FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Halo: First Contact

Chapter 11: Sacrifice, Part 2

Honor is borne of sacrifice...whether of the soul or body matters not.

-Unknown Soldier; battle of Hevinstad, Eridanus system

Venom, military headquarters...

Private first class Darien Marks was not having a good day. Ever since the humans attacked Eladard, security had been tightened and the training regimen increased to almost torturous levels. It would seem that Lord Oikonny suspected that they would attack Venom itself. "Ridiculous." Darien murmured to himself as he patrolled the lower levels. "No one would be crazy enough to attack the heartland, not even these strange aliens."

Venom had a mighty fleet orbiting above its poisoned skies. Thirty battleships, fifty cruisers, close to a hundred frigates, a dozen carriers, Lord Oikonny's personal dreadnought, and the vast orbital defense system comprising of laser batteries and missile stations. Not even all of the cornerians combined might with their newfound allies, would be able to even hope to penetrate such a display of power. They were completely safe here.

Which made it all the more frustrating for the young monitor lizard that he had to train so hard every day, what was the point if he would never even get to fight?

Darien sighed and leaned against the wall of the long empty corridor he was in charge of guarding. "It's not like they would even be down here. This is all so pointless." He grumbled, fiddling with his Scythe Pattern blaster rifle.

He had been in the venomian military since he was fifteen years old, and in the ten years that came afterwards, had never fired his weapon in anger. The lizard hadn't been in a single battle and never even left the planet.

He supposed that made him lucky, many of his friends had left, never to return. So he was not sure why he was so upset, eventually, he decided to attribute it to boredom; he never got the chance to do anything. He had been roaming this dreary complex for eight years, not once did he even have to restore order or even police anyone. Instead he had been walking the hallways, day in and day out until he soon suspected he would go insane.

With a monotonous sigh, Darien placed his blaster in its rest position and resumed his tedious patrol. If he was lucky, he might get a chance to talk to that secretary on the first floor once his shift was over, she was a pretty little gecko and probably the nicest gal a guy like him could hope to find anywhere.

Sighing again loudly, he neared the intersection of the corridor. It was the standard dull grey rock that comprised the entire facility. In fact, that dull grey shade was the color of pretty much every building he had seen in his entire life. It was everywhere, mocking him with its simplicity.

He hated that fucking color.

Darien would give anything for a little excitement; even an invasion would probably be entertaining. Muttering to himself, the lizard reached the end of the vile grey hallway and turned left. He would have continued as usual if he had not bumped into a very large fellow in stark black armor. Darien looked up, the man being a full head taller than him, into a charcoal black mirrored visor. He could see his own dumbfounded expression in its faceted peak. "Who the heck are you?" The monitor lizard demanded in bewilderment.

The man remained silent and raised his plated fist, smashing it into Darien's muzzle in a vicious uppercut and rendering him unconscious instantaneously.

It would seem that Darien got his excitement, but not in the way he expected.

******

Liam gazed down at the small knocked out armored lizard he had stumbled into. He was the first living being he had encountered in the facility. Sighing in annoyance, the helljumper grabbed the collar of the guard's armor and lifted him up to dangle loosely in his grip.

He didn't weigh very much.

The ODST carried his victim back down the way he had come from and tossed him none too gently into the hatch he emerged from. Once he was finished, he subconsciously dusted off his gloved hands, unslung his rifle, and turned back down the corridor.

So far it would seem that everything was going according to plan...for once. The floor layout was simple and easy to navigate, and there were practically zero guards down here with him, excluding the lizard he left in the sewer.

That guy should count his lucky stars; Liam did not want to leave a trail of blood unless he really had to, nor did he feel like cleaning up after himself. So that guard would live to fight another day, courtesy of Liam's laziness.

The helljumper stopped at the head of another intersection checking his motion tracker. He had learned from his last mistake. When he was certain that there were no targets moving in the immediate area, he peaked around the corner.

The coast was clear.

Liam stepped into the intersection and brought the floor plans up on his right bracer's TACPAD. If he continued as he was, taking a left and then a right, he would reach the first elevator he needed. From there he would head to the research division, looking for anything of value. If he did find anything, he was to download the info or take it if it was small enough. Then he would destroy all the research, pressing on to his next objective.

