A/N: Current poll results...one vote for each option. Geez, guys, way to be helpful.
Seriously, though, I'm actually taking this poll into account as I consider what to write, so vote, vote, vote.
Anyway, no need to wait any longer, cliffy haters, the next chapter is here. Enjoy!
McCloud CAB
"I'm glad everybody could make it," Pepper announced formally, taking his seat.
"Did we have a choice?" one of the Zoness delegates, a brown and red avian, pointed out with a snarky tone.
Pepper and Lance were the only two physically present in the emergency communications room, of course. Everybody else was connected via videochat. As such, a semicircle of eight holographic upper bodies surrounded the general and the chief scientific officer. Two from Katina, two from Zoness, two from MacBeth, and one each from Aquas and Fichina. There should have been nine; Pepper had wanted Fox McCloud to be in on the discussion, but Falco had told him that the leader of Star Fox was elsewhere.
"This is no time for jokes, Freimont," Pepper responded sternly. "Lance, read them the report."
The arctic fox cleared his throat.
"Yes, sir. At approximately 1305 Cornerian Standard Time, a then unknown object entered the Cornerian atmosphere at an exceedingly high velocity. Before we could even try to make contact with the object, it crashed down sixteen miles west-south-west of Corneria City.
"General Pepper soon dispatched my team and me to investigate the wreckage. We loaded all of our gear onto a helicopter and headed out.
"Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the crash site. As protocol dictates, I started the examination by using a radmeter to check for any dangerous radioactive materials or emissions.
"Starting on the side facing away from the city, I began to move in a slow circle around the dark grey, elongated object. At first, the radmeter only read background radiation. As soon as I reached the end facing the city, though, my instrument spiked to over one million rads per hour.
"I jumped away as quickly as I could. There seemed to be a concentrated beam of gamma radiation emanating from the object. To get more information on how the beam was widening and weakening, I decided to stand about a meter away and check the strength and width once more.
"We would have destroyed it then and there, but we didn't have any munitions or explosives to do it with. Instead, I got everything packed up, we all got back into the helicopter, and I started doing some calculations in my head immediately.
"At this point, I contacted General Pepper and told him of my findings. To make a long story short, I'll just give the results now. While the object was on the Cornerian surface, everywhere in Corneria City between Grennick and Flyer's Park was taking about 800 to 1100 rads per hour.
"The object was only actively releasing radiation for thirty minutes; however, a high enough dose has been given to each resident of Corneria City to all but ensure a 50% mortality rate. To put it simply, even with the best medical treatment, about half of the city's population will die."
Lance paused for a moment to let things sink in. The silence was so thick, and so profound, that it was almost…deafening. The other eight around the table seemed shocked, the major was sure, even though they did their best to hide it.
Lance was himself barely keeping his composure. The bitter taste of defeat and despair he thought he had washed out less than a half-hour before were suddenly shoving its way back to the surface. The calm, stone-faced expression he was keeping suddenly became the last line of defense from a breakdown.
He took a sip of water and a deep breath before picking up again.
"While we made our way back to the base, General Pepper promptly had the rest of my crew run a backtrace using our state of the art TRACERT supercomputer," Lance continued, bragging just a little bit. "The results were in as soon as I got back. Assured of the utmost accuracy, my men told me the object came from System 77."
That time, eyes certainly widened in the circle of elites, probably for the same reasons that Lance's eyes had back in Pepper's office. System 77? I thought it was underdeveloped! And suddenly they have all this technology? and so on.
"The general and I discussed it for a while. Originally, his plan was to order retaliation immediately; however, I theorized that if System 77 wanted to wage war, then why were there no battleships, cruisers, infantry, et cetera, taking advantage of the confusion?
"Without many other options, we chose to use the device created through Project Deep Space Alliance, better known as the ansible. If you'll recall, this device is capable of communicating with any point in the universe directly and immediately when given coordinates.
