.
CHAPTER 32
History Class
Tadao left with the suits, soon disappearing around a corner.
Fox watched them go, uncertainty brewing in his mind. It won't be easy finding Krystal on Thaljista, and I could've used Tadao's help. He couldn't stop running the conversation he'd just had with the iguana over and over through his head, evaluating again and again on if he had made the right choice. I've got no way of knowing right now. Only time will tell. Shaking his head, he returned to his group at the table in the food court, all of them staring at him.
"What'd he say to you?" Fara asked, concerned. "I saw him yelling at you. Almost thought he was gonna attack you."
"He uh..." Fox scratched the back of his head, not liking all the staring. "He wanted to come with us to Thaljista."
"What?!" Falco shouted. "He's a nutjob! You told him no, right?"
Fox hesitated, but gave a short nod.
"Good riddance!" Falco laughed, relief flooding his face. "I couldn't sleep with that guy on our ship. I keep thinking about that machete he had."
Oh yeah, they did find Tadao with that machete covered in old blood stains, didn't they?
"You did the right thing Fox." Slippy smiled, patting him on the shoulder.
"Yeah..." Fox smiled, though his eyes wandered to the floor. At least my team's happy, but this whole thing still bugs me. Was it right to let Tadao go?
"You okay Fox?" Fara asked.
He looked up, wanting to tell her what he was thinking, although it would've sounded crazy: use a serial machete-killer they found in the jungle to help him find his lost love. Oh yeah, I'm sure they'd all be behind me on that one. Anyway, it's too late to change my mind now. May as well forget about it and move on.
He forced a smile to Fara. "Yeah, I'm okay." Then he turned to Stan. "So, Peppy's ready for us? The briefing?"
"Sure!" Stan smirked. "We better hurry though. Peppy's food's getting cold." He held up a bag from Ted's.
"Okay, let's get going, team."
After going back through the security checkpoint, they boarded the tram to the military side of the station, the colorful sights and sounds of the concourse slipping away as the vehicle whooshed through the gray tunnel. Everyone appeared subdued now, even Katt not as talkative and wild as she was before. The journey ahead weighed on everybody's mind. Arriving back in the military sector, they passed through a maze of utilitarian rooms and corridors, led by Stan with a confident step.
Fox's mind buzzed with activity. This is it. I can go after Krystal now. I get to do something instead of wondering if she's even still alive. A smile stretched across his face. Unbelievable. Who knew failing a mission could give him a better reward than completing it? If he'd recaptured that case, he wouldn't be going to Thaljista now.
"Fox?" That was Peppy's voice.
"Hmm?" he looked up.
Peppy stood behind the desk at the front of a briefing room, next to a podium and a projection screen. "What are you smiling about?"
"Nothing." Fox let the smile drop off his face, although it felt like all eyes in the room were on him. He looked for a place to sit at one of the myriad other desks in the room.
"So, this is him, huh? The great Fox McCloud?"
Fox's lips curled up. Never heard that voice before, but I already don't like it. It sounded snooty, high, and mighty, the word 'great' said with particular sarcasm.
A female horse sat in a chair near the front of the room, turned around to face him. She wore a white lab coat over a green military uniform. Her fur was chocolate black, a white diamond on the front of her face, darker hair running down the back of her head and from the long flowing tail behind her. With her long face and tall height, even sitting she looked down upon the vulpine.
"Fox," Peppy said, "this is Dr. Patricia Deberti, a military doctor."
"Pleasure." Her harsh tone belied her words.
"Same." Fox matched her tone. Guess I know why she didn't come with us to dinner now.
"She will be overseeing Augustine Strafer's rehab while you're en route to Thaljista," Peppy continued. "Rachel will be assisting her. Anyway Stan, let's get on with the briefing?"
"Of course, but first...think fast!" He tossed the Ted's bag across the room to Peppy.
