Chapter 2: The Returning Echo of Vengeance
Falco stood up, followed closely by Katt, and the two slunk with their backs bent up the bar aisle, hidden by the dim bar light, before they reached the booth nearest to Wolf, Leon, Panther and Algy. They each sat in the same seat, as they could easily hear the four talking on just the other side of the cheap booth-bench.
"I think I agree with Wolf.." says Leon, as his eyes dart to the table, his arm bent over an ash tray, tapping a cigar to the glass plate to knock the ashes from it. "That kid, never has he met Andross in person, yet he thinks he knows Andross better than anyone. I don't think he realizes the kind of shoes he's trying to fill, when Andross couldn't even pull it off.." he rants on.
"The kid doesn't realize anything, he's just as convinced that Andross had any political motivation as anyone in the Empire, except he's the one in power now... he doesn't realize that Andross was just a madman." says Wolf.
Falco and Katt listen in on the conversation, how could they speak of Dash this way, have they met him? It didn't at all seem like Dash was trying to be like Andross.
"Wolf, do you think we should still go through with it?" asks Panther. Wolf glances to Panther and takes a relaxed sip from his drink. "Might as well, it's a job, and a job that promises us stable power, unless Dash screws it all up like his grand dad." says Wolf. Algy's bulbous eyes dart around the table before he slants his eyebrows slightly.
"You guys don't have much faith in the guy, that is my cousin you guys are talking about you know.." he says. "Don't you think things would be better off in the bigger picture under Venomian rule?" Wolf lets out a gruff chuckle.
"Hey now, I as much as anyone don't like the Cornerian government, don't get me wrong." he says.
"I just hope we get to bring down team StarFox once and for all before this is all over."
Katt gasps at this mention. She and Falco look to each other.
"What does he mean by that?" Katt asks.
"Doesn't sound good." says Falco. "They're definitely planning something...we...we gotta go tell Peppy!.." says Falco with a hasty whisper.
The two crawled out from the booth and scrambled down the aisle while the StarWolf team were laughing at something, and talking on loudly.
"To the the knew Empire.." says Leon as he raises a drink. The others all raise their drinks and prepare a toast.
"To team StarWolf." says Wolf as he finally raises his, the four clash their drinks before all downing them at once. Leon's eyes dart upward and across the room, before at the last second, he spots Falco walking through the doorway, the door closing behind Falco's back, all but a glimpse but Leon knew who it was.
"..Hmm..." Leon grumbles to himself as he narrows his eyes.
Wolf's ear piece began beeping, as did similar objects on Panther, Leon, and Algy.
"Looks like we've got orders, let's get going.." says Wolf as he stood up, followed by the others as they began walking on and out.
Meanwhile, back in Corneria City. Fox walked out through thin glass slide doors to his balcony, high up in one of the extravagant pillar-like buildings in Corneria city, shimmering vibrantly under the night sky.
Down below, hover-cars were darting along on the street level roads, or on the winding cat-walk like elevated bridge-works that ran like veins through the city, winding around structures, or through small tunnels in the buildings themselves, all decorated by neon lights that displayed the roadways and sidewalks.
Pedestrians walked about along the streets and on skywalk structures running between buildings, ranging widely in species and fashion sense. Stringy neon lights ran up and down all the buildings and structures, shimmering in the distance, the whole city produced a light haze against the darkness of the night sky, shining brightly; the shimmering, bustling cityscape stretched to every horizon Fox could see. Every street and walkway lined with neon light and holographic advertisement displays, shimmering and flickering in the distance.
Fox leans forward over his balcony railing, and rests his elbows on it, staring off into the distance, but not quite focusing his eyes on anything, letting everything fall into a shifting, glistening blur; all the lights, holograms and advertisements meshing into an array of dancing lights and colors.
Suddenly, he snaps into focus, looking at pedestrians, men and women walking on eagerly about their lives; a club across the street where people wore skimpy clothes, drank, and danced about like they had everything they ever wanted.
