Fox paused and stared out the open hanger doors at the crimson dusk sky, wondering how many Cornerians had already fought and died out there.
"Haven't you finished cleaning those things yet?
Fox looked over to where Krystal laid with her lovely body sprawled causally on top of her Arwing's nose cone and her tail hanging over the edge. Fox smiled and went along with the charade.
"Your finished cleaning yours so quickly?"
"I've been done for ten minutes."
"If my lasers need more cleaning than I must've killed more enemy fighters."
Krystal grinned mischievously.
"Maybe you missed."
It was Fox's turn to grin.
"Maybe, but I doubt it."
Fox turned as a familiar voice interrupted the game; Bill entered the hanger not looking as cheerful as he sounded.
"Bill what are you doing here?"
The canine pilot winced and handed Fox a small stack of official looking document.
"General Pepper is calling for volunteers to go out on a mission to try and take out those Brotherhood artillery batteries that have been shelling us all day."
Fox raised an eyebrow.
"How many volunteers has he gotten to march into the middle of enemy controlled territory without armor or air support and take out a squadron of no doubt heavily guarded enemy artillery batteries?"
Bill laughed.
"More than you would think, especially considering the latest addition to the regulation books, which in more diplomatic words of course states that as of now the word 'volunteer' is just another word for draftee."
"Figures."
"Yeah, he said you'll find all the details on the mission, the equipment you're supposed to bring, and intel on the area in those docs. The meeting place is outside the number three armory and field equipment storage building which is also where we'll all be getting our equipment. Oh one more thing, he said that the team leaves in three hours."
"We leave in three hours and we're just being told about this?"
The canine pilot grinned again.
"It's part of that fancy 'keep your troops in the dark until the last minute so that the enemy won't find out' doctrine."
"I never liked that doctrine."
"Welcome to the club."
"All right marines, take a five minute break."
Stevenson fell to one knee and leaned heavily on his weapon, for God's sake how far had they been running. The lieutenant whom Stevenson found that he still didn't even know his name collapsed on top of a pile of rubble and turned his head to the unit's communication specialist.
"Anders, contact Command, tell them my unit doesn't have the manpower or the support to reach the Brotherhood landing site and to send orders as soon as possible, the code is five-seven-three-eight."
The marine pulled the heavy long-range radio from his back and fiddled with it for a moment, the device hissed and buzzed for a few seconds before resolving into a voice.
"Say again soldier."
"This is the one hundred and seventy-fifth infantry division, we are deep in enemy territory and no longer have the manpower or the support to reach the objective, requesting orders."
Stevenson winced as more static hissed from the receiver for a few moments before the voice returned.
"Roger one-two-five we're going to have you link up with another unit at sector five-three… oh hell the old hotel on Northeast Avenue, I'll make sure that they will be expecting you and you'll receive further orders from them. Be advised do not repeat do not use field codes Charlie one-one-seven or Beta five-three-two, Intel says the Brotherhood has cracked them and they are no longer safe to use."
"Roger Command, one-five-seven out."
The lieutenant pulled a map from one of his uniform's numerous pockets and glanced at the street sign before studying it.
"Alright, if we're here and the place we need to get to is here than I think it'll be about a five hour walk if we don't get in trouble which isn't all that likely. Assuming we run into some Brothe's here and there we should get there in about six or seven hours, probably around midnight so we should…"
There was the sound of a distant gunshot and a cloud of blood fanned out from the back of a Cornerian marine's head.
"Sniper, get down!"
Fifteen safety's clicked off as the marines ran for cover and a knot of Brotherhood soldiers appeared on a nearby rooftop.
Stevenson fired a burst of gunfire into a Brotherhood soldier's face and dove as a burst of blaster fire cut through the marine that had been running next to him, firing another burst at the Brotherhood soldier standing on a rooftop that had fired the shots. A familiar high pitched whining filled the air and even before lieutenant could give the order to take cover the group of marines scattered and sprinted for anything big enough to hide behind as a pair of Wraiths came in steep and fast and sent long lines of laser blasts raking up the street and vaporized the few marines unfortunate to be caught in the open. The pair of sleek starfighters screamed by overhead and off into the sky.
"Move it marines go, go, go!"
As the group of marines emerged from hiding and began to regroup a hail of bullets and blaster bolts tore through the air around them as a group of Brotherhood soldiers and an APC rounded the corner. Stevenson cursed and ducked back into his hiding place as more marines were cut down. The lieutenant peeked out from behind his own cover and called out.
"McGregor I want you to draw fire until that bastard on the chain gun has to reload, Stevenson I want you to go out there and put a grenade in his face when he does, the rest of us will give covering fire!"
Stevenson pulled the bayonet from the muzzle of his assault rifle and clicked the safety off of the grenade launcher bolted underneath the barrel of the weapon as the marine near him began leaning out and taking shots at the APC's gunner who responded by sending a hail of high-caliber in the marine's general direction. Stevenson waited until the chain gun finally clicked empty as the gunner exhausted the ammo supply in the weapon's hopper and the soldier began sliding a new belt into the hopper. Stevenson leapt from his hiding place as the rest of the unit opened fire and forced the Brotherhood soldiers to get their heads down, he swung his weapon toward the APC and fired. The grenade flew out and slammed into the front of the vehicle and blew a small crater in the front of the vehicle.
