Chapter 2 - Brig

Before she knew what was happening, Lyka got dragged straight to the brig, one soldier undoing her cuffs before shoving her to the floor inside a cell. Another slammed the barred door shut behind her, and they turned to leave. As she got back up, they were already out of the cell block and slamming the exit door behind them, leaving Lyka in silence. It all happened so fast it made Lyka's head spin. Was she dreaming? Did Wikus really just do that? She shook the barred door, but it was locked up as tight as a tomb.

"Asshole…" Lyka kicked one of her bars with her boot, the clang echoing through the empty cell block. Well, what would she do now? She slumped onto the nearby bed to think, the padding so thin she could still feel the metal grating of the bed frame underneath the mattress. Five minutes passed, but felt like they stretched on for more like fifty as Lyka wracked her brain.

She heard the brig's entrance door opening again, rapid footsteps approaching her cell. Wikus' face appeared at the bars. He unlocked the door, opening it up to step inside the cell.

Lyka had never seen him so furious, before but she had a pretty big chip on her shoulder too. "Wikus! Why the hell did you toss me in here?"

"You're welcome," Wikus grumbled, slipping the key back into his pocket.

"Welcome? About you throwing me in here?" She waved at the room.

"I did it to protect you, loudmouth! Colonel Wagner would have done a hell of a lot worse if I hadn't stepped in."

Lyka growled, but Wikus was right. Even so, she couldn't bring herself to say 'thank you' right now.

"Listen…" Wikus continued. "I hate to say this but I'll need to leave you here for a day or two at least."

"Are you goddamn serious Wikus?"

"I'm sorry, but you don't leave me any choice. If Colonel Wagner sees you walking around the station after what you did, he's going to come after me next and then I can't protect you anymore. Remember you're a mercenary. He sees you on about the same level as dirt, and I don't think he'd feel too bad about ordering you chucked out of an airlock for what you did."

"He's that much of a goddamn snowflake?"

"I warned you about this, remember?"

"I know but… I hate the way he expects everyone around him to bow at his feet and do whatever he wants, like he's our god. Plus I was tired and pissed off. I just couldn't take it anymore." Lyka rubbed her eyes, still feeling exhausted from how the past twenty four hours of no sleep had gone for her. Wikus was right though. It was her own damn fault she was here right now. She shut her eyes, leaning back against the nearby wall. "Great…have to rot in here because of Major Asshole."

"He's a colonel."

"Colonel Asshole doesn't have the same ring to it."

Silence for a moment. Wikus grinned at Lyka's words. "Tell you what. I'll bring some things from your room later. That way you'll be more comfortable here while we both wait for Major Asshole to leave." Wikus stopped, but then he burst out laughing. "And hey, now you don't have to work today! You get to sleep in as much as you want! Lucky you, right?"

Lyka blinked. She'd been so mad she didn't even realize that. Smiling, she gave him a little hug.

"I told you I'd make it up to you!" He pat her on the back. "Just didn't think it'd be this soon."

"You're right," Lyka chuckled.

"Yeah, you're the lucky one. I've got meetings all day with that prick, and I've got no clue how I'm going to stay awake through them. Wish I could swap places with you."

Lyka let out a big yawn, a sleepy smile still on her face.

Wikus stepped back, moving to leave the cell. "Well, I need to meet with the big cheese in about ten minutes, so I'd better get going. Have a nice sleep, Lyka."

"Yeah," she smirked. "Good luck with your meetings."

Shutting the door, he locked it behind him, smiled one last time and then took off. Lyka settled onto the thin mattress. She honestly didn't care how uncomfortable it was. This felt like heaven after being awake for so long. After a minute or two she melted right into the bed, oblivious to the world around her as she sank into sleep.


Lyka's eyes opened, the gray metal walls of the cell still closed in around her. She pulled out her PDC and checked the time. Gosh, nine hours. I slept like a rock. She slid into a seating position, stretching out her arms. Her ears swiveled back, tail curling up behind her.

The door to the cell block clanked open, multiple sets of footsteps entering the room. Lyka turned towards the sound. The riot suit guards came into view, escorting Dr. Rubicon in chains to the cell across the hall from her. No words were spoken as they pushed him inside, undid his restraints, shut the cell door, and walked away. Another door slam, and now she was alone with her new neighbor. If the crocodile noticed her, he didn't show it. Dr. Rubicon looked like a statue sitting on his bunk, as he got into a staring contest with the opposite wall. After a few minutes observing this, he looked like he was winning.

