Star Fox: Regime – a fan fiction by Wolf Reynolds
"Star Fox" and all related characters and trademarks © Nintendo, Inc.
Story ©2011 Wolf Reynolds
Author's Note: For their heroism and bravery in protecting our freedom beyond the surly bonds of Earth, I would like to dedicate this story to the astronauts – both those who are still with us and those who made the ultimate sacrifice on Challenger and Columbia – of the Space Transportation System, commonly known as the Space Shuttle. The final mission, STS-135, began at Kennedy Space Center on 8 July 2011. You will never be forgotten.
CHAPTER 28
Secure Area of Gantry #39A, Norantrova Spaceport, Planet Macbeth (1521 hours CCT, 2221 hours local time)
Fox was in a cold sweat. He hadn't been this nervous before they had arrived, but the waiting game was beginning to get to him. He nearly smiled at the irony: he had been completely calm coming to Macbeth and getting in a police cruiser with Miyu and going through security checkpoint after security checkpoint, but now that he was through the security and, arguably, finished with the hardest part (except perhaps getting aboard the ship itself), he was a nervous wreck. Krystal gently squeezed his shoulder.
"Hey," she said calmly, "Relax."
"I'm trying," he answered, taking her hand. "I just keep telling myself that everything's going to be fine, but that's not necessarily true."
"No, it's not," Krystal admitted, "But we're going to give it our best. There's nothing else you can do, so there's no sense getting all knotted up over it. You know that, Fox."
"Yeah," Fox sighed. "It's the waiting that's getting to me." He turned to Miyu. "How long before she arrives, Miyu?"
"I don't know any more than you, Fox," she answered quietly, "It could be another two hours, or it could be any second. She's supposed to be here for a day or two. Wouldn't it make sense to just observe the ship for awhile before you try anything?"
"No. Too risky," Fox said, "I mean, jumping the gun like this is risky enough, but every second we wait is one more second for them to possibly find out what we're up to and make it impossible for us to succeed. No; it has to be now."
Slippy nodded in agreement, and Miyu just nodded. They all got quiet again as they went back to their endless waiting. Fox was quite surprised by how normal the gantry's waiting area looked. He could have been waiting for a flight across-continent instead of for the flagship of the Cornerian fleet. There was very little military presence in the terminal; an occasional soldier would walk by, but it was usually a lowly corporal or some such – obviously just waiting for someone. Fox had yet to see a single officer. Not that he was complaining, of course; the fewer eyes that could give them away, the better.
Fox kept looking out at the darkened berth gantry through the large picture windows that made up most of the wall. Gantry 39-Alpha was connected to the terminal by three mechanical access arms, which would all be connected to the ship once it landed. As Miyu had mentioned, every external entrance to the ship was either sealed or connected to one of the access arms. The entrance just added to Fox's feeling that things looked uneasily normal; looking down the access arm, Fox thought it looked just like a jetway at a normal tropospheric airport, except the access arm was longer, narrower, and not as well lit. In fact, Fox thought it looked a bit rickety – a fact that made him slightly uneasy, considering the fact that it was about six or seven stories from the tarmac.
Reclining somewhat in the black vinyl bench-seat (in that sense, all airports and spaceports were alike in Fox's experience), Fox couldn't do anything except pass the time as quickly as possible. He checked with Falco, but there was nothing to report. He perused the newspaper that lay on the seat beside him, but he found that it was nothing but state-glorifying drabble. Such was the substance of the news since the coup; oh, how Fox missed a decent newspaper that wasn't state-sanctioned! It was almost more than he could bear. One thing Fox did find odd, though, was that while the newspapers consistently praised the deeds of the Premiere (usually including such titles as "The Great and Glorious Leader" or "The Beloved Father"), they never once mentioned his actual name. Fox found that extremely odd. The Lylat System had been ruled by a dictator for many weeks now, and Fox didn't even know that dictator's name. Curious. This reclusive emperor was highly suspect; Fox was beginning to wonder if the Premiere had become nothing but a figurehead, doing the bidding of his bureaucrat "subordinates." The more likely explanation, Fox thought, was that he was solidifying his power by staying out of the public eye – it was easier for a leader to be seen as immortal if the people couldn't see him fall.