Apparently, the contact could be found somewhere in garage B, whoever they were, they would tell him where his targets were and anything else he needed to know. After that they would head to the upper courtyard and warm up the shuttle.

While they were doing that, Liam would eliminate all targets he could find, place some charges to cause chaos...because he could, and bug out to the shuttle. From there he and the contact would escape the system, hopefully not exploding in a bright and fiery death.

Basically, it would be a walk in the park.....

Liam sighed.

'Sure' He rolled his eyes and took the left path. He then turned to take the right and heard his motion tracker as it beeped softly, alerting him to imminent danger. He checked it and saw four red dots coming up from behind him at a leisurely pace, probably another patrol.

Liam needed to act fast. The ODST walked as quickly and as quietly as he could. Rushing towards the elevator a few meters ahead. As he reached the lift, the four contacts were closing in on his position.

Liam pressed the button rapidly, and was forced to an agonizing wait as it came down. The elevator pinged and opened, and Liam rushed inside, closing just as he began to see the squad of guards round the corner. Luckily for him the lift closed before they could see who was inside.

Sighing, Liam collapsed onto the wall behind him. 'That was way to close.' After taking a few calming breaths he looked to the button panel and hit the one conveniently labeled 'research and development.' He felt the compartment jolt and gravity pressed down on him, signaling that the cart was moving upwards. Liam checked over his gear as he stood in the small lift. He had a dozen clips for the XMRS-01, almost twice as many for his pistols, and five useless ones meant for the rifle that he had lost.

Liam stood in the silence of the elevator and once more found his thoughts on Krystal. He was not sure what to think about her anymore. He was still angry and more than a little sad. But he still craved the sound of her voice. The accented and soft tone always calmed him down and warmed his heart. Yet at the same time, he could not bear to even lay eyes on her, he didn't know what he would do if he saw her again. The helljumper had half a mind to shout at the vixen and yet simultaneously he wanted to embrace her and never let go. His regards to her were muddled and confusing.

The ODST berated himself for losing focus on his mission. Thoughts like that was a surefire way to get you killed. Right now distractions were something he sorely needed to avoid. Liam could not afford to have his mind and therefore judgement, clouded. A level head was required for what he needed to do.

The lift pinged and he shouldered his rifle, pointing the muzzle at the doors. The metal slides peeled back to reveal an empty hallway. He aimed down the ACOG scope and walked out slowly, checking his corners and depressing the trigger slightly, ready to pull and release its lethal payload.

Nothing happened so he slowly lowered his weapon, leaving it up a little in case he needed to quick fire. The helljumper continued his stealthy advance into the bowels of the compound, dodging patrols with the help of his tracker and following the floor plans to the massive chamber that should be housing the main research area.

After ducking another patrol Liam arrived at the huge doors and saw a small keypad. The doors were glowing red around the edges. He growled in disgust and sighed. 'Of fucking course they would have it locked down.' Still growling, he stood just outside his objective, trying to draw up a plan. He could backtrack to the room labeled scientist quarters; from there he could persuade one of them to gain him entry. But that would almost assuredly backfire horrendously. He could also plant a charge on the heavy duty doors with one of his demo packs, but that was an even riskier idea. Still, there was one other option; he could try to hack it.

But he had no prior knowledge of these lylatians electronics or if he could even get the doors open. There certainly were countless counter measures in place to alert security if someone attempted to infiltrate the facilities' cyber systems.

But it was the best of a bad bunch.

Reluctantly, he walked over to the keypad, bringing his right bracer up level with the device. He opened one of the small protrusions on the bracer and pulled out the tiny grey cable. He fed it into one of the slots on the keypad and brought up the hacking function.

There was a dumb AI that would attempt to breach the system. And by dumb AI he really meant retarded, its literal only function was this. While that also implied that it was really good at it, it was also true that it was not very intelligent. He was running on a pray at the moment. The success of his mission all depended on whether or not this intelligence could beat these venomians unknown system.

