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Who is this corpse and what happened to them?\n\nIf you like my writing, please fave, watch and comment and watch out weekly for new chapters~!\n\nThese stories have been largely influenced by my lifelong love for the Star Fox video game released in March 1993 as well as the Nintendo Power comic released in the February to December 1993 issues of the magazine as well as the development of the fan comic Star Fox: Alternative Training Methods by ladydino on FurAffinity. You can read her fan comic here: https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/ladydino/folder/1166155/Comic-Alternative-Training-Methods/", "description_bbcode_parsed": "The mystery deepens on Papetoon... who attacked the tent city and caused all that destruction?  Who is this corpse and what happened to them?

If you like my writing, please fave, watch and comment and watch out weekly for new chapters~!

These stories have been largely influenced by my lifelong love for the Star Fox video game released in March 1993 as well as the Nintendo Power comic released in the February to December 1993 issues of the magazine as well as the development of the fan comic Star Fox: Alternative Training Methods by ladydino on FurAffinity.  You can read her fan comic here:  https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/ladydino/folder/116...", "writing": "[center]~ * ~[/center]\n\n\tThis chapter is dedicated to the lives and families that lived and were lost during the settlement, management and destruction of the mining towns of Uravan, Colorado, and Pilcher, Oklahoma, United States of America. May our future generations learn from our mistakes in environmental material handling and human safety protocol to prevent them from recurring in our future efforts.\n\n[i]\t“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -- George Santayana[/i]\n\n\n[center]~ * ~\n\n\n~Star Fox: Miyu's Love~\n\n~Chapter 15 – Mystery On Papetoon: The Autopsy And Further Discovery~[/center]\n\n\t--Operations Center, Papetoon, 12:44--\n\n\tOnce the entire team had hurried back to the Great Fox, Amanda, Krystal, Leo and Slippy proceeded to unload the materials needed for setting up a clean room with a radiation shield. Large dividers, radiation protective suits with gas masks and filtration systems, thick lead-sheeted covers for the walls, among other items being brought into the Operations Center's medical room, the med team setting up a room with about half of the infirmary converted to a contamination section. \t\n\tAfter a couple hours prep time, Fox, Falco, Bill and Miyu put on radiation suits and walked down the dark hallways and retrieved the body they discovered. The creature's mass was so big and heavy, it literally took all of their strength combined to drag it to the containment room. Once they dragged it into the room, they utilized a body hoist anchored to the ceiling to lift him onto the examination table. The body was so huge and heavy, the electric motor in the hoist audibly strained as it slowly lifted the creature up and onto the table.\n\tFox, Falco, Bill and Miyu exited the containment room as Amanda and Krystal entered it with containment suits and a tray of examination tools. Once the guys and Miyu had gotten out of their rad suits and placed them hanging on hooks, Peppy got on the comlink. “Alright everyone, I'm going to leave this to Amanda and Krystal,” Peppy announced. “Leo, Slippy, and Fay you three assist if they need it. Fox, Falco, Bill, Katt and Miyu, you all head to the tent city and check out the status there, then head to the nearby encampment and see what all is going on. If there are any officers and people in management to interview, start getting info from them.”\n\t“Roger that, Peppy,” Fox said.\n\tLeo walked over to Miyu and held her hand, the buff lynx smiling and leaning in to kiss Leo sweetly for several seconds. “Be careful out there, love,” he told her.\n\t“I will, sweetie bun,” she said confidently and softly, giving him one more kiss before she walked away with the guys.\n\tFalco then stood by Leo and gave him a pat on the back. “Don't worry, bud. She'll be fine. We'll watch after her,” Falco said with a smile and a wink.\n\tLeo chuckled and grinned a bit up at Falco. “Actually, I think it's more likely SHE will be watching over YOU, Falco.” A snirk and chuckle could barely be heard by Bill behind him.\n\tFalco smiled and rolled his eyes. “Awwgeeeeez, okaaaaaay....” he said as he walked away. \n\tBill then walked up and patted Leo on the shoulder softly as well. “Dude, you are SO awesome. Don't worry about nuthin, okay?” Bill said in his chipper way.\n\t“Thanks, Bill,” Leo replied with a smile as the group walked away. Leo then returned to stand by Slippy and Fay on the safe side of the containment wall as Amanda and Krystal began their work.\n\n\t--Papetoon tent city, 13:02--\n\n\tFox and company left the Operations Center and walked to the nearby tent city that literally filled the gap between the Center and the years-long established settlement nearby. Miyu recognized the layout as the design that Leo had submitted and approved with her during the beginning stages of post-war rebuilding, so she took the lead with Fox as they walked into the tent city.\n\tOnce they walked down the opening main street, they felt like they were walking into a ghost town. An unsettling feeling considering this refugee site is less than a year old. They all called out for anyone, but no response was received. Only the gentle waves of desert wind rustled the canvas material of the tents, some of which had similar slice marks like the ones they found in the Operations Center. They looked inside the main operations tent and it too looked partly shredded, papers strewn everywhere with furniture and fixtures in total disarray. The place looked like it was the victim of a massive struggle between multiple people.\n\tFalco went over to the generator to check it's status... 79% charge, currently charging off solar panels, fuel tank for engine empty. “Looks like this place has been abandoned for at least a couple days,” Falco said. “This generator fuel tank is empty.” He looked off to the side of the outside of the tent and noticed it still had several large canteens of liquid fuel to power the generator, all of which looked undisturbed.\n\tKatt came into the tent. “Well, I just walked into all the other housing tents, along with the mess, the showers, the heads... there is absolutely NOBODY here,” she said.\n\t“Can confirm. Looks like most if not all the damage has occurred around here a the lead operations tent,” Bill noted. “Doesn't make much sense.... and there have been no reports of past incursions or disruptions or other lawlessness here ever... sudden revolt, maybe?”\n\t“I dunno,” Fox said. “If there is nothing here, we need to head to the encampment and see what is up.”\n\t“I agree,” Falco said, coming back into the tent with a couple of the jerry cans of liquid fuel. “But before we do, we should get this thing running again,” he said, unscrewing the cap off the tank and the first can and then began to pour the fuel into the tank.\n\n\t--The Containment Room, Operations Center, 13:04--\n\n\t“Camera check with timestamp running,” Peppy said over the comlink, connected to Amanda and Krystal, with Leo, Fay and Slippy sitting in the observation room with him, their conversation being recorded onto it. “Mic check, mic check.”\n\t“Exam room, copy,” Amanda and Krystal said one after the other.\n\t“Copy clear, proceed with your analysis, Dr Toad,” Peppy continued.\n\t“Alright then,” Amanda started off. “Here we have a subject of an undetermined species due to misfiguration, causes unknown. Male in gender, seven foot two inches tall, weight around 550 lbs according to the table scale. Subject was found deceased with severe blunt force trauma to the cranium, blood loss severe due to fissure of the upper scalp along with puncture by metallic foreign object found elsewhere in the base, small pieces of brain matter found on it.” A small high definition camera loomed above the body as Amanda pointed out certain physical features. She then gently pinched a small lock of fur from the being, then gently tugged on it and the fur separated from the body with no effort. “Subject has fur all over, however it is easily falling out.” She then picked up one of the hands. “Hands have massive abnormal buildup of muscle along with long sharp nails, longest protruding... eight inches, shortest... five.” \n\tKrystal stood at the subject's feet, observing the claws there. “Can confirm identical measurements on the subjects toe claws.”