-Chapter 2 The Clam Before the Storm
"There is always a clam before the storm" -Ancient Proverb
Nick Viper, the human pilot of the blue Vic Viper was making his way with the red Vic Viper, whom he had grown a fondest for while the two of them had worked together to stop the Bacterion, but this person wasn't the wingman that he was used to. But, the pilot of this fighter has proven himself a quite able pilot and one that he would like to pick again if the Bacterion would threaten the planet of Gradius again, but that wasn't his choice in the matter.
He looked and he could see the space station that he defended in the first wave of the assault from the Bacterion had manage to survived the attack with minimal damage, but there were still some damage to the station. So many of the repair personal were now working on the damage.
While Nick couldn't see it many of the crew stop what they were doing to see that legendary space fighter had once return from the flight against the Bacterion and while they all knew that they had won the battle. So they all raise their clutched fists in victory at the sight of the two fighters, even if they knew that the two fighter pilots couldn't see it, it still felt good to do it. For it meant that the planet would be a peace once again, and that many of the citizens of this world could go back to their normal lives.
With a quick moment of joy at seeing the fighters, they all knew that it was to get back to work and their work was to repair the station, that's what they did before their boss saw what they were doing. But they had funny feelings that their boss was doing the same thing that they did and that they had to worry about the same thing as well.
"This is Vic Viper T301," said Nick. "Requesting permission to dock."
"This is Gradius Station, permission allowed, and congrats on a job well done." said a female voice on the other side of the line.
"Roger, I'll heading in, Vic Viper T301 over and out," said Nick. With that Nick gently tugged on the joystick, being careful not to rammed the fighter into the station.
He made it through the entry point of the station and so did his wingman, without problems. After that the two of them found out that the station's automatic docking program had token control of their fighters and would be taking them to launch pad. They traveled down a long blue metal tube with other much smaller craft heading in the opposite way, both of the pilots figure out that they might be repair bots that were heading out to help with the repair job on the station.
Because they were being guided down the long tube, it had allowed the two of them take a look at the station and take it all in. They could see all of the details of this place for the first time and because of this they were able to see to see this for what it was a huge city in space that was full with the various difference cultures that had made up the Gradius Civilization. Looking at it, both of them could see that it was an amazing feat of engineering that was done over the course of generations.
Nick, once saw an documentary about this place before he had leave to do battle and one of the stories about this place was the fact that there were people that had spent their entire lifetime on this place and never seen all of the places that were open to the regular citizens. Nick at first thought that this was just a myth that was told over and over again to the point where the factual part of the story got lost in time, that only thing that was left was the myth, until somebody took the time to do some digging about it. Nobody did this about the station and its myth, so it went on. But, now seeing it for the first time in a peaceful setting and not rushing around, he could see how this myth got started in the first place, this place was in fact huge. He at first didn't believe that a place could be so huge and so full with stuff to do that one couldn't see it all and do it all. It didn't make sense to him and when he was done with the debriefing of this mission, he would do some digging into this station and into this thing that was called Vemon, that the thing had called out. By the way that it spoke it, it must have been a person in the past, but who? He wanted to know who this person was, but he also knew that he had to do a ton of news meetings from the various different news outlets on this planet.
My life as I know it is over he thought. Time to get use to this. He also wonder what was the other pilot saying about all of this, he knew that his fellow wingmen would asking the same question as well about what the two of them just did.
The Bacterion had known this Lylat System before and so it stop its motion to investigate. So it grew a little bigger just enough so that it could have some control over its actions, but still remand unnoticeable to local tracking devices that maybe here.
Stopping for this one brief second, the Bacterion was flooded by the images of its genetic memory, telling it why it know what this place was, it was the first system that it had fought with. They were the ones that had dealt the Bacterion their first blow in the age old fight and the Lylatians didn't just stop there, they had token the fight to the Bacterion, destroying all of the reminding colonies that it had set up, completely removing it from this part of the universe. Something that no other race has done before.
With this new found knowledge about this part of the universe, it knew that this place wouldn't be the place it wanted to set up for it re-growth for it knew that the feeling of greed wasn't here, the citizens of this system had found a way past that and focus on taking that part of themselves out of their nature. But, as the thing was about to drift among the solar winds again, it felt the old but same feeling of greed full this place once again. It knew that the Lylatians that were currently living in this section of space weren't the same ones that had defeated it before, they were different. They were full with fear, isolation, guilt and were divided among themselves worry about their personal worries, then the big picture, unlike the first Lylatians, this they could be control by the will of the Bacterion.