Peppy's eyes widened at the oncoming sack, almost falling over to catch it. "Whoa! You know I'm not a young bunny anymore!" He cast a glare at Stan. Nonetheless, when he opened the bag and smelled what was inside, Peppy's mood improved quickly. "Mmm...veggie burger." He retook his seat, emptying out the delicious food inside onto his desk.
Stan strode across the room, stopping at the podium and booting up his laptop while laying out his own food on a nearby table. As he pushed a button on a remote, the room darkened, the presentation screen humming to life while everyone took their seats.
"It's time for a little history lesson. Mr. Stan Krubish will be your professor for Thaljistani History and Politics 101."
~X~
Panther devoured a chunk of meat in his hands, ripping pieces off with his teeth. He spat out bones on the floor and reached for the next piece as soon as he was finished with the previous one. Like a feral animal feasting after taking down his prey, he was shirtless and covered in blood, some of it his own and some from the food. Dirt, sweat, multiple cuts, and bruises covered his body.
Those kids thrashed him many more times after his first bout, albeit towards the end he delivered some of his own thrashings in return. Amazing how fast he got over feeling bad about beating them up. In between, they'd done things like climb the cliffs around the monastery, or jump across a maze of stone pillars, the tops rounded and providing unsteady footing at best. He'd fallen to the rocky ground many times, as his injuries showed. The kids always landed on their feet, to his annoyance.
Training ended after the sun had gone down, torches flickering on the walls in the dining hall, bathing everything in an orange glow against the encroaching darkness outside. Unlike when he ate here this morning with Sable, Panther didn't notice the frigid wind blowing through the windows anymore. Taraksh was right about adapting to the cold. All day, his blood kept to a constant boil so the chill no longer affected him.
"Panther?"
The jungle cat whirled around, a piece of meat hanging out of his mouth, bits of blood pattering on the floor.
Taraksh stood there, not even blinking at the sight. "Your training is not done."
Panther growled, swallowing the flesh in his mouth. "More?!"
He smirked. "Don't worry, it's nothing physical. If you like, think of me as an entertainer telling you a story during dinner. Sable has requested I teach you the history of our people." He paused, smiling. "Ah, well, you are one of us too, as you are a Caruso."
"My grandfather Casimiro doesn't believe that. I'm a bastard to him."
Panther blinked, his own words surprising him. When Casimiro rejected him before, he wondered if he should even care. He didn't know an entire Caruso clan existed until he was on their doorstep. Why worry about what strangers thought of him?
But then why do I feel ashamed now?
Taraksh kept his persistent warm smile. "It is possible to change that, if you put in the effort."
Taraksh had given Panther gentle encouragement the whole day, urging him on to strike harder, go further, climb higher. Back in Lylat, no one—not even Wolf or Leon—would care if I dropped dead. Such is life as a mercenary. But Taraksh...when was the last time I met someone like him? He respects me because of who I am, instead of what jobs I can do for him. Panther curled up his lip. Come on, you only just met him. He could be as fake as Sable.
Nonetheless though, Panther couldn't bear to put Taraksh in the same box as her.
"Let us begin." Taraksh pointed a claw upwards.
Panther looked up, noticing a mural covering almost the entire ceiling, the flickering light of the torches distorting the pictures. He hadn't noticed the mural this morning, because during breakfast he'd been too distracted by Sable and his new environment.
The mural covered a dazzling array of scenes, a collage of images crashing together in a way that Panther couldn't make sense of. Ancient villages with fields of crops, tribal warriors prepared for battle, massive stone palaces in the desert, cities of gleaming skyscrapers, battles between star ships in outer space... Perhaps there was a story in there somewhere, though he had no clue how to follow along.
Taraksh picked up on this. "Don't worry. I'll walk you through it." He pointed his finger towards one picture in the center, which appeared to be a nexus for the entire display. Thaljista was there, in the middle of a starry sky with colorful nebulae of blues, greens, and pinks. "Thousands of years ago, the god Thaal-Ja gazed upon this planet, and decided it would be the perfect home for the race he was about to create. He used his powers to create us—Felidae, his children—within a cave, nurturing us there until we were ready to go out into the world and claim it for ourselves."