While she thought it might be rude to disturb him, Lyka found herself curious. "Hey… Mr. Rubicon. How come they put you in here with me?"

The doctor turned to look at her, his head rotating in a mechanical-like fashion. "This is where I'll be sleeping." He sounded bored. "Why are you here?"

"I said something Colonel Asshole Wagner didn't approve of."

The crocodile blinked, a blank expression as he considered those words. "Yes? What did you say?"

"I told him he could shove his importance up his pompous asshole."

Dr. Rubicon stared back at her, his expression not changing. A long silence hung in the air. Lyka wondered if she'd said something wrong, but the doctor gave a dry reply. "Someone needed to tell him that a long time ago."

Lyka blinked. "You… Was that humor?"

The croc shrugged. "What else would it be?"

"I'll admit I don't really know you, but that feels weird coming from you."

"It's been a long, long time since I've had reason to laugh about anything." Everything he said still had that robotic tone, but Lyka could tell those words carried some extra weight for him. "You're a mercenary, aren't you?"

Lyka gestured to her shabby battle suit. "Obviously. I fly patrols and provide station security."

"Why do you work for Venom?"

The droning voice continued, like this was a police interrogation. Lyka didn't mind at all though. One maddening thing about working here was how she needed to censor her speech all the time, even with Wikus. But since both she and Dr. Rubicon didn't have any love for Venom, this was a rare chance for her to be one hundred percent honest.

"I don't have a choice," Lyka sighed, leaning back against the wall her bed rested against. "Things have been really shitty for me for the past year or so. If I could, I'd fly back home to Papetoon right now and never look back. But I don't have any money and I don't have a ship. I'm stuck here."

"What about your fighter? You must have a fighter if you fly patrols."

Lyka shook her head. "Too dangerous. It's a rented Venomian fighter, and it's crappy. They never give me enough fuel to fly anywhere else. Even if that weren't a problem, there's still this war going on. Cornerians would shoot me on sight because the fighter's got Venomian colors. And Venomians would be gunning for me too. If I tried to desert, it wouldn't be long before my rental got reported as stolen."

Dr. Rubicon eyed her in silence again, drumming his clawed fingers on his knees. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get here in the first place?"

While she ranted with enthusiasm before, now it was Lyka's turn to be the quiet one. She had nightmares almost every day about what brought her here. Just being reminded about the past put her on edge, her hands compressing into tight fists.

"I realize I never got your name," Dr. Rubicon asked, disrupting her thoughts. "Miss…?"

"Lyka. Just…Lyka."

"Lyka…" the crocodile let the name play on his lips. "I like that name."

"Thank you," Lyka said, almost too quiet for the doctor to hear.

"If you don't want to talk about your past Lyka, I understand. I don't like…" Dr. Rubicon sighed. "I don't like thinking about how I ended up here either."

He made some sniffling noises. Lyka turned to glance over at the croc, seeing him rub his eyes. While he was trying to hide it, she saw Dr. Rubicon trying to hide tears from her. Seeing a such monstrous-looking person cry felt so strange. Lyka thought about asking him if he was all right, but that was probably a dumb question. For a while, she laid on her bed, glancing at Dr. Rubicon every so often. He just sat there on his own bunk, staring at the floor, not bothering to lie down.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" Lyka asked. "Didn't they bring you here for that?"

He glanced her way again, looking a little annoyed at the question, but he spoke regardless. "Sleeping is… It's just hard for me, ever since I was captured. Gives me too much time to think."

"About what happened before you got here?"

He nodded. "I used to work for the Macbeth branch of Space Dynamics. I loved my job. Helped design heavy duty machines for all the mining operations on the planet, plus I did some work for the Cornerian military. I loved my wife too, and I love my— I love my son."

Lyka's eyes widened. He had a family too? And why did he hesitate on the last bit? "Your son?"

"I love him, but…" Dr. Rubicon shook his head. "…he's a fucking idiot."

Whoa, that came outta nowhere. Lyka leaned towards the bars. "What happened?"