He tapped on the device and initiated the electronic invasion with a prayer on his lips. The TACPAD's screen turned a dark green and it began to hum unobtrusively. While it was doing its work he chanced a look backwards and was glad to see that the corridor remained empty. He was running out of time; the more he waited in one spot the higher chance that he would be discovered.

He checked back with the device and saw no change in it, he had not had to use this feature of his pad before so he was uncertain as to if that was a good sign or not. Hopefully it was the first one.

A minute later his device beeped, startling him. The doors red light flashed green and they opened loudly, drawing into the wall with a groan of shifting gears, revealing a dark and empty corridor that branched off into a whole system of hallways and rooms.

Liam smiled in triumph. The little device had worked! Happy that something was going according to plan, he slipped into the R&D subdivision. Perhaps he would be able to do this without screwing up. It was a pleasant thought.

But he didn't bank on it working out that way.

The ODST chose to take the main corridor, heading into the center of the division. He made an assumption that all the important research would be in the heart of the complex. There was a slight problem however.

It was a highly active zone.

There were many groups of figures clothed in bleach white coats and supporting a plethora of spectacles and electronic clipboards. Almost constantly, Liam was forced to duck into empty rooms and side paths.

At this point it was only a matter of time until his luck ran out. But it would seem that it held. He arrived at a large circular room filled with monitors, cluttered tables, and a sole occupant. It was the first one he had seen that was not close to human.

It had a serpent's tail instead of the humanlike pair of legs everyone else seemed to have in this system. It was indeed a strange individual. But that mattered not, it was in the way of his mission and therefore something that needed to be removed.

Silently, Liam rose from his crouch by the doorway and leveled the ACOG's crosshairs on the serpent creature's head. He slowed his breathing until it was almost nonexistent and waited until the sight stopped moving.

His finger tightened on the trigger.

The XMRS-01 coughed loudly and there was a low whizzing sound. But instead of burying into flesh and blood, the round smashed into the rock wall at the far end of the chamber, flashing a bright white and green as it caught alight. The serpent creature had ducked the lethal round and out of sight.

Liam growled and weaved his gun back and forth searching for the lost target. The fucker was faster than he could ever have anticipated. And that made his task many times more dangerous and endangered his mission to failure.

With his heart racing, he desperately tried to get eyes on the serpent, but it was lost in the plethora of tables, monitors, and half built devices. It was seconds too late that he realized it could be below chest height.

He felt something cold and firm as steel wrap around his left ankle. Seconds later he was tossed into the air to smash into the far wall, scant feet from where his failed shot was buried. Liam's helmet smashed into the wall, dangerously cracking his visor and sending his thoughts and head reeling. The ODST fell to the floor roughly and scrabbled across the floor on his knees looking for his rifle. Somewhere midflight he must have let it go, sending it spinning into the darkness.

Acting quickly he unholstered both of his magnum's aiming down the left and where he had just been sent soaring. His enemy was cunning and not at all weak. This was proving to be a very dangerous fight. Liam's concentration was shattered when he heard a soft and conniving voice whisper into the air.

"Impressssive." It hissed omnipotent, identifying his enemy as masculine while also disguising which direction it emitted from. "The cornerian dogsss managed to have an assssassssin infiltrate Venom itssself."

Liam remained silent, unwilling to be goaded into talking, therefore making him lower his guard. He knew how the game was played. Instead he tried to lockdown the general area the voice was coming from, and not succeeding.

"Ssssilent are we?" He mused curiously. "Very professional...." His tone turned mocking.

Liam thought he heard a slinking noise to his left but when he shifted his splintered visor, he didn't see anything. His hands were shaking with adrenaline and he was itching to kill the snake. He mistrusted things that slithered and confronting something like this made it even crappier.

"You don't ssseem like one of them, you musssst be one of these humansss I've heard sssso much about." The concealed snake man concluded. "I can't wait to get my clawsss on you, oh the experimentssss I'll perform. There'sss sssso much I could learn."

Liam heard something fall off a table to his right and he aimed both of his weapons over there.

"But, I won't need you alive for them." He whispered ominously, right behind the ODST.

Liam dived forward over a table, and shifted to his back. The snake had lunged out from directly behind him, ready to clamp His jaws and razor sharp fangs into his jugular. Instead the snake smashed his muzzle into the counter.

