Chapter 4: Scarred but not Beaten
Abandoned asteroid mining colony 10:15 local time.
Inside the deepest darkest corner of the Lylat system lies an old abandoned mining colony. The colony, decades ago was one the main sources of income to outlying Lylat territories and the surrounding systems. After several major accidents and a few deaths the mines were shut down and forgotten. Thirty years after the shut down the colony now serves as the main base of operations for The Crimson Blade. The mass and obscure location makes this colony the perfect fortress for the blood lusted terrorists.
Within the massive stronghold houses hundreds if not thousands of committed Crimson Blade personnel. The blood crazed yet well trained insurgents operate more like a private army rather than a simple terrorist cell. But their motives however are no different. Simply put, power and blood are the only things that drive these heartless murderers.
On top of the highest tower to the station, formerly its executive meeting room stands the main Combat Information Center (CIC) for The Crimson Blade. Dozens of the terrorists groups top officers gather including their supreme commander General Maximilian Sage himself. Years back Sage was one of the most brilliant and well trained officers in the Cornerain Army. If it wasn't for his questionable tactics he may very well have taken General Pepper's position. Enraged Sage left the Federation and became the commander of the Venomain Army. He led his troops in dozens of victories, with his greatest on Macbeth. Since the wars end he has wondered the system planning and recruiting to extract his vengeance on the unsuspecting Lylatians.
While the majority of the officers sit around a large table Sage vengefully stands on the far end of the room not facing the others. The incident on Papetoon was less than thrilling to the malicious general. Not to mention marks their first major security breach and tactical defeat. Sage of course wants answers.
"Now lets go over this again. What the hell happened down there? I want answers NOW!" Sage ordered still not facing his staff.
"At approximately 02:20 local time prisoner Katt Monroe escaped custody and hacked our network and communications hub to signal a rescue operation. At approximately 05:45 is when our troops came into first contact with the infiltrator. The infiltrator and Monroe managed to bypass and break through nearly all of our forces and escaped at around 09:00. At least fifteen vehicles were damaged, two were destroyed, and two are still unaccounted for. We estimate sixty dead so far sir." Colonel Vertan reports.
Colonel Alexander Vertan is one of Sage's most trusted officers. The cheetah colonel served as one of Sage's Executive Officers (XO) during the war. Now Vertan is his second in command.
Sage then turns to face the hologram of Vertan. "OK first of all, how did this happen? Secondly who do I blame for this failure?" Sage calmly orders.
"Well Sergeant Tellsman was in charge of the prison ward at the time. He probably could tell you what happened sir." Vertan replies.
"Bring him here immediately." Sage orders.
"Yes sir." Vertan replies and radios the solider.
"Can you describe the infiltrator at all?" Sage asks.
"According to two survivors he appeared to be a vulpine. He apparently he didn't have any distinguishable markings on him either." Vertan replies.
"That means he's a mercenary. I'll bet that was McCloud. If it was him, this could complicate things. Bring up Kursed's signal now." Sage orders and one of the communications personnel hails the rouge bounty hunter.
"Kursed here, what do you need general?"
"Kursed about eight hours ago Katt Monroe managed to escape custody. With a bit of help from a lone commando." Sage says.
"I'm guessing it was McCloud." Kursed replies with a sly look on her face seeming almost unsurprised.
"The commando infiltrated our base on Papetoon, meet up with Monroe and single-handedly killed nearly sixty of my men. The two of them then managed to escape the perimeter before our scouts could catch up with them." Sage stoically says.
"That's defiantly McCloud. He's the only person crazy enough, other than myself, that would even consider attempting a operation like that alone. So long story short, I'm guessing you want me to relocate Monroe as well?" Kursed replies.
"Precisely. Unfortunately I don't have any leads as to where they went." Sage says rather annoyed.
"It's of no concern. I'll find them regardless. Kursed out." As the image of Kursed faded, another appeared this time it was Sergeant Tellsman. The young solider had a look on his face like he had seen a ghost.
