Chapter 12: Into the Depths
February 18, 2362
0937 hours
The Dreadnought
Tallon woke up quite refreshed in the morning. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, then looked around his room. The brownish kitsune was lying on a bed with a blue and white plaid pattern for the pillow sheet and blanket. The walls of his room were decorated with posters of his favorite rock bands, as he was a big fan of anything along the lines of rock or heavy metal. Across the room was his clothes drawer, which he rarely used, due to the fact that most of his clothes lay strewn across the room across the floor. A lone lamp alarm clock laid on a maple nightstand to his right, and to his left was a shorter nightstand with a rectangular personal music player in its charger.
The vulpine yawned and thought, Man, that was a good night's sleep. Hm, wait a minute! I usually don't get a good night's sleep! Then that means… His gaze fell onto the lamp alarm clock…which read 9:38 A.M.! Aw, shoot! I overslept by over an hour and a half!
Tallon shot out of bed and rushed into the restroom, not even turning on the lights. He took a short steam shower, picked up the dental foam canister, squeezed in and spat out the foul contents; and hurried back towards the door, but looked into his reflection in the mirror.
Tallon flicked the light switch to get a better look at himself. He was sort of egotistic, and he knew it, but he just couldn't help but look at himself. His fur was of a soft, brown color with eyes of the same hue. He was wearing a white undershirt and gray boxers, which contrasted against his fur. His build was what captivated him the most- he liked to think that he was really buff, and in truth, he really was. His muscles rippled as he posed in the mirror, flexing his biceps and triceps. Then, he realized this was only making him even later, so he shut off the light, and headed back into his bedroom.
His disorganization was his undoing, as Tallon slipped on a pair of pants he left on the floor and fell on his back. He swore under his breath, then kicked himself into a negraim (in other words, he spun around on his head, sort of like a break dancer) and swung his legs so that he was back on his feet. He looked back at his cargo pants, shrugged, and picked them up. They were a dusty brown color and matched his fur. He stuffed both of his legs into the pants as he jumped to his pile of shirts. He then snatched a red T-shirt off of the ground and donned it. After finding and getting on a pair of socks, a belt, and some boots, he rushed out of the door…and bumped right into his dad.
"Good morning, son," Fox crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Late again, are we?"
"Uh," Tallon groaned. "Well, ya see, dad, I was kinda tired from the night before, and I really needed the sleep…"
"Don't worry yourself, Tallon," Fox patted him on the back. "It's not that big of a deal, anyways. Remember, though, you have to-"
"-commit myself to waking up on time," Tallon finished with a sigh, "I know, I know."
"Tallon," Fox spoke as they started down the hallway together, "you're a good boy. You're strong, heck much more so than I am, pretty smart, and kind. You only need to learn some common sense. Namely, commitment and focus."
"Yes, dad."
"A little monosyllabic today? Okay, I'm gonna see what you're mother's up too, 'k?"
"Alright."
"Good, now go get some breakfast."
As his father left him alone in the hallway, Tallon let out a long sigh. He took pride in the fact that he was the son of the famous Fox McCloud…but, at the same time, he felt as if he could never live up to his dad's hopes. What Tallon wanted more than mostly anything was to please him- to make him happy and proud of him. He felt happy just seeing his dad happy. And not just him, either. Pleasing his mom and older brother was what he wanted, too. Tallon felt that he lived for the service of his family, and he took solace from the fact that he was making things better for them.
Pondering these facts, Tallon was about to head for the teleporter and get to the galley for a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast with butter, and pancakes…but ROB thought otherwise. A static crackle went off before:
"Attention! Attention," went the monotonic robotic voice, "we have a transmission from Supreme General Pepper, General Halcyon, General Peppy, and Field Master Xamuros! All hands to the bridge!"
Tallon could distinctly hear Ace in the background saying, "ROB, we don't have a bridge! It's called a command deck!"
"My apologies," ROB corrected himself. "All hands to the command deck!"
Aw, man! I really wanted a decent breakfast after all of this. Tallon sighed again, and then went into the teleporter. After the now-familiar feeling of lightheadedness, reappeared in the…galley?!
"What the-" Tallon thought aloud. "Aw, dangit! Mind over stomach, mind over stomach." He repeated these words to focus on his task entered the teleporter again, this time, appearing in the command deck.
Tallon leapt over the rails of the stairwell, and landed in his seat. However, he landed on something rather hard, and shot up and out of his seat.
"Yeeeow!" Tallon yelped, then looked back to see a TV remote where he had just plopped himself onto.
"Whoops," a nearby Ace chuckled. "Eh, sorry 'bout that, Tallon."
The muscular fox muttered to himself as he sat down; the rest of the teams of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf got into their seats. After everyone was in their seat, ROB clacked away at a few buttons and keys. The lights dimmed and the windshield covered itself with a black veil as the holoprojector activated. Instead of just General Pepper; Xamuros, Peppy, and Halcyon appeared at his sides as well.
The teams saluted the generals and field master as Pepper saluted back and spoke, "At ease, soldiers. I presume you've had a nice period of rest?"
"Yes, general," Fox nodded. "Is there something you need?"
"That's affirmative," General Hare answered, and started. "If you'll allow me to continue, supreme general…" the bloodhound nodded, and Peppy continued, "…thank you, sir. We have a situation on Aquas…Roberts, do you mind?" An apology could be heard, and a holographic model of Aquas appeared in the center of the four leaders, "Thank you. As we all know, Aquas is a water-covered planet, yes? Well, if we zoom in for a bit…that's your cue, Roberts!" The picture zoomed in to show a photo of the planet's worldwide ocean, "Thank you again, and pay attention, please. Now, as you can tell, the siphoning has not affected the surface of the planet. However, we are afraid that the sea floor is a different story." The picture changed to show the sea floor, where numerous coral and species of fish were, "This was seven months ago. This is now." The picture changed to show a drastic change in the sea bed. The coral was all dead, and as a result, were bleached white. The water itself was clearer, which may sound good, but really meant that the water had been deprived of much of its life-bearing oxygen. There were no signs of any aquatic life whatsoever.