Taraksh moved to the far end of the hall, indicating towards one particular scene. It depicted a wide array of felines standing in a dome-shaped room with dark walls and orange lines. Everyone stood in concentric circles around the center of the room, all eyes focused on a bright light within the middle. Everyone in the picture appeared to be a child. Was Taraksh being literal about the word children?
"Lions, tigers, jaguars, cheetahs, manuls, pumas, servals, caracals, sand cats, wild cats, and so forth...all the felines that now walk this planet. Each one created to fill a distinctive role in this new world. We wanted to remain with Thaal-Ja in his cave forever. He had everything we could ever need. Food, water, shelter... All was plentiful. We named this planet Thaljista in his honor, taking on the name of Thaljistanis ourselves."
Though Taraksh recited these words with a smile on his face, the smile soon vanished.
"This was not to last forever. Once we matured enough, Thaal-Ja cast us out into the world to ensure we were worthy of being his children. Because we were immature at the time, we protested...crying out like mere cubs."
He moved towards another section of the mural, depicting the same room, but now showing a chaotic scene. The organized circles, the reverence, the awe in the felines' eyes... It had been replaced by anger, terror, and fear, a large group of cubs standing near the glowing light. Some pointed at the light, baring their fangs and claws. Others clasped their hands together, on their knees as if praying towards it. More groups of children huddled together, some of them in the back of the room far from the light.
"We did not listen, but he would not have any of it."
Panther's eyes widened at the next picture. Rocks fell from the ceiling of the room, crushing some of the children underneath as others fled for the exit through a tunnel. Even as they ran, several cave-ins blocked the escape route, dooming those fleeing to be trapped inside. At the other end of the tunnel was a fertile valley with grass, trees, and a river. Groups of cubs huddled outside and looked towards the cave in terror, while others ran around, shouting for lost friends and family.
"Those of us outside wailed for Thaal-Ja to let us back in, to save those who were trapped, but we would not learn if he heeded our wishes. We needed to stand on our own two feet and make our own way." Taraksh recited these words with a straight face, as if he'd heard them since he was born.
But Panther? He was disgusted. Why devote your life to a god who'd kill your loved ones and then tell you nothing except deal with it?
Nonetheless, Taraksh carried on. "With time, we built our own city in the valley, called the Cradle. Everyone worked in harmony, all having a particular task to fulfill."
In the next scene, houses made of adobe and wood had risen up amongst the green, along with farms filled with livestock and crops. Smaller cats fished in the river, using their bare hands to grab fish straight out of the water. Further away, a small cave housed numerous cats, many of them huddled close together in prayer...as if being underground would help their prayers reach Thaal-Ja. Outside the town, several lions and lionesses chased down some kind of wild steer or buffalo, throwing spears at it to bring it down. They leapt onto its back, tearing into it with their bare claws and fangs.
"However, this was not to last."
Based on what he heard before, Panther knew what was coming. The lions appeared again, on the hunt with their spears...but now their targets were the other cats. Mostly the smaller ones. The lions ran through the streets of the Cradle, dragging their smaller brethren out of the houses and putting them in chains.
"The lions—scheming as always—decided they'd rather rule with their strength instead of using it for the greater good. But we did have a spark of hope during this time."
Tigers appeared, protecting the smaller cats, fighting back the groups of lions with their even bigger size and ferocity. But it was not long before Panther saw the lions rewarding the tigers with things like ample quantities of meat, homes that had been taken from the smaller cats, and even some smaller females to have their way with.
"Tigers... In a way, they're even worse than the lions. They betrayed us."
The two largest cat species now fought alongside each other, driving the last of the smaller species out of the valley, capturing whoever couldn't run fast enough and putting them to work as slaves. The rest of the small cats fled into the desert, scattering across Thaljista in their own small tribes. Meanwhile, the lions erected a massive statue of a lion in the city's ruins.
