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Disclaimer: Although I have already said, I don't own anything, except for the OCs, nor am I making any form of profit off this besides the ability to be happy about something I did (I mean, that has to count for something, right? Right?? *whimper*). I will say it again. I don't own Command and Conquer, EA does. If I did, C&C4 would not have been as jacked up as it is, and would have come out when it had finally reached its pinnacle of potential and not a moment before. I also don't own Star Fox, Nintendo does. If I did, then Slippy wouldn't be such a girl, Falco would get his *** kicked by a girl so that some air could be let out of that head of his, and Peppy would learn that a barrel roll is the preferred method to move large kegs of beer, and not a flying maneuver. (see "Murphy's Laws of Combat" book, available at Rangerjoes.com)

Chapter Eight: Reconnaissance

Johnson ran into the cargo bay and the hatch closed behind him. Both Sergeant Stevenson and Lieutenant Haggar were sitting with their gear near them. Johnson nodded at each of them, and they nodded back. He then moved past them and went into the cockpit. Krystal turned from her work and looked at Johnson as he entered.

"ETA?" Johnson asked.

"Thirty minutes," she replied, "I sure that the Remnant will detect us, so we are going in fast. Things might get a little rough, so I suggest that you sit down and strap in."

Johnson nodded as he turned around and yelled, "Thirty mikes to touchdown. Pack it in tight; we're going in fast and hard. Lock and load, Infantry! Time to show these punks why we lead the way!"

"Oorah!" the two in the back yelled. Johnson then went over to them and sat down. He then straps himself in and takes another look through the newly acquired documents. It seemed unreal to Johnson. Here, stored in his armor, was the explanation for three wars and countless deaths. He started studying the documents, but most of it was techno-babble and flew over his head. Something about it didn't feel right. The ship rocking knocked Johnson from his deliberations.

"We are entering the atmosphere, no enemy contacts. Ghost, something isn't right. We should have lit up their screens by now..." Krystal said over the intercom.

"Understood, keep an eye out. Try and get us to the ground as fast as you can," Johnson yelled forward.

"Understood Ghost. Touchdown in five minutes," Krystal says over the intercom.

"Something doesn't smell right about this, Master Sergeant," Lieutenant Haggar said.

"I agree, but hopefully we won't run into anything we can't handle," Johnson replied.

"If we do?" Stevenson asked.

"Then you two can run away screaming like little girls, and I'll kill the enemy," Johnson stated with a grin.

"And let you have all of the fun, Ghost? No way," Lieutenant said. All three of them broke out laughing as the Cloudrunner continued its rapid descent into Venom's atmosphere. The conversation died off and the men focused on any last minute equipment checks they needed to perform.

"Touchdown in three...two...one...And we're down," Krystal said over the intercom. Johnson jumped to his feet, ran over to the hatch, and opened it. He then jumped out of the craft and checked the perimeter; not a thing in site. Lieutenant Haggar and Sergeant Stevenson came own right behind him and kneeled down to steady their aim. They both had their blasters out and their other weapons slung across their backs. Krystal then locked the ship down and came down with the gatling gun strapped to her back like the other two and her blaster in her hand.

"Alright, Stevenson, Krystal. Stay here and secure the ship. The Lieutenant and I will gather some vegetation to camouflage the Cloudrunner," Johnson said. They both nodded and moved into whatever cover they could find as he and Haggar went into the nearby forest. About five minutes later, they both came out with their arms full of various pieces of vegetation to cover the Cloudrunner in. They then proceeded to cover the Cloudrunner with it, and hopefully camouflage the Cloudrunner from enemy patrols.

After an hour's work, Haggar said, "Alright, done. Now what, Ghost?" Johnson pulled up a map of the surrounding area that was downloaded to his armor before they left. Once he had their position, he noticed, what looked like a nice defensible area just to the North-Northwest of them, at least according to the topographical map, and it was about five klicks (A/N: can't remember if I explained this, but klick = km, also it isn't a misspelling of click) away. It had only one access point, multiple exit points, and had a cliff on one of its sides.

