Chapter 10: Star Koala/Rabbit
Everything was not going well for the Starwolf team. In fact, everything was going wrong.
The Chancellor had sent them to Titania to investigate the possibility that Andross was starting up his old cloning facilities again. He was.
After the Lylat Wars, Captain Shears, posing as the commanding officer of Corneria's military base on Titania, successfully cloned Andross using the directions given to him by his master. Though Andross was cloned, Starfox quickly defeated him before he even left the base, which they collapsed on him. Apparently, collapsing the base was not enough to discourage any further cloning activity, and Andross had just that in mind. Why did he want to clone himself? The Cornerian military proposed the following reasons; two heads are better than one, Andross wanted to have a ruling counterpart in the Lylat System, or he was testing the possibility of cloning an army. I say the elite of Corneria wanted the cloning materials for some future diabolical scheme they would hatch. Just throwing that out there. Maybe.
Where was I? Oh, yes; everything went wrong from the start. Their ships malfunctioned from the ionic dust of Titania in the middle of a dogfight, causing their communication systems to go offline, and their g-diffuser systems (why was it always those?) to shut down. They were quickly shot down, and crash-landed (halfway across the planet from each other, it seemed). Their ships were wrecked for a second time within a week, and Wolf was stranded in the middle of the Titanian desert, with no oasis around for miles. The only clue he had for his location was a homing device that pointed him in the direction of the compound. He had no choice but to complete his mission.
Wolf opened the cockpit of his Wolfin, and was immediately blinded by the sun and dust blown into his eyes. He jumped out, landing on the soft but scorching sand of a dune. He pulled out his supply sack, slinging it across his shoulder, and strapped on his weapons and ammunition belt. Glancing down at the direction the homing device was pointing towards, he set off in the direction of the compound.
He was almost hypnotized by the endless sands and repetitive motion of staggering up and sliding down dune after dune. When he had drained both of his water containers and completely exhausted himself, he knew it was time for the monotony to stop. Setting up his tent was easy (by that time in the future, it must have been) The tent was made out of a solar-cell mesh that absorbed the sun's rays and converted them into electricity to charge his weapons or as air conditioning. Next he set up a machine which converted moisture from the air into drinking water, and took out his lunch. He opened the meal packet a little too quickly and the sandwich wrap fell out onto the sand. He cursed and leaned over to pick it up, but noticed it had landed next to a large raw-hide boot. He followed the boot up to the owner, which was an Indian-looking bear. He was bear-chested (get it, bear-chested? Heh, heh... that wasn't funny) with a belt instead slung across his chest, but he still wore a modern pair of jeans.
"How did you find me way out here?" Wolf asked.
"I saw you from village." the bear answered in a deep, halting tone. He pointed to a small town located on a raised oasis not a mile away.
"Oh." How the heck did I miss that?
After Wolf packed up his small camp-site, he followed the Indian bear into the village, where they had a bite to eat at a restaurant.
"When I see you, you look lost."
"Yeah, my ship crashed a few miles from here. Wasn't my fault; this annoying dust got into my star-ship and screwed up the g-diffuser and communications system." Wolf realized the Indian probably had no idea what he was talking about.
"Where you want to go?" The bear asked him.
After sipping his beer, Wolf decided not to get too complicated for him.
"There is a building, not too far from here. Giant metal birds land next to it frequently, and warriors with lightning sticks shoot anyone in sight. Inside, they are duplicating things, people. The building looks-"
"Oh, you mean cloning facility." The bear cut him off. "Go north-west from here, about five miles." Next he pulled out a writing pad and a pencil. "Here are the coordinates." He tore off the piece and handed it to Wolf.
"Uh, thanks." Note to self; grammar or ancestry is no indicator of intelligence.
When they were done with their lunch, the bear showed him to the edge of the city where he pointed him in the right direction. Wolf thanked him and once again set off into the red desert.
It was mid-afternoon when he glanced down at the coordinates of the note and the ones on his homing device. They nearly matched; he was almost there. He looked up and notice two figures lying just under the crest of the dune in front of him. He decided to sneak-up on them. As he got closer to the top of the dune, he realized they were a jack-rabbit and a koala, peeking over the edge of the dune with binoculars.
