AN: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and shared their thoughts by PM. I really appreciate the feedback and finding out what readers like and dislike about the story. I'm changing the chapter titles at the time of this entry to reflect their content a little more clearly. A lot of very astute observations being made, I hope you all enjoy the chapters to come as things heat up.
Exchanging Fire
0710 Hours, Winter 6th, 1994 (Local Time) Corneria City, Lynx Family Residence
It was chaos.
Logan had been awake straight through the night, reading through news bulletins on the situation. There had been no word from his brother Adrian, but considering how an entire branch of the UNSC had just been deemed guilty of treason, this was the kind of OPSEC when broken would lead to a firing squad.
ONI was rogue.
"Holy shit," the teenager mumbled, eyes reflecting the lit up TACPAD screen.
Reading between the lines suggested a lot; The destruction of the CCS Vigilant was possibly exploited by Andross, considering how this conveniently drove a wedge between Human and Lylatian governments. With the UNSC busy resolving their in-house civil war, they couldn't afford to commit a defense in Cornerian space. Furthermore, the CDF would now be forced to regard the UNSC as a possible hostile actor after the destruction of the Vigilant; Even if the UNSC escorts were destroyed as well. This conveniently left Corneria with only their outdated Early Warning System (EWS) manned with skeleton crews along the asteroid belt.
A Venomian blitzkrieg could not ask for better circumstances.
Most of the UNSC liaisons on Corneria had been recalled due to the situation back home. Logan had no idea where his brother was, or what he himself was expected to do as a civilian student. If war broke out, he knew his best chances were the UNSC arms locker at the school.
The boy sat back against his bedroom wall, staring at the early morning sunlight peeking through the blinds.
He wondered to himself why he was there. For what purpose did he survive the Human-Covenant war when so many others did not? What was his role amongst the friends he had made?
"Kits! Breakfast!" Came the pleasant tones of Miyu's mother, Catherine.
Logan turned off the TACPAD screen, and slowly got his things together for another day at school.
The breakfast table was set, and the Lynx family had become a familiar comfort to the errant human. He pulled up a chair next to Miyu and started spreading persimmon jam on some toast.
"Here you go dear, I made a fresh pot." Catherine came around the table with honest to goodness real coffee. Logistics had been so bad back in human space that Logan hadn't tasted the real thing since he'd been a child. The calico feline ruffled his hair fondly, exchanging a look with her husband over how close their daughter and her human boyfriend/roommate were sitting.
Telling Mr and Mrs Lynx that he and Miyu were in a relationship together was one of the most awkward and nervous experiences the human boy ever had. Somehow, actual gunfights against the Covenant didn't measure up to hoping your fuzzy girlfirend's parents would like you.
The announcement didn't seem to catch them off guard like they expected, but Logan still endured the lecture over treating her right with stoic discipline. Part of him wondered if they had seen some budding interest between them already.
I wonder how other Cornerians would see us?
As Catherine bundled up Abby for school, Miyu and Logan excused themselves and got their things together heading towards the garage.
Miyu had picked up on his mood, and in her usual tomboy manner had put him into a headlock and demanded he stop being so "mopey." The human teen couldn't help but grin at his fuzzy girlfriend's antics, they always seemed to shake him out of his bad memories.
"You ready?" The feline girl asked, kicking a leg over her hover bike.
Ready to face my world as a couple?
Logan looked into those brilliant blue eyes, seeing her silhouetted by the morning light outside, and answered with a smile.
"Always."
The ride to school that morning was a little subdued. Not as many vehicles were out, and even pedestrians on the street appeared furtive. The news seemed to have everyone on edge.
The human teenager felt eyes on his back. He didn't begrudge the looks, what could they expect after a suspected attack by his own people?
Pulling up in front of CDSS, the pair of teens mingled with their friends among the crowds pouring into the high school.
"I'll see you third period, hun."
Logan kissed Miyu's cheek in a surprise attack that raised a few eyebrows in the parking lot.
