Mission 11 – Fox McCloud and the Temple Goes BOOM!

They were now at an entranceway to a t-junction onto a well lit passageway, runes glowing on the walls, as well as more frequent sconces, and signs of passage. There was no obvious sign of a further ramps, down or up. Fox stepped out to look, while the others stepped back into the unlit corridor, Ema indicating silence again.

According to the Cloudrunner description, the holding chamber would be off to their right and several more levels down, but was that the best way to go. He decided to try something that had worked a few times on Sauria. He gripped the disguised staff, closed his eyes, and thought about the best route to take.

As it had happened on Sauria, suddenly he could see the passage gliding past, as if a remote holo-cam was flying down it. The passage opened out into a room, and the viewpoint turned right down a spiral ramp, dropping two levels before flying down another passage and into a larger chamber full of cages. There were doorways to the right, and on the far side, and Interdictor robots hovered over them, illuminating the thresholds with their sensor beams.

'You saw that?' He thought to them, and got back agreement mixed with surprise. He thought back 'What? It's one of the first things I learned to do when I picked up the staff, I heard Krystal, the other Krystal, tell me that I should learn to 'heed the staff's call through my hands, and see what lies beneath'. Then I had my first vision.'

Ema responded out loud, or rather out quietly. "But that's not... No, we'll talk about this later, for now take the lead. If we do run into any Sharpclaw you distract we'll have a few more heartbeats to act. Krystal, keep seeking with your empathic sense."

The last part was a single word in Ancient, akin to 'listening' for hearing. The other two were attuned to her and would sense her sensing any threat. The trio moved forward in silence, following Sharpclaw-Fox.

They made it to the first chamber without incident, then Fox stopped dead, looking around. The other two could feel his surprise, but the exact nature was unclear. There was an entrance to another passage on the far end of the left wall, and the arch that lead to the spirals on the right, but the room was stacked with wooden crates, with a strange symbol on the side, three curved arms reaching from the centre at 120 degree angles. There was also a stack of metal barrels to one side.

In response to an impatient mental prod from Ema, Fox started forward again, damping down his emotions as he lead down the ramp, which also carried on up. Krystal was starting to get an impression of more Sharpclaw warriors, a large number, but it was distant, below and towards the other side of the pyramid.

It became clear why this ramp was disused, the stone was worn, even cracked, and half the lights were out or flickering, due to trickles of water that had eroded their way down the walls. But the floor seemed solid enough, and at least they shouldn't meet anyone.

The lower corridor was just as empty, but the room opposite the ramp wasn't; filled with more metal barrels and crates, similar to the ones above. The others felt Fox's confusion even more clearly, but the exact reasons were unclear, as if he knew what was going on, but wouldn't let himself accept it. They knew what the items were, they'd seen both in his presentation but if there were other things from Sauria here, why was he so puzzled?

They got to the prison chamber without incident. Fox had already suggested a way to deal with the Interdictor drones, and as he dropped his disguise, Krystal stepped forward into the doorway, raising her staff shield as Ema came in under it and struck with her own staff.

The drone's lightning bolt was stopped, but the shield didn't interfere with the return shot, and the unarmoured robot's hull was smashed in. It tumbled out of the air and smacked into the stone floor, spitting sparks. Fox stepped in after them and kicked it to one side as they looked around.

There were over a dozen adult Cloudrunners here, slumped on various parts of the floor. Some had children nestled under protecting wings, while others had welts that showed they'd worn saddles, or been struck. Unlike the Cloudrunner Fortress, there were no cages, but the heavy shackles and chains on the adults served the same purpose. The sudden entrance of the three Protectors disturbed them out of their listless state, causing the nearer ones to look up, and hug their children closer.

Ema spoke up. "Don't be scared, we're Protectors, and we're here to rescue you!".

"But how..." One of the nearest Cloudrunner females said, standing. Her faded wing paint, and fluting on the trailing edges of her wings showed she was senior, both in age and responsibility.

"Heh! Those green goons bit off more they could chew when they attacked our ship!"

