"Hate: watch out for the venom of its first bite." - Tato Laviera, hate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 4, Cornies and Cons
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Macbeth Western Front
ATTENTION ALL CORNERIAN PERSONELL
There is a Confederate Commando Unit that has entered the Cornerian controlled Zone. They are armed and considered extremely dangerous. If you should spot these 7 soldiers, DO NOT repeat DO NOT engage. Fire only if fired upon. They require professional handling. Cornerian Special Forces Units will be on the case. This warning does not include Infantry Units Designated as Snipers.
Signed General Dionysus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Macbeth Western Front (Cornerian Zone)
It had been less than half an hour before the 43rd Commando division had to duck underneath the visibility of the trench. They had only spotted one Cornerian scout sitting on a hill. Jewel shot him and Rayn quickly disposed of the body.
They moved back into the trench and kept moving west toward the enemy base. Fox held up his fist as the signal to stop. The commandos leaned against the south side of the trench, to reduce their visibility to the Cornerians.
Rayn looked at Jim and made the signal asking if he could talk.
Jim nodded 'yes.'
"Jim, I'm having a hard time believing that we made it all this way into Corny territory and haven't encountered a single hostile since that incident with the Landmasters. That scout havin' lunch doesn't count."
"He has a relevant point, Captain." Jewel said.
"I noticed. I'm trying to make sense of it myself." Jim said.
The noise of vehicle engines could be heard. Rocks and gravel crunched underneath metal wheels.
Jim looked at Jewel and nodded once. Jewel put her rifle down and gripped her SMG tightly. She looked over the wall of the trench and saw six APCs and four Landmasters roll down the road. She couldn't tell if one of the gunners saw them. If they did, they didn't show any sign of knowing. She was almost positive that a trooper in the APC saw them. But why didn't he fire? He couldn't have been that blind. They wouldn't have kept him in the Marines.
"That is weird." She said going back to her hiding position in the trench.
"Hopefully we're not dead and don't know it." Rayn said.
"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard you say." Jim said, "whatever's going on, we keep moving. Keep silent. They just might be listening in."
"That makes me feel better." Rayn said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Great Fox-B
Michelle went back to the bridge and took her seat at the Command Station. She checked the NAV readouts and said, "All right, let's shut the engine down. We're approaching Macbeth."
"Copy that." Falcin said over the COM. And for the millionth time, Hawkeye and Falcin performed the maneuver that caused the Great Fox to slowly deteriorate the hyper space stream around them and go through a trans-dimensional rift to land in normal space, then continue with their momentum to miss being torn to pieces by a nuclear explosion and then breaking to stare at a planet in the front view port.
Except this time, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of objects in front of the planet. They were at least 12,000 kilometers away, but that still didn't make Michelle or any of the other bridge crew feel any safer from the massive Cornerian armada.
"Amber." Michelle said, without adverting her eyes, "How many are there?"
"At least 5,000."
"Dear God in heaven. There's no way we can win this war."
"Shut up, Max." Michelle said.
"I mean, given the odds. There's absolutely no chance-"
"MAX! I gave you an order! Is that so hard to understand?" she shouted at him.
Max didn't say anything at first. He finally decided it was best to apologize, "Sorry… Captain."
"Never mind it. Just, get us back to Confederate space."
"Captain, we're being hailed."
"By who?"
"C.S.S. Visorak. Cornerian Enterprise."
"Put it on visual."
Amber pressed the 'live preview' button and was greeted by a Cornerian Captain. Her uniform was pure white. There was a parade of colorful emblems on her chest and three medals that dangled from underneath them, "Captain Michelle McCloud, I presume? I am Admiral Kreanus: Commanding officer of the Third Cornerian Armada. My inquiries to StarFox II's presence in this Sector?"
"I think you're well aware of our presence on Macbeth and who we support."
"I thought it was just a job, with the Confederacy."
"Well, some of us have taken a full stance on it."
"I see. Well, Captain, I cannot let you go any further. This area is quarantined by the Cornerian government. Order 2114, Section 9."
"Admiral, I'm requested to report back to Confederate controlled space. If I'm too late, my husband could have me demoted."
"I'm terribly sorry for your marriage problems, but maybe you shouldn't have sided with the Cons."
Michelle was shocked that such a prestigious position would go to someone who would use derogatory terms directly to the enemy's face. Usually, especially Admirals, officers knew not to underestimate the enemy.