With that thought the thing double in size and now it could be detected,but only if a person knew what they were looking for, it questioned that these citizens would be looking for it. Also now with the increased size, it had the ably consume other objects that it would run into.
As it was gathering various of different objects it come across a shattered dark purple hexagon piece. The thing had concluded that this broken piece come from either a destroyed ship or space station in this solar system, it had no clue what it really was. It was the broken piece of the Aparoid Homeworld that had attached itself to one of the ships from the Star Fox team.
The two objects hit each other and the exchange of forces between the two of them was small, almost unnoticeable to anybody, but on the thought level, something amazing happen or terrible happen. The two life forms exchanged the knowledge that two things had, both of them found out that they shared the same type of goals about life. For, it was the exchanged of knowledge between the Bacterion and an Aparoid, a creature that the Bacterion never heard before until now.
With the new found knowledge about the creature and its goals, it found out that it could do something that it couldn't, while it could take control of both living and no living things, this thing could fuse the two together to make beautiful living weapon that were armored. While Bacterion could control either living or no-living things, it could never put together, it would have to bring living things into the fold, without failing, but now it knew how to do it. That what it did, it took control of the hexagon piece and full in the missing pieces of the hexagon.
Now, it was ready to take control of this place and now with knowledge of this solar system, new allies, and a new sense of greed, it knew that it could do it fast, with so many pieces of debris that was lay out in space before it. As it was scooping up pieces of debris to fuel its ravenous hunger, more knowledge about this place was unraveled to it and one of them was the events that lead up the destruction of the first Aparoid Queen by the forces of the Cornerian Defense Force, and two mercenary units of Star Fox by an orange colored fox that was named Fox McCloud, and the other one was Star Wolf that was lead by a white and gray colored wolf, name Wolf O'Donnel. Seeing that there were two canines that were leaders sent a chill through it being, it somehow knew that these creatures were dangerous, not because of their piloting skills, but because of something else, something about their being that the Bacterion couldn't pin point.
While the Bacterion knew that mercenaries were soldiers for hire, looking for somebody or some government to paid them to do a service that they couldn't do and some of them did get greedy in the end, were in the end were consumed by it. With the knowledge that the Aparoid had gained from the people that were close to the teams, it could tell that while they did like to get paid for their services, there were driven to kept this solar system free from oppression. They wanted to be free to do what they wanted to do and that was a noble cause. Seeing this, the Bacterion knew that it couldn't control any of them for its own needs. But, it also knew because of that, they would be a threat to them and all what they had planned for this solar system. So it had to think of a plan that would kept these two teams busy and it knew the perfect person to use.
Andrew Oikonny, the nephew of the late Andross was at the only place in the entire Lylat system that he knew that he could peacefully bid his time for his revenge, the icy planet of Fichina, a place that very few people went to despite the fact the climate of this world was being to be stabilized and the government was offering tax free sums of money as way to get some of the citizens to live here.
Some people had theorized that this happen because of the Aparoid invasion that had happen almost a year ago, it had shaken the faith that people had in technology, that they could solve any type of problem that could come down the line. Or, it could be the fact that this place wasn't the easiest place to get to either, most ships couldn't land here and the ones that could land weren't cheap for the regular middle class Lylatian couldn't afford the trip here. Whatever the reason that was behind the lack of migration to this world. Andrew didn't care, the less the people that come here, the better for him. The people that did managed to come to this isolated piece of rock were scientists that were studying some thing to help them figure out something, he didn't really care about it, unless they were doing something would either help him or his cause, there were also the people that were living on the fringe looking for a place that would allow them to live the life that they wanted without anybody else thinking that they were strange, military people that was just doing their job and duties, and the people that had found themselves here with no reason why. Most of the people here had very few amount of knowledge about the political affairs that was spinning around the system, thus didn't know who he was. Yes, they did know his name, but not how he look like.
"Look, buddy, I don't have it," said an avian vendors one of the few of the species that had come to this place. Most of the people that went here were the ones that were covered with heavy fur coats.
"You must, you are the last vendor that I went to and all of the other vendors told me, you are the one that always have this," said Andrew.