Krystal added, "It's alright, your families are all safe. They're with our ship, the 'New Dawn'. All we have to do is get you out of here and it will carry you to safety."

Fox was already moving over to the female. "Hi, I'm Fox, that's Krystal, and the big green lady over there..."

"Can introduce herself! Protector Ema Raued, at your service. First we need to free them."

"On it!" Fox examined the shackle and the Cloudrunner flinched as he drew his staff. He noted that, and added it to the bill the Sharpclaws were going to have to pay. However, he projected all the reassurance he could as he said, "It's okay, I'm just checking your bracelet. Y'know, I don't think it's this season's fashion. Hold still."

He shifted a bit of stone under the hinge to support it, and struck down double handed, but carefully, with the point of the training staff. The hinge cracked, and the shackle fell away.

"Um... Fox?" Krystal was over by the far wall, where the other entrance was, just out of range of the Interdictor. She pointed to the key hanging up on a hook on the far side of the doorway.

Fox grinned. "Okay, that'd work too."

Krystal and Ema repeated their previous performance and got the key, and between that and multiple staff strikes, it was only a couple of minutes before all the Cloudrunners were freed. Ema got them organised, while Fox triggered his PDA communicator. The Great Fox, or even his Arwing comm system could have punched a clear signal through the walls, but between two unboosted PDA comms, the transmission was weak, barely enough for a voice signal. But that was sufficient.

"Fox calling the 'New Dawn'. Come in Master Ti!"

The red panda's voice was tinny and crackled. "Fox? You have them?"

"Yup! All the birds are free, and we're on our way out!"

Fox did some calculations in his head as the Cloudrunners formed up. They were light for their size, but carrying them was going to stretch the New Dawn's lift capacity to it's limit. Maybe the able bodied ones could take it in turns to fly alongside. Ema took point, while Krystal moved to the centre to help a particularly decrepit oldster, and Fox took tail position.

The line of Cloudrunners was halfway into the spiral when Krystal looked back. "Oh no, I think we're about to have company..."

To under-point her words, there was a yowl and hiss from the chamber, and the guttural voice of more than one Sharpclaw. One appeared silhouetted in the wide doorway, and toppled backwards as a blaster bolt from Fox punched through his chest plate.

"I'm coming back to help..." started Ema, only to be interrupted by Fox.

"No! What if they've flanked us, gotten ahead? You're the only cover these guys have!" gone was the subordinate attitude, this was Fox McCloud, leader of Team Star Fox, laying down the law. "The leader gets the mission done. Our mission is to get these people out. Don't make our actions worthless by forgetting that!"

As he spoke he drew a bead on another Sharpclaw, only to see it fall from a staff blast. Krystal was standing beside him, staff held level, and a determined expression on her face, which matched the steel toughness of her emotions. On the ship, she'd had no time to be scared. Now she was, but she was fighting it, and not one whit showed outwardly.

He continued, as the last Cloudrunner entered the ramp. "We can hold them, you get the Cloudrunners to the ship! We'll join you later!"

"Fine! But if either of you die, I'm going to kill you!" came the illogical but heartfelt response.

Krystal could sense Fox analysing the area, figuring out the best way to deal with the Sharpclaws massing inside the chamber. No more showed themselves for an easy kill, but the shapes indicated there were a lot of them. Single shots wouldn't break a rush through the doorway, not the way Sharpclaws kept coming. Charged shot? Still too focussed, and hitting the lintel might cause a blockage, or it could simply widen the door.

Suddenly a plan formed in his public mind, and she moved instantly to do her part, covering him as he hauled down barrels and laid them on their sides. As the rush finally started, he kicked off the three fuel barrels, smoothly but forcefully. They rolled down the passage, forming a rolling impediment to the Sharpclaw advance, and more.

It checked the front row, holding them in place as Krystal and Fox stood side by side, methodically taking down over-eager front runners. Three or four spears arced over the front rows towards the foxes, but Fox simply swayed out of the way of one that would have hit him in the head, while Krystal spun her staff in a defensive block that batted the other out of the air.

It took only a moment for the attackers to use the momentary break in fire and straddle the impediment. That was when the two foxes shifted their aim, and a combined blaster bolt and Fire Blast struck the centre barrel dead centre.

