StarFox: The Secret Sibling

Chapter 1: Flashbacks/Meet Alpha

6 Months After the Prevention of the Aparoid Invasion

"Wait here son."

I nodded to the muscular Collie who had personally escorted me to the facility. The man, Field Commander Brian McCoy, would soon become a very good friend of mine, as well as the other whom he was going to speak to. I found a place and sat down glancing around the room. It was empty, aside from a few people talking amongst themselves. From where I was sitting, I could hear exactly what the Commander and the other were saying.

"Sergeant Laverne, We have a new recruit for you to work with. His name is Blade, he's a code Green. I haven't seen much of what he can do, so he may be quite more dangerous than that. You remember what Trevor did earlier this month."

I'd have to meet this Trevor person.

"Yes, well, Zach knew not to piss him off. (I might have to meet this one too.) Anyway, excellent work on finding this one Commander. You can bring him in, sir, I'll show him around."

"Very well Sergeant, but remember, he's just a kid."

"Red fox right? How old, did you say?"

"Fifteen. He's scared. I take it the rest of his company-to-be are on the rifle range currently?"

Scared? Are you kidding me? I was terrified! All I knew was this was some sort of base for an advanced Special Forces organization here on Fortuna, operating outside of the government's main military. Laverne continued.

"Yes, he will meet them when they return to barracks Lambda." I noticed I was leaning towards the wall, and so I didn't look suspicious, I sat back up and explored the functions of the new communicator McCoy had given to me. The device around my arm was very complex, and, even being more than familiar with electronics and computers, was a bit difficult for me to manage. The commander stepped around the corner and looked at me.

"Blade, it's time for you to meet someone."

"Alright then."

I stood and followed him into another large, yet widely empty room. The room was flooded with sunlight from 3 long windows, which I stepped over to look out of, and which I found out was facing a large complex, with buildings lining the edges, and one larger building in the center. Uniformed men, each with differently styled armor and camo, walked along close to the buildings, avoiding vehicles that passed alongside them. There was a small airfield off to the right, outside the main facility, which was lined by a thick concrete wall to keep out unauthorized personnel. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small squad of animals, about my age, walking from the rifle range. In the center was a well built husky, probably the leader, next to him a bobcat, who was motioning with his hands to the canine in the middle, a tall lizard brought up the rear, who was looking around, as if for someone. In the distance was a black bear and white tigress that waved to him, and he motioned his head towards them. He tapped the husky's shoulder and pointed to the pair, who were standing next to a flagpole, on which was a black flag, which stated in white, the letter and number pair D7. They walked over led by the husky and started talking, all except the lizard, who continued to look around, until he realized there was nothing nearby, and listened to the conversation. He glanced over his shoulder, looking up into the building I was in, and then looked back to the other animals. He abruptly turned around completely and stared me straight in the eye. The lanky reptile tapped the dog's shoulder again, and he too stared up at me, along with the three other animals. I stepped away from the window, surprised that he could see me so easily, and from so far away. I turned and noticed another very well-built animal - a wolf - leaning against a strip of metal between the windows, also uniformed.

"You must be Blade."

"Yeah, who are you?"

I saw a smirk come over both his face and McCoy's.

"Master Sergeant Shawn Laverne." I wasn't sure if it was due to an injury or not, but his breathing was slightly raspy, however his voice was loud and overwhelmingly deep, with no problems speaking. "I'm going to be showing you around the facility. Commander?"

McCoy spoke. "Nothing further for either of you." Laverne put his hand to his brow in salute. Brian turned around. "Stand down Sergeant. I'll be seein' you around Blade."

"Okay."

He stepped out and the door hissed shut.

"So, not that you'll understand what it means, the Commander tells me you're a Code Green. But you already know that."

"What? I have no idea what you're talking about." I was a good liar, but this guy was even better at DECODING lies.

"Kids these days…don't even know how to lie…or when not to." He tapped a middle finger to his right temple.

"Shit…you're psychic or something?"

"Not exactly. I'm a code blue myself. These color codes indicate different levels of – unnatural – abilities. So let's take a step back and try this again. The commander tells me you're a code green. Is this, or is this not true?"

"That's right. I'm a first-class freak."

It was true. I have, to some extent, 'unnatural' strength, and ability. It is my power, but also my weakness. I put my head down, and soon felt a hand place itself on my shoulder. I looked up to find a large, canine head resting in front of mine, and staring into my eyes.

"You aren't a freak. Nearly everyone here has some sort of power or ability like you. You're among friends…you have been chosen to lead D-E-A-D-7 Alpha Squad. Your training begins here."

"BLADE!"

"Huh?"

I slowly opened my eyes to find a husky staring into my face intently.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just another one of my flashbacks…you okay?"

"Neck's a bit stiff, but other than that I'm fine. Just wanted to make sure you were awake when we get to the drop point."

"Yeah…thanks Trevor."

He nodded. The MX-3227/T APC we were riding in was actually a very smooth ride. Normally we were flown in by gunship to the drop zone, but this tank was much funner to use. Not only does it have mobility better than the StarFox team's Landmaster, it has coaxial heavy gattling cannon with TOW missile in the rear, dual rotating 80 cal. machine guns on each side, 2 70 cal. machine gun cannons (one mounted on the turret, one fixed forward), and a raised turret with a double-barrelled heavy laser cannon. Its armor can resist a railgun slug, and its six engines (one for each wheel) propel it faster than a repulsorlift tank. Plus, you could drive it anywhere, and use it for support as much as necessary thanks to eight shared fuel tanks, something that a flying transport could never carry due to weight issues.