"Explain." was the general said in cold dark tone.
"Sir the prisoner must have picked the locks or something and knocked the patrolling gua.." Before Tellsman could finish Sage interrupts him.
"Your failure is unexceptionable sergeant." Sage says and snaps his fingers. Vertan then pulls out his 9mm pistol and shoots Tellsman in the back of the head.
"Colonel Vertan." Sage says sternly.
"Yes sir." Vertan replies.
"It's only been a few hours, so gather your remaining troops and sweep the surrounding areas. Pillage and burn every nearby town if your have to. I want those two found, alive or dead. I don't care. Is that clear?" Sage orders.
"If they're still here then we'll find them sir." Vertan replies.
"Good now go. As for the rest of you, resume your duties. I hope my little example we made of Tellsman motivates the rest of you in the future. You're dismissed." Sage orders and the rest of his staff quickly exit the room. As for Sage, he slowly walks over to the window and stares off into the void.
"I will rule this system or watch it burn to ashes in front of me..."
Corneria City 12:30, 3 days later.
It's been three days since the rescue operation on Papetoon. The moment Fox reached the city he transported Katt to the nearest hospital for treatment. She was very fortunate that she didn't die on the trip back to Corneria. She probably would have if it wasn't for the medical facilities on board the Great Fox. For the past two days Katt has been confined to the hospitals ICU, with Fox unable to check up on her.
On the far end of the hospital parking lot, Fox leans on his motorcycle and lights a cigarette after just pulling in. Normally getting stuck parking at the far end of the lot would piss him off, but he had other issues on his mind. Between the enigmatic bounty hunter and nearly losing one of his close friends, walking an extra block is the last on his mind. After he finishes his smoke he begins walking to the large hospital. This particular hospital is one of the city's largest, most advanced but also busiest in the district. As Fox proceeds towards through the parking lot; he notices several people look his way, mostly with blank stares. He can tell that they recognize him, but paid them no mind. Finally after about a ten minute walk Fox made it inside the massive hospital, and walked up to a poodle receptionist.
"Afternoon ma'am, I'm here to see Kathryn Monroe; that is, if you're allowing visitors yet." Fox says.
"OK give me a second to look up her file. Can I have your name sir?" the receptionist replies.
"Fox McCloud." He says in slightly faint tone to divert any unneeded attention.
"You're thee Fox McCloud, the war hero?" the poodle asks rather surprised.
"I guess you can say that." Fox humbly replies.
"Thank you for services Mr. McCloud. Ms. Monroe is room 301 on the third floor. You may go see her. I'll notify the nurse on duty of your arrival." the receptionist says.
"Room 301, thank you." Fox replies and heads towards the elevator.
It doesn't take Fox long to get up the third floor. When he does he checks in the nurse on the floor. Once she gives him clearance to enter Fox walks up to her room and respectfully knocks.
"Come on in." Katt says Fox then slowly enters. As he enters he was rather surprised to see the pink feline actually sitting up and fully awake.
"Hey Katt, how are you feeling. I was expecting you to be out of it still." Fox says.
"Pfft I'm tough, it'll take more than a couple of trigger happy thugs to bring this bitch down. Still that was a close call. You saved my ass once again. I owe you, thanks." Katt says with a smile.
"You know I'm always willing save a friend, and their becoming far and few. The only thing you owe me as that drink." Fox replies, Katt just laughs a bit.
"I haven't forgotten, but please don't make me laugh. My rib cage still feels like it's going to fall apart." Katt says as she puts her hand over her bandaged wound.
"Sorry, anyways so how bad was the wound? It doesn't appear to be that bad." Fox asks.
"It was a pretty clean shot. Went right through me and did minimal hydo-shock." Katt replies.
"Armor-piercing rounds. So how long until they let you out of here?" Fox asks.
