Chapter 4

Celestial Night

Fara held on for dear life to Falco's Arwing as he maneuvered through the wreckage of the Spillman station. Even though her boots and gloves were magnetized safely anchoring her to the exterior of the craft, she fully pressed her stomach against the hull like an insect on a pane of glass. As if reading her thoughts she heard Falco's voice over her com, "I can go faster if you're feeling impatient", he mused. "Just don't splatter me across your windshield", Fara quipped back. She heard Falco chuckle, the distortion of the connection giving the sound a slight tinny quality.

"Wouldn't dream of it, I don't exactly have wipers on this thing for space critters", He said. He eased up on his speed as he neared the center module of the space station eventually coming to a full stop. Behind her visor, Fara grimaced as she took in her surroundings. The entirety of the station had been completely blown apart, whole sections of hull containing engines, hallways, subsections, and living quarters, all broken apart. Each piece of the debris was trailing smoke, their ends glowing with burning molten metal. One gargantuan piece sailed over Falco's ship, and Fara's blood ran cold at what she saw as it passed. The section of station was hollow, the edges of the interior ringed with cracked lights that pulsed and sputtered. The dissected interior was a corridor of some kind, and as it spun it lazily spilled its contents like a thrown bag of candy. Machinery, glass, and the bodies of the crew drifted out of the metal husk and into the icy bath of space.

Fara was no stranger to death. Out of the entire team, she had killed and witnessed death more than she wanted to admit. It was never something dispassionate or distant like combat in a starfighter. There were no remains to be found in a vaporized cockpit. No blood, no gore, and certainly not the limp lifelessness that was floating around her. Even with her hardened exterior born of war, she closed her eyes and bowed her head. "My god Falco, what the hell happened here?", Fara breathed. When Falco spoke, the joking jovial tone was absent. "I don't know Fara…..I hope we find Al for Fox's sake", he said. She knew what Falco meant.

"Fox….. oh my poor Fox", she thought. Life had been too unfair to him. He had lost both his parents too young. Despite the love that had kindled between the both of them she caught glimpses of the pain he carried. It showed starkly whenever he embraced his brother. It was lingering because their professions came with the risk of death and loss. They were all that was left of their family. Alex, sweet, shy little Al. When she and Fox had made plans to wed, she came to him head lowered seeking his blessing. He was the only one who could give it, and she had already visited the graves of his parents. She knelt before their tombstones and made the solemn promises of a wife, to be faithful, kind, patient, to be with her mate through good and bad, through sickness and health. Even though the conversation was one-sided, she meant every word. That left Alex to give the final say.

They were drinking and eating the night away at the Mccloud family home on Corneria. Alex himself was cooking the majority of the food, pasta and seafood. She had broken away from Fox and his team who were lounging on the outdoor patio. The group had formed a semi-circle around Peppy who was recounting the glory days of him and Fox's father, the narrative becoming more exaggerated and fantastical as Peppy drank to everyone's amusement. She had crept into the kitchen to see Alex, the dork himself draped in a cooking apron and white chef's hat stirring what looked to be Alfredo sauce for a mix of shrimp and pasta.

For a moment she simply stood there inhaling the scent of food that wafted to her nostrils. His back to her, he stirred the steaming sauce once, twice then with a piece of uncooked pasta he sampled the sauce then ate the stick in a single crunch. "Hello Fara", he said, turning to regard her warmly with one blue eye. "It'll be ready soon, I'm just waiting for the garlic bread to finish". Her eyes flicked to see the stove timer and she could see they had ten minutes before chow time.

With effort, she pulled her attention from the mouth-watering scent of toasted bread layered with garlic and butter back to Alex. She took a step towards him. "There's something I need to talk to you about…..something serious", then more pointedly, "Without the hat please", She said. Alex removed the cap, setting it on the counter. "Sorry, it was a gift from Falco he insisted I play the part". He was looking at her squarely, head leaned forward curiously.

"Okay Fara let's hear it", he said. She took a deep breath, the same one she would do before storming a room full of armed combatants. "Al…..yesterday I went to your parent's graves, to speak to them", she said softly. Alex's gaze shifted to his side. His hand had went to nurse his arm, and for a brief moment, she saw the sadness there. Then it was gone, so quickly she had thought she imagined it. "I went to ask for their blessing to marry Fox…well there was only so much I could say to them", She said. Her ears had flattened and she fiddled with her tail in her hands. "And you've come for mine", he said.