To my left was a tall Komodo dragon, treating a bobcat with a bullet in his shoulder.

"Hey Zach, how is it?"

"Pretty shitty I'd say", was the answer from the injured feline. "Hurts like hell, but I can still lug around an eighty pound rocket launcher, plus my other gear. It's manageable."

The tall reptile analyzing his work on the cat's shoulder was Xavier, very quiet fellow, but this was nonetheless necessary for one of the best snipers in the organization. Unless, of course, you count the brother-sister pair of black hawks, Martin and Michelle Luego. When I first met Xavi, I actually thought he was mute, which got me into a very awkward position. I continued with my questions for the cat.

"Can you fight?"

"Yeah I think so."

Xavier's accented voice broke the silence.

"Sir, he will be fine, it's just a flesh wound."

A few more minutes found us riding deep into a heavily forested zone with the

sky quickly darkening. Finally I broke the silence.

"Michael, how much longer before we reach the incursion point?"

The orange Bengal tiger called back from the pilot's chair.

"Jus' a sec sir…approximately thirteen minutes before we reach the mission area."

Another voice chimed in from the gunner's chair, from a German shepherd who held the name of Kristoph.

"It's getting dark Blade. Should we go NV?"

"Yeah…Everyone switch to night vision, now! Janet, is your gear ready?"

Janet was our covert operations specialist, and well suited for the job. She held a sixth degree black belt in human Tae Kwon Do, and a fourth degree in Ninjutsu. Her fur, being a black fox, gave her great stealth ability under the cover of night.

"Yeah, just get me in close, and some sniper cover would be nice this time."

She smirked. Our last operation had her going in completely blind, because Xavier had taken a bullet to the gut from a 70 cal. autogun.

"You got that Xavi?"

A nod.

"SNIPER IN THE TREE!"

I had no idea who'd said this, but everyone hit the hull of the tank, behind steel rails on the sides. The vehicle ground to a halt. It was far too long since Xavier had a sniper-on-sniper battle, but he was well prepared. He slung his RamJet 580 longrifle off of his back, and in less than three seconds he had it leaned against a rail and an eye at its scope. The trigger was squeezed, and the gun, almost silently, launched a high-velocity slug at a target hiding in the trees. At the same time I peered over the edge to hear him say something like "'Night asshole."

In less than a fraction of a second, the guy's head exploded like a grape under the tank's wheels. Blood spattered across several things, including trees, the side of the tank, and the edge of my comlink's microphone. In the earpiece I thought I actually heard the drops make contact.

Out of the tree fell a reddish organ, torn in half, and covered in bodily fluids, presumably the sniper's brain.

"Great shot Xavi."

"Uh…sir it's a bit early for praise, ground forces behind the trees."

"Damn…"

I stood up and grabbed one of the side mounted machine guns, just in time to hear Michael say, "Sir, we overshot the incursion point by almost a mile…"

"God damn it! I thought you said we had fifteen!"

"Thirteen, and the trees must have scrambled the GPS."

"What the fuck ever, everybody just get on a turret, minus Xavi."

I began tearing up the trees with my eighty cal., as well as another mounted by Trevor next to me, and soon 3 trees tipped slightly, and at the least six guys fell from behind them, lying in pools of scarlet. One of the trees completely fell over from its own weight, crushing two bodies. Two mid-sized infantry transports were destroyed by Kris's cannon, plus another by the TOW missile in the back, manned by Zach. When at last the bullets stopped, four transports were smoldering, somewhere around sixty to seventy animals drowning in their own blood (some completely torn in half by the sheer power of the guns), ten with imploded skulls dropped by our sniper, and a second hostile sniper completely destroyed (as well as the tree he was in) by one of the TOW missiles Zach was using. What do you know, this tank is useful.

As commander, I was the first to speak.

"Is everyone alright?"

Michael- "Tank took a beating, but she'll still roll."

Zach- "No problems here."

Trevor- "No severe…Blade? You okay?"

Janet- "How in hell…?"

"What?"

Everyone on the MX was staring at me, or rather, the blood all over my chest. Little did I know, but I had been shot twice in the upper body while ripping up hostiles. I put a hand to the side of one of the bullet holes and applied some pressure, and felt – something – in the wound.

"Trev, get me some tweezers or something."

"There is no way in hell you can't feel something like that."

He handed me the metal instrument and I dug it into the wound, to pull out a full metal jacket (FMJ) round from a bolt action rifle. These SOBs were using ancient weapons. The only thing about these bullets was that they could penetrate armor (of course the armor was strong enough to prevent the bullet from going in all the way), and that might screw us. I extracted the last bullet and threw them both aside.

"Trevor, you mind giving me a hand here? All this blood is really starting to piss me off."

I tore off the rest of my undershirt and, as he helped me get the blood out, I patched up the wounds with pre-prepared dressings made of the most absorbent material in the galaxy.

"Good as new. What are you all staring at me for?"

"Blade, sometimes, it's a bit weird being around you when we're on a mission, because…well…you don't feel pain. And you just can't die." This came from Janet. Several laughs came from around the hull of the tank.

"I DO feel pain. I just ignore it. I CAN die. Fairly quickly. But only if my 'unnatural' ability is engaged. I know it's weird, but that is why I work for this organization. I AM hard to kill."