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Legacy of the Precursors

Chapter 8: Bonds

Six told Krystal pretty much everything he remembered about the spartan program, the ruthless conditioning and rigorous drills he and the others had to endure, day in and day out for years. It had been no casual stroll through the park, aimed with the goal in mind of creating a generation of supersoldiers trained to obey without question, fulfill any order, no matter how dubious. ONI had seen how successful the progenitor program had been after the failure of the ORION initiative and the creation of the Spartan-IIs. And they wanted to harness that same triumph for themselves, with or without Halsey’s support.

Six still vividly remembered the day when he and the other four-hundred and seventeen candidates had been dumped off at Camp Currahee on Onyx, all ranging from four to six years old, the jumble of frightened children gazing at the massive compound of mortar and steel. Soon after, they had been introduced to their instructors, giant men in freshly pressed uniforms and ever present scowls. There had been many trainers at the encampment, but only a couple stuck out in his mind for varying reasons, Kurt, Mendez, and Ackerson.

Ackerson had cared little on whether they lived or died and it was under his watch that so many of them had perished in the dangerous training exercises. Kurt and Mendez had been the most effective, while still harsh, critical, and more than a little violent. It was from them that Six had learned how to be a survivor and he could contribute his successful career to their advice and leadership. He did not know whether those two butted head with Ackerson and his overly cruel methods, but he did know that it was on their orders that he had been removed and selected for additional education in the art of war.

Kurt had been an interesting man, a spartan-II no less, one of the originals and some said the best. Despite this, he had been one of the most relaxed and outgoing people Six ever had the chance to meet. That did not mean he had been soft on them, the sparring ring could attest to that much. But it had come to a surprise when he had learned who exactly Kurt was. Not once had he ever acted like Six expected a spartan to act, he was no stern and taciturn man, but rather looked out for the S-III candidates, almost like a brother or fatherly figure. It had warped his interpretation of what a spartan could be, although he had not quite caught onto Kurt’s easygoing ways as some of the others had.

What Six had learned from him, was that you did not need to be a unfeeling soldier in order to be a good spartan, you just had to follow you heart. The problem was, that’s not something Six felt like he could do. His influence was not enough to balance that of Ackerson, who had beaten into him that he was solely an asset of humanity, having forfeited any rights he had the moment he touched the surface of Onyx.

But of everything he had endured at Camp Currahee, what he truly loathed to remember was the augmentation procedure he had undergone with grim aversion, nerves like fire, his bones like glass, and his skin as thin as paper. Every waking moment had been agonizing. He did not remember how long it lasted, just the agony it left him with. It had hurt more than losing his family and home, and he imagined the other kids had felt the same way.

Six could not remember if he had made friends with any of the other recruits prior to his removal, but he doubted it. Even back then he had been hesitant to speak and preferred his solitude. Although he had looked up his company some years later, and discovered that most of them had been killed in Operation: TORPEDO. He didn’t know if it was luck that he had been spared their fate. He tended to not put much stock in superstition. They were just victims of circumstance, like he had been.

But the spartan did know that the only reason he lived was because of Kurt and Mendez. He never quite understood why they saved him and a few of the others. But he was able to pick up and piece together some information when he could, slicing through ONI databanks on occasion. If they had ever discovered his actions they might have discharged, or the more likely choice, terminated him. But he felt that he needed to know why he was more important than the others. And in the classified electronic records, he found several references to the purity of his genetic stock.

It had sickened him to uncover that they might have saved him purely on the sanctity of his DNA. But he supposed that life was not exactly fair, and the others had just lost the galactic coin toss. All that mattered to him in the end was that he had survived.

After his further dedicated preparation by ONI, they had set him loose upon the galaxy, roaming across the embattled zones and completing clandestine operations for the office, ranging from assassinations, demolitions of critical objectives that could not be afforded to fall into alien hands, and VIP extraction, which could often become a kill order if necessary. Better that they be dead then give any information to the Covenant. He had been forced to do that more than a few times, and not once had he hesitated. He knew how high the stakes were. There could be no room for doubt or empathy. He expected to be treated the same way if he had been captured.

Six decided to leave that particular piece and ones like it from his story. He didn’t want her to know of the things he had done, for whatever reason.

He leaned away from his ONI designated assignments and focused more on the war itself. The spartan felt a little better speaking about that. His missions then had been more focused on saving lives rather than taking them.

Even with that he did not go into too much detail. Fighting the Covenant left one with little good to speak off. More often they were stories without happy endings. Sure, there was the occasional victory and a colony was saved. But usually word was passed on how a handful of civilians had hitched aboard the retreating remnants of a UNSC fleet, watching as their home was glassed into oblivion.

Once it came to the battle of Reach, his words failed him. Six could not find it in him to continue, the mental scars too recent, the battles, too vivid. To him, it had been less than a week since he walked the world’s ruined surface, watched his team die. Maybe in time he could come to terms with what he had been through on Reach.

But now, at this moment, he could feel his sincerity coming to a close. It was almost a physical perception, as if a gate inside his mind was drawing inexhaustibly shut, sealing away his emotions behind that familiar and welcomed spartan façade he had grown so used to. He could feel himself compartmentalizing, sealing his fragile human demeanor under the inherent indoctrination he knew so well.

It was a strange sensation, feeling oneself become numb, knowing that soon you would lose that concept that made you human once more as it faded away. Fear, he felt it as his humanity began to slip. He did not want to be a heartless machine, but it was what he knew to be so well. And he clung to any shred of his human self he could grasp as it departed, managing to only tear a few precious ragged fragments away from his other identity.

Once, after the events of his mission on a planetoid called Volaris, he had been ordered to visit an ONI shrink. He had answered the invasive doctor’s questions with great reluctance as the man tore him into allegorical pieces with his knifed edged words. In the end, the spartan had cut the interview short before he could no longer restrain himself from strangling the psychiatrist.

Shortly after the meeting, he had checked the dossier they had compiled on him, and discovered something significant. The doctor had claimed that he suffered from something similar to a split personality disorder, that he had two different people struggling to coexist in his battered frame. There was the human, the man that clung to what was left of his humanity after having been forced to endure the traumatic events that he did, and the spartan, the ruthless and coldblooded entity that had manifested itself in order to protect its host body and fragile inner core.

Six wanted to dismiss the doctor’s claims as fraudulent and implausible, but he had been the same one to conduct research on the spartan-II candidates as they grew up in the program.

Now he was not so certain the doctor had been a fool.

Six crushed these thoughts with malice. These belonged to a weaker man, not Spartan-B312. He was better than this, stronger, than this. He would withstand such frailty as he always did. Enough of these pointless recollections, they had no place here or anywhere else.

He pulled himself away from his distant reverie and brought himself back to reality, the silhouette of the dark barracks room he sat in swirling back into piercing focus.