The playful scowl on the Lynx's face was worth the smack he got from her tail.
They separated with parting jokes as they filtered off to their homeroom classes.
Logan sidestepped a lavender-hued feline as he walked towards his locker, telling Fara he'd see her in class. The bell rang and he cursed himself for taking too long as the hallways were quickly deserted.
Guess Miss Cunningham will have words for me.
Missing a timing was irritating to anyone who had grown up in a military environment.
He had just put away a datapad into his locker when he heard his name called.
Logan turned arou-
PAIN
Disorientation. Ringing in the ears. A dull throb growing to needle pinpricks lancing his chest.
The teenager recognized the almost-forgotten feeling deep in his bones before his mind caught up.
He'd been shot.
His hand came away sticky with arterial blood, caked with blackened carbon scoring different than plasma would inflict, he thought idly. His vision grew blurry even as a faint scream registered.
Logan Jones fell unconscious, in a pool of blood on the CDSS hallway floor.
"Fox!"
The vulpine pushed his way around a group of students as he made his way to Falco. Police tape cordoned off the west wing of the school, but a crowd had already formed as teachers fought to herd the students away into their classes.
"I'm here," he barked over the noisy chatter, "What happened?"
Lombardi's usually easygoing expression was absent, but for the tightening around his eye coloration, feathers ruffled in anger.
"It's Logan, man. He got shot!"
The rational side of the vulpine was already peering at the scene. Who, and why?
"Anyone see it happen?" McCloud asked.
"Nah! That chick that's sweet on Slippy saw him bleeding out, cops are talkin' to her now."
A badger from the sports team was almost knocked over as a white blur bounded over.
"Is he okay?! Did the ambulance get here yet?!" Fay's wide blue eyes were uncomfortably full of distress.
Fox set a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, "We just got here too, it'll be alright."
This is it McCloud, your team needs you.
He turned to Falco again, "I need you to find Wolf. Both you guys get your ears to the ground and find out who the hell shot him. If it's off the street you two are our best chance of scoping them out."
Falco nodded grimly, and disappeared in the crowd of students.
"Hey! What's going on?"
Slippy and Katt had managed to elbow their way to the cordon tape. Fox pulled them aside and gave them the lowdown.
The normally salacious Katt went ashen, tail wilting. She'd been very fond of the human and teasing him and Miyu. Slippy likewise had his mouth hanging open. Logan was one of the few who never cracked a joke at his expense, and the frog appreciated that.
"Slip, I need you and Fay to comb the 'net and see what you can find out. If you can still tap into the cops' frequencies, get us a lead on what they might know."
Slippy tore his eyes away from the huddle of law enforcement officers and paramedics, and nodded. Fay scowled fiercely, and tugged him along amid the throng of students.
Then there was a flash of amber, and Miyu pushed her way out from between the crowds.
"Miyu..." Fox tried to stop her, but the lynx ducked under the cordon and dashed towards the epicenter. A coyote police officer moved to intercept her.
"Stop! Kit this area's restricte-"
"That's my boyfriend!" The heartfelt shout caught the officer unawares, and Miyu dodged past him to kneel down where Logan was being stabilized by the paramedics.
"Lo?! Lo?! C'mon dweeb this isn't funny!" The lynx's eyes were wide as she struggled against a sparrow medic keeping her from reaching the human's pale face.
There was so much blood.
Logan had been shot almost point blank by a blaster. The laser had cut through his old leather longsword pilot jacket, blackening his ribs where the shot had cauterized. A hemostatic dressing had been applied to the wound, and a stretcher was being unfolded rapidly. His skin had turned unnaturally pale, and the paramedics were racing to start an IV.
The sparrow paramedic finally managed to drag her away from the scene.
"It's going to be okay kit, we're taking him to Corneria City Central Hospital by airlift. This isn't the first gunshot we've had on our watch, we won't let him go without a fight."