"Using the coordinates obtained from the backtrace, Pepper and I attempted to contact the inhabitants of Planet 77-3, the only inhabited planet in the system. Unfortunately, all we received was a choppy, broken signal with scraps of conversation permeating the static. We could not figure out why.
"Soon afterwards, General Pepper called this meeting, and it is currently 1406 Cornerian Standard Time," Lance said, finished with the report. He set it down on the elliptical table in front of him, and sat back in his chair, glad that it was over.
"Thank you, Lance, good job. And so, we reach the reason why I called this meeting," Pepper explained. "I need your input. Frankly, this situation baffles me. I'm asking these questions: What is the deal, technologically speaking, with System 77? Why would they launch only one missile-like object? And, finally, what do we plan to do about it?"
The eight delegates once again sat in silence as they tried to make sense of the information before them. Pepper's eyes bored into each and every one, practically begging for any input. He was willing to admit it was a lot of information to take in at once, but he was at least hoping for immediate reactions of disgust and anger. Instead, everybody looked rather confused; they were glancing side to side rapidly, turning their heads awkwardly, and staying quiet.
All except for one. And that one was Freimont.
"So, let me get this straight," he began disbelievingly. "This radiation bomb just crashes down onto Corneria, silently poisoning everyone in the city. And you send a completely unarmed scientific team, without any guns or explosives, to check it out?"
"Yeah, what's your point?" Pepper spoke.
"Don't you think that's a little careless, sir? Especially considering that you had no idea of the origin of this object?
Many of the other delegates started to murmur in agreement. Pepper started to fume underneath his stoic composure.
"Look, we can talk about probable mistakes later, Freimont," the general said, rubbing his temples.
"I'm just pointing this out. Lance, how many lives do you think would have been saved if you had been able to destroy it on the spot?"
The vulpine began to mutter to himself, working through the numbers in his head.
Let's see, at an average of 950 rads per hour, that's a 30 minute dose of 425 rads…20 is 30 minus 10, so 425 minus about 160… 265 rads…so the mortality rate would lower to…let's see.
Lance wished he had the actual tables in front of him. While he knew the mortality rate from radiation poisoning dropped sharply when the dose was below 1000 rads, it was hard to come up with a figure off the top of his head. In the end, though, he had no other choice.
"The reduced dose would've lowered the mortality rate from 50% to…I'd say 20 or 25%. In terms of life, that would have saved around…415 million lives." He tried his best not to think about that many nameless, faceless Cornerians who would die thanks to that little decision to abandon the guns.
Sixteen eyes bored right back at Pepper, each holding a mix of disappointment and anger. The old hound had no idea what to tell them, other than that little fact was off-topic. He sighed in annoyance.
"Ok, I'll acknowledge that a mistake was made there, but we can talk about mistakes when this entire System 77 situation is resolved. Right now, I need you to help me answer the three questions I posed not even ten minutes ago: What is the deal, technologically speaking, with System 77? Why would they launch only one missile-like object? And, finally, what do we plan to do about it?" He repeated them word-for-word to make sure it was completely crystal clear.
Freimont seemed to back off, his point made clear. The rest appeared to be puzzling over these questions just as hard as Pepper and Lance had. And who could blame them?
This time, a canine from Katina was the one to open up a discussion.
"Twelve years ago, that system was classified as underdeveloped, correct?" His ears flopped a bit as he cocked his head sideways.
"Yes, sir," Lance confirmed, beating Pepper to the punch.
"And now, they are suddenly able to hit us with…uh…" he paused, trying to find the right words to describe the object. "Some kind of radiation…bomb, I guess?"
"Indeed, Grey," Pepper acknowledged. The general wondered for a moment why he didn't call it an R-bomb, before stupidly remembering that the only ones who knew about it where sitting physically in the room.
Grey furrowed his brow and rubbed a paw on his chin in thought. As soon as he raised it again to speak, though, a cold, chilling voice snuck in the first word.
"If you ask me, the radiation bomb is a diversion," it said flatly.