"I am sorry to bust your bubble, but not now," he said.
"When?" Andrew asked.
"I don't know, it could come in anytime. I just don't know," he answered back with. "Now is there anything else that you want?"
Andrew looked at all of the stuff that the vendor had and he saw it, a Fich, the only and recently discovered fruit that grew local, despite the harsh climate of this world. While in exile on this planet, he had learn quite a taste for this fruit and another factor was the fact that it was cheap when compare to some of the the other stuff.
"Yes, I would like a whole bag of Fichs," he said.
The avian vendor nodded his head with the request and started to put the Fichs in the bag. While he was doing that, Andrew kept a close eye on what he was doing, to make sure that he wouldn't shot him.
"Ten credits," he said.
"Whoa, that isn't to bad," he said.
The vendor just nodded his head at that, but the vendor just want to say. You fool, there is so many of this stuff, I can't even give it away. You are a real fool.
Andrew Oikonny counted the numbers of the fruit in the bag to double check his amount to make sure that his eyes didn't play any tricks on him and after a couple of minutes he found out that the vendor was a honest one, he did give him the correct amount. In fact he had given him two more and that made him glad.
"Thank you," he said. After that he walked away from the vendor and continue his way throughout the fly by night market place to see if there was any else that was there that he needed. After a couple of minutes of looking at what they were selling. He could see that there was nothing here that he wanted. So he headed back to where had live in the past couple of mouths.
As he headed back to his quarters, he took a look at the outside world and he could see that even after mouths of warm weather, the ground was still cover in permafrost. He wondered about two things, one was when he would be able to walked outside and see what this place look like without the glass acting like a barrier between the two of them. The other was, when will be able to get off this place, he knew that if he did now, it would be suicided right now. He knew that while Fox and the rest of the Lylat system thought that he was dead, he also knew that somehow Fox McCloud didn't believe at any monument that he was dead.
Andrew whispered a voice that was mixed with both male and a female voices.
He turned around to see if there was somebody that was playing a joke on him and there was nobody around him.
Strange he thought.
Nobody on this world knew who he was, he never less his name, nobody asked his name was, and when he did he made up a name. Nobody here never questioned him if that was his real name or not.
So he just blew it off, as nerves and went on heading home.
Andrew said the same voice again with more force behind it.
Hearing his name for a second time and done by the same voice, stopped him dead in his track, like he was stuck by lighting.
How the hell?! He demanded.
"Who the hell are you?!" He yelled out loud.
"We are Sable and Lass," answered a long hair Collie. "You know who we are."
Andrew was snapped out of his haze and he just realized that he had just yelled out at thin air with nobody there.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Less looked at him, like she thought that he was crazy. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm doing okay," he lied. He wasn't feeling okay, he was feeling paranoid at this, somehow somebody found out where he was after he had escape from Fortuna with the distraction of the Star Fox team protecting Fox while he was getting something from the destroyed multi-color metal creature that he later found out was an Aparoid.
"I am just worry, because can go crazy, being locked up here," she said. "It like being in prison with a chance of freezing to death."
Andrew just did a little mocked laugh at Less's joke. "Trust me, I am doing okay, don't worry about me. I will be fine."
With that the two of them walked away from him.
Now all alone, his mid was in a tailspin, he didn't know what to think, was he really loosing his mind? No it couldn't be, or could it? No he wouldn't accept it, it had to be somebody else doing this to him, but who? That was the question that he wanted answered.
Then a thought come across his mind, was it either Star Fox or Star Wolf doing this to him. Did they fine a way to get to his mind and drive him out of his hiding place? Andrew could image the look on the vulpine's face the smirk on his youthful face showing off his cocky side, the same one that he give to him when he defeat him on Venom. It was something that all fighter pilots had, even more so with him, with the fact that he was mercenary.
No, as much as he disliked Star Fox for taking him down and taking down his uncle twice, there was something that he saw while he was fighting them especially Fox, his professional side and how he was all about coming at you with no tricks, no games, nothing like that. So no it wasn't them doing that, even if he knew that they were still looking for him. That one thing about that team, they never give up on a target until they got it or they were dead and with the fact that they won't dead yet, was a credit to their skills at getting the job done no matter what it was.