"My God," Wolf murmured, then asked. "Do we have any idea on how much energy has been siphoned from this planet so far?"
"We do," Halcyon replied, "but you are not going to like the answer. Ninety-six percent."
Adder kept a straight face through this and commented, "Well, it appears as if the siphoning of the planet hasn't affected the surface, which is good. Hm…but this is at an extreme stage of the siphoning, so why hasn't it?"
"Well," Halcyon started to explain, "that is probably because of the fact that most of the minerals and ore of the planet are locked away in the crust, namely the sea floor. The draining of the planetary energy hasn't affected the surface yet because there's not much energy out there."
"Ahem," Peppy coughed to attract everyone's attention, then spoke. "Back to the point, we need a way to find out how to locate the siphoning facility. Some strange electromagnetic disturbance is preventing us from scanning for its location. Any ideas?"
Everybody's gazes fell to Ace, who thought for a bit, then asked, "Hey, Xamuros? Is the speed of the siphoning of a planet affected at all by terrain?"
"No," the Spade replied, "the energy drain is equal among any terrain, with no regard to density of the rock or its composition and…Wait, that means-"
"-the siphoned area radiates from the facility in a perfect circle," Ace finished. "So all we need to do is find the epicenter of the siphoned area-"
"-and we have the location of the facility!" General Pepper finished. "Ah, it's so simple! Why didn't anyone think of it before?"
"Okay," Halcyon nodded, "that means that the siphoning facility is…" the picture changed to show an aerial view of Aquas' ocean. An x-and-y-axis navigator danced across the hologram for a few seconds before stopping near the right portion of the screen, "…there. Scanners are also picking up a heavy concentration of enemy troops in the region, too. There is no doubt about it- it is there!"
"Well, it looks like the period of rest is going to end here," Xamuros spoke. "Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf; we'll have a battleship dispatched to that area now. Your job is to infiltrate the siphoning facility and destroy it at any cost. I don't think any of us know what you're up against, so good luck."
"Hmph," Falco huffed. "What else is new, eh? So anything else before we leave?"
Pepper turned and tapped a few times at some off-screen computer and answered, "Yes. I've got a message from Slippy. He's leaving Amanda behind for now, and he'll meet you on the ship."
"Ah, I knew he'd come back," Falco shook his head.
"Riiiight," Marcus rolled his eyes. "Well, let's just hope his piloting skills have improved…even if just by a little bit."
"Well, there is no point in any more talk," Halcyon spoke. "Xamuros and some of his Spades will also join you. Best of luck to all of you! Pepper, Hare, Xamuros, and Halcyon out."
The holograms faded, and the lights brightened while the windshield door opened. Everybody got out of their seats and headed for the hangar.
Tallon just realized something," Wait a minute, we're going on a battleship? That means we'll be on water!"
"Uh…yeah," Leon sighed. "What was your first guess?"
"Something wrong?" Brutus asked.
"Um, well…," Tallon scratched the back of his head.
"What, are you afraid of a little water, bro?" Marcus grinned and tilted his head to one side.
"No!" Tallon objected. "I'm just a little seasick, is all!"
"Ah, don't worry your head off," Marcus patted Tallon's head in a mocking way, "You'll be fine."
* * *
Not too many Lylatians know this, but Aquas is actually a gas giant. In fact, that is why one has to fly through the atmosphere for several minutes before reaching the ocean's surface. This atmosphere is mainly composed of trace amounts of methane, some nitrogen and helium; and mostly hydrogen and oxygen. It is also why there is water covering the entire planet. The massive gravity originating from the solid, iron core is so powerful that it actually condenses the gases to an atomic level about a thousand miles away from it. This caused hydrogen and oxygen atoms to fuse together to form water, and due to the already plentiful amount of both, a lot of it as well. In Aquas' early stages of birth, the water was heated into steam, due to the high core temperatures. This caused precipitation to fall for several thousand years before covering the planet again, but this time, with lightning, due to intense friction from the bombardment of celestial objects, which formed the crust and mantle of the planet after they were packed into the planet from its intense gravity. Why is lightning so important, you may ask? Because it caused the birth of proteins that later formed amino acids, which later formed into strands of DNA, and later into microscopic life, which later adapted to their aquatic environment. Also, when people say that you're standing on the sea floor of Aquas, you're actually standing on asteroids and meteorites that have been packed against the core's gravity to the point of becoming the planet's mantle and crust.
Focusing on the present planet of Aquas, the morning was extremely silent, due to the fact that most aquatic life had been wiped out from the humans' constant siphoning of the planet's energy. This silence, however, was broken by a blast of condensed air from a foghorn as a blue Lylatian Navy battleship wrecked the pristine dawn. The battleship was composed of three sections, each laying parallel to each other. The center contained the superstructure (which is basically the command tower) and most of the heavy beam cannons and anti-aircraft weapons. The flanking sections, which were connected to the center by thick cylinders of durtanium armor that were hollowed out for ease of passage, contained the engines, some cannons and anti-aircraft components, long-ranged missile launchers, and hangars to launch landing craft or smaller seafaring vessels. All had crew quarters to accommodate the hundreds that were needed to operate the ship. Riding alongside the battleship were two entire armor divisions of hover tanks and SDFK hovercars that merely hovered over the water. Also with them were seven bombers and six starfighters for air support, as well as several squadrons of fighter-mechs. Together, these extra units formed a formidable escort.
Tallon, dressed in Ace's armor once more, couldn't bring himself to enjoy anything- not the fresh air, not the tons of armor and aircraft he would smile at…the thing that wrecked him was the constant upheavals and drops from the rough waters. He had been sick all day, and it was only a matter of time before-
"Oh, jeez," Tallon groaned as queasiness flowed through him.
