The sound of the Arwing's approach and it's descent in into the clearing where the New Dawn floated caused a number of the Cloudrunners clustered around the Protector sky-ship to take wing. But they quickly settled back down as the nearest ones recognised the figures in the cockpit. Krystal threw out a friendly telepathic hail to the green tiger and red panda looking up from their work.
The tip of the sky-ship's keel rested on the ground, but that still put the deck over seven metres above. Ropes anchored it to the surrounding trees and provided routes to the surface. Ema was in the shade of the hull, working on planing down a thick tree branch, while Master Ti was rigging a hoist out over the side where the starboard wing-sail once reached, assisted by a couple of Cloudrunners.
Fox popped the hatch and leapt out as soon as the harness disengaged, eschewing the foot rests that extended. He ran across to the Protector sky-ship and hauled himself, hand over hand up one of the anchoring ropes, followed closely be Krystal.
Together they relayed their discovery to Master Ti in flashing thoughts, with Ema quickly coming up on deck as she felt the urgent tone of their emotions.
At the end of the story, Master Ti nodded decisively. "I understand... Fox, can you disable these weapons this new sky-ship has, without destroying the ship itself?"
"Yeah, at least my Arwing is the only thing that has a chance."
"Very well then, you shall go ahead and remove these weapons. I shall ask our Cloudrunner friends if they can provide we three with assistance to follow you."
Vexor landed on the deck, and not a few other Cloudrunners were circling. "Master Ti, you need our help?"
Master Ti relayed the news, and Vexor ducked his beaked head in a nod. "Of course, I shall call three of our strongest fliers... and every other able-bodied member of the flock will assist. Windam! Bresse! To me!"
The Cloudrunners, one of whom Fox and Krystal recognised from their earlier flight. Master Ti didn't need to ask who the third one was. Vexor made it clear. "If you will permit me, Master Protector, I shall carry you myself."
Windam attached himself to Krystal, and the last and largest one, Breese, looked Ema up and down and would have sweat-dropped, but stretched his wings wide in a gesture of assent. Things were quickly arranged. The senior female, Zephair looked far better after some Dumbledang fruit and a full night of rest. She would take charge of the non-combatants, getting them to cover in the trees.
Fox would go ahead in his Arwing and clear a landing zone, while the other three spearheaded the dozen other able-bodied Cloudrunners. They would provide close-in air support while the three protectors stormed the ship, and Fox would join them if possible.
Fox stopped at the edge of the sky-ship. "Okay, keep under cover until I signal Master Ti on the comm. You do not want any of what that thing's likely to be throwing. Then come in as fast as you can. Okay?"
He jumped over the side and slid down the rope to the ground, his gloves protecting him. As he ran for his Arwing, Zephair gathered her flock, and the three spearhead Cloudrunners were being fitted with harnesses, discarded after the initial attack by the Sharpclaws. Pausing only long enough to set-up the homing beacon at his landing site, he scrambled up the steps and dropped into the cockpit.
As the cockpit canopy closed over him, Fox took a deep breath. The cockpit smelled of synthetics and re-cycled air, odd after the last two weeks of more natural scents. He'd really been too distracted on the flight here to notice it before. Overlaid on it was the lingering physical scent of Krystal's fur, one of the distractions. It was a powerful reminder of what he had to fight with, and what he had to fight for.
He went through the pre-flight check quickly, all the more so because he'd left it on standby, ready to scramble at a moments notice. Transferring comm relay to the ship system, he lifted off, using the god's eye view of his battle recorder to check he wouldn't accidentally incinerate any wayward Cloudrunners.
He adjusted his G-Diffusers for optimum compensation, powered up the shields and extended the wings fully for all range mode. Putting his sensors and e-warfare package to fully active, he armed his twin lasers, and started hunting for the target. It was only 6 skm away and approaching straight down wind, it's sail full.
One of Slippy's last gifts before he'd left for Aquas had been a fully automated version of his tactical analysis software, integrated into the sensors and canopy HUD. Now, when the brackets of the auto-targeting system locked onto the biggest power source, the head, a green bar popped up, showing it's toughness, while the lack of a second blue bar indicated it didn't have a shield.