Then shook his head, chuckling. "Fara you're my brother's world, and we've known each other for years now, you're like a sister to me", he said. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder affectionately. "There's no speech, no elevator pitch that you can give to me to erase any doubts, there's simply none", he said. Still, she persisted, "Al….. you're his world too…I promise to take good care of him". He smiled at this then turned and stirred the sauce some more then turned back to her. "Of course you will, you're the deadliest woman on Corneria", he said matter of factly. "You'll keep his nose out of trouble", he winked and turned his

attention back to the cuisine.

It couldn't be helped.

She hugged him then, looping her tail around his waist. She could almost hear the liquid shifting in his eyes as he rolled them in mock annoyance. She withdrew, putting an arm around him. She turned to see Fox standing in the doorway to the patio, his figure partially obscured by shadow, but she could see his face well enough to see the words he was silently mouthing to her.

"Did he say yes?". She nodded, and he grinned triumphantly. He then pantomimed eating with his hands and she mouthed silently "Soon soon", he smiled again, rubbing his belly in a circling motion with one hand, and walked back outside silently. She had moved to begin setting the dining table when Alex spoke. "Fara you're my family now, you need anything I'm here for you". Her heart warmed at this. "Sure thing Al", She replied.

The timer went off then Alex whistled and the gang crowded in baying for food. They all ate, with Peppy soon resuming his tales of wonder. The poor old hare was fully in the bag. Fox had made a silent motion to Alex to switch out Peppy's drinks with water. He was nowhere near an alcoholic, Fox simply wanted to spare him a nasty hangover.

After dinner the inevitable post-feast fatigue took over and everyone made for their quarters in the spacious house. Fara pulled Fox into bed with her and for a long moment, she was completely lost in his passion. Despite dinner, they fell on eachother like half-starved animals. Making love with Fox was like a dream. His hands roamed her curves and contours with a thoughtful touch seeking her pleasure centers, and gifting her with fits of ecstasy that left her panting in sex induced delirium. After a while they laid in each other's arms, Fara gently stroked Fox's neck while he nestled his head against her chest.

"God what a man he is…...what a catch I've been gifted with", she thought as her fingers combed his softness. His eyes met hers and when they darted away coyly, she fell in love with him all over again as she did pretty much every other week.

She felt a sudden tension in him. She waited for him to say something, but he remained silent. Normally after a bout of lovemaking, he was worn out in a half-conscious stupor, but his emerald eyes were alert with a far-seeing look. She nuzzled his neck bringing his attention to her. "What is it cloudy?", she said soothingly. Fox shifted, snuggling closer to Fara.

"I've been thinking a lot recently, about the academy, about Mom and Dad, and my brother", he said. "I still want to make our team and continue mercenary work", he said. "Fox I'm coming with you if that's what you're asking", she said. Fox's muzzle quirked in a smile at this, and she felt his kiss on her neck. "No not that, it's Alex I made him the same offer…he turned it down", She felt him sigh as he continued "Pepper made him an offer to work for him in the Cornerian intelligence service". Fara whistled at this. "Damn your brother….a spy", she said in a low voice.

"I know Fara…I know", Fox said, his voice a mix of both pride and worry. "I don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand it's a big opportunity for him; he'll have a prosperous career and pension to look forward to". He paused, running a hand over his face. "But it'll be dangerous work, and he'll be under the thumb of the same people who tried to take him away from me and my parents", he said. "Because of the work of your dad and Andross", Fara said, now starting to understand.

"Yeah, to them Alex is government property, but he's a living being with citizenship and rights, so this is the next best thing for them", he said darkly. "But why would they want to take him? I thought you said that he was made for the purpose of medical research, what would the C.I.S. seek to gain", she said. For a long moment, Fox closed his eyes; when he opened them, he looked grim. "I don't know for sure. When Alex and I first met, I was very young, and too naive to think much about it. My Father had told me that he and Andross had created Alex to fabricate genetics to combat infectious diseases, an immune system like no other he had told me". "It could have revolutionized medicine and produced antibodies that could eradicate diseases and viruses forever".

"And for a time I believed just that, and why not I love him, Al has always been the perfect brother for me. He never got mad, never mistreated me, never lied, he was always there for me, for god's sake he snuck my love letter into your pocket asking you to prom. Could you really blame me for thinking it was all so innocent?", he shook his head silently chastising his ignorance. Despite the warmth of their embrace a chill suddenly ran down Fara's spine along with an ugly thought that slithered into her mind. She too was curious about Alex, and it wasn't just his silent demeanor, or the fact he was a unique species, no she had come to accept such things.