The explosion knocked the pair back, but not down, not quite. The majority of the warrior had been destroyed, presumably disintegrating as their kind seemed to, and the remaining ones were on the floor, and not getting up any time soon.

"Now that's how you do a barrel roll!" Fox said, putting up his blaster, and Krystal giggled, understanding the context from his clear mental image of a certain old rabbit giving flight advice. Not that either was actually hearing the other, the sound had been near deafening.

Heading up the ramp, they found the tail end of the procession still hadn't reached the starting level, let alone the one above where the door was. Ema's relief at sensing their return was palpable. Fox was looking back down the ramp and wondering if he should have rigged a booby trap, when Krystal shook her head. "More of them on this level, coming both ways..."

Fox heard the thought rather than the words, his ears were still ringing from the blast, but didn't even realise it. He squeezed past the few Cloudrunners between him and the exit, Krystal following. This time Ema didn't argue, though they could sense her anger at not being able to join them, tempered with reluctant acceptance that she had to do her part too.

Fox yanked down a stack of crates to scatter across the floor, forming obstacles to break up a charge. But this time he didn't have chance to 'do a barrel roll' before Sharpclaw started coming down both corridors into the chamber. Almost back to back, Fox took the left corridor in a marksman's stance, while Krystal took the right.

Raptor after raptor fell, but aimed shots took time, and the remainder got ever closer. None had spears, but there were plenty of maces and axes to go around. Finally Fox had to drop his blaster and draw his staff as two of his charge made it past the last of the boxes.

He leapt and brought his staff down in a strike that ended one of them right there, then fell back to avoid a swung mace, coming up with another strike that smashed the elbow of the arm wielding it, and following up with a combo under-sweep and thrust that left the Sharpclaw off balance, then caved in his breastplate.

The Protector staff was a slightly less powerful ranged weapon, and Krystal wasn't quite as practised, plus there had been fewer boxes fallen on her side. So four of the creatures got into striking range. She swung her staff across at head height, triggering the Ice Spray, which blinded and disoriented them, and held it on the end one, who froze up.

Fox noticed she was outnumbered, and cursed that he hadn't switched places before they got into a melee, but she was holding her own and more. The frozen one shattered from a well placed thrust, and Krystal faded back, circling to put the line between her and Fox. He didn't need a hint, diving in on his end of the line and smashing the confused Sharpclaw grunt to the floor. His follow-up made sure it would never get up again.

This gave the last two time to recover, but it made no difference, Fox and Krystal were both focussed on the fight,and each other, almost en rapport. Both Sharpclaws struck down with their axes, only to have the hafts blocked by twin staffs. Synchronised kicks to the belly using the leverage provided threw the two warriors together, and disarmed one, and together the two foxes, working as one delivered the coup de grace.

Krystal was breathing hard, but so was Fox. The vixen shook herself out of her own combat focus and exclaimed, "My goodness, I... I did it!"

"You certainly did! Stood your ground and kicked tail. Looks like all that work with Ema paid off!" Fox said, grinning broadly. Krystal could feel his approval.

'It helped that I had a partner I could rely on to back me up.' she thought.

"Same here. Can you sense the Cloudrunners?"

Krystal looked distant for a second, and he felt her senses reaching further again. "They're... out of the spiral and going out the door. I think Ema had to clear away a few Sharpclaws herself."

"Well lets..." Fox stooped down to recover his blaster and noticed one of the crates had cracked open, spilling some of it's contents. Venomian make timed detonators, the sort he'd found on improvised fuel barrel bombs. "... make sure no-one follows them."

He scooped up half a dozen along with the blaster, and put most of them in a side pocket of his backpack. A couple he held on to, and set them against barrels, adjusting switches. "Okay, when the light goes red, we have two minutes to get to a safe distance. If only these things could remote trigger..."

He set a timer on his PDA, then pressed a switch on one, then the other, and they started flashing. "Time to leave!"

They dashed up the remaining spiral, and along the corridor. Even as they did, Fox's comm software activated again.