The nightclub was a smaller building, built in terraced glass roofs and arches, shimmering in neon lights, producing pulsating music Fox could faintly here from high in his apartment.
They could live so carefree, in no short part, thanks to Fox and his team as he thought. Yet they had more than Fox had. The team had all gone to their own personal lives, their careers thriving, all except Fox. His retirement brought him nothing.
Peppy had not retired like he said he would, his father, James, never retired. Fox instantly remembered the time he saw his father shortly after defeating Andross back on Venom; the first time he had seen his father since he disappeared when he was young. Did Fox really see his father? Was it real? He still wasn't completely sure. He remembered Krystal telling him that it had to have been real when he confronted her on it.
The image of his father only seemed as real as the forged encounter with an imitation of James Mccloud, invented by the Aparoid Queen. It still made Fox wonder whether his father was assimilated in the depths of space, or if he was really destroyed by Andross.
It ached in Fox's heart whenever someone mentioned his father, when he wanted to retire, he remembers it being mentioned to him that James never retired, Fox grew flustered as soon as this thought crossed his mind, and he blew air from his nostrils, shutting his eyes as he does so, trying to revert the thought from his head.
Fox lowered his head, receding into himself when suddenly he remembered Peppy telling him about what he, Slippy, Beltino, and Krystal were working on at Eladard; new Great Fox mother ship.
They all looked up to Fox, and he wanted badly to see them again, but Fox worried what they would think if they saw him this way.
He turned his head upward.
"I'll just go.." he mutters to himself.
Meanwhile, Krystal and Rob were flying through Lylat Space on their return trip to Eladard, to assess the assignment further with Peppy. Krystal again sat cross-legged, and folded her hands, her head bowed, letting her ornamented hair dangle over her short muzzle, her eyes glued shut.
She couldn't quite focus her mind for some reason, she wanted to focus on whether the warp panel that had been activated was a two-way warp, or if there were multiple destinations, she remembered using one that was a two-way system back on Sauria, but there were others that had multiple destinations.
She should have easily been able to identify it, but something else she saw there, derailed her thoughts. She couldn't even focus her telepathic mind enough to figure out exactly what it was. The bones she saw still left her a chill, as did the strange vision she had, as though the dead there were trying to tell her something, combined with her own knowledge.
Suddenly, the voice she remembered sounded familiar, even if she had only heard his voice once or twice.
"Andross?.." she mutters to herself.
Rob64 swivels at his waist away from the control panel toward Krystal as he detected minor speech from her.
"My censors indicate that your heart is beating irregularly, is there something wrong?" Rob asks. Krystal jumped awake, her cyan eyes glinting open.
"I'm okay, Rob, I'm just thinking about our mission...we'll have it figured out when we get back with Peppy.." she says to him.
"Any and all requested assistance are part of my set of directives. If requested, my assistance is at your disposal." Says Rob64.
"Thank you, Rob." says Krystal. Rob64 swivels back to the control panel and returned to his work.
Suddenly, an ominous presence begins to float by, as though a frigid cold wind blowing through her fur. Krystal seizes up with a quiet gasp, it was another presence she was familiar with.
She jolted to her feet, Rob64 lifts his head in a minor reaction, making mechanical note of her action, as she walks to a window, and folds her fingers together as she closes her eyes, searching the cold empty space outside the ship through her telepathy.
"Hmm?" She mumbles to herself, just as distinct radiating brain-wave signals began to appear to her. They were definitely all too familiar. It was StarWolf, all of them, and one more she hadn't met. Wolf, Leon, and Panther she already knew. Despite having worked with them during the Aparoid and Anglar wars, she still felt them dangerous.
"Rob?" Krystal asks. Rob64 raises his head to face her, giving his attention. "Can you enhance the radar, and scan the area?" she asks.
"Scanning...scan complete." Says Rob64.
"Four plasma-reactor engine trails detected, distance: one thousand-ninety." Says Rob64, as he displays their long-range radar on the main screen; there was a clear cluster of trajectory trails beside the ship.
"Where are they going?" Krystal asks.