But during their training at the academy, he had proven to be a capable soldier. Handling weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and survival skills had come to him with an uncanny ease. During their first deployment, she had fought alongside him and had even seen him kill several times without blinking or a backward glance. She had brushed it off as the result of his cool and collected demeanor. But it had bothered her. Some graduates in the armed forces eventually cracked under the pressure and stress or showed more subtle signs, trembling hands, sleepless nights, fugue states. She kept close to him looking for any signs of cracks in the human's psyche. Alex never wavered, he simply took it in stride like he was born for it or in Fox's theory, made for it.

A sudden horrid fantasy flooded her mind. It was Alex but in this version he was much older, his shy face morphed by years of dark deeds and depravity into something sinister. In the day dream he strolled up to her, his footsteps making no sound. Her back was to him and instead of slipping Fox's love note into her pocket, he palmed a knife into her side, the pain and shock making her unable to speak or cry for help. The blood drained from her side as she slowly died. As darkness overtook her, he walked away to the next life he would mercilessly extinguish. She mentally shook her head expelling the vision from her mind. No Alex wasn't a monster, but he was at risk.

Now she understood Fox's concern. "You think that Al was made to be some kind of apex predator?", she asked tentatively, wanting to be wrong. "I can't be certain, Andross took the secret with him but, it's clear that the project that made Alex…..was intended as a weapon of some kind. When the higher ups in the government found out, they shut the whole thing down and exiled Andross to Venom. That left my Dad the dilemma on how to dispose of my brother. But he just…. couldn't do it so he decided to raise him alongside me", Fox said. Fara nodded slowly, she had the full picture. "You're afraid if he keeps on like he is, he'll become fully what he was intended to be, and it'll be under the C.I.S. 's supervision", she said, her voice sounding grave. Fox could only nod in affirmation.

Fara had begun to gently massage Fox's ears trying to calm his mood and thoughts. "What should we do, I'll help anyway I can", she said. "I want to make time and talk to Alex and make him reconsider…then maybe just maybe make a room for him on the Great Fox and take him with us", he said. He fell into silence. She suddenly felt something wet dribble where Fox was resting his head. He was crying. "I can't lose any more family, Fara". "It just might do me in, if they take Al from me", he said. Fara cradled his head in her arms gently cooing and shushing him. "We'll make time I promise", she soothed.

But it was a promise she couldn't keep as the future would prove. A week after, Venom had declared war on Corneria. Everything had been put on hold, even her and Fox's wedding. It wasn't until after the war that Fox had tied the knot. As for Alex, he was in the full employ of the intelligence service much to Fox's dismay. But despite all that, their bond had persevered, and the darkness that Fox had feared would take hold of Alex never surfaced, or at the very least it remained dormant. He had even agreed to have quarters on Fox's ship and made it a point to visit frequently in his off time. Then everything had been up-ended again when Alex had disappeared. "I'll bring him to you", she had said to Fox. She jumped at the opportunity because she had to prove it to Fox that she was a woman of her word. She was going to find Alex and bring him home.

She refocused on the present and the task at hand. "Hang in there Al, the deadliest woman on Corneria is coming to your rescue", Fara thought as she deactivated her magnetic boots and launched herself from Falco's ship into the floating wreckage. For a long moment she simply drifted aiming for what looked like the station's hanger. Past her destination, she could see a Cornerian battle cruiser slowly lumbering into view. She slowed her flight with the jets in her suits shoes, then she looked towards the vessel activating her hud's magnification function. She could see the underside of the cruiser opening.

Silhouetted against the lit interior of the ship she could see a swarm of figures slowly descending into space. They were propelling themselves out of the ship in groups of no more than ten. She continued to watch as they amassed into organized rows like pawns on a chessboard. It was only until the last groups joined the formation, that she got a sense of how many there were. It was a full company of armed soldiers, about a hundred or more. Each was armed with a scaled down repeating blaster along with a pistol in a thigh holster.