Liam fired both guns at the large serpent and succeeded in wounding it severally. He was bleeding heavily from a circle of holes in his lower half. Snarling in rage, he lashed out with a claw, scoring Liam's shoulderplate and sending him twisting to the right. He fell to the floor and one of his magnums was knocked out of his grip, flying under a table.

The serpent didn't give him any time to move as he glided over the table and slammed his incredible bulk into the ODST, coiling his tail around Liam's legs. Almost faster than he could see, the snake dived for his throat.

Liam lifted his left arm and caught the fanged maw with his plated forearm. The serpent's jaws ground down on his armor and it splintered, fangs shredding past the steel to bury into the meat of his arm.

The helljumper cried out in agony as the dagger-like incisors bit deeply into his flesh. Not only that, but he could feel scorching poison seep rapidly into his veins. Almost instantly, his chest began to restrict as it got progressively harder to breathe and he lost feeling in his legs.

With as much strength as he could manage he lifted his right arm, holding the pistol, and brought it under the serpent's chin. Uncaring of the consequences he emptied the weapon and the snake went limp. He felt that one of the rounds had grazed his arm. But that was far down the list of concerns he had.

The serpent's cranium exploded violently in a shower of gore, multiple high caliber bullets rendering it into mist.

The snake's coils were now limp with lifelessness and so he managed to leverage his uninjured arm to crawl away from the body. From there he opened the small container on his thigh and ripped out the hypodermic needle. He rammed it into his left arm above the elbow and flooded it with all manners of antibiotics.

As his body waged war with the terrible venom coursing through it, he writhed on the floor, emitting a mix of snarls and howls as the freezing and burning pain ran its course through his body.

Eventually the pain faded to a weighty dull ache and he sorely sat up from the floor. The room was a disaster, clutter tossed haphazardly in their epic struggle. Liam clawed himself to his feet and drunkenly floated around as he searched for his weapons. In numb unfeeling hands he gathered his firearms and placed them back where they rightfully belonged. After that he wrapped his wounded arm in a thick layer of gauze, the only one in the small medkit he brought with him.

Almost twitching, he turned back to look at the room, remembering why he had come in here. A single dimly glowing monitor was all that remained working, everything else wrecked during their fight.

He stumbled over and tried to access it. The thing was locked so he had to run the program again, this time taking almost ten minutes before it had finally unlocked the computer. By that time his twitching had abated slightly and his higher brain functions were beginning to return. It was sped even faster when he comprehended what was on the screen. There was a schematic taking up the entire monitor, something that looked frightfully familiar.

It was called the Legion Initiative.

As his eyes scanned the document he was reminded of something he hoped never to see in the hands of this enemy or any other...the spartan program.

This called for the best Venom had to offer, surgically augmented and given advanced armor and weapons. The defining difference was that they would be far more numerous, in the thousands to be precise. The level of calamity they could cause was terrifying to even consider.

Luckily it seemed that trials would not start for a few days so he had time to put a stop to it. It also seemed that the head of the project was someone named Archedon, who appeared to have their carcass cooling on the floor behind him. So he supposed that the first step in preventing this was done. All he had to do was steal their research and destroy the equipment.

He downloaded all the files on the device into his TACPAD and smashed the computer afterwards. Once that was taken care of he planted charges all over the room, his entire arsenal, ensuring all that would remain would be molten steel.

Liam set the counters for half an hour and left the thrashed chamber. As he was leaving the room he saw three scientists heading in his direction. Instead of hiding, he simply walked towards them and put them down with one of his magnums. They could be part of the project, and as cruel as that sounded, he could not afford to have anyone related to it escape.

He stepped over the bleeding corpses and continued down the hallway. It was horrifyingly easy to kill everyone in the area. They were all scientist, researchers and the like. And as his pistol coughed its deadly sickness, Liam felt a little part of himself die with each round soaring out of the barrel and into unguarded flesh. He had sworn to himself that he would never become like this again. But he did it to prevent the evil that they could unleash upon the galaxy.

It was his sacrifice...

He would carry this with him for as long as he lived, just like all the other sins he committed in his duty as a soldier. This was no different.