The feline still slept on her bed and Krystal still sat beside him, neither aware of the sudden shift in his embattled thoughts.

Six glanced down at the vixen that sat next to him, and felt that familiar unease and mistrust that he had upon first meeting. But it did not linger for long. A small part of him remembered their conversation not so long ago and what he had promised her. He found that even with his resurgence in his old self, he could not completely disregard what he had sworn.

They were his team now. Even if he did not completely trust or even like them he would not forget that much. And maybe, just maybe, he could prevent what happened to Noble from repeating itself. It had not been easy for him to adapt to operating with a team, and that had been with spartans who actually understood him. Starfox was not even human. It would take quite some doing to accept them.

Six signaled that he was done speaking with a quick word and tilt of his head, half expecting her to lean away in revulsion. He was curious as to what she would think about all of this. Was he now even more of a monster in her eyes? He imagined so. He must sound like quite the horrific creature to her.

*****

Krystal listened to Six’s story with shock and horror in equal measures. What kind of life was that to live? What kind of person did it take to come out of all that like he had?

What’s more, how could anyone do that to children?

She was horrified to discover that he had been forced to be a soldier at such a young age. The knowledge that they had taken kids and subjected them to such harsh and merciless conditions made her sick. To take it a step further, they had experimented on them, altering their bodies to make them even more efficient killing machines.

The vixen could not imagine what it would be like to have your childhood stripped away from you, replaced by the rigorous and uncaring edifice of war, to have your body unwillingly molded to better fit the severe requirements others demanded of you.

Now she understood why he was such an aggressive and uncompromising individual. It was what he had been forced to be, all he knew how to be. And she was thankful that he had not lost his self-control and let his more violent side take over with her or the others. Krystal could only wonder what it took for him to keep his emotions bottled up. It couldn’t possibly be healthy to keep that raging firestorm sealed away.

As terrible as it was to admit, she admired his resilience. She had lost much, but he had lost more. She could still look back fondly on her remembrances of Cerinia and her family. She always had those memories to fall back on during her rough patches.

Six did not have that luxury. His only memories were that of war and its unpleasant byproducts.

She gazed up into his mask, wondering what he was thinking, what he looked like under that impervious veneer of shining silver. What surprised her more was how young he must be. From his story he could be her age, and yet his voice had made her think he was a craggy old veteran. It was a shock to discover that he was not nearly as old as that.

Compassion welled up insider her, and she felt the overwhelming urges to comfort the wounded warrior, both in body and mind. She thought back to every moment she had interacted with him, and she felt guilt. She had judged him at face value, not bothering to learn why he acted the way he did. Now she could see the glaring motives for his crude ways.

From the way he represented himself, it was almost as if he expected everyone he met to be his enemy, or be disgusted by him. And she had played into that role quite effectively.

It was amazing that she was only able to feel so much of his emotions with her abilities. It would be all but flooding from anyone else’s auras in an overwhelming tidal wave of hurt. But with him there were the barest traces of his state of mind, and it was still enough to affect her.

Even now she felt an uncharacteristic mellow and pensiveness that was unlike her.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered quietly, feeling tears threating to break free from her emerald eyes.

“What?” The spartan’s helmet rearing backwards, genuinely confused.

“I’m sorry for everything, for what you lost, for what they turned you into. And…I’m sorry for how I treated you.” Krysta wanted him to know that she was regretful. The vixen felt that she needed to make it up to him, even if most of it was not her fault.

Six did not answer her immediately, the soldier tilting his head to the side, like a curious dog. When he did at last respond, it was slow and measured, as if he had put a great deal of thought into his reply. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I would have reacted the same way. And as to what they did to me. It is foolish to offer an admission of guilt for the sins of others. I will live with what they have done, you should not.”

Krystal could see what he meant, but she could not shake this bizarre feeling of guilt that she knew was not her own. She suspected it was some sort of psychic backdraft. Things like this happened on occasion, but not on the scale she felt at that moment.

“At least let us start anew, clear the slate.” She hoped to be able to change her relation with him. She wanted to be his friend, felt that she needed to. The vixen came up with an idea, it was silly, but she hoped that just might make it work.

“Hi, my name is Krystal.” She greeted him with a goofy smile and a giggle as she removed her paw from underneath her blanket and held it out.

The spartan didn’t move for a few moments, but when he did the man chuckled softly and shook her paw, thinking on the first one he had shaken since coming here. It was odd, but he felt warmth transfer from her paw into his hand, even though there was no logical way for her body heat to pass through the thick insulated glove.

“Hello Krystal, my name is Six.” He found all of this ridiculous and her little handshake more than a little irrational, and yet…it was oddly charming in its own senseless way. “Now, I suggest you get some sleep. I suspect tomorrow will be quite a day.” He was certain that Fox would have some sort of plan for dealing with this threat. Whatever it was, he had a feeling he would be at the forefront.

And that suited him just fine.

Six released her paw, feeling that peculiar warmth fade, replaced with the same emptiness he always knew.

“Are you going to sleep too?” She asked with a worried look. The vixen had felt his consciousness go dark only a few times since she met him and she was concerned that he did not sleep as much as he should.

Six was startled by her continuous monitoring of his wellbeing. But, he supposed that he would be safe enough to take a couple of hours to catch up on his slumber. Just the thought of being able to close his eyes for a bit made him drowsy. It was weird though, he had never really felt the need to truly sleep, not since Currahee.

“I suppose I could…for a little while at least.”

The vixen beamed up at him and wrapped herself tighter in her blanket before leaning against his shoulderplate.

That was….unexpected.

Her action made his mind splutter to a halt, his thought processes temporarily disabled as he made a vain attempt to compute what she was doing.

“Good…” Krystal murmured quietly as she made herself more comfortable, her tail curling and gently laying itself on his left thigh, occasionally thumping against the cerulean plate with a soft patter.

Six was frozen, almost painfully so, not able to move a muscle as the vixen lounged against him. The experience was wholly new and completely irregular and he was unable to figure out how to properly respond.

Eventually, he picked up her faint snoring joining that of the feline and knew she would not be moving in the foreseeable future.

‘…Shit.’

_ _

*****

Shortly after daybreak, the team gathered inside the command center, Fox summoning them with the assertion that he had come up with a foolproof plan. And as Miyu studied the holo table between her and the vulpine, she figured one thing.

It wasn’t much of a plan. In fact, it wasn’t a plan at all. If anything it held the barest traces of a real plan, more a half-assed concept than anything else.

Fox wanted her dead.

“So…let me get this straight.” The feline began with a doubtful crease ornamenting her muzzle, her amber eyes taking in the holographic map of the jungle with barely constrained skepticism. “You want me…and Six…to slog back through the jungle, where an uncertain number of those reptilian bastards are lurking I might add, all the way to where we parked the shuttle? Then grab said shuttle, and fly it back here?”