"Yo, bro," a nearby Marcus walked up to him worriedly, "you okay?"
"Do I look okay to you?" Tallon groaned again.
"Alright, just look at the sea, Tallon," Marcus instructed. "Just keep looking at it."
"That makes it worse, dangit! Oh, for-"
Tallon ripped off his helmet and vomited over the rails. With a few breaths, he got it all out.
"Crap!" an angry Wolf sounded below. "Dammit, Tallon, there's a whole 'nother deck below you! You almost got me there!"
"Ugh," Tallon grunted. "Sorry…Oh, dear gods…"
"Ooh," Marcus put a hand to his face. "Maybe you should go inside."
"Yeah," the brown-furred kitsune nodded in agreement, "I don't even know how I upchucked! I didn't even have any breakfast!"
"Then just go to the galley and get some. I heard Brutus is servin' some cream of chicken down there! It's your favorite!"
"Fine, fine," Tallon walked away from his older brother and into the cramped, bulkhead-filled hallways of the inside.
Man, I'm as irritable as Aloysius, today, he thought as he headed toward his destination. He made it to the mess hall, which basically had the same design as a school cafeteria. Counters full of food of all sort lined the room, and he couldn't help but salivate a little. After waiting in line for a few minutes, he made it to Brutus.
"Hey, Tallon," the boa constrictor greeted. "How you doin', man?"
"Okay, I guess," Tallon shrugged.
"Wait," Brutus held up a hand, "don't tell me. You want cream of chicken. Am I right?"
"Yep."
"Okay, then here you are," Brutus handed him a bowl brimming with his favorite soup. "Hey, have you heard?"
"Heard what?" Tallon inquired, accepting the bowl.
"About humans' food," Brutus answered. "They don't use inorganic meat like us- they actually use real meat!" Just then, everyone in the entire galley looked right at him, most of them grunting in disgust.
"I feel like barfing all over again," Tallon groaned.
"I know!" Brutus held his arms out. "It's gross, isn't it? Jeez, I wonder how they would feel if the meat they ate was their own kind?"
"I'll…just be going, thank you," Tallon took a spoon and got to a table next to his mother, who just happened to be there.
"Well, that last comment ruined my morning," Krystal grimaced, then smiled at Tallon. "How're you doing?"
"Ah, okay," Tallon shrugged, as he took off his helmet, "considering the fact that I already puked today."
"Are you sure you'll be okay on this mission? I know you can't digest the seasick pills, but we can send you back to the Dreadnought if you want."
"No," Tallon shook his head after taking his first spoonful of soup, "I fight with my family and teammates."
Krystal nodded in understanding and commented, "One of the many things I like about you is your unrelenting loyalty, Tallon. It's a good trait to have."
"But don't we all have it?"
"Yes, but you are willingly loyal. In fact, even Adder isn't entirely loyal to the Confederation army. He just wants to get the war over with and end the suffering."
"Is that not what everyone wants?"
"True, but you can also want something, then strive for it just to achieve it, not for duty or something."
Tallon scratched his head, "It's…kinda confusing."
"You'll come to understand it eventually, and-"
The mother-and-son conversation was interrupted as a soldier bashed through the galley's double doors and yelled, "Everyone! Get outside! There's something you might want to see! And bring your weapons before you go topside!"
Tallon brought the bowl to his lips and gulped down the rest of the soup. After he finished, he grunted as the piping-hot fluid scalded his mouth and throat, and then donned his helmet. He then swung over the table's bench and headed for the weapon lockers, which were a few seconds away from the galley. Already dozens of soldiers were getting their weapons ready, and Tallon dashed to his locker and dialed in the combination. 34…16…49…got it! he thought as he opened the door and took out his weapons- a plasma vapor thrower as his main weapon and a MS-A1 single-hand, semi-automatic, five-gauge shotgun as his sidearm. He swung the gigantic plasma charge pack onto his back and locked the nozzle onto its handle, then loaded a laser magazine into the shotgun. An ascending whine came from both weapons as their charges started to heat up for use.
The brownish vulpine then dashed down the hallway, though his dash eventually slowed down to a slow jog, due to the burden of his weapons. He made it outside though, and just happened to look directly at the sea again. Ignoring the queasy feeling that stemmed from it, he looked around for any sign of what the soldier had so urgently announced as the rest of the soldiers came on deck, doing the same as thing as him.
Suddenly, a voice cried out, "Dang! Everyone, we've got something off of the bow bearing towards us!"
Tallon snapped his head to the front of the ship, and saw what the trooper had reported. A wall of dense mist could be seen about sixty decameters in the distance, and was quickly making its way toward them.
Brutus, now outside with his signature chaingun, looked around and asked, "What? What's everyone staring at?" He then looked bow-wards and groaned. "Oh, jeez."
The intercom crackled to life, "The bridge is issuing a fog warning. All soldiers at the deck, please be careful for any collisions and- furth-...dis-...poor-" The intercom sputtered as the mist engulfed the ship and its supporting units. The instruments on the border of Tallon's helmet's visor began to crackle and warp out of proportion before they were immediately shut down.
"Electronic fog," Tallon whispered. "This could get very bad."
Suddenly, a trooper next to him was hoisted into the air, and everyone swerved to see that an Epitome of Voltage was gripping the poor soldier by the face, then dropped him dead into the ocean. Several more of the Epitomes appeared to its sides.
"And it's probably gonna get worse," Brutus cringed, and then pointed. Off in the distance, about a mile in front of the ship, several beams of energy erupted outwards. Moments later, the energy beams impacted on the decks of the ship, revealing a shock trooper for each beam.