"There is a possible base location, five klicks north-northwest of here. That will be our first recon point. Since there are only four of us, we all need to go recon it. Lieutenant, why don't you and Stevenson stay as a buddy team, and Krystal and I will be the second team," Johnson said, and when he got a nod from Haggar, he continued, "Alright, let's go. Spread out, but stay close enough that you can communicate with each other, but maintain radio silence. Also, hold your fire. Let's try and avoid all confrontations, if possible." The group quickly left their LZ, and move cautiously towards the area Johnson had pointed out. It took them two hours to move the first two klicks.

"Warning...Warning...Large Tiberium deposit detected," EVA stated suddenly. Johnson held up his fist and the squad froze. He then turned around and told the squad to stay where they were, using hand signals. He then slowly crept through the moderately wooded area. He soon got to the edge of the woods and stared across a large open field. However, the field was occupied, in entirety, by large blue crystals. In the center was a large structure that Johnson was highly familiar with, a Scrin Growth Accelerator. Also in the field was the manta-ray-like shape of a Scrin Harvester. Johnson checked the motion to bring his rifle to bear. 'What are THEY doing here?! More importantly, if that thing is here, then there is a Scrin base nearby. That means that there is also a group of Scrin nearby. This mission just got that much harder, and that much more important,' Johnson thought as he quietly snuck back to his squad.

"What's going on Ghost?" whispered Haggar.

"First off, we have Scrin forces in the area, as well as blue Tiberium," he whispered loudly. The ears of his companions dropped at the utterance.

"What's so bad about blue Tiberium?" asked Krystal.

"Blue Tiberium is a lot more lethal than regular green Tiberium. It also has more valuable metals and other rare minerals, so when it's refined, it's worth a lot more credits," Johnson quickly explained.

"What do we do now, Ghost?" asked Stevenson.

"Our jobs, Sergeant. We'll finish this recon, and get outta Dodge. Remember, we are going to have to be even more careful, Scrin seem to thrive off Tiberium, so don't let them get close to you. Especially the Buzzers, and you'll know them when you see 'em. EVA, scan the area and overlay the Tiberium field on the map. Then mark the area has highly contaminated and near a Scrin base for Cornerian Intel," Johnson said. He then shouldered his weapon and walked along the edge of the woods, angled to the North. His squad was quick to follow. Johnson stayed just far enough away from the Tiberium so that his squad wouldn't be in danger. The Tiberium field cost them an hour, and forced them through a lengthy detour. During the entire mission, so far, the squad had yet to encounter one Remnant patrol. 'Something is wrong. We should have run into at least one patrol by now, especial since our only insertion method wasn't exactly the stealthiest... Something is seriously wrong,' Johnson thought as him and the squad finally got back on track.

Johnson quickly checked their location on the maps stored in his armor; only about a klick away from the possible enemy base. The squad continued through the thick woods, stopping ever few minutes to make sure that they hadn't been spotted by either Remnant, or Scrin forces. Johnson held up his hand to stop the squad, and then checked the map for a good recon point. About half a klick away from the base, to the east, was a small hilltop/plateau that struck Johnson, instantly, as a perfect over watch position. He placed a NAV marker on the hill. A green marker then popped up on his HUD.

"Alright, follow me closely," Johnson whispered. Once he saw his three teammates nod their heads, he then moved in the direction of the NAV marker. They moved slower than before due to their proximity to the possible base location and possible enemy patrols. An hour-and-a-half later, Johnson held up his hand to stop the team again. He signaled for Krystal and Stevenson to stay put and for Haggar to follow him. They then high-crawled up the hill to the over watch location. Once they reached the top, Johnson activated the binocular function in his helmet while Haggar took out his sniper rifle and looked through the scope. What they saw shocked them.