The big problem wouldn't be hitting the thing, it would be that any kind of miss on the weapon would probably disembowel the wooden hull behind it, and a charged shot would probably incinerate half of it. That meant he'd need some fairly fancy basic flight manoeuvres. A holo-screen had automatically popped up, showing a close-up of the vessel, and at the closer and decreasing range he could see everything, down to the individual figures moving around behind the active dragon figure-head.
He was approaching at a sub-sonic cruise velocity, barely a stroll to the Arwing, but more than enough. The range dropped to 2 skm, and at his current closing velocity they should be seeing him right about.. now! The tempo of their movements took on a more active tone, and the dragon head swung to point right at him. Fox grinned fiercely. "Okay, you tail-sniffing sons of mothers, let's see what you've got..."
His e-warfare suite had already analysed the energy leakage, and unless that thing had some serious stealth shielding, his shields should be able to take multiple hits... not that he intended to let them. A fireball half the size of his Arwing lashed out from the dragon's head, but he didn't bother to manoeuvre, he could see it was going to fall short.
From what his sensors were telling him, it was quite powerful enough to disintegrate a Cloudrunner, or blast a sky-ship the size of the New Dawn to kindling. But his hull could probably take one, and his shields several. This wasn't going to be a slugging match, but a trial of skill. He was already in range to return fire, but he needed to get close to aim accurately, and in a direction that wouldn't take out the ship with it.
The range was decreasing more rapidly, they must have kicked in their thrusters, but he held his course. At 500 standard metres he weaved to evade the first fireball that came close to hitting him, then veered back across his base course and did a wing-over, dropping away below them.
He rolled and came back up from below crossing their bow on a diagonal, zooming up and finally getting a line on the dragons head that wouldn't torch the sail or the hull. The thing tried to fire on him, but he simply barrel rolled around it's best efforts. His own aim was rather better and he blasted repeated bolts of laser fire into the head, not even needing to lock on.
The head shook itself as it's damage bar went red, and finally slumped forward, smoke trailing form it's mouth. He swept up over it's starboard bow, and brought his ship round in a vertical turn past it's port side that brought his course down and over the stern. He just had chance for a single shot at the starboard of the rear two towers, and took it. It want home, and the thing started flaring out, but died off.
He swept away, kicking in his boost to open the range, then did an Immelmann turn, coming back on a reciprocal from astern starboard and targeting the undamaged port turret, once again to avoid sweeping the deck. A fireball from the other turret scraped his shields, but didn't cause them any serious distress. The turret he'd targeted would never have a chance to try, as multiple twin laser bolts went home, blowing it clean off the stern.
Once again he pulled a fast vertical turn out from it's port side, swinging round and lining up the last turret. It was throwing out fireballs as fast as possible, but he jinked and evaded them all, spiralling in to lay down a precisely targeted barrage into the top of the turret which made it flame out. He circled the sky-ship at a range of about 100 sm, but his sensors weren't showing any other weapon emplacements.
The poop deck had a large, flat area between the wrecked fireball launchers, and what might be a rail between that and the main controls. Further details were impossible to see, as more than a dozen Sharpclaw and an Alpha were moving about. There were also a few other figures which must be the original crew. Even at this range he could distinguish an emotional overlay, aggressive from the Sharpclaw, a mix of hope and fear from the others.
His instruments were showing what had to be a power source for controlling the twin rocket engines, and a secondary weaker thermal source, but nothing that suggested any ranged weapons. Except that is, for the spears that were being slung at him, and falling well short. He considered taking out the rocket motors, but they looked integrated into the hull, and wrecking them might cause the wreck he'd been firing to avoid.
He punched up the comm as he came round to sweep closely behind it's stern. He set the comm to relay his close-up holo-image. "Okay Master Ti, bring in the cavalry! I'd advise coming in low and then up over the stern, the bow is pretty messed up, and there's an open deck you can use at the back."
He saw the Alpha start to move purposefully in the close-up, and somehow picked up his intent, the thing was smart enough to figure why Fox had only hit the weapons, and intended to threaten the enslaved sailors to get him to surrender. "Oh no you don't!"
It wasn't a plan, nor anything that organised Fox pulled a braking manoeuvre and hauled round to face the deck, vectoring sideways purely on G-diffusers and under-jets. Star fighter weapons weren't designed to hit individual people, especially when the person aiming was manually holding his ship static relative to a moving target and compensating for drift.