So, then he thought about his former team, of Star Wolf. How they joked about his lack of piloting skills and how he had slow them down, they also blamed him for their failure with Star Fox. They might of thought of something like this, and considering the fact that Wolf has a disdained for anybody that think of themselves as a noble, plus there was also a pretty decent bounty on his head.
You fool the voice said. I an neither of the people that you call Star Fox or Star Wolf, I am something different buy yet some familiar.
"What?" He asked.
You do not need to speak your spoken language, I can hear your thoughts and nobody can hear me the voice said.
So what are you and what do you need of me? He asked.
I told all you need to know about me for the being, more will come when you need it or when you have done great work for us the voice said. To your second question, we need as you call an emissary to help us to adjust to this solar system and to allow the residents of this solar system to get use to us.
But why me? He asked.
Your knowledge of all of the political fractions of this system, will help us out the voice said.
That was true and with that his ego started to grow up. He might be able to get off this place and maybe, just maybe get his revenge on this whole solar system.
Thank you, now how I will... he was cut off.
Don't worry. I have made plans for yo to leave the voice said. Look up to the northern skies.
Andrew did that and in the cold black sky that was full with lights that were dancing around, he could see in the distance there was a star that was moving toward the ground. With that he knew that was no star, it was a ship of some type that was coming here to pick him up.
While this was good and he was about to take this at face value, but another thought had crossed his mind, this could be a trap.
Don't worry, we aren't not a trap, I'm an escape the voice said. An escape from everything that you have know.
After that the voice stopped talking to him, but it had blasted him with a ton of information about who they where and it had made him dropped done in pain, as if a person had been drilled in the head. In a matter of seconds the pain was gone as if person had just waved their hand.
With the pain there came a new sense of being was brought on him for he knew what he had to do.
The skies of the battlefield were stained a brown as the draped color reflected its mood down on the fighters. They were heading into the heart of an unknown fate.
For Fox McCloud, leading the group, the brownish sky reminded him of the skies of Venom when he headed into the heart of the final battle of the Lylat Wars. He was 17 or 18, he didn't really recall that detail about the war. He was at an age where most other kids where either finishing up their last year of high school or going into it. Not him, he was leading the squad that his late father had formed to the enemy. Nervous, hell yeah, he was, but the training that he had gotten from the Academy, had allowed him to take the fight to Andross all by himself, despite the protest from his team. It had also had help him defeat him and get out of the base before it was destroyed.
Now, fast forward nearly 9 years ahead, he was doing the same thing again, but with exceptions, he was older and had more experience in fighting. So the feeling of nervous was still there, but not as much as he had that day, for he was still was heading into the unknown, but this time he was heading in it not by himself, but with friends that have proven their value on numerous times.
He looked on his right, there was Falco and despite his strife with him, he had proven himself that he was loyal and a good friend to him in the long run. Then he looked on his left, he saw that Krystal was there, and while he didn't like the idea of her being there, but he did like the idea that there was another person at the control of an Arwing that knew what they were doing. For it wasn't the fighter that made the pilot, it was the pilot that made the fighter, he had made that clear when he defeated the Wolfen II on the surface of Venom. With that he knew that Slippy was behind him and while his skills won't up to to pare to rest of the team, but it was his contributions to the tech side of the team that had help them out before, like how to destroyed the different type of enemies that they had face before. It was this fact that had allowed him to stay on the team, despite various different protests from some of the team.
Seeing this and knowing that his team, despite some of the personal in fighting between all of them, was with him on this mission, he had sense of clam that had replace the feeling of nervousness that he had before. A little smile had appeared on his face and he was about to give out commands to his team before they would enter into the fray, but he was stop from doing that by a the sight of something that he didn't expect to see. He saw that another craft that had appeared in front of them.
Fox could see that this new craft was clearly one that was build for speed with its sleek lines. He also could see that this new craft had the look of the pre-space fighters that he had seen in pictures in his history books back when he was a child. While the alien craft had a familiar look to it, it still had an alien look to it. One of the features that stuck out with him was the twin-pronged fuselage that had left the cockpit open and he wonder why was this ship designed like this, but there had to be a reason that was behind it, because if not, it wouldn't of been design like that.
But, he didn't have the time to wonder about the fighter and the reason why it was with him, for his Arwing's computer had detected enemies that were coming there way. In a matter of seconds the battle was join...
