Credit where credit is due, of course: Star Fox belongs to Nintendo and original characters to me.

Enjoy!

THE IRON TRILOGY

Book 1

GLITTERING BLACKNESS

Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes — men who despise you — enslave you — who regiment your lives — tell you what to do — what to think or what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men — machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate! Only the unloved hate — the unloved and the unnatural
- Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator, 1940

Chapter 1: Falco I

The elevator was made of glass, letting Falco and Fara look out onto Victory Plaza. There were a dozen plazas celebrating the Oikonny victory over House Phoenix all over Corneria, but this one was different. This one – instead of the obligatory statue of Andross – had a great platinum statue of "the Hero" General Pigma Dengar.

Falco wanted to scream every time he saw it. Fara reached over and grabbed his hand. He resisted the feeling of lashing out and turned back to the door. Fara pressed his uniform that morning and made sure he looked professional. This charade was going on six years and they had it almost down to a science. By now, Falco could walk around the Zonesian Market without getting stared at. He was even starting to brave the Sharpclaw areas of the city without getting death threats. Fara was able to sit in Parliament without constantly being hounded. Their image as a "down home" couple – a husband who mingled with regular soldiers, a wife who spoke with her constituents, and all without servants or androids – was so complete even Falco was starting to believe it.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Fara broke the silence of the rising elevator, "There's a new top general and she probably just wants to size you up." The elevator was bugged so she didn't dare state the obvious, You know how to talk to them.

To which Falco would normally respond Fox McCloud is a traitor and a terrorist. My previous association with him was a mistake of youthful arrogance and sentimentality. I apologize profusely and pledge loyalty to the Lylatian People's Union and Emperor Andross.

Instead he nodded once.

The elevator doors dinged and opened to reveal General Rose's floor. The new commander of the Cornerian Defense Force was a big mystery all around. The vast expansive waiting room did nothing to assuage that image. There were four guards immediately waiting just off the elevator: all four of them panthers like the General herself. A large desk with a young feline behind the computer systems and in the CDF white uniform was busy organizing the general's schedule and her documentation.

She looked up and smiled, "Colonel Lombardi, Madam Phoenix, General Rose has been waiting for you."

"We're not late are we?"

"Of course not. Right on time." She stood and walked over to the hallway, "If you would come with me." She led them down the hall to the other side of the building. They passed brightly lit rooms and animated screens with brilliant technicians. To their left was a glass wall looking out over the Cornerian skyline. Hundreds of cars whizzed past in orderly lines over the streets below where citizens lived blissfully aware that it was Emperor Andross that both terrorized and protected them. At least they couldn't see Victory Plaza from here.

"Madam Phoenix, General Rose would love to meet with you at a separate date, but at the moment she has business with Colonel Lombardi. If you would like, there is her personal café right here." The secretary pointed across the hall to a bright room with a large antiquated bookshelf and a set of coffee and tea machines. Fara nodded and said, "Thank you." She took Falco's hand and squeezed it, "See you in a few."

The secretary brought Falco another hundred feet and entered a numerical code into the door handle. It hissed open, revealing General Rose's enormous office backed by a glass wall that overlooked the capital city. From here they could look directly down Central Avenue to Founder's Hall where Parliament met.

General Rose was staring out towards the Parliament building sipping on a cup of coffee. It gave Falco a minute to examine the rest of the room. There were bookshelves with a thousand tomes old and new. Print was largely dead, the most active print shop producing only twenty or so books a year. General Rose's shelves, however, had at least a thousand printed works. In between her shelves were mannequins wearing different suits of armor from periods of Cornerian history. Had Falco read more, he might be able to identify them.

"Do you like my collection?" she asked, catching Falco off guard, "the armor that is."

Falco didn't even notice the secretary leave, never mind General Rose turn to him. Rose was a beautiful woman. She had midnight black hair and a pair of violet eyes. The way she carried herself was a mixture of professional grace and pure seduction. A woman from Falco's past used to walk like that too…

"It's beautiful… I just didn't pay attention in history class enough to be able to distinguish them."

She walked over to the center of her office where a small coffee table sat between luxurious arm chairs. They were out of place: an anachronous island of ancient civilization in place of modernity's holographic walls and digitized information network. She passed Falco and pointed to the first suit, "Plate metal from the late Illuminated Age. It was worn by heavy cavalry and at a successful distance, deflects early lead projectiles. Canid civilization conquered all of Corneria wearing this." The armor was clearly not a replica. It was polished to perfection except where it was dented and scarred. General Rose moved over to the second suit, "This one is much older. Early Diamond Age at the latest, from the other side of the world of course. Leather and bronze. The suits of warring Vulpid tribes." She smiled and turned to Falco, "I could talk about my collection for hours, but I didn't bring you here to talk about history…" she walked over to the table and sat down in one of the armchairs, "Please, sit. Something to drink?"