"Assessing... plasma trail trajectory, parallels with ours, likely destination: Eladard." Rob64 says plainly. Krystal gasps.
"We need to hurry, Rob. Something is wrong."
Krystal walks hastily back toward their computer console and presses down on a large rectangular button on the long-range communications console.
"Peppy, this is Krystal, I foresee danger headed your way, for Eladard! Over." she says, then waits, listening to empty static. "Peppy, do you read me?" she asks. "Peppy?...Slippy?" she continues. Receiving no answer.
"Signal failed to send, there is an error on receiver's end." Says Rob64.
"Rob, for Eladard, full cruising speed!" Krystal orders, motioning at him with her hand.
Rob64 nods his head stiffly, and pushes a switch-lever forward all the way, and the ship makes a sudden lurch forward, blasting on through space with its after burners producing a blue trail, disappearing into the depths of space with a distant twinkle.
They soon arrive at Eladard, roughly an hour later, coming in from their cruising jump, the desolate, ringed world coming into view. Krystal ran from the bridge to her Arwing in the puny ship's launch bay, Rob64 remained on the ship while Krystal launched from its hangar.
The two spacecraft flew on and entered the atmosphere of Eladard, Krystal only grew more nervous as she still hadn't heard back from Peppy. She could soon see their base up ahead; shrouded in smoke, her heart pangs in and is suddenly pounding in her chest.
"Peppy, Slippy, anyone, does anyone read me?" she says shrilly through her communications line.
Rob64 lands the dropship in a circular area in the air field, Krystal lands closer to the entrance of the main building facility. Massive, bulbous factory structures riddled by enormous pipes and protrusions hung in the distance just at the horizon; most of them crumbled a bit; Eladard lay at the farthest edge of the yellow star solar system with a slow orbit, causing it to sit just in the middle of the Binary Lylat System, during the Lylat War; Andross had captured the planet and used it for his factories to construct his terrible war machines, leaving the planet so densely polluted; the planet's vibrant rings were narrowly visible in the dark, reddish gray sky.
The base was ravaged, riddled with a few burning craters, and a few crashed Cornerian fighters, the base was decorated by blast marks and holes, and it was quiet, it was a relatively small facility though. As Krystal approached the main building, she cautiously looked around, and saw that the communication towers were all destroyed, seemingly by aircraft.
She approached a doorway and drew a charge-blaster from her silver backpack concealed by her cape, she rests herself up against the wall beside the door, hit the button beside the door and it slid open with a hiss, she spins on her heel and aims inward into the building; her weapon aimed inward in front of her. She takes a few steps in and aims around with her weapon into the silver paneled corridor interior of the building.
Along the walls were glimmering streams of lights moving through the station along the walls and ceiling, light producing panels, and vents.
There were also alarm lights, still turning within a dome, and flashing red, the red and yellow-orange flashing lights reflected on the walls, and conflicted with Krystal's dark blue color palette as she walked on through, in a lighting constantly changing, dancing the shadows about; the movement made her anxious, as though there was someone hiding around a bend.
She ran down the corridor, trailed by her swaying tail and cascading blue cape; turning at a dime, making a combat stance with her feet; and panning about with her blaster tucked tightly to her shoulder, her eye staring down the sights. The corridors were horizontally rectangular at the wider areas, diagonally rectangular at the narrowest, but ribbed with beams that stood slightly angled outward all throughout.
She came around a corner and down a ramp into a slightly declined area of the station, to find a few Cornerian soldiers strewn across the floor, burn marks from laser blasts decorated their armor, beneath which were cauterized wounds. Krystal telepathically scanned each of them, to see if anyone were alive.
The walls here were tattered by blast marks, black burns in the metal, smoke and steam bellowing from all over, rubble and debris littered the floors between bodies, the lights were all blasted out leaving the area slightly dark.
She closes her eyes and shakes her head, it was a shame, brave Cornerian men and women fallen to someone they weren't even supposed to fight.
"Wolf...how could you do this?.." she curses to herself. Suddenly, she felt the desperate crying brainwaves of a Cornerian soldier who was alive, she turned and walked a ways further in and turned to find a dog soldier sprawled out on the ground, laying on his side, curling his arm over his stomach.