Master Ti spoke. "Fox, the last Cloudrunners are coming aboard now, but there are Sharpclaw on the upper balconies, moving large metal things out... like shields with a large tube protruding, I think they're those cannon from your record. Ema's trying to clear them, but there's too many..."

"Then lift off as soon as you have everyone on, don't wait for us!" Fox called out, "If they catch you moored, no-one will get out! We'll try to give you fire support!"

Fox knew Sharpclaw, or rather Venomian-built cannon well. They used explosive shells, but the 'propellant' was a basic kinetic force field generator, allowing fine control of the range. When he'd used them, he'd managed to charge the force field with his staff, not having the code to activate the power, but these guys didn't have that problem. One of those shells hitting a light wooden hull...

The two foxes redoubled their pace, and burst out of the door onto the walk-way on the top of the wall. On the higher levels of the main pyramid, at least three turrets were being dragged out on lifter-skids by teams of Sharpclaw, and the bonfire was blazing up.

Meanwhile, the New Dawn was setting it's sails, even as the last Cloudrunner was helped on board. Other Cloudrunners were flying up, and you could just see the cables they were holding if you had low light vision. Blasts of fire were coming from the starboard rear side of the New Dawn, but they were far enough away that few were hitting even the crew of the nearest cannon.

Fox had his blaster out just as the first cannon set itself. It fired, and the explosive shell arced down to blow a hole in the wall just astern of the New Dawn, big enough to fly a Cloudrunner through. Half the roof, or walkway was gone as well, like a bite out of a cake. You could see the barrel traverse slightly, so the next time would be a direct hit.

However, Fox had come to a halt as soon as he was sure of a clear shot, and he was already starting a charged shot. There were an endless few seconds, and then he fired. His aim was slightly low, but it made no odds. A big chunk of the ledge under the cannon was vaporised, scorching Sharpclaw with molten rock, and the cannon, deprived of it's support, toppled forward down the side of the pyramid. It ended up upside down on the next level, surrounded by flaring Sharpclaw corpses.

The other cannon were slower to anchor themselves, and the New Dawn lifted, but so slowly, despite the efforts of over a dozen Cloudrunners. A trio of Sharpclaw grunts appeared at the pyramid door and Krystal turned and moved to engage them, covering Fox. One went down to a Fire Blast, while the other two engaged her in a furious melee.

A larger Sharpclaw was directing the fire of the central cannon, and said something that Fox heard clearly, but didn't want to accept. Fox had to move further along to get a viable trajectory on the cannon, and in that time the furthest one got off a shot.

It had swung to bear on the sky-ship, but overshot slightly, and the shot barely clipped it's starboard wing-sail. That was enough though. The wing-sail disappeared in a cloud of flame and smoke, and when it cleared, all that was left were stubs of yards, and a few shattered splinters hanging from shreds of sail and tatters of rigging.

Fox lined up on the middle one first, prepping another charged shot, and wrecked the upper works before it could fire, and taking out the Sharpclaw Alpha. Then he took the far one, and managed to connect with it's magazine. All the explosive shells went at once, and a whole section of the pyramid wall vanished in an explosion that illuminated the whole valley. Debris from it penetrated the far gun's damaged workings and must have hit some critical component, because it exploded in a secondary, but still impressive explosion.

When the dust cleared, you could see a massive hole had been punched in the side of the pyramid, exposing rooms and levels, like a cut-away drawing, and what looked to be a large central chamber as tall as the pyramid and as wide as the entire roof, which looked to be able to fold down from what he could see of the underside. It was bathed in a gentle yellow glow..

Fox looked at the wrist control of his PDA and called out, "There's still one big bang to come! Besides I need to see... C'mon, to the tower!"

He waited for Krystal to start running ahead, then raced off down the walkway, noting that the New Dawn was going over the ridge. They skirted the gaping hole, and didn't stop until they reached the tower door. Krystal raised her almost exhausted staff and triggered the seal, and they dashed inside.

Fox started up the stairs, and Krystal followed. They reached the highest chamber out of breath, muscles burning, but Fox moved over to a window on the side facing the pyramid. From here, he could see down into the chamber, and found what he'd expected to see. Part of the floor was like a stained glass window, slightly cambered, and glowing yellow.

