"They're Recommending Euthanasia, For Non-Conformers Anywhere."
Asia-Wildest Dreams
Titania City
An Elite field commander took a look around the neighborhood. Two hours earlier, Elite, Locust, and Siberian soldiers had attacked the capitol after capturing several other cities. If they succeeded, they would have control of one of the biggest oil reserves in Lylat. Their job now was to keep the Titanian and Cornerian forces distracted from the main attack. They had ten prisoners from taking this area, only four of whom were military. The commander called over his second in command.
"Razack."
"Yes commander?"
"I need ten riflemen."
The major raised an eyebrow, but replied "Yes sir."
A few minutes later, the troops brought out the prisoners. The riflemen lined up, but were very hesitant. They were all recent conscripts,and had never been through the execution routine. The commander eyed them up.
"Ready!"
The troops switched off the safeties of their rifles.
"Aim!"
They raised their rifles.
"Fire!"
Nothing, the conscripts all looked at each other, as if looking for encouragement.
"Damn it, Fire!"
Still no response. The commander put his hand on his pistol.
"Listen gentleman, I know that this is your first time, but it's either them or you."
He stretched the last part out for emphasis. The Elites now had no choice. With a regretful look in their eyes, they shot their targets. The Locust watching were confused, the mass killings that they had committed on Sera had never been this organized. The Siberians, on the other hand, paid little mind to the execution. They simply tended to their machine guns, something that had to be done often in desert climates. The Elites walked off, all of them had their heads lowered. The commander looked over at Major Razack.
"All conscripts, Major?"
"With all due respect sir, everyone has to do it sooner or later."
"Regardless, don't do that again."
"Yes sir."
The commander approached a Kantus Monk, a tall, high ranking Locust.
"I need a few of your troops."
"Certainly, Commander Salazar."
Meanwhile, In Another Part of the City
The Great Fox landed in Titania City, the part that was not under hostile control that is. The Titanian and Cornerian troops at the spaceport gathered around to greet them. Initially, there was cheering, but the second they saw Kronos, they stopped. The Cornerians nervously gripped their weapons and the Titanians, probably too desperate to worry about it, just stared.
"It's okay guys, he's with us." said Fox.
All he got were some very confused looks from the Cornerians but the Titanians seemed to relax a little.
"Well the more the merrier." said a Titanian officer.
With that they headed to HQ.
"So we've beaten back all enemy forces in the city, except for here."
A general placed his finger on a map of the city as he explained the situation.
"If we don't get them out soon, the offensive will roll right over us. I understand that Corporal Kudrov knows what these unidentified creatures are."
Kronos went to the front and cleared his throat.
"Well, to put it bluntly, these creatures are Demons."
The room went quiet, Kronos wasn't sure if they didn't believe him or were too shocked to answer. One person finally spoke up.
"As in from Hell?"
Kronos nodded.
"Take that any way you like, there's no question that we face an enemy far more ruthless than anything of this world. And for the record, this has happened before. As a matter of fact, it happened several times in the Solar System. Now I just happen to have a database on the known types of Demons, so bear with me."
A projector showed images and descriptions of all the creatures that Fox had encountered so far, and many that he hadn't seen. The zombies were actually zombies; The normal type walked slow and the trooper type were the ones that used guns. The eight-eyed creatures were called Imps, as Kronos had told Fox earlier. The two-headed creatures were called Maggots even though they had no resemblance to their namesake. The dog-like creatures were called Pinkys, The flying skulls were called Lost Souls. Fox already knew what the Wraiths were. The tan-colored flying creatures were Cacodemons. And the very muscular creatures were called Hell Knights.
"Darn, now I can't say hell without it coming back to bite me." Fox thought.
Not long after the briefing, Star Fox, Kronos, and a squad of Titanians were heading into the occupied neighborhood. They were going along the rooftops to avoid enemy patrols, but had found no such activity. Kronos was on rear when he heard a noise from behind. Instinctively, he whipped around and threw his knife. A luckless Elite got it right in the neck. He gurgled a little before falling over.
As Kronos retrieved the knife, a Titanian commented. "Man, I'm glad he's on our side."
They continued on until they found the enemy entrenchments. Most of the troops were in the dug-outs or walking near them. Since Elites wear a lens over each eye that allows them to keep track of their ammo and shields as well as possessing infrared, night vision, and x-ray vision, Kronos used his to see that there were also troops in the houses across the road; But something didn't feel right.
"This force seems too small."
Fox looked over at him.
"You think there are more hiding out somewhere?"
"Maybe, but there's only one way to find out."
They got down off the rooftop into an alley out of the enemy's sight.
"Okay, lobbing grenades into the trenches ought to work. But keep an eye open, there may be more enemy soldiers around."