The time passed very slowly; by the time an hour had gone, Fox had bitten all of his claws right down to the quick. He didn't think he was worried about trying to take the Pleiades (though the uneasiness of having to confront Bill still hovered in the back of his mind), but the interminable waiting was breaking his nerves. The team passed the better part of two hours in near-complete silence. With the exception of a few people walking about here and there, the terminal seemed completely deserted (with local time being near midnight, not many flights were coming in and out), so they could have talked without being overheard, but no one had anything to say. They'd all (except Miyu) spent the last two days planning and discussing the plans and figuring out everything that could go wrong and deciding what everyone had to do – Fox guessed there was just nothing more to say. No one wanted to wax philosophical about how this could be their last time together or the like; Fox couldn't dismiss such ideas as complete drabble, yet he didn't want to talk about them. He suspected everyone else felt the same – as if mentioning it would make it more possible.
After what seemed like forever, floodlights flickered on, illuminating the gantry outside. The ILS lights began flashing in sequence, brightening and dimming through the slight fog in a line towards the gantry. Fox knew a ship was coming in, but he couldn't see anything from the team's current vantage point. It seemed odd to him; with the Pleiades arriving, it seemed to Fox like there should have been loud noise, like trumpet fanfare or a blaring alarm – or even the sound of his heart shattering at the sudden illumination – but the terminal was just as silent as before. Fox spoke softly, radioing the other unit. "Falco?" he asked quietly, "Anything?"
"Yeah, Fox," Falco answered back, just as quietly, "She's coming down through the clouds now. Looks like two escorts with her."
"Right," Fox said, "Go to radio silence. Next transmission will be success, failure, or call for aid. Remember the plan. Give me one hour."
"You got it Fox," Falco said. Fox heard a beep that sounded like it had come from Falco's watch. Fox prepared to synchronize his own watch. "One hour," Falco said, "Transmission ends at mark zero-one-one-five hours and thirty seconds. Three… two… one… mark." The radio went eerily silent, and Fox continued to watch the gantry outside, scanning the sky for signs of the Pleiades.
Finally, the telltale light began to appear and grow brighter as the ship approached. The tint in the terminal windows darkened as the light grew brighter. Fox finally caught sight of the ship itself, and then gestured to behind the large vinyl bench with his left hand. "Everyone down," he said. They all crouched behind the bench. Fox felt a bit of a rumble as the Pleiades came in, but as was typical of spaceports, the terminal was completely soundproof. As the Pleiades settled into the gantry, Fox trained his eyes on the access arm. When he heard the hydraulics begin moving the arm into place, Fox surreptitiously drew his blaster, hoping he wouldn't need to fire it. The others did the same (except Miyu, who was unarmed). The room was silent again for a few seconds, and then the silence was broken by an electronic tone signaling a successful landing. Crew members – officers, all – began coming out through the access arm. Fox expected that the lesser crewmen were exiting the ship from the other two access arms abow and amidships, but that wasn't important right now; once they had control of the bridge, which was at the stern of the ship, it wouldn't matter. If it meant they had to take Republic shipmen captive, so be it. Fox didn't like it, but he had to keep reminding himself that this was a war. He did breathe a sigh of relief, though, when he saw Fara come through the access arm. At least she was out of harm's way now. Still no sign of Bill, though. Fox wasn't surprised; Bill was the captain of the ship – he would have had to secure the ship and set the watch. It was somewhat ironic when Fox thought about "setting the watch." In the seafaring days of yore, that meant putting someone on duty to guard the ship. Now it meant arming all of the automated security and possibly ordering a few MPs to take watch positions.