"I wanted him to follow in my footsteps. Go to the science academy. Learn about robotics. Get a good career. Marry and give me grandchildren." Dr. Rubicon's eyes hardened, his speech accelerating more and more, each word harsher than the last one. "He didn't want any of that. No, this little shit thought he was invincible, and he wanted to go off on a grand, dangerous adventure. You want to know what he did?"

The crocodile looked Lyka straight in the face now, his slit eyes burning like little yellow fires in the dim light. A primal fear washed over her, making her lean back instinctively.

"I'll tell you," the doctor continued. "One day he was just gone from his room, and I saw he'd taken a sizeable amount of money out of my bank account too. I called the police. I called private detectives. No one had any idea where my son could have gone. It was like he simply vanished." Dr. Rubicon chuckled, shaking his head. "But I found out later though. Oh goodness, did I find out what happened to him. The answer came right through my front door."

"What?" Lyka didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean?"

"A few weeks after he left, several men in black tactical gear kicked down my door. They shot my wife while she was making dinner, and then blasted me with their stun rods, hitting me with a few hundred thousand volts. It happened so fast I didn't even have time to call out to her. Beatrice just died, right there…" A growl rose up in his throat. "Next thing I knew, I woke up in a small cell not all that different from this one, and that's when I met the goddamn Accountant for the first time. He showed me this picture of my son."

Dr. Rubicon pulled a photograph out of his pocket, holding it out for Lyka to see. Taking a deep breath and afraid of what she might see, Lyka stood up and craned her head out between the bars as far as she could. The photo showed a much younger crocodile manning a forklift in a warehouse somewhere. Lyka squinted. Did she just see it wrong from this distance?

"I don't get it. What's bad about that?"

He slipped the photo back into his pocket. "Mr. Wagner said my son told him all about me. So now, he wanted me to build him war machines. Use my experience to design new weapons for Andross. My son was to be used to keep me in line. As long as I cooperated, my son got to stay nice and safe back on Venom in that warehouse, far away from the fighting. He wouldn't be told anything about me or my arrangement with Wagner. That was the deal. The thing is…" Dr. Rubicon paused, looking like he didn't want to say what was about to come out of his mouth. "…Colonel Wagner started getting impatient. Wanting me to work faster and faster. I just couldn't keep up anymore. One day he told me my son was to be sent to the front lines, straight to Corneria. My punishment for taking too long to finish Spyborg. They put him on a ship called the Attack Carrier. I got the feeling Wagner was just doing it to scare me. He didn't think my son would actually die." The crocodile's hands clenched around the edges of his bunk. "But then Star Fox came along."

Lyka's eyes widened. "You heard about what happened too, huh?"

"Wagner tried to keep me in the dark about how the Cornerian offensive failed, but it was impossible to keep the news out of the labs. For a few days it was all anybody could talk about. I should have been happy Venom was finally getting what was coming to it, but now my wife is dead, and I don't know if my son is still alive. A father…" A tear rolled down from the doctor's eyes, and he rubbed it away. "A father should never outlive his son. Never. Wagner's taken everything from me now."

"But your son might still be alive though, right?"

"Oh, Wagner assured me he is alive, but he could be lying for all I know." Dr. Rubicon kept wiping his eyes. "Anything to keep me working, especially now. I just wish I could know for sure one way or the other."

Lyka glanced at her PDC.

"You said something about an Attack Carrier?" Lyka typed on it, scrolling through a few menus.

The croc glanced up, teary eyed. "Yes?"

"Uh… I don't know if you want to see this, but if you want to know what happened to your son I think you should watch it." Lyka found the correct video file and turned the screen around. "This is a Cornerian news broadcast. We're not supposed to watch anything besides Venomian state media, but I don't care."

The video glitched a lot, frequently freezing or showing random blips of color across the screen. Banned footage was difficult to get here, and the footage often got copied and recopied multiple times, the quality degrading each time. However, when the video stabilized, one could see a vixen reporter, dressed in a helmet and blue armored vest labeled 'PRESS". She stood on a beach on Corneria somewhere, the ocean behind her. Smoke rose up from the water far off in the distance, a number of Cornerian vessels hovering around it. The reporter pointed a finger towards the smoke.