Everyone recoiled, but no one could figure out whether it was the voice's theory or its intensity that caused it.
"Jason, you can't be ser—" Grey tried to interject.
"Do not address me by my first name again, Grey," the lupine delegate from Fichina growled. Not very good in social situations, and still sour about being assigned to lead the only base on the tundra planet, Brigadier General Jason Schodek was not to be messed with.
"Why would you believe that, Schodek?" the canine replied, venom in his voice.
"Well, first of all, this object has distracted the ten highest ranking officers in the Cornerian United Defense Force," he started, giving a condescending look to Pepper.
The general rolled his eyes, but begrudgingly continued to listen. Schodek was on to something.
"Second, it gives perfect explanation to the 'one bomb and nothing else' dilemma. They're just biding their time, waiting for this opportunity. And, finally, maybe you should end this meeting so we can find out."
"Oh, come on, Schodek, don't you think that's a little—"
"Hold it, Grey, he makes an interesting point."
Schodek's stoic face morphed into a smug grin.
"While I don't intend to end the meeting, I have no problem with scaling up the base's readiness."
With that, he pulled out the laptop kept in the emergency communications room and logged himself on. With the stroke of a key, he could give orders, communicate with anyone in the system at will, and even remotely arm weapons, all from one location. It was so convenient, and so easy, that all he had to do to increase the base's readiness was to type in the following phrase: Increase readiness to ALERT2.
"Ok, that should do it," he announced. Everybody upstairs would probably be rushing to their post, looking for a threat that may or may not come. Pepper knew it would probably piss off a few soldiers, but Schodek had incredible intuition when it came to such things.
"With all due respect, you two, can I finish my statement?!" Grey very nearly shouted. Being outspoken by his colleagues was something that the canine was getting sick of.
Every eye turned on him, and each face had an eyebrow raised. They seemed to take a dull interest in what he had to say.
"Has anyone…ANYONE…considered that this may just be some kind of accident?"
"Yes," Pepper and Lance said simultaneously, remembering their conversation from earlier.
"We already decided against it. The placement and orientation of the object was just too coincidental, too perfect," Lance explained, practically reading Pepper's mind as he did so.
"Well, that's just it," Grey continued, crossing his arms. "Maybe this IS all one big coincidence. Not a very pleasant one, sure, I'll admit that, but just one big deadly coincidence."
"If it was a coincidence, Grey, than why hasn't System 77 told us so?" the other Katina delegate pointed out.
At this, Grey couldn't remember the answer. It had been right on the tip of his tongue, but Schodek had jumped in and derailed his train of thought with his rather rude interruption. His arms fell down to his sides as he accepted defeat from his own brain.
As soon as Pepper and everybody else was ready to move the discussion forward, the ursine from the Aquas base brought Grey's idea back to life.
"If you ask me, Grey makes a decent point," she said, ears perking up. "While Schodek may be right, it seems the accident explanation is equally likely.
"Once again, ma'am, if it was an accident, why haven't they told us so?" Schodek said, his condescending attitude prevalent in every single word.
"You said the ansible communication didn't work, right?"
"This is true, yes," Lance confirmed, nodding his head.
"At the risk of wording this terribly, how badly did it not work?" she asked awkwardly, head cocked sideways.
"…I…I don't follow," the white vulpine replied.
"Umm…shoot…" the ursine tripped over her tongue, trying to convey her question in a way that didn't leave everybody scratching their head in confusion. "Like, did you actually get a definitive signal, or…?"
"Oh…oh! I see what you mean now," he exclaimed quietly. "Yes, we did link to an actual signal, but the quality was terrible."
"Could you elaborate on that a little more, Lance?"
"Well, ok, um…" he laughed nervously. Something about talking to that particular bear seemed to short-circuit his thinking cap. "For video, we only got purple static, and…uh…the audio was very choppy."
"I see," she acknowledged. "Now…I'm no communications expert, but…it seems as if you were trying to access a signal that shouldn't have been tampered with."