Doing it in the fraction of a second window that Fox had to work with was pushing the skill level required up to near impossible, but Fox had that skill, long-honed through training and experience, and his dash of prescience. He targeted his lasers manually, almost without conscious thought, and fired in the same fraction of a second.
Twin bolts of fury swept across the deck, neatly missing the Cerinian at the wheel, but blazing through the grouped Sharpclaw and the Alpha, who practically exploded from the heat transfer. The remaining couple of Sharpclaw were leaderless, and unable to return fire anyway.
He sensed others coming up from below, and diverted his close-up camera downwards. Ascending from the trees below were the Cloudrunners, led by Vexor, Windam and Breese, with the three Protectors on their backs. They were narrowing file to fly between the still active sky-ship rockets.
Fox immediately blasted upwards on his under-jets, if they were coming up over the stern, he'd make sure everyone was looking up and towards the bow. Kicking in forward thrust, he buzzed the masts as he headed forward. He tweaked his course to just catch General Scales' banner, which flew from the tip of the main mast, on the point of one of his lower G-Diffuser units.
The banner ripped away from the mast, and he dragged it forward with him, just as the lead Cloudrunners ascended over the stern. Windam and Breese dropped to the deck, allowing Ema and Krystal to jump off, while Vexor rose above them, Master Ti covering the area with his staff. The two remaining Sharpclaw were looking the other way, and fell before they could even react.
When Fox flew back, the deck was clear, and he could now see that beyond the main wheel a central ramp led down to the main deck, and the rest of the front edeg of the poop was another railing. Master Ti, Ema and Krystal were already over the partition, and standing at the head of the ramp, firing down on the Sharpclaws surging forward to engage them.
The Cloudrunners weren't idle either, unable to fly effectively between the rigging and masts, they carried head sized rocks that they dive bombed the Sharpclaw with from both sides. The Cerinian pilot, who seemed to be some sort of red pig, had picked up a discarded axe and was covering the rail between the main deck and poop deck.
The main group of Sharpclaw were trying to force their way up the ramp, but the trio stood firm. However, a few were trying to scramble up over the rails, to flank them, and the pig, hard as he was working, couldn't cover the entire rail alone. Fox hauled his fighter round, time to hit the deck.
The poop deck might be quite wide, but it wasn't big enough to take an Arwing, and even if it had been, under-jets on a wooden deck? Not wise. But Fox was prepared, he pulled up the auto-pilot command interface, and set up a 'return to last way-point' program, along with a station-keeping program centred on the sky-ship. It helped that the wind was behind them, and the pilot had lashed the wheel before he took up an axe.
As he flew in to hover right behind it, he activated station keeping, disengaged the canopy safety interlocks and opened it. Unstrapping, he sprung up onto his seat and out onto the nose of the Arwing, trusting to his mol-stiction boots to keep him on it. He shut the canopy behind him, and took a leap of faith. Well, faith that he'd cover the half standard metre between the tip of the Arwing and the deck anyway.
The edge of the active G-Diffusion field aided him, reducing his weight, but he would have made it easily anyway. He landed on the poop deck, blaster already out, and put a bolt through a Sharpclaw that was halfway over the rail between main and poop deck.
He caught the welcoming thoughts of the trio, Krystal, Master Ti, even Ema, though hers was, 'About time you got here!'
Her thought had more humour than rancour, so he just thought back lightly, 'Sorry, had to play a game of capture the flag first.' He triggered the second program from his PDA, and heard the Arwing turn and fly away, back to the clearing where the New Dawn was.
None of their comments distracted them from the fight. He stayed back and covered both flanks with his blaster, as the other three fought there way down the ramp, Ema was in the middle, her staff work bold and forceful, while her mind gloried in the righteous kicking of tail of those who thoroughly deserved it. It was clear this was the kind of thing she lived for. It was she who was forcing the massed Sharpclaw back.
Master Ti, on the other hand was careful, precise, and his attacks were those of a old warrior, husbanding his strength and committing no more than necessary to hold his flank. Not that it made his strikes any slower, or hits any less devastating when they went home, as they always did. It also made clear that his protestations of age and infirmity were pro-forma.
Krystal, on the other side was determined, focussed on holding her flank. Her lightning staff work lacked Ema's flare, or Master Ti's care, but it was fast and well performed. But what really gave them the advantage was their telepathy. Fox was a part of it, and he was amazed at how it felt.
