Hey All! i hope this chapter gets at least some blood pumping, and i hope i'm doing a good job writing this. if you happen to be reading this, do let me know how i'm doing, i could really use the insight!
Chris Mills watched the strange Lylattian native as she moved ahead of him. She was both fox like and cat like, sharing qualities of both races. This was something he wasn't used to seeing, even with having been stationed on Corneria for almost a year now. Most Cornerian's looked like an animal from earth, only walking on two feet rather than four. The particular girl ahead of him had an almost human shade of tan fur, and an almost explosion of brown hair, which was usually fairly straight, curving ever so slightly back toward her face, and usually left free and bouncy. It fell well below her shoulders, the lack of uniform regulations letting her do so. Her ears were much like a fox's, sticking up out of her hair, as well as her bushy tail, swaying back and forth with each step. Her face had a much shorter muzzle than a fox's, even though it looked very similar to one, albeit, a little wider than most Cornerian vulpines. Her stunning sapphire colored eyes could easily ensnare anyone's attention, male or female. Not that her very well sculpted body had any trouble at that. He tried to wretch his brain away from that, almost cursing to himself. Damn man, you're married! It can't be hard to resist a damned alien with that hanging over ya!
"Um, Chris, do you see this?" she had stopped ahead of him, in the doorway leading out of the terminal. The door before him looked half closed, forming a hexagonal shape with it's four sliding sections, closing from the corners of the door. He trotted forward to catch up to her, not even realizing that he hadn't been moving at all. She was covering her mouth and nose as he approached, the smell of rotting flesh growing incredibly strong. He nearly gagged himself when he saw what was jamming the door, wedged into the left hand Vee shape made by the doors. It was a brown furred forearm, three of it's fingers blasted off, as well as where the rest of the arm would be if it were still attached to the body. The bones were clearly shattered and crushed, the material being the only thing holding the door open. "Is that what I think it is?" He nodded, a disgusted expression on his face. She turned away and puked, the sound of vomit hitting the metal plating caused him to dance a few steps away from her, startled by her reaction.
"Seriously? You've fought Aparoids, and a rotting forearm makes you gag?" she flipped him off in an amazingly human gesture.
"Aparoids don't smell all that bad! That on the other hand is someone's fucking forearm rotting there!" he shrugged, trying to figure out how it got there. There were blast marks all over the door, as if someone was trying to shoot the arm out of the way. He shrugged, looking down the darkened corridor, the hair's on the back of his neck standing on end as he could swear he heard something move ahead of him. His Cornerian blast rifle snapped up, the light attached to the side flicking on to illuminate the once ornate corridor. Several power junctions had ruptured, leaving paneling blown out in more than one spot. He sighed, guessing it was his imagination as his radio sprung to life, Reece's voice on the line.
"Hey Chris, we got a few camera feeds up. This station is in tatters. Like something just went on a rampage through here." He was reaching up to his radio as a camera feed was sent to him, straight from them in the security room. It appeared in his HUD system, projected onto a set of ballistic grade eyewear he was wearing. It was of deserted hallway after deserted hallway, all in the same condition as this one. He was about to key his radio up as an exterior feed appeared, showing their dropship, a quad engine craft that the engines were placed well away from the main hull, on rotating gyro's to let the craft easily hover. It was humanity's main combat dropship. Suddenly, something streaked onto the screen, red plasma bolts erupting from the craft and impacting the dropship. The pilot obviously tried to dodge the sudden attack, but to no avail, the dropship erupting into dozens of shards. The fighter looped back toward the station, passing close enough to the camera for him to get a good image of it.
"Fuck! Alright, you three, keeping looking at those camera's, see if you cant find anything on them, okay?" they acknowledged as he moved into the dark corridor, Mira trotting to catch up with him as she continued to wipe bile away from her muzzle.
"What did I miss?" he sighed, still scanning the corridor with his light and his weapon.