Fox grinned and dipped his muzzle in confirmation, apparently oblivious to how foolish it sounded.

“Yep that’s it.”

“You’re shitting me, right?”

“Not at all.”

“This is your lauded plan? The one you took all night planning?”

“Correct.” Fox nodded once more.

Yeah, he wanted her dead.

Miyu glanced to Six, hoping that he would say something to counter Fox’s seemingly insane proposal. She knew his word carried a great deal of weight, even though he had not been on the team for long. But her hopes were dashed as the hulking warrior remained silent.

‘Bastard…’

As if that wasn’t enough, she still remembered quite clearly what she had seen when she woke up.

He and Krystal had been snuggling…snuggling!

Sure, from his posture he didn’t look to be enjoying it, even in slumber, but that was beside the point. The feline was furious either way. She had been the one to try and befriend him first, way before Krystal tried to get her paws sunk into him. And all she had earned for her efforts was a scathing rebuke.

Then here comes little miss perfect with her glamorous blue fur and exotic accent, seemingly wooing him over with a few choice words.

It just wasn’t fair!

Miyu glanced at the vixen herself and saw her staring at the spartan with a faint almost unnoticeable smile.

Jealousy burned hotly in her veins. What did Krystal have that she didn’t? To make matters worse, now she had to go out into the deadly jungle with the guy that apparently hated her guts just because she had tried to be nice to him. So not only would she have to withstand his hidden glaring, but she would also have to contend with the super lethal creatures of Andross’ machinations.

“So, Miyu…are you up for a little jungle dalliance?” Fox enquired, interrupting her inner quandary.

The cat chuckled wildly, amused by her own unfortunate circumstances.

“Sure why the hell not? I’m game.”

*****

The gates closed with an ominous clang, sealing them away from the security of the base’s high walls and bristling defenses, leaving only the menacing jungle ahead of them.

Six regarded the fuming cat to his left, her tail thrashing in the air as she armed herself with one of the many handguns attached to the tactical webbing on her vest. It was quite clear to him that she was not completely onboard with Fox’s plan. And he must admit he was not so enthused either. He had thought that the vulpine would have come up with a smarter solution to their problems. But he did not want to undermine his commander’s position by showing any doubt, so he had let it stay.

There was a point to the vulpine’s madness however. Fay could fix the array, but she needed the supplies from the shuttle to carry it out. And the soldiers in the infirmary needed the first aid material it held as well if they were to hold on long enough for the reinforcements to arrive. He and the feline were the fastest and quietest members of the team, so they would have a better chance of reaching the ship without being detected and staying ahead of the bioweapons if they were.

He would have suggested going it alone, but they needed someone to pilot the ship and he had no experience with alien craft. He could have probably figured out how to fly it without too much difficulty. But he didn’t like the odds of trying to get it airborne before those things interfered.

“All right, let’s get this suicide mission over with.” Miyu grumbled, taking the lead into the forest.

Six nodded and followed behind her, feeling a strange air of guilt as he did.

The spartan had not forgotten his earlier confrontation with the feline. In fact it played itself quite frequently in his head as they traveled through the jungle. Its silent atmosphere gave one a lot of time to reflect.

He knew he had been at fault, even if he did not like to believe that. He had never been in a position like this before. His previous team had never fought over anything, they were professionals after all. But here, he had to remember that these aliens were not the same. And what’s more, he was not the same either. Before all of this he would have never exploded as he had with Miyu. Six was a master of his emotions, keeping them firmly locked away at all times. But he had slipped, let them loose from their prison. And because of that he had treated one of his team members wrongfully.

It was disquieting because he never made mistakes.

But then, he never did a lot of things before coming here.

Six watched as Miyu tramped ahead, muttering quietly to herself as she meandered through the low hanging vegetation with a grimness to her step. He didn’t care to listen to what she was saying. In all probability they were not very nice thoughts.

He needed to clear the air between them, if for no other reason than to ensure their fighting effectiveness remained unimpeded. The problem was he had no idea in hell how to go about doing that. He could not stress enough that he was not a very sociable man. Apologizing for a personal fault was something new entirely. He wanted to speak, to explain himself, but he could not find the strength to break his hesitancy, his reclusive anxiety too powerful.

Hours passed in their jungle walk without a word said between them, the silent spartan following dutifully after the feline.

Miyu was surprised that he had remained so quiet. She expected him to have at least said something to her, anything at all, even if it was words of disapproval. She was actually unnerved by his continued silence. She had thought she would be fine with him staying mute, but compared to the already quiet jungle, it was only more unpleasant.

Enough.

“Okay…I need a break.” She announced loudly. Six may have been a supersoldier, but she was still just a regular cat. And cats needed their rest. This jungle was hell to walk through. She had been to some pretty unpalatable places in her time, but this one had to rank amongst her top five least most inviting locations. The air was hot, oppressive, and stifling. The ground was an endless trail of spongy decomposing plant matter that clung to one’s boots with frustrating ease and made it a pain in the ass to walk through. And the humidity made it all but impossible to stay dry and she knew she was going to get a rash before this was all said and done.

Once more she found herself cursing Fox for sending her on this crazy mission. She was an interceptor pilot, keyword being pilot. She didn’t sign up to do grunt work.

‘This is what I get for being nice.’

Miyu sighed and found a fallen tree to sit on. As she sat on the damp bark she looked up to Six, watching as the spartan noiselessly found a place to rest as well, leaning against a thickly rounded sapling, the unfortunate flora creaking miserably under his weight.

‘Probably doesn’t even need to rest.’ She mused with a soft chuckle. At the moment the lynx was jealous of his armor, no doubt it had an artificially monitored environment so he didn’t have to deal with this damned jungle.

She continued to observe the spartan as he tinkered with his odd rifle. The black alloyed weapon was about as alien as she expected. From a quick study she determined that the magazine for the firearm was placed towards the rear, integrated into the stock, and the sight on top looked to be detachable and the weapon overall seemed to be heavily customizable.

It was exotic and deadly, just like its owner, and matched him perfectly. Just like Six’s armor, it was bulky and covered in angular edges, none of the smooth shapes she was used to seeing in their own gear. His armor was unusual. She would not have expected one such as he, coarse and withdrawn, to have such a colorful pattern. The runes were interesting though, and reminded her of Krystal’s tattoos. She had asked the vixen about them before, and had learned that they were an honor that only members of the royal family could bear. And each had a personal meaning for her.

Miyu wondered if the same held true for Six. Indeed they were quite mesmerizing and pleasant to look at. She was able to see more than before since he had finally decided to clean the blood from his suit.

