Act III: The Hammer Falls
Chapter I
Eric beckoned. The rest of the group stared. Eric was only getting slightly impatient, as with all video game characters, they acted as if this was their first run. When all he got were empty gapes, Eric practically exploded.
"Going to Venom, AGAIN!" Fox chuckled. "And you also realize what this means. They aren't sending you just to check what that 'extra activity' was, you know that, right? If they are sending military firepower, which, being half-Republican, I am much behind, then they already know what's going on. The extra activity on Venom that Pepper wanted you to investigate? I'd bet Corneria's treasury that this is what they were doing, the sudden construction of this war-fleet, and our job is to make stuff explode."
"I think we've all figured that out, monkey-boy." Falco said with his usual arrogant superiority.
"Yeah, well, I'm just checking. AND STOP CALLING ME MONKEY-BOY!"
"Okay, monkey-boy."
Eric sighed while Fox started telling everyone to get ready. "The Great Fox would be heading for Venom tomorrow at six hundred hours.. Bill, Katt, get what you're going to bring. Falco, get your ArWing ready, Pep, Slip, boot up the Great Fox."
With not much else left to do, Eric and Sarah went back to their quarters, mainly to wonder how in the galaxy they were going to hide intelligent weapons.
"Hey, Sarah," Eric said, jogging up to meet her. "Remember back in the good old days when the worst that could happen is abject humiliation?"
"Uh, Eric, it's only been one month in this world, and judging by the very-little change in time from our jumps, maybe an hour or two? Our parents wouldn't be back from work yet."
"You're pretty good at skirting my question."
"No."
Slumping back into his room, Eric picked up Murasma and unsheathed it. Roughly thirty seconds later, he was shook from his blank gaze by James, who said, "Hello?"
"Huh? Oh… yeah…"
"So what's new that wasn't new in the last fifteen minutes or so?"
"Not much, really. As it turns out, we're going to be going to Venom. The extra activity that Fox was sent to explore seems to be a construction of a giant war fleet, and we have to stop it. Hey – this is off topic, but I was wondering: How did everyone know about what I could and couldn't do before I even got here?"
"We had arranged for a universal file on you, as opposed for a dimension-specific one. That way, the other people here wouldn't immediately attack you, thinking you were a Venom ape, as accomplishments of Cornerian liking were in there. And… speaking of Venom…" James voice got very silky at the end, like he was about to bring up a dark grudge.
"Uh, dude, are you getting an ectoplasmic cold or something?" Eric asked.
"No, but I have a score to settle with Pigma Dengar."
"Hey, the SW team. I got to make a total ass of them last encounter."
"You didn't kill them?" James seemed annoyed.
"Well, they had half of the others hostage. I had to frickin' rescue them. You know, for a group of utter dunces, they sure play a mean ball game."
"You're telling me?! Pigma betrayed me, left Fox as an orphan and almost killed Peppy!"
"Personally, I'm surprised that you didn't see that coming. When I met up, they were so stupid, they went to a fly-through movie to see 'Closed for the Season'."
"Everything to you is just one big joke, isn't it?" James asked acidly.
"Yep. Like the time they got thrown out of the M&M factory for pitching the W's."
"Will you shut up?!?"
"…or the time they tripped over a cordless holo-phone…"
"Why won't you shut up?!?"
"Okay, okay, what did you want to say?"
"I'm not normally one for killing in cold blood, but this must be done. A family grudge, you might say." James said, calming down.
"Alrighty then. Might as well rest up and maybe get some training in, as I'm gonna need it."
Figuring he'd have to get some sort of extra combat training (he doubted Soul Caliber and Paintball would be enough) he made his way through the Great Fox's interior until he came to what could only be the shooting range. Several isles of straightaway ending in a target that was moving around the isle they were confined to rather rapidly to increase marksmanship demand. A few other various targets were being used, like that of a person behind a crude shape of what vaguely resembled someone with their hands up to enhance the ability not to hit a hostage.
On the right side of the room from where Eric stood, there seemed to be sparring sections to practice melee ability. Staves, swords, and wooden sticks were on some of the walls and the floor had padding in addition to the wall.