Falco learned long ago not to reject courtesy offers, "Any black coffee left?" he noticed the general preferred hers loaded with milk.

Rose tapped her wrist monitor, "Meera, black coffee for the colonel."

It beeped off, "My predecessors were entirely unlike me as I'm sure you can attest."

"I wouldn't know, to be honest. I was never invited to their offices." A servant, not the young uniformed secretary, entered with Falco's coffee. He sipped it patiently. Falco gave up his fear of poisons a long time ago.

"Really?" she didn't seem as surprised as she faked, "Well, Cornelius Pepper was rather minimalist in his decorations. He was a fan of 'less is more' and had only his desk and two chairs. Pigma Dengar had a bar installed along with an imported rug and a set of couches. A shame for Corneria the Aparoids came if only because the Hero was all of a sudden bestowed the honor of defending the Lylat System instead of being revealed as the whoremonger he is." She was too refined to spit in her own office, but Falco sensed that if they were outside she might, "And Oikonny had a bit of an ego disorder – as I'm sure you'll confirm. He had a desk and throne you needed to literally climb stairs to get to. He filled his office with Level 1 grunts and commanded they fall on their knees if he so much as looked at them. Cornelius Pepper being the exception, you need to go back into the history of the CDF to find as cultured a general as myself… at the risk of self-flattery."

Falco sipped his coffee. General Rose immediately noticed it was an effort to silence himself, "Feel free to speak. One of the privileges of the office is that I don't have a bugged room. How do you think Dengar got away with entertaining prostitutes up here?"

"With respect," Falco began, "I'd rather not say."

It seemed to only increase her curiosity, "Then consider it an order. Speak freely."

Still unaware of his fate, Falco did as he was told, "Again, with respect, Peppy Hare is someone you might have found common ground with. Before a battle, he would quote epic poetry in an attempt to steel our nerves. I think it only worked for..." This is the opposite of cautious... "Fox." She didn't flinch, "I was too headstrong to care."

The General smiled, "Peppy Hare? Really?" she put her cup down on the table, "I had not looked into him as well as I should have, apparently. Tell me, Colonel. How much do you know about me?"

"Nothing. I was well acquainted with all three of your predecessors but was somewhat surprised to hear about your appointment over Leon Powalski."

"Leon?"

"Yeah, they seemed to be going down the roster of Star Wolf candidates, so I assumed it was Leon's turn after Pigma and Andrew were sent off to higher posts."

"I see. Well, fortunately for the CDF and Corneria in general, Captain Powalski is still on assignment in Katina. I daresay I expected another Oikonny to take Andrew's place, and was rather surprised when they pulled me from my previous assignment to take command here."

"If I may ask," Falco began, "what was your previous assignment?"

"I was in the Intelligence Division. I wore the black before they handed me red. It's even more surprising considering neither of my previous assignments were completed. Before I was handed command I was on the hunt to track down Wolf O'Donnel. I managed to track him to the Sargasso Region before my brother took over the mission. I must have been doing something right since they promoted me to this post. And again the mission to hunt down Wolf was something of a promotion after hunting down Fox McCloud."

Falco's head shot up. He managed to make himself so comfortable in front of this former intelligence officer that he'd been unable to hide his concern for a friend he hadn't seen in fifteen years, "Fox McCloud? You… you hunted him down?"

"I managed to track him to the outer system. Every four years when Solar reaches perihelion he hops from the Meteor field to Eladard or Venom hiding out until he can hop the systems again to Titania. I almost caught him once in a bar on Titania but he escaped. It was after that that I gave my analysis of Fox as no longer a threat. Evading security forces had become second nature to him, but getting into bar fights was his new favorite pastime. It was far more likely at that point that he would get knifed in Eladard than executed in Corneria."

"Yet… he's still public enemy number one?"

"Appearances, Colonel. It's all about appearances. As long as Fox remains unwelcome in Corneria, then he'll stay that way. Wolf O'Donnell, on the other hand, is a much more dangerous animal. He's operating out of the Sargasso Region, I just can't exactly determine to what purpose."

They sat there in the middle of her office for a long while admiring the historic décor before the servant came in to refill General Rose's cup. When he left she sipped her coffee one more time before beginning, "Let me cut to the chase, Falco. Unlike previous Generals, I need you."

Falco put down his coffee, "I'm sorry?"