"…as you can see, a mercenary team managed to destroy the Venomian Attack Carrier that was inbound for Corneria City." She turned to look back at the camera again. "We've gotten word the team is called Star Fox. They've already taken off to help with repelling the Venomian fleet moving through Meteo, so we didn't get a chance to talk with them. However, they've saved a lot of lives today. It looked like it was over for our planet, and then they just came out of nowhere and turned it all around!" Looking back to the smoke and the vessels circling it, she continued talking. "The CDF has dispatched ships to look for survivors, but I've been told the Attack Carrier went down so quickly no one made it out in time. The CDF doesn't expect to find anyone alive—"

"No more, please." Dr. Rubicon turned away.

"I'm sorry." Lyka put her PDC away. "Maybe I shouldn't have shown you that."

"No, it's all right. Now I know for sure. Thank you, Lyka."

He sniffed one more time, before going back to staring at the wall again. Lyka let him be that way for the next few minutes.

However, she didn't like staying quiet for too long. "Do you mind if I share my story with you?"

"Go ahead please… I don't mind the distraction."

Lyka took a deep breath. "I'm from an enclave of painted dogs on Papetoon. We call ourselves the Painted Guild, and we've been in the mercenary business for generations. Everyone in the guild is either a close friend or a relative of mine. Makes it easier for us to work together as a team, since we've all known each other from birth and we'll fight to the death to protect each other."

Fond memories crossed through her head. She could feel the warm wind flowing across her skin and the hot sand beneath her toes just mentioning her homeworld's name.

"When we get old enough and we get enough experience, we're allowed to create and lead our own pack within the guild. About two years ago on my nineteenth birthday I created one myself called Testa Rossa. The pack was just three of us: my best friend Calia, my little brother Jamo, and myself. I was so happy that day. We had our own space fighters and everything. I'd been working towards having a pack my whole life." A faint smile came to her face she pointed at her orange mohawk. "I've had my hair like this most of my life, so I decided to make it our pack's symbol. The other packs have their own names and symbols too."

"But you're alone here, aren't you?"

The reminder was like a knife in Lyka's heart, her smile fading away. Hesitantly, she nodded. "One year, two months, and seven days ago, I decided to take my pack to Titania. Corneria normally kept the place locked down tight, but with this war going on they couldn't afford to keep patrols around there anymore. I'd heard stories about the planet having ancient ruins. My stupid nineteen year old self thought we could go there, find some artifacts, and sell them for a lot of cash. When we got there, it didn't take us long to find an old temple poking out of the sand. We descended to land in front of it…and everything went to shit."

"What happened?"

Lyka closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Giant sand worms. The vibrations in the sand from our engine's downdraft must have pissed them off, because right as we touched down they broke through the surface under us. I got to watch Calia's ship get chomped in half by one of those bastards in the space of about five seconds. The sandworm pulled what was left of her and her ship into its mouth, and just went back into the sand like it was water. One second I saw her, the next she was just...gone. Like she never existed."

Tears welled in her eyes.

"Jamo set down to help, I called out to him to stop, but before he could even open the hatch another huge worm jumped out of the sand, crashing down right on top of him and his ship maw first. He went under just as quickly as Calia. Both of them gone now, my entire pack, just like that."

She wrapped her hand around one of the bars of her cell, squeezing it.

"I tried to land next, but another one of those bastard worms leaped at me, taking a chunk right out of the side of my fighter. Scared the shit out of me. I darted back in the air as fast as I could. I just looked at the sand…the spots where they'd gone under. I wanted to help, I really did. But if I landed, I'd just join them in their new graves. Plus my ship wasn't in good shape after that bite. Red warning lights were blaring all over the instrument panels. I had to get out of there and get back to the guild…find help. But as I set back, I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it back to Papetoon like this. The worm nicked my fuel tank, and it leaked out fast.

"Sitting in that cockpit, I was freaking out. Because Corneria held a blockade there for so long until recently, there'd be no one out here to save me. I didn't tell the rest of the guild where we were going either. So without fuel, I drifted towards Sector X… That's when I stumbled across this base by accident. A Venomian patrol picked me up, and they brought me here. They wanted to kill me on the spot, but Wikus stopped them."

"The major who was talking to you in my lab?"

Lyka nodded. "He felt sorry for me, and gave me a job here. But I've been stuck here ever since. Wikus does want to help me get home, but Venom can't let me leave here. They're afraid I'll spill this secret base's location to Corneria. So I'm pretty much stuck here until the war ends, one way or another."

"Sounds like we have something in common, doesn't it? We're both slaves here."