Eric walked over to the shooting range and unholstered one of the submachine guns and took aim. One… two… three…
"Don't screw up!" Eric lurched on the trigger. Three seconds and an empty clip later, Eric looked up. Every single spot on the target except the bull's-eye was ridden with holes.
Looking back, he saw Katt, who was bent over her knees and shaking uncontrollably. "What in the nine hells was that for?!" He demanded angrily. "So now you're going to annoy me without Jack to use as a scratching post and that you're through with Falco? Don't you have someone else to annoy? Friends? Family? Leon Powalski?"
Katt continued laughing. "Witty remarks will get you far, hon. Part of-"
"Wait, wait a minute. I hope you're just calling me 'hon' as a Texas accent side-effect…"
"What or where is Texas?"
"Never mind."
"Anyway, part of the reason I loved Jack; he always had a comeback for everything." Katt said, looking skyward.
"What, and I don't?"
"You don't have any good ones."
"Very reassuring. I'll be sure to care in –" he checked his watch. "- Two millennia."
"You seem very cold, most of the time. I usually either see you brooding or holed up in your room."
"I was wondering if anyone was starting to notice. Or care." Eric retorted.
"See, that's what I mean, tiger. You push people away who might bother to watch your back."
"Pretty funny joke, Katt."
"I'm serious. Falco is holding a begrudging debt, Fox already feels partly responsible, and they all think something of you as a hero for your stunt on the Cerberus. How did you know if you exhale through your mouth it holds off vacuum, anyway?"
"Uh…" In truth, he read it out of a Space sourcebook for a role-playing game, but that was the first time he got to reality-check it. "It's common knowledge among us science brains."
Katt stated. "Uh-huh," she muttered. "Anyway, I'm going to go make sure my ship is in order." And walked off.
"Pheh, and she thinks I'm cold. When someone needs soft-drink ice they could chisel it off her shoulder." Eric muttered as he got back to perfecting his aim.
It turned out to be slightly more difficult than expected. Handheld automatics tend to have accuracy that is worth little more than blanketing a room in spray, that and all previous training had little to no recoil. At the recoil rate of his weapons, it would be like pumping up his biceps just trying to keep the recoil under wraps.
"Eric?" A high-pitched voice said. Eric jumped. "Dinnertime. And Fox wanted to see you…"
"Huh?" It was Slippy, who was holding up a watch.
"It's almost six going by our current time zone and planet."
"Really? Where in the nine hells does the time go?" Eric asked.
"Obviously not here."
"Alright, alright, I'll be right there." Eric said. He took a glance back at the training room (He hadn't even noticed when Fox, Krystal, Eclipse and Bill, who were previously brushing up on skills had left) and muttered something about needing to keep more on top of things. Holstering the guns, he followed Slippy over to the dining hall. Half of the StarFox Fellowship was gone already, the rest munching on what they could find or gearing up for the flight to Venom. He started choking down the scrambled eggs with what tasted like an overlaying flavor of rust and iron and taking one-too-many drinks from the water fountain to dull the copper taste. Halfway through (Eric was suddenly "too full" to eat anymore), Fox came over.
"Hey, Eric," Fox said as he pulled up a chair.
"Yeah?" Eric said, torn between eating until he was full and upheaving what he already had.
"There's something I've been meaning to ask you." Fox asked.
"Yeah?" Eric replied, somewhat fearful of the question (as he had been conditioned to when confronted with awkward questions from peers with a simian intelligence).
"How EXACTLY did you have a record here when you come from really, really far off?"
You have no idea how far off, Eric thought. "I'm not quite sure either," Eric lied. "I was anticipating having to show a resume or something, and when Sarah and I arrived, lo and behold, everything was already in place. I don't think I'm going to know for the life of me."
"Huh… just wondering, because there was another one of your kind-"
"Jack Chaykin. I still want to know what the deal is with him."
"Yeah. Let's just say it seems heroic humans come in twos. Jack pulled a similar feat of life-saving when he was here, and made a friend in Katt."
"She always seems to be really pissed off whenever the name Jack is mentioned…"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I think they had a thing going on between them. Falco seemed relieved, as he always has been trying to push Katt away. Personally, I don't know why he was always so bothered. Anyway, Jack said he would be back around eight days from when he left…"
"And?"