There was a Remnant base at the location that Johnson thought it would be, however it was overrun with Scrin. Buzzers were everywhere, a few Corrupters were running around, a small wing of Storm Riders were flying around the base, and there were Ravagers assisting other Scrin elements. A Tri-pod then walked onto the scene, firing its three main guns at the base. Johnson could tell from experience that the base was lost. Although the few Remnant forces that remain were putting up a valiant, but stupid and pointless, last stand.

"Guess we don't need to worry about the Remnant anymore," Haggar said.

"But now we need to worry about the Scrin and Tiberium," Johnson said, "I think this situation just got a whole lot worse."

"Agreed," Haggar replied.

"Let's get out of here. General Hare needs to be informed of this," Johnson said. They both slowly crawled back down the hill and regrouped with Krystal and Stevenson. Once there Johnson quickly described what he and Haggar saw. Both were shocked at the information, and both agreed with Johnson's and Haggar's tactical opinion of the situation.

"So what do we do?" asked Krystal.

"The mission is finished. I'm pulling us out, and we're heading back to Corneria. The situation is worse than even I thought," Johnson said, "Now, forget stealth. Let's get out of here." Johnson shouldered his rifle and they all made a break for the Cloudrunner. They made much better time, getting three klicks in ten minutes. Right when they past the blue Tiberium field, a blue/white beam landed fifteen meters in front of Johnson.

"Take cover!" Johnson yelled as he dove for cover. Time seemed to slow as adrenaline kicked in. He looked out over the Tiberium field and saw a Devourer tank, with supporting Ravagers and Buzzers.

"Get that rocket launcher on that Devourer! Everyone else, focus on those infantry!" Johnson ordered as the recon squad opened fire. Johnson focused his fire on the Buzzers, knowing if they got too close, him and his team would become so much of a red mist. His rifle cut through the Buzzers quickly, but more Scrin reinforcements arrived in the form of Buzzers and Ravagers. Johnson noticed that the Cornerian blasters, that his team was equipped with, were a bit better than the standard GDI GD2 rifle, but not as good as his carbine. It took a few shots, but they would eventually take down a Scrin Buzzer swarm. Sergeant Stevenson fired his rocket launcher and nailed the Devourer, dead center. The vehicle bounced a bit as the anti-gravity system, or whatever allowed the vehicle to hover, tried to compensate for the hit. Stevenson then got a second shot off and hit the Devourer again. The vehicle slid back a few feet from the hit but then fired another beam at the team. The weapon sliced a few trees in half, but didn't hit the squad as the trees were behind them. Another rocket slammed into the Devourer, and Johnson noticed the damage taking effect. Johnson shifted his fire to a Ravager squad that was getting too close for comfort when he remembered a key thing about blue Tiberium. He said a quick prayer as he grabbed a frag grenade from a pouch. He thumbed the safety clip, and pulled the pin. He then let the spool fly off.

"FRAG OUT!" he yelled as he pitched the grenade into the Tiberium, "TAKE COVER!" The rest of the squad quickly did so, as Johnson tried as hard as possible to press himself into the ground. The thump of the grenade going off was clear for a millisecond before the sound of Tiberium crystals exploding filled the air. The sounds also drained out the noise of EVA stating the fact that Tiberium detonations had been detected. The sound set shivers through Johnson as scenes of battles fought long ago raced through his mind. Old wounds suddenly flared up and ached as the firecracker-like explosions of the Tiberium detonating continued.

Just as suddenly as the explosions started, they stopped. Johnson peeked up and looked at the field that once held a large amount of blue Tiberium. The field was now pockmarked with craters from the explosions. The Devourer was nowhere to be seen, same with the Growth Accelerator that had been in the field previously, and what few Scrin infantry survivors there were, were trying to get themselves back on their feet. Taking advantage of their shock, Johnson shouldered his weapon and open fired. He dropped ten Ravagers before the rest of his squad joined in. They quickly wiped out the rest of the Scrin forces that survived the explosions, and then they regrouped over by the edge of the field.

