Choices
#8 of Shattered (Redux)
Shattered: Redux
Chapter VIII: Choices
Making a big life change is scary. But, know what's even scarier....Regret
-Anonymous
Fox banked hard to the right and rolled his arwing, deflecting the trio of red lasers back at their owner and incinerating the venomian ship, and subsequently, its pilot. "Jeez, they aren't letting up." The vulpine muttered as he rotated his fighter to reenter the combat zone.
"What gave you that idea?" Falco grumbled; Fox turned his muzzle in the cockpit to see his friend's ship intermingled inside a furball (fighter skirmish).
"It's just a thought Falco." Fox chuckled, flipping his arwing in a 180 degree ark. He pointed his nose at the red and black craft on Falco's rear, sending a quick lance of energy slamming into its engine.
The red bolts of light pierced the housing and detonated the drive, immediately enveloping the fighter in a globule of bright flame. It burst into a million molten fragments and was quickly lost in the darkness of space. "You're welcome." Fox muttered as he shifted to face the next victim.
"Yeah, yeah whatever, we'll get even." The avian promised, taking down the two ships and orientating his arwing along with Fox's.
The two of them swung around the twisted cooling hulk of a venomian cruiser and into a furball where Miyu, Fay, and Krystal were hashing it out with seven enemy contenders. The two guys felt sorry for them.
It didn't take long for them to get shot down.
Seeing that the girls had there scuffle in hand, the bird and the vulpine shifter their attention to find Slippy, and they were surprised when they found him. The toad was actually holding his own against three fighters, chasing one of them as the other two pursued.
"Huh, Slips doing better than usual." Falco commented as he and Fox closed in. "I remember when we always had to bail him out."
"Yeah he was always calling out for help. It's good to see that he's starting to take care of himself." Fox watched as the pursing fighters began to try and shoot Slippy down. "Of course....he probably still needs our help time to time."
Falco just grumbled and tilted his arwing and angled it down to come up behind Slippy and therefore his attackers. The avian watched as his red targeting circle zeroed in on one of the fighters. Falco smiled triumphantly and depressed the trigger with a feathered thumb and the nose of his arwing spewed out a thick red beam that collided with the enemy ship, spearing straight through the cockpit. The craft spun out and into space, no longer under manned control.
Falco was beginning to turn to take out the other and watched as it suddenly exploded. "I got that one." Fox said with an audible smirk.
"That was my kill!" Falco squawked in outrage, although there was a hint of amusement in his tone.
"Sorry, he flew into my shot." Fox defended.
"Whatever." Falco grunted. "I can still get the one Slippy's cha-" There was a flash of light and he turned to see the enemy ship's wreck floating in space.
"Sorry Falco, he kinda just fell into my sights." Slippy said smugly.
"Wha-I-how...." Falco stuttered.
"Looks like you're losing your mojo Falco." Fox said with a chuckle as he and Slippy floated to wing positions around the bewildered avian. "You can worry about it later Falco, for now let's rendezvous with the girls. All we have to do now...is wait."
**********
Alex's stood on a ridge line a few hundred meters from the venomian outpost. The ridge was covered by an outline of trees that spanned all the way to the outpost, where it was cut a few yards away from it. It was a sloppy job, if they were smart; they would have kept the tree line at least a hundred yards from the walls. That way it would make it hard for people like him to find a way in. But it seemed that things were lax here, he knew that they would never have made the same mistake. Not that it mattered considering there was no one besides him left.
Alex scanned the perimeter with his HUD and he clutched his rifle firmly in his gauntlets.
The odds did not appear to be in his favor.
The compound had fifteen foot walls that encompassed its entirety. A tower sat at each junction and he could see the outlines of guards. Inside, he counted an additional ten figures walking around. The only visible entrance was situated in the front, in between two guard towers. It was easy to conclude that the gate would not be his method of entry.
Alex climbed down the ridge and paused just before he would enter sight range of the outpost. The man then began to pull his pulse rifle apart. His hands quickly began to slim it down and he slammed a scope on top of it.
With his weapon ready, he slipped into the forest and moved to stand just inside, a meter from the exit. He connected the scope's system to his HUD and took a better look at the guard towers. Each one had a single occupant. And the one closest to him looked like an ape of some sorts.