"That was nine years ago."
"Wow."
"Anyway, after that Katt has always seemed strangely detached. She always has been the happy-go-lucky kitten, always has, always will, but there was something. Something we're not seeing. Under normal circumstances, she would have forgotten about it and moved on, but… but she has NEVER let it go. Every time one of us talks about Jack, she bristles. There is something that happened behind closed doors… NOT that, Eric," Fox quickly added after seeing Eric struggle to keep a straight face and failing. "…that did something."
Eric cracked. Amidst the laughing, Fox said acidly, "I think you need a glass of water."
"Yes, I think I do," Eric said, snickering as he stood up to get a cup of water. "So, is that all you wanted to talk to me about? Another human that happened to stumble in this neck of the universe?"
"Not really, it's just…"
"Just what?"
Eric was taking a swig when Fox answered. "It's been like this for awhile now, sometimes when I look at you I… I see my father."
Eric spewed out the water, which was immediately starting to get cleaned up by ROB. "Say what?!" He yelped, a little bit more shrill than he intended to.
"Whoa, someone's a little high-strung." Fox said, stifling a laugh as Eric took several deep breaths. "Not really a physical appearance, but sometimes the way you walk, your joking personality… I swear to god, you have so many similarities with my father that it's almost like you're his next incarnation."
"I don't want to say 'that's ridiculous,' but....... but I can't figure out a good way to finish that sentence." Suddenly, this conversation turned about as awkward as was humanely possible.
"I'm just saying. And then Sarah has many qualities that my mom showed. Somewhat overprotective, comes through in a pinch…"
"I can agree with that." Eric suddenly had an insane desire to get out of that room as quickly as possible.
"Ah, I'm just looking too far into it." I highly doubt that, Eric thought nervously.
"I'll let you go, I just wanted to ask you those questions."
"O-okay…" Eric stuttered. Fox either didn't hear or wasn't paying attention, as he didn't inquire on the slip of the tongue stammer.
In the few hours before midnight, Eric went back into the training room to brush up on the art of swordsmanship. Besides from one time where he stabbed himself in the foot, he got off quite well, plus an understanding that was earned, not acquired in the midst of relative panic. Afterwards, he walked back into his room, saw Murasma and remembered the conversation he had with Fox… He pulled out the blade a half-inch.
"Yeah?" James asked in the ectoplasmic voice that was impossible to decipher direction.
"I didn't need to tell Fox, he acts like he can already guess." Eric said, somewhat miserably.
"How?" Then, "And why are you acting like that's a bad thing?"
"I never said that." Eric said, trying to worm his way out of explaining why he wasn't in a huge hurry to let the cat out of the bag.
"You implied it."
Eric sighed inwardly, then told him what Fox said.
"Well, there's another mistake I made in getting you instead of Fox. Family similarity."
Eric felt like exploding with, "Are you insane?!?" but caught himself. What he said instead was, "I'll tell Fox, I'll just have to come up with a good method of presentation." Yeah, that would blow over perfectly…
"......Riiight... I don't see what's so hard about explaining something which ISN'T EXACTLY SUPPOSED TO BE A SECRET." Ugh, he's still angry at me, Eric thought.
"Look, James… I'm sorry, it's just…"
"This is an awkward situation, isn't it?" James said in words what he was feeling.
"Exactly."
"Remember your promise. What you have promised, you must perform."
"That sounds like a movie quote. In fact, I heard it in-"
"PROMISE me."
"Look, we've been over this before."
It was impossible for a hunk of mineral to glare, but something about the shade of blue the fire was and the way it started to dance suggested something of the mindset to Eric.
"Fine, I promise," he said, inside feeling about as put together as a jigsaw puzzle last used by your younger sibling, or half the pieces lost.
"Thanks."
"Yeah, anytime…" Eric sheathed Murasma before James could keep talking, Eric was getting tired of the subject.