"You heard me correctly. I need you." General Rose stood and walked over to the enormous window covering the back of her office, "Come here and look with me." Falco obeyed. Down the street directly across from them was the Parliament building. And at the forty-five degree angle was another street leading directly to the Redwood Palace: the office and official residence of the Oikonny Dynasty, "Do you see this, Falco? There is Parliament, there is the Emperor, and there is us. Each has a proclaimed responsibility. Parliament is to ensure proper governance and successful commerce in the Lylat System. The CDF is to defend the Lylat System from external – and internal – threats. Now tell me, what is the Oikonny Dynasty's purpose?"

He felt like she was pushing him against a wall. Was she testing him? Trying to root out insurgency before it arises? "The Oikonny Dynasty provides consistency of governance through hereditary succession."

She began to laugh, "Ah, yes. Consistency through heredity, as House Phoenix claimed before them. Yes, the only thing relatively consistent about hereditary governance is the corruption. Not even the last name is the same. No. The Oikonny regime's purpose is to serve itself." No, she couldn't possibly be testing him, "Before the Lylat Wars, the System experienced almost a century of internal peace. That's why Pepper had to rely on the first Star Fox team to get rid of Andross for the first time. Before Andross invaded, Parliament ran the show. From Macbeth to Fichina, Parliament was dedicated to resource distribution and a utopic future. When Andross upset that balance, Pepper assumed a lot of power not seen since Unification. Parliament dismissed him from power and approved Andross as the head of state. If it wasn't for the Aparoids, we might have done away with him entirely, but he saved Corneria and legitimized himself. So it is left to us to restore the balance."

Falco had to blink just to give himself the time to process all of this information, "I don't understand."

"This, right here. This is known in political theory as an iron triangle. Parliament, the CDF, and the Oikonny Dynasty support one another, granting an indestructible pyramid of legitimacy. I mean to break that pyramid."

"What you're talking about… is treason…"

"Only if I fail. Are you going to be the one to report me to the Emperor?" Falco didn't have to shake his head. They both knew the answer, "I told you, Falco. I need you. I know your history. I know your marriage is a sham. The game you play in the CDF is purely for survival. I'm giving you an opportunity to live again. All you have to do is accept."

She walked over to her desk and handed him a micron fiber, "If you accept, you leave tomorrow. If not, just say so and I can post you somewhere safe. Somewhere out of sight where you can at least know you're not being watched twenty-four-seven and you can drink enough beer to die painlessly in your sleep. If that's the kind of life you want."

The fiber hung there between them like a glass piece of string, holding Falco's destiny between them.

Fifteen minutes later he was riding the elevator down with Fara. They didn't speak. Outside in Victory Plaza, neither of them commented. Nor did they make a sound on the train to the Upper West Side or up the stairs to their apartment. After the door was closed, and Falco sat down on the couch, Fara finally asked if he was hungry. It was as if the entire journey to the CDF never happened. Falco didn't hear her, so she began cooking.

Falco lifted his wrist link and inserted the fiber. The subcutaneous implants vibrated to life, "Colonel Lombardi, you are needed in the Cape Claw colony on Sauria. The colony is under consistent attack by the indigenous population and needs you to broker a peace deal with the natives. Find out what secrets Sauria hides and what exactly we can do to ensure the colony's survival. When you arrive on site and meet with Colonel Grey, more instructions will follow." A thousand and one questions flooded his mind. But they were questions he knew he couldn't articulate. They assumed from day one that any place they chose to inhabit was bugged by Oikonny agents, the CDF, of both. This charade they developed after the disappearance of death of all their friends was so real Falco and Fara almost started to believe it. Still, after all these years, an intelligence officer rises to prominence in the CDF and consults Falco with an opportunity to bring the downfall of the Oikonny regime? Fifteen years of hardship, all come down to this…

Fara clinked down the plate in front of him. It was bread made of nuts and vegetables. She had her own and waited for Falco to finish before she asked if it was all right to turn on the news. The televisor and afternoon news channel displayed a dozen stories challenging as usual the objectivity and credibility of the Oikonny-funded news. Riots in Zoness from local fruit farmers upset at taxes imposed by parliament. Resignation speeches by MPs all revealed to have been engaged in illicit dealings on corruption scandals. Praise for Dash Bowman, the new governor of Venom and Andross' own grandson. They were used to cutting out the bullshit. Years of watching the media and toning out the crap was a skill anyone who worked in the system managed to develop.

Falco wasn't watching, his whole world was too busy turning upside down. Fara mercifully shut the machine off and picked up his hand, "Want to go?"

Falco nodded, "Yeah."