The lynx deflated and the sparrow led her away past the cordon.
"C'mon, I'll take your contact info and we'll update you when he's stabilized in the hospital."
The others pulled Miyu back from the police line. The Lynx's tall ears were flat against her skull, hackles on her neck raised. Fay was rubbing her back, even as the feline almost shook with white-knuckle rage.
"I'm gonna find who did this," No tears, the girl was past that point.
Tears were for her dweeb's sappy lines, for a side of her only he got to see.
"I'm gonna find them and make them sorry!"
The tomboy wanted to smash something, someone. She wanted to chase down whoever shot her boyfriend and pummel them into the concrete so badly her claws were digging into her palms.
Fox pushed forward and gripped the sides of her face, forcing the agitated feline to look at him directly.
"WE are going to find them."
Miyu glared, then calmed down as her chest rose and fell erratically. She nodded, not trusting her voice.
The vulpine turned to the group and canted his head towards the front doors.
"Meet us at my place. We're going to give a statement to the cops and head over right after."
The gang set up an impromptu war room.
Fay had done an excellent job when she worked with Logan and Falco to pinpoint who planted the bomb at the McCloud residence. With Slippy, they set up their laptop terminals and began parsing the local NET.
Most of the local chatrooms were filled with gossip. Some of the other highschool kits were swearing up and down Logan had been shot by a CDF undercover agent before he could sabotage the school, while others were claiming he'd been taken out by the UNSC for going rogue and selling them out to Corneria.
Some of the rumors made Fox's blood boil. The poor guy had always lent a helping hand when anybody needed it; the idea he was a traitor in any regard was a joke.
"I think I got something!" Slippy's high pitched voice broke the tense silence, and they crowded around his screen as he highlighted one of the first year's comments.
Sally_A3rn: There were only liek 6 ppl late for class this morning i know i was in the office when they did attendnce! I was the 7th
T4ils_33: Seriously?
Sally_A3rn: Ya but the cops took the cctv tapes from the office it cud be anyone of them
Fay frowned, "The security footage isn't connected to the NET, if the police have the original tapes we can't get a look at it."
"So the five other than Logan are who we're after?" Bill asked with his eyes glued to the screen over her shoulder.
"Yeah honey, but those tapes are the only way to know for sure who was late." The collie groaned with frustration.
The bulldog smiled, sending a text message to a certain blue avian.
"That's where you're wrong, sweeite."
Fara rolled her eyes.
"Oh get a room!"
There was a 'SNIKT' as the window's frame was wedged open by a blade, and Lombardi pulled himself through the staff lounge's southwest window.
Falco had a long history as a street punk, and carried all the baggage that label held. What his background also carried was some very useful skills for the kind of scoundrel that might need to bust into the highschool offices and fudge the attendance records so his youth counselors would lay off.
Or snag a copy of those records, maybe.
The avian settled quietly into a crouch. Leather jacket and mag-strip sneakers were surprisingly well suited to the kind of back alley mischief he used to get up to. He flicked his switchblade closed and stowed it in a pocket.
Nobody here, better get this over with pronto.
Tailfeathers counter balanced, he crept between the cubicle desks and lunch table strewn with lesson materials and abandoned marking plans. With the school closed for the day following the investigation, there shouldn't be anyone about to bust him.
The secretary's office was adjacent to the lounge. He reached up with dexterous feathered fingers.
Locked. Usually it was left open.
Lombardi smirked, and fiddled for his lockpicks. Some small-time security like this wasn't worth a sneeze to someone like him.
Most lock systems in Lylat used either a digital keycard interface, or a terminal meant to input the correct code. By popping the maintenance cover open and working the motors as a spoofed keycard stalled the system, lower-end locks could be "tricked" into opening as if they hadn't closed fully before. It was a cheap and dirty way to get through, but hey, whatever works.
Falco scowled as he worked the tiny gears.
He didn't like Logan when he met him.