Tallon dodged a swipe from an Epitome of Voltage, while simultaneously nailing a shock trooper with his shotgun, sending it overboard. However, the movement caused him to loose balance, due to the added weight of the plasma charge pack, and made him land on his rear against a bulkhead. Just as an Epitome tried to reach out for him, a thin beam of DE pierced into its heart, causing it to slowly vaporize with a growl.
Aloysius then landed with a loud thud and tremor in front of him and growled, "You owe me. Big time." He then continued to fire into the incoming enemies with his two DEB cannons.
Tallon shook his head and got up. He holstered his shotgun and unlatched the nozzle for his plasma vapor thrower, which was now shimmering from the heat contained. He then took aim at a group of shock troopers who were trying to kill a group of soldiers.
"Hey! Get down!" Tallon shouted. After the troops dropped to the deck, he squeezed the trigger. With a high-pitched scream-screech, a blue jet of plasma erupted from the nozzle's tip. The shock troopers' bodies were disintegrated by the hazardous gas, causing their armor to clatter to the deck with no one wearing them. After two seconds, Tallon let go of the trigger on the nozzle, and the plasma jet faded into nothingness.
Then, a slight crackle of electricity went off behind him, and Tallon ducked as an Epitome of Voltage nearly fried him. He then fired his plasma vapor thrower upwards, which caused the jet to hit the adversary without putting anyone else in danger. Unfortunately, the Epitome just hovered where it was, unaffected by the plasma jet.
Oh yeah, Tallon thought. Electricity's not exactly organic. Aw, dangit.
The Epitome seemed to sigh from the futile effort to kill it. Just as it was about to reach a hand out towards Tallon, a wide beam of red energy blew it into the bulkhead, where it vaporized shortly thereafter. The brown vulpine turned to see a hover tank with its quantum-cascade laser cannon smoking.
Tallon smiled…and was then knocked over on his side by a shock trooper. Even though the shield readings were useless from the electric fog, he knew that his shields were extremely low at the moment. The shock trooper was about to plunge its claw gauntlets into Tallon's chest when a thin laser popped the soldier between the eyes, causing the top part of its head to explode into bloody fragments of bone and metal.
Tallon kicked himself up to his feet to see Marcus, smiling. He grinned back, and the two brothers started covering each other with fire- one with a miniature shotgun, the other with a DeadEye laser sniper rifle. Marcus was blowing up head after head, chest after chest. Tallon, on the other hand, was just firing his shotgun hoping that the majority of the rounds would hit his target.
Man, if only I had psychic sight like him, Tallon brooded to himself. He shook himself from the thought and nearly ripped a shock trooper's chest open with two shots. Marcus suddenly turned around, causing the barrel of his sniper rifle to nearly collide with Tallon's head, and then shot a shock trooper point-blank in the chest, causing it to fall over the rails into the sea.
"A little tired, Tallon?" Marcus asked.
"You know I'm not a morning person like you," Tallon whined.
The two vulpine brothers were back-to-back once more as they started mowing down a seemingly endless wave of shock troopers, while any Epitomes of Voltage were usually killed by a high-powered laser or directed energy beam of some sort.
"There's…too…many…of them!" Marcus growled between shots.
"You have it easy!" Tallon complained. "Your side has fewer enemies! Plus," CHOOM went his shotgun, "…you have psychic sight and a sniper rifle!"
"Blaming inheritance, are we? Wait…I think the enemy's stopped coming."
Tallon looked around. There were no more shock troopers or Epitomes coming. A slow cheer (more like a series of sighs of relief) went through the surviving soldiers on the ship.
"I don't get it," Tallon narrowed his eyes. "Humans don't give up this easily."
"I know," Marcus kept his sniper rifle level. "And the electronic fog hasn't lifted yet. That usually means that-"
"Oh, please don't jinx it."
"Sorry, but you have to admit it's a little weird."
Suddenly, several places in the air bulged, and the familiar manta-shaped fighters started blowing through hover tanks with their powerful DEB cannons.
Aloysius stepped up and grunted, "Seraphim. Perfect. Just perfect. Tallon, get into an anti-aircraft gun. Marcus, snipe the pilots if you can."
Tallon glared at his older brother, who shrugged, "What? I didn't say anything that could've jinxed it!"
The young kitsune rolled his eyes, and then headed for an ack-ack gun. The stationary gun emplacement consisted of a seat surrounded by bulletproof/laser-refractive glass on the front, back, and top. To the sides of the seat were heavy anti-aircraft lasers, which fired at a high rate.
Tallon hopped into the chair and closed the protective glass around him. He then pressed a simple button and the turret hummed to life as two a joystick rose to his right. He grasped the joystick in his right hand, and started firing into the sky. Already, anti-aircraft fire, flak explosions, Seraphim's DE beams, and fireballs dotted the sky.
Even as a heavy gunner, Tallon was quite good at leading his shots to hit airborne targets. He downed two Seraphim in quick succession, and then proceeded for a third, which was blown out of the sky with a blast from one of the battleship's automated missile launchers. When a Seraph appeared diagonally from the ship in hopes of bombarding it, Marcus fired a laser with the best aim he could…and the Seraph spun out of control and crashed into the ocean. Water leaked into the engines, causing a small explosion to rip the advanced fighter to pieces.
Tallon was in the midst of downing another Seraph when another fired at his turret. The beam of directed energy impacted against the glass, then harmlessly reflected off at a perpendicular angle. He then fired a streak of lasers that pummeled the Seraph's engines, causing them to promptly turn the fighter into what looked like a shooting star before it crashed...into his turret.
The brown vulpine was blown right out of the gun emplacement by the force of the collision into the bulkhead, which dented a little from the impact. Luckily, his shields absorbed the damage, but shorted out with a bright flash of light.
Why is it that the only thing I was born with was bad luck? Tallon conceived. He shook his head to clear the ringing sound of shellshock out of his ears as sound returned to the world like a breaking wave. He then recollected his situation. Seraphs were still assaulting the battleship and its escorts as the fighters above tried to deal with them. He was a sitting duck, virtually defenseless and had no effective weapon to combat the enemy fighters. Simply put, he was totally screwed unless he did something fast.