The entire central chamber was built around a warp pad, but big enough to hold a regiment, or a medium sized sky-ship. He pulled down his zoom goggles, and focused in. Yes, there were stacks of supplies, even some jet-bikes along the edge of the chamber, and banners that he thought he'd never see again, the same tri-bladed symbol he'd seen on the crates.

He checked his PDA, only a few seconds more... "Get down!"

Krystal complied, but asked, "Surely we're far enough away?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that those other explosions were on the outside and blew inwards. This one will be inside. There's going to be debris, and I'm not sure how far it's going to be thrown..."

He punched his wrist holo-display, and it went from hovering flat over his PDA to upright. Krystal could follow the Cornerian symbols counting down on the timer centred in it as Fox was mentally counting down with them.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." There was a moment of silence. "Maybe I was a few seconds..."

They felt the noise, the vibration. It died away, but Fox hissed, "Stay down!" as Krystal started to rise. She heard a pattering from above like rain on the roof, and as it died away, Fox gave a sigh of relief. "Okay, any flying debris should have dropped by now."

They moved to the window to see the results. An entire corner of the pyramid was gone, the hole reaching almost to the one left by the magazine explosion, and from the internal illumination, it had breached the central chamber as well. Sharpclaw were fleeing, on foot and by jet bike and there was a creaking of tortured stone.

"Whoa, I didn't think it'd be that powerful..." Fox almost whispered.

Even as he spoke, the groan rose to a shriek, and the central part of the Temple collapsed in on itself, covering the exposed warp pad. Fox exhaled, and Krystal sensed it was an exclamation made up of equal parts of relief and regret.

"What?" she asked. "You've been thinking about something, your thoughts are clouded, but this all ties to your surprise at the things they had... What's wrong?"

She was interrupted by the beeping of Fox's wrist unit, and the pop up of a flat holo-image of Master Ti. "Fox, what's happened? Are you both safe?"

Fox made adjustments, popping a second screen showing his end of the conversation, and moving the holo-cam viewpoint from focussing on his face, to scanning the room. "We're safe, both of us. Are you guys okay?"

"No-one was hurt, thankfully, but with our wing-sail gone our ability to manoeuvre is almost gone. We can jury-rig a spare, but we'll have to set down to do it, and that will take some time. It's taking all the efforts of the Cloudrunners just to keep us in the air. That's why I was asking, we won't be able to come back to collect you right away, and I don't think any of the Cloudrunners will be able to fly again before tomorrow. When I saw the explosion, I feared for you both."

Fox made the holo-viewpoint look towards the window where the remains of the temple were visible. "Their own fault for leaving explosive stuff where any fox with a bit of skill at making things go boom could just trip over them. They won't be attacking from there any time soon. We'll be fine... looks like we'll have to be!"

"Then I shall leave you both to your rest." He sighed ruefully. "It will be several hours before Ema and I can do the same."

As he switched off, he noticed Krystal standing there, arms folded, radiating impatience and worry.

"Okay, sorry, this is kinda confusing. To start with, that temple was actually a Warpway, and I think it was one capable of reaching Sauria, even though it's back in the Lylat system. I'm sure of it, because that's where the Sharpclaw are coming from. And that's where the ships they capture are going to, some at least. The entire roof was built, or modified to fold out of the way so you could drop a ship in.

"But that's not the thing which has me worried, they're not just any Sharpclaw, they're General Scales army. And yet they can't be. Not unless what happened to me when that gate went kablooie on me was even weirder than I first thought. The only way I can figure it, I didn't just get thrown across space, I've been sent back in time, at least three years.. I said it was confusing."

Krystal felt his certainty, but that he still wasn't telling her everything. "That's... a rather strange idea to have. Could they not be using left overs from when General Scales took over?"

Fox sighed. "You think Team Star Fox does half a job? After Scales and Andross went down, we spent a month in orbit around Sauria, helping with the clean-up. We dumped all their war material on the largest asteroid in the debris ring. And during the Aparoid war, they weren't willing to take cover in the deep caves."