She focused the magnified view on one of the soldiers in the front of the formation. She caught a glimpse of the arm patch on his uniform. The symbol woven in the patch was a black wolf with its muzzle outlined in blood. Cornerian Rangers, whoever was in charge of this outfit, were being smart. She deactivated the zoom function in her hud and made sure her weapons were holstered and in plain sight. First order of business was to get their attention, she didn't want to spook them less she wanted to be turned into swiss cheese by a hundred gun barrels.

She raised her gauntlet activating the search light attached to her helmet. It clicked on, its blue glow showing ghostly in the eternal night of space. She was far enough in the wreckage that it projected on the microscopic particles of smoke, metal, and glass floating around her. It elongated the beam of light the way it would if you were in a dusty old attic with a flashlight to navigate. She aimed it at the formation of idling soldiers activating the strobe setting. The light began to flicker in intervals of about three seconds each, then stopped, then resumed again. She did this until she saw one of the leading soldiers mimic this with his own light. She ceased the light show, and waited as the soldiers began to move towards her, the ends of their feet and backs glowing as their propulsion jets carried them forward.

As they moved they disappeared into the darkness of space, their dark shapes no longer contrasting against the glow of the cruiser's interior. She saw them more clearly as they drew close to her. She could make out the black and gray camouflage of their armor and it blended well with the backdrop of the space around them. A single group of ten converged on her while the rest floated silently past their matte black guns clutched in their hands. One of the soldiers maneuvered until he was within arms reach of her. He halted and for a moment they simply regarded each other. His face was obscured by a black-purplish visor, it gave him an ominous anonymity. Nevertheless Fara simply stared back, her golden eyes fixing on a point where she thought his eyes were.

He suddenly began moving his arms and hands in a deliberate pantomime. He raised his right hand to the side of his helmet, rotating an imaginary dial. With his other hand he held up three fingers, then a fist, three fingers, a fist, then four fingers. Fara, no stranger to the tactical sign language in the military, understood what he meant. "Set your radio channel to 33.4". She set her coms to the frequency, making a thumb and forefinger circle in confirmation. The soldier nodded and his dark helmet suddenly became transparent revealing the sickly yellow eyes of a wolf. He was middle-aged, suggested by the slight flecks of gray to his muzzle; the rest of his fur was charcoal black, it made his eyes look disembodied. The ten armed men around him flanked his left and right,weapons held at their sides. Their visors remained opaque which was fine by her, anonymity was important in their line of work.

When the wolf spoke his voice was calm and clipped. "My name is Captain Cliff Webster, are you one of the members of the Star Fox team?", he asked. "Yes my name is Fara Mccloud", she said just as cooly. The men around Cliff seem to react to this, their posture stiffening slightly, several visors turned to exchange looks. The wolf cocked his head in surprise. "Your reputation precedes you ma'am, the rangers lost one of its best soldiers when you left", he said. He gave a slight head bow and the faceless soldiers smacked their weapons against their shoulder plates in salute. Fara smacked a fist against her shoulder plate, returning the gesture. It was good to know that the men and women she had fought with on Venom hadn't forgotten about her, she hadn't either. "Major Shears has ordered my company to recon the wreckage for survivors", The Captain said. Then more seriously, "He told me you're looking for Alex Mccloud".

"That's right he told me and my crew he was visiting the station then returning to our ship the Great Fox after…but he never came back, we were hoping to find him here but", She trailed off indicating the floating carnage around her. Cliff held up a gloved hand in a calming gesture, "Don't panic we'll search this place top to bottom if we have to, we'll find any survivors along with him". He gave a slight jerk of his head indicating the armed soldiers around him. "If it's fine by you we'll follow your lead, if you have a place in mind to start your search", he said. Fara already had a place in mind. "We should start with the hanger, if his ship is really here maybe we can retrace his steps there", Fara said already in motion.

"Yes ma'am, my men are at your disposal", Cliff said flying alongside Fara. The men around him followed, flanking the two in an arrow formation. Her com began to "bleep". She answered it temporarily severing the connection to Cliff and his men. "Fara you there?", it was Fox's voice underlined with a hint of static. "I'm here Cloudy, I have a squad of Rangers shadowing me, we're going to start the search for Al in the ship hangar", She said. "It's like old times on Venom then", Fox said amused. His tone became more serious laced with caution. "Me and Slippy are trying to do our best to access the surveillance system ", he said. "Have you found anything yet", Fara said, feeling a little giddy.

