CHAPTER 5
Undying History
Later that night
Emayn, Governor’s mansion, guest quarters
2348 hours
“Gage? Are you awake?”
Fox slowly opened the old-fashioned
wooden door to Gage’s room, darkness and silence his only responses. The
small lamp on the bedside table lent the only light in the room, enough
to show a dark figure sitting on the side of the bed, looking out the window,
his back to the door. Gage’s dirty, sweat-soaked uniform lay sprawled on
the bed, the patterns of dust, blood, and fur streaked on it a testament
to the day’s work.
Silently, Fox entered the room
and closed the door behind him. Gage didn’t seem to notice as Fox walked
around the front of the bed and looked at him, hunched over, his head in
his hands. In the dim light, Fox could see his body trembling slightly,
as if he was cold. His breath came out in quivering rasps.
“Gage?” Fox tried again, a little
louder.
Gage’s head snapped up and he
looked at Fox for a full minute at least, as if seeing him for the first
time and analyzing whether he was a threat. He had a scared look in his
eyes, about the last thing Fox had ever expected to see from him.
“God, McCloud,” he said in a
near whisper. “Dammit, not again…”
He stood up and leaned on the windowsill,
gazing out to the dark, calm ocean. Fox could see he was clothed only in
a t-shirt and shorts, probably the same ones he has worn under his uniform.
God knows how long he had been sitting there.
“Are you ok?” Fox asked, taking
another step towards him. “You were shaking and—“
“I’m fine,” Gage replied in
an annoyed tone. He took a series of deep breaths and slowly shook his
head. “I…I just do that sometimes.”
“Do what? What were you doing?”
There was a hesitation from
the darkness around the window, then Gage slowly said, “Remembering…Macbeth.”
Fox was confused for a few seconds
until he remembered something. Gage’s Army profile that was sent to him
from General Pepper, the psychiatrist’s evaluation at the bottom.
‘This harsh and unimaginably
painful experience in the Venom prison made him slightly detached, often
seen brooding or just staring into space.’
Before Fox could say anything,
Gage angrily turned from the window and sat back down on the bed. “Oh,
why the hell am I telling you any of this? Just get out of here, leave
me alone. I don’t feel like reliving the past, not now, not ever.”
Fox sighed and sat on the bed
next to him. He couldn’t help seeing almost a mirror image of himself,
his past, the demons he’s had to fight. “Gage, you know my history. I’m
probably the only person in the galaxy that knows exactly how you feel.
We both lost loved ones to Venom, we both went through hell in a Venom
prison.”
“You don’t know,” Gage whispered
to the floor. “It’s not about them; the prison on MacBeth is only half
of it.”
Fox didn’t know what he was
talking about, but he knew this was the close to finding out. He felt sympathy
for what Gage had gone through, and he wanted to help.
“Gage, the worst thing to do is to
keep it inside. It’ll eat at you and you’ll have these little brooding
things for the rest of your life. I didn’t want to talk about my parents’
deaths either, but it finally got so bad that I had to tell someone. After
that, I felt better…like I wasn’t carrying the burden myself.”
Gage continued staring at the
ground, the silence of the night accenting his deep breathing. Finally,
he stood up and opened the window, allowing a rush of cool air to break
the stale atmosphere of the room. He leaned on the windowsill, gazing again
into the night. After a few minutes, he began speaking in a low, distant
voice.
“It was the battle for Macbeth
City, right before it fell, one of the largest ground battles of the war…and
my first real combat. The fighting today and seeing the square filled with
dead and wounded…it must’ve triggered it again.” He took a deep quivering
breath and continued in a near-whisper. “God, I can still hear it…I can
still hear the screams of pain, the shouted orders, gunfire, explosions,
the rain. I can still smell the smoke, and…and burning flesh and fur. You
never forget that smell. I can still see the buildings, the soldiers…the
piles of dead soldiers, some of them friends that I had talked to only
an hour before.”
He shifted his gaze towards
the bright stars in the clear sky and continued. “I can still see it…”
* * *
Six years earlier
Macbeth City, Macbeth
0213 hours
“Incoming!”
Private Gage Birse threw himself
to the ground as a rocket blew a huge chunk of rock from the building next
to him, acrid smoke swirling around him. He frantically grabbed his helmet
from the debris-filled street and put it back on, looking wildly around
for the rest of his platoon. Through the heavy rain and smoke he saw that
they were already retreating, red lasers whizzing over the street from
both directions. Gage stood up on rubbery legs and followed them down the
street, every prayer he had ever learned running through his head.
That night and early morning
had been a non-stop barrage of pure hell. Venom was advancing in an unstoppable
wave through the streets of Macbeth City, and the scattered remnants of
the Cornerian and Macbethian Army detachments had come together for a last
stand. Reinforcements were promised by sunrise, but it didn’t look good.