The lynx could also see the small fang shaped punctures in the black undersuit on his right shoulder. She had to admit, he was one tough son of a bitch to be able to shrug of something like that. She had never been bit before, but she imagined it was a painful experience. He had lost a lot of blood from what she saw and he had acted as if the wound did not exist.

As her amber eyes wandered about his hulking frame, she was once more reminded of his herculean physique. There must not have been an ounce of wasted fat on his body, a being of densely sculpted muscle. His armored chest was broad and his limbs were so thick she doubted she could wrap a paw around his forearm, even if he took his armor off. His suit made it quite easy to see how he might look underneath it and stirred certain passions and desires in the feline.

It was brazenly apparent that he took great care of his body, it being the epithet of physical fitness.

Miyu suddenly found her gaze locked onto a visage of silver and realized that he had noticed her hungry gaze. The cat flushed and her fur darkened in mortification as she turned away and tried to look anywhere but at the spartan.

“Lynx….”

Miyu shivered as she heard him growl her name, his voice so rough that whether he intended to or not was unknown and she reluctantly turned to meet his impassive scrutiny.

“Y-Yeah Six….” She asked with a slight gulp, praying that he was not going to bring up what he must have seen.

“I…must speak with you…candidly if I may.”

“Uh…yeah of course. What is it, Six?” She wondered, puzzled by his timidness. She found that she could not be angry at him when he spoke like that. He sounded to her ears like a lost child, a strange adjective to assign to the hulking warrior.

The spartan nodded and she heard him take a deep breath.

“I feel the need to apologize for my actions yesterday. I was…stressed, and it was unfair for me to bring that on you. And for that…I-I’m sorry.” He choked out with some noticeable difficulty. His attention soon dropped away from her and the spartan studied his weapon with intense dedication.

Miyu looked onto him with a faintly growing smile, relieved and surprised to hear his announcement. The feline had not been expecting Six to apologize. She didn’t know what to feel, now knowing that he must have been agonizing over his actions for so long that he needed to fess up. Despite his rough outward demeanor or perhaps because of it, she found his apology and actions…endearing. Noticing that she had not yet verbally recognized his confession, she responded.

“That’s alright Six, just try and keep it somewhat….softer, for future advice.” He had been quite terrifying when he exploded on her, and it had taken a lot of the feline’s cool not to lose it. It was a one hell of an experience, being roared at by a seven foot killing machine.

“Don’t worry, it will not happen again.” Six assured her. He knew he had to watch himself with them. They were not as tough as his brothers and sisters. And he had to keep himself in check, because they could be broken. But he had mercilessly trained to regulate his strength, so he was not overly concerned about that.

‘Well then I forgive you Six.” She decided, getting up as she spoke. Miyu suddenly felt a sudden influx of energy, enough to keep going until they found the shuttle and got back to the base. Then, she would have a few words with Fox about his miraculous “plans”.

“Let’s go. The shuttle’s not going to fly itself…” Miyu paused, frowning. “Wait a minute, why doesn’t it do that already? Damn it Slippy! That would have been awesome!” Next time she had the chance, she would suggest that he install an autopilot system into it that way they wouldn’t have to do something like this again.

With a hidden grin, Six shouldered his rifle and followed after the reinvigorated feline, surprised to find that he did not feel as uncomfortable as he thought he would have.

Mayhaps he judged them too quickly.

*****

Waiting.

Krystal hated waiting, leaving everything in the paws of someone else. There was nothing she or the others could do until Six and Miyu came back. It was up to them to bring the shuttle and its vital supplies back to the base. And therein lay the root of the problem, Miyu and Six.

The vixen felt as if she had finally managed to connect with the spartan, chiseled a niche into his stony heart. And for whatever reason she felt that was now threatened with him and her friend going on their little jungle adventure by themselves. It was a childish assumption, but knowing that did not make her concern fade.

Krystal fondly looked back on the previous night, even if she had developed a painful crick in her neck from resting on his shoulder. It was not the best of pillows, the steel being hard and unyielding, but she had been perfectly fine with it. Waking up had also been a bonus, she recalled the spartan’s awkward awakening with amusement. It had been made clear to her at that moment that Six had little experience with the fairer sex and it had been quite the laugh to see him so far out of his element.

She had never seen a man leave in such a rush, all but running out of the barracks room without a word.

As amusing as that had been, she felt somewhat slighted. Krystal had been hoping to spend a little more time with him, have a few more of her questions answered. But, she supposed that it he would not completely open up in a single day. But what he did tell her gave the vixen much food for thought. She decided to not tell anything she had learned to Fox or the others. Six had confided in her, and she did not want to break that trust. Besides, she wasn’t sure she would be able to repeat what she had learned without a few tears. Just the thought of what he had gone through was almost enough to upset her. It was still hard for her to digest what he told her. It all seemed like some horror story, not something based in reality.

She looked to her friends as they loitered around the command center. Fay had joined them, there being nothing else she could do until she received the equipment she needed. Falco and Fox were speaking with the captain. Krystal felt sorry for the poor canine. He had to deal with a bad situation, and she imagined he would not be the same dog he had been before this. At least it would soon be all over, once Miyu and Six came back with the shuttle, they could fix the array and help the wounded till reinforcements arrived. That was of course, if Pepper could spare them. She was reminded that this was not the only front for the war. Other planets were in danger as well.

Unfortunately, in all likelihood there would be no vacation for some time. They could not leave while the war still continued. Her thoughts invariably went back to Six. He had never gone on a vacation. His life had been one of constant conflict, and she felt wrong for fussing over the fact she would lose out on a chance to relax, it made her feel petty. And she did, compared to what the spartan had been through. Relaxing sounded like a selfish indulgence.

In fact, at the moment she was feeling pretty terrible. While she lounged around in the air conditioned command center, Six and Miyu were hiking through the unforgiving jungle, possibly being hunted by those damn creatures that caused so much pain and suffering.

As she sat around and brooded, she decided to listen in on Fox, Falco, and the captain’s conversation, hoping it would be a better use of her time. At the moment it seemed like Falco was going off on one of his random tangents.

‘So…what are we going to call these damn things anyways. Bioweapon is getting kind of repetitive and annoying. I mean really, there’s gotta be a better word for them.”

“The hell if I know.” Fox replied with a shrug. “I’m not exactly an authoritative source on naming artificial creatures. But maybe…Deathclaws?” The vulpine offered hesitantly.

Falco scoffed and rolled his eyes critically. “What the hell kind of name is that, Deathclaw? What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know.” Fox muttered sullenly, offended that the avian had not adhered to his suggestion. “I just thought it was a cool name.”

“No.” The avian mused, rubbing his beak with a finger and thumb.” You need something with pizazz, something with a certain ring to it, something that would fit them, something like…Razorclaw.”