And as the last scientist fell to the floor, a perfectly clean headshot upon their brow, Liam fell to his knees. Once more he had become the monster he knew lingered inside him. As he prostrated himself on the floor, he considered revolving the barrel of his weapon to his own skull.

But instead he sighed heavily and lethargically rose to his feet. He still had a mission to complete, more lives to destroy.

Liam walked out of the R&D division and walked down the corridor, splatters of blood adorning his obsidian armor, a mark of his depravity.

He made it to the elevator and keyed in the level that would take him to the garages. He needed to find his contact and figure out if there were any more HVTs for him to kill. The doors opened once more and he stepped out of the lift, following his TACPAD and heading to garage B. His left arm ached terribly and his visor was a little difficult to see out of, cracks running down the center. His tracker was dead so he assumed that there were no enemies in the area.

Carefully, he walked down the path and emerged in what seemed to be a deserted garage. There was a large red A painted onto the wall so it was safe to assume that this was indeed the A garage. Liam lifted his rifle and secured the area.

The expanse was filled with all manners of vehicles, some were flat bottomed and other's had wheels or treads. He suspected that the flat bottom ones might use some sort of hover tech but he did not have the time or means to figure it out. Liam moved to follow the right wall, sliding past the mechanical creations. It would be the best position to be in if he were to be discovered, from here he could lay down fire effectively and use the hunks of steel as cover.

Yet there was no firefight, he arrived at the end of the motor pool without incident. There was a pair of doors that led into the next one, his destination. Liam opened them and peered inside. This location had only a scant few vehicles and was mostly a wide open expanse. There was almost no cover and two doors on the left and right.

He disliked it almost immediately.

Carrying his rifle and his unease, he stepped into the room, heading to the center of what could be a trap. Slowly, he made his way down the center, scanning all everywhere with the barrel of his firearm. As he approached the direct center, he heard something to his left. Freezing, he turned to face that direction, prowling over to the disturbance.

The noise originated from behind a large tank-like vehicle. It sounded like the scuffing of a pair of boots. And he thought he could see a shadow in the dim orange light emanating from the small lights imbued within the rocky ceiling.

Liam quietly placed his rifle on his back, unsheathing his large combat knife. He flipped the grip to point the knife at the floor and drew his arm back, ready to strike. He reached the backside of the tank and tilted his broken helmet to look at the other side.

There was a figure sitting on the ground, leaning against the war machine. He could not make anything out besides the fact they looked unusual, a bright coloring he could not identify.

His muscled coiled like springs and he leaped out from hiding to collide into the person there and sending both him and them to the floor, the helljumper on top. Liam wrapped his left arm around theirs constricting movement and he placed the serrated edge of his combat blade along their furred throat. He then brought his gaze down to look at who he had trapped and stared into a pair of bright and stunning sapphire eyes, much like his own.

As he stared into the surprisingly stunning eyes, he began to feel the body under him....the feminine body under him. Whoever they were, they were pleasantly curved and quite soft.

Embarrassed, he let up a little. Liam rose to a semi crouch and moved the blade away from the person's throat by a good few millimeters.

He wouldn't completely drop his guard.

The girl under him mewled in fear and continued to stare at him anxiously, waiting to see what they would do.

Liam took this time to see exactly who he had captured. The girl had blue eyes as he previously stated, and...pink fur. She looked to be a feline of interminable species, dressed in a bland grey outfit that did little to conceal her curvaceous body. If he gauged her age right he would put her down at around twenty three or perhaps twenty five.

He was brought out of his examination when she spoke hesitantly.

"Are you the...operative?" She enquired in a curious and soft tone, eyeing the weapon ear her throat warily. Her voice was smooth and flowed out of her muzzle evenly.

Now aware that she was his contact, he pulled his blade back and got off of her. He sheathed it and gently helped her up to her feet. Liam backed up slightly, still ready to attack if she proved to be a threat. "You must be the contact then." He replied simply.

She nodded her head slowly and ran her eyes up and down his body, taking in the state of his armor. "Yeah, and you must not be doing so well." He thought he detected the hint of a smirk on her muzzle but he could not see it clearly in the darkness.

"I'm doing well enough." He muttered back, tilting his helmet to the left and right to see if there were others in the room. But he found that it was just them.