Eric was also starting to get slightly homesick. He felt like he was here with a purpose, but he was starting to get the urge to pull his sunglasses off due to something more than personal health interest. He reached for them, and then remembered. He still had a job here, and it would throw off the time (which Eric thought had a completely random pattern from so far in his experience). And all the tales he had heard of anything involving heroes, when the chips were down they had eleventeen bazillion chances to turn back, but didn't. Bah! The feeling of homesickness vanished when he looked at it that way.
It was around eleven, the ship was set for just outside Venomian airspace and Eric was checking on how things were out of boredom. Man, the place was quiet as a tomb, and nowhere near as many things to jump out at you or claw at your feet. Slight temperature change… wait a minute, Eric thought.
He had walked past a previously unused bedroom. Katt and Bill had said they were tagging along, but they both had somewhere else to sleep, or so he had thought. He ever-so-quietly jimmied the door open. After ten seconds of failure, he tried the knob. Surprisingly, it was unlocked.
"Huh, then it can't be that bad, whoever is inside didn't even bother to check for security…" Eric muttered. It lessened the tension slightly knowing it was probably Star Wolf.
Hand on a gun he walked in… and was greeted with perhaps the most bizarre sight he had ever seen. More bizarre than the time he put several dozen gallons of fertilizer on a bunch of vines coming from his grandpa's vineyard, only to find out they had been treated with some government chemical and the vines were starting to groping at everything around them like a person possessed? Oh yeah, more bizarre than that.
On the bed, huddled up against the far wall, was Katt. Her back was arched backward, she seemed to be groping an invisible, intangible shape right in front of her and she kept making an odd twist with her pelvis… Another thing Eric noticed. It reeked with a thick, musky odor to the point Eric had to get a hold of himself to keep from retching. There were a ton of blankets, but judging by what Eric could see of Katt's legs and back, she was sleeping in the fur. Also, Eric could almost hear the faint whisper of, "Jack…"
Katt started slowing down while Eric leaned lazily on the wall. "So… Katt. I didn't know you were into aromatherapy."
Furry hearing tends to be much better than human hearing; Katt heard. Springing out of bed, she looked very heavily disheveled. Her hair was a mess of tangled wire and her fur smelled like it needed a good wash. She clung to the blankets as if her life depended on it, using them how a person usually uses a towel when coming out of the shower to hide the unmentionables.
"Uh…" Eric checked his watch: 11:20. "I'd say 'good-morning,' but it's not time yet."
"What are you doing in here?" Her tone was between angry and tired.
"Uh… uh… checking on things."
"IT'S ELEVEN-TWENTY P.M! When do you get to sleep?!"
"Depends. Weekend or school night?"
"AUGH! You're impossible!" Katt shoved him out and closed the door, this time being careful to lock it.
"Feh. Stupid touchy people…" Eric grumbled as he walked off.
It took him awhile to admit it, though, but Katt was right. He should be getting some sleep or he'd never make it if diplomacy and the search warrant failed. He swallowed his fear and pushed the button again for changing into James, so that he'd be able to see after his contacts were out and so he wouldn't need the sunglasses.
For some odd reason, it didn't hurt nearly as much this time. Sure, his skin felt like it was melting, but he barely felt anything else. It was also over faster, he shook the ache off much faster and he was ready to go.
"Hey, that wasn't as bad…" Eric muttered under his breath, once again startled by the change in voice. He'd have to be up early if he didn't want to be caught by someone, so he set his alarm clock extra early.
Suddenly, his eyes started itching like someone had dunked them in salt. Gingerly prying the contact lenses out of his canine eyes, he took off the sunglasses again and was able to see the world at it's normal gamma radiation.
Making sure that he was completely covered by the bed sheets, he had to admit, it was comfortable. More comfortable than before, anyway. It was warmer than the frigid sheets he had to endure previously, and then, after being nearly blind for most of his life taking his contacts out and going into twenty/twenty vision was like walking around all his life with a cotton sheet over his eyes, and then suddenly he took them off and voila! New life!
Eric buried his vulpine face in the covers for the dawn to come. For some reason, he felt an ominous sense of foreboding coming, but grit his newfound fangs and ignored it. After all, why waste time about odd feelings about the future when you should be concerned about the present? Eric finally closed his eyes in semi-complete slumber.
