Starfox Evil

Chapter Seven: Go Ahead

Then Sergeant White stepped out of the crowd and removed her helmet, "Patty?"

Patricia ran forward, "Jojo?! I can't believe you came here!"

Joanna wrapped the other rabbit in a hug, "What kind of sister would I have been if I didn't."

Tears of joy ran down both their faces.

Fox stepped forward, "While I can understand and appreciate a good old family reunion, I suggest that we move to a more secure location to do it."

Joanna nodded, "Yes sir."

Then Fox noticed a doorway opening behind the three females, "Are there any more of you", he asked quickly.

When they all said no he jerked his hand down to Patricia's hip and yanked free the handgun holstered there before flicking what he assumed to be the safety and putting three rounds into the face of the zombie that had just stepped out of the opening door. Then he flipped the pistol around and handed it to her butt first, "Don't forget to reload."

After the adrenaline began to wear off the marines followed the two troopers and Alice down a service corridor to one of the large laboratories, which had been cleared of bodies as soon as the emergency beacon had kicked on. Once they were all gathered in the room Alice set about retelling the story she had told to the troopers she had become imprisoned with for the past few days.

As she finished many of the Hellraisers appeared shocked. Then they started to shout out in fury.

"How could your kind do this!"

"What do you mean the undead?"

"Our government won't let your people get away with this!"

At the sound of this last shout Fox stood up and let out a shrill whistle. As he took his fingers from his mouth the marines sat down, "Listen up", the vulpine captain shouted, "I'll have none of that now!"

Sergeant McClain, who had shouted the statement, stood back up and stepped forward, "But sir! By the decisions of her people a number of ours were killed! That constitutes an act of war!"

Fox walked over to the large equine marine, "Yes it does. But we are not here to fight a war. We are not authorized to take that kind of action", Fox thought for a second then he pressed the link button on his earpiece, "Slippy."

The toad's voice came over the link, "Yeah Fox?"

"Hey, do we have a viable connection to the empire?"

"Sure, I can connect us to the Angel's old SATCOM", Slippy said.

"Good. Do it and patch me through to Pepper as soon as possible", Fox said, rubbing his temple. Fox looked at the Hellraisers and said, "Take five boys and girls", he looked at McClain and growled, "Sit", pointing at the ground.

The marines settled down, catching their breath. Then Slippy's voice came back, "Alright Fox here you go", there was a crackle of static followed by, "This is Lieutenant John Crow of the United Lylatian Empirical…"

Fox cut him off, "Lt. Crow this is Capt. McCloud. I need you to patch me thru to General Scott Pepper, understand?"

"To get thru to General Pepper you have to code in. Please do so now", came the reply.

"Code in", Fox spluttered, "The fuck are you talking about code in?! I've called him up a bunch of times and never had to code in!"

On the other end of the line the blackbird on the COM was forced to take the headpiece off as Fox continued to rant. One of the other officers stepped into the avian's cubical, "Holy shit Crow. Who'd you piss off?"

Crow looked up at the other officer, "Some guy wanted to talk to General Pepper, Colonel. When I asked him to code in the guy went postal, sir."

The bull colonel leaned against the door, "Did he say who he was", he started to take a drink of water.

"Well there was some static but I think he said Captain McCord or McCloud…"

The blackbird was cut of by a spray of water from the bull, "Captain McCloud", he said as he snatched the headpiece from the bird. While he was resetting it for his species he growled, "This better not be the Captain McCloud I think it is", he put the earpiece on and said, "Hello? Are you still there?"

Fox's angry voice came back over the COM, "Yeah I'm still here. Who do I have the pleasure of tearing a new asshole for now?"

The bull squinted his eyes and rubbed the top of his muzzle, "This is Colonel Angus. I am activating a voice recognition program. If you are who you say you are then you trained to be a marine sniper. I need you to repeat the creed of the Royal Marines in order to verify your identity."

Back on Earth Fox sighed. Then he snapped to attention and shouted...