"Someone just took out our transport. We're stuck here." He saw her gulp, her eyes widening.
"there's another way off this station though, right?" he sighed, unable to stop it.
"We'll have to find one." He heard her curse to herself, wanting to do the same. He started to march deeper into the hallway, weapon remaining raised. After several minutes of walking deeper into the corridor, something ahead of them moved, causing both of them to freeze. Whatever it was, seemed to be just out of range of Chris's light. He glanced at Mira, seeing her weapon already raised as well. They both walked forward, his light slowly inching closer toward whatever the thing was. His heart was racing as his light slowly lit the object up, relief flooding through him as he realized it was just a maintenance bot, attempting to clean carbon scoring off the floor. He rolled is eye's walking over to the small bot and giving it a gentle kick. The small boxy unit clattered over onto the floor from the light kick, it's wheels whirring as it struggled to figure out how to get back up.
"Stupid bot. damn near gave me a heart attack." Mira chuckled along side him, just before something shifted in the corner of his eye. By the time he had snapped his weapon up, the creature was already slamming into him.
Fay looked at the badge in the humans hand, her eye's flicking between the badge and the weapon on his hip. She had figured he was a security guard for a ship that was just passing through, given Solstice had it's own dock and hanger, letting passing ships dock and party. She had no idea that they were a part of an enforcement agency.
"Uh, what do you mean, investigation?" the armed human shrugged, slipping his badge away.
"Just a tip we received, I expect it to be a wild goose chase, but in the off chance it's not, we wouldn't mind some help in chasing it down." She glanced out at her friend on the dance floor before she responded.
"Okay. What do you need?" he shook his head, gesturing toward the crowd.
"This is not the place to speak of it. too many ears. Um here, this is our cabin number, meet us there say, tomorrow morning?" she nodded, holding her hand out to the human. He politely shook it, her voice slipping back out.
"You don't mind if I bring my friend? She's an entertainer on the station, she might be able to tell you about any suspicious people on the station." The armed man shrugged, clearly uncertain about it.
"Yeah, the more the merrier." His partner was the one speaking now, the armed human rolling his eyes at him.
"Well, in any case, enjoy your night Fay. I'm going to head to bed. Leave this partying shit to people who actually like it." the armed agent was speaking again, Fay gently grabbing his wrist.
"Just gonna walk off without telling me your name now?" his shoulder's slumped as he started skyward, audibly cursing himself.
"I'm Sorry. William Hawkins, former Lieutenant, U.S. Army Rangers, now a counter bio-terror agent." She smiled and they shook hands, followed by her hand gesturing out to her friend on the dance floor.
"That out there is Miyu Lynx. Although this may not be the best time to introduce you two….." her voice slowed to a stop, watching the Lynx do a very sexual dance to black feline out on the dance floor, her very loose gold top swaying over her stomach, nearly flashing her breasts with every movement. "She gets a little…. Wild at clubs." She made a disgusted expression, never having been able to understand how her friend could act with so little self-respect.
"Hmph. Reminds me of someone." Will pointedly elbowed his partner as he spoke, his partner groaning in protest.
"I'm not that bad! She's just really desperate. Maybe I should g-" he didn't get to finish his statement as Will smacked him over the head, in no way gently either.
"Get your head on straight Ramirez, shesh." He grunted, his eye's still locked on the lynx on the dance floor.
"Um, maybe I'll join you in heading to your cabin Will." Will nodded, Fay following him toward the door to the club, glancing back to see her friend dancing with Ramirez, or more accurately, on. She rolled her eye's and followed Will through the station. Waiting patiently when they stopped at his cabin for him to open the door. As soon as they were inside, she shut the door, feeling more than nervous to be alone in a room with someone for the first time in what felt like ages. She wrung her hands together, unable to not feel more and more nervous as he unclipped his equipment belt, dropping it off somewhere in the bedroom, out of her sight. When he came back, he had a small handled portable computer that was clearly armored and designed for someone who was regularly shot at. He set it on the coffee table, opening it up and activating it as he sat down. She plopped down next to him, unintentionally bumping into him a little, to which he instantly scooted far enough away to not be touching her. his fingers tapped at the screen for a few seconds, opening a file up on the computer.