"We need to go! That explosion would have been heard for miles around," Johnson said urgently as the rest of the team ran up to him, "We need to move, now!"

"Alright let's g-" Stevenson said before Johnson grabbed him and threw him into a nearby crater. He then quickly activated his jump pack and flew away from the position as a beam suddenly cut through right where they had been standing.

"TRI-POD!" Johnson yelled as he landed in the woods, after he crashed through a few branches, "TAKE COVER!" Krystal and Haggar reacted immediately and dove for cover as two more beams were fired at them. Johnson aimed his rifle at the Tri-pod and opened fire. One of the tentacle-like guns turned towards him and fired. Johnson quickly dove behind a small group of trees. While not providing cover, as the beam cut through the trees instantly, but provided enough concealment to make sure he wasn't hurt. The rest of the squad continued to fire their blasters at the Tri-pod. The vehicle barely even reacted to their fire. The Tri-pod continued to spray all of the team down with fire, as Johnson tried desperately to find a way out of this. An idea struck him; it was risky, but he didn't have any other choice. He activated his radio.

"Distract it! I need to get a little closer!" Johnson said over the radio.

"Roger," "Understood," "Got it," they replied. Stevenson stood up and fired his rocket launcher at the Tri-pod, Krystal took out her gatling gun and open fired, and Haggar took out his sniper and fired. Enough firepower hit the Tri-pod that it had to take a step back to keep from falling over. Johnson sprinted for the edge of woods that he had taken cover in, and the moment he got out into the open, he activated his jump pack. He sailed towards the Tri-pod when one of its weapons swung towards him. He quickly changed his direction. The weapon fired and tried to track him, but missed. Johnson landed on the Tri-pod, but he was just barely was able to get a handhold on the smooth surface of the machine. The vehicle started to jerk around, as the pilot tried to throw Johnson off. Johnson pulled himself in as tight as he could to the machine, and held on for dear life.

"EVA, get that jump pack charged now!" Johnson yelled as he checked the charge of his jump pack, thirty percent. It quickly jumped up to thirty-five, then forty, and continued its climb. To Johnson, the jump pack's charging rate was extremely slow, as he was whipped around by the Tri-pod and as it continued to fire on his team. His team was doing admirably well, as they continued to pour fire on to the Scrin vehicle, without hitting him. Ten seconds past before his jump pack was fully charged.

Johnson didn't hesitate as he activated his jump pack. He quickly flew up and was able to grab the cockpit of the Tri-pod before his jump pack ran out of power. It was only at fifty percent, and Johnson hoped that it would be enough for what he had planned.

"Got a little present for ya," Johnson said as he grabbed a demo pack and slammed it onto the cockpit of the Tri-pod. He then activated his jump pack and flew toward his squad as he thumbed the detonator. He landed just as the pack exploded. The Tri-pod, now missing its pilot, started to tilt and then suddenly collapsed. The squad was almost knocked off their feet when the Tri-pod slammed into the ground.

"Move! Back to the Cloudrunner!" Johnson yelled as he ran toward the damaged Tri-pod. He quickly slapped another demo charge on it and set it to detonate due to proximity. Johnson then bolted to catch up with the rest of his squad. It took the group two hours the first time, took them fifteen minutes this time. However, by the time they got to the Cloudrunner, they were taking fire by Stormriders, Devastator Warships, Invader fighters, Shock Troopers, and Disintegrators. The entire squad was reduced to a "spray and pray" suppressive fire tactics. The entire team was sustained various cuts and injuries, but none of the injuries were sever enough to require immediate treatment.

The squad dug in as quickly as they could to try and suppress the Scrin forces in the area to allow them to leave the planet. Just as Johnson was ready to order Krystal to get the craft powered up and ready to make an emergency take-off, multiple Shard Walkers suddenly showed up and fired on the Cloudrunner. The vehicle was torn apart by the massed fire of Tiberium shards, and eventually exploded. Both the squad and the entire enemy force were thrown to the ground, and Johnson and his team were just able to recover before the Scrin forces opened fire again.