"Yes I saw footage of Alex's Arwing landing in the hangar bay other than that we don't have much to go on", Fox said. Fara waited, she could tell he wanted to say more. After a moment of low static, "You might want to try for the escape pod bay after investigating the hangar it's located on the same section of ship you're heading towards", Fox said. "Okay Fox, I'll do just that, set me a waypoint on my hud, and I'll make it my next stop", Fara said. They were closing in on the hangar, she was close enough to see its interior, however the overhead lights had gone dim giving the space a haunted eerie quality. "Fara - be careful, we found a few recorded transmissions and", Fox trailed off uncertain. "It seems as though the station was boarded by someone and the passengers attacked but we haven't figured out who or what yet", he said. Fara frowned at this. Up until now she suspected the root cause of the attack being possibly pirates in search of an easy picking. There were plenty of valuables in the form of ships, weapons, and tech to fence and make a profit from. But this seemed highly unlikely. The station itself was surrounded by a black hole cluster making traveling to the region hazardous, unless one had the proper knowledge of the lanes of travel. It also limited avenues of attack on the station itself with each hyperspace lane being guarded with ships and starfighters patrolling each area. The personnel on the station itself were a mix of scientists and members of the Cornerian special forces.

No band of pirates was capable nor stupid enough to attempt to attack this place. Whoever coordinated this were pros, but who and how? - she wondered. She filed it away to be pondered later. "I'll be careful Fox", she said. Then more softly, "I love you sweetheart". "Love you too, I'll be in my Arwing covering you", Fox said. They broke the connection. They were now in the dimly lit interior of the hangar; the force field that normally maintained the pressured atmosphere of the station was absent. Fara's boots made a clicking sound as they met the floor and magnetized. She scanned the space left to right the soldiers around her, fanning out, their search lights highlighting the random floating pieces clutter as they began their reconnaissance. She heard Cliff over her helmet's mic, his voice was cool and calm. "Alright people stay focused and keep it tight, remember to call out any findings, you see anyone alive or dead report it". She heard several voices reply to the order in the same cool tone.

Fara walked to one of the many ships parked in the open space, Cliff followed in toe. The rest of the rangers continued their search in pairs, their weapons were at the ready, Fara herself unholstered her pistol from her thigh, holding it in a two handed grip. She turned to regard Cliff, "The scans came back negative, you don't think this is a waste of time?", she said. He shook his head slowly in response. "No they're accurate to only a certain degree, and with all this shit floating around the fire, smoke, the radiation coming off the failing shields, not to mention we're in the middle of a black hole cluster, it's bound to throw things off", Cliff said. This knowledge seemed to brighten Fara's mood somewhat, maybe there was a chance Al made it. She could only hope. She continued walking to what she thought was an Arwing parked in the corner of the hangar.

It was difficult to make out its shape in the dim light but she became more confident in her hunch as she neared it. Something brushed her leg and she stumbled slightly. Pausing, she turned to see a discarded wrench floating about a foot off the ground. It was spinning slowly sailing away towards another ship parked close by, it looked like a personnel transport of some kind. "Cliff, do your men have anything to brighten this place up?", Fara asked. The wolf nodded and unslung his pack and began placing dome shaped lights that affixed themselves to the floor giving off a fluorescent light. The other rangers did so as well. A few minutes ticked by as the interior slowly came into focus, now more or less properly lit.

She was already unnerved by the silence of the vacuum, now the added clarity made it less oppressive. She turned back to the ship and saw that it was indeed an Arwing and the distinct black and gray color scheme on the craft confirmed it as Alex's ship. She ran a gloved hand along its smooth exterior. About a half foot below where the rim of the cockpit canopy sealed was a single word painted in faded purple, "The Chrysalis". She had seen the ship a few times when Alex had visited the Great Fox, he had even shown many of its capabilities. The craft itself was a joint project between the C.I.S. and Space Dynamics to create a ship that could evade the most thorough aircraft detection systems, along with robust defense capabilities built into its design. Its hull was laminated with a metallic alloy that could reflect energy based attacks back to their source. However the armor negated the use of shields, which could only be activated as a backup defense mechanism once the alloy was used up from sustained fire.

He had even shown footage of a test flight of the Chrysalis, of course after vetting and swearing her to secrecy over a pinky promise. In the recording she watched as the craft flew above an anti-air battery which under normal circumstances, would vaporize passing starfighters with little effort. But when the batteries had launched their salvo at the Chrysalis, it had reflected the barrage back at the cannons. The first words out of her mouth were "I want one Al", but he had shook his head chuckling. Maybe after she brought him back aboard Fox's ship she could make him reconsider, he would definitely owe her one after this.