The human was weird looking. He even looked kinda like those damn apes. The guy barely talked and Falco had him pegged for a wimp. Over time, the guy grew on him. Hard to hate someone who's always helping your crew out.
Then he shot Pigma.
That was the moment he knew.
Lots of guys talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. On the streets, you could bluff as much as you want but if it came to knives or guns out, you quickly found out who would break and who had your back.
When Logan pulled that trigger, he proved he had their backs.
Lombardi wasn't proud of some of the things he had done, the others couldn't understand what it was like being homeless growing up; But Logan? That guy had steel in his eyes, the kind that only came from suffering.
He stuck himself out for the crew, and now Falco was gonna get paypack for his buddy.
The door clicked open, and the avian teen stashed his picks and spoofed card.
Let's see if they still have the sign in tablet in the same drawer...
Slippy's webbed fingers hurt.
He ignored the dull throb and took another sip of JOLT cola, his eyes never leaving his netbook's screen. The caffeine flooded into his system and fought off his urge to sleep only somewhat.
Logan might be dying right now.
The thought made him stumble again in his typing, and he erased that query before trying again.
Slippy wasn't good at making friends.
He was better with machines. They never had hidden rules that you somehow screwed up and got weird looks for; They never picked on you because you looked funny and wouldn't fight back; Machines were simple, people were hard.
He felt lucky to be friends with the gang. Fox was his oldest friend by far, but even that jerk Falco would stand up for him if it came down to it.
Now one of his friends might be dying.
The young frog pulled his jittery hands away from his keyboard and rubbed his eyes.
Logan never picked on him. He was always nice, even though he looked weirder than a Venomian. The human was patient even when he kept screwing up at the rifle range, showing him how to fire properly over and over again without getting mad. Slippy liked the way the human took his gadgets seriously, it made him feel like his dad giving a lecture for the bigwigs.
Now someone picked on Logan, and Slip was going to help bring a world of hurt down onto the jerk who messed with their crew.
Fay was likewise scouring the net with her bright pink netbook. Falco had come through and delivered a copy of the attendance login, with which they corresponded to the school roster. Wolf was still out getting word from the rougher parts of the city, having told them he was following a lead.
The yellow artificial light in the McCloud's basement was usually a comforting place where they all got together to chill out. Now the dim lighting felt like a launch deck before an offensive; Like they were waiting for the signal to cut loose.
Miyu was sitting alone on the couch, staring off into nothing. Fara sat with her, offering what support she could.
"I-I think I've got him!"
The room exploded into motion.
Furry heads butted as the gang crowded around Slippy, staring into the neon glow, shouting questions before McCloud told them to cut it out.
"What do you have for us, Slip?" The vulpine asked.
The toad gulped.
"It wasn't easy, but we tracked down the five other students that didn't sign in. One of them is still in the hospital for surgery, and another was visiting family on Papetoon."
"We had to be sure they weren't alibis, so we did a little background searching," Fay explained.
"Next, we had three that didn't show up, but one of them was an otter in first year who was on cam playing hooky in the downtown mall arcade. That just left two others."
"A lizard senior from spacer parents, and an ape transfer student from Macbeth."
Fara narrowed her eyes.
"Those are pretty likely cover stories. Which one do you think might have done it, and why?"
Slippy wiped sweat off his brow as he replaced his trademark hat.
"Well, Logan never got in any fights, and there wasn't any price on his head over the darknet anyway, so we figured it might be connected to whoever paid Pigma to go after Fox's family."
The vulpine leader's lips thinned as he glared at the two images.
Fay nodded and continued, "So a bit of digging, and we found out the lizard had actually put in application papers for the CDF's spec ops division."
Bill whistled, "Everybody wants to join up with 18x as their MOS, but come on, a highschool senior making the cut for spec ops right outta enlistment? That's crazy."
"Yeah, but the point is that comes with a pretty thorough background check itself. So if he was working for Venom, he'd want to lay low, right?"