"The lions decreed that Thaal-Ja must have wanted them to rule, for they had conquered all other cats. Therefore, they decided that Thaal-Ja himself must also be a lion. Soon, they put up these blasphemous statues all over Thaljista." For the first time, Taraksh turned to address Panther. "I've heard you've seen one, yes? When the Separatists first attacked you at that temple?"
How could he forget, with what his first few hours on this planet had been like? He nodded. "There was also the castle ruins in Gerrant's old quarter. I've heard about the lions...the Ibhu they were called. About how Azer led a charge into the city and destroyed them once and for all. Saw a stained glass window showing that in the Palace of Azer too."
A broad grin crossed the monk's face. "You're very privileged. Not many people get to see the inside of that place. Sable thinks highly of you." He glanced around the room, like he was trying to see if anybody was listening, before leaning in closer. "I've never seen her apologize to anyone, ever. You have no idea how special you must be to her."
Panther glared at him. I'm special to her because I'm her ticket to nobility. He wanted to say that, but the way Taraksh looked around gave him pause. Even now, could Sable might be watching? Ugh...I can't stop thinking about her body...the rich taste of her fur, the curves of her breasts, the way her tail sways. We're even the same species, and she even wants to make love with me too. It's like Thaal-Ja himself created us to mate. A queasy feeling came to his stomach. But at the same time, she makes me sick. How can I love someone who wants to commit genocide against anyone who isn't a cat? I'm not even sure if she really loves me anyway. She puts her ambitions before everything else. Probably how she got to her position in life. And now I'm a pawn in her little power games...
"Do you have any questions about what I've told you so far?" Taraksh asked.
Questions? Panther never gave much thought to history. He could've died any day as a mercenary. Why worry about the past when death could come at any time?
Nonetheless, Taraksh's words put a spark in Panther's mind. "There was another stained glass window at the palace. It showed Cornerians handing firearms to Azer and his clan."
"What?!" Taraksh's eyes widened. With his odd, beady eyes as a manul, his expression was almost comical. "That can't be right. Azer stole the weapons from the Cornerians when they arrived on this planet. Those dogs would never hand over weapons! They want to take over our planet!"
Panther raised an eyebrow. "I'm certain that's what I saw. It was hard not to remember it."
"You must be recalling it wrong. Perhaps you were still stressed from being attacked in the desert before you made it to the palace."
"I might have been stressed, but my eyes don't lie."
Taraksh's friendly, relaxed countenance slipped away, replaced by annoyance. "Azer stole the weapons. Look in any Thaljistani history textbook." The calm voice picked up a harder edge.
Panther wanted to snort in laughter. Like textbooks didn't ever have any bias in them. From what little he remembered of his Lylatian history classes before he dropped out of school, Corneria was always the good guy and the leader of Lylat...and all the other planets should just get in line. Same thing with Thaljista, it seemed. However, it wouldn't go over well if he kept voicing facts. I'll just humor him. It can't hurt.
"So how did things actually happen Cornerians arrived here?"
~X~
"We used to rule Thaljista?" Fox asked.
"Not surprised you don't know anything about this, Fox." Stan grinned, sipping on his soda straw. "They don't cover this in Cornerian high schools. Not considered important enough to bring up in our regular curriculum. Most people outside my department go 'Thalji-what?' if I mention that planet's name." He chuckled. "And if people do know about it, they just think it's some dirtball in the middle of nowhere. However..." He paused for effect, looking around the room like he was about to deliver a big mic drop line. "Not many people know how important it really is."
Peppy folded his arms, glaring at the goat. "Get into it, Stan. Quit talking like some spook from a spy film."
Stan rolled his eyes, plucking a fry into his mouth. "Aww come on, I'm just tryin' to make this a little more fun. But okay, fine." He clicked around on his laptop. "This footage is from roughly two centuries ago."