\n\tAmanda continued visual inspection over the chest. “Subject has massive build of upper body muscle over the chest and arms, swollen so much so that the neck is completely devoured by it. Abdominal muscles swollen many times bigger also, thighs and calves also greatly swollen.”\n\t“This thing is built like a tank,” Fay said as she watched the footage in the safe room.\n\t“Sure is,” Leo said. “But if this thing is bigger than everything else, what the hell hit it in the head so hard to kill it?”\n\t“I know right?” Slippy said.\n\t“Sooooo strange,” Peppy added softly.\n\tAmanda then opened the subject's jaw slowly and shined a light down into it... then her head tilted and raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Ummmmmm....?”\n\t“What is it?” Krystal asked.\n\tAmanda then aimed the camera to look down into the mouth at what she was looking at... “One of the lower rear molars looks much shorter than it should be... like... it's been crowned.”\n\t“'Crowned?' asked Peppy. “Like... it's had... dental work done...?”\n\t“Appears so...” Amanda said. “Waitaminute! There's also a few silver amalgam fillings in a few of the other molars in the back!” A hush of confusion enveloped both rooms as she then guided Krystal over to the corner of the room where the computer that controlled the X-ray machine and the CAT scanner was. “Initiate a full body x-ray, along with cranial x-ray then we'll infuse a solution of barium into one of the veins and run a CAT scan.”\n\t“Understood,” Krystal said, punching the appropriate commands into the computer. The girls stood off to the side of the walls as the overhead x-ray scanner ran a full detailed scan starting at the subjects feet all the way up to it's head. Once that was complete, Amanda then focused a panoramic x-ray around the cranium with focus on his jaw and teeth. Then she grabbed an IV probe and injected into a vein in the subject's inner thigh, then used a pump to inject barium solution into its bloodstream, at least enough of it to not leak out of the cracked head. She then took out the IV probe as examination bed then slowly slid into a CAT scanner and performed a scan over the entire body. \n\tOnce the bed slid back out, the scan readouts showed up on displays in the containment room as well as the observation room. Going over the images left a lot more questions than answers. “Wow... I was right about the teeth,” Amanda said, using a pointer on the screen pointing to the cranial x-ray which showed dozens of fillings, both ceramic and amalgam. “And you see this?” she said, pointing to a bright blob in the stomach in the shape of the crown of a molar, the computer showing elemental composition to be gold. “This guy must've had his crown knocked loose and swallowed it when he was attacked.”\n\t“Look at his left tibia,” Leo said into the mic, everyone shifting their attention there... to notice that there was a break line that healed at one point in time. “He also broke his left lower leg sometime too.”\n\t“Also, here,” Krystal said, motioning to the CAT scan, circling over his lower right quadrant of his abdomen. “See anything missing?”\n\tAmanda's eyes and jaw opened a little wider at what she saw, then moved back to the body, then looked over his belly... “Cat scan suggests he has no appendix... no vertical scarring in the abdomen present...” She looked over the belly very carefully, picking some fur out of certain areas before she made three bald areas... “Confirmed, I have found three one-centimeter long scar tissue incisions in the lower right quadrant. This subject had his appendix removed in a laparoscopic procedure.”\n\t“Soooo, what are we saying,” Peppy asked. “That this person was living among civilized society...? Like THIS...? Whatever form he's in...”\n\tSlippy then leaned into the total body x-ray and spotted something else. “Hey hon, I see a blurry spot in the right shoulder that has greatly distorted the x-ray in that area.”\n\tAmanda turned back to the spot in the x-ray readout and nodded. She then grabbed a miniature Geiger counter and flipped it on, slowly waving it over the body, moving towards the right shoulder from the midsection. The counter immediately began ticking at a steady rate of 25-30 roentgens, the ticking and gauge slowly increasing as she slowly moved the tip of the sensor closer to the shoulder. A few inches away from the shoulder, it raised into the triple digits, in the 100s. She then aimed the sensor around towards the back side of the shoulder and the Geiger counter went apeshit, the dial rapidly climbing to the right side of the gauge, well into the 2000 range, the clicking so rapid it was a high-pitched tone.\n\tAmanda and Krystal looked at each other with wide eyes and frantic heartbeats, Amanda looking down and examining the shoulder, and she noticed there was some blood in that area in the fur and pelt, detecting a small puncture wound. “Krystal, I'm-a need a lead-lined dish, I think I found the source,” she said, the blue vixen retrieving a lead-lined petri dish as Amanda carefully grabbed a scalpel and cut four incisions outward cardinally from the puncture wound. She then slowly and carefully put the scalpel away and grabbed a spreader tool to open the wound, then locked it open. “Tweezers, please,” she softly instructed Krystal. She then used the tweezers and dug gently into the muscle flesh a little bit, then squeeze her grip, then slowly pulled out what appeared to be a rough rock about the size of a pea, maybe 3-4 millimeters in diameter. “Wash it in a bit of saline, please,” she instructed Krystal. When the blood and tiny strands of muscle and sinew were washed off, there was a gently glowing light-blue stone. Amanda then grabbed the Geiger counter and waved the sensor over it, and the gauge maxed out every time she waved it over the rock.\n\t“Bingo.” Amanda sealed the lead-lined petri-dish and placed it into a scanning and analyzer on the counter hooked up to the computer network. “ROB, do you think you can scan this and identify it?”\n\t“Already on it, Dr Amanda,” ROB replied.\n\tAmanda then grabbed a razor and shaved of a section of fur over the subjects ankle, then took a heating iron and seared the characters JD1 into the pelt. “Let's put this guy on a gurney and put him on in the freezer,” she said, lowering the body hoist again and placing it under the subject, Amanda and Krystal tilting it one side then the next to get the supports under it. They then lifted it and moved it over onto a rolling gurney and then rolled him into the nearby morgue freezer, making sure to align the ankle identifier into the freezer room camera so it could be easily zoomed in on and read. \n\tAmanda and Krystal then moved to the intermediate washroom where they were sprayed down externally before moving to a next room where they removed their radiation protection suits, then stepped out and walked into the observation rooms with the others. “Well, once ROB analyzes that tiny stone, we'll have some bit of idea what may have happened here, “Amanda said, sitting down on a guest chair next to Slippy, the two amphibians hugging tight and holding each other for many moments.\n\t“I'm gonna get out the anti-radiation stims since we now know we're dealing with something radioactive,” Slippy said after a minute or so, getting up then heading over the Great Fox.\n\t“I concur with that,” Peppy said.\n\t“Has the other team reported back on anything yet?” Krystal asked Peppy.\n\t“Yeah, they said there was nobody at the tent city. Totally abandoned, the main operations tent in disarray,” Peppy replied.\n\t“Just the main office?” Krystal asked in confusion, sitting next to Leo, the two hugging closely.\n\t“Yep. They're on their way to the settlement nearby to see if they can figure out something there,” Peppy replied, turning in his captain's chair to look into the monitor at the hulking beast of a corpse in the freezer. “Hopefully they can find out something more than our friend here is letting on...”\n\n\t--Papetoon settlement, 3 km away, 14:14--\n\n\tFox and his group loaded up onto a motorized jeep and drove to the settlement nearby, figuring that anybody alive in the tent city would've escaped there as it was the only place for shelter around for hundreds of kilometers. When they arrived, they noticed a pair of armed guards at the entrance, one of them a short ferret and the other a tall skinny meerkat, both of them stepping in the way of the jeep, but they both smiled and gave a sigh of relief, then a proper salute to everyone. “Captain McCloud! Thank heavens you guys are here! I'm Sargent Webbley and this is PFC Alton. You obviously got our distress call. Did you meet up with Sargent Dayson there?” the mole said.