March 26, 2342 – New Hope Colonial Hospital

(9:05 AM) {Five Months Ago}

            A dinging sound was made as the elevator arrived on the main floor of the New Hope Hospital. Lliam watched as the elevator doors parted and when they were open far enough he could see many people walking past the elevator in the hallway. Sara took the lead as she stepped off the elevator, Lliam following suit as more and more people; both humans and furs, passed them by.

            Lliam noticed as they walked they were heading towards the main lobby of the hospital but the closer they got the more injured there were. He noticed that while there were many injured solders being brought in, almost all of them were wearing different ship badges on their shoulders; showing not only were they were coming from more than just different ships and fleets of the Federation but that there were so many injured the ships med-bays couldn’t handle them all.

            Sara looked back and noticed that Lliam’s gaze was focused on all the injured. She slowed her pace and started walking next to him when he caught up. He didn’t even notice that she had slowed her pace and was only slightly startled when she suddenly started speaking from next to him “We’re losing the war with the I.F.H.W. (Independent Free Human Worlds)”

            Lliam’s face lit up in surprise on hearing what she said. He cast his eyes down as they continued to walk when they passed by some body bags. Looking up and over to her, he asked “So many injured… and dead, are they all being brought here?”

            Sara wore a sorrowful look on her face as she said “No, only the ones that are close enough to survive long enough during the jump here from where the fighting is, any in body bags either died on the way or we couldn’t resuscitate them here. What you see here and now is nothing, it’s a slow day.”

            “Slow… day? What’s going on out there?” Lliam thought but asked “Please tell me you’re kidding?”

            “I wish I were, it’s bad out there Lliam, everything is going to hell.” Sara said shaking her head. “All we can do here is treat the wounded that survived an attack and hope they make it just to be sent back out. Thankfully there haven’t been any attacks in this sector of space… or, more accurately thanks to Fleet Admiral Keeton for defending this sector and the First Fleet.” Sara said as the continued down the hall.

            “How is he doing, and how is everyone on the Darwin?” Lliam asked as they walked into the main lobby.

            “I hear he’s fine. Most of the crew of the C.S.F Darwin aren’t’ the ones who served on the I.S.F Darwin; they either rotated to a new ship or were killed. But Fleet Admiral Keeton is still serving and thanks to his strategies and tactics we remain safe.” Sara said a little sadly.

            “Oh… so… can you tell me why the Darwin has teams on the surface of… whatever it is that they’ve named that planet?” Lliam said.

            “Daminia, they named it Daminia after the large dragon like creatures, which they later named Damin after encountering a few while looking for both halves of the transport you were on.” She informed.

            “Ah… I guess it makes sense, none of us were good with coming up with names for them so we just called them dragons… they were one hell of a hassle. Sorry please continue.” Lliam said.

            She had a small smile as he spoke which grew bigger when he apologized for going off topic. “The reason why they were there was to originally build a base but I hear it was completed a few months ago. The team that found you must have been either surveying area’s or out patrolling. Whatever the case is that led them to you, I don’t care… I’m just glad they found you, all of you.” Sara said with a more happy tone of voice.

            “I’m glad too.” Lliam said with a smile. “Um… is there a restroom around here?” Lliam asked as he looked around the room.

            “Talk about subject change.” Sara said and laughed before pointing and saying “Go through that hall over there and on the left is the mens room.”

            Lliam said “Thanks” as he left. Sara watched as he disappeared before leaning against the wall she was next to. Lliam wasn’t even gone thirty seconds before someone tapped Sara on her shoulder; grabbing her attention.

            “Hey Sara, I got here as fast as I could. What’s the matter?” a young female wolf asked.

            This wolf girl was a little over eighteen years of age and stood at five feet seven inches tall with a slightly athletic yet petite form. Her fur color was primarily black but one could see area’s where the fur was slightly brownish red and looked like hot coals. Her eyes looked like shining emeralds; just like Sara’s own eyes, and demanded attention much the same. Her hair color was mainly black like her fur and it was put into a low ponytail as her bangs; which were longer on the sides, freely moved and covered the sides of her face. She was wearing a white shirt with some hip new design on it and navy blue jeans. She had a purse over her left shoulder; with her hand resting on the purse itself. To her right was Aurora; a young little folf girl, who was holding onto her free hand.