She climbed the side ladder attached to the ship, and peered into the vessel's cockpit half expecting Alex to be there. She imagined him asleep at the controls startled awake and waving at her as though to say, "Gee golly I must've dozed off and missed all the fun", but the seated interior was empty.

Just empty.

She jumped, falling slowly to the ground. Now that the hangar was lit, she could see the various vessels once tethered by gravity now floating freely, most hovering a foot or so off the ground. There were a few anchored to the floor via ship cradles which served to secure vessels to the floor where then various mechanical appendages attached to its chassis would set about repairing and refueling the craft. She could see now that Alex's ship was locked into one of these cradles, the landing struts fastened to the floor. She had little doubt she could free the ship from its restraints with the plasma cutter in her gauntlet, but that would come later. Suddenly she heard Cliff's voice and he sounded troubled, "Fara come here on the other side of the ship".

She did as instructed and saw Cliff on the opposite side of the Arwing. He turned to her, his face hardening. "What is it?", Fara asked. Cliff pointed at a tube hooked into the side of the ship. "Looks like the refueling tube", Cliff said. Fara frowned, confused. "Is something wrong with it?", she asked, but then she quickly figured it out.

"Oh shit…", she breathed.

Cliff simply nodded, "These things detach automatically after refueling - and if it's still attached".

"Fuck", Fara hissed. "The station must've lost power shortly after Alex landed here", she said. "How long after though?", Cliff asked. Fara's lips pressed together in thought. "Can't say for certain, refueling doesn't take that long". "Maybe ten to thirty minutes - he wasn't here long until shit hit the fan", Fara said. Cliff turned away from the ship, arms crossed in thought. "Still he might not be far from here - you have another place you want to search?", he asked. "The escape pod bay is down the corridor that exits the hangar, maybe we can check the logs and see who's used it", Fara said, rising to walk the indicated exit. Cliff shadowed her, then over his helmet mic, "Alright team report in". A series of answering voices cycled through her helmet one at a time, as the rangers reported their findings.

None of it was good.

"Captain, I have two engineers dead next to a ship cradle, both shot in the dome".

"One dead under a cargo lift… a lot of blood from the neck, maybe from a knife".

"Three fatalities on a maintenance catwalk all workers by the looks of their uniforms ... .single shots to the head".

"Two dead in a light transport…cuts to the throat, their weapons are still holstered".

"Captain, I have six dead at the hangar exit all of them security", then more softly, "One of them has our arm patch ... .they killed one of our sisters".

Still walking, Fara shot a glance at Cliff. His face was passive; betraying no emotion. It was only until Fara and the rangers came upon the carnage, that she saw a cold murderous glint leak into his yellow eyes. There were six armed soldiers sprawled across the floor in front of the exit. While the previous victims of the mysterious attack were killed with precise strikes and blaster shots, this unfortunate group seemed to have been completely mowed down with a volley of sustained fire. Fara moved in front of one of the suspended corpses and gently turned it over face up.

The face was vaguely canine with light fur. Most of its facial features had been burned away leaving behind scorched fragments of bone, and cauterized skin. The soldier's uniform was dotted with numerous burned holes, the edges discolored and flaky. He had upwards of thirty blaster wounds the majority concentrated in the center mass of his body. She surveyed the rest of the dead, all of them with similar wounds. One of them was floating a little further from the rest. Fara craned her neck far enough to see that they were missing a left arm, their remaining limb was limply clutching a blaster rifle.

Cliff walked past her and knelt next to one of the bodies. Fara moved to stand guard at his shoulder. His helmet light illuminated the face of a female feline, a lynx by the looks of her elongated ears. She was similarly wounded like the rest; her uniform polka dotted with holes. A look of shock and pain was frozen across her face, her green eyes were wide and staring. She heard Cliff sigh at the same time he brushed a hand over the fallen warrior's eyes, closing them. He then pulled a pair of dog tags off her neck gently. Watching this Fara noticed the fist size hole in the dead woman's throat. She had been shot in the throat, unable to cry out in pain - or for help.

It must've been agony.