She knelt down and took him by his shoulders, and shoved him up against the wall so he was sitting up slightly, she tilted his helmet upward and looked on him. He couldn't even look at her he was so dazed, so she put her hand on his shoulder.
"Help will come." she says, before she got to her feet and walked on by.
She came around another corner further in to find a few more wounded Cornerian soldiers, they jumped at the sight of her at first, but recognized who she was immediately and just looked on as she walked by, doing little to react to her.
Some however gave her a glare. Behind the looks on their faces, Krystal could hear what they were thinking of her, feel what they feel about her, she became more uneasy. She had been working with them for awhile now with Peppy, Slippy and Beltino, she wasn't universally popular among them, but it definitely seemed worse now, after this attack.
Before long she finally went through a slide door, to find Peppy flat on his back on the floor behind a desk and a few smashed computer consoles and holograms in a large rounded ceiling decorated by screens lining it all around in a circle, and rounded computer consoles surrounding an elevated area in the middle of the room. Krystal gave an audible gasp and scrambled to meet Peppy.
"Peppy!" she cries, standing over him, she got to her knees to look on him, he responded immediately; he was a tough old hare, Krystal was impressed.
"Urggh..." he groans as he rolls to his side as he hears Krystal' sweet, frail little voice call his name. Suddenly, Beltino climbs out from under a nearby desk as he recognizes her voice; he had an anguished look on his usually cheerful face, his eyes bent inward, clear in his squarish glasses.
"Peppy.." Krystal says again softly. "Where's Slippy?" she asks frantically, glancing at Beltino and Peppy back and forth momentarily.
Peppy shakes his head, and puts his hand up against his forehead, causing his long ears to bounce against Krystal's head; being shoved out of the way by her hair-draped cranium.
"Ugh, give me a second, Krys..." he complains. He had a bruise on the side of his head, and scuffing down the same side of his face, and there was a blast wound on his portly side. Krystal touches her hand near it. "Rgghmmm!" Peppy barks as he weakly shoves her hand.
"I'm fine!" he complains. Krystal pulls away. "..Sorry Krystal.." he says. "I've had worse injuries so don't worry about me.." he says. "Slippy...they took him.." says Peppy. "Who? StarWolf?" Krystal asks shrilly.
"Yes.." says Peppy as his accent and gruff tone of voice begins to sound more normal, but with weariness in his old heart and lungs. Beltino got to his feet and dusts himself off shakily, Krystal looked on him to see he was unharmed.
"Beltino?" Krystal asks.
"They took Slippy, they took my son!" he says, his old voice shaking up and down. "StarWolf...they just...came and attacked, they entered the base and we didn't stand a chance after they first wiped out our air guard." he explains.
"Did they say anything?" Krystal asks.
"No, we tried to reason with them, but they wouldn't listen to us at all, they just came in, and took Slippy.." he explains.
Suddenly, Krystal senses someone coming, she turns.
"Peppy, Beltino..stay down.." she says worriedly with a shaky shrill voice. Krystal turns and aims her blaster through one of the other doorways leading into this circular situation room.
Suddenly, Falco and Katt came in, followed by Rob64. Krystal lowered her weapon, relieved at their sight.
"Falco!" Krystal cries.
"Quit whining we're right here!" Falco complains in a reply, in his usual lazy yet blunt tone of voice.
"It was StarWolf...they have Slippy." Krystal explains.
"What? I figured they would go after Beltino for his research if they were going after any tech guy." says Falco.
"That's what I figured too.." says Krystal. "But Beltino is here and so is Peppy, they took Slippy I don't know why.." says Krystal. Peppy stood up, and raises his head, causing his long ears to bounce a bit as well.
"It was because Slippy can encrypt, and de-crypt data analysis algorithms...and they're after something he and Beltino had developed..." says Peppy.
"StarWolf? Why would they need him to do something like that? It doesn't quite sound like their type of plunder." Krystal questions.
