Howdy folks! Sorry it's been a while, been busy.

Starfox Evil

Chapter Eleven: Picking up the pieces

As Fox, Alice, and the marines moved down towards the airshaft the shuttles had been given the order to head down to the surface, while Commander Smith had had a stroke of genius. She starting broadcasting over all A.M and F.M frequencies, "Attention all humans. This is the Cornarian frigate Tranquility. Your planet has been declared a total loss. To ensure your survival as a species you are to be relocated to our system of Lylat. You may choose to stay and we will not force you. But please take note that standard operating procedure for a biohazard outbreak of this magnitude is sterilization of the affected area. That means that if you choose to stay you will perish."

This message was repeated over and over again as the shuttles started to land in areas determined to house humans. So far they all chose to leave, although they were understandably anxious around the marines and crew, especially when they got a look at them. Each shuttle had two marines assigned to it. A pair of shuttles were assigned to the small town. When they landed outside the walled gathering of buildings a large number of humans had gathered on top of the walls. There was also a decent amount of infected surrounding the town.

The undead humans and dogs had immediately turned and rushed towards the ships, but the four marines, Mitchell, Mayson, and the White sisters, quickly cut them down, their blaster rifles making short work of them. Then Joanna and Patricia clamped their rifles and started towards the walls. As they drew near several of the humans aimed their own weapons in their direction. The two soldiers raised their hands palms out, "Hold on! We are here to extract you", Joanna shouted over her external speakers.

One of the humans shouted back, "How do we know you won't just slaughter us?"

The two marines looked at each other. Then Patricia turned back, "If we had wanted to kill you we could have just blown you up from orbit", she reached up and unclasped her helmet. When she took it off and shook her head to get her long ears to relax from their cramped position and she reached up and scratched at her military cut brown hair. She heard the humans gasp, "Seriously. If you want to survive you need to come with us", the humans didn't relax one bit and the rabbit sighed, "Look, just let us in and we'll explain everything."

Again the humans said nothing. But then one of the armed ones lowered his rifle and nodded to someone the two rabbits couldn't see. Then the massive gates started to swing open.

"Thank you", Joanna said.

They walked through the doors to have rifle barrels pressed against their heads, "You move you die", a human said from behind them.

The two rabbits sighed and raised their hands. The human that had told the gatekeepers to open the doors walked down a set of stairs, "Hello. I suppose you're going to ask to see our leader?"

Patricia sighed and rolled her eyes, "Well it would be nice. I mean we did say we'd explain everything", then she felt someone tugging on the rifle clamped to her back. She sighed, "You're not getting them off us."

She felt the tugging stop and the rifle barrel was pressed harder against the base of her skull, "Then you take them off."

The rabbit shook her head, "Not a chance in whatever hell you believe in", she heard the sound of a round being chambered and said, "Before you shoot me, realize that once you do you will have committed an act of war and my comrades up in orbit will have the authorization to slaughter every last man woman and child of your species", she slowly turned around to grin at the man, "That and my wife will hunt you down, tear your balls off, cram them down your throat, and then feed you to the nearest cluster of zombies she can find."

The human gulped. He didn't shoot. Joanna said, "Look. None of us have taken any hostile action towards your people. Just let us explain how this is going to happen and then you can decide whether to stay or come with us."

The man who seemed to be in charge seemed to accept this and nodded to the two with the rifles, who lowered them. The two soldiers were lead to a church in the middle of town. As they passed under the arch Joanna whispered to Patricia, "I think something funny's goin' on. They've got a crucifix up on the wall. I mean it's a little off, but still…"

Patricia nodded, "I know. That's something we'll have to bring to the captain's attention when we get back."

Over the course of the next half hour the two marines explained the SOP to the group of humans.

When they were done the leader, who was named Chris, said to them, "Why the whole planet? The virus isn't up here, it can't survive the cold."

