Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. Additionally, this story is written under the impression that Star Fox Command is considered non-canon and did not happen.
Chapter Three: Where We Stand
Date/Time : August 23, 2893 / 1500 (Sirian calendar / local time)
Location : Planet Dante of the Sirian Empire.
Samantha woke up in a warm, soft bed in a dimly lit room. Her still sleepy mind couldn't remember where she was, but she knew she wasn't in her own bed. It smelled wrong – too masculine. Even more surprising was that her beautiful blue and white fur was now bright red.
She saw her blaster in its holster hanging on the foot of the bed. Sam reached forward and yanked the weapon from its holster, searching the room for any dangers that her still half asleep brain thought there were. She started remembering where she was as her brain shook off the last vestiges of sleep.
After the Ryans rescued her yesterday, they had led her to a pair of cars. They loaded all the heavy weapons into the trunk of one, and Nick and Drew took that car, saying they would take care of the weapons. Allen and Sam piled the second car, which Allen drove for several hours until they reached a small town where the three had rented an apartment.
Nick and Drew caught up with them a few hours later, with several new changes of clothing and jars of fur dye. Drew explained that all Sirians had some shade of red fur and that anybody whose fur was diffent would stand out like a sore thumb. So last night Samantha had applied the dye.
Sam calmed down once she remembered where she was and that she was… relatively safe – she still had no guarantees that the Raiders wouldn't turn her in or use her the second it would benefit them. Quickly getting dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain T-shirt the Ryans had bought her and attaching her holster to her belt, Sam walked out of her room into the apartments main living space. She found Allen there, sitting in front of a large holographic display. The display was shaped like a fairly large orb, and he was manipulating it using his hands and eyes. Compared to the Sirian weapons and vehicles she had seen so far this seemed extremely advanced, even by Cornerian standards.
"You act like you've never seen a computer before." Allen said, turning to face her as he did.
"Never one like that." Sam admitted.
After a few silent seconds of searching for the rest of Ryans with her powers, Sam realized that neither Nick nor Drew was in the apartment, or anywhere near it. Starting to get paranoid about the three double crossing her, she asked, "Where are your brothers?"
"Why does it matter?" Allen asked calmly.
"I have trouble trusting people I meant less than twenty-four hours ago, especially after getting shot down in unknown space."
"Understandable." Allen replied before answering, "Since you asked, they're off cleaning up the mess we made yesterday. If the Sirian Legionnaires catch wind that the Raiders are here, then they'll shut this system down. And if that happens then we're all dead."
"How do I know I can trust you?" Sam asked.
"Because we have the same enemy." Allen said seriously, "Besides, if we were going to turn over to the Legion, then you'd already be stripped down in a five-by-five cell drinking thiopental through an IV drip."
"You came up with that one quick." Sam said taken aback by his description.
"Talk to Drew, he's the one with firsthand experience." Allen said darkly, "You do not want the same thing to happen to you, and neither do we."
Sam's paranoia slacked a good deal – she could tell Allen was being sincere. She sunk into a chair and sat there in silence for several minutes. Finally she spoke again, "Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure, go ahead." Allen said.
"Why are you fighting?"
Allen pondered the question a moment before answering, "It's a long story, but one you probably need to here."
"It all started with my father some forty years ago. He was a scientist working for a mining company to find a way to more effectively process large stellar bodies – uh, basically taking big asteroids and breaking them into much smaller pieces that can be processed. To do this he designed a massive platform that generates superheated plasma lances that connect to other platforms arrayed around a body. These lances burn at well over the surface temperature of a star, and they're bought in contact with the surface of the body. This destabilizes it ultimately causing the target to fall apart."
Sam held up a hand to stop him and asked, "That's nice, but how at all does this answer my question?"
"Well I'm not done yet. Look, the important part is that my dad designed a massive machine that could take big shit an turn it into little pieces. It'll make since if you let me finish, alright?"