"I can't tell what he's holding." The jack-rabbit said to his companion. "It looks yellow and curved."
"I say it looks more white than yellow," The koala answered back. "It also has a black handle."
"No, wait, he just took it out of its casing. Now it definitely is more white than yellow."
"Did you see that, mate? He just threw it on the ground! It must be a disposable gun that's bio-degradable."
"I have never seen a blaster so stylish." The jack-rabbit said. "It's kind-of... elegant."
"Did you see that? He just took a bite out of it!"
"It must be edible, too."
"Rico, that's not an advanced gun we've been staring at for the past ten minutes! It's just a banana!"
"You're right! I can't believe this! All this time we'er supposed to be on reconnaissance duty, we've just been starin' at a monkey soldier eating his lunch-"
"Freeze!" Wolf yelled at them, pointing his blaster.
The two raised there paws, sat up, and slowly turned around.
"Crikey! We thought you was a slinky from down there!" The koala exclaimed.
"G'day, mate! You must be that Starwolf fella!"
"Keep your hands up." Wolf warned.
"Don't you understand?" The koala asked. "We're yer contacts!"
Wolf was skeptical. There was no way two fools like these could be his ground men.
"The sun rises in the east." Wolf said
"And sets in the north/south!" They both answered, though with different directions at the end.
"Kobe, it was north."
"It bloody wasn't!"
"OK YOU TWO!" Wolf shouted over their bickering. "What are your names?"
"Kobe, mate!" said the koala.
"And Rico!" said the jack-rabbit.
"Listen you two," Wolf was growling now. "There will be no funny business, and do exactly what I tell you. Our mission is to get in there, plant the bomb, steal the research, and get out."
"Right, mate... but wouldn't it be smarter and safer to steal the information, and then plant the bomb?"
"Whatever. Just give me the bomb."
The two waited for each other.
"Go-on; give it to 'em, Rico."
"Kobe, you had the bomb, remember?"
"Oh, bugger, I did 'ave it. Must've left it back at the shanty."
"What the heck is wrong with you two!? Fine, we'll have to improvise... so here's the plan, I'll sneak into the-"
"We already have a plan, don't we mate?"
"We bloomin' do."
"See that elevated track over there?" He pointed towards a supply track that was raised about fifty feet over the desert, disappearing into the distance. "We managed to snatch a supply cart off o' it. You can use that to get into the compound. One o' your friends is up there already."
"BZAaAaAaAH! Wolf yelled as he was electrocuted by a nasty weapon. He fell face first onto the tracks.
"Oh, uh... sorry Wolf." Leon nervously apologized from behind the supply cart. "Didn't know it was you."
"That's... ok... Leon." Wolf replied, his voice muffled as he was still face down in the tracks.
"You two Aussies again!" Leon exclaimed as he helped Wolf up.
"Couldn't bear to be without us, could you?"
"Alright now; get in there and bury yourselves underneath those supplies."
Wolf and Leon climbed into the supply cart and began piling food, ammunition, and toilet paper on top of themselves.
"We had a team just like you guys, once." Rico mused.
"Yeah; called it, 'Starkoala,' we did."
"No, I distinctly remember us calling it, 'Starrabbit.'"
"So you guys had two other members once?" Wolf asked, as they covered the cart with a tarp.
"Chelsea and Kevin. Nice fellows, they was."
"What happened to them?"
"Rico, what did happen to them?"
Rico paused, about to push the cart down the slope. "Blimey, I think they were doin' the same thing you are."
"Oh, yeah, now I remember. Didn't really work when they tried it."
"Wait, what!?" Wolf poked his head out of the cart.
"Don't worry; it'll work this time." And with that, the jack-rabbit and koala pushed the cart over the slope, and it took off.
"WAIT! WAAAAAAaaaaaiiit!" Wolf shouted as they speed down the roller coaster-like track.
"Keep yer arms 'n legs inside the vehicle at all times, and you'll be fine!" Kobe called after them. "Nice mates, they was. C'mon, let's find the other two."