“……”

“What?”

“Really how’s that any different from Deathclaw? You just changed the first half of the name!” Fox demanded, aiming a clawed finger accusingly.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Falco derided. “They’re not remotely the same.”

“Actually they kind of are.” Fay chimed in with a raised paw from her seat next to Krystal.

“When did you get in this conversation?” Falco questioned with a huff, whipping to face her with a sharpened glare.

“When you started acting like a dumbass.” The snowy canine rejoined speedily. “What’s the point of naming the stupid things if we’re just going to be killing them anyways?”

“What about Chimera?” Captain Siegfried suggested, just wanting their bickering to end.

“That sounds better.” Krystal agreed.

She had listened to Fox and Falco, and figured that the captain’s suggestion had more merit. And the argument was crazy to begin with and should have never happened in the first place.

“Yeah I suppose it does.” Fox acquiesced with a sigh.

Falco looked dissatisfied that his idea had not taken, but majority vote won out in the end.

“Now, with that out of the way, how about we do something a little more productive and check on Miyu and Six’s progress.” Fay offered, the young female dog being the voice of reason as she usually was.

“That is a far better use of our time.” The captain approved with a satisfied nod.

Fox acknowledged this by pulling his bracer up, activating the short wave radio and lowering his muzzle to speak into the receiver.

“Hey Six, give us a status update. How close are you guys?”

The response from the spartan did not come quickly, and when it did it was heavily distorted by static, the signal having a difficult time of slicing through the planet’s natural interference.

“Come…..ain Mccloud…much…..ference…we’re…...thirty min……transport, but…fierce…..tance.”

“What was that Six? I can’t hear you, the interference is too heavy.” Fox spoke into the device louder, as if that would help the signal carry through.

“Almost…..uttle….multiple….tacts closing in….pursuit……advisable.” The sharp report of the spartan’s weapon managed to pierce the veil of static.

“What was that? Are you under attack?” Fox anxiously yelled into the machine on his wrist.

“...…weapons…..least fifteen….jured…..ical assistance….standby.”

The rest of whatever Six was going to say was garbled in the sudden surge of white noise.

Fox let a bitter curse slip from his muzzle but there was nothing else he could do. There was no way he could send anyone else out to help them and he wasn’t even sure what was going on.

Suddenly his plan didn’t look so good.

From the other’s looks, they were just as worried as he was.

*****

The spartan’s rifle barked continuously as he fired the weapon singlehandedly, his other gauntlet weighed down by Miyu as he cradled the wounded feline close to his chest. But his accuracy remained unaffected as the bullets efficiently scythed down the wave of reptilians racing towards them.

“Can you hear me Mccloud?” Six repeated as he brought his boot up and knocked back one of the creatures that had gotten too close.

As its ribs fractured and carved into its lungs, the spartan received no reply. With a scowl he forced its corpse away and resumed his swift backwards pace.

“You know, I always wanted to be carried by a handsomely heroic knight. But this isn’t quite how I imagined it.”

Six glanced at the delirious feline clinging for life to his chest, a deep red stain darkening her flight suit’s vest, and harshly reprimanded himself for his lowered guard. He should have noticed the monster before it pounced, but their unnatural camouflage ability caught him by surprise once more. Still, the lynx was lucky to be alive. If he didn’t have superhuman reflexes she wouldn’t be breathing presently.

To make it worse, soon after the saurians had come out of the woodwork, probably having set up an ambush for them. They were smarter than he gave them credit.

Six had only been able to get a quick look at her injury before he had snatched her up and started to fight backwards, but it did not look good. The creature’s razor sharp talon had dug deep into her side, cleaving through the thinly armored vest.

But what concerned him more than her wound, was the sudden eruption of his fury. He had been enraged, going berserk and thoroughly eradicating the one that had wounded her. Six had never felt so outraged and its blood still coated his gauntlets and upper forearms.

The spartan had not needed a weapon.

Why had he reacted the way he did for some alien? She may have been his team member, but the anger he had felt was…surreal, a boiling rage unlike anything he had experienced before. It was almost…satisfying, pulverizing the reptilian under his potent fists.

Usually he tried to keep his core emotions out of combat, but that time he had felt so…righteous. It felt good to fight, better than usual. He was having a hard time trying to describe the feeling, and it didn’t help that these things were still trying to kill him and his injured companion.

“Try not to speak, you need to conserve your strength.” The advice may have been construed as concern, but his order was more aimed so that he could better focus on keeping them alive.

Six heard the DMR empty with a dry click and released the spent magazine, grabbing another to replace it. The process took longer with his other arm constrained by the lynx, but still only consuming a few seconds. Shortly the gun was loaded and he resumed his grueling pace, firing the rifle as he maneuvered backwards through the jungle.

Thankfully, they were close to the shuttle when she had been attacked, and it would not take long for him to get there he remembered the area around them and could find it, even turned around as he was at the moment. The only difficulty he had was keeping her safe.

The creatures soon realized that he was not easy to take down, so they had decided to go for the weaker prey in his arms. So he was forced to intercept their attacks, often with his own body. But his armor was thick and encompassed most of his frame so the majority of their talon strikes did no damage. Their relentless attacks had denied his shields the chance to fully recharge, and so more often than not their talons hit steel rather than the curtain of energized particles. The barrier was already taxed without the continuous attacks, he having boosted its range to envelope her as well. It had never been intended to be used in such a way, but over the years he worked with his armor, he had modified it extensively.

Miyu groaned and he felt her arms tighten around his chest.

“Easy for you to say, you’re not the one bleeding like a sieve.”

Six sighed quietly and twisted his body, a clawed hand sparking of his shoulderplate as he took another blow meant for the cat. As it recoiled from the jarring strike, he casually directed the barrel of the DMR and cut it down with a single bullet to the skull, the bullet blasting out the back of its head in a puff of red mist.

“The only thing flowing like a sieve is your mouth.” He retorted in irritation, stepping over a log and shredding another one of the bioweapons in a hail of gunfire.

Just how many of these damn things were there?

Miyu chuckled weakly.

“W-Was that a joke I just heard?”

Six chose not to respond, opting to crush one of the reptilian’s craniums with the stock of his weapon instead. He was too busy to care. If not for her injury they would already be at the shuttle. Now was not the time for idle banter. How she could be so witty while she bled from a grievous wound was beyond him.

As another one of those relentless creatures dropped to the ground in a lifeless coil of limbs, Six backed up into a very familiar clearing. Recognizing where they, were the spartan tore a frag from his bandolier, lobbing it into the path of their attackers and shifting his body to cover the feline from the precariously close explosive.

From the way they were positioned, with the spartan holding her to his breastplate, Six’s face was placed inches from the feline’s muzzle, the only thing separating them being the thick silver visor of his helmet, leaving the lynx’s amber eyes to stare up into him.