             Aurora was only five years old; nearly six, and was dressed in a simple pink tank top and a slightly faded purple skirt with little flowers on it. The skirt almost matched but more or less complemented and brought out the little girl’s unnatural amethyst colored eyes. Her fur color was primarily black but she had white fur that started under her jaw, down her throat and on her chest that went down to her belly and covered parts of her thighs. Her hair was white and long; going to about mid back, and so were her ears though the tips were black. She had a diamond shaped patch of fur on her white furred chest that was black and there was also a triangular patch of white fur on her forehead that pointed down towards her muzzle. On both sides of her muzzle were white crescents similar to the black markings on a fox’s muzzle.

            “Mommy!” Aurora yelled as she let go of the wolf girls hand and headed towards Sara.

            Sara knelt down and hugged Aurora as she ran up to her. “Hey baby, you having fun?” Sara asked; picking Aurora up and holding her.

            Aurora wildly nodded her head up and down and said “Uh-huh, me and Aunty Maya were watching cartoons!”

            Smiling; and looking over to Maya, Sara said “To answer your question, nothing’s wrong. I just have a surprise for you… and you’ll kinda be a surprise for him too.”

            “Him? Who are you talking about Sara?” Maya asked with a lopsided grin.

            “You’ll see when he gets back.” Sara said as her eyes moved to look across the room. “You don’t have long to wait.” She added with a smile.

            Maya just sighed in frustration and shook her head while Sara laughed. “Honestly Sara, you said it was an emergency. That I should get here as soon as I could.”

            Sara didn’t say anything, instead Maya heard someone say in surprise from behind her “M-Maya? Is that you?”

            She turned around and looked evenly into the eyes of Lliam who had a surprised and happy look on his face. His build may have changed since she got the last vid-mail massage on her eleventh birthday, the way he stood, walked, his height; which was the same as hers and even his hair length may have changed but the look in his eyes and his face she still remembered clearly.

            Maya rose her hands up towards his face but stopped, they trembled a little before she slowly started raising them again. “L-Lliam... is… is it really you?” She asked in disbelief; hoping that what she was seeing wasn’t just a figment of her imagination.

            Lliam rose his own hands and grabbed her wrists lightly “It’s me sis” he said and smiled before adding “You got big.”

            The look on her face seemed sad, yet happy at the same time. Her eyes were swelling up with tears that were already starting to flow down and wet her cheek fur. She easily pulled her arms free of his paws and wrapped them around him in a hug as she silently cried. She was almost the exact same size as him; despite the nearly ten year gap between them. The only size difference between them was that his shoulders were slightly wider then hers.

            He wrapped his arms around her and patted and rubbed her back as she cried. Lliam could feel a few pairs of eyes glancing at them but he couldn’t care less; it had been too long since he had been able to see his litter sister. Maya cried a while longer, all the while Sara; holding Aurora, stood back a few steps.

            Aurora didn’t understand why Maya was crying and asked “Mommy, why is Aunty Maya crying?”

            “Do you remember when I told you about your uncle William?” Sara asked her.

            Aurora thought about it for a few seconds and nodded her head, saying “You said he p-passed on due to a-an accident.”

            “Well, it seems that he’s alive and well. He; along with several others we thought had passed as well, were found on the planet the accident happened at.” Sara said and pointed with her free hand at Lliam “That’s your uncle Lliam, he’s Maya’s brother. She’s crying because she’s happy.”

            “Oh” Aurora said.

            Maya had stopped crying and let go of Lliam as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’m so happy you’re alive Lliam, we all thought you were dead.” Maya said after wiping her tears away.

            “I know… but I’m okay.” Lliam said placing his hands on her shoulders. “Ha now I know what Sara meant by a surprise for me and me being a surprise.” He added and chuckled as he let go of her.

            Looking over at Sara, Maya said to Lliam “Yeah, she said the same thing to me too.”

            “I see” Lliam said and looked over to Sara as well. He saw her holding Aurora and asked “And who’s this?”

            Sara smiled and said “This is my daughter Aurora, say hello sweetie.”

            “H-Hello.” Aurora said shyly.

            Lliam smiled at her before saying “Wow, her speech is very clear.”

            “Yes, the doctors say her mind is far more developed than kids twice her age. She learns things extremely fast, including speaking.” Sara said proudly.

            “I take it she’s the one you were pregnant with when you mistook me as my brother and tackled me on the Darwin?” He asked with a slightly raised brow and grin.

            Sara’s ears lowered and she looked to the side as she blushed; remembering the day all too well as Maya said “Why do I have a feeling there’s a story behind that?”