"The nurse said I'll be cleared to leave in a few days. I can't wait; it's fucking boring here. Speaking of which, sit down stay awhile. We really haven't talked much in years." Katt replies. Fox then pulls up a chair and quietly sits down."Relax you're always so damn uptight. I swear you're like a fucking robot sometimes." This made Fox laugh rather hard.
"Well the only crew I have left is a robot." Fox replies.
"That's lame." Katt sarcastically replies.
"Yeah I know, but anyways on the serious note. I gotta ask, what happened? How did you get stuck in this situation in the first place? And how come you contacted me instead of Falco? Not that I minded but it's still out of the ordinary." Fox asked.
"I suppose that's fair; since you nearly got your ass blown off to save me. It was about four maybe five days ago. I was at casino on Fortuna, having myself a good o'l time. I won about two-thousand credits too, and no I didn't cheat either." Katts says.
"I wasn't implying anything." Fox defensibly replies.
"Anyways once it started to get late; I decided to leave before closing. So I was walking towards the street corner to hail a cab when I got jumped at a nearby alley. After a about five minutes of brawling I noticed the assassin was a female." Katt says. This caught Fox's attention.
"Can you describe her at all?" Fox asks rather curiously.
"Not really she was wearing all black including a balaclava. All I could really see was her eyes, which were red. She could have been either a feline or a vixen. As I was saying we continued to duke it out for a few more minutes until the bitch stabbed me with a sedative. That shit knocked me out fast. When I woke up I was locked in nasty grimy cell with a half eaten MRE and small thing of water. I was stuck there for three days and you know the rest." Katt says.
"It's apparent they wanted you alive. Did they interrogate you at all?" Fox asked.
"No, they probably wanted to half starve me first." Katt replies.
"Old school torture tactics, typical of terrorists. But that still doesn't explain why they were after you." Fox says.
"Maybe it was because of my past affiliations, like for you example. I stopped smuggling long before secession even happened. So I doubt that had anything to do with it. Hell for all we know, maybe they just considered me a threat. I wouldn't blame them." Katt boasts.
"Possibly, all I know is that your description of your assailant is similar to a bounty hunter I ran into back on Kew. This was just before I rescued you. This can't be just coincidental." Fox says.
"Well what's done is done for now at least. As far as me and Falco goes, we flew together on his team for awhile. He was all cushy with me until he found some new ex Cornerian AF pilot, and said in quote "I found someone more skilled take care". I haven't seen or heard from him since." Katt replies in depressed tone. Fox could tell that what happened was rather painful to her.
"I'm sorry." Fox says sincerely.
"Don't be. It matters not. So enough about my depressing life story, what about you?" Katt replies wanting to change the subject.
"In short after my team split; I've pretty much have been stuck with only handfuls of private security missions. All of which have had less than exceptional pay. Once the terrorist crisis started Peppy hired me to investigate. I have to say as much as our little rendezvous sucked; the intell you provided us with could go a long way towards winning this fight." Fox says.
"I sure hope so. I don't like idea of getting shot for nothing. Has command deciphered any of the data yet?" Katt asks.
"I doubt it. They said they would contact me when they have found something." Fox replies.
"Let's hope it doesn't take too long." Katt says.
"Time will tell. Well I should probably let you rest." Fox replies.
"Oh come on, your leaving already?" Katt asks rather disappointed.
"Yeah I've got somethings check up on. I'll come by tomorrow alright?" Fox says and stands himself back up.
"Alright, I'll see you later." Katt replies. As Fox was about to exit the door; Katt speaks up again."Hey Fox." Fox then stops and faces her again."Thanks again." she says with a gracious smile.
"Anytime." Fox replies returning a grin. He waves and walks out the door.
Authors notes: First off I would to thank my new beta reader DJatomica69. Your awesome dude. I know this chapter was not that exciting, but it was insightful. Like this chapter the next few will be more about whats going on. As always thanks for reading and for the reviews.