The ursine mentally slapped herself. That was far from what she was trying to say.
"So, you're saying that the ansible accidently hacked into a private signal? I fail to see how that's relevant," Pepper responded.
"No!...well, maybe, but what I'm trying to say is that maybe the ansible communication didn't work because System 77 doesn't have an ansible."
Nobody replied, but everyone looked on curiously as if to ask, Go on…
"You have to remember it has only been twelve years since we found them and classified them as underdeveloped. I don't think that'd be enough time to advance…you know…to our level. Basically, we couldn't talk to them because they don't have an ansible; in the same way…er…I mean likewise, they can't tell us this whole thing is an accident they're still underdeveloped."
"My point exactly," Grey agreed.
The other eight, except for Schodek, were at least somewhat impressed with the explanation. Even more so because it came from the usually bumbling mouth of the Aquas base leader.
Lance was more than ready to believe the ursine. Not only because he had a crush on her, no, but also because that's what he has been secretly wanting the whole time. As mentioned before, he had a very strong desire to contact System 77. In fact, the vulpine was already planning out a way to reveal the Lylat System to the System 77 inhabitants under the guise of deep space exploration. If he succeeded, he wouldn't just be another chief scientific officer; he'd pioneer the first interspecies alliance in Lylatian history.
Goddamn, that would be amazing. Hell, I'd be the most famous person ever! Even more so than Fox McCloud and his—
"You all can't seriously be believing this bumbling bear's naïve theory!" Schodek yelled, snapping Lance out of his fantasy in the process.
"Calm yourself, Schodek, her opinion is just as important as anyone else's," Pepper warned. The lupine responded by crossing his arms and folding his ears back in anger.
"…Anyway, I might even go so far as to say the object wasn't even meant to hit Corneria," Grey hypothesized, putting the conversation back on the right track. "Heck, they could have been trying to, as she put it"—he nodded to the ursine—"get to our level, but we were just in the way."
"While the accident theory does seem to be far-fetched, you two are making some good arguments," the general conceded, getting less and less paranoid of war with each passing minute.
"General, with all due respect, please tell me you're not serious!" Schodek pleaded, furious. "This accident talk is absurd! It's nothing more than an idealist fantasy created by officers who can't understand the realities of war—"
"That's quite enough, Schodek!" Pepper, Lance, and Grey all found themselves scolding at the same time. Suddenly, the air turned cold and tense as the three of them teamed up to stare the lupine down.
"Have you forgotten that the Lylat Wars ended barely six months ago?" the general spoke as his calm yet powerful voice morphed into one of guttural fury. "Have you forgotten how close we came to losing it all? Have you forgotten that if it wasn't for Star Fox, none of us would be standing here right now? So don't you dare talk down on us for 'not knowing the reality of war,' Schodek, because I assure you, it is all too clear."
For a time, the only thing that was heard was the sound of Pepper's heavy breathing. Everyone else was stunned into silence at the powerful outburst, especially Schodek. He had never seen the general this agitated, this enraged, this furious. It never came across him to guess that the war was still a sore spot.
Lance took a cautionary step back, paws out and tail raised. He had never expected to see Pepper like this either.
"So…that leaves only one question unanswered, right? What do we plan to do?" Freimont asked, remembering how the general had almost rubbed the three questions into his face earlier.
Nobody answered immediately; they were still in shock from Pepper's emotionally fueled comeback. The officers were finding it incredibly hard to know if the general was ready to take suggestions again or not.
There was one brave soul among them, though.
"If you ask me, I think we should just do nothing," Grey suggested. "We'll let events play themselves out, and act accordingly."
Everybody except Schodek seemed to murmur in agreement. The lupine was still recoiling from recent events.
"Grey's right," the second Zoness delegate agreed. "We just don't know enough make a logical decision. Of course, increasing readiness across the board would probably be smart as well."
