Starfox Evil
Chapter Three: Arrival
"…Fox McCloud has died."
The only thing that could be heard was the steady tone of the heart monitor, and Krystal sobbing uncontrollably. As they all stood there, trying to decide what to do, she came into the room. The fur on her face was matted with tears. Her voice cracked as she said, "Can I have a few minutes with him?"
The others gave their silent consent. As they all filed out the door Doc stopped and placed his hand on her shoulder and muttered, "I'm so sorry", that was probably the first time he had ever said that.
Krystal just dropped her gaze and shuffled over to Fox's bedside. She took his lifeless hand in her's and just stood there.
"Oh Fox. we were supposed to grow old together", a tear rolled down her muzzle and dropped onto his arm. She leaned in to kiss him goodbye. As she drew near she was nearly knocked off her feet by a sudden jolt that shook the ship.
Slippy's voice came intercom, "Sorry everyone. The portal's a little unstable."
Krystal just sighed, dropped to her knees, and rested her head on Fox's chest and wept silently. Suddenly when the vibrations stopped Fox drew a long ragged breath which scared Krystal so bad she fell backwards and screamed. Falco stuck his head back into the room to see what happened and almost screamed himself, for Fox had un-strapped himself and was sitting up on the bed.
The vulpine captain looked at his hands, then to Falco, and finally resting his eyes on Krystal, he said in a slightly shaky voice, "I just had the weirdest dream."
Then all hell broke loose. Krystal dove onto Fox hugging him fiercely; which was eagerly returned, Falco ran over to him and joined them both in the embrace. The doctors came back in and stood there with their jaws slack, scratching their heads.
Fox hopped out of bed and promptly fell to the floor, tripping on the IV stand. Then he stood up again and this time remained that way, "Seriously guys what's going on? Last thing I remember I was on the holodeck with Krystal."
Corporal Steel explained what happened over the last hour and a half while Geek performed several scans to ensure that Fox was alright. There was no trace of the metallic fluid, whatever it was.
"Wow! Doc, that sounds pretty crazy, but I feel fine now. So you two can go back to the other Hellraisers, and I'm going back to the bridge", with that Fox walked out of the sickbay after grabbing his vest and pulling it on, as his shirt had been cut off. Down the hall and onto the lift with Krystal and Falco right behind him. As the doors closed Fox and Krystal came together and held each other for the entire ascent. While the elevator rose Fox and Krystal held a mental conversation while Falco stood off to the side thinking. He had never come this close to losing his best friend before, and in those few moments of terror and disbelief he realized just how much Fox meant to him. He was more than his boss, more than his friend, he was like the brother he never had. And he would be damned if he ever lost him again.
As the lift came to a stop they all stepped out onto the bridge and Slippy said, "Fox we're entering a geo-synchronous orbit above the planet", he was completely oblivious to the events of the past hour.
Fox felt no need to inform his easily distraught friend of the last hour's events yet, so he said, "Where's the Angel?"
"We're pulling up to her right…", there was a metallic clank that reverberated throughout the ship, "now", the amphibian quirked his head, "It's odd though. I'm getting no response from the station's AI", he shook his head, "I'm going to force a seal, but don't bet on breathable atmosphere."
"Fine", Fox said. Then he tapped his COM badge and said, "Hellraisers, suit up! Urban tactical. We are deploying in five which means I'll be down there in three!"
"Yes Cap'n", the XO, Lieutenant Commander Greer, replied over the COM.
"Krystal, lets go get our gear", Fox said as Slippy started to direct ROB in various attempts to connect with the station's computer.
Just like he said, three minutes later Fox was standing in the doorway of the converted cargo bay, wearing a set of modified Cornarian Battle Plated Fatigues, with his father's CEB-6 buckled into his leg holster, combat knife in his boot, and a shotgun strapped to his back.
The Hellraisers were standing in parade formation, wearing the standard issue BPFs, with their weapons slotted to the back of their mottled black and white plated vests. At the head of the formation stood Lieutenant Commander Greer, a mammoth of an alligator at just over seven feet tall. Fox stepped up to the lines and said, "I need six men to come with me over to check the station. So everyone that got 90% on their Close Quarters Combat drills or better please come to the front row."
After ten of the soldiers stepped forward Fox when about selecting his men; Private Trident, a white mouse, Private First Class Tares [pronounced tah-rez], a lynx, Corporal Sang, a snowshoe hare, Corporal Brown, a lanky tomcat, Lance Corporal Johnson, an arctic fox, and Sergeant McClain, a painted stallion.