They couldn’t hold until then…
Gage jumped behind a wall of
rubble his platoon had retreated to and cautiously looked through the rain
back down the long street, breathing heavily. The sight was breathtaking.
It looked like the apocalypse had reached the planet of Macbeth. The large,
majestic buildings that lined the streets were husks of their former glory,
only portions of the stone and metal walls still standing. Fires and destroyed
vehicles dotted the rubble-filled streets. It was impossible to distinguish
the thunder from distant explosions, but the whistles of rockets were easily
enough heard. And the bodies… Gage had tried his hardest to keep from vomiting,
but falling and having his hand land in a fellow soldier’s shot-open head
had done it for him.
Gage ducked back behind the
rubble as another enfilade of lasers and rockets shook the ground. He became
aware of shouting from the officers of his platoon, trying to be heard
over the pounding of the rain and explosions. He could barely see any of
them through the sheets of water and the gloom of the night.
“You tell them we need that
goddamn air support NOW!”
“I did already, sir! They say
they can’t spare the aircraft!”
“What the fuck are we supposed
to do?! We’re getting slaughtered! We can’t keep this up forever!”
“Sir, they’re coming!”
Gage felt panic rise in his
chest as he stole another glance over the rubble. At least a hundred Venom
soldiers and three tanks were moving up the street, directly towards them.
The young fox ducked back down, almost sobbing, wishing he were anywhere
else in the universe but there.
“Get ready!” shouted a voice
Gage thought to be his squad’s sergeant. “We hold them here!”
The seventy or so soldiers left
from the three-hundred they started with leaned on the rubble, their rifles
pointing at the enemy column approaching them. Gage took a deep breath,
his heart racing, and stood up to join his comrades. Rifle fire filled
the air as lasers darted into the crowd of Venom soldiers. Gage fired also,
not sure if he was hitting anything, but desperate to do something.
The sparse volley from the Cornerians
was answered with a roar from the enemy. Lasers filled the air thicker
than Gage had ever seen, and explosions ripped apart the ground, the buildings,
and the soldiers. Gage again hit the ground as more of his friends were
cut down, dropping the Cornerian count to fifty soldiers. Blood trickled
down his face and he panicked, fearing he had been hit. He felt his head
and realized a laser had gone through his helmet, just grazing behind his
left ear. So close…
“Listen to me!” Gage recognized
the voice of their captain, a battle-hardened leopard named Owen. “You
get on that fucking radio and tell HQ that the city will fall unless we
get reinforcements within the next half-hour! Do you fucking hear me?!”
Owen, lying prone next to the
radioman, grabbed him and found out that he couldn’t hear him; most of
the right side of his torso had been blown off in an explosion. That meant
the radio was dead too.
“Dammit!”
A sergeant from another platoon
that had joined Gage’s shouted to the Owen. “What the hell do we do now,
sir?!”
Owen looked up, a stony look
on his dirt-streaked face. Screams echoed in the air from the men wounded
from the onslaught. There was hardly anything the medic could do; he had
few supplies left, and many had lost limbs. Even if there was a place to
get them to, the platoon literally had its back to the wall. There was
nowhere to retreat.
Finally, he shouted back, “We
need to counter-attack!”
Dead silence ensued from the
soldiers, the pounding of the rain the only sound heard. They all stared
back at the captain in unbelieving terror. Gage slowly looked down at the
body next to him. He couldn’t even tell what species he had been, the damage
completely burning his head away. He didn’t want to end up like that. He
was just a kid…most of these soldiers were. They should be at home, preparing
and planning for their futures, looking forward to beginning their adult
lives. Not here, in the middle of a dark wasteland, about to end it.
The captain’s voice broke Gage’s
thoughts. “Our only chance is to drive them back so we can hold out for
reinforcements! You all have fought valiantly, but we need just one last
effort! Prepare to charge!”
Gage finally broke down and
cried, his tears mingling with the rain. He didn’t want to die here in
the rain on the war-torn streets of Macbeth. The only thought running through
his head was ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die.’ Pictures soon
filled his head as the remaining troops silently crept up to the wall of
rubble. He saw himself and Ike when they were kits, wrestling around in
the backyard. Ike always let him win, as most big brothers won’t do. He
saw the park a mile from his house where his mother would take them, and
the huge pond there. Gage used to think it was the most peaceful and beautiful
place in the galaxy.
He would never see it again…
Those pictures faded back to
the dark, rainy, hell of Macbeth City. There was dead silence once again
as the soldiers leaned forward, waiting for the word from their captain.
They stared into the mouth of death, the Venom soldiers waiting for them.