It was here that Lance sensed his chance. If he worded his proposal correctly, he could have a ship headed to System 77 by morning. Plus all of the fame that would come with it.
"Hold on, I have another idea," he revealed, an almost evil grin on his muzzle. "We don't know why they launched this radiation bomb at us, so why don't we ask them?"
"Lance, are you…" Schodek started to insult the vulpine, but he caught himself knowing that Pepper was sick of his chastising attitude. "…Don't you remember that the ansible communication failed?"
"Of course I do. I wasn't talking about the ansible," he alluded, his grin widening.
"Well, then, what are you talking about? It's not like we can just go to System 77 and ask them ourselves."
"Why not? We have the technology. Provided we could secure the extra fuel required, it shouldn't be terribly hard to actually travel there and figure out what's going on."
"And what if they react with violence? Look at us. We nearly attacked over an unmanned object," Freimont recalled.
"There's the critical difference. Our ship wouldn't be unmanned. There would be many of us, including anthropologists, diplomacy experts, the whole package. We go there, clear up this radiation bomb business, maybe share some of our technology, and look at that. We've made friends with other beings in the universe," Lance described, his smile never departing.
"I could get on board with that," Grey mentioned. "If everybody else is cool with it, I wouldn't mind meeting some otherworldly beings."
That attitude seemed to prevail. Nobody really wanted to make a concrete decision on Lance's idea, but they would agree if everybody else did.
Except for Schodek, of course. He was staunchly keeping to his act of war theory. He easily saw that he was in the minority, though, and that nobody was really happy with him, so he relegated to not speak up.
"That's actually an interesting idea, Lance," Pepper conceded as he worked out the pros and cons in his head. "I doubt many races could admit to having allies thousands of light-years away…"
Lance looked at the general with hopeful eyes. All he needed now was his good word, and he could realize his dream in no time flat.
"Sorry, though. I think I'll have to pass on that suggestion," Pepper said, noticing the vulpine's look. He did his best to let him down easy. "Look, Lance, I just don't think we're ready. Not only are we short on funds from the Lylat Wars, but once the death toll rises and people realize what's going on, they'll be screaming bloody murder, not make friends."
Lance's heart still dropped like a rock. Those were not the words he expected to hear; they were the polar opposite of that. He sank back down into his chair, and he just stared at his feet.
"That's also why I think we should go with Grey's original idea. Let's see how events play out. We just don't know enough to do anything definitive at the moment. Increase base readiness if you like, I'm not making it a requirement. If push comes to shove, be ready to meet again," Pepper ordered, finally back to his calm, official tone.
Alarm bells started to go off inside Lance's brain. These bells were signifying a logical absurdity. A logical absurdity that could really help the vulpine's case…if he could find it, that is.
Luckily for Lance, spotting logical absurdities was second nature to him.
"General, one moment," he called, getting the old hound's attention. "If the people are screaming bloody murder…how is doing nothing better than going to System 77 and getting a logical explanation? If this is war, then let it be war, but it seems that if this is a misunderstanding, then maybe, just maybe, the sense will douse their bloodlust."
"You said the reason yourself, Lance. Half the city is slated to die. That's almost a billion lives. Frankly, I don't think there's anything that can be said to quell their bloodlust," Pepper explained.
Schodek nodded contentedly at that last part.
"There's so much we could learn, though. Why would you pass up an opportunity to study an extraterrestrial race?"
"I never said I was passing it up completely, Lance. I just think we should wait a while before getting involved in something of that scope."
"Oh, I see. Opportunity knocks, and you just slam the door in its—"
All of Pepper's senses were assaulted at once. His eyes saw an incredibly white flash, which faded back to black almost immediately. He heard the extremely loud sound of crumpling metal, splintering steel beams, and the jarring impact of metal on solid concrete before his ears went deaf from the astounding volume. He felt gravity glitch out as something threw him against the wall at his right side, and he felt tendrils of incomprehensible pain stretching out from his spine and tail. He could smell superheated gas and flaming wood from everywhere. He could taste blood, mucus, soil, and a million other things that shouldn't be in anyone's mouth. It was total sensory overload.