"Alright, you six come with me. The rest of you stay frosty. We're going down to the surface next. In fact, reset your camo for desert combat."
"Yes Sir", the remaining marines shouted.
While they went about collecting their final pieces of equipment, Fox and his chosen squad stepped across the hall to the docking chamber where they stood for a few moments as the sealing process finished, and they could walk across to the SOS. As the seals finished Fox said, "Seal helmets, the stations internal sensors are offline so we don't know if the air is still breathable or not."
The six men each nodded then pressed their fingers into depressed slots on the side of their helmets, which was followed by the hiss of their helmets vacuum sealing to their BPFs. Then they stepped into the walkway.
As they walked forward up to the hatch and Fox pressed his gloved palm to the scanner to open the door. Nothing happened. He pressed it again, and still nothing happened, then PFC Tares stepped up and said, "Let me try sir."
He stepped over to the control pad and pried off the face to expose the circuits and wires of the device. No power was flowing to the device.
"Diana", the private said tapping his COM badge, "is there any power running through the Angel's systems?"
"I'm not detecting any", the AI stated over the squad COM.
"Thanks", he said as he turned back to the scanner. He unclipped a small power cell from his belt and connected it to the power intake node of the scanner then replaced the faceplate. Finally he activated the generator and clapped his hands together, "Beautiful we're in business."
He pressed his hand to the scanner, sliding the door open to reveal…nothing. No light, no sound, no nothing.
"Lights on", Fox said to the squad, clicking on his helmet light as they did the same.
"By the Gods", Sergeant McClain muttered.
There was blood. A lot, of blood. And it was everywhere.
Private Trident gagged.
"Diana", Fox growled, "link yourself to the Angel's system and get those sensors up now. I need to know if there's anyone alive here."
The response came in the form of the emergency lights blinking back to life and the sound of the stations intercom buzzing with static.
Lance Corporal Johnson walked over behind a console and knelt down, "I found one of the crew", then he stood up… holding most of an arm in his hand, "at least…most of one."
Suddenly a groan was heard.
All the males' heads snapped up to look at each other, drawing their weapons, then Fox said, "Alright. Trident, Tares, McClain; hold this room. Sang, Brown, Johnson; you're with me. We're gonna extract that survivor."
Fox then proceeded down the corridor towards the maintenance shaft which led down to the lower levels. Once the hatch was opened a snarl was heard. Fox pointed his shotgun down the shaft, Corporal Sang's LAB following the same line.
"What the hell was that", Brown whispered.
Fox said, "I'll go down first, Brown you follow, then Sang, then Johnson", the others nodded in response and readied themselves. Fox stepped onto the ladder and descended halfway down before jumping the rest of the way, redrawing his shotgun. The snarls and groans were louder and much closer. Once the others had joined him they slowly walked down the corridor with weapons at the ready.
As they passed one of the laboratory doors the sound of groaning made them jump. Fox stepped towards the door and pressed the pad. The door slid open revealing the dimly lit laboratory. And in the corner were huddled two figures, kneeling over a third person laying on the floor. Fox walked up to them waving in his men who slid inside and took up positions covering their captain.
Fox stepped up to the figures, dropped the barrel of his shotgun from his hand, and whispered, "Is he alri…?"
Then he saw what they were doing.
The person on the right was currently chewing on the prone male's throat, while the one on the left had ripped open his abdomen and was ravaging his intestines.
"Holy shit!"
At the sound of his raised voice three things happened. One, the marines turned to see what was the matter, two, the figures on the ground spun around to face him, and three, the crewmembers snarled and threw themselves at Fox.
The pilot flipped his shotgun up and the barrel came to rest under the chin of the female crewmember, who Fox now saw to be a lab technician. Just as the end of the gun touched her flesh Fox pulled the trigger, causing the front half of her head to explode and her body to fall back. Meanwhile the male crewmember jumped forward, past Fox, and grabbed the front of Corporal Sang's uniform before biting him hard on the shoulder, right where the neck meets the shoulder. The Corporal screamed in pain, pressed the barrel of his LAB into the male's chest, and pulled the trigger.
The male flew back, energy bolts ripping through his chest and spraying blood all over the wall. As his body slid to the floor Sang grabbed his wound and grunted, trying to staunch the flow of blood.
"Damn Cap'n! Son of a bitch bit me right through theLOOK OUT!"