Fox waited several more minutes while the departing crew members dispersed. After a few minutes, it became obvious that Bill was not leaving the ship. The terminal was deserted once again, so Fox decided it was time to make their move. He took a deep breath and held up his hand to signal the four behind him to be ready to move. He heard the preparatory click of a blaster switch from behind him – he suspected it was Wolf's. Fox then dropped his hand and made a signal telling everyone to move forward, which they did. The five of them, still crouching, went onto the mechanical access arm and stood as they walked down its length. Fox felt it shake and creak under his feet, but he didn't let the nervousness get to him. He was a pilot; he wasn't about to let acrophobia, of all things, ruin what was possibly the most important job of his entire career.
They all stopped at the end of the access arm, right on the outside of the starboard quarter's upper entry hatch. The bulkhead was open, rendering visible a small area of one of the ship's corridors, but Fox couldn't see much from his vantage point. Even though this door didn't lead to an airlock (this hatch was only used on-planet at a gantry like this one), only a few feet of the corridor were visible. Fox looked at Wolf, trying through his eyes to project his confidence in the pirate. This is all you, big guy, he thought, Don't let us down now. What he whispered aloud was, "Wolf, take the point."
Wolf just nodded and stepped quickly onto the ship, checking one direction and the other while aiming his blaster. "All clear," he said softly, "There'll be hidden cameras, though."
Fox boarded the ship and directed the others to follow. One of the first things he noticed was the red panic button directly beside the hatch. "Not much we can do about that," Fox answered Wolf, "We knew that already. We just have to stick to the plan. The important thing is to get to the bridge." He looked to his right, towards the forward end of the corridor. "That way," he whispered. The five of them walked briskly towards the forward side of the sternward tower that housed the bridge.
They hadn't walked very far before they heard someone say, "Who's there?" from down an intersecting corridor. Fox whipped his head to the left and saw the source of the voice running towards them. It was Bill.
"Bill!" Fox shouted. Wolf aimed his blaster. "Hold your fire!" he shouted angrily at Wolf. Bill didn't seem to react; before anyone could stop him, he ducked past them and began running for the hatch – and the alarm panel. "Wait, Bill!" Fox called after him. Doesn't he see that it's me? Fox's mind raced. Bill was getting closer and closer to the hatch, and despite Fox's frantic calls, he reached for the alarm panel. Fox couldn't wait any longer; he cocked his blaster as loudly as he could, aimed directly at Bill's chest, and shouted, "STOP!"
Bill froze and looked in Fox's direction, one hand aiming his own sidearm at Fox, the other halfway towards the red panic button. "Imposter," Bill accused, "You're all imposters. Don't you rebels have any compassion at all? Fox McCloud was my best friend, and he died on the Cloudrunner. You mock his memory."
"No, Bill," Fox said softly, "It's me. I escaped from the Cloudrunner. The Republic destroyed the Cloudrunner and everyone on it trying to get me."
"You lie!" Bill protested, shaking his gun angrily. "And you," he spat at Miyu, "A defector. I trusted you. What have these people told you? It doesn't matter. You can't do anything without the launch key." Fox's mind immediately noticed that Bill's eyes seemed to inadvertently glance down at his shirt pocket. It was only a glance, but Fox noticed it. He has the key, Fox thought.
"Drop the gun, Bill," Fox said, not raising his voice, "I don't want you to die today, and I certainly don't want to have to be the one to kill you. I'm your best friend. You said so yourself."
"No," Bill maintained, "Fox McCloud is dead."
"Just listen to yourself," Krystal pleaded, "Can you even hear what you're saying? You're lying to yourself – I know you are – and you're believing it. You know what the Republic has done."
