Disclaimer: See the Prologue
Chapter 15 - Investigation
Jacques stepped into his room, where he instantly eyed his Mk-7 Power Armour propped up on the heavy rack on the wall. He smiled as he trailed his hand over it.
'Back into the fray,' he thought.
He looked under his bed, and put out his boltgun, where he cocked it and put it on his bed. Afterwards, he pulled out his blade. Not a short-blade, but a real sword that ended at a very sharp point which could easily slice through flesh, muscle and up to the bone.
He then begun to undress himself, revealing his well-muscled but scarred body, which was courtesy of his Black Carapace gene-seed. He then exhaled and grabbed his first piece of armour.
Ten minutes later, the Great Fox was approaching the 'train' planet MacBeth, where Fox looked over the grey world, a sense of nervousness enveloping him.
He was almost startled when Krystal walked up beside him.
"Hey," she begun smiling , "What's the matter?"
Fox softly smiled back and replied, "Just what Pepper said and how he said it. It was like he was describing Lylat's inevitable doom."
"I call it the 'General's Briefing' effect," Slippy said, checking his PDA, "He always has to sound incredibly dramatic, especially towards the end."
"Whatever you say, Slip," Fox responded calmly.
Falco stepped forward, deciding to join in the conversation.
"What's the plan, Fox?" Falco asked, loading up his blaster rifle.
"We just fly over the rail yards, the base and just observe," Fox simply replied, "We'll just do what Pepper says."
"Jeez," Falco said, rubbing the back of his skull, "And Pepper's paying us thousands just to do that?"
"Jac isn't going to happy about this," Slippy added, "He's probably psyching himself up to bring a knife into a gunfight."
Fox rolled his eyes, "He'll just to have to live with it, won't he?"
By now, Jacques was adorned completely in his ever-impressive power armour. He eyed his gill and helmet on the desk, before reaching over and strapping his gill over his mouth.
He then looked through different eyes as he put his helmet on. He then sheathed his sword and grabbed his boltgun, cocking it.
'Emperor give me strength,' he thought.
He looked over at the mirror to glance at what was drawn in gold, just above the left wind on his skull plate.
The Star Fox. Fox had insisted he should fly their symbol, and Jacques agreed.
He opened his door and stepped out, where he found Slippy waiting for him.
"Er…hi Jac," Slipp begun nervously, seeing the human in his heavy armour.
"Slippy," Jacques acknowledged him in a darker, more robotic-sounding voice courtesy of his gill.
"I got something I think you'd be interested in," Slippy said.
Slippy led Jacques to the hangar, where they headed to the absolute back of the rather larger bay.
"I've been working on this for the past 3 months," Slippy said, "And I got the idea and plans from…"
He looked over at Jacques.
"…innocently browsing through the Thunderhawk's main computer," Slippy finished.
Jacques nodded, knowing that the Imperial transport he spent the last 13 years adrift on, dozing on the bridge's main chair, was now a permanent addition to the Great Fox, it still being connected to it though one of the airlocks.
They then walked up to something which was just above Jacques size, say 12 feet, was was under a cover. Slippy smiled and gripped the edge of the material.
"TA-DAA!"
He pulled if off, where at the instant Jacques' eyes widened in complete surprise, luckily hidden behind his helmet.
"Is that suppose to be a…Marine Drop Pod?"
And it was , right down to the last detail. Only that instead of Imperial-forged metal it was built out of the kind of steel used for Cornerian Class-A Star Cruisers.
"I know it's not as crafted as how Space Marine's build it," Slippy said, "But I guarantee you can sit in it and you won't even feel the heat as you pass through the atmosphere."
"You know that for sure?" Jacques asked, hand on the pod.
"Well…"Slippy begun, "I haven't actually tested it yet, which is what I also wanted to ask you about."
"I would like to," Jacques replied.
He noticed a red button to the side and pushed it, where a door opened and folded out before him. He struck his head in and saw that it was big enough and wide enough to accommodate a squad of Space Marines.
"Hopefully it'll be reusable," Slippy said, smiling.
"I highly doubt," Jacques commented, turning back to him, "Once a pod is deployed, it will either be too damaged after the drop or…"
Slippy looked at the armoured human as he continued, feeling him stare into his soul.
"…it would be madness to try and recover it from behind enemy lines."
'I knew he'd complicate things,' Slippy thought, slightly irritated.
"So we it would be best to use this when it really counts," Jacques finally finished.
Slippy nodded, "Fair enough."
Jacques took one look at the pod, examining it for a few second, before turning back to Slippy.
"One thing still confuses me," Jacques asked, "How do you deploy it from ship?"
"Ah," Slippy said, brightening, "We fire it from the garbage chute on the Great Fox. It's just near the hangar."
Jacques looked at the frog questioningly, "I…see. The Garbage chute."
Meanwhile on the surface of MacBeth, a cap wearing soldier ran for his life from the base, his feet hitting dirt now. He clutched his blaster rifle in one hand and being capped in the shoulder by a bullet, his breath sound ragged and full of panic as he continued to run for his dear life.