Suddenly the male grabbed Fox from behind and tried to sink his teeth into the vulpine's neck, but Fox grabbed his head, spun around so they were facing away from the others then hurled him over his shoulder. However, instead of letting go, Fox trapped the male's jaw behind his shoulder, with his plated forearm pressing against the back of the blood covered male's neck. Then he gave a quick jerk upwards, which was followed by a rapid series of violent cracks.
As the now lifeless body fell to the floor Fox turned back to the others and said, "Screw this! We're pulling out", He pressed his COM badge, "Diana prep sickbay, Sang got bit and it's bleeding badly", he paused when the AI didn't respond, "Diana?"
Then ROB's monotonous voice came over the COM, "Apologies Fox, but Diana appears to have suffered a temporary malfunction. Slippy is attempting to repair her."
"Fine, hang on ROB", Fox turned towards Johnson, "Hey patch up Sang's shoulder, we can't have him bleeding like that or we'll have to carry him out", Fox didn't even wait for the response before restarting his conversation with ROB, "ROB, tell Doc and Geek to be ready for us, we're gonna be back damn quick."
Fox deactivated his COM and turned back to the others, "Let's go."
Brown stepped out into the hall, stopped dead in his tracks and then shouted, "Run for it", as he fired his Automatic Blaster Rifle down the corridor to the left of the door. The others bolted out the door and down the corridor to the maintenance shaft, the sound of Brown's ABR firing behind them.
As they reached the ladder suddenly the firing stopped and Brown screamed. Fox stopped at the bottom of the ladder, pushing Johnson towards the metal rungs. He turned back down the corridor to see a dozen of the insane crew. Three of the blood covered and mutilated crew had converged on the marine and were in the process of eating him alive. The rest were shuffling rapidly towards Fox and the others. Then they started to run right at them. Fox placed the butt of his shotgun against his shoulder and fired. The three massive bolts flew down the hallway and knocked two of them down, digging massive holes in their flesh. And they got right back up.
He fired again and again, covering the injured Sang as he staggered to the shaft and began to climb. When he was a few rungs up Fox fired his last shot, the gun beeping and a warning light on his HUD started flashing
Charge depleted.
Fox slung his shotgun and began to climb. When Johnson clambered out the top and shouted to Sergeant McClain and the others for help, Fox and Sang were about halfway up. Suddenly Fox saw something covered in blood go flying past him. It was the upper half of some poor crewman's body, entrails hanging out the bottom, it's right arm missing from the elbow down. But Fox was truly surprised to see it wrap it's undamaged arm around the Corporal's neck and bite him on his uninjured left shoulder.
Sang screamed and let go of the rung to try and pry the thing off him. Then it swung it's ravaged arm around and used the jagged piece of bone sticking from it's elbow to sever the tendons in the Corporal's elbow, which were straining to hold both their weights.
Sang's eyes shot open in terror as he fell back and then down. Fox stretched out and grabbed his ankle as he fell past. The half-a-soldier was jolted off Sang's back and fell down into the writhing mass of bodies below. Where it was scooped up by a trooper with a master sergeant's insignia stitched to the shoulder of it's blood caked uniform. Then the ex-trooper promptly threw it back up at them.
However it was stopped short by three bolts from Johnson's Compact Blaster Carbine. Sang groaned and Fox shouted, "Johnson! We really could use a cable about now!"
Then McClain stuck his head over the edge and said, "Already on it sir!"
Fox pressed his wrist-PAD against the rung his right hand was currently clasping, deactivating the magnet holding the butt of his shotgun to his right shoulder, causing the weapon to swing down. Once it was out of the way he reactivated the magnet and turned his back to the ladder, only letting go when he felt the back of his BPFs snapping to the metal rungs.
Once this was done he stretched down and grabbed the belt of Sang's uniform. Then he said, "Hang on soldier, this is gonna hurt a bit", he grunted as he gave a hard pull, lifting the injured feline up a few inches, then snatching the back plate of his armor. The marine groaned loudly. Fox, as gently as he could, twisted the soldier around so they were front to front. Although awkward, Fox knew this was the best position for an assisted ascension like this one. Sang's uniform was soaked in blood, and that blood was spreading to Fox's BPFs now too. Sang groaned again and his eyes fluttered.
"Hey! Hey", Fox snapped, "Stay with me. We're gonna get outta here."
The marine nodded weakly as the cable finally reached them. Fox leaned in and said, "Now you're gonna have to support yourself for a second so that I can tie us together."
Again Sang nodded, and he wrapped both arms around behind Fox's neck, grabbing his dead right hand in his left for leverage. He winced when Fox let go, but the pain of supporting himself soon was replaced by fear.
He was cold....
End Chapter Three