“Hi.” She hailed him with a toothy grin, moments before the grenade detonated, showering them in shard of bark, shrapnel and vegetation.

Six watched on his HUD as his already weakened shields dropped dangerously but thankfully she was unhurt by the explosion. The spartan waited until the rain of soil and organic parts stopped before releasing the lynx from their “hug” and setting her down on the ground, trying to ignore the quiet sigh of disappointment that she produced. Instead he scanned the clearing for any signs of the creatures. From the looks of it, the ones that had not been killed by the blast retreated, scared off by the light, heat, and sound the device generated.

Now confident that they were, for the moment, secure, he turned his attention to the shuttle, noticing that it was thankfully still intact. Although, from the new nicks and claw shaped gouges in its hull he suspected the creatures had tried to unsuccessfully find a way inside.

With the area clear, Six returned to the lynx he had dropped to the ground and helped her back up to her feet, guiding the limping feline to the closed ramp. With them no longer in immediate danger he no longer had to carry her, yet she still needed some help to move.

“Helping a girl back to her house eh? I didn’t know you could be such a gentleman, Six.” Miyu teased as she held onto his side for support, unable to reach his higher elevated shoulders.

Six dained to ignore her quip once more, but he did catch her when she began to falter a few feet from the keypad, holding her up gently in his strong grip.

Miyu leaned against him, perhaps more than she needed to, as she entered the code to lower the ramp.

The steel door hissed and popped open as it began its descent to the loam of the jungle floor, the two waiting for the sluggish mechanism in awkward silence.

“So…that was quite the stroll wasn’t it?” Miyu asked the spartan halfheartedly as she waited for the ramp to finally hit the dirt.

“It was one of the more placid trips through a jungle that I have experienced.” The spartan agreed, watching as her muzzle warped into a disbelieving smirk.

“Really…?”

“There were fewer explosions this time.” He elaborated.

“Ah….” Miyu nodded slowly in understanding, yet not really understanding what he was talking about. It had seemed plenty wild to her.

Finally, the ramp finished its trip to the ground and Six assisted the feline with walking up the incline and closing the ramp behind them.

They almost made it to the cockpit before Miyu collapsed against him, hissing in agony and clutching her side.

“Gah, Fuck! Put me down! Put me down!” She mewled hurriedly, groaning in pain as the spartan hesitantly set her down on the deck.

Six quickly kneeled at her side, an almost unnoticeable tinge of concern in his voice.

“Are you alright?”

“No I am not alright. One of those fuckers stabbed me!” She snarled, her paw hovering over her injured side. Almost immediately she felt guilty for yelling at him, but she was in far too much pain to worry about apologizing at the moment.

If affected by her anger he did not show it as he stood up and walked away, delving into the cockpit and returning moments later with a large white container painted with an apparently universal red cross. The spartan set the medical kit down beside the feline and snapped it open, delving inside for the appropriate tools. But he was not completely familiar with what to use for an alien.

Thankfully, she suspected this and helped him along.

“Grab the syringe. No. Not the blue one, the white. Yes that one.”

Six held up the large hypodermic needle and looked back to her for confirmation on what to do next.

“Here give it to me.” She ordered, urgently gesturing for him to place it in her paw.

The spartan nodded and handed it over, watching as she snatched it from him and tore the cap off with her teeth, unceremoniously plunging the needle into her thigh and falling back against the hull with a low winded sigh. He suspected that the syringe must have contained some sort of powerful pain reliever.

He gave her a few minutes to settle, waiting till she started to guide him once more.

“Now then, I need you to grab the sterilizer, tissue regenerator, and the portable organic welder.”

The spartan just stared at her in silence.

“Oh jeez, just give me the box.” She muttered with a defeated sigh. Taking it from the spartan’s uncertain hands and pulling out the devices she needed. Once she had everything ready, she addressed him once more.

“Right, since I have no experience in first aid and I am particularly squeamish when it comes to operating on my own body, I need you to do this.” She correctly assumed that he would have the knowledge that she did not.

“Very well, what do you need me to do?” Six inquired, hoping that he actually knew what he was doing. This would be his first time trying to patch a hole in an alien and not trying to make one.

“First thing, I need you to take of my vest and unzip my flight suit.” She explained without missing a beat.

“Come again?” Six rumbled in confusion, instantly thrown far away from his comfort zone.

“Oh, don’t be such a tight wad.” She muttered reproachfully. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

Six wasn’t completely innocent. There had been very little privacy back when he had still been a part of the program. He and the other children, male and female, had shared communal showers and bathrooms. The spartan had seen enough back then. But that didn’t mean he was comfortable with any of this.

“Go ahead and take your time Six, I’m only dying over here.” She chuckled drolly, the action causing her to groan in discomfort and hunch over.

That being the deciding factor, Six cursed every deity he could name off the top of his head and reached for the top clasp of her vest. It didn’t help that the feline was grinning at his obvious discomfort.

Why he deserved to be tortured for his kindness he did not know.

Despite his bulky gauntlets, his fingers were dexterous enough to undo the row of downward clips along the vest and he carefully helped her slide out of the sleeveless apparel. He took the article of clothing and set it down next to her, examining her final piece of kit, the flight suit.

He did his best to be objective as he studied her to gauge the extent of her injuries, but it was even hard for the spartan not to notice that she was an excellent exemplar of the female form. She was heavier and stouter than Krystal, but that was offset by her more obvious muscle mass. He imagined she could give an ODST a run for his money in the sparring ring and maybe even himself, although he doubted it highly.

Six coughed and shook his head, reminding himself that she was still hurt and he bent closer, gingerly feeling around the open wound.

It was bad.

The creature’s talon had struck her just below the ribs, digging deep past her fur and into the lynx’s tender flesh. Luckily, it must have missed anything vital, since she was not coughing up blood and her breathing remained unaffected, so he safely assumed that her lungs were also undamaged.

But there was a lot of blood, enough to ensure that her flight suit would need to be replaced, and he suspected that she might need a transfusion once they were back to safety. Most of the bleeding looked to have stopped, but the garish gash still oozed at a worrisome pace.

She could not afford to lose much more.

With a deep breath to steady his nerves, Six unzipped her flight suit and assisted her with removing the uppermost portion, letting it hang behind her.

“Like what you see?” The lynx asked with a salacious smirk.

Six chuckled and shook his head, unwilling to admit that her comment had helped him ease his stress.

“Now is not the time for jokes, Lynx.” He reprimanded her without too much of his usual gruffness. Despite it all, the situation he faced was actually quite amusing. At the very least it was a brand new experience.

These cornerian females were…fuzzier, than their human counterparts.