Fara could only hope her suffering ended quickly, when the other shots found their mark. Cliff stood up and pocketed the dog tags, the surrounding Rangers followed suit bending down to retrieve the thin steel necklaces. She made no comment, just stood with her sidearm at the ready while they retrieved the sacred mementos. When they were finished, Fara gave a hand signal to advance into the corridor. She led the way blaster at the ready, the rangers flanking her. About thirty paces into the pitch-black passage they were met with more bodies. There were about a dozen dead, a mix of lab coats and armored security personnel, the lack of gravity giving animation to the cadavers. They resembled spirits trapped in a purgatorial realm, lifeless bodies unwilling to accept their own demise. One floated to her, its head hunched over, a scorched hand with only three fingers outstretched. She calmed herself and gently pushed it aside. Thank god she wasn't claustrophobic, otherwise she would've probably panicked. She kept her composure and pace doing her best not to bump into limbs or floating clutter.

"Keep going, just keep going….find Al, and get the hell out of here", she repeated in her mind over and over.

When she eventually found him she was going to bear hug and throttle him for making her and Fox worry like this. She checked the way point on her hud. They were halfway down the corridor, the escape pod bay would be at the next exit ahead of them. Amongst the dead she didn't see a single one resembling a possible intruder. If the defending guards had downed, or killed any of them, they were definitely taken after the attack.

But why would they do that? Unless…they wanted to leave scant evidence behind. The killers were as mysterious as they were deadly. Each of the fallen scientists and soldiers had been given a fatal shot to the head. The attackers had switched back to lethal precision. She wondered what kind of weapons they had used. Her money was on something compact and sound dampened to maintain stealth as they mercilessly slaughtered the crew.

A thought suddenly occurred to her. She reached out to one of the dead soldiers and carefully pried the blaster rifle from their stiff fingers. The rest of the Rangers halted as she held up the weapon studying the ammo counter. The three red digits above the mag receiver read a full count of two-hundred rounds. Just to be sure she ejected the mag, then slammed it back home. The same count. With a hand motion she indicated to the men around her to perform the same check as well. Half of the rangers began taking inventory of the dead's ammo count, the other half keeping a silent vigil. When they were finished, one of them stood up from a corpse that had half of its face blown off along with most of its left shoulder, the Ranger gave a nod to Fara, then over his mic, "Their blasters were topped up and unfired", he jerked his gun back the way they came.

"Whoever they were- they took them down before they knew what hit them", he said. Fara simply nodded in agreement and kept going. They finally reached the escape pod bay, Fara quickened her pace stopping to check each view port for any signs of an occupant. At the end of the bay was a terminal. Upon seeing it Fara used her suits jets to launch herself across the room to it. The damn thing's screen was dim; out of power. Then sudden over her com "I think I found him Fara", it was Cliff's voice, it was a mix of excitement and urgency. She turned and saw the Captain bent low, he was peering into the pods viewport. He withdrew and signaled to two of his men. The pair positioned themselves at either end of the pod's door and began cutting with the plasma torches in their gauntlets. Heedless of the sparks and burning metal, Fara peaked her head into the glass.

It was Alex. He was in a vacuum sealed suit. She could tell by the suit's lack of tail and ears that it was him. He seemed to be floating sedately in the cramped interior of the pod but his suit had no punctures or scorch marks. She turned frantically to Cliff.

"I know Fara, I know, we're going as fast as we can", Cliff said. After ten seconds which went by like hours, the hatch finally gave. Using the strength in her arms, along with the servos in her suit, she gripped the disk of metal and threw it aside. She dove in and snatched Alex grabbing him by the waist with both arms. Cliff his body halfway in the opening, pulled Fara backward by her belt back into the corridor along with Alex.

Faintly she heard Cliff bark an order for the men to bring a ship to their location. She held Alex tight to her, her gloved hands searching for any signs of wounds or punctures on his suit, finding none.

Even though he couldn't hear her, she heard herself say over and over, "it's okay….it's okay…..I got you…I got you". Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Cliff, and his face said it all. He closed his eyes and bowed his head as Fara turned her gaze back to Alex- and she saw the broken glass of his suit's visor, where the oxygen had leaked out. He was dead, as dead as the rest of them. She realized how desperately she had clung to hope. This whole place was a crypt in space, a charnel house, and she was naive to think of it as anything different. She looked at his face, her eyes brimming with tears. He was gone, he was gone and there wasn't a damn thing she could do. Her eyelids pressed together tight causing tears to spill and drift in the dome of her helmet. They shined like stars and orbited her grief stricken face.

She didn't even hear herself scream.