"So we got a tip that there was a Biological weapons lab hidden on this station. Normally, we would be a little more cautious with anonymous tip, usually doing some research on the source, but we were also sent this." He tapped the screen to play the video, a very fuzzy and dark image scrolling across. Whoever it was, was trying to focus the recorder on something in a large cylindrical tank. All she could see was a dark shape that looked as if it walked on all fours, hunkered low to the ground, if it were on the ground. Whatever it was, seemed to be attached to the side of the tank. Suddenly, the footage stopped, going dark before he closed the file.
"So do you think that footage is from the station?" Will shrugged, opening another file.
"I don't know, but I did some scoping through the archives, and I found something in that looks similar to that thing, but it still aint the same. Called a licker." The creature it showed was a slow spinning 3D build of a strange creature that for a second she thought had red skin, before she suddenly realized that it was actually exposed muscle and tendon. It's eyeless head looked like it's brain was on the outside, it's mouth open with a long, snake like tongue sticking out, almost a full meter long. it's limbs all ended in five long straight claws, almost like fingers. Beside it were a group of human words she couldn't understand, quickly pulling her communicator up to translate it. the text popped up on the screen, prompting her to read it.
If encountered, use extreme caution. Uses sound and taste to hunt prey. Can launch tongue out and penetrate flesh almost fifteen feet away, as well as crawl on walls and remain motionless for hours to days. Can be easily injured by impacts to the head, due to exposed brain. Extremely strong and fast, using erratic jumping movements to approach prey. DO NOT ENGAGE IN PHYSCAL CONTACT. Created using the T-virus, and it is possible to be transmitted through fluid contact.
She gulped having finished reading about it. and she couldn't help but agree that the thing in the tank indeed seemed to sit similarly, but there had been several differences. The feet for one didn't appear to have the same claws, but there wasn't enough detail to the grainy image to tell.
"That sounds really dangerous. And what's this virus it mentioned?" Will closed the files and then shut the laptop, leaning back into the sofa.
"The T-Virus? Well, near as I could tell, it caused the recently deceased and the living to start eating people. It was used to create dozens of different abominations and was able to infect almost all species, usually with slightly different effects. A vaccine was discovered for it, and a could chunk of the human population are now completely immune to it. hell, it's still offered as a vaccine you can get done. All IBTTF agents are vaccinated against it. so it's not as dangerous to us as it used to be. These files are damn near two centuries old." Fay grunted, pulling up her Engineering access on her communicator.
"So what do you think we are looking for?" Will shrugged, clearly thinking very deeply.
"Well, most Bio labs I've raided are really advanced tech. primarily due to the cost to make a bio-weapon. Most have powerful security systems, although that may be shrugged off here. They should have a very large draw on the power grid though, and a fair size. So I would say, look for a large area not accessible by the public that you have never been too, and has a high power draw." She frowned in concentration, flicking through sections of the stations schematics and blueprints. She groaned, guessing that a simple once over wasn't going to find it.
"Well, give me some time, and I think I can write up a program to do the searching for us." Will nodded, standing and stretching.
"Alright. Feel free to use the computer there. It's a lot more powerful than it looks. Let me know if you turn something up, I'm gonna be sleeping." She nodded, opening up the laptop and putting a few commands in to start building her new program. She sighed before she started, knowing that this was going to take a while.
Fox watched the confused feline for a few seconds, waiting for her to respond. She seemed to stumble over herself several times before she spoke.
"H-How did you get that picture?" he sighed, taking one last look at it before he closed the image.
"Katt. She said you sent it to her." Savannah shakily nodded, still clearly shocked.