"Katt Monroe, people call me Katt Monroe." He heard her say, dragging his attention back to the pink feline.

"Liam." He responded in kind, unslinging his rifle.

"Well Liam, I have some information for you." She said cheerily, sitting down on a crate near the tank and patting the one next to her.

Reluctantly, he moved over and sat down, still holding his weapon firmly.

They spoke for a few minutes; he was displeased to hear that the venomian leadership was not in the headquarters. Apparently, the venomian leader, an ape named Oikonny, left the compound only a few hours ago, heading to check on some fellow named Jerric Logos on the other side of the continent. The only leader still in the area was the lizard Archedon, and he was already dead.

It was probably for the best anyways, the charges he placed were set to go off in thirteen minutes, minutes he and Katt could use to get to the upper courtyard.

We should get going, we don't have much time." He cut her off from her rambling on how hard it had been to get into the facility. She had been blabbing about how she had to sign up for a contract or something along those lines. He wasn't really keen on the details nor did he think they had time for it.

She looked miffed that he cut her off but after he explained that things would be getting tense thirteen minutes from now, she was quick to get moving.

Liam stood up from the crate he had been sitting on and motioned for the feline to follow him. She was a lively little cat, constantly talking as he maneuvered them through the hallways. It was almost annoying, but on the inside he welcomed the idle chatter, it was nice to talk with a girl again. She was sharp witted and feisty, and she was also amusing. But even as he smiled, he hurt. Katt faintly reminded him of Krystal, and he didn't like to be reminded of her.

So he returned his focus on getting out of the facility.

Things were running smoothly; at least until there was a deep rumble that shook the entire base. They had been right near the surface when the charges detonated and they still felt the aftershocks.

Seconds later the corridor was bathed in an ominous red light and an annoying high pitched siren resonated in the halls. It would seem that his little present set the facility on high alert. Liam grabbed Katt's furred shoulder roughly and began to herd her towards the exit. He heard the sound of thundering boots closing in behind them.

Seeing that Katt was still slow, he grabbed her by her slender waist and lifted her in one hand, running faster down the corridor, ignoring her indignant yowling. "Put me down you buffoon!" She demanded, smacking his injured arm, and eliciting a pained groan from him. He was still bleeding; the cloth wrapping his arm had turned a shade of red.

She was heavy, and now annoying, but this was the only way they would both be getting out of here. And as much as he wanted to drop her at the moment, he didn't. Liam rounded the final corner and headed towards the large doors that would deposit them in the courtyard that should have a ship waiting for them. Just as he reached the door, he felt a heavy and hot blow land on his back almost making him drop the feline.

Several red lights flashed past him, meaning that the pursers were close enough to try and shoot him. He shifted her to his torso, blocking her unarmored body from any harm, her blue eyes staring at him curiously from scant inches away.

He reached the door and pushed it open. As he entered the outside courtyard, he felt an additional two blasts strike him, one on the back once more and another lancing into his right thigh. But it seemed that the treated armor would hold as he only felt a mild flash of heat and a little force spurring him onwards.

Liam quickly placed Katt away from the mouth of the doorway and swung to face it, bringing his now free arms with the rifle to face the path they came from. He spotted five apes in heavy armor rushing towards him in the packed corridor, sending blaster bolts whizzing around him.

He aimed the ACOG and centered it on the chest of the closest enemy.

The ODST pulled the trigger and the gun barked softly. The ape he had targeted was tossed back by the force of the round as it burrowed through the armor into his chest. Blood sputtered from the hole and Liam could see a light coming from within the wound, the incendiary round catching alight in his innards. It would not be a pleasant death.

With quick accuracy and skill, he placed a bullet in each of the pursers, stopping them in their tracks. The barrel of his weapon smoked and he lowered it.

He had bought them some time.

Liam turned to Katt who had been standing on the sidelines. "Where's the ship?"

The feline flicked her ear and turned to head up the stone stairs that led up to a large plaza. The place was empty except for a small purple, winged shuttle sitting on the equally diminutive landing pad. It looked like it would barely fit the both of them.