Krystal knew something of the Aparoid war from the talks they'd had while flying the New Dawn. He hadn't stated it, but she could imagine the situation.

"They lost a lot of their remaining population. In short they don't have the stuff, or the people to fight a war, and if they'd started getting aggressive again, Tricky, King Earthwalker would have let me know."

"However, these goons have identical banners, identical equipment, and I even heard an Alpha call out, 'Destroy them! General Scales will reward you!' I don't think it was some kind of religious thing, Sharpclaw don't really do that, and Scales was defeated, not something they'd revere. Besides, there's another proof, you."

"Me? You mean because I'm like the Krystal you met there, only younger?"

Fox sighed deeply, and she suddenly realised that he'd been denying this whole thing because he wanted to avoid hurting her. "You're the spitting image of her, you think and act like her, and most of all, you use her staff without any adjustment. But you're right, you're not her, not yet, and never will be because I ended up here. Though I have to keep reminding myself of that.

"I still don't know what sent me here, but now I know why, I'm certain. In the original scheme of things you'd have returned too late, to find your family... gone. You went with the Protectors, and became one yourself. You were dedicated, skilled, and when this business turned into a full scale war, you fought, but..."

He was trying to find a way to say it. "Andross tried to draw the life energy from Sauria to empower himself, turn into some sort of super being. I don't know whether that's what he wanted from Cerinia, but I know your older self believed that he destroyed Cerinia in the process. At the same time, you were transported to Sauria.

"I'm now sure I'm here to stop that, save Cerinia from destruction, but in the process I may doom Sauria, heck the whole Lylat system. My younger self needs the staff you left there to complete his mission. Without the payment for that mission, we won't be able to upgrade the Great Fox, and without the up-grades, we may not be able to stop the Aparoid invasion."

He slumped against the wall, utterly spent. "I had my suspicions earlier, but I didn't want to face it. What a mess!"

Krystal knew it sounded crazy, but she felt his utter certainty, and his sorrow, and his sense of responsibility for this situation. To her own surprise found she accepted what he'd said implicitly. She moved over and sat down beside him, reaching over with one arm to hug him close.

"It will be alright, you'll see. You feel that the fate of the world, no several worlds are on your shoulders, again. But I've seen your history, you've been there before, and always come through. And you don't have to do it alone. Let me help shoulder the load. I will be there, every step of the way. You... no, _we_ will find a way, I'm not sure how, but we will save Cerinia from this Andross, and your home too."

She felt him calm as he relaxed into her hug. "Thanks, Krystal." He murmured. "As long as you're here beside me, you make me feel maybe things will work out after all."

Reaction had set in and they both found they were exhausted. There were no more words, just a feeling of mutual support and comfort, until first Fox, then Krystal dropped off to sleep.

Author's notes: Well it took long enough, I just hope people feel it was worth the wait. Man that last bit was hard to write. Action scenes are easy, emotions are hard, and when both characters are empathic, it makes it even trickier. I've been working towards this since the beginning, and dreading it.

I hope no-one feels that Fox's psychic abilities are developing too rapidly. I put it down to the fact that his training took him to near the threshold of advancing to telepathy, and being in a high stress situation pushed him the rest of the way, though at the moment, it's only Krystal he'll be able to understand with any ease.

Oh, I finally found a high res play-though of Star Fox Command on Youtube. I already read all the dialogue at Star Fox Online, and felt the characterizations sucked, and the way they handled the relationships were ropy, verging on ridiculous. I hoped seeing it in the context of the game would make sense, but it didn't. The lack of proper voice acting and fixed expression sprites did nothing to help, heck, Star Fox 64 had more animated characters.

A pity, the game is actually quite cool and innovative, and the designs of the planet surfaces are nice. But the plot makes zero sense. Krystal, an Andross apologist? The guy destroyed her fricking planet! Fox apparently rolling odds or evens as to whether he's making up with Krystal or driving her away.

Oh well, in my universe, it never happened. So, next, we visit the Cloudrunner Kingdom in 'Fox gets Flashy!'