"Shit!"
The gunner continued to hurriedly feed the belt into the chain gun's hopper as Stevenson pulled another grenade from a small ammo bag that hung on the belt of his uniform and turned the small knob on the grenade launcher. He slammed the grenade into the launcher and turned the knob again. Just as the gunner finished loading the belt and his hand moved to the charging lever Stevenson sent the grenade flying straight toward his face. The hapless soldier mouthed 'shit' before the explosive slammed into him and detonated, tearing his body and the chain gun into thousands of pieces. The rest of the marines emerged from their hiding places and continued to pummel the Brotherhood troops with concentrated fire as Stevenson sprinted for the Brotherhood vehicle. He lunged and grabbed onto the handholds on the roof the APC and hauled himself up, pulling a frag grenade from his belt as he did so. Stevenson primed the grenade and tossed it down the hatch, the bastards could have a taste of the medicine they'd been dishing out so readily.
"Fire in the hole!"
Stevenson dove to the street and went into a roll as he hit the pavement, behind him the grenade went off with a muffled thud. A Brotherhood soldier leaned out from behind cover and trained the muzzle of his weapon on Stevenson as the Cornerian frantically reached back to unsling his own assault weapon. The soldier's finger tightened on the trigger and his face suddenly erupted into agony as a shot from a Cornerian marine hit him in the back. Stevenson climbed to his feet and freed his assault rifle and tried to wipe the soldier's blood from his face as the remaining Brotherhood soldiers scattered.
"Come on keep moving, keep moving, don't stop unless we get into another firefight!"
Stevenson reached into a pocket on his left leg a pulled out a small tube of stim pills. He unscrewed the one end of the tube and popped few of the small, round pills. He screwed the cap back onto the tube and slid it back into his pocket as the unit started moving again, they had a long way to go.
Fox pulled an energy-based assault rifle from a rack of identical weapons and set it on top of the small backpack he had gotten from the supply depot. Krystal hefted a submachine gun and sighed.
"I found a small book of Cerinian philosophy in the ruins of one of the backwater planets that had once been a sanctuary for my people. One of the quotes I found in it was from a great philosopher that died long before I was born, it said that we know more about war than peace, more about killing than living. At time like this I feel like that philosopher was right."
Fox pulled a double handful of blaster power packs from a box and paused.
"He probably was Krys, almost as long as I've been alive there's been conflict after conflict, I've lost friends over the years and people I know have lost friends. My parents were both claimed by violence and even when I killed Andross and then killed him again when he was reborn it didn't lessen the pain or bring them back, it just kept him from causing anymore pain like what he did to me. Politicians and generals fight wars for many reasons, but people like us fight them so that others will not have to experience the kind of pain we did."
"I know Fox but sometimes it's not that simple. There was an incident on a planet torn apart by civil war when I was no older than nine. I was on one of the streets in the planet's main city when a gunman steps out of the back alleys and starts firing his weapon at a pair of militiamen in the crowd, but he wasn't the best shot. A boy no older than sixteen or so jumps in front of me and takes the burst that would've hit me, as he was dying I asked him why he did it and he said it was because I was so young. The shooter's weapon ran dry and I lost control, I'm not sure what I did but the next moment he was on the ground and his body was broken and bleeding. As I got a good look at him I saw that he was just a boy, no older than the one who'd saved me, and as he lay there dying I could see the fear in his eyes, the pain, the sense of betrayal. He must've mistaken me for someone else because he told me to tell his mother he loved her. I ran away and never looked back as he lay there alone on a now empty street on some backwater planet dying with no one to morn his loss but his anonymous mother and no one be there as he slipped from this world. That was the first time I'd ever killed, and I've seen his face over and over in my dreams and nightmares, the look in his eyes the last time I saw him has never left me. Of all the Brotherhood soldiers that we fought and killed on Dinosaur Planet some of them were just boys, serving their government just as we serve ours, how do you cope with all this endless killing."
"I've had times when I've had to kill someone no older than me or sometimes even younger or had to stand by powerless as someone I knew died when there was nothing I could do about it. I've looked into their eyes as they died and I've seen the same fear and pain that that boy probably felt. But he didn't hate you for it, in a way you released him, released him from all the pain and suffering, from the seemingly endless death. The dead are lucky ones in that way, the ones who don't have to go any farther, the ones who don't have to keep fighting. All those soldiers that we've fought and killed together were our brothers and sisters in life and will someday be our brothers and sisters in death, but there is no choice. As long as there is intelligent life there will be war, and as long as there will be war there will be death, it's a cycle that we can't do anymore to stop than we can to keep the sun from rising and setting. I know that sometimes it seems like the killing will never stop but listen to me Krys, there's always an end, it's never infinite. Eventually everyone finds ways to cope with the killing until it ends.
Fox put his hand under Krystal's chin and raised it until she was staring into his eyes.
"I know you will found your way to cope Krys."