He was garbed in some sort of thin black and red armor that contoured to his body. Atop his head was a helmet with a visor that ran down to cover his eyes. He had a long and thin black rifle in his hands and he patrolled the entire circumference of the rectangular tower.
Alex crouched, using the tree he leaned against as cover. He sighted the ape in his crosshairs and waited until he was out of eyesight of the others.
The ape moved a hand to cover his face in a yawn as he stepped out to the edge of the tower.
The human pulled the trigger to his rifle once and the hyper-velocity round whispered out of the barrel and buried itself into the ape's cranium. Instantly the simian locked up and collapsed onto the grated floor of the tower.
Not stopping, Alex switched targets and took out the other guard on the side of the wall he planned on infiltrating.
When both of the venomians were dead, he swiftly sprinted across the short open expanse and thumped his back onto the wall. He pulled up another weapon from his inventory, a javelin gun. He attached a synthetic line to the gun and fired it into the tower. He tugged the line and then tugged it a few times to judge the connection's strength.
It didn't give, so he began to climb. He scaled the wall and dropped down to the other side.
The inside of the compound was all paved and there were a few roads leading to a variety of buildings. He spotted quite a few venomians walking around the yard. Thankfully, it looked like he had been undetected so far.
He stored his javelin gun and replaced it with his rifle. Fox said that the shield generator was in a building near the east wall. And from the looks of it, there was only one structure there. Alex waited until there was a break in the guard's formation and started to make his way across the compound, hugging the wall and using it as a guiding line.
Alex reached the building and looked around before slipping inside.
The interior of the structure was a single large room with a massive reactor built into the center. It glowed with a soft blue light and appeared to be in disuse, probably because the team was in orbit and they saw no need to activate it yet.
The chamber was also deserted, so that made his job easier. Alex stepped over to the console hooked up to the reactor and began to input something. He was glad that he had gained some experience with alien tech. He deftly tapped something into the computer and backed away smiling under his helmet. "I think they're going to like my little surprise."
"Hey, who the hell are you?!" A voice growled from behind him.
Alex's smile dropped and he grimaced. "Why hello there my good sir!" He said with forced cheerfulness as he turned to see the person that had found him out. It was a lizard of some breed and he was aiming a very angry looking black carbine at him. "I am merely a hired engineer, and I was told to take a look at this reactor." As he spoke, he slowly inched his way closer to the reptile, dropping his hand close to the hilt at his waist.
"Engineer, Darvin never said anything about an engineer, and you sure don't look like any gearhead I've seen before."
Alex shrugged. "Look buddy, all I know is that I was told to take a look at this hunk of junk and then I get paid."
The venomian looked uncertain now, clutching his rifle in a way that made Alex uncomfortable. "I don't know...."
"Look dude, just let me finish up here and I'll be on my marry way."
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. You're going to have to talk to Darvin. He'll sort this all out." The reptile said, moving to grab his arm.
"Well, that really is unfortunate." Alex said with a sigh.
With a hiss, he ripped the sword hilt from his belt and activated it, swinging the molten blue blade into the reptilian's side, hacking deep into steel, flesh, and bone. The lizard gave out an airless gasp and slid off the blade, and the room lit up briefly in a flash of red light as his clawed hand squeezed the trigger reactively.
Alex felt a blazing fist crash into his chest and he stumbled backwards, falling to the floor as the venomian did. He snarled in pain as he felt a lingering scorching heat directly in the center of his sternum. The man brought a gauntlet to the pained area and lightly touched it.
Instantaneously he gasped in shock and yanked his plated hand away. The fringes of his armor there were melted around the breach and he felt a very uncomfortable emptiness there. He looked to his gauntlet and saw a deep red stain on the fingertips. "This....is definitely not good...." He muttered.
Alex sat up slowly and shifted his head to his chest. "Yeah....that is absolutely not a good thing." He added a little groggily. There was a deep blackened crater in the center of his chest, and a thin stream of blood was slowly trickling down and hugging around the delineations of his armor.
This usually would not have been that big of a deal, but he was out of health packs, so there was no way of stopping the bleeding or healing it. He would just have to roll with it he supposed. Alex crawled to his feet and looked down to the dead venomian.