"I am a marine! I am a soldier! My loyalty is to my empire! My duty is to protect my empire! My loyalty is to my people! My duty is to protect my people! These are marines! These are my brothers! Pride! Honor! Respect! Loyalty! Courage! These are what a marine is made of! I am a soldier! I am a marine! HOOHRAH!

This is my weapon! My weapon is my friend! My weapon never leaves my side! I am prepared to give my life for my empire! I am prepared to give my life for my people! I am prepared to give my life for my brothers! And if I am in command I am prepared to send men into battle to do their duty! Strength! Perseverance! Dignity! Determination! Sacrifice! These are what a marine is made of! I am a soldier! I am a marine! HOOHRAH!"

I am a marine! I am a soldier! This is my squad! My life is in their hands! Their lives are in mine! We protect our own with our lives! No-one is expendable! Nobody is forgotten! Faith! Humility! Wisdom! Tradition! Hope! These are what a marine is made of! I am a soldier! I am a marine! HOOHRAH!"

Fox paused for a second to catch his breath, "You got that?"

The voice of Colonel Angus came back over the link, "Yes Sir. I'm putting you through now."

There was a pause during which Fox flipped up the mike and moved the earpiece over to his other ear. Corporal Mayson stepped over and said, "Damn sir. I thought you weren't a soldier."

Fox smirked, "I trained to be a marine sniper. I set the accuracy records for the timed, distance, cold bore, survival, solo shoot, and competition. I was a real hotshot. And up until my dad died I had a promising career in the service."

Then General Pepper's voice was heard, "Fox? What the hell is going on over there?"

Fox turned to Corporal Mayson, "Hey Corporal, give me your helmet."

The fox snapped off a quick, "Aye Cap'n", before pulling the helmet off and handing it to Fox.

Fox nodded to the other vulpine and said into the mike, "General Pepper hang on a sec, this will be easier to explain if we're talking face to face", Fox took off the earpiece and slipped the helmet onto his head. It was a little tight but otherwise fit alright. Fox popped open the visor. Then he placed his fingertip against the open channel button on the earpiece and said, "Open conference: Mayson", suddenly the sound of General Pepper trying to talk to someone popped in his internal speakers, "Ah! Hello General! Can you hear me?"

Fox slid the visor down and stepped out into the hallway as Pepper responded, a small image of him popping up on Fox's visor, "Yes I can hear you fine Fox. I assume you've either got the survivors or repaired the station and are coming home, right?"

Fox sighed, "Unfortunately you're wrong sir. The Angel had to be destroyed."

General Pepper faltered at these words, "Destroyed? Destroyed!? What the hell McCloud! That was a multi billion credit peace of technology! That kind of money doesn't just…", he would have went on longer but Fox cut him off.

"God Dammit general", Fox shouted. The bloodhound's head snapped back in shock, "With the exception of two marines everyone on that station was dead before we got here! They were killed by a deadly virus that they… they… y'know what? I'll show you", Fox activated his external speakers, "Hey Queenie!"

The hologram tried to appear, but her projectors sparked and died, "Sorry about that. Your bomb did a real number on my systems", came her voice over the inter com.

Fox took a couple of anxious steps, "Can you perform a streaming data uplink through my visor?"

There was a pause, then, "I don't see why not", there was an electronic buzzing sound in Fox's helmet and another screen popped up, showing the child that was the Silver Queen, "If you don't mind my asking, Where is this information going?"

Fox killed his external speakers, "It is going to my boss back home, I want him to see what I'm talking about."

The Queen quirked her virtual head, "How much information am I sending?"

Fox glared at the image of the general, "Everything. Starting with the T-Virus."

General Pepper sat in his office glaring right back at the image of Fox McCloud on his monitor. There was even an image of a small child on the screen, though what species she was the aging bloodhound hadn't a clue. The two were talking to each other about something called the T-Virus, "Fox cut to the chase. What happened over there?"

Suddenly a third image popped onto the screen. It showed a lot of genetic data and test results and other readings that the general didn't recognize, "Fox what is all this?"

Fox simply said, "Tell him."