"You guys, you've got to save him!" says Peppy. Beltino looks up to Peppy, adjusting his glasses in surprise.
"I'm worried about my son, but shouldn't we wait for more help to arrive?" Beltino asks.
"There's no time!" says Peppy. "I've listened to them talk when they blasted their way in here, they're planning something." he explains, he looks to Falco, Krystal and Katt standing before him.
"You guys get going right away, I'll call for Fox and call to rally the Cornerian Fleet, I'll also send for your help, someone will meet you at their base, I'm betting they're still at Sargasso." says Peppy.
"Wait hold on there gramps.." Falco mutters. "Katt and I ran into StarWolf just a short while ago, they're definitely planning something we- He is cut short by Peppy.
"We can figure this all out later, right now you guys gotta get out there and save Slippy!" Peppy orders.
"Alright Alright!.." Falco turns to face Katt who had a weary look on her face. "You guys ready?" Falco asks.
"Yeah...we can take my ship, and Rob64 can help us." says Krystal.
Falco, Katt and Krystal rush through the corridors to the base's hangar bay, each one takes a headset and puts it over their back and tops of their heads, a small transparent lens would pop out beside their left or right eyes.
"I have new generation Arwings developed by Slippy prepped and ready to go!" says Peppy through their scratchy headset.
Falco makes a graceful flip into an Arwing cockpit, grabbing the lip of the Arwing's cockpit with his hand, and seating himself comfortably. Krystal, leaps and takes hold of the lip, and climbs in quietly.
Katt turns away from the Arwings; and spies a Cornerian strike fighter; a slightly smaller fin-shaped star fighter with two dorsal fins on each side of the fuselage. It also had a silvery blue color to it, with green highlights on the wingtips, and green stripes in the middle of each wing. It was the exact same model she had when she met the StarFox team on Zoness during the Lylat War.
"Hmm, still needs a good paint job, but I guess I'll take it." Katt mumbles to herself, she climbs into the aircraft, and the three pilots start their engines, each fighter, one by one begins to hum and growl with energy.
Debris and dust around them began to flutter about as the three aircraft lifted from the ground; the thruster engines in the backs light up pink or red, and the three fighters launch from the hangar bay, veering up and out of the base hangar.
Rob64 launched as well with their bulky Cornerian dropship, joining them as they launched into space at full cruising speed, they launched out into space headed for Sargasso; which wasn't too far away as they quickly cruised across a small middle area of the binary Lylat System.
Meanwhile on Corneria, Fox rushed through traffic in a hover car headed for the Cornerian surface control base as he sped along on the long highway bridges, the bridge ran on across an area of open water until he reached another mainland, where it was more flat, there were more city buildings here and there in rows along the way surrounded by lush green grass, and mountains on the distant horizon, Fox began approaching the military zone, driving passed radar dishes, and landing pads for fighters.
A few K-class Cornerian fighters flew overhead; slim and tinted green/brownish gray, with slim angular wings, and green tips on the ends of the wings, and one green stripe going up the middle of the fuselage.
Up ahead, there was a grayish building built like a giant metallic rock rising from the ground, launch bays with open gates as well. In this area of the city there were only land strips and military-use roads running between them, and a few pillar-like buildings as well in this wide flat open area.
As Fox approached the massive building in his hover car, he is stopped at a gate, where a Cornerian dog-soldier stood guard with a blaster at his side; a blue shield went up in front of him and Fox came to a stop, the soldier approached the side of his vehicle but jumped in surprise as soon as he recognized Fox, Fox raises his eyebrows in slight surprise as well.
"Oh uhh, go ahead, sir!" he says excitedly, stopping to make a hardy solute to Fox, before stepping back to the gate hut, and hitting the button to release the shield; the shield goes down, and the path is clear. Fox gives him a solute as well, and smiles awkwardly before he drove on.
Fox drove into a parking area, stopped, and leaped out through his open canopy, and ran down a busy corridor as fast as he could.