"Ghost!" Stevenson yelled out.

"I know!" Johnson replied as he activated his radio, "Shadow, This is Ghost! We just lost our extract! Requesting immediate assistance down here! We are taking heavy fire down here, over!"

"Ghost, this is Shadow. We are on our way, but we may not be able to get there soon. We just dropped cover and open fired on a few Remnant ships, but there are enough in our way that we will be delayed, even if we focus on dodging those ships, it will still take us some time to get help down to you, over," came the reply from the Shadow. 'Yeah, this is SNAFU,' was the thought that ran through Johnson's mind as he made up his mind on what to do.

"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Johnson yelled as he opened a map, quickly located a defensible position near a mountain, stood up, switched his carbine to full auto, and laid down heavy suppressive fire, "Go, I'll cover. Move southeast, two klicks! Mountain! Go, now!" Haggar and Stevenson both stood up and ran toward the location Johnson quickly described, while Krystal assisted Johnson with suppressive fire with her gatling gun. Johnson's carbine, while on full auto, is weaker than normal, and is more prone to overheating; however, the rounds put down range still do more damage than the standard GD2 and, if properly controlled, won't overheat. With the amount of rounds being placed down range, even the vehicles chasing the squad took cover. After five seconds of continuous fire, Johnson's carbine overheated, and Krystal's clip ran out. "Break for it! Go, go, go!" Johnson shouted as he yanked two grenades off his harness, pulled of the safety clips and pins, and pitched them at the Scrin. The two of them ran toward the southeast, desperately trying to escape the perusing Scrin forces and regroup with Haggar and Stevenson.

"Shadow, this is Ghost. We are falling back from our Insertion point. We are being overrun with Scrin forces. Get out of here and bring the rest of the Cornerian Navy and Marine Corp! We'll try and last till then! Uploading what recon we've got, Ghost out. EVA, get them that Intel," Johnson ordered.

"Compiling...Searching...Transferring...Transferring...Transfer complete," EA stated. Johnson let out a small sigh. 'At least if we die, our mission was completed,' he thought as he ran through the woods. He dodged around trees and punched through heavy brush as the two of them continued to receive fire from the Scrin air units. After five minutes of running, Johnson saw the location that had spotted on the map.

"Krystal, follow me!" Johnson yelled as he ran under a large rock overhang. As they ran under it, they found two caves. Haggar and Stevenson both were guarding one entrance.

"Inside, now!" Haggar ordered. All four quickly ducked into the cave, when Stevenson quickly set up a small device. He then activated it and suddenly the cave entrance was a solid rock wall.

"What the?" Johnson said in surprise, as he stared at the new rock wall. Both Haggar and Krystal quickly left for further into the cave.

"It's a hologram projection, something the techs whipped up for us while you were still napping," Stevenson explained with a small chuckle, "It will react exactly like a rock wall should if touched, and everything. Should thank Slippy for getting it to work."

"Wow, NOD had been experimenting with Holographic tech, but not to this level..." Johnson said, slightly amazed.

"Hey, we found something over here!" Krystal exclaimed. Johnson winced at the noise, hoping that the Scrin didn't hear it, but both of them ran over to where Krystal was. Johnson was about to say something but Stevenson cut him off.

"Before you say anything, the Hologram also has a noise canceller on it. No noise we make will get through it," Stevenson said. 'Ain't that a load off my mind,' Johnson thought with a sigh. They both focused back on what Krystal had found, and were shocked. Bones. Anthromorphic bones.

"Friends of yours, Krystal?" Johnson asked.