The image changed to show the bridge on the inside of a Cornerian navy ship, approaching a desert planet. Outside the ship's windows, more Cornerian vessels headed for the same destination.
Except these Cornerian ships were old...very old. Fox recognized the bridge's design from history books he read back in the Academy. Instead of a nice, clean open room, this ship's bridge barely had any space to walk around in, most of the officers jammed together between the various large computers and machines stuffed in there with them. Visible pipes and electrical wiring ran along the cloth and foil walls. It was all in the interest of shedding weight, since these ships wouldn't have been able to handle excess mass as well as modern day ones. The ships cruising alongside had bell-shaped thrusters, glowing orange instead of white or blue, indicating a lower burning temperature and thus less power.
Despite this being around two hundred years prior, there was a familiar face amongst the crew...
"Hey...isn't that General Pepper?" Fox pointed towards the hound dog in the old admiral uniform, standing behind the helm. He was the spitting image of the old general.
"Ha, what?" Stan laughed. "You think Pepper's a time traveler, Fox? That's his ancestor, Admiral Daniel Pepper—leader of the 4th Cornerian fleet—who discovered Thaljista for the first time."
The footage sped up, the Cornerian soldiers now on the surface, marching through the desert towards a cadre of lions. One of the lions, obviously their leader, was atop a coach being dragged by some strange lizard-like creatures across the sand. He wore a fine robe decked out with red and blue gems, a white hood over his head, his mane extending out of the folds. At first it looked like the two groups were going to come together for a peaceful delegation...but then the lions threw spears at the Cornerian soldiers. The Cornerian soldiers retreated back to their armored vehicles and drove away. Some of the lions pursued, a few on the back of their lizard mounts, but they were soon left in the dust.
"Huh?" Falco frowned. "Why not just gun 'em all down? They were askin' for it."
"Because Falco..." Peppy frowned. "I'd like to think Cornerians have at least a little respect for diplomacy and decency. There was no need for us to kill them. It would've been like a bodybuilder fighting an eight year old kid. An easy victory, but not one to be proud of."
"In any case..." Stan typed a few commands on his laptop, eating another fry. "We soon found friendlier folks."
Soon, the same group of soldiers approached a small village of stone buildings built under the overhang of a mountain, primitive-looking cats approaching them from the town. They all seemed to be...
"Huh...sand cats." Fox remarked.
"Indeed." Stan nodded. "Until we came along, Thaljistani cats segregated themselves by species. Not too different from how Corneria was millennia before our time."
Fox understood why. All species integrating into one society was a relatively recent phenomena in Lylatian history, only happening within the last several centuries. With few exceptions, all species could only produce a child with another of the same race, so before then most species kept to themselves in order to ensure collective survival. And that wasn't even getting into the misunderstandings and meaningless wars between the various species over thousands of years. Strange to see it all over again centuries after Lylat unified.
A group of sand cats approached the Cornerian delegation from the village. One of them stood in front, seeming to be the leader. This guy was in his mid twenties at his oldest, a bit young to be the leader of an entire community. Then again, many of the cats appeared to be teenagers or children.
"The desert life is harsh." Stan explained. "Before we came along, most Thaljistanis didn't live long, between the climate, enslavement, primitive medical care, and wars between the various cat species. You were lucky to live past forty. The one in front is Azer."
While Azer appeared to be a simple desert dweller in rough brown robes, this man had a sparkle in his eye. Like he saw an opportunity, and he intended to seize it.
"Azer, huh?" Falco said, his feathers stroking under his beak. "Reminds me a lot of Giichi, from back when he visited the Academy."
"There's a good reason for that." Stan laughed. "I think you know why?"
"There's an Azerian royal family now and Giichi is a part of it." Fox chuckled. "Not hard to see where this is going."
"We'll get to that soon, but for now let's keep watching."