As she pointed out what the sanitizer was and he grabbed the oddly shaped device, the cat broached a thought she had been holding onto for quite some time. Miyu felt that now was a perfect time to try and learn more about her mysterious team member, seeing as he was being more responsive than usual.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” He asked, pressing the only button on the device and watching as it sprayed down her wound with a thin mist-like substance.

“Call me and the others by their last name? Instead of Fox, you call him Mccloud and Slippy and the others like that as well. What’s with that?” She wondered, tying not to focus on her painful injury.

Six grabbed the tissue regenerator as he thought about her question. He supposed it just came natural to him. It was easier to avoid forming attachments if you kept them at a physical and verbal distance. Speaking on a first name basis implied that you knew that person well enough to do so. And if you were that close to them, then you would inevitably care about them. Calling Fox and the others by their last names made it all seem more platonic, the way he preferred.

“It’s easier for me.” He replied as he reached for the next device she pointed out, similar to the previous hypo, except this one bulkier with a thicker needle.

“Easier…?” She mimed with a confused tilt of her muzzle.

Starting to understand these alien medicinal tools, he inserted the hypodermic needle into her side just above the wound and depressed the plunger, letting its regenerative contents enter her system. He used the time it took do this to try and formulate his reply. It was difficult for him to find words to accurately describe the reason, not because he couldn’t, but because he was reluctant to do so.

“Six…?” She mumbled softly, gazing up into the unmoving spartan’s visor, more concerned for him at that moment then she was for herself.

Hearing her softened voice shook him out of his indecision.

“I have lost many comrades over the years. A spartan’s duty demands sacrifice, and I have sacrificed much for it. So yes, it’s easier, easier for me to keep people at a distance, easier to remain alone.” As he spoke, the spartan used the last tool to gently seal the wound in her side. “I do not make friends easily, and the ones that I had were bonded by blood and fire. We fought and bled together, and in the end…they died. And I did not. Friendship is a weakness. all it has ever brought me is misery and heartache. I have no need of friends, not anymore.”

The cat was so distracted by what he said that she hardly felt the machine as it seared the gash in her side closed with intensely hot directed energy.

“That’s a wretched way of thinking.” Miyu muttered quietly.

Six shrugged and stood up, his task finished, her wounds healed.

“If you had lived my life I doubt you would feel such sentiment.” He held out his gauntlet. “Now, let’s finish this. I grow weary of this accursed jungle.”

Miyu gazed up into his impassive visor silently.

So that’s why he had exploded on her before, simply because she had called him friend. The feline didn’t know whether this made her angry or sad, at whom she didn’t know either. It was a terrible imperative for someone to live by, but she could not fault him for it after hearing what he had survived. And there was no telling if he would ever change.

But, she did know something.

She would try to help him. She had no stake in this, no reason to do so. Yet she felt that someone had to make the effort. And she wasn’t about to let Krystal get ahead of her in anything. After all, what was with a little friendly competition?

It was time to see who would be the first to win over the spartan’s iron heart. Miyu could certainly use the friendship of a seven foot colossus.

With a toothy smirk, she accepted his proffered hand and let him help her up.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

*****

Fox stood at the edge of the landing pad with the others, watching as the bulky grey hued dropship settled to the tarmac, its struts sinking into the soft dirt. To say that he was relieved to see the ship was an understatement. It had been more than an hour since his garbled talk with Six, and he had feared the worst.

The shuttle’s ramp opened and the pair stepped down it. Both looked worse for wear, Six’s armor was ornamented with a new tapestry of scars and Miyu clung to the spartan with a noticeable limp. Her left side bandaged heavily with a faint but no less visible red stain. It looked like their trip through the jungle had been hellish. And he was starting to regret sending them.

But on the bright side they were successful, and the supplies it carried would be instrumental in their efforts.

Six and the attached feline strode up to Fox, stopping a few feet away.

“Mission accomplished.” The spartan declared neutrally, his tone of voice as mild as if he was commenting on the weather and he had not just waded through a monster infested jungle.

Fox shook his head ruefully. He had to give Six credit, he was certainly something else entirely.

“Excellent work you two. Are you alright there Miyu?” He asked, focusing his attention on the bandaged feline with audible concern.

“Just peachy, had a hole in my side until just a few minutes ago, but I’m doing just fine.” She grunted irritably, giving him a none too pleased glare.

Fox winced under the deserved barely hidden rebuke. Perhaps he had acted foolishly with his command, but he had felt it was the right thing to do at the time.

“Head to the infirmary. The doctor will help patch you up. It was about the best he could do for her at the moment. And he promised himself that he would talk to her later to clear the air.

“Come on, Six, help me over there will ya.” Miyu asked.

With a nod, the spartan helped guide the hobbling cat deeper into the base. If he felt the same way about His orders, he gave no outward sign of it, not that Fox would have been able to tell anyways.

“She’s really upset you know.” Krystal spoke from his side. She had a good understanding of her friend. And the cat was indeed displeased.

Fox nodded. “Yeah I know. I think anyone could have seen that. I’ll talk to her later.”

Krystal ducked her head in understanding and swiveled away, probably going to check on Miyu and see if she could be of any help as well.

Fox turned to Falco, who had been standing off to the side, Fay beside him.

“Come on guys, let’s unload these supplies, then we can see about finding a way of fixing this mess.”

*****

Six watched from a distance as the doctor and one of his nurses examined Miyu, tidying up his inexperienced handiwork. He had used what knowledge he possessed in the art of healing but admittedly it was more for stabilizing the injured than promoting healing.

He was unsure why, but he felt the need to watch over her, even now after the danger had passed. Six tried to pass the sensation off as his duty as a member of the team, but it did not quite fit.

Miyu mewled in pain as the doctor examined the sealed wound, the action eliciting a low growl from the back of the spartan’s throat.

His reaction surprised him further and Six looked down at his now tightened fists.

‘What is happening to me? Why am I acting this way? What is it about these people to make feel such a way?’

Never before had he felt this protective urge. Six had always disregarded others, preferring to work in solitude. It was how he kept himself disassociated and free of attachments, making their potential loss easy to bear. But he had opened himself up with Noble Team, and for that he had his heart ripped out of his chest at their deaths.

So why?

Why was his heart allowing itself to open again, to aliens no less?

They did treat him as a regular person, or at least as well as they could giving what he was, a towering soldier wreathed in armored plates. They had not ousted him and slotted him as an outcast, but rather like a thinking feeling being. Not only that but they had placed him on their team, unknowing of who he truly was, risking the dangers that could have befallen them.

This team, this Starfox, had given him a chance for more than just a reason to fight. They had given him a chance to have a reason to live. And for that, he owed them more than he could possibly give. It has been a long time since he had anything besides himself and the war to keep him going. And though he did not treat them particularly well, he was doing the best he could.

