-Mark 5:9
--Safety In Numbers--
Joe Sydney slammed the newpaper on the old wooden table in the middle of the room. "This," he said, jabbing a claw at the headline, "Cahn't 'appen ag'in, maites." Exactly thirty beasts stood around the table in the small cement room, each a sworn member of the secret underground society, Corot, or Council of Resistance on Thorn.
"Pooah Don wuz obviously ahmbushed whoile 'e wuz jes' layvin'. Ah didn' mayt op wid 'im lahk we wuz 'posed to." Everybeast nodded slowly, heads down and paws folded. "Oi saiy we do ahw wahk in tayms of thray oh foh from naow on." Murmurs of agreement echoed throughout the small soundproof room. As Joe was about to continue, the lone ceiling lamp befan to swing and flicker as the air tunnel tram passed overhead.
Everybeast covered their ears, held their breaths, or did both, except for the dingo, as the air was sucked out of the room and the loud rumbling echoed. When the effects of the air tunnel drifted away with the tram, the room and all those in it resumed their former state. "Naow, az Oi wuz saiyin'-"
Before Joe could say another word, a Siamese cat in a construction worker disguise burst into the room.
"Joe,"she said, panting from lack of breath, "We got trouble!"
Everybeast turned to the feline. "Wot's de problam?" he asked.
"The Raiders! They've found uuughn!" The Siamese fell forward, shot in the torso and bleeding, as the echo of a silenced shot rang through the metal tube of the next room.
The whole room sprang into action instantly. "They's only usan' bullets, maites! Sowt op, quick loike. Yew two boi the doh, lohk daown. The foh o' yew in the cohnah, aopen the top 'atch. We'll 'ave to ge' owt t'rough de air tunnoh." The dingo shouted out orders like rapid fire as anybeast with a job executed it and everybeast else armed themselves with beam guns and put on bullet-proof vests.
Joe picked the cat up in his arms as they other Corot members filed out through the open hole in the ceiling. "Yew awright, Kerla?" inquired the dingo softly, cradling the Siamese. Joe carried her to the hatch as she groaned, more gunshots ricocheting off the thick steel door used as backup security for the room.
"Bring 'er op maites, an' maike et fawst. Them Roidahs'll be in saoon," said Joe as he held Kerla up through the hole.
After his companions in the air tunnel above hoitsted the cat up, Joe padded over to a fuse box by the chalkboard at the head of the room and unlocked it. Activating the poison gas release timer, the dingo hurried back to the hatch, climbed up, and covered and blocked the grating behind him just as the four Raiders made their way into the secret meeting room.
The afternoon sun shone dimly through the thick grey clouds that hung in the sky, threatening to release rain upon the small town of Acadan. The little budding city was half a day's ride in a sand glider north of Tews' capitol city, Remacia. Every stretch of road or dust path that connected the dry planet's cities crossed brush plains, where it was extremely cold at night and unbearably hot in the day -- except during the wet season, in which case it just rained all the time.
Tiny dropelts of water began to turn the dry dirt into mud, and the droplets turned into a shower before it became a full on downpour. The raindrops hammered down on the metal roof of the Ringtail home in western Acadan.
Nami stared up at the ceiling as she lay on her bed while her gecko friend sat in thought at her desk.
"Ka mea kou inoa?" he finally asked.
The raccoon laughed, "What my name? Very nice grammer, Lohi."
"Ey, da's how you say um!" he shot back defensively, "Dis is da kine primitive language, braddah."
"I'll say," she said with a grin.
Lohi glared at her before saying, "'Oe na'aupo hupo."
"Ignorant fool yourself. You're suposed to be teaching me, not insulting me."
"Au 'o'le pela' i'o no e loa'a ana i ho'oka'a," he grumbled.
"This is voluntary work," she reminded him, "Not a paying job."
Lohi paused, thinking about something. "How come I stay teachin' you if you already know um?"
Nami chuckled. "I'm only picking up key words. I don't know half of what you're saying."