Marcus ran up to him and asked, "Jeez, are you alright?"
Tallon held a hand up and responded, "I'm fine, I'm fine! Now watch out!"
Tallon pushed over his sibling and hit the deck just as a Seraph's attack run scorched it with its DEB cannon, killing some soldiers' unpropitious attempt at getting out of the line of fire. He picked himself up and attempted to shoot the Seraph with his shotgun, but only landed two shots on it.
Dangit, he thought, there's gotta be a better way blow those fighters out of the sky! He looked back at the blazing wreckage of the Seraph, but more particularly towards the DEB cannon.
Marcus followed Tallon's gaze and shook his head, "You're joking, right? I don't think you'd be able to lift that thing!"
"I'll manage," Tallon retorted at his negative brother. "By the way, how can you even see it? I thought you could only see organic matter."
"Well, it is an extrasensory ability, right? Like any extrasensory ability, you can train it for improvement, remember?"
"Fine, fine," Tallon grunted as he heaved the decent-sized, but heavy DEB cannon onto his shoulder. "Dangit, where's the firing mechanism on this thing?"
He started pulling all sorts of wires, twisting gears, and pulling levers with no success. He finally got tired to searching and threw the cannon to the ground in frustration, which caused it to fire into the air.
Tallon picked it back up and searched the underside for the firing mechanism and found a simple rod that could be pushed into the weapon at a diagonal angle.
"Of course," Tallon closed his eyes, "the last thing I'd look at."
He then started using the DEB cannon to blow enemy fighters out of the sky. Even with his muscular build, the recoil for the improvised weapon was so immense that he had to take a step backwards from a one-second burst in order to prevent from falling over. Tallon soon realized that the weapon was far too powerful for him to be able to use it, or even aim with it, effectively, so he just threw it overboard.
"Any more bright ideas?" Marcus mocked.
"Well," Tallon narrowed his eyes, "I could always go back inside for the armory and risk getting scorched by DE!"
Just then, the ursine soldier next to Tallon happened to overhear the conversation and asked, "You want to borrow this, sir?" He pointed to his homing RPG.
"Sure," Tallon smiled and accepted the weapon and ammo while handing over his shotgun in return. "Thanks!"
"Anything for the commanders, sir," the bear replied, then started firing at Seraphim.
Tallon checked out the tube-like weapon as he swung it onto his shoulder. Basically, it was a simple tube with a projectile at the front and a trigger at the bottom. It also had a side-mounted scope with a small button at the side- obviously for locking onto some metal object. He immediately aimed through the scope at a Seraph. As a continuous beep went off, he pressed the button to the side, then pulled the trigger. With a loud WHUMP, the projectile lurched from the tube and streaked for its target. The pilot actually saw the rocket coming and performed a slipstream jump. However, the rocket was in close enough proximity for it to jump with the fighter, so once the Seraph reappeared a few meters away, the rocket did as well. The explosive collided with the hull of the enemy aircraft, turning it into a ball of smoldering, twisted metal that plunged into the sea.
The kitsune then pulled another rocket from his ammo pack, attached it to the front of the tube, and twisted it to lock it into place. He then repeated the process few more times. After several times, he reached for another rocket…and found none.
"Aw, crap," Tallon swore, "I'm all out of ammo!"
"I don't think you'll be needing that anymore," Marcus smiled and pointed upwards, "Look!"
Tallon already saw them. The familiar silhouette of the Bullfrog, as well as several Cornerian fighters, were barely visible in the electronic fog. Slippy had arrived.
"Yeah!" Tallon cheered as the fighters roared by. "Reinforcements, baby!"
"Well," Marcus covered his face with one hand, "let's just hope Slippy's piloting has improved somewhat."
"Huh?" Tallon gave his brother a quizzical look, "Whadda ya mean?"
"You were born a little too late to know it, but Slippy was a terrible pilot, albeit a good mechanic and engineer."
Tallon looked back to the skies to see Slippy start to shoot down (or rather kill the pilots of) Seraphs with his plasma cannons. Cornerian fighters also started joining the fray, helping the small air support do its job.
"Wow," Marcus raised an eyebrow, "he's actually gotten a little better."
At that exact moment, several Seraphs started to swarm Slippy's fighter, and he pulled off extremely simple maneuvers in a futile effort to evade the adversaries.
Marcus emphasized the last part of his sentence, "A little better."
Despite this, the Seraphs were eventually sent retreating from sheer numbers of the allied forces. That, and the additional transport jets that just arrived. Shortly afterward, the electronic fog started to lift, and the soldiers cheered from the victory of the skirmish.
"Yeah," Tallon screamed at the retreating enemies. "That's right! Run back to your mothers! Run!"
"Some things just don't change," Marcus shook his head.
Tallon's eyes flashed at his older sibling, "What are you trying to imply?"
"Nothing," Marcus looked away, trying to hide a smile, "nothing."
Fox suddenly came up running to them and asked, "Was that Slippy, just now?" They watched as the Bullfrog almost collided with another fighter.
"Yep," Marcus confirmed. "That's Slippy, alright."
"Same old frog," Fox commented, then yelled up to the bridge. "Hey! Contact Slippy and tell him to get down here, pronto!"
An officer replied back to him, "Sir, yes sir! By the way, Commodore Tate wants you all up here! Includes the rest of you mercs, sir!"
"Alright," Fox shouted back up, "I'll get 'em!" He then turned to his boys, "Nice job, back there. Especially you, Marcus. Nice marksmanship."
"Thanks, dad," the blue fox grinned back. "You know me. I don't miss. Ever."
As his dad walked away to get the others, Tallon felt a little down from the fact that his dad only commented on his brother, not him. It was during moments like these when he felt a little jealous of all the attention Marcus got over him.