\n\tEveryone saluted, Fox parking the jeep in front of the entrance and shutting it off. “We didn't see anyone there. The op center looked like some beast had broken into the place and thrashed everything inside,” Fox replied. \n\tThe two guards looked at Fox in confusion. “A beast? Very strange... we sent Sargent Dayson on towards the base three nights ago when we were attacked in the middle of the night,” Sgt Webbley explained. “Flinging lit torches into the middle of the camp!”\n\t“Attacked? By whom?” Bill asked.\n\t“We don't know who or what it is! The last ten days we have sustained multiple nightly attacks, all from some fearsome gruesome beasts that have tried to kill the civilians and destroy the tent city,” PFC Alton said. “Three days ago was the last attack and that is when we evacuated everyone in the tent city and brought them here. Was also when we sent Dayson to sent out the emergency distress.”\n\t“We also lost five of our men in the night too... they just went out a short distance from the camp and disappeared,” Webbley continued. “And then there were the few beasts that attacked the tent city too.”\n\t“You saw beasts here too?” Falco asked.\n\t“Yeah. We dealt with them quickly, thankfully. Nothing our rifle blasters couldn't handle with a shot or two,” Alton said. “We couldn't recognize what kind of animal they were, nor knew if their meat was safe for consumption, so we took their corpses out of town a click, piled them up and burned them.”\n\t“Were all of these attacks at the tent city?” Miyu asked.\n\t“Affirmative, ma'am,” they both said. \n\t“So whatever or whoever it was... didn't want the tent city there...” Fox began.\n\t“But they are okay with this settlement?” Miyu added.\n\tThey walked into the settlement and spoke amongst the populace. Miyu tried to offer any minor first aid that may be needed to anyone while Fox, Falco and Bill continued to ask around if anybody had seen or heard anything unusual happening. Nobody had any new information for the team that proved to be useful or helpful, unfortunately.\n\tAfter an hour or so of sitting around and communicating with the settlement leaders, they heard a chime on their comlinks coming from the Great Fox. “McCloud here, go ahead Peppy,” Fox said.\n\t“Fox, we just completed an autopsy on that beast we found in the hallway of the op center,” Peppy said, Fox's speaker playing the audio aloud to everyone.\n\t“Hopefully you found out something important. All we've found out here is that the tent city was evacuated after losing five men and being attacked by at least three beasts. The remaining soldiers here killed them off quickly, so no loss of life from the settlers occurred,” Fox stated.\n\tAmanda jumped in on the conversation. “What did they do with the bodies?”\n\t“They said they piled them up and burned them a click outside of town,” Fox replied.\n\t“Oooohhhh... good,” Amanda said in exasperated relief.\n\t“You said overly pleased about that, Doc,” Fox said in confusion.\n\t“Well, one of the things we discovered from this particular beast is that it was shot in the shoulder by some sort of small stone that is highly radioactive. We don't know what it is yet, but ROB is analyzing it now,”\n\t“Actually, analysis is now complete,” ROB said in his normal monotone robotic tone. \n\t“What is it, ROB?” Peppy inquired.\n\t“The granule in question has been identified as flaysium,” ROB said.\n\tEveryone looked at everyone with confused looks, mouthing the word silently. “I didn't exactly pass my chemistry course, ROB. Do you have any info on it?” Falco said, half-jokingly.\n\t“It is similar in nature, use and function as uranium, however, once it has been exposed to atmospheric oxygen, it has a dramatically reduced half-life of only a couple hours or so until it is refined. It also has a dramatically reduced range of radioactivity, so exposure is very localized to a very small radius from the source,” ROB summarized. \n\t“The sample we took out of the beast's shoulder ranged 25 or so Roentgens from a foot away and rapidly diminished with further distance, but got horrifically worse the closer we got,” Amanda added.\n\t“Horrifically?” Miyu inquired, almost not wanting an answer.\n\t“Yyyyyyeah... like... 2000 Roentgens at the source,” Amanda finished. Every eye and mouth on the team went wide hearing that.\n\t“Geeeeeez.... no way, dude!” Bill replied.\n\t“Way! So the remains of those beasts they burned we will have to assume have some of it in them somewhere in their bodies. You are going to have to bury and lead line their remains whenever they can get an opportunity,” Peppy said. Webbly and Alton nodded in understanding.\n\t“What in the world was it used for?” Miyu asked.\n\t“It's most common usage was to be refined into a nuclear fuel that powered the very first space ships about 80 years ago,” ROB added.\n\t“The Flaysium Protection Act from 63 years ago banned all uses of the element as well as mining, refining, usage and transport of it after it proved to be too dangerous and unhealthy, not reliable, profitable, sustainable, etc” Peppy concluded.\n\t“Sooooo...” Fox added. “...if this stuff was banned over 60 years ago... how is it being found now? ROB, I realize this is probably a long shot, but are you able to scan the surface of Papetoon for a possibility of locating any of this stuff?”\n\t“Unfortunately, not without the aid of some sort of satellite to aid in the search, as Papetoon has none,” ROB explained. “Scanning on my own without any sort of overhead aid would be impossible.”\n\t“I can show you,” an elderly female voice from behind them stated. They turned around and saw a very old mole woman, probably 80 years of age standing there in many layers of tattered clothes torn and shaped for many years by the cruel Papetoonian desert sands. “Are you looking for flaysium, young man?”\n\t“Umm, yes ma'am....” Fox began, standing up and facing her. “I don't suppose you would know where it could be acquired?”\n\t“Oh yes, I can,” the elderly woman said with a soft gentle voice and smile. “There is a mine for it about thirty clicks away from here. Although, it was closed after the said Act was passed, and the town and refinery nearby was closed and abandoned,” she said.\n\tFox opened his eyes a bit in surprise. “There was an entire MINE near here? AND a town and refinery?” She smiled and nodded softly. “I don't suppose you would be able to take us there?”\n\t“If you insist, I'd be happy to,” she said.\n\t\n\t\n\t--Great Fox, Observation Room, 16:05--\n\n\tEveryone sat down at the big table looking at all the x-rays and CAT scan images of the corpse they discovered. They uncovered more and more instances of abnormalities that a normal person would have happen in their life. There were signs of fatty liver which indicated high alcohol consumption, there was a tarry substance in the bronchi and alveoli of the lungs indicating many years of smoking, the knuckles of the hands showing excess amount of cartilage indicating a habit of cracking the knuckles for a long time... every scientific piece of evidence points to this being a normal anthropomorphic bipedal being that lived a fairly normal life... except they were in a freakish brutish monstrous form.\n\t“This is totally not making any sense,” Amanda said with a frustrated sigh. “It's like this body is trying to be two different things at the same time.”\n\t“There's gotta be a missing link connecting this all together to force it all to make sense,” Fay said.\n\t“What about the tiny pebble of flaysium?” Slippy suggested. “With a history of it being banned due to it being harmful to any biological body, there must be some record of its effects on the body...”\n\t“There is some data about miners being exposed to it for extended periods of time, but nothing at all about it's effects while INSIDE the body,” Amanda said. “We're literally stepping into new territory with all this. It's kinda scary.”\n\t“Speaking of, have we disposed of that pebble yet?” Peppy asked.\n\t“I put it in a few lead-lined labeled steel boxes stacked inside each other and buried it under some huge rocks on the other side of the hill,” Slippy replied.\n\t“Well done, Slip,” Peppy said with a thumbs up.\n\tLeo snapped his fingers. “Idea... what if... flaysium in the body and/or blood... creates some sort of chemical or mutation that spreads throughout the body to cause widespread mutation all over the body? I mean, it's interacting with plasma, DNA, iron molecules, red and white blood cells... I mean, all of that conglomeration HAS to do something to the body that would be very unpleasant.”