            Lliam chuckled at the look Sara had and said “Don’t worry about it sis, well Sara?”

            “Yeah, she’s… Rrahkarr’s.”  Sara said.

            “Speaking of Rrahkarr… where is he?” Lliam asked.

            The reaction he got from both Sara and Maya confused him. The air around them seemed to change, the feeling he was getting from them changed from happy and upbeat to a down and depressed. They seemed hesitant to speak; with eyes downcast and ears laid back. It was a few moments before either of them spoke.

            “He’s… no longer here.” Sara said.

            “Where is he?” Lliam asked; not sure he’d like the answer.

            “He’s missing.” Maya said.

            “The day you were shot down… he, he went AWOL… and a little crazy. The only news I heard about him was a little over four years ago when he was on Earth.” Sara said.

            “He was visiting the gravestone we made for you back home; alongside our parents graves. He looked different when I first saw him and didn’t notice it was him. He was acting like he was just a friend of yours, it was only when Ada and David saw him did I find out it was Rrahkarr.” Maya said sadly.

            “Turns out he went and joined the Freelancers… under Delta’s command. And there’s some explaining about that that you should know too. You see… Delta’s a traitor…” Sara said and started to inform Lliam about some of the major events that had taken place in the past seven years since his disappearance.

            Instead of talking openly in the hall there, they headed towards the hospital’s cafeteria; the destination was chosen after Lliam’s belly growled loud enough for people a couple feet away to properly hear. It only took them a few minutes to get to the cafeteria and order some food and only half an hour for Sara; with a couple additions from Maya, to explain the major things to him.

            After a little while Maya was left talking to Lliam after the first roar of thunder was let loose from the storm Lliam saw approaching the colony; Sara was left to calm down Aurora after the storm started. Maya was telling Lliam that Ada and David didn’t live to far away from the hospital and that once the storm died down a little that they should all head over that way.

            “Ha ha, fine that sounds like a good idea.” Lliam said when another blast of thunder caused Aurora to shriek.

            Lliam looked over to where Aurora was trying to hide behind Sara’s arms. “You really don’t like storms, do you?” Lliam asked Aurora in a soft voice as she sat in Sara’s lap.

            She looked at him; partially hiding herself, as she shook her head. He smiled as Sara said “She’s been afraid of storms since she was a baby.”

            “Oh there not all that bad.” Lliam said and smiled at her “There are only some things you can see during a storm. I use to sit outside and watch storms as they passed when I was a kid.”

            She shook her head and said “No… s-storms are scary.”

            They all laughed at that as Sara started to tickle her sides. She started giggling as she tried to protect her sides and most ticklish spots as the others smiled. That was when Lliam’s ear’s twitched as he heard a sort of bang followed by several more that were all muffled. Everyone seemed to notice the sound as people who were talking had stopped.

            Lliam looked across the room and noticed a couple people pointing out the windows; their eyes transfixed on something as it moved through the sky. Lliam decided to get up and started walking to that side of the room. There was a pair of doors that led outside for people to eat during the day so Lliam headed to them and opened them.

            It was raining but the rain wasn’t heavy; it was like a very light summer rain at the moment as he stepped outside. He was about to head back inside when a military dropship went overhead to the surprise of Lliam and the several others who had followed him. Lliam’s eyes followed the dropship and noticed that there were several others in the sky heading to several spots in the colony; all dropping through the clouds, but remained in flight instead of landing.

            He saw more drop from out of the clouds and heard a new sound from further above them. The moment he looked up a large lightning bolt lit up the dark sky. It was the first time he had seen one such as this in person; it didn’t descend to the ground but instead branched out like a large spider web in the sky as the rain started to fall in full force. Lightning again weaved in and out of the clouds here and there; its bright purple color lit up the sky. A moment later he closed his eyes just as the rumbling blast of thunder hit him. With his eyes closed he could feel the blast throughout his whole body and listened to the boom that the thunder made.

            He was still trying to figure out what was making the noise he heard over the rain and thunder. It took him a few moments to realize what the sound belonged to and caused him to open his eyes wide in surprise, just as large ship descended from the clouds; lightning flashing around it and even striking the craft.

            As Lliam looked on, the ship suddenly let loose a barrage of energy blasts on the colony. The ship fired several consecutive blasts around the city damaging many buildings as flames erupted from the areas that were hit; even in this drenching downpour. Lliam noticed something however; the ship avoided destroying buildings outright or hitting the hospital and residential areas of the colony; something the I.F.H.W. would normally target first.