"'Ass why you gettin' da kine half grade. You no goin' pass wid a C-, you know."
The raccoon sighed. "Yeah... which is why I'm considering signing up for the Star Force of Mossflar. I'm hoping to be automatically passed for leave of absence for military enlistment."
The gecko would have raised an eyebrow if he had any, but he did, nonetheless. "Wow... how can?" She shrugged, smiling. "Ey, I wish I could too, but..."
"You can! In fact, anybeast can!" She sat up in her bed. "Why don't you come and enlist with me? I'd rather be out ther with a friend."
He considered it a while, then nodded and smiled. "Shoots, brah!" They shook on it and talked about it for the rest of the day.
Sanghi Kito went to Gate 418 with his starplane ticket. he had packed his stuff, left a note in his room, and just took off. The lion knew that if he told his parents where he was going, he wouldn't even make it past the front door, so he decided to leave unannounced.
He had with him his green duffel bag and was wearing a pair of white khaki pants and a blue causual dress shirt. Sanghi figured that where he was headed, it would be wise to wear his more formal clothing, and as far as he was concerned, he was as close to formal as he'd like to be.
The attendant behind the podium at the gate looked up from her work as Sanghi approached her. "Ticket?"
He grunted slightly as he handed her the slip of paper with the Mossflar Interplanetary Starlines insignia and his flight information on it. Briefly scanning the ticket, the mouse nodded and smiled. "Have a nice flight, Mr. Kito."
Sighing, Sanghi walked down the dimly lit terminal that connected to the starplane. The lion was beginning to feel a bit uneasy about what he was doing, but knew he had to.
Not half an hour after Sanghi found his seat and stowed away his carry-on luggage, the co-captain came up on the P.A. as the spacecraft began taxiing down the runway. "Good evening, this is your co-captain speaking. You are on flight 805, Mossflar Interplanetary Starlines. Our destination is Redwall City, Loamhedge, and we will be arriving 6:30 am RC Loamhedge time. The in-flight movie..."
But Sanghi wasn't listening. By then, he was dozing off and was completely asleep by the time the starplane passed through the atmosphere and into outer space.
Four Arwings cruised toward Station 13-M, followed by a large carrier ship, bearing a single word on the side: Starfox.
"You know I hate these public appearance," grumbled Peppy through his communicator.
"Yeah, Fox," said Falco in agreement, "This really cramps my style."
"C'mon guys," replied the head pilot, "It's not about style. It's for a good cause."
"You always say these things are for a good cause, Fox," whined Slippy.
"That's because they are."
Within ten minutes, the four Arwings and the Great Fox had landed in the docking bay, and were greeted by Garthon.
"Welcome to Station 13-M, Fox. It's a pleasure to have you here." The badger gave the four pilots a firm pawshake and escorted Fox and his companions to the guest dormitories.
Rose and Grellus watched the five beasts from the station control room as they crossed through the meeting room. The vixen nudge the grizzly bear. "Go follow them," she hissed. Grellus shook his head and grunted. She put her paws on her hips. "And just why not?"
The bear mumbled something incomprehensible and Rose sighed. "Fine, fine, whatever. Shean's gonna hear about- oh, nevermind." She marched out in a huff, regaining her composture as she entered the meeting room.
The badger turned to face his secretary just as they were heading into the next room. "Ah, Rose," said Garthon, "Would you mind taking the Starfox Team to their room? I have to wake the otherbeasts."
She nodded, mustering a smile. "Sure, it's just this way." The vixen took the pilots through the door opposite the ones that led to the docking bay.
As the secreatary showed the pilots to the spacious guest room in the first room to the right down the hallway, she placed a paw on each of their shoulders as they walked past the her, planting a small audio bug on each of them, which fed directly to Shean Cordassis' office.