\n\t“I think you're onto something, Leo,” Amanda said with a smile. “That could very well be the case as to what we are witnessing with this corpse.”\n\t“One other thing I'm noticing,” Peppy said, looking over the CAT scan images. “This heart... seems to be smaller than it should be, I mean, if this WAS indeed a living breathing being among us and it grew into THIS... this heart is bigger than any of ours, but still about 30% smaller than it should be for a frame of this size... it's almost like not everything grew along with the rest of the body.”\n\t“Oh man, yeah,” Slippy agreed, looking at the same pics. “Ditto the brain and the kidneys... and the liver... all of the critical organs undersized in comparison to the new body.”\n\t“Considering all this...” Leo resumed. “The undersized and over performing organs, the physical stress on the brain and spinal cord due to size difference... not to mention the transformation itself... ALL of this... would put someone in agonizing pain.”\n\t“I totally agree with that,” Amanda said. “And let's be honest... if any of you had this happen to you and you went through the agony he went through, you would be scared shitless and would want it to stop. Even if that means taking your own life. I mean, you motor skills, logical and critical thinking ability would be very reduced.”\n\t“Which could very possibly explain the huge indentation in the server rack in the radio room. The one where the brain matter was found...” Leo suggested.\n\tA cold realization hit the room as they then sat quiet and still for several seconds. “I think this was the man who sent out the distress call... and then he went on to try and kill himself to end the pain,” Amanda concluded. \n\t“Yeah, I um... I think you're right, Amanda,” Peppy said. “This is turning quite sad all of a sudden.”\n\t“Now to just figure out who the hell is attacking everyone, and why they were only attacking the tent city and the op center,” Fay added.\n\t“I think we need to assign some night security to the settlement and the tent city as we slowly move some people back into it,” Peppy suggested. “Also set up a monitored and armed perimeter around both and maybe catch the culprit--”\n\t“Apologies to interrupt,” ROB suddenly announced. “But please view the camera in the freezer room!”\n\tAmanda quickly switched the big monitor to the camera in the freezer and all watched intently, only seconds going by as they gasped slowly at what they were seeing as it took almost two minutes to complete.\n\t“Mark the time that stopped, scan back in the video and see when it began. Also find out what time we took out the flaysium pebble,” Peppy ordered quickly.\n\t“On it!” Slippy responded, turning to type and enter commands into the computer.\n\t“I'm going to get another set of x-rays and CAT scan going pronto to compare old versus new,” Amanda said as she got up and began to put her protective radiation suit back on.\n\t“Do you need assistance?” Krystal asked.\n\t“Not now, I don't, but thank you, hon,” Amanda replied. \n\tKrystal smiled and nodded, then sat down right by Leo, hugging him close. “Doing okay there, bunny?”\n\t“Yep. Seeing all that didn't really disturb me,” he said. “For about a month an a half, I helped out a friend of my father's in a mortuary and crematory, so I've seen dead bodies and disfigured bodies before.”\n\t“I see. Well, you handled it very well,” she said, softly kissing his cheek. \n\t“Thank you, vixy,” Leo said, kissing her cheek back softly as they hugged together.\n\t“I better get ahold of Fox and the others and let them know the new plan,” Peppy said, picking up his comlink.\n\n\t--30 kms from the Papetoonian Settlement, unknown valley--\n\n\tFox drove the jeep with the elderly woman up front, Falco and Bill sitting in the back. Miyu offered to stay in the settlement to offer any first aid while chatting with the group leaders there. Bill sat in the back and wrote down a patrol map with directions to where they were going, monitoring the compass on his wristwatch along with the speed of the jeep and the times. Falco sat on watch with a automatic rifle blaster in the event they were attacked, although they figured the odds were low, still better to be prepared.\n\t“Right over this hill here,” the elderly woman said loudly over the sound of the mostly unmuffled jeep's exhaust and the wind in their ears, pointing in the general direction of travel. When they peaked over the hill top, they were met with a valley that contained an enormous gray concrete circle, the bio-hazard symbol formed in dark gravel over it. Fox stopped the jeep and everyone gazed out at the massive concrete pad. It must've been almost a mile wide by their estimations. There was a yellow sign with the same bio-hazard symbol on it and some words.\n\n[center]FLAYURA, PAPETOON\nFLAYSIUM AND URANIUM MILL TAILINGS REPOSITORY\nNO TRESSPASSING AND NO DIGGING\nBY ORDER OF\nCORNERIAN ENERGY AND POWERS AGENCY[/center]\n\n\t“This is what's left of Flayura,” the old woman began. “My father and uncle were miners here when I was born and for most of my youth. This community was set up by several companies that refined flaysium and uranium to make nuclear fuels to power the first space ships. Large corporations and governments paid miners very well to mine the toxic rocks from Papetoon, but the knowledge of the poison within was not well understood at the time until a year or so before the Flaysium Protection Act was passed. I am the only living person that lived here who remembers it.”\n\tFox was recording the site with a video recorder, capturing the old woman's speech as she spoke. The site was incredibly depressing to be at and see, but Fox knew that it was important to document for historical records and for Posterity itself. One of the things he remembered most being taught by his late father James was that history was not meant to be entertaining or pleasant. History, good or bad, positive or negative, is worth remembering, to know where you came from, where you are and where you are going. He couldn't help but feel like he was witnessing a very sad, important and yet forgotten page in Splat's history.\n\t“I'm assuming that... your father and uncle passed away around the time the town was buried here, ma'am?” Fox asked gently.\n\tShe nodded. “My father passed away a year after this pad was laid, my uncle some months later. The damage from the toxic rocks had harmed them way too much by then. When the realization of the dangers of being around these rocks were finally understood and realized, the Cornerian governments came in and shut down the nearby mine, which is just over the hill over there,” she pointed on the other end of the small town. “They also destroyed the refinery and all the houses and buildings here in Flayura. They literally told us we had 24 hours to leave, and if you want to see your homes get burned to the ground, be here at 8 o'clock in the morning.” \n\t“I'm very sorry you and your family went through all this ma'am,” Fox continued, his eyes watery. He then shut off the video recorder and put it in his pocket. “You said the mine entrance is on the other side of that hill? On the other side of the town?”\n\t“That's right, lad,” she said. “I can show you the general area, but I won't go anywhere close to the entrance.”\n\t“We understand, ma'am” Falco said softly behind her. “We are eternally grateful you have showed us this much. I feel your knowledge will help us out tremendously.”\n\tFox restarted the jeep and then drove it around the massive concrete marker, treating as if it were a grave marker, because in his and the old woman's mind, it literally WAS a grave marker for a dead town. Bill continued to scribble notes on paper to create a patrol map as they moved. Once they got around the marker, they started to go up the side of a hill, then once they got to the top, they stopped suddenly in surprise at what they saw all over the land by the entrance to the mine. “Is that the mine entrance there?” he pointed off into the distance.\n\t“Y-yes, it is... but... all the rest of this... I-I don't--” she started.\n\t“Fox come in, over,” he heard Peppy over his comlink.\n\t“Fox here... you are NOT going to believe what we are looking at here...” Fox said slowly and clearly.\n\t“I was just about the say the exact same thing to you,” Peppy replied, Falco, Bill and Fox looking at each other in surprise and confusion. “Get pictures and come on back to the Great Fox. Time to get updated.”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
~ * ~