However, just as Kronos finished, someone screamed "BASTARDS!"
A Titanian ran past him and out of the alley. A Siberian and two Elites spotted him. They gunned him down and started walking towards the alley.
"Ah shit, here they come." said Fox.
"What the hell was that guy thinking?" Falco added.
One of the Titanians pointed over to ten corpses piled at the end of the alley.
"Because four of those people are his squadmates."
"Well in that case, I say no prisoners." said another Titanian.
With that they charged out of the alley, taking out the three hostiles. Machine guns and rifles opened fire on them, cutting down many. Worse still, it seemed that the Siberians had a Soviet AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher with them. The troops in the houses also fired on them. Regardless, the Lylatians got into the entrenchments, where brutal hand-to-hand combat took place.
Fox and Falco met up half-way through, and decided to clear out the houses. As they approached them, an Elite sniper aimed at them. Kronos saw this and shot him. The two mercenaries moved through the lower floor, which was devoid of enemies. As they went up a stairwell, a Locust Drone appeared. He was easily killed, as was another Locust on the next floor.
Then they heard some very light footsteps. Fox and Falco looked around, but couldn't see anything. Then a small, insect-like creature with what appeared to a fuel tank on it's back dashed around the corner. When it got close, two fuses lit. The Cornerians were barely able to get away before the bug exploded. More of the exploding bugs appeared. Fox and Falco shot at them, aiming for the tanks. One managed to get near Fox. Without thinking, he kicked it. The bug slammed into a wall and hit the floor. It got up again, but was shot that time around. They heard some screeching, and spotted a Kantus. He fired his Gorgon SMG at them and with a screech, he made more exploding bugs appear. The Cornerians took them out, but the Kantus kept dodging their shots.
"Hey Fox, try kicking one of his pet bugs back at him."
Fox did just that. The Kantus caught it with one hand. Falco fired at the bug, which blew the Kantus right out the window; he was dead before he hit the ground. Outside, the rest of the group had cleared out the trenches. But just as Fox and Falco were going downstairs, a loud rumble was heard. Luckily, the two managed to rush out and dive into the trench before it impacted, sending debris flying everywhere. Down the street were many more Elites, Locust, and Siberians along with a Wraith tank. The Lylatians began to take high casualties. Krystal noticed the blue and orange flames licking away at the houses that had been hit. Using her telekinetic abilities, Krystal was able to shoot the fire and burn several enemies to death, though more simply took their place.
"Damn." she cursed.
"Pardon me if I'm being demanding, but can't you just make more fire?" said Kronos.
"I could, but it's very tiring."
Kronos nodded. He looked around the trench and spotted the AGS-17.
"I wouldn't worry about that too much." he told Krystal before turning to Falco.
"I need your help with something."
"Sure."
They went back to the grenade launcher, where Kronos took it off it's tripod mounting.
"Grab those magazines."
Kronos, being an Elite, carried the launcher with one hand while Falco struggled with the two drum magazines. Kronos began hip-firing the AGS-17 at the enemy. He kept the troops suppressed long enough for the Titanians to bring their anti-tank weapons to bear. The Wraith tank was destroyed and the Elites and Siberians began to beat a hasty retreat. The Locust stayed behind to cover them.
Kronos continued providing support with the grenade launcher until he ran out of ammo, at which point, he dropped it and joined the fighting, noticing that the rest of the troops had been hiding in a hole, likely dug by the Drones. The Locust went down fighting and Kronos and a few others walked out in front of the retreating Elites and Siberians, causing them to put on the brakes. Kronos recognized the field commander in front. Garzan Salazar, a man who liked to execute prisoners, military and civilian. Kronos remembered when Salazar had ordered him to do his first execution during the Civil War. The prisoner had hardly been older than him.
"Kudrov." Salazar growled while narrowing his eyes. "You know what Lord Synn does to traitors."
"That's if they ever catch me." Kronos retorted.
Salazar saw the glares the Titanians were giving him.
"They were POWs, we couldn't take them with us."
Kronos trained his rifle on Salazar's head. "It's about time that you got a taste of your own medicine, sir"
He fired, putting an end to the vile officer. He then looked at the remaining troops.
"Go on." he told them.
Major Razack and the others stood dumbfounded, Kudrov was letting them go?
"Go on!"
That was enough to snap them back to reality. They continued retreating.
"No offense, I understand why you did that, but what makes you think that they aren't going to try a suicide mission?"
"Their orders are to rejoin the main group."
"I suppose you know all that."
Fox came over.
"Well Kronos, you did good. I hope you're as good in the air as you are on the ground."
"I take it that we have a flying mission."
Fox nodded.