They didn't have to look, they knew what each other was doing, and what they intended to do next. There were no shouted commands, possibilities of miscommunication, they fitted together flawlessly. Krystal struck out at a Sharpclaw out of her direct line of vision as Fox spotted it trying to flank her, and Ema widened her sweeps automatically to compensate until Krystal's staff came back into guard.
Master Ti struck low, ducking under a swipe with a mace, and Fox used the gap to blast the Sharpclaw making it back onto his fellows. The pig wasn't hooked in, but Fox could spare enough attention to cover his back and make sure he didn't get side-swiped too. The four empaths formed a bastion that the Sharpclaw couldn't overwhelm.
The Sharpclaws fought, didn't break, didn't run, even as the last few were overwhelmed. Not so much from courage as the fact that without an Alpha, there had been no-one to tell them to stop. And then it was over, there was no-one left to fight. The Cloudrunners landed around the rim of the deck, crying harsh squawks of triumph, and the Protectors joined Fox up on the poop deck as the pig came over.
The only pigs Fox knew of were the inhabitants of Pigsti Prime in the Boareus sector, and the only one he'd known personally had been Pigma Dengar. But even at first glance, you could tell this guy was about as different from that traitor as it was possible to be. Taller, with a steady gaze and small tusks, his crimson colour came not from his skin, but from the matted red fur that covered him. This was more visible then usual as the well made and trimmed yellow sleeveless tunic and pantaloons he wore were ragged and worn, as were his half boots.
"Protectors, thank the Ancients and all the ancestors!" He stopped before them and ducked his head. "Navigator Siu Sui of the Osar Dune, sirs and madams, the ranking officer... only officer left on this tub. We had just about given up hope.. thank you, thank you for our lives."
Master Ti simply smiled and said, "Raise your head, young boar, you gave a pretty good account of yourself. I am Master Protector Ti Li Fei of the Northern Temple, and with me are Protector Ema Raued, and trainees Teraso no Kuristaru, and Fox McCloud. We are only too glad to help."
The one of the other crew-members had arrived, a monkey who apart from his orange fur and knee length tunic, wouldn't have looked out of place on Fortuna. "Navigator! Bosun's hurt, real bad!"
The boar started down the ramp, then looked behind him with an apologetic expression, before continuing on. "Calm down Subayi! Now what happened?"
The monkey continued talking at breakneck pace. "When those scaly sons of beetles all rushed aft, she got us together and we decided to attack them, the ones that were knocked down, at least. You know how she's been with what they did to her eye!
"So we picked up some spikes and went after them. You should have seen Dai Lung! He just picked one up and threw it over the side! They were so busy fighting the Protectors..." he paused and bowed his respect to the four who were coming down after him. "Begging your pardon, masters.. that they didn't realise we were there at first!"
"Dai Lung held them down, the ones that the Cloudrunners knocked down, where did they all come from? this is pretty far south for King Chakan to send a patrol, and the Bosun and I stuck the spikes in... did you know they vanish when they die? Yes, you were fighting them too... we saw that, it was so great! But a couple of the ones in the main group saw us and came rushing back.
"I threw myself into the knees of one as he came for us, and Dai Lung dropped a rock on his head, well he took the helm off first, but the Bosun had one to herself. I didn't see what happened, but she must have hurt it before she went down, it was dragging it's leg, and we double teamed it.
They came to the bow end of the main deck where there were two other crew members, one a large black ox who had only a ragged pair of shorts. He was kneeling beside a green hare who would have been inconspicuous on Corneria, though the bandage over one eye and the ears bound into a top knot with a colourful ribbon would have caused some funny looks. She wore pantaloons too, a top which was really just multiple layers of wide silk ribbon wrapped around her, and slippers with hardened leather toe caps.
She was unconscious, and he was holding a pad of cloth to her upper chest, but the blood soaking the layers of silk and green fur suggested the wound underneath hadn't been completely sealed. Fox was already pulling out his medi-kit. The analyser was waved over her, and reported her condition as critical, big surprise, but not yet irreversible.
Unlike with Arera, his empathic sense could also feel Mizousen's spirit, weak, flickering, but still fighting, and the ox, his concern, for a friend as well as a superior he respected... Pulling out the can of bio-foam, he called out, "Pull that bandage away! It's not sealing the wound and she's lost a lot of blood already!"