"Now, if you would please turn around, take whatever you have aboard your vessel and return the stolen Cornerian property to its rightful owner." The transmission ended and Admiral Kreanus disappeared from the hologram on the projector.
Anger grew inside Michelle. How dare she call her a Con!
"Firing solution on the Visorak!"
"Captain, you're not serious." Max said.
"I want one, now!"
"Captain, we're not sure what these things can do!" He persisted.
"He's right, Captain. These things could rip us like tissue paper, for all we know." Amber said.
Michelle sighed.
The unknown.
Why wasn't she afraid?
Hate.
Gorram Cornies. She thought, but she'd never say it to their faces. Not only was it an underestimation of the enemy's abilities but it also caused them to feel how Amber felt, hateful. And hate caused an enemy to become either 1. extremely dangerous, or 2. utterly foolish. The question was: could Michelle guide her hatred as professionally as she hoped she could?
"Firing solution. Main guns."
This time, Max didn't object. He just sent the orders to ROB who forwarded them to the Captain's computer. Michelle looked at them, "Perfect." She said. No one heard her.
In the velvet black of space, a silver armored ship labeled Great Fox hovered thousands of kilometers above the Macbethan surface far away enough to control its own trajectory in the gravity ridden space. Two black nozzles protruding from the front of it underneath the cockpit glowed bright yellow.
If sound could be heard in vacuum, the Cornerian vessel, C.S.S. Visorak, named after the ancient Krazoa legend of the "stealers of life" written in the Biological Chronicle which has been told by mouth to this day, would have had plenty of time to evade the Great Fox's fire.
Two yellow beams of light protruded from these nozzles and impacted the Visorak. The Enterprise Starship had enough warning to move itself forward only to have its engines obliterated by the superheated blasts of light. Hundreds of lives were lost in the volley.
The Great Fox moved forward, Captain McCloud ordered 20 of the hundreds of Super Nova Missiles onboard the Dreadnought to lock onto the Visorak's cockpit area. The sides of the Fox opened and the missiles ejected from their canister and begun their sole journey to the opposite end of space.
Three of the missiles impacted the huge head of the Enterprise when two small missiles, only a tad larger than the Super Novas came from the Visorak and started flying toward the Fox.
"Michelle! Nuke!"
"ROB! Get us out of here!" she ordered.
"Captain!" Max said, "Crazy Ivan!"
"ROB! Crazy Ivan!" Michelle switched.
"Copy, Initiating Priority Alpha Maneuver."
The Great Fox turned away from the missiles and started moving at flanking speed. Michelle watched as their speed went higher and higher. Finally, it reached its max. The missiles were still catching up. All they needed was for the Hyper Space generator to get ready for an on/off burn.
"Warning, initiating turn… now."
ROB turned the ship 180 degrees as fast as Michelle's heart beat and then initiated the Hyper Space generator. The Great Fox disappeared in a spectacle of light and then reappeared on the opposite side of the Visorak. The fused molecules ejected from the Fox's engine and were close enough to the Cornerian vessel to burn out all of its electrical circuits.
The other two nukes that ROB had fooled had headed off into opposite directions of space before they detonated harmlessly.
Michelle breathed.
A moment too soon.
"Missile!" Amber shouted.
The Visorak let out one final Nova Missile that found its way to the Great Fox's upper port wing.
"Evasive-"
But it was too late, half of the wing was buried beneath fire and the Great Fox was thrown into an uncontrollable spin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Macbeth Western Front (Cornerian Zone)
Lieutenant James Unaria was the Commanding Officer of the 107th Cornerian Special Ops team. In front of him stood four perfectly able equivalents of the Confederate Commandos. The only thing was, they were better. They were dressed entirely in black. All had sharp combat knives and a submachine gun at their sides. With their rifles, either M-21 or the prized Sniper Rifle, they looked fearless. To add an extra touch of death, they each wore visors that made them look like they had three eyes, one in the middle and above of the other two.
The visors let them see in almost any kind of vision: heat vision, ultraviolet, echo visor, scanner, zoom lens, and a dozen others that had little use to the 107th.
Lt. Unaria read the official statement from General Dionysus for the twelfth time. It was about time they were sent out again. Wars with fronts never amused the Lieutenant or any other Special Forces unit. They were almost rarely sent out to battle as the "Regulars" got to have all the fun. Or the worst experience in their entire life.
There was no sound. There was no need. In a war where the Confederates cut out your tongue and fed it to their pets, sound was obsolete. Unaria covered his eyes with his visor and then made a signal with his two fingers motioning them to move out.