He supposed he should meet their attempts of comradery halfway. But he was afraid of opening that part of him again, having kept it locked away for so long, longer than he could remember, before he had been augmented and still the child who had lost everything. Was it worth the risk to let them in?

He had little left to lose anyways.

Six heard movement behind him and a familiar female voice made itself known.

“She’ll be alright. She’s taken worse hits before and she always bounces back. If anything I’d be more worried about the doctor.”

The spartan turned to regard Krystal, the vixen’s jade eyes trained on her friends as the doctor finished his checkup and the nurse administered a second dose of whatever pain reliever it was they used in this galaxy.

Miyu hissed as the needle pinched her arm.

“Son of a whore! Why don’t you just jab that in a little farther then if you’re trying to take my arm off!” She scolded the unfortunate nurse, her obsidian claws tearing deep into the bed’s sheets with the faint ripple of shredded fabric.

“I believe you are right about that.” Six agreed with a mellow chuckle.

Krystal snickered lightly, her soft laugh tinkling pleasantly, as melodious as a wind chime.

Six could not help but smile upon hearing it, her giggle being one of the more agreeable sounds to grace his hearing.

“So, what about you? Are you finally going to let me wrap that shoulder up?” She inquired with a hopeful look.

Six mulled it over.

Bandaging his shoulder while in armor would be a cumbersome and awkward task. But he supposed after the rapport he and the vixen seemed to have reached the night before, he could allow that much.

“I would appreciate it.” He acceded to her request with a shallow dip of his helmet.

Hearing his acceptance, Krystal practically beamed up at him, glad that he trusted her enough to let her help him. It was nice to be doing something for him after all he had done for them.

“Great, just follow me!” She declared brightly, leading him to an empty bed at the back of the infirmary.

Six sat upon the steel cot and waited for the vixen to do her work. He was undeniably curious to see what she had planned.

The vixen paused and hummed to herself as she thoughtfully rubbed her palms together. After a few moments, she landed on her course of action, reaching for the shelf on the wall beside him and shuffling around its contents, retrieving a roll of gauze and a small device that looked exactly like the sanitizing tool he had used on Miyu not so long ago.

“Right…” She murmured to herself quietly as she reached for him. Once the vixen’s paws laced around his bicep he felt an odd tingle in his arm. This was one of the very few times a female had gotten so close as to touch him, discounting the previous night and his ferrying of Miyu through the jungle. Those were unique circumstances and he was still not quite settled with it all.

The vixen herself could not help but blush when she grabbed him. Even through his armor she could feel his corded muscles underneath, as firm and unyielding as steel. She could see where it was he got his remarkable strength from. But it was one thing to see his power, and a whole other to be able to feel it.

Krystal did not often give much thought to males, mostly focused on her other pursuits and her line of work. But it was exceptionally hard not to when she was holding onto such a statuesque individual as Six. The vixen knew that he was genetically enhanced, but for her that did not diminish him in her eyes in any way.

Even as she stood there, she could feel his muscles rippling under her paws with precisely controlled power. She doubted there were many, if any, cornerians that could boast such strength as he did.

Krystal’s errant thoughts wondered what it would be like to be held in his arms, to feel his unarmored body against her own.

The vixen shook her muzzle roughly and discarded those indecent suggestions with a deeper blush, the white fur on the ruff of her cheeks burning pink as the blood rushed to her face.

‘He’d probably skin me alive if he knew what I was thinking.’ She was glad that she was the only one that possessed her extrasensory ability.

With her thoughts now mostly unclouded, she focused on tending to his injured shoulder.

Krystal felt around the wound, and discovered that it was already mostly dealt with, just needing a wrapping of gauze to cover it and a healthy spray of disinfectants for good measure. It would have been easier for her if he just removed a part of his armor, namely the shoulderplate, but she had a feeling he would have declined. Instead she worked around it, wrapping what she could in the white cloth. It was not her best work, but that was hardly her fault.

When she finished spraying the wound and wrapping it up, she tore the excess bandaging with her teeth and put the rest away where she found it.

“There, you’re all set.” She declared with a grin, backing up a step as the spartan slid off the bed.

Six studied his newly covered shoulder and rotated it a few times before nodding in satisfaction, shifting his helmet towards her.

“Thank you Krystal, I appreciate the help.”

The vixen glowed under the unexpected praise, surprised that he would have gone so far.

Perhaps they were changing him after all?

“Of course Six, I was glad to help.” She replied, her tail flapping back and forth behind her in delight.

“You two lovebirds done now?”

Both turned to the speaker and saw Miyu standing a few feet away, her slouch gone and looking mostly back to normal, though her nose was still a little pale. Her vest had been replaced with a jacket a few sizes too big, most likely a spare uniform shirt.

Krystal blushed a third time from the cat’s insinuation, doing her best to keep it disguised with a cough, covering her muzzle with a paw.

“Miyu! I’m glad to see you up and about already.”

“As am I.” Six nodded in the feline’s direction. He truly was heartened to see her in better shape.

“Yeah well I can’t let you guys out of my sight for long. Who knows what trouble you’d get into?” The cat chuckled and flicked her tail.

Six took a step backwards and let the two women get reacquainted, using the distraction to exit the infirmary and search for Mccloud. His odd desire to ensure Miyu’s health now satisfied, he felt that he could afford to leave them alone for now and focus on the more important business at hand.

It did not take him long to find the vulpine. Fox was in the process of unloading the supplies with the help of Falco, Fay, and a few of the base’s soldiers. Once he had turned with a container in paw, Six flagged him down, waiting till Fox got close.

“What’s the plan now?”

Fox set down the container and dusted off his furred hands.

“Well, now Fay just has to fix up the array and we can contact the General. There’s nothing else to it really.”

“What do you need me to do?”

Fox shook his muzzle. “Don’t worry Six. You’ve done more than enough already. We’re done here. Once we get in touch with Pepper we’ll wait until reinforcements arrive before we head out.”

Six couldn’t believe it.

“That’s it?”

The vulpine nodded casually, scratching at an ear.

“Yep, we did what Pepper asked us to do. We both know there’s not much we could do to get rid of these chimeras.”

“…Chimeras?”

“That’s what we’re calling em anyways. There’s no telling how many there are and I’m not one for trawling through the jungle and finding out. That’s a job I’ll gladly leave for Special Forces. We’ll probably stick around for a day or so until Pepper can send a ship. But once it’s here we’re heading out.”

So that really was it then? They were done here. It did not quite feel right to Six. He never left until a mission was completely done. But he was a mercenary now, and he supposed that came with certain undesirable changes. In the end, he would follow Fox, whatever his orders were.

Fox picked up the container and motioned for Six to help.

“Come on, let’s unload these boxes. There are people who need these supplies.”