She grimaced at his observation. "Looks that way."

"It's strange how that Major talked to you like you're an equal. I've never seen a Venomian officer talk to a mercenary that way."

"His way of dealing with being stuck out here in space for months on end. We all live in these metal boxes out in the middle of nowhere, so he figures we may as well be friends."

"He sounds like a good person, far too good for the people he works for."

"He is. I just wish I could talk him into leaving this place with me. It's not safe here anymore, not with Star Fox around."

Dr. Rubicon didn't answer, tapping a clawed finger on one of the bars.

"How long will you be in this brig?"

"Wikus said just a day or two."

"That's good. I'd try to stay out of here Lyka. You never know when an attack could happen these days."

Lyka glanced at him. "I didn't even think of that." She shivered at imagining the station blowing up around her while being locked in this cage.

"Thank you for talking to me, by the way. It's rare to have a conversation like this."

"It's fine. Outside of Wikus it's hard for me to talk like this too."

Dr. Rubicon yawned, stretching his arms. "I'm ready for sleep now." He stood up, removing his lab coat and tie, hanging them on a nearby rack. "Good night Lyka."

"'Night…" Lyka watched him settle into bed.

Without a conversation partner, she didn't know what she was going to do now, considering she'd already slept nine hours and felt rested. And Wikus hadn't come back with anything from her room yet. The Accountant must have been running him ragged. She leaned back against the wall. Why did the doctor seem so concerned about her being in the brig though? It felt a bit odd. Ah well, she had plenty of time to think about whatever she wanted right now. Leaning back on her bed, she hoped Wikus wouldn't take too long to return.


A few days later, Colonel Wagner observed the scientists working on the robotic guardian Spyborg in Testing Bay 4. With all the main pieces in place, it resembled a giant robot torso standing several stories tall. The rectangular-shaped head extended its long edges over the shoulders, while the two circular robotic eyes mounted into it stared straight forward. It looked a little strange, but with its armor it could withstand just about anything, from laser blasts to nova bombs. When attacking, it would respond with either the ion cannons mounted inside the eyes, or it would simply punch straight through anything in its way with those rocket fists. When they tested the arms back on Macbeth, Wagner saw it punching straight through the sides of mountains, sending ore tumbling down everywhere. That made sense, considering it started out as a piece of mining equipment that Dr. Rubicon designed while with Space Dynamics.

Speaking of the doctor, Colonel Wagner glanced upwards at the window into the doctor's personal lab. He couldn't see the doctor himself, but knew he was up there regardless, working away. While he needed to see Dr. Rubicon later, first he wanted to relax a bit in his office.

Walking through the station, he wandered back to his office. While he still felt furious about that mercenary dog insulting him earlier, his stay here had been productive. He'd felt skittish about using the warp portal to move Spyborg, himself, and the doctor here, but the device seemed to have worked flawlessly. If only they'd had it earlier in the war, things would have been so different.

But the testing process proved challenging and produced many, many failures before it could be used practically. Many test subjects (amply provided by the POW camps) died agonizing deaths passing through it, but as long as they weren't Venomian Wagner didn't care. Necessary sacrifices for the glory of Venom and her scientific advancements.

In any case, the warp portal technology being used in a practical manner for the first time would surely put him in the good graces with Andross. And while Star Wolf being defeated by Star Fox had most of Venom's commanders terrified, Wagner also saw it as a great opportunity. If Spyborg ended up destroying that fox and those other pesky mercenaries, he'd be the greatest hero the empire had ever known. Andross would surely reward him with a grand promotion and enormous power should that come to pass.

He reached the door to his temporary office, placing his hand on the biometric scanner. While not as comfortable as his regular office on Macbeth, he had arranged to bring some of the comforts of home with him. The door whooshed open, revealing a room with recently-installed ornate wood paneling. The paneling came from rare trees growing only within a few hundred specific acres on Fortuna, carved by expert artisans and shipped here at great expense. Paintings pilfered from the Zonessian National Gallery adorned the walls, Wagner himself a fan of the tropical and ocean settings many of them featured. A pity that planet ended up getting polluted by their war machines. He had wanted to retire to a nice tropical estate there once this all blew over.

Wagner took a seat in an ornate leather chair and behind a large marble desk, both of which were also brought over from his office back on Macbeth. He felt himself getting settled in when someone knocked on his door, interrupting his thoughts. Growling, Wagner tapped some commands into a nearby keyboard. The door whooshed aside, revealing the station's young major standing there.