"No," she replied. Johnson moved forward and found something clutched in one's hand. It was a sheet of paper, and smudged and faded Krazoan words were written on it. Johnson's armor automatically opened up a text box on his HUD, and it read,

"To whoever finds this letter. My name was (lettering too faded and/or smudged to translate, Error 729)Hearth. I was a member of the (Error 729) Special Forces. My team was sent on a mission of upmost importance to the survival of all races in the universe. We, (Error 729), made a mistake. A horrible mistake. (Error 729) produced a poison. This crystal (Error 729) all it touches. If you see it, stay away; for your own health if nothing else. (Error 729) We discovered a (Error 729) eradicate the crystal. (Error 729) only know of one piece on this planet, the (Error 729) in other (Error 729), discovered (Error 729) dimensions (Error 729) groups called Humans (Error 729) into another species. A parasitic one, we call Flo(Error 729) We ran into a (Error 729) species. The moment we met them, they opened fired. (Error 729) bitter war (Error 729) loosing (Error 729) Another group of our people, (Error 729) Cerinia. (Error 729) They are (Error 729) use the Key. We failed (Error 729). Please helps us, finish our last mission (Error 729) You are the only hope the (Error 729) has to survive. I have one last request. If you can find my (Error 729) that I love her, and that (Error 729) son's birth. If I cou (message ends, possibly message is unfinished due to death of writer or other form of interruption)"

Johnson sighed as he looked up from the letter. He looked over his shoulder at Krystal.

"Whoever this guy was, he was military. According to the translation software in my armor, he was SOCOM. This other groups of bones must have been his team. From the looks of everything, they were cut down while this was still being written," Johnson said as he stood up, "Krystal, the letter mentions something about Cerinia. Maybe you can gleam something from it the translation software can't. The translation was pretty broken. One thing I can say for sure, these were the people that created Tiberium. It says that they made a mistake, though, as if it was an accident. A horrible one, but one nonetheless." Johnson hands Krystal the letter. Stevenson pulls another thing from Mister Hearth's hand. It was an old and faded photo.

"Found something," Stevenson said as he looked it over before passing it up to Johnson. The picture was of two beings like Krystal, one man and one woman. The man had one hand and the woman's swelling stomach and his other on her shoulder. While the woman had one hand on her stomach, and one on the man's hand on her shoulder. They were both smiling at the camera. The man was dressed in, what Johnson guessed, a Class-A uniform, and the woman in maternity clothes. Johnson couldn't help but sigh. He then passed the picture to Krystal, who had to start blinking back tears as they threatened to flow down her face.

"Stevenson, help me give these men the proper burial they deserve," Johnson said as he searched for some form of identification. He was able to find what looked like dog tags. He pocketed them with the GDI dog tags that he still had from Earth. Johnson looked over at Krystal, who was still focused solely on the picture.

"Krystal, how does your culture bury its honored dead?" Johnson asked; when Krystal didn't even move, Johnson repeated himself, only louder this time. Krystal's head snapped up and looked at him. "Well?" Johnson asked.

"Sorry, what was the question?" Krystal asked, as she dried her eyes a bit.

"How do you bury your honored dead?" Johnson asked again.

"I don't know," she replied.

"I guess we'll do it the Cornerian way then, Lieutenant!" Johnson yelled. Lieutenant Haggar ran back to where the rest of the group was.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We're going to give these men the burial they deserve," Johnson said, "Since we don't know their way, we're going to do it the Cornerian way." Haggar then quickly explained what they needed to do. After a quick funeral, they buried the fallen soldiers, and wrote their names in the cave wall next to each grave. It was all finished in two hours. By then, the adrenaline that had been flowing through each of them for most of the day had worn off, leaving them all exhausted. Johnson set up some motion detectors around their "camp-site" and they all lay down to sleep. Johnson couldn't help but run through all of the new information they had acquired. Johnson whispered a small prayer for the families of the fallen soldiers, and tried to keep himself of thinking about the casualties that his unit had suffered. Eventually, Johnson fell into a light and fitful sleep.