His brain, having no idea what to do with all the information it was being sent, tried to shut itself down into the depths of unconsciousness. It took all of Pepper's self-control to keep it awake and as alert as possible.
He coughed up some blood, but he was able to shove it back down into his stomach by some unknown miracle. The silence in his deafened ears was suddenly replaced with a loud, incredibly obnoxious ring. Pepper attempted to open his eyes, almost afraid of what he might find on the other side of his eyelids.
There wasn't much to see. The intense black behind his eyelids morphed into a slightly less intense black. All the dust floating around made it seem like he was watching an outdated movie. Almost nothing was discernible, except for a blacker, rectangular object a few meters ahead. Its orientation made it look like it was defying gravity.
Pepper started moving his limbs around. Amazingly, nothing seemed to be broken, and the sharp pains in his back began to fade towards a dull ache. Through this extending and retracting of extremities, the general discovered that the object was not defying gravity; rather, he was lying on his side.
His joints groaned unpleasantly as he forced himself to a sitting position. He tried to take stock of the situation again, now that his head was oriented correctly.
Suddenly, somewhere, an emergency light flicked on, bathing half the room in an eerie white fluorescent glow. Pieces of concrete, splintered wood, and steel bended beyond all recognition littered the room. A few wires hung from the ceiling, sparking intermittently like an electric snake. The dust began to settle as well, and the mysteries it was hiding began to be revealed.
Pepper swept the dirt and small bits of debris off of his person, stirring up the surrounding grains of dust into little eddies as he did so. The annoying ringing was fading fast, and the general swore he heard the sounds of the outdoors coming from somewhere.
It was at this point where he realized there were several large bloodstains on the front of his uniform. He reasoned it wasn't his; if he had a wound big enough to expel that much blood, he would have been dead already. That begged a question, though. Whose blood was it?
Pepper didn't have to look far. Once the little dust eddies dissipated, the answer was all too clear.
There, right where Lance was standing just moments before…was the missile.
It had landed right on top of him.
Pepper could see the vulpine's white-furred right arm stretching out from underneath the thing, paw pad up. His feet were just barely visible within the missile's shadow.
He suddenly lost the ability to breathe. For a while, he could only stare at the lifeless limbs. A claw stuck out from the pointer finger; it pointed to the sky as if he was signaling what killed him.
"…Lance…goddamn…" he uttered softly.
Not knowing what else to do, he let the shock and disbelief drive his actions. It drove him to crawl cautiously over to the former chief scientific officer's body. For whatever reason, it wanted Pepper to retrieve Lance's body from underneath what he finally recognized as a System 77 missile.
Therefore, he took a firm grasp of the arm's bicep. Assuming correctly that the missile was heavy, he knew it would take a lot of work to get his entire body out from underneath it. Fighting back a single tear, he prepared his muscles for a fight. The general started rocking back and forth, trying to get a little helping momentum.
He started counting down in his head.
Three…two…one…heave!
Instead of wrenching a corpse out from underneath the object, Pepper found himself rapidly whipping past the vertical. He extended his paws out to catch himself, but he was moving way too quickly to do it in time, and he wound up just face-planting onto a pile of broken concrete bits.
The pain in the general's muzzle, as well as his confusion, paralyzed him for a moment or two. He slowly raised himself on all fours, blowing a piece of bloody concrete out of his nose as he did so. The red liquid started to leak out of the reopened nostril.
He stared at the ground for a short period of time, vaguely pondering what just happened. When he looked up, he got his depressing answer.
Lance's arm had been severed at the shoulder.
When Pepper had tried to catch himself, he hadn't realized that he had let go of the arm, and now it was sprawled on top of a pile of dust against the wall ahead of him. As if on cue, the bloody severed end spat out a bit of blood once the general noticed it.