Seeing this, Marcus tried to cheer Tallon up, "Don't worry, sport. You did good, too."
"So what?" Tallon sighed. "Nobody really noticed."
"Look," Marcus turned to him, "everybody has their own trait that makes them unique. Mine is my vision, and yours is your underlying greatness. Your time to shine'll come."
"Hopefully soon," Tallon bit his lip. "Well, we better get going for the bridge now."
Tallon holstered his RPG on his back next to the plasma charge pack, and then headed for the bridge with Marcus. After climbing through a few flights of stairs and going through a few hallways, the pair eventually made it to the bridge.
The room was of an ovular shape, with windows surrounding the entire room, giving an unhindered view of the entire battleship. Computers, navigation equipment, life-support monitors, and deep-sea scanner readings were in an organized pattern throughout the room, with at least one person manning each. Entry and exit could be achieved through a small hatch, which lead to a small stairwell; Tallon and Marcus came through that just now. Commodore Tate, a middle-aged dolphin wearing a neat naval uniform complete with epaulettes and glasses, pivoted on his heel to meet the arriving commandos as they arrived.
"Welcome to the bridge, teams of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf…and Mr. Toad," he greeted in a rough tone. "I don't want to bore you with unimportant facts, so let's get right down to brass tacks." He walked over toward a radar display, with the officer operating it moving out of the way for everyone to see.
"We're right here," Tate pointed to the center of the screen. "And the siphoning facility's coordinates show here." He pointed to the same spot.
"Well?" Tallon held his arms up, inviting an answer. "Where is it? Above us?"
Suddenly, the sea around the ship started to brighten with a white glow, and the water started to foam and bubble as if the whole ocean was water in a pot on a lit stove.
"Aw, shoot," Tate ripped the glasses from his snout and grabbed a phone. "Helmsman! Back us up, full speed asap!"
The whole ship groaned, and then lurched backwards at a moderate speed. Hover tanks, SDFKs, and fighters of all sorts got out of the glow as fast they could. Just as the battleship got into safe water, a bluish beam of energy rushed out of the ocean in front of them with a tremendous roar. Seawater was splashed onto the bow of the ship by the dozens of gallons, and colossal waves pushed the battleship backwards a little.
"More like below us, Tallon," Fox answered his son's question as the beam stopped firing.
"By the gods," Tate murmured, and then ordered. "Ensign! Status report! And I want a deep-sea scan, now!"
"All systems are in the green, sir," he replied, "escort outside is A-okay, sir."
Another officer announced, "Sir, scans report something weird, and you all might want to see it!"
The group shifted to the scan station. On the screen was the faint outline of an unknown, distorted shape. Purplish lines surrounded the whole screen, even over the shape.
"Something's jamming the scan, sir," the officer pointed out. "They've got some sort of disruption field around the entire base."
"Was the scan able to pick up anything useful?" Tate asked; with his glasses now back on his snout.
"Yes, sir," the officer chattered. "There are tons of anti-watercraft turrets surrounding the facility. We can't get anywhere near that thing with seafighters or subs, sir."
"Good thing we have something for this," Tate tilted his head sideways for a moment, then shouted. "Helmsman, move the ship as far to the middle of the facility as you can get! Weapons management, I want a torpedo on that facility!"
"What kind, sir?" the soldier asked.
"The big one, of course! Helmsman, are we there yet?"
The phone crackled, "We're as close to middle as it gets, sir!"
"Weapons, management, you know the rest!"
The soldier nodded, then took a key out of his pocket and put it into a keyhole underneath a box with caution paint all over it. After turning the key, he flipped the box open, revealing a red button surrounded by text reading, "Warning!"
"Hole on to your hats and glasses people," Tate screamed into the intercom. "This is gonna be one hell of a recoil!"
Tallon crouched down and held onto a safety rail, bracing for the sudden lurch he knew was coming. It came, and boy, was it one big lurch. The ship shuddered, and anybody on it would have thought that it rose a whole foot out of the water from the force that the torpedo was launched. A few moments after everything settled back to normal, Tallon stood upright again. Then a dull thud sounded off below, barely audible.
After waiting for several seconds, Tate asked, "Did the torpedo hit?"
"Sir," weapons management spoke slowly, "I don't believe this, but the torpedo exploded five-hundred meters above the target depth. Something caused it to set off on its own accord, sir."
Tate cursed, "For the-…Dangit, we have to do it the old-fashioned way, then. Get to the launch tubes, get down there, and blow that stinkin' facility up! Helmsman! Back us up so that our troops don't get cut to pieces by the facility's defenses!" The phone crackled, and the ship pulled backwards.
"Sorry, sir," an ensign objected to Tate's second sentence. "But the siphoning facility's about five-thousand-six-hundred-seventy feet down there. Water pressure's too great for our diving suits to handle."
"Not mine," Ace smiled. "Slippy, I think it's time we show our friends how two brains are better than one."
"I think it's 'two heads'," Slippy corrected. "And yes. Everyone, let's get down to the launch tubes!"
Well, Tallon brooded to himself, being in the ocean's better than getting seasick looking at it. He then followed the teams as they opened the hatch and headed downstairs.
After descending to the bottom level of the battleship, the teams finally made it to the launch tubes. The room was about the size of the first floor of the average house. One wall of the room was covered in storage compartments containing conventional diving suits, air tanks, and weapons, as well as some work tables with large boxes on them. The other walls were lined with tubes that launched military personnel into the water without having to flood an entire room in order to do so. Soldiers and newly-arrived Spades were there as well.
Ace and Slippy immediately went up to the tables and opened the boxes, revealing several dozen strange-looking diving suits. Like any Lylatian diving suit, it had the appearance of an azure full-body armor suit, complete with helmets. Unlike them each suit had an outer covering made of a sandpaper-esque material that had hexagonal shapes completely covering it. Also, the boots, instead of ending in a blunt point, ended in inwards-curving, streamlined fins. The helmets themselves, instead of a breathing apparatus, had large spheres with strange, tentacle-like appendages attached in its place.