\tThis chapter is dedicated to the lives and families that lived and were lost during the settlement, management and destruction of the mining towns of Uravan, Colorado, and Pilcher, Oklahoma, United States of America.  May our future generations learn from our mistakes in environmental material handling and human safety protocol to prevent them from recurring in our future efforts.

\t“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  -- George Santayana


~ * ~


~Star Fox:  Miyu's Love~

~Chapter 15 – Mystery On Papetoon: The Autopsy And Further Discovery~


\t--Operations Center, Papetoon, 12:44--

\tOnce the entire team had hurried back to the Great Fox, Amanda, Krystal, Leo and Slippy proceeded to unload the materials needed for setting up a clean room with a radiation shield.  Large dividers, radiation protective suits with gas masks and filtration systems, thick lead-sheeted covers for the walls, among other items being brought into the Operations Center's medical room, the med team setting up a room with about half of the infirmary converted to a contamination section.  \t
\tAfter a couple hours prep time, Fox, Falco, Bill and Miyu put on radiation suits and walked down the dark hallways and retrieved the body they discovered.  The creature's mass was so big and heavy, it literally took all of their strength combined to drag it to the containment room.  Once they dragged it into the room, they utilized a body hoist anchored to the ceiling to lift him onto the examination table.  The body was so huge and heavy, the electric motor in the hoist audibly strained as it slowly lifted the creature up and onto the table.
\tFox, Falco, Bill and Miyu exited the containment room as Amanda and Krystal entered it with containment suits and a tray of examination tools.  Once the guys and Miyu had gotten out of their rad suits and placed them hanging on hooks, Peppy got on the comlink.  “Alright everyone, I'm going to leave this to Amanda and Krystal,” Peppy announced.  “Leo, Slippy, and Fay you three assist if they need it.  Fox, Falco, Bill, Katt and Miyu, you all head to the tent city and check out the status there, then head to the nearby encampment and see what all is going on.  If there are any officers and people in management to interview, start getting info from them.”
\t“Roger that, Peppy,” Fox said.
\tLeo walked over to Miyu and held her hand, the buff lynx smiling and leaning in to kiss Leo sweetly for several seconds.  “Be careful out there, love,”  he told her.
\t“I will, sweetie bun,” she said confidently and softly, giving him one more kiss before she walked away with the guys.
\tFalco then stood by Leo and gave him a pat on the back.  “Don't worry, bud.  She'll be fine.  We'll watch after her,” Falco said with a smile and a wink.
\tLeo chuckled and grinned a bit up at Falco.  “Actually, I think it's more likely SHE will be watching over YOU, Falco.” A snirk and chuckle could barely be heard by Bill behind him.
\tFalco smiled and rolled his eyes.  “Awwgeeeeez, okaaaaaay....” he said as he walked away.
\tBill then walked up and patted Leo on the shoulder softly as well.  “Dude, you are SO awesome.  Don't worry about nuthin, okay?”  Bill said in his chipper way.
\t“Thanks, Bill,” Leo replied with a smile as the group walked away.  Leo then returned to stand by Slippy and Fay on the safe side of the containment wall as Amanda and Krystal began their work.

\t--Papetoon tent city, 13:02--

\tFox and company left the Operations Center and walked to the nearby tent city that literally filled the gap between the Center and the years-long established settlement nearby.  Miyu recognized the layout as the design that Leo had submitted and approved with her during the beginning stages of post-war rebuilding, so she took the lead with Fox as they walked into the tent city.
\tOnce they walked down the opening main street, they felt like they were walking into a ghost town.  An unsettling feeling considering this refugee site is less than a year old.  They all called out for anyone, but no response was received.  Only the gentle waves of desert wind rustled the canvas material of the tents, some of which had similar slice marks like the ones they found in the Operations Center.  They looked inside the main operations tent and it too looked partly shredded, papers strewn everywhere with furniture and fixtures in total disarray.  The place looked like it was the victim of a massive struggle between multiple people.
\tFalco went over to the generator to check it's status... 79% charge, currently charging off solar panels, fuel tank for engine empty.  “Looks like this place has been abandoned for at least a couple days,” Falco said.  “This generator fuel tank is empty.”  He looked off to the side of the outside of the tent and noticed it still had several large canteens of liquid fuel to power the generator, all of which looked undisturbed.
\tKatt came into the tent.   “Well, I just walked into all the other housing tents, along with the mess, the showers, the heads... there is absolutely NOBODY here,” she said.
\t“Can confirm.  Looks like most if not all the damage has occurred around here a the lead operations tent,” Bill noted.  “Doesn't make much sense.... and there have been no reports of past incursions or disruptions or other lawlessness here ever... sudden revolt, maybe?”
\t“I dunno,” Fox said.  “If there is nothing here, we need to head to the encampment and see what is up.”
\t“I agree,” Falco said, coming back into the tent with a couple of the jerry cans of liquid fuel. “But before we do, we should get this thing running again,” he said, unscrewing the cap off the tank and the first can and then began to pour the fuel into the tank.