The image of the child cleared it's throat and started in. General Pepper listened intently, only interrupting to ask an occasional question. When the Silver Queen finished he said, "By the Gods, what were they thinking?"

The Silver Queen popped in with, "At the time the human race wasn't a united people. They still warred and quarreled over fuel, land, religion, and other petty things. And the T-Virus had become a weapon of last resort. In the event of total global war the T-Virus was to be the equalizer to end it. After the outbreak humanity tried to unite, but it was too late."

The general closed his eyes, "And this Albert Wesker, he is responsible for all this?"

"He did authorize the research that lead to the virus, and he also gave the order to experiment with it as a weapon. Originally it was to be a miracle treatment for several devastating diseases, although it also had highly profitable military applications. After it was shown to be a weapon of mass destruction he gave the order to preserve it, instead of destroy it. So in a way…yes he is responsible", the Silver Queen said.

Fox who had been thinking quietly to himself said, "Sir, could we get a mass transit carrier out here?"

The general quirked an eyebrow, "What for Fox?"

The vulpine mercenary said, "Well, from what I can tell most of the people that survived the outbreak are just civilians, non- combatants. I was wondering if we could pull them out, maybe relocate them."

The general sighed and stood up, "Agreed. Fox, I'll send one immediately."

General Pepper faced the massive window behind him which looked out over Cornaria City. After a few minutes he dropped his head down, "As for the rest of them, Sergeant McClain was right", he cracked the knuckles on his left hand nervously, "Green light to engage Fox", he turned and looked at the screen, "Don't make me regret this."

Fox nodded his head, "I won't sir", before he killed the link Fox said, "General, I recommend that you save the data I just sent you. I've got a feeling that there's more here than meets the eye, and that stuff might just come in handy."

The general nodded and turned to face the large window again. Something about that information flashing across his screen was annoyingly familiar, he just couldn't figure out what.

Fox removed the helmet and put his earpiece back on. He stepped back into the lab, "Alice take us to the armory, we just got the go ahead."

The marines all stood up. Several of the marines, including Sergeant McClain passed around high fives. Fox glared at them, "We are not going to just go in there guns blazing though. We are going to try and reason with them. The general said he is sending a transport so we can try and relocate as many humans as possible. Is that clear?"

All the marines except Sergeant McClain nodded in response, "I can't believe this", the equine soldier grumbled.

Fox stepped up in front of him, "You got a problem McClain."

The large chestnut stallion stood a good head and shoulders above the vulpine's six foot height, but he was the one to draw a nervous gulp as Fox stood toe to toe with him, "Yes sir I do", McClain said.

Fox glared up at him, "And what would that be…Sergeant?"

The horse took a breath, "I don't think they are worth saving. They threw away their entire planet, killed it. What's to say they won't do it to one of ours?"

The equine glared over at Alice, who glared right back, but Fox reached up and grabbed his jaw and pulled it around so the stallion was looking him in the eyes. Once their eyes met Fox snarled, "Listen…closely…soldier. This planet's destruction was caused by one man's greed and lust for power. It was killed by a virus, not by it's people. And that same virus killed nearly seven billion people and turned them into the walking dead. I think, as a people, they have suffered enough. We are only ordered to kill Albert Wesker. Everyone else is to be given the opportunity to leave with us."

He shoved the larger soldier away and turned towards Alice, "How about those weapons, hmm? Oh! And a way out would be nice."

It took no time at all for them to get to the armory and load out.

"Sweet lord", Corporal Mayson said as he walked into the large room, "You could deck out an entire battalion of marines in here."

Fox shouted to the marines, "Make sure to grab a 9mm handgun so we can share ammo if needed. Anything else is personal choice. And only two weapons beside the sidearm, we may need to move quickly. Make sure you memorize your weapon, you may need to make repairs or adjustments when we move out."

Alice stood off to the side with Fox as Patricia and Alena started handing out weapons and ammo, "Your men are well disciplined", she said before looking at Sergeant McClain who was loading up an M249-SAW, "With a few exceptions."