Sam nodded and Allen continued, "Good, now, please, no more interrupting. Anyway, his machine worked marvelously. Some of the militaries upper brass thought it worked a little too well, and two years later demanded that the technology and any personal who worked on it be turned over the Legionnaires, who at the time were still little more than the empire wide police force. They were going to regulate use of the machine for safety reasons.
Then four years later, the commander of the Legionnaires retired, leaving General Ivery Bennit – who is now the Minister of Defense. Bennit wanted to see the mining tool turned into a weapon, but the emperor didn't want any of it. Building a super weapon would give him bad publicity. So Bennit had the technology scaled up and told the emperor it was so the tech could be used on bigger stones – all he needed was a target to test it on. The Emperor agreed to let him use a small, rocky, unused planet for the test. The planet was destroyed, the test was a success, and Bennit wasn't satisfied. He wanted to test the weapon on a planet with atmosphere, but the Emperor didn't want to waste a potentially habitable planet for a weapon test.
So without the Emperor's knowledge Bennit started looking for planets outside Sirian space with atmosphere. He got his wish. Two years after the weapon's first test, Bennit has it whisked away under the Emperor's nose along with a fleet of nine ships and the scientist who first designed the weapon, my father. Dad was there to help fine turn the weapon. Bennit had told Dad the Emperor had given him permission to conduct the test and assured him that the test world was unpopulated, which was the only reason me dad agreed to help.
As the test was conducted the atmosphere slowed the plasma's progress. My dad watched as the lance's cut down into the atmosphere, and dozens of ships rose up out of the planet's heavy clouds. Most were destroyed when Bennit ordered the escort fleet to attack, a handful escaped, and one was captured by the primary firing platform. On the captured ship were several dozen survivors – most were cut down before they knew what happened. One, a young child, was spared because none of the Legionnaires would kill a baby, and my dad begged Bennit for the child's life in return for his silence. Child's name according to the ship's databases was Onyx, with no last name give. The dead, charred husk of the planet that was suppose uninhabited was Cerinia.
My dad kept his piece like he promised and returned home to my mom. They gave Onyx a new name, Andrew Ryan, in hopes of giving him a somewhat normal life. Drew knew he wasn't Sirian, and when he learned my dad's part in the destruction of his true home – well let's say it took a long time calm him down. When Drew was twenty he convinced my dad to expose Bennit, who was the newly appointed minister of defense.
Dad hid my mom, Nick, and I to the planet Gemini IV – I was thirteen at the time. They didn't tell us where they were going or when they'd return. Five years later, Drew turns up on our doorstep with bullet wounds over his body, and he father dead in his arms. He never told us what happened to them over those five years. He told us who did it though, and that was all I cared about."
Allen sat there, staring into space lost in thought. "Why do we fight? At first it was for revenge."
"'At first'?" Sam asked. "Why only at first?"
"Since we started fighting Bennit, we've gained new reasons to kill the bastard."
"Like what?"
"For starters, we've been keeping tabs on my father's creation, now called the Lancer. Twice it has disappeared, and come back with some battle damage – meaning Bennit's been destroying more worlds than just Cerinia, and they've been fighting back. I'm willing to bet he's been trying to track down those Cerinian survivors and clean them up."
"Why? Doesn't he realize that attacking those planets will just bring war sooner or later?"
"He does, and that's the reason you were shot down the second you enter this system. He's paranoid and he's ordered the Sirian Legion to destroy any and all planes that do not transmit a Sirian IFF. Of course this has led to a few civilian casualties, but nothing that couldn't be covered up."
"What if he starts a war with a civilization that doesn't just have one planet? I doubt he can cover up a massive enemy fleet entering a system."
"And he won't have to. They'll be the aggressors; at least that's what everyone will think. And I doubt he really cares about starting a war. The Sirian Empire stretches over seventy systems, spanning over three hundred light-years. We have enough personnel and resources to tackle almost any enemy." Allen explained. "Look, this guy has become paranoid, he has immense power in the government, and the Sirian Legion has become his own personal army – with the men and equipment to rival the army and navy. Not a good combination."