\t--The Containment Room, Operations Center, 13:04--

\t“Camera check with timestamp running,” Peppy said over the comlink, connected to Amanda and Krystal, with Leo, Fay and Slippy sitting in the observation room with him, their conversation being recorded onto it.  “Mic check, mic check.”
\t“Exam room, copy,” Amanda and Krystal said one after the other.
\t“Copy clear, proceed with your analysis, Dr Toad,” Peppy continued.
\t“Alright then,” Amanda started off. “Here we have a subject of an undetermined species due to misfiguration, causes unknown.  Male in gender, seven foot two inches tall, weight around 550 lbs according to the table scale.  Subject was found deceased with severe blunt force trauma to the cranium, blood loss severe due to fissure of the upper scalp along with puncture by metallic foreign object found elsewhere in the base, small pieces of brain matter found on it.” A small high definition camera loomed above the body as Amanda pointed out certain physical features.  She then gently pinched a small lock of fur from the being, then gently tugged on it and the fur separated from the body with no effort.  “Subject has fur all over, however it is easily falling out.” She then picked up one of the hands.  “Hands have massive abnormal buildup of muscle along with long sharp nails, longest protruding... eight inches, shortest... five.”
\tKrystal stood at the subject's feet, observing the claws there. “Can confirm identical measurements on the subjects toe claws.”
\tAmanda continued visual inspection over the chest.  “Subject has massive build of upper body muscle over the chest and arms, swollen so much so that the neck is completely devoured by it.  Abdominal muscles swollen many times bigger also, thighs and calves also greatly swollen.”
\t“This thing is built like a tank,” Fay said as she watched the footage in the safe room.
\t“Sure is,” Leo said.  “But if this thing is bigger than everything else, what the hell hit it in the head so hard to kill it?”
\t“I know right?”  Slippy said.
\t“Sooooo strange,” Peppy added softly.
\tAmanda then opened the subject's jaw slowly and shined a light down into it... then her head tilted and raised an eyebrow in confusion.  “Ummmmmm....?”
\t“What is it?” Krystal asked.
\tAmanda then aimed the camera to look down into the mouth at what she was looking at... “One of the lower rear molars looks much shorter than it should be... like... it's been crowned.”
\t“'Crowned?' asked Peppy. “Like... it's had... dental work done...?”
\t“Appears so...” Amanda said.  “Waitaminute!  There's also a few silver amalgam fillings in a few of the other molars in the back!”  A hush of confusion enveloped both rooms as she then guided Krystal over to the corner of the room where the computer that controlled the X-ray machine and the CAT scanner was.  “Initiate a full body x-ray, along with cranial x-ray then we'll infuse a solution of barium into one of the veins and run a CAT scan.”
\t“Understood,”  Krystal said, punching the appropriate commands into the computer.  The girls stood off to the side of the walls as the overhead x-ray scanner ran a full detailed scan starting at the subjects feet all the way up to it's head.  Once that was complete, Amanda then focused a panoramic x-ray around the cranium with focus on his jaw and teeth.  Then she grabbed an IV probe and injected into a vein in the subject's inner thigh, then used a pump to inject barium solution into its bloodstream, at least enough of it to not leak out of the cracked head.  She then took out the IV probe as examination bed then slowly slid into a CAT scanner and performed a scan over the entire body.  
\tOnce the bed slid back out, the scan readouts showed up on displays in the containment room as well as the observation room.  Going over the images left a lot more questions than answers.  “Wow... I was right about the teeth,” Amanda said, using a pointer on the screen pointing to the cranial x-ray which showed dozens of fillings, both ceramic and amalgam.  “And you see this?” she said, pointing to  a bright blob in the stomach in the shape of the crown of a molar, the computer showing elemental composition to be gold.  “This guy must've had his crown knocked loose and swallowed it when he was attacked.”
\t“Look at his left tibia,” Leo said into the mic, everyone shifting their attention there... to notice that there was a break line that healed at one point in time.  “He also broke his left lower leg sometime too.”
\t“Also, here,” Krystal said, motioning to the CAT scan, circling over his lower right quadrant of his abdomen.  “See anything missing?”
\tAmanda's eyes and jaw opened a little wider at what she saw, then moved back to the body, then looked over his belly... “Cat scan suggests he has no appendix... no vertical scarring in the abdomen present...” She looked over the belly very carefully, picking some fur out of certain areas before she made three bald areas... “Confirmed, I have found three one-centimeter long scar tissue incisions in the lower right quadrant.  This subject had his appendix removed in a laparoscopic procedure.”
\t“Soooo, what are we saying,” Peppy asked. “That this person was living among civilized society...?  Like THIS...?  Whatever form he's in...”
\tSlippy then leaned into the total body x-ray and spotted something else.  “Hey hon, I see a blurry spot in the right shoulder that has greatly distorted the x-ray in that area.”
\tAmanda turned back to the spot in the x-ray readout and nodded.  She then grabbed a miniature Geiger counter and flipped it on, slowly waving it over the body, moving towards the right shoulder from the midsection.  The counter immediately began ticking at a steady rate of 25-30 roentgens, the ticking and gauge slowly increasing as she slowly moved the tip of the sensor closer to the shoulder.  A few inches away from the shoulder, it raised into the triple digits, in the 100s.  She then aimed the sensor around towards the back side of the shoulder and the Geiger counter went apeshit, the dial rapidly climbing to the right side of the gauge, well into the 2000 range, the clicking so rapid it was a high-pitched tone.
\tAmanda and Krystal looked at each other with wide eyes and frantic heartbeats, Amanda looking down and examining the shoulder, and she noticed there was some blood in that area in the fur and pelt, detecting a small puncture wound.  “Krystal, I'm-a need a lead-lined dish, I think I found the source,” she said, the blue vixen retrieving a lead-lined petri dish as Amanda carefully grabbed a scalpel and cut four incisions outward cardinally from the puncture wound.  She then slowly and carefully put the scalpel away and grabbed a spreader tool to open the wound, then locked it open. “Tweezers, please,” she softly instructed Krystal.  She then used the tweezers and dug gently into the muscle flesh a little bit, then squeeze her grip, then slowly pulled out what appeared to be a rough rock about the size of a pea, maybe 3-4 millimeters in diameter.  “Wash it in a bit of saline, please,” she instructed Krystal.  When the blood and tiny strands of muscle and sinew were washed off, there was a gently glowing light-blue stone.  Amanda then grabbed the Geiger counter and waved the sensor over it, and the gauge maxed out every time she waved it over the rock.
\t“Bingo.”  Amanda sealed the lead-lined petri-dish and placed it into a scanning and analyzer on the counter hooked up to the computer network.  “ROB, do you think you can scan this and identify it?”
\t“Already on it, Dr Amanda,” ROB replied.
\tAmanda then grabbed a razor and shaved of a section of fur over the subjects ankle, then took a heating iron and seared the characters JD1 into the pelt.  “Let's put this guy on a gurney and put him on in the freezer,” she said, lowering the body hoist again and placing it under the subject, Amanda and Krystal tilting it one side then the next to get the supports under it.  They then lifted it and moved it over onto a rolling gurney and then rolled him into the nearby morgue freezer, making sure to align the ankle identifier into the freezer room camera so it could be easily zoomed in on and read.
\tAmanda and Krystal then moved to the intermediate washroom where they were sprayed down externally before moving to a next room where they removed their radiation protection suits, then stepped out and walked into the observation rooms with the others.  “Well, once ROB analyzes that tiny stone, we'll have some bit of idea what may have happened here, “Amanda said, sitting down on a guest chair next to Slippy, the two amphibians hugging tight and holding each other for many moments.
\t“I'm gonna get out the anti-radiation stims since we now know we're dealing with something radioactive,” Slippy said after a minute or so, getting up then heading over the Great Fox.
\t“I concur with that,” Peppy said.
\t“Has the other team reported back on anything yet?” Krystal asked Peppy.
\t“Yeah, they said there was nobody at the tent city.  Totally abandoned, the main operations tent in disarray,” Peppy replied.
\t“Just the main office?”  Krystal asked in confusion, sitting next to Leo, the two hugging closely.
\t“Yep.  They're on their way to the settlement nearby to see if they can figure out something there,” Peppy replied, turning in his captain's chair to look into the monitor at the hulking beast of a corpse in the freezer.  “Hopefully they can find out something more than our friend here is letting on...”