"What are you doing here?" Wagner snapped.

The lemur narrowed his eyes, but kept his voice even. "You...called me in here for a meeting?"

Blinking, Wagner looked over at the nearby monitor, clicking through his calendar. Sure enough, he'd scheduled a meeting right now but had just forgotten about it. "Sit then. You're late." He waved for the major to sit in a chair in front of his desk.

While still looking a tad pissed, Major Mikatonus did as he was told.

"I brought you in here because I noticed something important was omitted from your briefing. You were told that Dr. Rubicon is a prisoner of ours, correct? He's working on this project against his will?"

"Yes." The major nodded. "I've got a round the clock security detail on his lab and we have guards checking his cell block in regular rotations. I also know about how you're using his son as a hostage."

"Did you know his son's already dead? Died in the attack on Corneria? His ship blown up by Star Fox?"

"…no. No I did not."

"Then there's something I find concerning about Dr. Rubicon's sleeping accommodations." The major shifted in his chair with rapt attention, looking a bit nervous. In any case, Wagner finished typing commands into the machine. Once he had the correct window up, he spun around his monitor. "This was brought to my attention within the past half hour." It showed a security feed of the cell block from a few days prior. On one side, the camera could see Dr. Rubicon. Directly opposite him could be seen that woman who yelled at him in the cafeteria the other day.

"Because of what happened with his son, we must keep Dr. Rubicon in the dark as much as possible. He cannot talk to anyone about anything except for what would help him complete this project. Yet you put him in a cell block with that contractor. The security cameras saw her doing this."

He pressed play on the video. There wasn't any audio, but the woman could be seen showing Dr. Rubicon a video on her PDC.

"What is she showing him?"

"I don't know, but we must detain Dr. Rubicon right away and get him to tell us what exactly he saw. I don't know what he'll do if he finds out his son died during the Corneria attack, and we need to keep him away from Spyborg until we get this straightened out. I'll deal with the contractor later as well."

"Her name is Lyka." The major narrowed his eyes. "What are you going to do with her?"

While a bit annoyed at Major Mikatonus' tone, he let it slide. "I'll have her executed, of course. Once we're done interrogating her about this incident, I'll have her thrown out of an airlock. She's mercenary scum, and a traitor to Andross and Venom. You should have never let her into this station." Colonel Wagner stood up from the desk. "Now, I need to go detain Dr. Rubicon right away. I'll handle your punishment for this oversight later."

And with that, he walked around his desk, leaving the major sitting there in stunned silence. Five minutes later, Wagner walked down the hallway behind a large security detail decked out in riot gear, all of them marching towards Dr. Rubicon's lab. The doctor was still there, according to the security feed. In fact he seemed to just be doing his work as normal. It could have been any other day.

Reaching the lab's door, the first guard in line punched in the entry code. As soon as the door whooshed open, four of the riot suits rushed inside, all directing their guns at the seated doctor at his computer.

"Dr. Rubicon!" Wagner called out from behind them. "On the floor, hands behind your back!"

Dr. Rubicon did something that shocked Wagner to his core: the doctor ignored him. The crocodile kept typing away on the machine like he'd heard nothing. Wagner froze, unable to process this. This was the first time Rubicon showed any defiance since they captured him all those years ago. The colonel's hands tightened into fists. His prisoner dared to disrespect him? First there was that contractor insulting him, and now this! "You slime, I'm not going to ask again! Get down now!"

Still no response.

Wagner patted one of the riot suit soldiers on the back. "Do it the hard way."

The four soldiers rushed him, all of them grabbing him and trying to haul him backwards out of the chair. Dr. Rubicon bellowed as he rose into a stand, his roar vibrating the room's walls. One of the soldiers got lifted off the floor as he tried to hold onto Dr. Rubicon's shoulders, the rest getting flung backwards. The crocodile reached over his back, grabbing the much smaller soldier and simply throwing him across the room like a ragdoll. He hit a nearby server, the plastic and metal caving in from the impact as the riot soldier fell to the floor, unconscious.