"No, it isn't." Sam agreed quietly. "Is it just the three of you fighting or are there more people like you?"
"We have a few allies, but none of them can take the fight to Bennit like we can. Luckily the Legion is all we actually need to worry about. The Army and Navy tend to ignore us. Turns out the brass doesn't like the Legion's newfound power, so they like it when someone give the Legion or Bennit grief." Allen explained.
"Three men against an army… any way you could use a pilot without a bird?" Sam asked.
Allen's mouth grew into a smile, "I think we can find a place for you. And don't worry about not having a bird. We keep a few modified Thunderheads in working order. You'll have plenty of fun with one of those."
"Sounds like we have ourselves a deal. I help you bring Bennit to justice." Sam said.
"And we'll keep you alive and get you home as soon as we can." Allen finished while holding out a hand, and they shook on it.
"So what's our first move?" Samantha asked.
"I have no idea." Allen admitted. "We've been waiting for a break for the last few months, but nothing's come our way. For now, I guess we should concentrate on getting you home; in the meantime, we'll just have to keep our ears to the ground and hope something comes up."
Sam simply nodded. A few minutes later, Allen spoke up. "I believe it's my turn to ask a question now."
"Fair enough."
"Why are you here?" Allen asked.
"A complete and total accident. My people were testing a new FTL drive and I volunteered to be the guinea pig. The drive was powered up, and I was short here."
"So no one knows you're here. They just know you're gone. Any idea just how far the FTL drive shot you?"
"Nope. The drive was designed for capital ships, but some genius decided it would work just as well on a single fighter; I guess we know how that worked out." Sam joked.
Allen seemed lost in thought for a few seconds before he spoke again. "I assume the drive was something like a rift drive, wasn't it. That would explain why it would work of a large vessel but not on your fighter. They require a minimum mass if you're going to use it; otherwise, there is no telling how far it will shoot you. A blink drive would solve that problem."
Allen stayed silent after he finished, staring into space thinking. Only to be jerked out of it as the front door slammed open. Sam turned and yanked out her blaster, only to lower it when she saw Nick and a now red-furred Drew. They shed their coats and threw themselves into a couple chairs.
"How'd it go?" Allen asked.
Drew sighed, "Well, we managed to make it look like the Wardogs were responsible for the attack. And I doubt they're going to bother denying it. The reason we took so long is what we saw on our way back. A flatbed carrying something fairly large that was covered up by a thick tarp."
Nick held up a piece of metal, saying, "This fell off." The piece was badly charred, but Sam recognized it as a piece of her bird.
Drew looked at her with a serious face and asked, "Was there anything at all that could lead them back to where you come from? Starcharts, flight records, anything. If they get access to that kind of information, I grantee you they will use it, and they will attack."
"My fighter's computers had navigation information and the black box recorded the jump, but all the information was encrypted the second the fighter took damage." Sam said.
"What kind of encryption?" Drew asked, "How big?"
"Ten megabyte encryption code." Sam answered.
"Damn," Nick said in awe, "That's a friggen massive code. Even with the best decryption software available it's going to take them months to punch through that."
"So we have some breathing room." Allen said. "It's a fair assumption that they are going to be moving to fighter. We just need to find out where."
"Since the Legion doesn't keep anything but a few fighters in this system," Drew said, "they will either have to wait for a carrier to be sent, or they'll borrow a Navy ship to move it. I'd be willing to bet they go with the latter."
"Which means the local Naval base will have a record of where it's going to be taken." Allen smiled. "We can work with this. I think tomorrow Allen Stone is going to the Naval base to make a sale."
"Wait, what?" Sam asked. "Who is…"
"Don't worry, you'll see." Allen said, "I need to get ready."
Author's Notes :: This chapter was a friggen pain to write. I went through five different versions of this chapter before finding one that sounded good to me. Even then I think this could still be much better.
Anyway, griping aside, I promise then won't be many chapters like this one – one for sure but hopefully that'll be it. Like always please review. Hope ya'll enjoyed it.