            “No…” Lliam said in disbelief as the ship fired on more areas of the colony. “No… no, no, NO!” Lliam yelled as he watched the onslaught. Then as if nothing had happened everything went silent; Lliam couldn’t even hear the rain that was hitting him or the screams from behind him. Lliam watched as a large barrel extended on the side of the ship with electric currents arcing from the exposed part of the weapon.

            The only thing he could hear now was the weapon charging and with wide eyes he watched as it charged up and fired a beam of energy at the most northern end of the colony, destroying the military headquarters that had been set up there as well as the spaceport. The explosion could be seen from every part of the colony and lit up the dark sky brighter then the lightning that crackled down to the ground.

            Lliam could hear again; the screams of panic and fear, alarms that were going off and so much more. What military personnel that weren’t at the headquarters would soon be dispatched to help evacuate whoever they could as Lliam stood there in shock of what was happening.

            His eyes were still wide as he stared at the ship that hovered ominously above the colony. The ship had stopped firing but the smaller dropships that had been launched had finally landed and gunfire erupted from several places nearby. The gunfire snapped Lliam out of his shocked state as anger started to boil in him. His fingers were shaking and twitched when he heard the sound of gunfire that surrounded him; reminding him of what it was like to fire a weapon. He clenched his paws into fists as the anger started to overflow and bared his teeth as he growled.

            “Lliam!” Sara yelled from the open door.

            Lliam slowly moved his head until he was looking at her out of the corner of his eye. The golden ring around his Iris’ was back and fully glowing. Even though he wasn’t facing her she could see his eyes were full of sorrow. Not even turning to face her completely he asked in a sad voice “Are there any shelters around here?”

            “Yes… there’s one about three blocks away.” Sara said while people were running out of the room.

            “You and your daughter should go there… now. Take Maya with you and if it it’s possible see if Ada and David are still at home or if they’ve left.” Lliam said as his eyes went to look at the large enemy ship hovering above.

            “What about you?” Maya asked in a worried voice.

            “Don’t worry about me; just get to safety at all costs. I’m going to see if I can draw their attention away from the direction you’ll be heading… now, GO!” Lliam ordered; the sorrow in his voice being replaced with anger.

            Both Sara and Maya stood there for a second before nodding their heads. They turned around and headed towards the back exit; Sara picking Aurora up as they turned. Once they were gone Lliam looked down to the ground as rain continued to saturate him. He heard gunfire come from around the corner and at full speed, took off to kill whoever it was attacking the colony.

            He ran out to the closest street, before rushing down to the corner. The moment he turned the corner he was surprised to encounter several people in advanced powered armor suits directly ahead of him and heading his way. Just behind them were several corpses of children who had been caught out in the rain. All of these people easily noticed him through the downpour and started aiming their weapons at him. Their weapons quickly discharged and let loose many blasts of energy at him.

            Quickly overcoming his surprise Lliam ducked and dodged the first few shots as they went overhead. By moving to the left of the group he not only evaded the rest of the incoming fire but it allowed him to flank them. Lliam was moving so fast they couldn’t even see him and they became confused as they stopped firing. Thanks to flanking them, they were unaware of his attack as he quickly bound up to the person on the far left and easily ripped the gun out of his hands after striking him in the gut; even though he had armor on the strike still knocked the air out of him and caused him to hunch over in pain. After using the gun to knock him back into a few of the others, he tried to take aim but the others fired on him first. He used the gun as a shield and blocked the first few hits before dodging and charging closer to them.

            Being at such a close distance their guns became useless. Lliam knew this much as well so when he spotted a combat knife on one of them he rushed up to the man and took it. It was then, what his time on Daminia had done to him showed through. One of the men tried to slam the butt of his gun into him but Lliam easily blocked the attack as well as shifted the guy off balance with his free arm while using the one that held the knife to not only puncture the armor on the man’s back but slice all the way down to his hip; blood spraying from the wound only to mix with the rain.

            The next man Lliam simply dodged before slamming the knife into the back of his neck. The man was still standing with the knife lodged into him, so Lliam switched to a form of CQC to disable the next man. He fell to his knees as Lliam reached for and pulled the knife out of the one still standing before slamming it down into the head of the one on his knees. Lliam brought his foot up and placed it on his shoulder before pushing him and withdrawing the knife as both men fell to the ground.