The other soldiers rushed him, but even with their armor they looked like children compared to Dr. Rubicon's monstrous size. He swiped a clawed hand towards the helmet of one of the guards, taking his faceplate clean off and leaving three wide red gashes on the face of the chimp underneath. The monkey screamed, plunging his hands against his wounded face as he collapsed to the floor. Another one whacked Dr. Rubicon in the back with a stun baton. Dr. Rubicon screamed as his neck snapped backwards from the shock hitting him. But it only stopped him for a moment, as he spun around and brought his muscular tail to bear, hitting the hapless soldier with a sickening crack and sending him flying across the room, crashing through a table.

Wagner watched, stunned at the scene. Was this really happening right now? Shaking his head, he barked into his PDC. "I need backup at Dr. Rubicon's lab now! Hurry!"

One guard remained, standing off to the side and pointing his laser rifle at the doctor. Wagner noticed the weapon trembling in the final soldier's hands. Dr. Rubicon stared the man down, the soldier frozen in place by the crocodile's reptilian eyes. Without so much as a word, Dr. Rubicon reached out, snatched the rifle right out of the soldier's hands, and tossed it towards the nearby window. It smashed through the glass, a thunk as it landed on the floor below. The soldier ran for his life, brushing past Wagner.

"Get back here!" Wagner screamed after him, but the soldier was already down the hallway.

The doctor returned to his computer, typing fast now and looking desperate to finish something. Wagner didn't know what it was, but he got the feeling he did not want it to be completed.

"Dylan!" Wagner drew his sidearm. "Get away from that computer now, or I will shoot!"

Dr. Rubicon ignored him again. You insolent bastard! Wagner aimed carefully, firing off a shot. The monitor in front of Dr. Rubicon exploded, peppering him with sparks and shattered glass. The crocodile snarled, flipping aside his chair as he stood to face down Wagner. The colonel froze, feeling those reptilian slit eyes staring right through him. Hatred. Raw, complete hatred coursing through them. Wagner just realized he made a grave mistake.

The colonel started to raise his gun, but the monstrous crocodile charged him, jaws open wide and crossing the space between them in two seconds flat. A loud crunching sound resonated in the air, small points that felt like fire spreading all through Wagner's shoulder. The colonel screamed, feeling his flesh and bone painfully compressed in Rubicon's massive jaws as they both toppled to the floor. Wagner couldn't even see anything, being in too much agony to focus. It's over. This barbaric monster's going to kill me. That's all there is to it.

He waited for the end and- Several blasters went off, Wagner feeling the bolts strike the massive crocodile laying on top of him. Dr. Rubicon's jaws fell slack, the doctor sliding off of Wagner and onto the nearby floor. Someone dragged Wagner away from the crocodile and up onto his feet. He looked up to see the faces of one of the backup soldiers he'd ordered. More of them flooded into the room.

As Wagner spun around to see where Dr. Rubicon was, the doctor climbed to his feet and roared, preparing for another charge. He never got the chance. All of the soldiers opened fire, peppering his body with bloody red holes across his lab coat and shirt. The doctor screamed, held back by the gunfire, until he took a blaster bolt straight in the eye, sending him toppling to the floor. A killing headshot. Dr. Rubicon's fresh corpse slammed into the steel floor, shaking the entire room when it hit the ground.

"Fuck…" Wagner hissed, clutching his shoulder. He looked over and could see all of the bloody holes where Dr. Rubicon's teeth punctured through his uniform, making a neat outline in the shape of the crocodile's jaw.

"Are you all right sir?" One of the soldiers ran over. "You need to go to medical!"

"That would be…good…" Wagner grunted, holding a hand to his bite wound. The injury did look bad. However, what just transpired troubled him more. They'd just killed their lead scientist on the Spyborg project. This would set them back weeks, if not months on completing this project. It was time they didn't have with Star Fox running around. When Andross found out about this, he'd be calling for Wagner's head on a stake. The soldier kept asking him to go to the medical center, but Wagner was too lost in his own thoughts to hear.

"Sir? Sir!" A different soldier was calling out.

Wikus turned his attention to him. "What is it?"

The soldier pointed to a nearby computer monitor, next to the one that Wagner had shot. On the screen was displayed one sentence, green words on a black background:

Where is the creator?

"What?" Wagner raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"Uh… Sir, look to your left."

Wagner turned towards the window looking into the hangar where they were keeping Spyborg. The robot's eyes, which had been pitch black before, now glowed with a bright yellow intensity, head turned to look directly at Wagner. More text filled the nearby monitor.