Fox soon arrived in a large slightly darker room surrounded by strategic computer consoles, and round hologram projectors, there were a few open spaces near the large windows as well that stretched from floor to ceiling in squared panels. There stood General Pepper, in his bright classic red uniform.
"General!" Fox shouts as he ran in and skidded to a stop on his boots; Fox stood there in his full uniform. Wearing his green uniform, and his gray-white plated jacket with the sleeves rolled up, wearing the fingerless gloves, and armor padding on his boots, knees, and shoulders.
General Pepper turned with surprise in his sulky old-dog face.
"Fox!?" he exclaims.
"General, I just got a call from Peppy, there's something going on!" Fox says in surprise. "Oh and uhh; by the way I decided not to retire, sir!" says Fox in an anxious rush.
Pepper makes a slight turn and adjusts his hat, he draws his sunglasses from a pocket and puts them over his face.
"Well Fox...that's good to hear...at a time we couldn't need you more." he says with weariness in his already shaky old voice.
"Pepper, what's happening?" Fox asks frantically. General Pepper takes a step and faces parallel to Fox, staring at the wall, he bows his head with a drop, opening his jaw as well to speak.
"We lost contact with all those stationed on Eladard a couple of hours ago, we fear that it may be StarWolf on the move, again." says Pepper. "We've attempted to contact New Venom about the matter...however...we have not yet had any official response from them." he explains.
"Something's clearly on, General." says Fox. "C'mon, General. Give me an Arwing and I can go out and see what's up!" General Pepper raises his head to face Fox when suddenly they heard a ringing coming from one of the consoles.
"Sir, incoming transmission from Eladard base!" says one of the Cornerian engineers at the computer.
"Put it on the main screen." Pepper orders as he and Fox walk to the center of the room.
The main screen hums and glows as a live-image of Peppy and Beltino appear.
"Peppy!" Fox exclaims.
"General, I've got more bad news, we fell under attack, and it was StarWolf...they came, they wrecked the place...and took Slippy." says Peppy.
"That's just what we suspected, Peppy...we're just glad at least some of you are in one piece." says General Pepper.
"It's more than just that general...it's not just StarWolf, they're up to something big, given what little evidence we have of their motives, we're not certain at all what it is, but it could be very bad, General." says Peppy.
General Pepper makes a turn.
"Peppy, is the Great Fox Three ready to deploy?" he asks. Peppy audibly groans on the other side of the scratchy comlink. "It's technically complete thanks to Slippy and Beltino's short work, but we haven't had a test run of any of its flight systems." says Peppy.
"Consider this the test run, than." Pepper orders. "Get yourselves ready right away!" he adds.
Pepper turns to Fox and motions his arm with a forward point of his finger.
"As for you, Fox, you are deployed via Arwing immediately; I'll need you to rendezvous with the new Great Fox as quick as you can, and we can go from there, as for reinforcements to the rescue team..." Pepper makes a turn back to the computer console.
"What about me, sir?" Fox pesters.
"We're too far away, you'll never get there in time even with a warp, but...I know of some forces within that area of space that would be of some use..." says Pepper.
"Pepper, its StarWolf we're talking about, no offense but standard military force would get eaten alive!" Fox exclaims. Pepper turns to Fox, and chuckles somewhat.
"Fox, your team isn't the only mercenary ace unit in the Lylat System, I'm sure you remember.." says Pepper as he taps away at some controls.
He hits the comlink button and looks up at a main screen.
"StarWing squadron; come in, this is General Pepper of the Cornerian Army!" says General Pepper. There was a brief static silence until they heard a few bleeps from the screen and something picking up.
"We here you general, awaiting orders?" says a rather composed, high-pitched uppity toned female voice.
"Wait hold-up, we're getting paid extra for this right? Especially considering the short notice.." says a sassier, gruff female voice.
Pepper groans. "Yes yes, deploy immediately to sargasso; there's a small squadron in-route there, and they won't last without your support!" says Peppy.
"We're on it, general!" says the gruff voice, and it cuts out immediately after.
"Wait hold on!" Says Pepper as he stretches his hand. "Ughh..." he groans.