Preface
"Orders from the General, mate!" The resounding and booming voice of the brigadier's faithful aide bounced off the walls of his quiet office. "I'll have the flagship up and ready for your departure!" The peppy duck set a device on the brigadier's desk. The device had the dimensions of the average clipboard. The peacock took the device from his desk into his hands and scanned it.
"Are you sure these are my orders?" the brigadier asked.
"Of course. General Pepper ordered me to personally deliver them to you."
"But he knows you're my aide, right? These orders are for me. Are you absolutely sure?" the brigadier asked again.
"Yes! Why are you indignant?"
"Read them for yourself," the brigadier hissed, passing the device, called a data ream, to his assistant.
"But that would be a breach of protocol!"
"Not like you're not used to it!"
At this, the duck paused for a few moments. He sighed, defeated. "You're right, of course. What's Brigadier Sleer's newest assignment?"
"Something definitely not worth the attention of a brigadier, as you shall soon see," Sleer scoffed.
"Hmm. It seems you're setting up the forward outpost for an attack. That's a great honor, on the contrary."
"For a major! A brigadier should never be reduced to such pathetic groundwork! It's… insulting to someone of my position! You know what you can do," Sleer said, beckoning the duck towards him, data ream in hand.
"What could I do for you?"
"You could pass this off to that fiery captain. What's her name? Celria? Yes, Celria. She'd be just fine at this sort of thing."
"Well, I would," the duck said, sliding the data ream back. "However, these orders are yours personally, and General Pepper has already cleared your ship for takeoff. Have a nice flight, sir."
XXX
The three menacing silhouettes loomed in the dimly lit room, carrying assault rifles. A calculating green eye ran through the sights of the pistol and fired. Each silhouette disappeared. Seven more took the places, each coming seconds after the other. Just as their predecessors, they dropped moments after appearing. A final one appeared, hugging the wall. The trigger was tapped once. Nothing. Again, nothing.
"Crap!" Fox cursed, hitting the simulator abort button. "I had this energy pack recharged before I started! What happened?"
"I may have replaced it," Falco answered, scoring two roundhouse kicks on his punching bag.
"And, hypothetically, why would you do that?" Fox asked.
"Well, hypothetically, it might have something to do with a certain gift left in my Arwing," Falco answered.
"Well, that was for what you hypothetically did to the coffee machine!" Fox replied.
"And that was for what you hypothetically did to my apartment!"
"I have a very strange feeling that you stopped being hypothetical three minutes ago," Krystal retorted, walking in on their fight.
"Hypothetically, we might be fighting over hypothetical things," Fox teased.
"Knock it off," Krystal snapped.
"Of course. To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit, ma'am?" Fox asked, mock bowing.
"Stop it!" Krystal half yelled, half chuckled at Fox and his awful accent.
"So, this is a random visit?" Falco asked.
"Of course not. Peppy has an incoming call on the bridge. He sounded pretty stressed about the caller," Krystal stated.
"Interesting," Falco added.
"Indeed. Tell Peppy we're on our way. Falco is going to clean up the range, and I'm going to fix my weapon!"
Fox took only a few moments before he ambled into the Great Fox's command bridge. It was a simple room with dark carpeting. There were two short rows of movie theater-like chairs positioned straight in front of a large screen. There were a few other screens, as well as a desk on each side of the room. The right desk was filled with scattered data reams, and Peppy sat behind the massive clutter. The left desk had less clutter, but more pieces of equipment, all being carefully observed by ROB-64.
Fox walked in front of the rows of chairs and leaned against the bar in front of the rows. Slippy was already sitting in a chair, waiting. Krystal and Falco took seats next to Slippy.
"All right, ROB, bring it up," Fox ordered.
"We have tracked the transmission to the capital city on the planet Eladard," ROB announced.
"The transmission was marked as a distress signal," Peppy added.
"Was there a message, or just a marking?" Fox asked.
"Just the marking. This message had to hop through a lot of satellites to reach us," Peppy said.
"Then it's a good thing there's a wide network of communication satellites, right?" Slippy asked rhetorically.
"Sure. Is there any merit to this distress signal?" Fox asked.
"Do you know anyone on Eladard? After all, someone's going through a lot of trouble to send you a distress signal," Peppy said.
"I can't think of anyone that would do this," Fox replied.
"Well, Eladard has been bearing the brunt of Venomian attacks. It could be that the army needs our help," Krystal suggested.
"Then why wouldn't General Pepper just ask as to go to Eladard?" Falco countered.
"Falco's right. I think this is just a random transmission," Fox said with finality.
"I would hold that thought if I were you. We've got a second distress signal, with identical information. Identical in every respect, except this one's using an army channel. Some soldier must really need our help," Peppy announced.
"Fine. ROB, set our course to Eladard," Fox ordered.
"Course set. I will call ahead to the Orbital Gate and see if we cannot ascertain a warp," ROB said.
"That would cut a few hours off our travel time!" Fox added.
"Yeah. Let's hope it happens," Krystal said, smiling.
"I'm not a gypsy or anything, but I do see a tiny flaw in this plan. Eladard is under Venomian control. Where will we land?" Falco asked.
"We could always call the army and ask if they have a covert base somewhere," Slippy suggested.
"Or we could just wait and see what happens. If we run into trouble, we could just shoot it down," Falco added.
"Score one for common sense and one for stupidity," Krystal snapped.
"Which one was logical and which one was stupid?" Falco asked.
"I want you to guess that for yourself," Krystal whispered.
"ROB, SITREP," Fox ordered.