Eric was having such a nifty dream… He was walking out of the Great Fox as Pepper was there, practically handing them each of them a medal as they walked off of the ship. It was in the city setting of Corneria, judging from looking over Pepper's shoulder. Pepper had a knighting sabre. Alright, recognition for nifty deeds! Sarah knelt in front of Eric and before Pepper. "Lady Termingham," Pepper could be heard saying. Igh, Eric thought, that meshed so horribly it was hardly imaginable. Next it was Eric's turn, but when Pepper opened his mouth, all that could be heard was screeching on par with a Wail of the Banshee. SCREET, SCREET, SCREET… Augh! It was all Eric could do to stick his fingers in his ears. Enough with the loud screechy noises! Eric tried to shout, but his voice was lost on him. He could almost feel himself slipping into a gaping hole where there was nothing but the cursed SCREET, SCREET, SCREET… Turn it off… Eric was unable to do anything but mouth as he slowly became deaf to the buzzing, standing there shuddering.
SCREET, SCREET, SCREET…
WHAM!
It took Eric a few seconds to figure out what had happened. Amidst the buzzing which was driving him insane, he brought his fist over in an attempt to do something. A small prickly feeling, then a warm sticky feeling, came over his hand. Looking up, what was left of his alarm clock was sticking into his hand. Throughout the back of his mind, he could swear he could hear James laughing…
"Genius point!"
"Shut up," Eric muttered to himself in James' deeper voice. It was going to take awhile before he could get over that.
The feeling of several pointy shards of plastic started to set in. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, oww…" Eric groaned. From some dark, warped corner of his mind, he could still hear James snickering. Gingerly, one by one he pulled the plastic shards from his hand.
The ache that the sunglasses had left was still there, and with a vengeance. It did feel better, so after spending some time in the pitch blackness (which, for some reason with fox senses, didn't seem so pitch) massaging the ache out, he went over to the armband, contact lenses and sunglasses he put for easy reference.
First thing that went in were the contact lenses. It was exceedingly hard, considering in his new form, he couldn't see in them. Trying to blink his way through a haze, he put the sunglasses on and pushed the button again.
Either his body and mind were getting used to it, or the pain kept dramatically decreasing. All he felt was a medium pins-and-needles sensation across his body and a weird suction feeling as the tail shlooped back up his spine, that was about it.
Unfortunately, shapeshifting in contact lenses is one of the most uncomfortable, if not painful, experiences one can hope to go through if the eye structure is different than you're old form, which Eric quickly found out. The contacts immediately clenched onto the changing eyeballs, causing his eyes to water enough to drown Los Angeles. Eric felt like he had taken several pokers and poked himself in the eye with them until the transformation was complete, and then he had to gingerly place the contact lenses back where they're supposed to be through the sunglasses.
"Whoo!" Eric gasped. "When I go back to Earth, I'm getting laser eye surgery!" He swallowed off the aching feeling and wiped the tears from his eyes.
Slinging Murasma back over his shoulder, he got his guns holstered underneath the cloak, he set off towards the dining quarters.
Only Slippy and Fox were there; the rest were out cold.
"Whoa, Eric," Slippy squeaked. "You seem decked out."
"Always come prepared. I made that up, yah."
"…Right." Slippy said. "You know, we don't hit Venom for another three hours…"
Somehow, a combination of what James would have said and what Eric would have said got rolled into one sentence. "Three hours?!? But I'm mad NOW!"
Fox cocked an eyebrow. "Wow, Eric. I didn't really think you the soldier type."
"Not really soldier, thrill-seeker. This is the best time I have had since… er… well… ever. Not to mention the coolest. My life before I came here must have rated in excitement just above taxpaying." Not entirely true, but it was his perspective.
Fox chuckled. "You really prefer it here, don't you?" Slippy said.
"You better believe it." Eric said, grinning.
"Heh, try going off and doing life-or-death things on a yearly basis, or actually seeing someone blown away rather than exploding a hunk of metal. That'll give you a different perspective on things." Fox said, chuckling.
"I just might, Fox… I just might…"
"That wasn't a suggestion."