'F#$#$ being court-martialled for desertion,' he thought, 'Those things are EVERYWHERE!"
Of everything that should happen, he tripped over a rock and fell flat on the dirt He cried out loud, the bullet in his shoulder digging itself further into him. As she picked himself up, he felt lead tear through his back and out of his chest, barely missing the heart. He screamed and rolled onto his back, blood pouring out of the wound.
Solar was in his eyes, before a large, muscled figure stood above him, blocking out the star. The figure smiled widely, bearing his stained teeth.
It then unsheathed it's large battle axe, where it held it above it's head.
The soldier's eyes widened as he stretched his hands forward in protest. The axe came down…
"NOOOOOO…"
…splitting the Cornerian Grunt's head in half, completely expiring his life. The invader, still smiling, turned around and back to the base, where more unlucky souls awaited imminent death.
The Great Fox was directly above the planet, where Fox, Falco and Krystal joined Jacques and Slippy in the hangar.
"Showing Jacques the new drop-pod, eh Slip?" Fox asked the grog.
Slippy nodded and smiled, "Lylatian produced with Imperium-brand Seal of Approval."
They all looked at Jacques as if waiting for him to confirm what Slippy said. Jacques simply gave one thumb up.
'This is just my opinion,' he thought.
"Alright," Fox said, "We'll just make a sweep over the base and confirm the enemy."
He then looked straight at Jacques.
"Sorry, pal," he finished, sympathetically, "No conflict this time."
It was a good thing they couldn't see the Marine's face behind his helmet, as it was that of disturbance and slight anger. But he quickly swallowed his irritancy.
"Understood," Jacques replied, his voice slightly heated.
He then turned and left the hangar, leaving the others to be dumbfounded.
"And I thought you were going to break to him gently," Falco joked sharply, "He sounded that annoyed."
Krystal sighed in her mind. It's always hard for someone brought up on a religion focussing around faith and violence to be denied his share of war.
'He must think he's useless,' Krystal thought.
That was Jacques' thoughts exactly.
'I am useless,' he thought as he made his way to the bridge, 'Once again.'
He then stepped onto the bridge, where Peppy and ROB greeted him.
"Jacques," Peppy begun, "Slippy's shown you the new prototype drop-pod?"
The Marine pulled off his helemt and unlatched his gill, before replying, "He did. But unfortunately I will not be using it anytime soon.
Peppy nodded, "I know how you feel. Being trained for war and not being called upon."
Jacques put his helmet and gill on a nearby computer console and stepped up to Peppy.
"Look on the bright side," Peppy reassured him, "If you haven't being called upon to fight, then that means there is peace. And the Adeptus Astartes…"
The old hare smiled.
"…they seek to bring about peace in the universe."
"That is logical," Jacques said, sharing his views, "But…"
He then saw from the bridge 4 Arwings flying away from the Great Fox, down to the planet.
"…what will there be for men like me?" Jacques continued, "My will is to fight and destroy those who threaten life's very existence…"
Peppy listened on to Jacques' philosophy.
"…without that will, I am nothing," Jacques finished, "And there would be no reason for me to exist much longer."
Peppy sighed, understanding his point of view.
Soon, the Arwings were passing through the atmosphere of the planet, separate but vaguely similar thoughts going through each of their pilots' minds, which were of what awaited them on the planet's surface.
Fox noticed the silence over the coms, so he decided to break it.
"Everyone ok?" he asked.
Yeah, came everyone else's' reply.
"We're just gonna make a couple of passes over the rail yards and the base we'll call it a day," Fox explained again.
Uh, that's what we're worried about, Falco said hastily, Something big is going to happen, it always has.
'Oh God,' Fox thought, 'Here we go again with the cliches.'
They soon descended from the clouds, souring over the grey flat landscape off MacBeth, which was well-known as the 'Train' planet.
"This place hasn't changed one bit," Slippy remarked, "When Pepper mentioned garrisoning this planet, I expected he'd build like, well, more bases."
"Guess not," Falco remarked.
They spotted the rail tracks in the distance, as well as what remained of the fuel bunker they blew so long ago, thanks to a mix of strategy, good-timing and brute force.
Fox smirked, remembering how they destroyed it: By a last minute re-routing of that massive supply train, conducted by a smart-ass gorilla.
"Follow the tracks," Fox said, "We'll scan over the base from there."
Alright, Peppy said over the com, But be careful. We don't what we're really dealing with here.
"Acknowledged," Fox replied.
They flew down across the train tracks, where about a couple minutes later the main base was in sight…or what was left of it.
"Oh my…" Falco begun slowly.
They base was practically razed to the ground. Fire erupted from the buildings, the control tower and the train yards. Some buildings were even completely blown out.
Krystal's eyes were wide as saucers, the scene instantly reminding her of another similar scenario of death and destruction.
"Cerinia," she said to herself, disturbed.
Suddenly, her alarms went off.
"Huh?" she said, returning to reality.
WARNING: MISSILE LOCK
A flaming rocket was fire from the burning control tower and hurtled right towards Krystal's Awing.
"Krystal!" Fox cried, "EVASIVE MANUEVERS! BREAK!"