Fox followed her gaze and said, "He's just a little tense", Fox shook his head and sighed, "He's a Hellraiser", at her look of confusion he said, "He's a shock trooper", he looked around at the others, "They all are. They're the ones that hit the ground first and they hit it hard. The military dispatch officers look specifically for aggressive soldiers for this unit."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest, "You talk as though you aren't one of them."

Fox smirked, "That's because I'm not. I'm a mercenary, hired by our government. So is my fiancée over there", he pointed in Krystal's direction, "We were hired because our team is the best at what we do. There are four other team members that are not here right now, they're probably up in the ship."

Fox drew a breath before continuing, "The emperor and his generals gave us the Hellraisers because we were going out of system and we might need assistance. I guess I should be glad they did or else my team would all be dead."

After everybody had selected their gear Fox went up and chose his own equipment. A Glock 17 9mm handgun, which he buckled into a cross draw holster on his belt after slotting a 19 round magazine into place, and an M3 twelve gauge assault shotgun. He racked the pump on the shotgun back, opening the breach. He looked into the opening then let it go.

He filled it full of shells then looked it over one more time. Attaching a shoulder strap he let the weapon hang in front of his chest, until he thought for a second and manually activated his magnetic clamps. The shotgun snapped to his chest, "Well that makes things easier."

For ranged offense he selected a sniper rifle off the wall. It was massive, measuring at least four and a half feet in length, and the barrel was bigger around than his thumb, "Hey Queenie, what is this?"

The AI came over the intercom, "That is a Berrett model 82A1 fifty caliber sniper rifle."

Fox whistled, "That is a big fricken' bullet", the he loaded the six round magazine and clamped it to his back after giving it a quick once over. Grabbing a tactical vest he slid extra pistol and rifle magazines into appropriate pockets, along with shotgun shells into one large one on his own belt. After double checking himself he turned to the waiting soldiers, "Make final checks. I'm going to double check our exit." Fox walked out of the room. Krystal followed him.

"How're you holding up", she asked, popping up her blue visor.

Fox smirked and looked over his shoulder at her, "Oh I've been better", he stepped into a small room of to the side and sat on a couch inside, "Being trapped underground on a distant, lifeless planet, with thousands of hungry undead cannibals up on the surface trying to get to me and my friends so they can rip us apart and eat us. Oh yeah! I've had better days."

Krystal smiled, took off her helmet and sat next to him, "Well it's definitely not the worst day you've had."

Fox looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "Oh yeah? Name one time that was worse than this."

Krystal chuckled nervously, "Hey I'm trying to make you feel better", she cupped his jaw and turned him so he was facing her, "We'll be okay. Things will get better."

She leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss then stood up, "Now come on. Let's go check that exit."

The two walked down the corridor, getting directions from the Silver Queen, "Go up one level then straight down the corridor", the AI said, "Finally turn left at the end of the hallway and it is the fourth door on your left."

The two vulpines followed the directions and they stopped in front of a massive blast door, "Um…Queenie?"

"Yes I can see it", they heard the AI say, "I'm sorry but I cannot open the door, it is operated outside my network."

Fox rubbed his chin, "Okay. How are we going to get this open?"

He began pacing muttering quietly to himself. While he was thinking Krystal stretched out her mind, past the door to the space beyond, "Fox", she said.

Fox stopped and walked over to her, "What is it? What do you feel?"

Krystal blinked, "There are two humans inside the room just opposite this door, both male. They're…scared…terrified. The blast door is sealed, and it appears that there are a number of undead in the tunnel leading to the surface. I… I… I can't", Krystal placed her hand over her temple, "I can't tell how…", she collapsed as a single drop of her purple blood ran from her nose.

"Krystal? Krystal", Fox shouted as he caught her. He keyed his earpiece and shouted, "MEDIC! My location now! Queen", he turned his gaze to the security camera, "Get them up here STAT!"

The AI didn't respond but after only a few minutes the sound of footsteps was rushing towards them. Fox tore his gloves off and was cradling Krystal's unconscious body in his lap, her head to his chest, "What happened", Doc shouted as he came to a screeching halt next to her.

