"Nobody asks to be a hero. It just sometimes turns out that way." – Sgt. Matt Eversmann, Black Hawk Down
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 6, Commando vs. Commando
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Macbeth Western Front (Cornerian Zone)
Jim carried the homing launcher across the camp when suddenly he heard a loud CRACK!
He dropped to the ground out of sheer instinct and then pulled up his own assault rifle. Jim pressed the COM link to his ear and said, "Jewel, please tell me that was you."
"'Fraid not, Captain."
"Oh, shiny." He said sarcastically, "Cody, you still with me?"
"Everything's A-OK, Cap'n."
"Rayn?"
"He's stayin' silent."
"Sure…" Jim looked over the barrier he had thrown himself behind.
Bullets whistled past his head and ricocheted off of the barrier. Jim ducked back under. A few seconds later, he heard the enlightening sound of an AR-4. The two gunners shared bullets for no more than fifteen seconds and then were silent again.
Jim leaned out from the side of the barrier and fired his AR. At least one of them tore through the body of the Cornerian soldier that was firing at Rayn. If they didn't, then he wouldn't have known because a faulty sniper rifle that just missed taking off Jim's head convinced him to get back behind the barrier.
"Jewel?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you pin-point the enemy?"
"I can, they're less than a half a klick from my position. I don't want to fire unless I'm sure I can get some cover from Rayn or else I'll be a lead magnet."
"Cody and I will take care of that."
"Can't let you do that, sir."
Rayn's assault rifle was firing again. In mid-stream, Jim could also hear the assistant fire of a magnum pistol. Rayn was duel-wielding. A technique that Jim had dubbed "extremely dangerous in the face of a professional enemy, they consider it an insult- don't insult a professional."
But, Rayn was constantly proving Jim's opinions on guns and weaponry false anyways, so Jim let it slide.
"Cody, we're gonna start shooting."
"That's news."
"Covering Jewel. Go!" Jim leaned over the barrier and sprayed lead to where the Cornerian were…
Unaria leaned underneath the cover of his own barrier and ejected a spent clip of ammunition.
Damn Cons are too good, he thought, I have to meet this commander.
Already they had had one KIA. There was a large commando over the ridge firing at them with a bigger assault rifle than the ones the other ones were using. He appeared to be a black vulpine. There were two down at the camp trying to draw fire away. And there was a sniper somewhere in between.
Four Confederates Commandos vs. Nine Cornerian Special Forces soldiers. The odds weren't exactly even, but the Confederates seemed to be winning.
Yes, he had to meet this commander.
Unaria dropped his rifle and poked his head out just enough to let the third eye on his visor look down toward the camp. He magnified it to look at the two Confederates shooting from behind the barriers by the camp. The one on the right was smaller. He wore the common Confederate oval-shaped helmet. The small ursine had light-weight Commando body armor covering him as much as Unaria could see. The one on the left was a tall vulpine. He had no helmet and wore only shoulder armor over a leather jacket of some kind. He looked a lot like… a mercenary.
Instantly, Unaria knew who the commander was: Captain James McCloud Jr.
Jim looked over to the side just in time to see Cody get hit with some kind of stun pistol. A bolt of static electricity made it way through his back and then he passed out… hopefully. The bullets from the Cornerian troops stopped shooting, at least in his direction. He could hear them taking care of Rayn, or Rayn taking care of them.
But Jim was too busy to worry about Rayn. Standing over Cody's limp body was a Cornerian Special Forces Commander. In his hand was a pistol with an enormous barrel and a metal cylinder.
"Captain McCloud. I've been looking forward to the day we met." He said.
"What? How do you know my name?" Jim asked.
"Oh, everyone knows your name. Did you think that your heroics during the Cornerian assault on Zoness would go unnoticed by the Cornerian intelligence? Confederate television expands far beyond its own borders."
"I'll address that issue to High Command next time I see them." Jim noticed he was still in the firing position towards the Cornerians that were no longer shooting at him. He stood up to face the now-present enemy and pointed his rifle to the ground, but kept his finger on the trigger.
"Tell me, do you know how many men you've killed?"
"I'll have to count the new ones in the past twenty-four hours, but last time I checked: 122."
"That's quite a deal. Do you know their names?"
"Most of them. I keep track."
"You, police their identification tags."
"Most of them Cornerians."
"That's interesting. Though you're not the first one I've met."
Jim didn't say anything.
"Captain McCloud, my name is James Unaria. I've researched your profile at the beginning of the war. You worked yourself to leader of StarFox II shortly after graduating. Damn fast too. You bear a striking resemblance to your grandfather, James McCloud of the first StarFox team."
"I get that a lot."
"The three of us are a lot alike. Leaders. Intelligent. Strong. A lust for glory."
"I don't lust for glory."
"What do you lust for?"
"I don't lust for anything. I just want justice served."
Unaria smiled, "That makes three of us."
Jim was tempted to lift his rifle and shoot the gorram Cornie where he stand.
"Tell me, do you honestly think that you're fighting for freedom?"
"Yes." Jim answered.
"Good."
Jim lifted his rifle but Unaria was faster. He lifted the cylinder just as Jim pointed the gun at him. Instantly a glowing blue dual-pronged blade extended horizontally from the cylinder and sliced the rifle in two.
Gorramit, an energy sword.