Knowing that he was going to be charging at that was nearly all Gage could
take.
Before he had time for anymore thoughts, the captain’s
voice bellowed, “Charge!”
The air was filled with shouts
and roars as the soldiers charged over the rubble and towards the enemy.
Gage mustered his remaining strength and charged with them, the adrenaline
he had been feeling all night again flowing through him. Lasers lanced
through the air, forming a sheer wall, dropping both Cornerian and Venom
soldiers alike. The war cries and roars were soon replaced with shrieks
of death and pain. The ranks of soldiers grew thinner and thinner, and
Gage was still alive. He heard voices over the screams and gunfire.
“We can’t make it!”
“We have to! Keep going!”
“The captain…the captain’s down!”
“What?!”
“Owen’s down!”
The news shredded any morale
left in the troops once and for all. The remaining few soldiers hit the
ground behind any cover they could find. Gage fell behind a destroyed truck
and looked around wildly, his tears still flowing. He spotted a friend
of his, Wayne, a tiger he had gone through basic training with, and waved
to him.
“Wayne! Over here! Get down!”
Wayne saw him and sprinted over.
He was almost behind the car when…
“Gage—“ he began, but was cut
short. A laser flew from the Venom side and blew the left side of his head
off, splattering blood and brain matter on the ground and on Gage. The
fox stared wide-eyed at the near-headless body of his friend for a long
time. Fresh tears welled up in his eyes as he tore his gaze away. Wayne
was only eighteen, a close friend of his. He had told Gage numerous times
about his plans after the war. He wanted to finish medical school and become
a doctor like his father.
But his entire life, eighteen
years of experience and seventy more that would never happen, had just
been erased in an instant. Gage hugged his knees and cried for a long time
until he realized there were more voices over a loudspeaker.
“—harmed! I say again, any Cornerian
military, come out and surrender now and you will not be harmed!”
Surrender. Gage had no idea
what would happen in the Venom prison, but he did know one thing: If he
didn’t surrender, he would end up like Wayne. Giving one last glance to
his friend, Gage took off his helmet and slowly stood up, hands raised.
* * *
Six years later
Emayn, governor’s mansion, guest quarters
0013 hours
Gage abruptly stopped his story
and stared out into the night, absently scratching the scar behind his
left ear. It was the first time he had told the story in full to anyone,
and he felt drained…but also somewhat relieved, like a huge weight had
been taken from his back. The images he had so descriptively portrayed
slowly faded from his sight, mingling with the gentle sway of the trees
outside his window then disappearing completely. But something else was
bothering him…
Fox stared wide-eyed at Gage’s
back, visualizing the scene in his head. He had never been in a huge ground
battle, only either huge air battles or small ground skirmishes. In space,
you don’t see the body of the pilot you just blew up. You’re also spared
the sight of seeing your comrades’ corpses. He knew Gage had been in the
war, but he had never seen a battle depicted that clearly or horrifically.
“You see,” Gage continued after
a few seconds. “It never changes. Killing now is the same as killing was
back then. I’ve just gotten so used to it. The bastard who shot Wayne didn’t
know what he was doing, how he affected people. Every time we kill someone,
we’re killing someone’s son, someone’s brother, father, husband. Fucking
Venom…” Gage lowered his face into his hands and said in a near whisper.
“My God…look at us, Fox…what the hell are we doing.”
Fox knew his thoughts; he had
them before, and they were tough to deal with. But the last thing he needed
now was Gage cracking on him. He stood up and slowly walked over to Gage,
another gentle wind whirling through the room.
“Gage, you’re thinking about
this all wrong. You’re talking about this like we just walked into a supermarket
and shot everyone inside. Think about what you did today. Yes, you killed
a lot of people. But so did they. Think of how many innocent lives you
saved today. You said it the best yourself, down on the beach. They’re
not just anyone, they’re Venom soldiers. With every one of them you kill,
you’re doing Lylat some good.”
Gage raised his head and looked
Fox square in the eye, a piercing gaze, as if he was trying to look past
Fox’s eyes into his mind to see if he meant what he was saying. The stare
slowly built itself back into the stony expression that Gage always wore
before that night. “You’re right.”
“Listen, you’re just a little
shaken up from this whole thing. Get some sleep and forget about it. We’re
the good guys, Gage, remember that. Feel better?”
Gage slowly nodded. “Yeah, a
little…thanks, McCloud.”
“No problem.” Fox stood up and
walked towards the door when he heard his partner’s voice again, this time
sounding like the old Gage.
“Hey, McCloud.”
Fox stopped and turned around.
“Yeah?”
“You did good today,” Gage said
without turning around.
“Thanks,” Fox replied, grinning
wearily. He then continued out the door and clicked it shut behind him.