It looked as if he had died swiftly, the heated blade burning through vital organs and boiling them. It was not a pleasant way to die.
But who gave a fuck, that bastard shot him! "I own this now!" Alex growled, ripping the gun out of the dead reptile's claws.
He looked over the sleek black carbine carefully. It looked much like an old fashioned hunting rifle, made of some black alloy that made it lightweight and the design made it easy to hold. There was some sort of advanced scope atop it and a black magazine with a red glowing light running down the clip. All in all it was a pretty nice looking gun.
Alex stowed it away and looked over his shoulder. The RIG light on his back was dangerously depleted and the blue was tinged a dark orange. It looked like he was doing alright at the moment. But the shallow hole in his chest was quickly draining his stamina and not to mention was quite painful.
The longer he stayed the worse of he would be as time went on. It looked like his job just got a clock.
He fought through the pain and lurched out of the generator room clutching his bleeding chest. Once outside, he looked over to the building in the center of the compound and his next objective. There was just a tiny itssy bitsy little problem...
Standing between him and his mission were at least fifteen of these venomian bastards. And they all were aware of him. But at that moment he didn't really care.
"You know what, fuck this shit." Alex muttered as he angled the barrel of his pulse rifle up and launched a grenade from the underbarrel.
**********
Fox and the others cleared up the rest of the venomian presence in orbit and regrouped, flying down to the planet and just out of range of the base's AA defenses. All they had to do now was sit in their arwings and wait for a communication from Alex.
"What's taking him so long?" Krystal inquired worriedly.
"Relax Krys, he'll get it done." Fox answered with confidence he did not completely possess. Although he was a little concerned as well, they had heard nothing from him since he started his mission.
"You'll see, he'll be done in no time." Slippy assured.
As if he heard them, Alex's voice came in over the comms, although there was a distressing amount of weapons fire over the waves. 'Hey Fox, how about that support huh? I sabotaged the shields and knocked out the AA system, but I also gathered quite a bit of a following, and they all would like my head. Some backup would be really welcome and appreciated about now."
Even as he began to speak, Krystal's fighter rocketed towards the base, the pilot eager to come to her friend's rescue. The vixen's eyes uncovered the human's predicament.
He was stuck inside a building at the center of the compound, and trading fire with a dozen very disgruntled venomians, there were a few bodies that lay unmoving as well. All she saw was his upper torso as he poked out of the window and tried to keep the enemy away from him.
Krystal was surprised at the amount of anger that manifested inside her at the sight him in danger. The thought of the venomians trying to kill him enraged her beyond the point of reason. She pushed her stick down and her fighter angled down in synchronous.
She vehemently squeezed the trigger and sent a steady barrage of lasers down and peppered the ground around them. A sizeable portion of the enemy was taken out in the fusillade, and the rest were quick to try and get away, but she never even let them have the chance.
By the time the others arrived, the venomians had been...taken care of in the entirety, and Krystal was already landing her ship. The vixen jumped out and ran over to the building as the human walked out.
"Hey Krys, thanks for the assist, things were getting a little crazy down here." He chuckled a little airily, stumbling slightly.
Her pace picked up at that and she ran into him and gave him a fierce hug, burrowing her muzzle into his chest. "You're not going alone next time; I'm going with you, no arguing!"
"Sure, sure, I'm not going to argue with you. In fact I think it's a great idea. I must admit, I am more out of shape in this stuff then I thought." He grunted out painfully, making her pull back and look at him in better detail.
There was also dampness on the creamy white fur of her cheek and she wiped a paw across it, bringing it out into the light.
Blood....
She gasped and looked at the hole in his breastplate, where a steady leakage of blood cascaded down his chest. "Alex, you're hurt!"
"Yeah, one of the bastards got me pretty good. But I can't feel it anymore so I think I'm doing better." He slurred before slumping in her grip heavily.
She caught him, barely strong enough to hold him up. She looked over her shoulder to Fox, who was climbing out of his arwing. "Fox, help!" She cried out in a panic.
The vulpine's muzzle shot up and he looked over, spotting the man in disarray. "Oh crap." He muttered, vaulting down and hastily rushing over. He transferred the human from her grip into his and ushered Falco over.
The two men held him up, carrying the wounded human back to the ships. "Everybody get back in!" Fox ordered as he and Falco helped the injured human into Krystal's ship.