A new wave of shock and disgust ripped through Pepper's body. It was enough to force him to vomit into his mouth again. As the foul, acidy liquid was shoved back down into the stomach of the general, he found himself gasping for air once more. He started frantically looking around the room, searching for something, anything…anyone. Anyone who could whisk him away from the gruesome scene and tell him that nothing was wrong. Anyone who could write all the troubles away with the stroke of a pen.
Anyone who could be a savior.
Pepper's eyes finally fixated themselves on the entryway. The door had been blown off the hinges somehow. He half-expected Lance to walk in and laugh at the look on the general's face. Then, all the make-up and prop artists would follow, take a bow, and lastly the curtain would fall and everything would be ok.
Reality, however, quickly started to reassert its dominance over fantasy. The feelings of helplessness and disbelief started to eject from Pepper's body as the full explanation of what just happened made itself clear. Before he knew it, these feelings were rapidly being replaced with fury and vengeance. It was as if every cell in the general's body suddenly decided to secret pure hate.
Through this hate, he found new energy; an amount he never thought he was capable of having again. He practically sprang to an upright stance, prepared for whatever might come. Pepper stared down the darkened corridor, ready to challenge anyone who might make the mistake of exploring the demolished room.
When nobody came, he grew impatient and agitated with anything and everything. He no longer needed nor wanted a savior; instead he wanted someone to yell at, and something to take revenge on.
With revenge in mind, Pepper came up with a new plan of action. One as violent and as obvious as it was simple and clear.
"Can anybody hear me?" he shouted down the hallway, anger wrapping its vicious tendrils around his voice.
He didn't get a response from the hallway; on the other hand, it came from behind him. The unexpected direction of the sound caused him to twist around to a fighting pose.
"Pepper, holy shit, is that you? You're alive?" Schodek's cold, deep, yet trembling voice spoke. The general eased up as he realized that somehow, the lupine's audio transmission was still working.
"Yeah…I'm alive," he breathed. "But Lance isn't."
"Lance is dead? What the hell happened over there?" he asked, still surprised.
"I'll tell you what the hell just happened, Schodek. System 77 just took one casualty too many," Pepper growled with a tone even he didn't know he was capable of producing. Nonetheless, he let the words strike plenty of fear into the lupine's heart.
Schodek didn't even need to see the general to know how enraged he was. The lupine was one of the few that knew that Lance's and Pepper's relationship went much deeper than fellow chief officers. They were also incredibly close friends. Fox McCloud might take a bullet for the general, but Buddy Lance would step in front of a speeding Arwing if he thought there was any chance to protect him.
Or, he soon realized, an interstellar missile barreling through fifteen stories' worth of terra firma and underground military structure.
"…If you were alive…then…why didn't you answer when I called out earlier…?" he asked, stuttering.
"The reason isn't important. I need you to do something for me, Schodek. Contact the other seven base leaders that were present and tell them I'm declaring war. Tell them to have as many interstellar ships as possible ready to depart for System 77 by no later than 2100 Cornerian Standard Time."
"What about Star Fox, sir? Didn't you say they were supposed to be present?"
"...Don't worry. I'll contact them myself."
Comrade + Jedelas: Technically, I don't think one can be a higher rank when talking to a specific person. I was more or less showing off MacAllen's creativity. Made for a fun altercation, though.
Officer Hot-Pants: Even though the odds are astronomical, I think the universe is big enough for it to have to happen somewhere at some point. o.O
Wolfsalvo: Glad I've made a satisfied customer out of you. :3
Twilit Smash Nova: Frankly, I don't understand why human-Lylatian fics don't seem to interest most people. What could be more fun than humans discovering that furries actually exist? I guess it's not my call, either, but...you know, it just seems a little ridiculous.
A/N: See you in two weeks...oh...hold on...maybe in a little more...I just realized what day it is two Thursdays from now...fuck.
Ok, there will be an update in two weeks, but not in exactly two weeks this time. See ya!