\t--Papetoon settlement, 3 km away, 14:14--

\tFox and his group loaded up onto a motorized jeep and drove to the settlement nearby, figuring that anybody alive in the tent city would've escaped there as it was the only place for shelter around for hundreds of kilometers.  When they arrived, they noticed a pair of armed guards at the entrance, one of them a short ferret and the other a tall skinny meerkat, both of them stepping in the way of the jeep, but they both smiled and gave a sigh of relief, then a proper salute to everyone.  “Captain McCloud!  Thank heavens you guys are here!  I'm Sargent Webbley and this is PFC Alton.  You obviously got our distress call.  Did you meet up with Sargent Dayson there?” the mole said.
\tEveryone saluted, Fox parking the jeep in front of the entrance and shutting it off.  “We didn't see anyone there.  The op center looked like some beast had broken into the place and thrashed everything inside,” Fox replied.  
\tThe two guards looked at Fox in confusion.  “A beast? Very strange... we sent Sargent Dayson on towards the base three nights ago when we were attacked in the middle of the night,” Sgt Webbley explained.  “Flinging lit torches into the middle of the camp!”
\t“Attacked?  By whom?” Bill asked.
\t“We don't know who or what it is!  The last ten days we have sustained multiple nightly attacks, all from some fearsome gruesome beasts that have tried to kill the civilians and destroy the tent city,” PFC Alton said.  “Three days ago was the last attack and that is when we evacuated everyone in the tent city and brought them here. Was also when we sent Dayson to sent out the emergency distress.”
\t“We also lost five of our men in the night too... they just went out a short distance from the camp and disappeared,” Webbley continued.  “And then there were the few beasts that attacked the tent city too.”
\t“You saw beasts here too?” Falco asked.
\t“Yeah.  We dealt with them quickly, thankfully.  Nothing our rifle blasters couldn't handle with a shot or two,” Alton said.  “We couldn't recognize what kind of animal they were, nor knew if their meat was safe for consumption, so we took their corpses out of town a click, piled them up and burned them.”
\t“Were all of these attacks at the tent city?” Miyu asked.
\t“Affirmative, ma'am,” they both said.  
\t“So whatever or whoever it was... didn't want the tent city there...” Fox began.
\t“But they are okay with this settlement?”  Miyu added.
\tThey walked into the settlement and spoke amongst the populace.  Miyu tried to offer any minor first aid that may be needed to anyone while Fox, Falco and Bill continued to ask around if anybody had seen or heard anything unusual happening.  Nobody had any new information for the team that proved to be useful or helpful,  unfortunately.
\tAfter an hour or so of sitting around and communicating with the settlement leaders, they heard a chime on their comlinks coming from the Great Fox.  “McCloud here, go ahead Peppy,” Fox said.
\t“Fox, we just completed an autopsy on that beast we found in the hallway of the op center,” Peppy said, Fox's speaker playing the audio aloud to everyone.
\t“Hopefully you found out something important.  All we've found out here is that the tent city was evacuated after losing five men and being attacked by at least three beasts.  The remaining soldiers here killed them off quickly, so no loss of life from the settlers occurred,” Fox stated.
\tAmanda jumped in on the conversation.  “What did they do with the bodies?”
\t“They said they piled them up and burned them a click outside of town,” Fox replied.
\t“Oooohhhh... good,” Amanda said in exasperated relief.
\t“You said overly pleased about that, Doc,” Fox said in confusion.
\t“Well, one of the things we discovered from this particular beast is that it was shot in the shoulder by some sort of small stone that is highly radioactive.  We don't know what it is yet, but ROB is analyzing it now,”
\t“Actually, analysis is now complete,” ROB said in his normal monotone robotic tone.
\t“What is it, ROB?” Peppy inquired.
\t“The granule in question has been identified as flaysium,” ROB said.
\tEveryone looked at everyone with confused looks, mouthing the word silently.  “I didn't exactly pass my chemistry course, ROB.  Do you have any info on it?” Falco said, half-jokingly.
\t“It is similar in nature, use and function as uranium, however, once it has been exposed to atmospheric oxygen, it has a dramatically reduced half-life of only a couple hours or so until it is refined.  It also has a dramatically reduced range of radioactivity, so exposure is very localized to a very small radius from the source,” ROB summarized.  
\t“The sample we took out of the beast's shoulder ranged 25 or so Roentgens from a foot away and rapidly diminished with further distance, but got horrifically worse the closer we got,” Amanda added.
\t“Horrifically?” Miyu inquired, almost not wanting an answer.
\t“Yyyyyyeah... like... 2000 Roentgens at the source,” Amanda finished.  Every eye and mouth on the team went wide hearing that.
\t“Geeeeeez.... no way, dude!” Bill replied.
\t“Way! So the remains of those beasts they burned we will have to assume have some of it in them somewhere in their bodies.  You are going to have to bury and lead line their remains whenever they can get an opportunity,” Peppy said.  Webbly and Alton nodded in understanding.
\t“What in the world was it used for?” Miyu asked.
\t“It's most common usage was to be refined into a nuclear fuel that powered the very first space ships about 80 years ago,” ROB added.
\t“The Flaysium Protection Act from 63 years ago banned all uses of the element as well as mining, refining, usage and transport of it after it proved to be too dangerous and unhealthy, not reliable, profitable, sustainable, etc” Peppy concluded.
\t“Sooooo...” Fox added.  “...if this stuff was banned over 60 years ago... how is it being found now?  ROB, I realize this is probably a long shot, but are you able to scan the surface of Papetoon for a possibility of locating any of this stuff?”
\t“Unfortunately, not without the aid of some sort of satellite to aid in the search, as Papetoon has none,” ROB explained.  “Scanning on my own without any sort of overhead aid would be impossible.”
\t“I can show you,” an elderly female voice from behind them stated.  They turned around and saw a very old mole woman, probably 80 years of age standing there in many layers of tattered clothes torn and shaped for many years by the cruel Papetoonian desert sands.  “Are you looking for flaysium, young man?”
\t“Umm, yes ma'am....” Fox began, standing up and facing her.  “I don't suppose you would know where it could be acquired?”
\t“Oh yes, I can,” the elderly woman said with a soft gentle voice and smile.  “There is a mine for it about thirty clicks away from here.  Although, it was closed after the said Act was passed, and the town and refinery nearby was closed and abandoned,” she said.
\tFox opened his eyes a bit in surprise.  “There was an entire MINE near here?  AND a town and refinery?”  She smiled and nodded softly.  “I don't suppose you would be able to take us there?”
\t“If you insist, I'd be happy to,” she said.
\t
\t
\t--Great Fox, Observation Room, 16:05--