"What in the hell happened?!" Miyu demanded concernedly as she began to crawl back into her ship hurriedly. Fay and Slippy were already back in there arwings and ready to go.
"I don't know, but he looks like he got hit, badly." Falco muttered.
"I'm fine..." Alex waved off drunkenly, seconds before he went unconscious.
"Sure you are big guy." Fox retorted, buckling the human into his seat for him, as he was in no condition to do it himself.
As he pulled back, he felt the human's bloody gauntlet clamp down on his shoulder and he looked into Alex's helm. "I did good...right Fox?" He asked tiredly and weakly. "I mean I know I got shot, but I did it though...right?"
Fox smiled and patted the human's shoulder. "Yeah you did Alex. I think you were the only one who could."
The human nodded and slowly slumped into his seat, helmet tilting downwards.
Fox looked at him, smile slowly shifting into a frown. "Hey Alex...buddy.....Alex hey dude wake up!" Fox grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly, the beginning of panic creeping into his voice. "Hey Alex now's not the time to sleep man you gotta stay awake!"
Krystal lifted her head over his shoulder and her expression melted into fear. "Alex...?" She whimpered, tail lashing behind her in tune with her emotions.
Fox looked over his shoulder at the vixen. "Take off now, get him to the medical wing, I'll take care of the others. Hurry up, now go!" He ushered her and jumped off the ship.
Krystal scrambled into her ship and quickly lifted off, barely letting the canopy close before she was already in the air and speeding towards orbit. As she flew, she repeatedly looked over her shoulder at him. "Hang in there Alex." She whispered softly.
But the human was off in a different world, and could not hear her.
**********
"We need to hold the line! The civilians are just past this bulkhead! We will not allow a single one of these bastards to get through!" An authoritative voice barked over the harsh sound of gunfire.
Alex shifted his helmet quickly to look at the armored sergeant giving the orders.
The older man was standing at the forefront of their hastily erected barricade, firing a stream of bullets at the undead horde attempting to get past them. The swarms of necromorphs were vying for the innocents that they could add to their necrotic legion.
But they would never get the chance, not if they had anything to say about it.
Alex's attention turned back to the efforts of holding the line, and he emptied his rifle into the horde. The only sound competing with the roar of weapons was the guttural slavering growls of the undead scourge. And the only thing keeping them at bay was the weighted mass of bullets from a dozen rifles.
Yet each man was aware that if there was even a slight hiccup in the volume of lead being dished out, then they would almost assuredly get overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They also knew that there was little chance of them surviving this ordeal.
As the battle raged, Alex patched himself through to the hospital, where Sarah was working. A small portion of his HUD was taken over for the video link and he waited for it to go through. "Please, please, please answer." He muttered repetitively to himself as he switched out the coil mag for his rifle.
"Oh thank god..." Alex sighed as the connection finally went through and Sarah's face appeared in front of his eyes. He studied her face, even as he looked past her at the gurgling necromorphs, keeping them at bay with a sustained and unwavering shower of pulse rounds. He took in her crimson hair and soft blue eyes around a smooth pale face that would be more suited on a renaissance era sculpture. "Sarah, I need you to get out of there!"
"What why?" She asked in surprise. "I can't just leave all these people here. I have an obligation to do my best to help them." In the background he could see countless people behind her flooding the hallways of the hospital.
"I don't care, the necromorphs are going to get past us eventually and flood into the hospital. I need to know that you'll be out of there before that happens." He pleaded with her as he and the others slowly began to fallback, unable to keep such a massive swarm away for long.
"But Alex-" She tried to argue.
"NO SARAH! Just get out of there!" He shouted as there was terrified cry of pain and Alex watched as a three foot barb pierced a soldier's leg and pinned him to the deck. Before he could even fall, a pack of mid-sized necromorphs leaped onto him and began to butcher the poor man with their claws. His screams soon faded and he was lost in the horde. "We can't contain them any longer, head to Deck-J, go to our apartment; it's the safest deck at the moment. There's still a large military presence there. I'll come get you as soon as I can." He paused for a moment. "Do this for me Sarah...please. I can't bear loosing you." Alex sounded as if he was on the verge of despair.