"Just might…"
Fox rolled his eyes as Falco and Eclipse walked in. "Falco, you're up early." It showed. Falco looked more zombie-like than avian. Eclipse, however, looked like she merely needed a shower as a static-electricity effect had her hair and fur on end.
"G'mornin' t'you too, Fox." Falco grumbled.
"When do we meet up with the Cornerian strike force, Fox?" Eclipse said.
"Three hours." Fox answered.
Eclipse took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm gonna go take a shower…" Eric noted that Eclipse looked slightly sick.
"Fox…" Eric started, noting Eclipse's facial expression. "What's with her?"
"Grund cobat sucks, kid…" Falco yawned, answering for Fox.
"That pretty much sums it up, it ain't going to be pretty. It isn't really easy seeing a guy have half his face open up or his entrails spilling out of them, and if you're going on the ground like Eclipse is, there's going to be a lot of that."
Eric stared, turning slightly green in the face. "Oh… your… god… This is like the Soldier of Fortune games, isn't it?"
"What's that?"
"Nevermind." Eric added hastily. Falco rolled his eyes.
"Whatever, I'm going to get a cup of coffee."
As Falco walked over to the coffee machine, Eric turned around. "I thought he didn't like coffee."
"He doesn't, but he needs the caffeine." Slippy replied.
"Ah."
Eric sat down to a breakfast, and didn't really have much to gripe about seeing as his taste buds were nearly nullified by the horrific visions that kept becoming conjured in his head. It was like a futuristic version of Saving Private Ryan, only with furries. His mind suddenly wandered back to the weird dream he had right before this all began… yeah. It was something like that.
He had remembered documentaries on what he would always refer to as, "wars and stuff." Suddenly, he felt like dropping the, "and stuff." It suddenly didn't seem like such laughing material. Between Saving Private Ryan, the interviews with World War II vets and the War episode of Conker's Bad Fur Day, the three hours seemed to stretch into a time warp from the inevitable violence that would happen.
Eric peeked out of one of the windows on the Great Fox's bridge. He hadn't noticed just how vast it seemed until he was looking out at it. He could make out the sun of the system, a glowing ball of liquid-hot magma called Solar. What looked like a floating orange dust ball was near a green swirly planet; Titania. And then, despite Eric's desire not to, he gaze kept returning to the green planet with the hazy, Venus-like atmosphere…
"Venom."
It never had really seemed that imposing, but at the same token, he never was really looking at it in person. Funny… the guys at Rare didn't get even close enough to its proper size… Eric almost laughed at what he was thinking at a time like this.
"Hey, Fox," Slippy's voice could be heard talking to someone Eric gave himself three guesses to guess who, and the first two didn't count. "The Cornerian Strike team is almost here."
"Okay, Slip." Fox said. "Wait until they get here. If they have some of the ships that we managed to get an idea of, we may need the extra firepower. Besides, Venom's been trying to get another army up since we trashed them LAST time at Dinosaur Planet."
"Fox, out of curiosity…" Eric started. "Has Venom EVER quit? I mean, you'd think that after trashing them, what, eleventeen bazillion times, that they'd eventually get the hint and back off, but nooooooo. They just have to keep rushing up at you like a Psygnosis lemming, a glutton for punishment. I just can't identify with that kind of work ethic."
"What's a Psygnosis lemming?"
"Never mind."
"Get the rest of the group ready," Fox commanded.
"Gotcha, Fox." Slippy said, and scurried off.
Eric went down to the Great Fox's armory and searched around. He already had a sidearm… there wasn't really that much there. Falco, Bill and Katt had already gotten there and cleaned it out. There was a single plasma shotgun there, but Eric wasn't quite sure how he would be firing it off repeatedly with shrapnel literally creating a wall of blades. And… something was missing… Eric was about to turn and ask someone when Fox walked in the door.
"Hey, Fox… where's the armor?"
"Hmm? You mean, like Reflec?"
"Yeah. I can't find any."
"Uh…" Fox seemed to be hiding perhaps the largest grin. "Did you check through that rotating door?"
"Uh… no…" Fox started laughing. Eric walked over and slammed his fist into the button out of frustration. It wasn't the first time he had completely overlooked the blatantly obvious. Eric could hear James laughing again…
"Look, just because I'm not a super-genius, stay off my case."