Joanna, who had also removed her helmet, leaned forward onto her elbows, "The virus is mutating. These things have gotten smarter. They've learned to run and climb, some are even using weapons. True the airborn strain can't survive the cold, but how long do you think that will last?"

The humans nodded slowly. Then Michael sighed, "What kind of sterilization are we talking about? Could we ever come back?"

The two soldiers shook their heads. Joanna made a fist and held it up, "Let me put it to you this way. This is your planet", she then pointed out her finger and moved it in a fast ark into her fist, before moving it away and quickly opening her fist, mimicking an explosion. She simply said, "Sterilization is total. Even if the planet doesn't explode, the atmosphere will burn until there is nothing left. The surface temperature will peak somewhere around the temperature of your star, incinerating everything to ash in less than a millisecond", she rubbed her hands anxiously, "So basically no. No you will not."

The humans again nodded as they mumbled amongst themselves. Then Michael stood up, "I will alert the people. Let them make their own choices."

As the rest of them stood up Joanna rounded the table and said, "You've made the right decision."

She started to walk away but the human grabbed her arm, "Could you do me…us a favor?"

The hare stopped, "Depends on what it is."

"Could you ask your commander to send someone to a city on the east coast? It's called Washington D.C.. Our people would probably appreciate your picking up some important artifacts for us."

Joanna nodded, "I'll ask. But I can make no promises."

Michael nodded slowly, "Thank you. That's all I can ask."

"Very well Mr. Redfield."

Suddenly they heard blaster fire. The two marines scooped up their helmets and ran outside…

Outside, as the White sisters were starting to explain things, Sam Mayson and Archie Mitchell, along with several medical and science crewmembers from the Tranquility were waiting. Archie took his helmet off and scratched his grey and white ears, "How much longer do you think this'll take?"

Sam shrugged and said, "Not too much longer I think. The last batch we picked up took no time at all."

Neither of them noticed the scratching sounds coming closer to them.

Archie set his rifle down and reached into his pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. As he tapped one out of the package he muttered, "Well I just hope these people appreciate what we're doing here, risking our tails to save them and all."

As he lit the coffin nail he held the pack out to Sam, who shook his head quickly, "Nah man. I don't know why you smoke those things. All they'll do is kill you."

Archie just shrugged and took a drag, "Unlike most smokers, I actually like the flavor. And besides, in this line of work the last thing I've got to worry about is lung ca…", suddenly he felt something gloppy drop down onto his head. He reached up to grab it and his hand came away covered in clear slime, "What the…?"

He didn't even get the chance to look up. One of the licker infected dropped down on top of him. Luckily for Archie it didn't have a good hold so he managed to spin around before it knocked him onto his back. It tried to lunge it's head down to bite, but the husky grabbed it's jaws and held it away from his face. The creature's tongue shot out and wrapped around his neck, trying to pull his head forward as drool dripped onto his face as it's teeth and claws scratched at his armor.

"Sam", the canine managed to choke out. The fox had already noticed however and took a bead on the beast, fired, and put a bolt through the top of it's head. However the creature kept on fighting, until Archie had enough. Shifting his grip slightly he twisted sharply and heard the thing's neck break. He shoved the twitching body off him, drew his CEB-7 and built a half charge before releasing the trigger and removing it's head, "Chew on that mother fucker!"

He spit on the corpse and wiped the clear slime off his face. Sam walked quickly over to him and said, "Turn around, got to make sure you weren't bit or clawed."

The husky nodded and spun in a slow circle with his arms held straight out. There were claw marks across his backplate where the undead had tried to grab him, but no blood. Sam let out a breath, "Hookay. You're clean."

Archie placed a hand on the back of his head and felt a large lump, "Crap. Must've hit a rock."

One of the medics walked over and said, "Here let me take a look at ya", upon inspection the wolf said, "Yep. You've got a concussion. Better go rest on the medi-bed."

Archie rolled his eyes and sighed, "Fine. Hey Sam, toss me my helmet."