Where is the creator?

Where is the creator?

Where is the creator?

The same line soon repeated all to the bottom of the monitor, a scroll bar appearing as even more of the messages popped in.

"Get the other scientists on the project…" Wagner grunted from the pain. "Get them here now."

"Sir!" One of the soldiers saluted and took off running.

Wagner slipped into a chair, feeling a little lightheaded from all the blood loss.

"You should get to the medical," one of the other soldiers said. "You could die."

"This can't wait."

Soon they'd finished rounding up all the scientists, bringing them into the lab. No one had bothered to move Dr. Rubicon's body. A collective gasp came up amongst the group of white coats as they entered the room and spotted it. Some of them looked like they wanted to run away, but Wagner's soldiers barred the door.

Wagner turned to Rubicon's second in command scientist on the project. He was a bat, wearing a modified white coat with wider sleeves designed to accommodate his wings.

"Dr. Alex Kaspersky…" Wagner gestured for him to look at the monitor with the strange text. "Please step over here."

The bat shivered, adjusting his glasses as he stared at the corpse. Gathering up his courage, he walked over to the monitor where the Spyborg's message played again and again.

"Explain this. What is Spyborg doing?"

Alex took a deep breath. "I'm not sure. Dr. Rubicon was doing most of the work on Spyborg's AI himself. Only he would know what to make of this. We…he didn't really let us in on what all he was doing."

"Well, figure out what this means. Even with Dr. Rubicon gone, we have to get Spyborg operational ASAP. Emperor Andross is counting on us."

The bat eyed the monitor a little bit longer, then looked to the gathered group of scientists. "Hey Vivian."

An armadillo scientist stepped forward, walking over to him. Alex stood up to let him sit. "You've worked the most with Dylan on the AI right?"

Vivian nodded.

"Okay, you keep looking at this. Everyone else, let's go back to the testing bay."

Alex departed with the other scientists, as Vivian typed in commands on a nearby machine. Wagner watched the scientist work, still feeling faint from the blood loss as he pressed his other arm over the wounds. He still didn't want to leave the room just yet though.

Turning to one of the guards in the room, Wagner said, "Go fetch one of the doctors from medical. Tell him to come here."

"Sir!" the grunt saluted, leaving the room.

"Uh, Colonel Wagner?" Vivian said off to the side. "You may want to look at this."

Wagner glanced at the monitor again, and felt his blood run cold. The words had changed.

Destroy.

Destroy.

Destroy.

Destroy.

"Why is it saying that?"

"I-I don't know. Dr. Rubicon designed the AI. I don't know as much about it."

"Just shut it down. We'll figure it out afterwards."

"Good idea." Vivian clicked through a few menus. Eventually a dashboard screen popped up, showing various diagnostics on Spyborg's internal systems. Vivian moved the mouse over a red button marked 'SHUT DOWN'. He clicked on it…and nothing happened. Vivian frowned, hammering the mouse repeatedly, but the frantic clicks didn't seem to do anything.

"Something wrong?" Wagner asked.

"I'm trying to stop it, but it won't let me."

"Keep trying."

"I am but I don't know what to do… Oh shit!" Vivian started clicking around at a frantic pace.

"What?"

"Look!" Vivian pointed.

A large window took up one corner of the dashboard, labelled 'WEAPON SYSTEMS/COMBAT ROUTINES' and showing an array of progress bars. The bars were filling up at a rapid pace.

"You worked on this thing! You should know how to stop it!"

"No…Dr. Rubicon did, but you killed him! I-I don't know the code like he does!"

"Do something!" Wagner screamed.

"I don't know what to do!"

The last progress bar filled up. A bright yellow light blared into the lab through the nearby window. Wagner turned to look, staring face to face with Spyborg again. Its eyes glowed brighter than ever before, looking almost like twin suns.

Wagner started to get up, but his movements felt so sluggish from all the blood loss, his body not responding as fast as he wanted it to. The nearby monitor changed its text again.

I will destroy all enemies.

I will destroy all enemies.

I will destroy all enemies.

"You are an enemy." Spyborg's electronic voice boomed into the lab as it pulled back one of its massive arms, clenching its hand into a fist. Wagner made it two steps before Spyborg punched, pulverizing the entire lab into a giant lump of metal, plastic, and glass.