Dai Lung looked up at Sui Sui, who looked to Master Ti. Fox was pulling other items from his kit, he slapped a medical monitor chip against her wrist, and it lit up a small holo-image with orange, flashing figures. "Dang it, she's got about a 60 percent chance of survival right now, and it's going down every second! Otherwise she'll be dead inside of two min.. a hundred heartbeats, that Sharpclaw ripped into one of her lungs, and nicked an artery..."
Krystal was already looking around. "You need water, like when you healed my sister? Master, he may be able to..."
Master Ti nodded, "I understand. Let him proceed. His people have remarkable devices, like the sky-ship you saw. His healing kit is one of them."
Fox sprayed the area with bio-foam even as the bandage came away and the blood welled up from three deep slashes under the rabbit's arm. Fortunately it had ripped away most of the cloth too. As with Arera, the material worked it's way into the gashes, sealing them, and gave him chance to use the depiliation spray. He also sealed his hands with glove spray before he placed the trauma pack on the wound, and monitored it via the scanner.
He should really have the analyser do a tissue compatibility analysis as well as a gross anatomical scan (he might not be a doctor, but he'd thoroughly studied the manual), it was currently using Cerinian rabbit defaults, but even with it's advanced nano-probes, breaking down a tissue sample and matching it against the range of drugs would take several minutes, and she didn't have that long.
Krystal came back with a female rat with purple fur and dark overalls, belted at the middle with a tool-belt, and also wearing slippers. They were carrying a bucket between them. "Mizo's hurt...? Huh, what are those metal things?... They make pictures in the air? That's so neat!"
There was a round of introductions and brief explanations, the newcomer was the engineer, Shikake, and the patient, Bosun Mizousen, while the ox was the redoubtable Dai Lung. While the rat was genuinely concerned for her friend, she was almost as interested in the devices Fox had, practically quivering with eagerness to see them.
Master Ti told the Cloudrunners to return to the clearing, and suggested to the navigator they should moor there. Fox had no time for pleasantries the first few moments, but as the filled blood packs were plugged into the trauma unit he sat back on his heels. "It's up to the machines now..."
He looked around, the Protectors were helping the crew with the ship, so he was alone, though the various members of the crew were casting him worried glances. He checked the medi-kit inventory, he had about enough consumables left for one major trauma event, except for a broken bone, he hadn't used any of the splint foam.
Krystal noticed he'd stopped working and came over. "Is she going to be alright?"
Fox slumped back against the bow and pointed to the still orange, though no longer flashing holo-image generated by the coin sized device stuck to the rabbit's wrist.
"She may be, I think I got the trauma pack on in time, but it's still touch and go. I can only do this one more time, then I'm out of stuff for the medi-kit, synthetic blood packs and some of the Fast heal drugs more than anything."
"You did what you could." She sat down beside him. "No-one could have blamed you for saving your precious materials, you said she was near death."
"Not and look at myself in a mirror tomorrow." He glanced at the medical scanner he still held. "C'mon, I paid enough system dollars for you... and you, Miss Rabbit, you were willing to take on a Sharpclaw with a tooth-pick, don't let a little thing like a sucking chest wound beat you! "
Subayi was up in the rigging, doing things with rope, while Dai Lung and Ema were reefing the main sail. Sui Sui was at the wheel, calling down a speaking tube to Shikake and moving levers back and forth, presumably to control the wing-sails, and Master Ti was acting as a lookout, guiding them to the clearing.
But Krystal was focusing on the feeling of Fox's emotions, he was practically willing Mizousen to live. "Come on, there's nothing else you can do here but worry. Or is there?"
Fox sighed and shook his head. "Not for the moment. It's hooked up with all the chemicals it can use, and it can react far faster to any change in her condition. I'll need to finish up with skin spray, like Arera, but until then, But it just feels sort of wrong to leave her here all alone."
She felt a wave of affection for him. "Very well, it's not like either of us have really had a chance to rest since we got up this morning. Sharpclaw, Red-Eyes, jet-bikes and sky battles... well at least it hasn't been boring."
"Yeah, in fact, I've enjoyed it. Crazy, huh?"
"Not at all, it feels good to make a difference, it's what I hoped for when I decided to become a Protector." She leaned up against him. "You too, I can feel it. You were a Protector, long before you ever came to Cerinia."