"Luckily." He said to himself. Jim pulled out his own sword and ignited it.
"You're a swordsman?" Unaria asked.
"It was a birthday present."
"Impressive."
There was an awkward silence between the two of them.
Then Jim lifted his sword and brought it to a downward strike aimed at Unaria's neck. The Cornerian defended himself by feinting to the right and parrying with his own sword. Jim followed through with the attack and rolled so that Unaria was now in his former position and he was in his.
Jim was crouched and ready to attack. Unaria had drawn his sword back and had his pistol held backwards so it was pointing behind him.
"Think I'm gonna fall for that?" Jim said.
Unaria smiled an evil smile and then leaped forward. He swung his sword in a long arc at Jim. Jim parried with his own sword but wasn't prepared when Unaria pulled an uppercut and brought Jim's sword high in the air. His body was completely exposed for what happened next.
Unaria pulled his gun upright into his hand and aimed it at Jim's torso.
Jim took the split-second he had and kicked as high as he could and knocked the pistol from Unaria's hand. Once Unaria recovered from the shock seconds later, he took hold of Jim's still held high ankle and brought it up further.
Jim screamed in pain, "Gorram-"
He punched Unaria in the face as hard as he could.
Unaria couldn't believe how hard he was hit. He had thought he could handle anything. He had been attacked by the Cornerian Special Forces veterans who beat the trainees to no end at least once a month. But McCloud, that was something else.
When Unaria had popped his jaw back into place, he stood up and looked at McCloud who was tending to his leg.
"Good hit, McCloud. That'll make some nice war stories. And make me all the more proud to have your pelt over my mantle." Unaria walked up to Jim with his sword held high.
Yes, it would be a shame to waste such a fine pelt on my daughters, he thought.
Unaria raised his sword higher and brought it down aimed at McCloud's neck.
McCloud waited till the energy blade was only a foot away from his body before he dodged out of the way from the burning plasma and then moved back into the enemy to plunge his own blade into Unaria's shoulder.
Burning, singing, screaming pain ran through Unaria's body and turned his blood to steam. His entire right arm went dead and he dropped the sword. For the first time in his life, Lieutenant James Unaria screamed. He could feel his bones tensing and the moisture from his body drying to dust.
"Yeah. Plasma going into your body doesn't feel very nice. I know first hand, and so do you. That's another thing we have in common." McCloud said.
Unaria had had enough of McCloud's taunts. Finally, the pain had conformed to his body. It was a part of him. Just as every other feeling and emotion eventually became a piece of him that he had to conform to. You couldn't separate yourself from it. He would carry this scar the rest of his life, no matter how long that was.
"You wouldn't just let this blade burn through me? Would you?" Unaria said.
"You know… I'd really like to. But that'd be an insult to my brother – Max. He made it for me and I kinda like it."
McCloud reached down to the ground and pulled out the sword instead of shutting off the blade first.
Before that moment, Unaria didn't think he could feel any more pain than when the plasma had first gone into his body. Unfortunately, he was wrong.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" He screamed again.
"Well, now you're alone. Because the guy who did that to me shut the blade off first."
"McCloud… I'm going to kill you if it's the last thing I do." Unaria promised. His right arm was dead and his left arm was supporting the rest of his body.
"You know, I never fully understood the purpose of the third eye on top of the other two for you Spec. Ops soldiers. It kinda looks… like you're some kind of freak."
"Only one of my eyes is real. A Venomian soldier dug it out with his bare claws back in the Lylat War."
"Interesting to know. I'll keep that in mind."
McCloud went into his long leather jacket and pulled out what looked like a hand made Katinan revolver. Long barrel, ten-shots, very very nice.
McCloud aimed the pistol at Unaria's left eye.
Unaria heard a loud BANG!
Then he heard nothing at all.
Jim looked down at the dead body, "Good riddance." He bent down and ripped the identification patch from Unaria's shoulder, "Your patch will go very fine in my collection. I'm not much for pelts."
Jim walked over to Cody and shook him on the shoulder, "C'mon man. Get up!"
Cody rolled over onto his back and said, "Ugh… Captain. I'm sorry. I just… don' feel like I… can keep… going… the shock… took it all outta… me."
"Don't worry; we'll get you to Kave. Or the other way around."
Jim stood up and ran to his other three team mates. Rayn was busy policing the weapons and gear of the dead Cornerian Spec. Ops.
"Y'know, usually the sniper's job is to defend those in rough positions." Jim said.
"Sorry, one of the Cornies started getting too close so I pulled out my SMG and took care of him. Besides, Rayn was in bigger trouble than you were."
"I strongly doubt that. Where's Kave?"
"Right here, Captain." Kave was standing some distance to Jewel's right.
"Still alive?"
"I feel fine."
"Fine?" Jim said.
"I feel great." She said.
"Good, get down here then because Cody's wounded."
"Coming."
"Jim, c'mere." Rayn said.
Jim pointed to where Cody was for Kave. Then he ran over to Rayn, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, but if we don't get to the target fast we're going to be dead meat. They're just going to send more and more teams to kill us all."
"I'm aware of that. But, if you look over there." Jim pointed to the south.
Rayn looked over and saw what he'd wanted to see for a long time.
The Cornerian base in all its splendor, lay like a sleeping farm before them.
"Muerte, me llamo Rayn."