The women sighed and nodded her head. "Okay Alex...I'll go."
The man sighed in relief as he and the other soldiers backed up and the bulkhead began to seal in front of them, cutting of the harsh wailing and replacing it with a dull silence. As he and the surviving members of his unit turned to jog away, the soft banging of claws upon steel followed them. There would be no rest this day or any other in the foreseeable future
**********
Alex awoke to the sound of a brace of medical machines beeping away, memories fading back into his subconscious were they would linger until he went back to sleep. Alex sighed as he comprehended where he was "I have to stop waking up in hospitals."
"ALEX, YOU"RE AWAKE!" A blissful vixen yipped, running over to his bed from her seat in the room. Krystal leaned over the bed and looked down at him.
"Hey there Krys how are you?" He said with a chuckle, banishing any more thoughts of his past, for the moment.
"How am I?" She muttered; disbelief etched on her muzzle. "I'm not the one who got shot! I should be asking you that!"
"Well, then you'll be glad to hear that I feel fine." He announced, absently prodding his chest where he could see raw skin covering his most recent wound. "Well...mostly fine anyways, still a little bit sore though."
"You should count yourself lucky, a little to the left and you would be in casket and not a bed!" She barked at him with a snarl twisting her muzzle. "What were you thinking, going by yourself? You should have let me or someone else go with you!" As she ranted, he saw that she looked fuming, but more than that she looked about ready to cry.
That's when Alex realized, now that he had friends again, that entailed a responsibility to them and to himself. He couldn't just keep riding solo. He had been used to it, surviving on his own for six months on the ark. He had forgotten what it was like to be with people. He couldn't run off any more, he had obligations to others...a duty. There were people that cared about him again, and they would be hurt if he died.
Alex looked to Krystal's unhappy expression and he sighed. "You're right Krys, I should have let you guys help me. It's just that I'm used to doing things on my own. I haven't had anyone to rely on in a long time. I just got used to working by myself. I guess I forgot what it was like to have help. And for that, I'm sorry."
She studied his face carefully, before her muzzle transformed into a huge grin. "Well, you better remember what it's like, because I'm not letting you go by yourself anymore. I'm going to go with you."
Alex looked at her determined expression and smiled, it reminded him of Sarah. She had always been headstrong, facing her problems straight on. Sarah almost never backed down from a problem. That was one of the things that he loved about her....had loved about her. In fact, Krystal reminded him of her a lot, so much so that it bothered him. Whenever he thought about Sarah, he would inevitably begin to think about Krystal, and vice versa. It was something that concerned him. He knew what it was the beginning of, and he was not sure if it was right or wrong.
"Are you okay?" He heard her ask him.
Alex turned to see her looking at him worriedly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Where are the others?" He diverted.
The vixen frowned, knowing that he was withholding something from her, but she let it go for now. 'They're all in the mess hall, you missed lunch. But don't worry." She tilted her muzzle and he looked over to see a tray with two plates of food on it. "I got you covered."
He chuckled. "Thanks Krystal, I don't know what I would do without you."
Hearing that she grinned widely and her tail twitched happily. The vixen stood up and went to go grab the two plates.
And as soon as her back was turned her let his smile drop. What was he going to do with this?_There was a path open to him and he could take it, perhaps finding the happiness he thought he lost forever. In which case, he would feel as if he was betraying _her. Or he could ignore it and let whatever may grow wither and die, never to blossom in to what it could be.
As he warred within himself, Krystal returned with the plates and he smiled again, this time falsely. Krystal then began to talk with him as they both ate, and he did his best to seem like he was listening. At a point in their one sided conversation, Krystal noticed his lack of attention. "What's wrong?" She asked.
"I...." Alex paused, unsure as to how to proceed. What he said would be the defining decision that would forever alter what his life in this world would be like. He could take what was offered to him, or he could spurn it. Either decision would have consequences. On one hand he would be opening his heart to love again, which would also open it to a uniquely special type of pain, a pain he would rather not feel again. Or he could remain as he was, alone without that type of love that it would bring. He would need some time to come to a decision. "I was just wondering if you would like to meditate later. After all, I did give my word. And I always keep it."
She bopped her muzzle excitedly. "Of course I would. After we finish eating we can begin."
"Sounds great, I think I might need it." He replied.