"Now ordinarily," Slippy began, "diving suits have a limited range of about two-thousand feet and about an hour of air. However, these suits are different. Tell 'em, Ace."
"Right," Ace nodded. "Together, Slippy and I have created a diving suit that can withstand immense pressures and has a virtually limitless air supply. It's able to withstand such enormous pressures because inside this thick outer plating," he tapped the chest area of a diving suit, giving off a dull thump, "is a layer of reinforced glass."
"…Glass?!" Aloysius asked, bewildered. "You expect us to last under heavy fire with an armor made of glass?!"
"Yep," Ace smiled. "But only if, and only if, it can get through the new shield system. Adder, I'm just gonna borrow your shotgun…," The team leader didn't even have a chance to object before the albino relieved him of his weapon. Ace aimed the shotgun at the helmet from a single foot away. He then pulled the trigger, causing forty lasers to come out of the barrel with a sound close enough to an explosion to be called just that. A multitude of light panels sprung up from the armor and blocked each incoming laser. Everybody had to give credit to Ace and Slippy for creating a shield system that could withstand that.
As the boom resonated throughout the room, Ace checked the shield readings.
"Eighty-one percent capacity," Ace smiled. "You can have this back, now." Adder accepted his shotgun back with amazement.
Slippy then started, "As you can tell, our armor has more than enough potential to last down there. Glass, though very easy to shatter, can withstand extremely high pressures- up to the force of nineteen of Corneria's atmospheres on it. Now for the air supply. It simply doesn't have one."
Leon, obviously not buying it, asked, "So what's the catch?"
"It makes its own air," Slippy grinned. "That device on the helmet uses an electric current fueled by the armor to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. While the hydrogen is expended back out into the water, oxygen enters the helmet for you to breathe, and carbon dioxide leaves the same way the hydrogen does. And-"
"But wait," Cris interrupted. "That separation requires a lot of electricity in order to carry out. How do you know there's enough to last?"
"Which is why I said, 'virtually limitless air supply,'" Ace repeated. "Any movement you make requires your brain to send an electric signal down the spinal cord and into the nerves necessary to move the body part. The armor taps into that electricity source, supplying the suit with new energy- energy that can be used for the oxygen strainer and shields- through a bit of integration with your own body. Each movement you make- even the slightest twitch- can generate power. The worst that can happen is getting your reflexes slightly diminished. And when I say 'slightly', mean very, very slightly. About a tenth of a second."
Tallon huffed, "Heh, you guys sure make a good team, don'tcha? Nice job. So how do we put these on?"
"You'll need help," Slippy rolled his eyes. "We can do it for you guys. Just don't tell Amanda that I snuck out of our house to join you all." The latter statement extracted a laugh from everyone, "No, seriously. I mean it."
Fox, Krystal, Falco, and Marcus went first, taking about a minute each. Tallon was up next. Why is it that I'm always the last one in the team to do something? he thought. Ace and Slippy began by removing the plasma charge pack from his back, then put on the body armor first, which, to Tallon's surprise, fit over him much like an ordinary wetsuit, albeit more rigid. Next were his boots and gloves, which fit tightly on to him. Last was his helmet, which hissed as the bottom connected with the rest of the armor.
Ace tapped his visor and asked, "Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," Tallon responded.
"Alright. Any weird feelings, more specifically in your lungs?"
"Nope."
"Okay, you're set. Next!"
Tallon donned his plasma charge pack, and went to the weapons rack to replenish his supply of rockets when a familiar gold-colored Spade stepped in front of him.
"Good afternoon, Commander McCloud junior," Xamuros spun his head around. "May I advise for you to use a different weapon? Projectiles aren't really that effective underwater."
"Good afternoon to you too, sir," Tallon smiled back, discarding the rocket tube. "Nice to see you again. Don't you need a diving suit?"
"Negative," he responded. "My body is entirely watertight. I'll be fine."
"Dang, I forgot!" Ace slapped his head, and then hurried up the stairs. After a few seconds, he came back down with what looked like a small sub-machine gun in his arms. The weapon had a narrow design, and had a laser sight attached to the top. The barrel was quite small, but a little longer than usual, meaning it was more accurate. It had a clip that was loaded at a horizontal angle on the right of the weapon, with the round ejector just in front of it. A retractable butt-stock could be seen at the end.
"Well, Xamuros," Ace smiled again, "not all projectiles are ineffective underwater. Tallon, may I present to you my latest invention?"
"Go on right ahead, man," Tallon shrugged. "I don't know what that tiny gun'll do for me, though."
"Then follow me right to the firing range," Ace ordered. Tallon rolled his eyes for having to climb more stairs, and then followed his serpentine friend through a few flights and landings. After reaching the firing range, Ace pressed a button to make the dummy of a human to appear. The dummy, even though it was wearing a flak jacket and other armor, looked much like the humans' leader.
"See him?" Ace cocked the weapon. "His name is 'Iradumbass'," He waited until Tallon stopped chuckling from the name's resemblance to Iradanus, "Watch what this tiny SMG will do to him."
Ace aimed down the sight and fired a one-second burst, adding up four rounds. The sound, to Tallon's surprise, was equal to that of a high-powered rifle in rapid-fire. Then, he looked at the target dummy to see that each round had pierced through the flak jacket, then into the dummy itself. About a second later, four, two-inch-wide holes appeared where the rounds hit with a small series of bangs. The albino smiled, pulled the loader back, removed the magazine to replace it with a fresh one, and recocked the action.
"See," Ace smirked, "this weapon, the M-PACT sub-machine gun, fires high-velocity, armor-piercing bullets. Upon piercing an object, whether it be the insides of a vehicle or flesh, the rounds blow apart like a frag grenade, causing quite a bit of internal damage. Doesn't have that bad of a rate of fire either. So you want to reconsider how weak this is?"