"What?" Fox asked. Damn! Eric thought. He heard!
"Nothing, I'm talking to myself again." Eric bluffed.
"Again?"
"Something like that. When I was in the fourth grade, I was made fun of so badly I developed a schizophrenic companion-" (which wasn't entirely untrue, with James in his mind's eye) "-and contemplated suicide. I haven't exactly had the best social life, which is why I'm surprised how I was so openly accepted when you guys are at war with the Venomian monkeys."
Fox's eyes popped at the mention of the suicide thoughts. "Uh… I'm glad you didn't, you've done a good job of watching our backs."
"I guess it's an unused gift. No one ever looked out for me, save my parents, and their almost always working. Let me tell you: Life where I come from is pretty boring."
"So you never had much practice at looking out for people, but it turns out you're good at it?"
"Something like that."
"Anyway, we're almost there. Get some Reflec and that shotgun. Good luck. You're gonna need it."
"Thanks for the comfort."
The Cornerian Strike Force met up with them. "Okay, we've tried some diplomacy, and despite our permit for searching, they threatened our diplomat at gunpoint. Pepper just finished legalizing military force." Tracy told them grimly. He arranged for the troops and those who work better on the ground into dropships. Fox, Falco, Bill and Katt were in ships, while the rest of the SFF and the troops were in dropships. Eric and Sarah were in the same ship with three other guards.
"So... how about that local sports team?" Eric said, clutching his plasma shotgun.
One of the soldiers laughed in spite of his tenseness. "You ain't half-bad for a primate. What's your name?"
"Yeah, I know, I'm bad all the way through!" More nervous laughter.
"His name's Eric. Or as I am going to start referring to him as, Mr. Gets-Hurt-All-The-Time. He's been hospitalized almost, what, three, four times now this month?" Sarah said, poking fun at him.
"I wouldn't put it past any of us not to make it back," The one Eric was joking to said grimly. "Our diplomat didn't see much, but he noticed several tanks and ships in the background of the comlink and a gray wolf with a patch over one eye."
Sarah was staring into space. "Wolf O'Donnell. Something really, really bad is going to happen here. I just know it."
Venom was now looming through the window. Eric was holding his plasma shotgun, fingering his sidearms and shifting his weight so Murasma rested better on his back. Sarah just got a combat knife and a pistol; she already had a hardy distance weapon. The other troops had assault rifles.
"Okay, the doors are going to open as soon as we get into Venom airspace. The Star Fox team and Bill Grey and some of his huskies will keep any turrets off of us if we get fired upon. We don't want that, obviously. We need to get a look at what they have, and Venom is going to open fire as soon as we're close enough."
"Hey, hey, dude, we already know what we're doing." Eric snapped.
"Cool it, Eric," Sarah said. "The grown-ups are talking." Eric never has really let it go that Sarah is almost a year and a half older than him, and thus able to drive. It came in handy though.
Suddenly, space lit up. Lasers where flying through the window behind them, to and fro as a blast rocked the ship. "Crap!" Was the word that was more or less given throughout the craft. "Pilot, how badly are we hit?" One of the other soldiers demanded.
"Not badly at all. The shields absorbed the impact. We got lucky we had the engine tuned before coming here," He added thankfully.
The Star Fox Team and the huskies, and the airborne team were holding Venom off well. Almost too well.
"Is this all they can conjure?" Sarah asked herself.
"I don't know. They usually pull out all of the stops around now. And, at the very least, we aren't even on the ground yet." Eric encouraged. They just were getting through the atmosphere and could start landing. "What could possibly happen?"
Eric would forever be telling anyone that would care to listen, "Don't EVER say, 'what could possibly happen', or your god will SMITE thee!" A cannonball bomb slammed the side of the ship. A gaping hole could be seen as one of the guards fell out to his death.
"Aaaaaaaaah!" Eric and Sarah screamed consecutively. Out of instinct, they drew their weapons.
They spiraled through the Venom airspace, utterly exposed with death a mere heartbeat away.
"Never ask what could happen…"