The bright afternoon sun mirrored off the thousands of reflective windows of the buildings in Eporue, creating the illusion of multiple suns, as well as making the city appear tenfold larger than actual. A koala and an inguana stood outside of Life Technologies, Inc. Headquarters on the fourty-ninth floor, just below the roof, as they washed the windows from the scaffolding. The coyote on the other side sat in his leather chair, watching them.
Rose's voice buzzed from the speaker below her monitor on Shean's desk. "The bugs have been planted, sir. They feed into auxillary speakers two through five."
The company president pressed a set of buttons on panel beside his desk, and four speakers descended form the ceiling. Only silence could be heard.
"Well," he muttered to himself, "Jes' give it some time." Shean recliend in his seat, his back facing the two window washers. They mumbled something to each other, removed the small audio devices from the sound-proof window, and lowered the scaffold to the next floor to continue their work.
A mongoose with sleek dark black fur mottled with brown clad in a black jumpsuit crouched low on the roof of the Commerce Tower next to the headquarters of the Cordassis family business. He watched the coyote in his office through a pair of binoculars fitted with a lens made to see through the reflective glass.
The mongoose removed the special lens and attached it to the scope on the sniper rifle he had with him and aimed it at the back of the coyote's head. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the saftey latch of a gun clicked behind him. "Cordassis is mine, Kendar."
Seth raised his paw high in the air, still holding the rifle. He turned, saying, "I thought you were dead, Fara." The mongoose grinned mischeviously at the wolf.
Fara laughed dryly. "Don't think I didn't know it was you who tried to kill me." She laughed again. "I just did René in 'cause 'e was gettin' on my nerves."
"Oh yeah?" The mongoose chuckled. "And I thought it was because you made a mistake in assumin' it was 'im."
The she-wolf growled at him. "I don't make mistakes, Kendar. Not like you." She advanced on the mongoose, keeping the gun pointed at him. "Yours was t' try to take my job." Fara waved her gun at him. "Put down the rifle."
Seth put his gun down in front of him, then raised his arms again. "Your job? What, you're being paid now?"
"I've always been paid. How do you think I get t' be so successful in this line of work?"
He chuckled. "I always figured you were paid to do more than just shoot beasts."
Fara was obviously becoming angry with Seth and his snide remarks. "I know what yore gettin' at, Kendar, but I'm not goin' t' fall into the same trap as last time." Running a paw through her long silvery headfur, the young she-wolf waved her handgun at the mongoose again and sighed slightly. "Now, walk back off th' edge or let me kill you m'self."
"You know," he said, stepping back slowly, "If you really wanted t' kill me, you should 'ave saved yore breath and shot me right away." Seth glanced back over his shoulder briefly, just long enough to see the unoccupied scaffold hanging a third of the way down the building by its cables that connected at the top of the thirty story building.
Ignoring the mongoose, she snarled. "Keep moving or stop altogether; either way, you're going to be dead." When the mongoose reched the edge, he grinned at Fara and waved a paw at her.
With a short backwards hop, Seth plummeted down towards the street below, holding his paws out to catch the railing of the scaffold. Grunting, he pulled himself up onto the platform and through the opentwenty-third story window.
Fara, now standing alone on the roof, took the walkie talkie from her belt, saying, "The job is done."
"Excellent," replied Shean Cordassis, his growling voice even more slurred with static, "And Kendar was disposed of?'
Fara grinned. "More or less."
Shean cleared his throat. "It'd 'ave better not been less, or you can expect to be paid less."
"I wouldn't expect any different."
The coyote hesitsated before saying, "I'm sure it's not something you're used to, but keep in mind that you'll make more money keeping me alive than by killing me."
The wolf assassin laughed. "I'm not interested in wiping you out, desert dog." She knew he literally cringed every time she called him that. "I'm only interested in what your billfold has to offer."
"I'm sure."
"Well, I'm signing off, chief." Fara Howler saluted to the tinted window of Shean Cordassis' office, not caring if he saw or not, then pushed a few buttons on a hand-held device the size of a calculator she had removed from her belt and disappeared in a blur of static.