"We saw Saurian wreckage in the Mactan Corridor," Fox added softly, "Your doing? More dissidents like us?" Bill's countenance fell, but his gun arm didn't. Wolf's head darted back and forth, scanning nervously for any sign of other activity, but there was almost a visible ball of tense energy between Bill and Fox. "It doesn't have to be this way, Bill," Fox said softly, "Remember when we were young, and you had that model of that sailing ship? What was the name of that ship – the White Star, wasn't it?" Bill's ears perked up in recognition. "We spent weeks working on that damned model," Fox chuckled, "Rigged the sails ourselves. Then I broke one of the masts by accident. You remember that? You were so upset that you said you never wanted to talk to me again. Then I told you we could fix it. All it needed was a little glue and a little paint, and you'd never know it had ever been broken. This doesn't have to be different. The Federation is broken, but we can fix it."
"Fox…" Bill said, a tear streaming down his face, "It is you… You're alive." He still didn't lower his gun, however.
"Drop the gun, Bill," Fox said, "Please?"
"I took an oath…" Bill muttered, lowering his weapon slowly but not holstering it.
"To a Federation that the Republic murdered," Fox answered, "Come with us, Bill. Don't let it continue. Give me the launch key."
"I… I can't, Fox," Bill replied.
"Why?"
"Fara," Bill answered, "I can't…"
"There's no time for this," Wolf suddenly broke in. With lightning speed, he clicked a switch on his blaster, took aim, and fired. The report temporarily deafened Fox, but he saw Bill crumple to the floor in a heap.
"No!" Fox screamed, "You bastard!" He threw his fist right for Wolf's throat, but Wolf knocked it away with the butt end of his blaster pistol and grabbed Fox's wrist, twisting it so he couldn't move his arm.
"Use your head, pup," he said calmly – more calmly than Fox would have expected – letting go of Fox's arm and showing him the switch on his blaster. "I only stunned him. But he was completely out of it; you'd never have bargained with him – not in time, anyway. They're moving around out there. We've only got a few minutes, and that's if we're lucky. Now grab his key and let's get out of here."
Fox was relieved. He gave Wolf an apologetic glance. "Sorry," he said, walking towards Bill's unconscious form, "I guess I lost my head for a second there."
"We're all a bit on edge," Wolf conceded, "Let's just be done with it."
Fox opened the flap on Bill's shirt pocket. Sure enough, the key was inside the pocket. "Give me a hand," he said to Wolf as he tried to lift Bill from the floor.
"What are you doing?" Wolf said, walking towards him.
"We'll leave him in the access arm," Fox said, "It'll close up when we launch. He'll be safe there."
"There's no time, Fox," Wolf said.
"There is if we don't argue," Fox countered. Wolf shrugged and helped Fox lift Bill from the floor. The two of them carried him through the hatch and set him down about halfway up towards the door to the still-deserted terminal. Fox heard footsteps in the terminal, though; clearly, time was not on their side. "Right," he whispered to Wolf, "Let's go." The others were waiting at the hatch.
Fox turned to Miyu. "We have to go on," he said, "But that doesn't mean you do. You're still MIA. You can blend in here and no one will ever know where you are. Stick with us, and you're only going to have people shooting at you."
"I can't go back," Miyu shook her head, "Bill saw me. They'll be after me. Unfortunately, his loyalties to me aren't as personal. I think he liked me well enough, but to him I was never more than a professional subordinate. Besides," she said contemptuously, "I've already done more blending in this place than I care to."
"There's no going back from here," he admonished.
"I know," she answered, "I can't go back."
That was all there was to it. Fox had hoped she would leave – she'd at least have a chance at a normal life that way – but he didn't have the time to press the issue. He just hoped Miyu could live with her decision. The five of them headed to the bridge, taking the stations they had already determined. Fox carefully held the key in his hand as he stood in the center of the room. This wasn't the first time he had stood on the bridge of the Pleiades, but now he was its captain, if only unofficially. The moment didn't last long; soon, alarms blared and the lights turned red. "Unauthorized bridge access!" a synthesized voice rang over the PA system, "Unauthorized bridge access! Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Bridge sealed. Two minutes to ship lockdown." This wasn't in the technical schematics, Fox thought frantically, I guess Bill was more prepared than we thought. He heard Slippy mutter a curse under his breath – and if Slippy was even muttering curses, it meant that Wolf was howling them.