"Well, yeah..."
"So we looked at the ape guy, and it turns out his home address listed is actually a parking lot."
"Wait. That means..."
Brrrrring! Brrrring!
Fara flipped out her phone.
"Hello?"
"It's me."
"Wolf?" There was a note of worry in her voice. The rest of the gang looked on as she put him on speakerphone.
"I tracked down the guy that shot Logan, but he's gonna get offworld if I don't stop him. Lot 197 in the Fairchild spaceport. He's got some muscle with him, looks like that Venom hunch was right."
Fara's eyes blazed, her ears twitching angrily.
"We'll come back you up, just stay put!"
There was a chuckle from the other end of the line.
"You know me better than that, beautiful."
The line went dead, despite Fara's furious shouting.
The first gunshot spurred the goons into action.
One salamander crashed to the ground, the heavy laser bolt having cauterized his skull wound. Of the two others, they were already high strung being that deep into enemy territory. Whirling into cover, they returned fire at the intruder in the hangar bay 197.
A teenage grey wolf, wearing a shabby tan duster was aiming at them from behind one of the maintenance support hydraulics that mated with the different ships. His blaster was unusually heavy, likely some illegal mod from the streets.
"Make a break for the shuttle if you can, the rendezvous coordinates are punched in already." The larger gorilla said to the teenage monkey. A business casual rainjacket covered ablative personal armor of a periphery planet's manufacture. Nothing that could be tied back to their real backer.
The younger monkey steeled himself to run for the shuttle door, but flattened himself behind a crate with a curse as another angry red bolt ripped through the space his head had almost been. He reached up over the crate and fired blindly to try and suppress the intruder.
The gorilla meanwhile took a more professional approach, ducking and weaving as he crossed from cover, putting rounds of green bolts downrange at the wolf.
"Now!" Shouted the gorilla, hammering rounds as fast as his pistol could cycle.
The monkey ran. Lungs burning, the adrenaline set in as he fought back panic. Was it the CDF? Pepper's secret service? How did they find them so fast?
There was a crash behind him.
The monkey stumbled as he made it to the gangway leading up to the shuttle, the hydraulic blast doors opening as he came within a few meters.
A red bolt smashed into the back of his knee, and the monkey collapsed with a howl.
There was a steady pattern of clangs that echoed in the hangar, and the teenage wolf in the duster stood over him with his heavy blaster trained on his head.
"You stay right there ape, I've got words for you."
The simian twisted to one side, a hand cradling his scorched knee. Unlike the vids, this kind of injury wasn't just shrugged off. Burning through that many tendons meant you were crawling, if even that.
"Wh-who the hell are you?"
The lupine grinned, teeth flashing in the fluorescent light.
"Buddy of the guy you shot."
The monkey's eyes widened.
"Now...now look."
The ape shifted with a grimace of pain.
"You don't know what's going on, why he had to be shot. Just... listen to me!"
"I don't care what excuses you've got, 'nomie."
The monkey twitched at the 'Venomian' slang. He knew.
"Heh... Heh he ha ha HA HA!"
Hysterical laughter, the shock was likely setting in.
"You're all clueless. All of you. We'll never be slaves like you dogs. Ha hah ha. We're going to smash right through where you least expect it and take this world. Heh. We're the only hope for the Lylat System."
"Yeah yeah, you can tell us all about it from cell block 'E'." Wolf took a step forward, sights never wavering from the ape.
It was over in an instant.
The shuddering ape's hysterics ceased as he whirled on the floor and brought up his pistol that he had been curled up over.
Staring down the barrel of the blaster, sound and sensation muted as it became the world.
Wolf's clawed finger tightened over his trigger.
A crash and the world smashed into painful blinding green.
A red bolt smashing home, and a howl of agony.
Wolf O'Donnell fell back, with the char of burnt flesh and blood surrounding him.
Blurry lights and noise filled the air, and the heavy blaster slipped from nerveless fingers.