Too tired to protest, he let himself rest against her. It was immensely comfortable, not just physically, but her very presence was soothing. "I never really thought about it that way. It's just been what I always did."
"Well you've done it again. None of this would have been possible without you. And I just wanted to say, thank you."
"For what? As you said, it's what I wanted to do." He shifted his head to look at her.
She looked back at him, their muzzles almost touching, close enough they could feel the warmth of each others breath. "For my family, accepting me as I am, for teaching me how to be what I most want to be, for... well, for being you."
"I should be the one thanking you. I couldn't have done any of it without you flying my wing, standing there beside me, and giving me support, like right now. Whatever else, we make a great team." In that moment of rapport, she could sense his feelings more deeply than usual, could feel the depth of his gratitude, and something more, despite his earlier protestations.
She gazed deep into his eyes, warm, accepting. "Fox, I..."
The medical scanner gave a reassuring chuckle, and the legends on the wrist tell-tale holo-window turned green. Fox hesitated for a moment, then turned away, breaking the contact.
"Sorry, Krystal, the treatment just completed." He turned to Mizousen and pulled the can of spray-skin from the medical kit. She sighed, frustrated, but moved around to see how she could help.
He'd just finished removing the trauma pack and sealing the wound when Sui Sui came over, trailed by Subayi. The monkey spoke first. "Did the Bosun live? is she going to make it? Can we do anything to help? Sorry, I should have used your titles Protector or trainee Protectors, though that doesn't sound as good... "
Fox looked up from where he was spraying down the surgical head of the trauma pack with antiseptic. "It's fine, we don't need fancy titles. In short, yes, probably and no. The, uh, healing potions in her body will keep her asleep until tomorrow, and she's going to have to take it easy for a couple of weeks, even Fast Heal can only do so much."
He thought for a moment, as he packed away his medical kit and peeled the surgical gloves off his hands. "If there's a bed or something, we can move her there."
Sui Sui spoke. "There's a hammock set up in the engine room, Protector McCloud. I think Subayi asked everything I wanted to. I must thank you again, for your help, and for saving Bosun Mizousen's life."
"Thanks for giving me the chance. But rescuing you was a team effort. Krystal should get as much credit, and so should the other Protectors and the Cloudrunners."
Fox scooped up Mizousen gently. Krystal felt slightly jealous of the rabbit, then Fox glanced at her, his mind showing he thought she was being silly. Her own sense of humour kicked in, while she might like the idea of being carried in Fox's arms, she'd also like to be conscious for it.
Sui Sui was unaware of their mental exchange. "Of course, I didn't mean to imply otherwise."
Fox grinned and shook his head. "No problem, I'm just glad we could help."
They'd crossed the main deck and into an open doorway on one side, a ramp led down and round, onto a central ramp which led down into the main cargo hold of the ship. At the bottom, Sui Sui turned round and pulled a lever, and the ramp lifted up, sealing entryway and allowing access to doors behind it.
As they entered the engine room, Krystal sighed. Maybe this evening, after everything was settled she'd finally have a chance to talk to him, the way she'd intended first thing that morning. It seemed every time they got a quiet moment, something interrupted them. But then she allowed herself a small smile.
She might have been interrupted, but this time... this time, he hadn't shied away.
Authors Notes: Okay, I think this is a good place to stop. I hope people enjoyed this. If you think that General Scales is going to need another flagship, you're right. And Sui Sui is a bad pun, in multiple ways if you know your Miyazaki films.
That bloody flying ship in Star Fox Adventures always gave me an acute pain. Not because it's a flying ship, flying ships are awesome, but because it appears from no-where, with no justification, and is never seen again. It's a big lipped alligator moment, and Scales is the big lipped alligator in question.
Well, these last few chapters have hopefully gone some way to explaining it, and I've got some more exposition to cram in as we go to where I originally intended, the capital of the Cloudrunner kingdom. That's the 'Fox gets Flashy' episode I talked about. I had intended on going right there, then I made the mistake of watching 'Treasure Planet', and decided I hadn't had a big enough action fix.
Once again, I'm probably handling the romance clumsily, but then I've already said I'm not much cop at it. But things are developing, and the next chapter should see some real advancement. I need to take a rest, and switch to Training Tails, but I'll be back.