"So you know Katt…." Fox nodded, smiling slightly.
"Me and Katt go way back. Met her through Falco." That name clearly meant something to her, causing her to nod.
"I guess that makes sense. Why does this image mean anything? Who is this Wolf O'Donnell?" Fox sighed, looking down at the floor between his feet, his ears flattened to his head.
"He's a mercenary, and a vile one at that. I gave him a second chance after the Aparoid threat, let him fly with us. I thought he had changed during the Aparoid invasion but apparently not. One night, while I was out grabbing food, he came into my home and took my fiancé. I've been trying to hunt him down ever since. That picture is the closest I have ever gotten to him." She signed, placing a hand on his shoulder as she spoke.
"Well, I took that picture here in the club. I noticed that creepy figure later, zoomed the image to try to get a better view. Just chilled me to the bone, so I sent it to Katt. I can't help beyond that, I'm sorry." Fox cursed, his head dropping into his hands.
"It's fine. I'll keep searching, see if I cant pull any strings to find him. And that is something you can count on. I will find him." Fox stood, headed for the door. With in a second or so, the feline was beside him again, grabbing his wrist.
"Wait, I have an idea. Those two IBTTF agents might be able to help us. They're here for some investigation or something, maybe they can run a search or something for this Wolf O'Donnell fellow?" Fox grunted, gesturing for her to lead the way. She glanced around the club, it take her a few minutes to spot one of them out on the dance floor, dancing with a feline. She trotted through the crowd, trying to not run into anyone. She tapped his shoulder when she reached him, him barely turning his head toward her.
"Oh, hey uh, Savanah right?" she smiled and nodded, glanced at the feline beside him and feeling her hair stand on end.
"Miyu." She practically hissed the name out, a faint wild growl emanating from the other feline. Ramirez seemed to catch on almost instantly, stepping between the two of the before something could happen.
"Whoa there ladies, no need to get all fired up." Fox suddenly spoke, gaining the trio's attention.
"You're an Interstellar bio-terror agent right?" he nodded cautiously, glancing at Savannah as he did so.
"Um yeah. Are you telling everyone who we are?" Savanah shook her head, prompting Fox to continue.
"I need you're help. I'm hunting a known criminal on this station. He's been involved in Bio-Terror before. Interested?" the human glanced between Fox and the two felines, both of which were still glaring daggers at each other.
"Uh you should talk to my partner on that one. I'm kinda just letting him run the show right…." His voice dropped off as Miyu suddenly lunged at Savanah, claws extended. The human and Fox reacted almost instantly, restraining the two felines before either could land a strike.
"You useless loose bitch! What the hell are you doing here?!" Miyu grunted, struggling to break the human's hold on her.
"Hey, you cant blame me for taking what was left out. You're the one who shoved him away!" the snide remark was said with such sass and tease that it caused a fire to burn in Savanah's veins, Fox barely keeping his grip on her.
"Both of you! Cut! It! Out! I don't a literal cat fight kicking me out of this rather fine establishment!" the human's voice seemed to drag both of them out of their hormone driven hissing fest. "Will you two please, just simmer down, and lets act as civilized ladies here." They both continued to glare at each other, Fox shaking his head, rolling his eyes.
"Alright, can we get back to the business at hand?" the human gestured for him to follow, headed for the Club's exit.
"Yeah, follow me. You and my partner can discuss it. me, I think I'm gonna take miss Miyu here somewhere else, should she be willing." The feline smirked hanging off his arm in an instant, a small purr slipping out as she pressed herself against him.
"Oh, definitely." Savanah instantly spoke up, earning a glare from Miyu.
"Um, I'll just show Fox there. You two go, well, fuck off." Before either could respond, she stalked off ahead of them, Fox trotting up behind her.
"What the hell was that about?" she groaned, memories floating through her mind.
"Just don't ask. Come on, let's just get out of here." He nodded and quietly followed, clearly not willing to provoke her further.