"I don't know", Fox said, "She was reading the space beyond the blast door and then she collapsed against me", the Fox looked up from Krystal's face, "I can't feel her Doc."

The medic's eyes never left Krystal. He gently laid her down on the metal floor panels and started checking her vitals manually, all his medical equipment was wiped by the nova bomb.

"You're probably just in shock sir", he said as he used a small cloth to wipe up the blood that had leaked from Krystal's nose, "It might explain why you can't feel anything."

Fox shook his head, "No I can feel her, I just can't feel her mind", when the medic looked at him out of the corner of his eyes Fox elaborated, "A few weeks into our relationship Krystal taught me how to sense someone's mind. My power is very limited, I can only sense people I know really well, or if I don't know them I have to be able to see them and have had some sort of very recent physical contact. Which is why I know you all think I've gone and lost my mind."

The marines around him all looked at each other. Then Corporal Mayson stepped forward, "I believe you sir."

Fox smirked anxiously, "Nobody likes a kiss-ass corporal", then he laughed and stuck his hand out and the corporal helped him to his feet, "But thanks anyway."

Fox rubbed his palms together, pacing nervously, "So how does she look Doc?"

The brown lab looked up, "Without real medical equipment I can't say for sure, but…well…", then he shook his head.

Fox stood stock still. Then he lost it.

"Gods Dammit! If we could just get her to the surface then Lemming could have us back up to the ship in five minutes and the only thing in our way is this stupid fucking DOOR", he emphasized this last word by punching the door, hard. And to everyone's surprise, Fox's fist sank into the steel a little. Fox gave a tug and found that his hand was stuck. He gave a hard jerk and his hand came free with a metallic snap! The flabbergasted vulpine looked at his fist and saw that the skin on his knuckles had been scraped off, revealing a shiny metal fluid under his skin, "What the?!"

Geek stepped forward and slid his visor up, "B-but-but! Our scans back on the ship showed that stuff was gone!"

Fox smiled, looking from his fist, to the door, and back. His skin and fur had started to rapidly grow back, "Stand back", he said, "I'm getting us out of here."

Fox threw another punch and the door groaned from the impact and the dent grew deeper. Fox continued throwing lefts and rights, the concave in the metal growing deeper and deeper. They could see the framework bending now. With one final punch Fox's hand broke through. He flexed his hand on the other side, cracking his now stiff knuckles. He heard someone shout, "Oh fuck! It's through!"

Another voice responded with, "Don't panic!"

Fox pulled his hand back and looked at it. All the flesh had been torn from the backs of his fingers and knuckles, it was the same on the other one. And you could see the shiny reflective surface of…whatever this stuff was. He put both hands in the hole and pulled, again surprising himself and the others when the hole started to widen with the screech of tearing metal. When it was large enough he stepped forward and looked inside, seeing two men in black body armor, standing against the far wall, with their guns aimed shakily at the hole.

"Hello in there", he said, "Mind if I come in?"

The two men looked at each other. Then the smaller of the two said, "Sure. Why not? I mean, there's nothing really to stop you now."

Fox stuck his hands back into the hole and gave another pull, opening it wider. As soon as it was wide enough he stooped down and stepped in, hands palms out, "Now look", he stood up and got a good look at the humans, "I'm not here to hurt you."

The larger one stammered out, "Who! What are you?!"

Fox smiled in as disarming a manner he could, "I am from the star system of Lylat. My team and I came here to rescue some survivors of an…accident onboard our station in orbit. They had taken refuge in this facility. Once we had recovered them we found out what had happened to your planet. We have been authorized to gather and extract the surviving members of your race to our home planet for relocation."

The two men looked at each other and lowered their MP5s, "Relocation? You mean you're gonna get us out of here", the smaller one said.

Fox smiled again, "Yes, as soon as possible. However we need to get to the surface and the only way to do that is through that tunnel up ahead."

Again the smaller one spoke again, "Listen man, I wouldn't go that way. There are a ton of those freaks out there."