The fox snatched it and sent it arching through the air, right into the husky's hands. Archie nodded in thanks and went to lay down. Over the COM came Patricia's voice, "What's going on? We heard gunfire."

Sam replied, "Don't worry. Just had a close call. Better hurry up though, those licker bastards travel in packs."

Back inside the walls Joanna nodded, "Roger that", she turned to the crowd that had gathered, roughly three hundred people, "Attention humans! You must make your decisions quickly! There are more of the undead approaching, and there are only four of us. We can't hold them off for long."

It only took ten minutes. In the end all three hundred of them had decided to go. Patricia opened a COM to the pilots and said, "Alrighty boys! Bring 'em in close and be ready for a full load!"

The drop ships lifted off the ground to drift closer to the front gates, which swung open wide. They settled on the ground and the humans started hurrying out, clambering inside to sit in drop seats. Mothers held onto their children as they were all given crash course instructions on how to work the harnesses. And they got lucky. The ships reached their weight limits just as the last human climbed on. As the doors swung shut and they lifted off Chris gave a sigh of relief, "We're finally safe."

As they broke through the atmosphere the ship shook and vibrated. The pilot came over the inter-COM, "Sorry about the rough ride folks. This old lady's inertial dampers can't take the strain", there was a rough lurch and some of the humans screamed, "No worries though. You're in good hands."

A few minutes later they had punched through the atmosphere. When they all heard the clunk of docking clamps the humans stood up. The doors hissed open to reveal a pair of medics in bright yellow hazmat suits standing there.

"Humans come with us for decontamination, inspection, and inoculation. You will be provided quarters, new clothes, along with fresh food and water."

The humans stepped forward and complied, moving along the directed corridor until they came to three doors. One of the scientist pointed at each of the doors, saying, "Males. Females. Cubs. Infants may stay with their mothers."

The humans were reluctant to separate from their children, as had every group before them. The second medic said, "Don't worry, the children are in good, professional hands", gesturing back towards the doors he said, "Please. Step inside."

Finally they managed to convince them to separate. As they went inside each group was told exactly the same things…

"Please disrobe and step into the chemical showers."

"Please place your hands and feet on the blue circles for scanning and state your full name when prompted. Remember to enunciate."

"Please remain still while the inoculation process is running."

"Please step onto the driers."

Suddenly an alarm went off, "Warning! Bio-contamination detected!"

The doors at one end of the room hissed open and in stepped two of the Lylatians. one had in his plastic encased hand a syringe filled with a bright green fluid. The man who had set off the alarm started to panic and backed away from the two aliens, "No! NO! Please no!"

However the larger of the two jumped forewards and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders and spun him around, "Hold still", he used one hand to press the human up against the wall, and the other to run over all his body cavities. As that hand made it's second pass up under his arm the encased medic felt something. He turned to his companion and said, "We've got a bite! Right here!"

He yanked the offending appendage up and the human started to panic, thrashing wildly, "It's not what it looks like! Please don't kill me!"

The bite was surrounded by blackened flesh, clearly infected. The larger medic shifted his grip, clamping hold of the human's wrist and pinning it to the wall above his head. the other soldier stepped over and stabbed the needle directly into the wound. the bitten man screamed, "OH GOD! It burns!"

The smaller medic snarled inside her helmet, "Yeah well if you would just hold still, then the needle would stop yankin' around inside your arm and this wouldn't hurt so bad", however the man continued to struggle, until finally it's contents were all flowing thru his veins.

As soon as they were done the two Lylatians released him and the human yanked away from them, holding his arm and shouting, "What the hell did you just stick me with?!"

The large medic shouted back, "The anti-virus you jackass! Now get back in place and shut up! We've got a lot more work to do."

Roughly a half hour later the adults finished, stepping out into the hallway, where they were presented with shoes, socks, underwear, and teal jumpsuits with their names stitched on the chest. One of the women noticed that the children weren't there, and she made this observation clear, "Where are our children!?"