Minutes later, Gage’s light clicked off, sleep overcoming him almost immediately.
* * *
The next morning
Rogara Outpost, Venom
0721 hours
It was still dark in the commander’s
office, despite the rising sun peeking over the sandy horizon. Its largeness
and sheer gray metal walls made it so that it was nearly impossible to
make a move without an echo accompanying it. The office was devoid of any
furniture save the large metal desk towards the back, a huge window behind
it overlooking the entire outpost. A dark figure stood at that window,
clothed in a Venom officer’s uniform with a black robe, hands clasped behind
his back.
The door to the office slid
open and a tall cheetah slowly walked in, his slow footsteps echoing in
the emptiness. His red eyes seemed to glow in the darkness as he stopped
a few feet from the commander’s desk, looking intently at the dark figure
at the window.
“Charon,” the commander said
in a somewhat amused voice, not turning around. “You’re the only person
who would come that far without a word.”
Charon Bond still said nothing,
his stony gaze fixed on the commander.
“Look at it, Charon,” the commander
continued, gazing past the walls of the outpost at the incomprehensibly
huge construction site beyond. Thousands of figures, mostly civilians ‘persuaded’
into working for him, toiled at the building. “Overlord will soon breathe
once again. Both of our desires will be fulfilled.”
“How much longer?” Charon said
in a low voice, slitting his red eyes. “It has already been two months
past when you said it would be done.”
“I can’t help complications.
They happen.” The commander turned and faced Charon, his face still shrouded
in darkness. He looked over his black civilian clothes and said, “You still
won’t wear the uniform?”
“I’ll never wear the uniform
of Venom,” Charon replied in a near whisper. “Nor that of Corneria. I owe
allegiance to no one.”
The commander turned back to
the window and raised his hand in a dismissive wave. “Yes, yes, I’ve heard
the speech before, spare me.”
Charon scowled and continued.
He wanted to give his report and leave the commander’s presence before
his emotions got the better of him. “We received the report back from Emayn.”
“Oh?” The commander’s tail slowly
swung back and forth in an almost lazy manner, as was characteristic of
him when he was in deep thought.
“The landing failed. Nearly
all forces were wiped out, but we were able to get two positive IDs on
the help that arrived.”
“One must be Fox McCloud.”
“Yes. The other was a Captain
Gage Birse of the Cornerian Special Forces.”
The commander’s tail stopped
dead in mid-swing and the room fell silent once again. After a few seconds,
he said in a near whisper, “Gage Birse…of course, the captain of Dagger.
He could be trouble. Especially if working with McCloud.”
Charon said nothing. He couldn’t
care less about the commander, but it was his job to see Overlord through
to its finish. He had to. If these two were going to be trouble for Overlord,
then they were trouble for him. “Should we mobilize another force for Emayn?”
The commander chuckled, the
sound echoing through the room and making it sound as if there was an audience.
“No, Charon. Emayn was just bait.”
“Bait?”
“I knew McCloud would come running
the second Emayn was in trouble. We now know that he is involved in this,
and he has a partner, and the Cornerian government now thinks that Overlord
is still dependant on relay stations. The objective of our attack on Emayn
was accomplished.”
Charon knew he shouldn’t be
surprised at what he was hearing, but he still was. His demeanor never
changed, however. He could never afford to let his emotions be seen. “You
sent all those men to die just to check for McCloud?”
“Charon, I am the commander
of the Venom Army because I can make these kinds of decisions. You are
where you are because of your recklessness. Simply do what you’re told
and leave the rest to me.” Charon thought he could see a humorless grin
spread on the commander’s muzzle in the darkness. “Besides, who are you
to talk? You’re helping me in the development of a superweapon. What do
you think we’re going to do with it, leave it there for decoration?”
‘I said I’d help you build
it,’ the cheetah thought. ‘I never said I’d let you use it.’
Charon stood his ground and stared
at the dark figure. He could feel anger rising, the same anger he had felt
since the day the commander forced him to work for him. “I want to see
my father.”
“You’ve already seen him.”
“That was months ago.”
“And you will never see him
again unless you do what I say!” the commander shouted, whirling back around
to face the cheetah. “Once Overlord is completed, you will be free to go
with him. Until then, you and your skills are mine, is that clear?”
It was all Charon could do to
keep his anger under control. He had no choice; he knew it and it frustrated
him. He hated Venom, he hated the commander, he hated everyone around him
on this desolate planet. Everyone except his father, who was the only family
he had left. Greold Bond meant everything to Charon, and he would do anything
to see him again…including work for the commander.
“Like fucking crystal,” Charon
uttered angrily. He turned and stormed out of the room, leaving the commander
to gaze out his window at the near-finished terror being built before him.
-Chapter
6 coming soon-