It was time to hunt.
"Rayn, coast clear?" Jim asked.
Ryan looked over the edge of the trench, nothing. He gave the thumbs up for Jim and Jewel to take a look. The two McClouds looked over the edge of the trench with their rifles in front of them. There was no living creature in sight.
"Cornies must be scared off." Rayn said.
"No, there's somethin' goin' on and I don't like it." Jim said.
"Jim!" Jewel whispered. She motioned to get down slowly. Jim looked over and saw her putting the sight of her rifle to the area of her visor where her eye would be.
In infrared vision, Jewel could see the outline of a Cornerian soldier. She wasn't sure what kind it was, but she was positive that he was going to take aim. Suddenly, he ducked under the cover of a barrier. He must've seen her.
Jewel ducked back under the safety of the trench and said, "Contacts. Behind the barricade. Not sure how many, but we're in trouble."
"All right," Jim looked over the trench and saw a barricade disguised as an overturned APC on the other side of the dirt road that the Cornerians had made use of.
Dirt exploded right in front of him as a hail of bullets missed their mark and tore up the ground. Jim ducked back into the trench. Rayn looked over the wall and sprayed his AR-4 bullets in the general direction from where the enemy's fire had come from.
In response came more bullets from the Cornerian soldiers under cover. Jars leaned over the edge of the trench edge and started firing his assault rifle. Another Corny fired back. Jars ducked into the trench to avoid the bullets.
Rayn's shield flared blue and its charge kept falling like a rock but Rayn stood like a stonewall and kept spraying his fire like a garden hose at the Cornerian troops.
Jars leaned back over to fire. Jim watched as the back of Jars' helmet opened up to a crimson red color. Jars' dead body fell to the ground in a heap of lifeless flesh.
"We have a KIA! Repeat, KIA!" Rayn said over the roar of the assault rifle's automatic fire.
Kave made her way to Jars' body and checked for vitals. She knew it was unnecessary to do so anyways, she did it out of regulations.
Finally, seven of Rayn's bullets found their target in the body of a Cornerian soldier over the hill on the opposite side of the road. The soldier fell back, the finger of his rifle still held a death grip, bullets littered the air and played hell with any aircraft flying low over head.
CRACK!
The second soldier over the hill was hit in the side of the head by a high-caliber round from Jewel's sniper rifle.
Rayn ducked into the trench, "All right, snipers finally got on the job." He said to Jim, "What we gonna do with Jars?" he said more solemnly.
"I'm not sure." Jim said.
Bentley had been waiting for a long while for the other soldier to come from his cover behind the barricade. He had his scope trained on the left side of it- where the soldier was seen last. If he came around, he was a dead man.
The sniper, unfortunately, was faster. He leaned from his cover and fired at Bentley in a split second.
The shot sung at Bentley and flew straight through the scope, his eye, and finally his cerebellum. Bentley was dead before he hit the ground. Just like Jars.
"KIA, we have another KIA, Captain!" Jewel shouted.
Gorram Cornie, Jim thought, "Rayn! Jewel! Take him down."
Rayn's shields were fully charged. He and Jewel simultaneously jumped from their cover of the trench, both wielded their automatic weapons. Rayn had his AR-4 and Jewel her submachine gun.
They both made sure the ammo counter was set to full and they open fired at the barrier. High and low caliber bullets riddled the already weakened barricade to almost nothing. Just to make sure the Cornerian was really dead, they rounded the barricade on different sides and used the Cornerian as a bullet magnet.
Rayn leaned down to examine the body. He immediately noticed the third eye in the middle of the soldier's forehead, "Special Forces." He said.
"Gorramit." Jewel said, "Jim, we have a major problem."
"What's going on?"
"Special Forces. We're still noticed by the Cornerians, but they're hunting us. Trust me, these won't be the last ones."
Rayn stripped the Spec. Forces unit of his insignia: Cornerian Grand Army, 92 Special Forces Team, Colonel Timothy Gregaria.
"Sure do have some fancy titles." Rayn said.
"Rayn, come here." Jewel said.
Rayn looked over and saw here looking at the sky with her visor, "What is it?"
"Tell me what you make of that." She handed him the visor and pointed up to the sky.
Rayn looked through the visor which was set at x12 zoom. He immediately saw Cornerian Arwing MK-IIIs flying from the Cornerian base in the distance. Their direction was east.
"Jim, we might just have a problem."