            As another one of the solders tried to attack him, Lliam quickly darted between him and another; kicking the other in the side of his knee and breaking his leg. Lliam noticed the others reading their weapons as they stepped away. He quickly grabbed the man in front of him and used him as a human shield as the others fired on him.

            Still using the man as a shield he grabbed his gun and fired on the others killing several of them. There were only two left and there were trying to reload their weapons. He sprinted up between both of them; one stepped away so Lliam went for the stationary one. He kicked him in the leg before spinning around to kick him in the chest; sending he flying, before dodging a few shots the other fired. Using the knife he threw it at the man; who managed to use his weapon to block the knife, only to have Lliam charged up to him and punch him as hard as he could in the throat; crushing the man’s windpipe.

            He then rushed to the man he kicked to finish him off but once he reached him he realized his kick dented the armor in so much it had killed him. He looked at the person whose throat he crushed and watched as his body thrashed around on the ground before he died from asphyxiation. Kneeling down he removed the helmet of the person he was next to. He was a human, and all of them were wearing the same armor informing him they were all human.

            Lliam growled in anger before looting the corpses of a couple sidearms as well as one of the rifles they used. He then looted some extra power cells and packs to both kinds of weapons he took. He had just finished securing the weapons to himself when he heard another scream; this one from close by.

            With his speed he ran down the street and turned another corner and arrived at an alley within a few moments. Wide eyed he bore witness to three more people wearing advanced power armor with energy based weapons he had never seen before; different from the ones he was holding even. The three of them were blocking two young wolves from escaping. He could tell the three of them were humans because they weren’t wearing their helmets. He could hear them laughing at the two young wolves with their backs pressed up against the dead-ended alley wall. They were holding on to each other; and if it wasn’t raining he would have seen tears flowing down their cheek fur.

            One of them was a girl in her teens; possibly fifteen, with light brown colored fur, and the other was preteen boy; about twelve, with ash gray colored fur. Both of them had brown eyes. He saw two of the humans raise their guns and aim at them and was about to raise his own rifle and fire at them but stopped himself. He noticed another person dropping in on the humans from the roof of the building next to them. He could tell she was female by the feminine curves of her body and could also tell she was a wolf.

            She had mostly brown fur around her body with creamy white colored fur on the underside of her muzzle that continued down her chest and stomach and ended on the underside of her tail. She had hazel colored eyes that were filled with a personal kind of hate towards these humans. She had dirty blond colored medium length hair that just passed her shoulders as well as a muscular athletic build. She was wearing black slacks and a grey shirt with a belt around her waist that looked like it held a ship comm on it.

            Lliam watched as this person landed in the middle of the three man cell. All of them stepped back in surprise as she landed; a moment later she sweep kicked the closest human and knocked him over. Within the same movement she spun around and brought her fist up and hit one of the others in his chin in an uppercut.

            The third human brought up his energy rifle and aimed at her while she took down the second human with an uppercut. It was then Lliam became surprised when she dodged just a moment before he fired; as if she knew when and where he was going to fire, and if that wasn’t enough she wasn’t even looking at the man. She caught him off guard by doing that and snatched the rifle out of his hands. She then proceeded to use the gun and repeated bashed the man in the head till blood was pouring out of his mouth and nose when the human she tripped finally got back on to his feet.

            She seemed to notice him getting up even though he was behind her because she then used the gun she took from the human she was beating up and fired several times at him before dodging a couple punches the man behind her threw at her. She used the butt of the gun again and smashed him a couple times in the face before bringing the barrel of the gun around before sticking into the man’s mouth and firing it. The power setting was set so high his head literally exploded; sending blood, brain matter and little shards of bone flying.

            When she turned to kill the third human he wasn’t where she left him. She quickly looked back at the kids and noticed the man held the young girl hostage; standing behind her and holding an energy pistol to her head.

            “Drop it bitch!” the human yelled.

            Lliam had positioned himself just outside the alley and by doing so the man didn’t notice him. She however was stuck in a precarious position. If she didn’t do as he asked he’d kill the girl; and she looked like she wasn’t going to do so. Only after a few seconds and him barely pulling the trigger on the gun did she finally throw the gun down.

            It splashed as it landed in a puddle before she kicked it towards him and raised her arms and showed her hands. Hate was swelling in her eyes as she stared and growled at this man. He grinned with a devilish smile after she threw the gun down and chuckled.

            “I can’t believe you’re so stupid. Now you’re all going to die, I’ll let you watch me kill these kids first” The man said and with a smile, he started pulling the trigger.