Fox looked back through the hole, "Hey McClain! Mayson! Come on through. You too Joanna."

The horse, fox, and rabbit stepped inside. Fox turned back to the humans, "Introductions can be made later. If you two will please step to the side", the two men moved over, "Then these fine soldiers can do their job."

McClain stepped up to the door and opened the window cover. He saw nothing but a swarm of bodies trying to press harder against the reinforced door. The stallion turned to the still shocked men and said, "Is this door bullet proof?"

They shook their heads numbly and the horse grinned behind his blast visor, "Alright then", he shouldered the M249 and, using the strength his size gave him, he held the gun level at head height while firing a fully automatic spray through the doorframe. The undead outside dropped by the dozens.

When there was sufficient room the equine gave the ruined door a kick and stepped out into the shaft, which was nine feet wide and just barely tall enough for the eight foot equine to stand up straight. The wave of undead was less than six feet from him. McClain fired again, and once again heads were chewed up and spit back out by the high powered machine gun. Joanna stepped out and slightly behind and to the side of McClain. She swung her M4 up to bear, picking her targets. Mayson came out last, and he had the most dangerous weapon, a M32 six pack 40mm semi automatic grenade launcher. Mayson stepped out and fired three shots up the tunnel over the heads of his teammates, blowing numerous zombies apart with each shot. The others filed out into the shaft, the human soldiers being lead by Alice.

Fox, Doc, and the unconscious Krystal were all that was left. Fox stepped back out into the hallway and activated a small computer panel in the wall, "Hey Queenie."

The holographic girl popped up on the screen, "Yes Captain McCloud?"

Fox looked back at the hole, "I'm plugging a data storage device into the terminal here", he clicked the transfer node for his PDA into a slot in the terminal, "Huh. Apparently hard-line tech is the same no matter where you go", he shook his head slightly, "Anyway I want you to transfer yourself to the device. We might end up needing you again later."

The child smiled and said, "Of course Captain. Would you like me to purge the reserve data banks for the facility?"

Fox took a brief moment to think, "Do it. But hurry, we don't have much time."

Suddenly Fox heard growling coming towards them, "Oh fuck! Hurry up Queen!"

A zombie stumbled around the corner, it's entrails dragging on the ground behind it. Fox pulled he shotgun from his chest, fitting the butt against his shoulder. He fired and the zombie's head exploded. Fox pumped the slide and the smoking shell casing flew out of the chamber. Then two more undead stumbled around the corner. Fox fired again, then again as more and more of the cannibals came around the corner. Suddenly over his earpiece he heard, "Transfer complete Captain."

Fox snatched the node from the data-port while firing the shotgun with his other hand. As soon as he was done he stepped through the hole and pumped the empty shell out, letting it leave a small smoking trail down to the steel floor, "We've got to go", he shouted, he let the shotgun snap back to his chest and scooped Krystal up in his arms. He carried her as fast as he could out into the tunnel, Doc firing his G36 behind them.

Fox shouted up the tunnel, "We could use a little help back here!"

The response came in the form of Sergeant and Corporal White and Lance Corporal Jackson running back towards them, "Got you covered sir", the tigress said as she brought her M4 to bear. The White sisters did the same and were soon picking off targets at will. Doc scrambled up to the line and fired a full auto spray into the crowd.

Over the COM came McClain's voice, "It's thinning out up here."

There came a relieved shout from the soldiers as suddenly a speck of light could be seen at the end of the tunnel. It took them almost twenty minutes of nearly continuous fire and at least twice that long once the crowd had thinned to reach the opening. As soon as they did Fox shouted, "Defensive positions!"

The marines did as commanded and Fox passed Krystal over to Doc. Then he ran over to Mayson and snatched a few 40mm grenades. Priming them he threw them at the roof of the tunnel opening. As soon as the grenades made contact they exploded and collapsed the tunnel, trapping the undead inside. Then he tapped his earpiece and said, "Slippy! We need extraction now! Multiple casualties…"

End Chapter Seven

Now my faithful minions, Review!- U.F.