\tEveryone sat down at the big table looking at all the x-rays and CAT scan images of the corpse they discovered.  They uncovered more and more instances of abnormalities that a normal person would have happen in their life.  There were signs of fatty liver which indicated high alcohol consumption, there was a tarry substance in the bronchi and alveoli of the lungs indicating many years of smoking, the knuckles of the hands showing excess amount of cartilage indicating a habit of  cracking the knuckles for a long time... every scientific piece of evidence points to this being a normal anthropomorphic bipedal being that lived a fairly normal life... except they were in a freakish brutish monstrous form.
\t“This is totally not making any sense,” Amanda said with a frustrated sigh. “It's like this body is trying to be two different things at the same time.”
\t“There's gotta be a missing link connecting this all together to force it all to make sense,” Fay said.
\t“What about the tiny pebble of flaysium?” Slippy suggested.  “With a history of it being banned due to it being harmful to any biological body, there must be some record of its effects on the body...”
\t“There is some data about miners being exposed to it for extended periods of time, but nothing at all about it's effects while INSIDE the body,” Amanda said.  “We're literally stepping into new territory with all this.  It's kinda scary.”
\t“Speaking of, have we disposed of that pebble yet?” Peppy asked.
\t“I put it in a few lead-lined labeled steel boxes stacked inside each other and buried it under some huge rocks on the other side of the hill,” Slippy replied.
\t“Well done, Slip,” Peppy said with a thumbs up.
\tLeo snapped his fingers.  “Idea... what if... flaysium in the body and/or blood... creates some sort of chemical or mutation that spreads throughout the body to cause widespread mutation all over the body?  I mean, it's interacting with plasma, DNA, iron molecules, red and white blood cells... I mean, all of that conglomeration HAS to do something to the body that would be very unpleasant.”
\t“I think you're onto something, Leo,” Amanda said with a smile.  “That could very well be the case as to what we are witnessing with this corpse.”
\t“One other thing I'm noticing,” Peppy said, looking over the CAT scan images.  “This heart... seems to be smaller than it should be, I mean, if this WAS indeed a living breathing being among us and it grew into THIS... this heart is bigger than any of ours, but still about 30% smaller than it should be for a frame of this size... it's almost like not everything grew along with the rest of the body.”
\t“Oh man, yeah,” Slippy agreed, looking at the same pics. “Ditto the brain and the kidneys... and the liver... all of the critical organs undersized in comparison to the new body.”
\t“Considering all this...”  Leo resumed.  “The undersized and over performing organs, the physical stress on the brain and spinal cord due to size difference... not to mention the transformation itself... ALL of this... would put someone in agonizing pain.”
\t“I totally agree with that,” Amanda said.  “And let's be honest... if any of you had this happen to you and you went through the agony he went through, you would be scared shitless and would want it to stop.  Even if that means taking your own life.  I mean, you motor skills, logical and critical thinking ability would be very reduced.”
\t“Which could very possibly explain the huge indentation in the server rack in the radio room.  The one where the brain matter was found...” Leo suggested.
\tA cold realization hit the room as they then sat quiet and still for several seconds.  “I think this was the man who sent out the distress call... and then he went on to try and kill himself to end the pain,” Amanda concluded.  
\t“Yeah, I um... I think you're right, Amanda,” Peppy said.  “This is turning quite sad all of a sudden.”
\t“Now to just figure out who the hell is attacking everyone, and why they were only attacking the tent city and the op center,” Fay added.
\t“I think we need to assign some night security to the settlement and the tent city as we slowly move some people back into it,” Peppy suggested.  “Also set up a monitored and armed perimeter around both and maybe catch the culprit--”
\t“Apologies to interrupt,” ROB suddenly announced. “But please view the camera in the freezer room!”
\tAmanda quickly switched the big monitor to the camera in the freezer and all watched intently, only seconds going by as they gasped slowly at what they were seeing as it took almost two minutes to complete.
\t“Mark the time that stopped, scan back in the video and see when it began.  Also find out what time we took out the flaysium pebble,” Peppy ordered quickly.
\t“On it!” Slippy responded, turning to type and enter commands into the computer.
\t“I'm going to get another set of x-rays and CAT scan going pronto to compare old versus new,” Amanda said as she got up and began to put her protective radiation suit back on.
\t“Do you need assistance?” Krystal asked.
\t“Not now, I don't, but thank you, hon,” Amanda replied.  
\tKrystal smiled and nodded, then sat down right by Leo, hugging him close.  “Doing okay there, bunny?”
\t“Yep.  Seeing all that didn't really disturb me,” he said.  “For about a month an a half, I helped out a friend of my father's in a mortuary and crematory, so I've seen dead bodies and disfigured bodies before.”
\t“I see.  Well, you handled it very well,” she said, softly kissing his cheek.  
\t“Thank you, vixy,” Leo said, kissing her cheek back softly as they hugged together.
\t“I better get ahold of Fox and the others and let them know the new plan,” Peppy said, picking up his comlink.

\t--30 kms from the Papetoonian Settlement, unknown valley--

\tFox drove the jeep with the elderly woman up front, Falco and Bill sitting in the back.  Miyu offered to stay in the settlement to offer any first aid while chatting with the group leaders there.  Bill sat in the back and wrote down a patrol map with directions to where they were going, monitoring the compass on his wristwatch along with the speed of the jeep and the times.  Falco sat on watch with a automatic rifle blaster in the event they were attacked, although they figured the odds were low, still better to be prepared.
\t“Right over this hill here,” the elderly woman said loudly over the sound of the mostly unmuffled jeep's exhaust and the wind in their ears, pointing in the general direction of travel.  When they peaked over the hill top, they were met with a valley that contained an enormous gray concrete circle, the bio-hazard symbol formed in dark gravel over it.  Fox stopped the jeep and everyone gazed out at the massive concrete pad.  It must've been almost a mile wide by their estimations.  There was a yellow sign with the same bio-hazard symbol on it and some words.

FLAYURA, PAPETOON
FLAYSIUM AND URANIUM MILL TAILINGS REPOSITORY
NO TRESSPASSING AND NO DIGGING
BY ORDER OF
CORNERIAN ENERGY AND POWERS AGENCY


\t“This is what's left of Flayura,” the old woman began.  “My father and uncle were miners here when I was born and for most of my youth.  This community was set up by several companies that refined flaysium and uranium to make nuclear fuels to power the first space ships. Large corporations and governments paid miners very well to mine the toxic rocks from Papetoon, but the knowledge of the poison within was not well understood at the time until a year or so before the Flaysium Protection Act was passed.  I am the only living person that lived here who remembers it.”
\tFox was recording the site with a video recorder, capturing the old woman's speech as she spoke. The site was incredibly depressing to be at and see, but Fox knew that it was important to document for historical records and for Posterity itself. One of the things he remembered most being taught by his late father James was that history was not meant to be entertaining or pleasant.  History, good or bad, positive or negative, is worth remembering, to know where you came from, where you are and where you are going.  He couldn't help but feel like he was witnessing a very sad, important and yet forgotten page in Splat's history.
\t“I'm assuming that... your father and uncle passed away around the time the town was buried here, ma'am?” Fox asked gently.
\tShe nodded.  “My father passed away a year after this pad was laid, my uncle some months later.  The damage from the toxic rocks had harmed them way too much by then.  When the realization of the dangers of being around these rocks were finally understood and realized, the Cornerian governments came in and shut down the nearby mine, which is just over the hill over there,” she pointed on the other end of the small town.  “They also destroyed the refinery and all the houses and buildings here in Flayura.  They literally told us we had 24 hours to leave, and if you want to see your homes get burned to the ground, be here at 8 o'clock in the morning.”  
\t“I'm very sorry you and your family went through all this ma'am,” Fox continued, his eyes watery.  He then shut off the video recorder and put it in his pocket.  “You said the mine entrance is on the other side of that hill?  On the other side of the town?”
\t“That's right, lad,” she said.  “I can show you the general area, but I won't go anywhere close to the entrance.”
\t“We understand, ma'am” Falco said softly behind her.  “We are eternally grateful you have showed us this much.  I feel your knowledge will help us out tremendously.”
\tFox restarted the jeep and then drove it around the massive concrete marker, treating as if it were a grave marker, because in his and the old woman's mind, it literally WAS a grave marker for a dead town.  Bill continued to scribble notes on paper to create a patrol map as they moved.  Once they got around the marker, they started to go up the side of a hill, then once they got to the top, they stopped suddenly in surprise at what they saw all over the land by the entrance to the mine.  “Is that the mine entrance there?” he pointed off into the distance.
\t“Y-yes, it is... but... all the rest of this... I-I don't--” she started.
\t“Fox come in, over,” he heard Peppy over his comlink.
\t“Fox here... you are NOT going to believe what we are looking at here...” Fox said slowly and clearly.
\t“I was just about the say the exact same thing to you,” Peppy replied, Falco, Bill and Fox looking at each other in surprise and confusion.  “Get pictures and come on back to the Great Fox.  Time to get updated.”", "pools_count": 0, "title": "Star Fox: Miyu's Love - Ch 15 - Mystery On Papetoon - The Autopsy and Further Discovery", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "1", "rating_name": "Mature", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "61" }