"We have been granted access to an orbital gate. ETA is five minutes to launch, 120 minutes to arrive," ROB replied in his mechanical monotone.
"Two hours? That's awesome!" Krystal exclaimed.
XXX
A ferret in a cloak entered Eladard's most despicable club, known for its criminal company. He walked straight past the dancing poles and ugly Venomian soldiers that had no shame when it came to their sexual desires. The club's dance floor was empty and there was no music, but the dim, neon lights seemed to beg all gathered to dance. The ferret didn't seem to care about any of this.
He advanced to the club's second story, which had assorted booths and an open center, allowing a scenic view of the dance floor, bar, and dancing poles. The ferret took his seat opposite an equally obscured figure, who wore a cloak and a wide-brimmed hat, hindering any signs of a face.
"So. What's new?" the ferret asked the figure in a grim, quiet tone.
"I've gathered some intel on the target, if you're interested," a high-pitched, female voice asked. There was a slight hint of a mechanical tone in the voice. The ferret reasoned that a male animal sat before him, using voice-changing technology to further obscure his identity.
"I'm already in deep with my own cover. Your intel would have to be very good to be something I don't already know," the ferret argued.
"My sources took this straight from the DOE," the figure said, a hint of pride in her voice.
"You'll have to forgive me. My isolation from the Lylat world is very deep and lengthy," the ferret apologized.
"The Lylat Department of Espionage. High caliber organization, very good at what they do. Woe to anyone under their assassination microscope," she answsered.
"Woe to anyone in the scope of my sniper rifle," the ferret replied.
"Of course. My sources said good things about you," she said.
"Where is this intel?" the ferret asked, clearly trying to rush the conversation.
"I suppose you want to get back to work, right?" the voice asked.
"You suppose correctly."
"Well, I should have you know that the urgency has been stepped up considerably. I need the job done by the end of the week, or else. Of course, the pay would be multiplied considerably, due to the short notice," she said, sipping a drink.
"Multiplied by what?"
"Three? Five? You'll find I'm very flexible with the finances here."
"You make a lot of promises. Make sure you can keep them," the ferret whispered, and held out his hand. The figured plopped a data drive into the ferret's hand. "Finally. Now, if there's nothing else?"
"You're free to go."
The ferret exited the club quickly, analyzing the data drive his employer had given him. The employer shut down his voice changer and answered an incoming transmission. "What do you want?" he hissed.
"Brigadier Sleer, where the hell are you?" a soldier asked.
"Don't take that tone. If that's all you want, I highly suggest you fly yourself back to Corneria before I send you there on discharge!"
"You don't have grounds for a discharge, so you'd better cut the crap right now. Besides, General Pepper just sent in orders for his forward post."
"Tell Celria to take care of it," Sleer hissed.
"This is Celria," Celria replied.
"Fine then, take care of it! These new recruits just can't follow orders!" Sleer growled.
"I've been with you for a year," Celria stated.
"Just shut up and wait for me!" Sleer wailed, terminating the transmission.
"I never get tired of listening to that arrogant brat whine," Celria said, smiling to a soldier next to her.
"Neither do I, Captain," the soldier said to the fox.
"ETA to Eladard airspace is five minutes and counting," ROB announced.
"Thanks, ROB," Fox said. "Slippy, you've had plenty of time. Brief me."
"Of course. ROB, if I could please use that workstation," Slippy said. ROB moved aside and Slippy typed on some keys. Then, an image of Eladard appeared on the bridge's center screen. "You see, this is the planet Eladard."
"Do we ooh and aah now, or after the presentation?" Falco asked.
"Shut up, Falco!" Slippy hissed, entering some commands on the computer before him. The onscreen image zoomed to a topographical picture of a city. "This is the capital city."
"Ooh," Falco exclaimed. Krystal elbowed him.
"Now, because of missile threats Andross recently issued, the DOE suspects that missiles are being constructed in factories here, under the governor's supervision. We can also suspect that there is a DOE presence and possibly an army forward base on the planet or soon to be on the planet. On that note, we can go in quietly by Arwing and land here, in this field. Of course, as we do this, I'll be jamming scanners in the capital."
Then, sirens sounded in the bridge.
"ROB, SITREP!" Fox shouted.
"The radar has detected an inbound Scorpion Cruise Missile fired from the planet's surface," ROB announced.
"Begin jamming procedures!" Slippy cried.
"Everyone to emergency positions," Fox ordered.
"It seems we flew into a trap," Peppy said.
"Peppy, detach the orbital ring from the ship and send it back!" Fox ordered.
"Detaching."
"Slippy, I need good news here!" Fox shouted.
"I have no idea where the missile was fired from, so I can't look for a remote control radar unit or anything!"
"Anti missile discharge?" Falco suggested.
"Fling our trash in the way? We did that and I didn't get a chance to refill the discharge chutes!" Slippy yelled.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Fox ordered.
"The Scorpions have advanced targeting computers and radars onboard!"
"Put some distance between us and the missile and then unload the cannons!" Krystal suggested.
"I'm trying! ROB, do you have a missile launch source yet?" Slippy asked.
"I am hacking the missile's onboard targeting computer to divert its flight course," ROB replied.
"Slippy, effects of collision?" Fox asked.
"A collision with the Fox's armor would cause considerable damage to the hull. A collision with any external systems would completely destroy them. A collision with the engines would ground us immediately," Slippy replied.
"Collision unavoidable. Emergency protocol recommended," ROB said.
"Shit!" Fox screamed. Then, the missile struck one of the engine turbines, caught fire, and the Great Fox began a crash course toward Eladard.