"Where do you get the time to make this kind of stuff?" Tallon asked, accepting the weapon.
"In the early morning," Ace answered. "Now let's get back to the others. Slippy probably suited 'em up by now."
Great. More stairs, Tallon sighed as he reluctantly descended back down several slights with slight sluggishness.
After reaching the launch tubes, Ace suited himself up in his armor and spoke into the radio, "Testing. Testing. Can everyone hear me?" A few 'Yes's rang out, "Good. Xamuros? Spades? What about you guys?" Some more confirmations went out, "Alright, we're set. Into the launch tubes we go!"
Tallon stepped inside of one of the gray cylinders, which closed around him after he entered. Shortly after, holes in the bottom opened, causing water to flood into the cylinder at a reasonable pace. Once he was fully enveloped by seawater, a dull rumble went off as pressure built up inside the chamber. Finally, the launch tubes bottom opened up, causing him to rocket out from the pressure built up. To his surprise, he found he could breathe normally without hindrance of any sort. He descended through the clear water at a high speed until darkness surrounded him like a veil and he decelerated.
The brownish kitsune twisted a knob on his helmet to activate night vision, and the world became an eerie world of green, white, gray, and black. Tallon kicked so that he was facing down and started into a neat breaststroke. After about ten minutes, he reached the sea floor, causing a small plume of sand to be kicked up. Several more plumes in close proximity signaled that the rest had arrived.
"Alright, teams," he could hear the radio crackle with his dad's voice, "we started up a bit back in order to avoid detection, so let's get moving already. C'mon."
Tallon started into a slow trot, but found that under Aquas' higher gravity, he could actually walk quite normally. Then, he broke into a moderate jog, allowing him to catch up with his dad.
"This is kinda cool how we can just walk underwater without worry, eh?" Tallon tried to start a conversation.
"Heh, sure is, son," he chattered back. "Haven't done an underwater mission for quite a while. About a couple decades, I think. Anglar War, on Venom."
"Yeah, but we're walking, dad!" Tallon exclaimed. "This is so cool!"
Fox sighed, "Let's see how long you'll keep up that enthusiasm."
"Huh?"
"No, it's nothing. Hey, do you all see something? Look ahead, everyone!"
Tallon jerked his head forward to sea ridge up ahead, with a faint halo of light on its upper edge. The siphoning facility was near.
"Alright, everyone!" Adder called out. "Let's take this thing down and…whoa."
"'Whoa'? Whadda ya mean 'whoa'?" Tallon asked. He looked over the ridge and gasped. "Holy crap."
More and more troops peeked over the ridge to find out what the others were gasping about. There were three main things- first, being the siphoning facility itself. The siphoning facility, unlike the one back on Katina, wasn't so tiny. The pyramid-like structure was the same, but surrounding it was a network of tunnels that branched off into large buildings. All in all, the siphoning facility was the size of a large city, so destroying would be quite the mundane task. Second, everyone was astounded by the number of Drones, Sentries patrolling the waters around the base, and defenses on the facility itself. There were easily hundreds of Drones and Sentries each, along with a few dozen plasma machine gun turrets and stationary HDEB (Heavy Directed Energy Beam) turrets on or around the base. Third, was the fact that, enveloping the entire station, was a gigantic, pulsating force field of some sort.
"This might take a while," Tallon commented.
* * *
Back aboard the battleship, Commodore Tate paced up and down the bridge with much impatience. Why the heck aren't those soldiers back by now? It should be easy to just blow the dang thing up! he thought.
A strange feeling made him halt his pacing. He felt somehow as if he was being watched. Well, of course he was being watched by the crewmen, but another presence made him shiver a little bit.
Suddenly, a descending gasp sounded out, causing the officers and ensigns around him to stand out of their chairs. Everyone hurried to the front windows, where a good view of the battleship's bow could be seen. There, soldiers were also staring out to sea, obviously hearing the same sound they all heard.
"What in the name of-" Tate started. He was cut short as a gigantic arm snaked through the air from the ocean and crashed down onto the bottom deck, crushing several troops already. The ship leaned forward as a gigantic mech pulled itself out of the water.
The whole ship leaned to the point that Tate lost his balance and hit the glass windows…then started right into the many-mandibled face of a Harvester. This one, however, didn't just have two siphoning tentacles- more like a dozen, each snaking across the decks, draining the energy from those unfortunate enough to meet with them.
Tate didn't even make a sound as the Harvester heaved up an arm, revealing a large barrel rippling with heat attached. As particles where drawn into the barrel of the massive, charging weapon, Tate stayed quiet, despite the panicked screams around him. He closed his eyes, and hoped that the gods would smile on his family and bring them good fortune.
The Harvester fired a few seconds later, and the gigantic blast that hit the middle of the superstructure. An enormous fireball engulfed the battleship and the escort trying in vain to kill its assailant. Every Lylatian vehicle and naval unit was disintegrated from the intense heat, and before long, the only thing left in the general area was a Harvester that plunged downwards to return to the base.
* * *
"Are they completely cut off, now?"
"Yes, sir. The Harvester just destroyed the battleship and its escort."
"Good. Has anyone acted with suspicion towards you?"
"No, sir. No one even knows that their real friend is behind POW bars by now."
"Perfect. Prepare the trap, and keep me updated when you can."
"Of course, sir. Farewell, sir."
* * *
Here's chapter 12's first part, this time starring Tallon McCloud!
...In all of his unnoticed glory...
Anyways, about the little history of Aquas there... Yes, I made it up. No, I didn't check to see if there already was an official history of the planet. But yes, I did enjoy making it up. Deal with it! Anyhoo, there are greater forces working behind the scenes in this chapter, leading off to a good surprise at the end. Enjoy!