The feline rushed over to the ship, tail flapping behind her. She pressed something on her left wrist and the ramp lowered allowing her to run inside. Liam was beginning to follow after her when he heard a commotion down the steps.

He turned to see another larger group of enemies approaching from the door. They had a few of those laser cannons he had seen before and he knew that those would tear right through the shuttle's thin plating.

Liam took cover at the top of the stairs and sent a trio of rounds down to smack into three of them. The three were put down by the heavy munitions, leaking dark red blood onto the stone floor. Scattering, the enemy dispersed into what little cover was down there, sending retaliatory beams of red light up to pepper the wall he was hiding behind. The helljumper waited for a lull in the fusillade and leaned out from behind the wall, sending two more shots down, connecting with one of the cannon troopers.

He quickly slid back into cover as the apes fired back with abandon. Liam swapped the clip for a fresh one and resumed his heated gun battle. He was the only reason that the apes had not stormed up the stairs.

Behind him he could hear the roar as the engine started. Katt walked back down the ramp and saw him firing down the staircase. "Hurry, get inside!" She shouted, waiving her paw, in a come hither motion.

Liam glanced at her and back to the apes. He would have to time this perfectly. Standing up quickly, he fired all ten rounds left in his clip as he backpedaled to the ship. Almost as soon as he was gone the enemy began to storm up the stairs. As he walked backwards he tossed his empty mag and slammed a new one home just in time to center his scope on the last ape wielding a cannon, delivering a bullet into his left knee, shattering it and dropping him effectively.

The ODST reached the ramp and was turning to walk up when an accurate laser beam burned into his throat with a blistering sizzle. Stumbling backwards he fired his weapon one handed as the ramp closed and the ship lifted off.

He collapsed onto the floor and dropped his rifle, clutching at his throat with both hands. The treated armor had prevented the laser from going all the way through, but the heat from the beam had bled through and he could sense his scorched throat. It was a horribly painful chore to take in air but he fought to breathe with as much force of will as he could muster. He could feel that the weave of his suit had melted to fuse with his skin. As he gasped for breath, he could not even make a noise, meaning that his larynx was damaged. His chest shuddered as his lungs tried to bring air through the ruined passageway.

******

Katt placed used her impressive skills as a pilot to maneuver through the skies and dodging venomian fighter craft. She gripped the controls tightly in her pink paws and swerved to evade a really close volley of green beams.

The feline managed to break past the hurried fighter shield and reached the atmosphere. From there it was easier to disappear in all the orbital chaos. She hid amongst the many spacial debris as she swung away from the planet. When she was far enough away she keyed in the drives and let the ship take her to corneria.

The feline sighed loudly flashing her sharp predatory teeth. Katt was surprised that she made it out of there. That had been one of the more insane extractions she had ever conducted. But she attributed her success to Liam. When she was slow he picked her up, and he bought them time. She blushed as she remembered looking into his cracked visor. He was certainly strong to carry her in one hand, not only that but he had saved her from the blaster bolts of their pursuing enemies. She had felt him trip as a blaster bolt impacted his back, and he had still not dropped her. Whoever he was, they had picked the right man for the job. She decided to head down to congratulate him on their success.

Katt unbuckled herself from her seat and moved to the small ladder that led into the cargo hold, which pretty much dominated the small shuttle. She wrapped her paws on the sides and slid down swiftly. Her boots hit the floor and she turned to look for him.

The first thing she noticed was the sickly smell of burnt flesh.

Ears splayed back in shock and alarm, she spied him sprawled out on the floor, his chest heaving erratically. Panicked, she rushed to slide up to him. He looked fine except for the charred mess that was his throat. He had probably been shot when heading up the ramp. She tentatively brought a paw to touch the wound.

Immediately after her paw touched it he withered and let out silent scream. Katt yanked her paw back frightfully and saw flecks of charred skin and other debris on the tips of her claws.

Stifling the desire to heave up her breakfast, she looked around for something to use. But she could not see anything on the ship that could help in this scenario. Katt refrained from taking his helmet off, fearing what that would do to his throat.

Helpless, she sat beside him and grabbed his right arm, squeezing it comfortingly and softly brushing her soft paw over his fingers. Katt knew that it would be a very long trip back.