and refueled so we could get to Corneria… but then… then our engines malfunctioned just before they came and we crashed here. Mom died straight away and Dad didn't die until yesterday. I… I…"

Matt nodded and let the boy go quiet. He glanced at Blaze.

"What do you think?"

"Space stations around Venom were strictly for military personnel and their families. These people left in great secrecy, so I don't think they were on leave. My guess is that these guys knew about the attack beforehand and tried to warn someone on Corneria itself rather than try to send a message or pass it through the chain of command."

Keeler thought for a moment. "He didn't trust them."

"Exactly. Plus he might have wanted to deliver the spy ship core to Corneria himself."

Matt frowned. "What makes you think his dad was an intelligence officer?"

"Take a look around yourself, Keeler." Blaze growled.

Matt glanced around in puzzlement until his eyes came to rest on the large rocks in the middle of the crater. They were almost symmetrical.

"Oh shit!" The rocks were actually the wreck of a spy ship, disguised as an asteroid.

"Don't swear in front of the kid." Muttered Blaze.

"Now I know that was humor." Keeler strode over to the wreck, looking for an entrance of some sort. I ain't the kiddy anymore, am I? Thought Keeler triumphantly.

He found his entrance a moment later. It was a wrecked pressure door half buried in the ground. The survivors would have had a hard time squeezing through it injured, but all Matt needed to do was poke his head in.

He found what he sought a moment later. The spy ship's computer core, intact and in its shielded container. The self-destruct had been removed.

"Blaze, we got a memory core. Aren't you glad we stopped now?" He said giddily.

"The intel on that core won't do any good if we can't get it offplanet." Blaze replied. The way he crossed his arms suggested great impatience.

Matt looked back inside the ship. "I need to find a way to get in there and dislodge that core. I…"

He felt himself get shoved aside roughly. Blaze grabbed the edges of the opening and literally stretched it wider, without even the slightest signs of exertion. He then crawled inside and slashed at the reinforced box holding the memory core with long claws that seemed to come from his wrists, freeing it from the ship. He pulled the core, armored box an all, free of the ship and stuffed it into his rudimentary backpack.

"Right, problem solved. Let's go." He started off as though he had done the simplest of tasks.

When Matt managed to control his amazement, he tugged at the boy's hand, saying "C'mon Damon. Let's go."

Blaze paused. "We're bringing the kid?"

"Of course." Matt replied gruffly. "What, you think we should just leave him here?"

Blaze shook his head, then continued, muttering "This is a bad idea…"

But he didn't object otherwise, which Matt took as a good sign.