Another medic, this time a calico cat in a tight fitting, but still fairly modest red jumpsuit raised her hands and said, "Your cubs are still being processed. We take extra care with young ones, to ensure no psychological stress. They are treated by crew members like myself and not machines."

This seemed to quell most of the parents, except for the one who had noticed first, "I don't want my baby in there alone with one of you people! She needs me!"

She ran over to the door and started beating on it and trying to pry it open. The female medic walked over to her and said, "Ma'am, you need to settle down. Your daughter will be out shortly and then you will be shown to your quarters", the woman didn't calm down and continued to panic, "Ma'am! You need to calm…", the woman backhanded her. So the medic frowned and sighed, "I hate this part", then she pulled out a small object, what looked like a thumbtack. She grabbed the woman by the collar of her jumpsuit, pulled her back and pushed the small pin into her neck. The woman instantly passed out. The medic caught her limp body and called over an iguana assistant, "Please take her to her quarters. Come back for the cub once you've got her situated."

The feline female scratched her head when the children didn't come out. She sighed, "Alright, what gives?"

She pressed her hand to the scanner and said, "Medical override, crewmember 44524", the door opened up and she stepped inside. She saw one of the doctors, a black wolf sitting by a young girl, probably four years old, who had her arms crossed and mouth and eyes tightly shut.

The doctor was pleading with the child, "Please little one, just open your mouth. I have to give you your vitamins."

The child just turned her head and said a child's favorite word, "NO!"

The wolf sighed and rubbed his temple. The medic walked over and said, "What seems to be the problem?"

The wolf looked up at her, "She just won't take the inoculation pill. And I've tried everything."

The medic leaned down next to her and said, "Why won't you take your medicine sweetie?"

The child pointed at the wolf and said, "He scares me!"

The lupine doctor blinked and said, "Is that all? Well heck", he handed the pill to the medic, "I'll just go and match these other cubs up with their parents."

He left the room and took the other kids with him. The little girl cracked her eyes open, "Is he gone?"

The medic nodded and smiled, "He's not such a bad guy you know", she said as flashes of the previous night's activities with her husband zipped through her mind, making her smile briefly. She shook her head to clear those thoughts as she gave the child the small orange pill, "Don't chew it."

The girl put it on her tongue and swallowed. Then she grimaced and said, "Yucky!"

The medic smiled, "Yeah. I don't like them much either", she held her hands out and said, "C'mon. Let's go find your parents."

The girl took her hand and they walked out the door. The corridor was empty except for the assistant who said, "I'm guessing that's Ms. Robinson's cub?"

The medic nodded and rolled her eyes, "Yeah. Has the mother come around yet?"

The iguana nodded his scaled head, "Yeah. And boy is she mad", he smiled at the child, "We better get you to your mama quick or else she's gonna kill someone."

The girl clung to the medic's leg, backing up and hiding behind her, eyes wide and breath fast. The medic patted her head and said, "I think I'll take her. What's her number?"

"3273495."

The cat picked the girl up and carried her down the hall. When they got to the right room the feline steeled herself. Then she pressed her hand to the scanner and the door slid open. The girl ran straight into her mother's arms. The woman scooped her up and said, "Oh sweetie! I shouldn't have let you go in there", she looked her child over anxiously, "They didn't hurt you did they? They didn't touch you?"

The girl shook her head, "No they were real nice", she pointed at the feline medic, "S'pecialy her! She's a nice kitty."

The woman looked at her and blushed, "I guess I owe you an apology."

The feline shook her head, "No need. I understand", she held up a finger, "Just remember to be calm next time. That pill only lasts for a year. And once she turns fourteen she'll be required to get the permanent injection."

The woman nodded and the medic left. Over the inter-COM a voice said, "Incoming refugees. Hazmat report to stations."

The medic sighed and set off, back to where she came from, "Here we go again…"

End Chapter Eleven

I have been looking over my draft for the next chapter and realized that it needs some work. I should hopefully have it up in about a week.-U.F.

P.S.-Reviews!!!