Azer sat down on a blanket within his cavern household, Admiral Pepper talking to him with the aid of a translator. The sand cat exchanged a steaming beverage with the dog as the two of them went over a map, Azer gesturing to various points on it.
"Azer was a keen scout, keeping tabs on the goings on in his neighborhood, as it were." Stan smirked. "But those lions were a threat to his village, and he couldn't do anything about them. He offered to help us with that, make the planet a little bit friendlier. We took him up on that."
Admiral Pepper pulled a weapon case into frame, opening it up to reveal a primitive kinetic rifle. Azer picked it up and examined it. Then he looked down the barrel of the weapon, his finger near the trigger. Startled, Pepper reached over, snatching the rifle away from him. While Azer looked pissed off to have the strange weapon taken away from him, that didn't last long.
They cut to a scene outside, Admiral Pepper firing the rifle at a rock in the sand dunes outside the village, bullets blasting holes in the stone and sending chips flying. The sand cat townsfolk were terrified, ducking down, covering their ears, and hiding as loud bangs and pops echoed across the desert.
Azer didn't even flinch, a broad grin crossing his face.
"Azer...man, he really loved guns once he learned about them." Stan laughed. "Why wouldn't he? Until now, if he got into a fight with a lion, he'd be ripped in two within seconds. But a gun? A gun evened the playing field... Azer was always on the lookout for anything he could use to get an edge on his enemies, no matter how new and radical the ideas were. Many of the villagers were afraid of everything we'd brought to their world. But Azer embraced it all."
The footage showed Azer and a group of sand cats storming the nearby lion palace with rifles, a drone giving a bird's eye view. Meanwhile, handmade gliders built of some type of leathery skin flew over the palace, the sand cats aboard dropping hand grenades inside the palace walls. The sand cats easily moved in and destroyed the lions' defenses with all of the modern weapons they'd been given. Most of the lions either fled into the desert or lay in the sand with bullet holes in their backs.
"Gotta warn you, this next part's kinda graphic." Stan took another sip on his straw.
In the palace courtyard, a group of sand cats with rifles stood guard, multiple lions dead on the ground. In the center of the space, next to a giant lion statue, Azer stood over the lion warlord in the bejeweled robe from earlier, pointing a handgun at his prisoner's head. Though he was the only lion still living, gunshot wounds covered his arm and legs. The drone's directional microphone picked up Azer speaking in his local language, but the footage provided subtitles.
'How does it feel? To run and hide? Watch everyone you know die around you? Beg for your life? Just like our fathers and forefathers before us?'
The lion was shocked speechless. He never expected he'd wake up that morning and see his entire kingdom crumble in a matter of hours. The strange new weapons the sand cats held were like witchcraft to him, with the way he gazed at them.
'You lions take so much pride in your dark, rich manes. You see them as your link to the might of Thaal-Ja himself.' Azer gestured to a few other sand cats nearby. 'Rip his mane out, one hair at a time.'
The lion roared as he tried to shake off the sand cats tearing his mane to bits, but he had no strength left to resist. Soon the lion was maneless and humiliated, his head held low.
Azer crouched next to him, pulling the lion's head back up. 'Where's Thaal-Ja now? Why didn't he stop us? Why didn't he protect you? I thought Thaal-Ja favored lions.' Azer chuckled at the lion statue in the middle of the courtyard. 'In reality, Thaal-Ja favors anyone who can rise to the top, whatever means they use to do it, but the top is slippery and unsteady. You got lazy, fat, content...thinking only your size and strength would keep you there forever.' Azer held up his pistol, showing it to the former lord of the land. 'With this, that doesn't matter anymore.' He looked at the other sand cats. 'Remove his robe. I like it, and I don't want it stained anymore than it already is.'
The lion was stripped of his royal clothing, left naked on the hot courtyard stone. He had gone into full blow crying by this point, his tears hissing as they touched the pavement. Azer pistol whipped him in the muzzle, blood drizzling down his face and landing on the ground.
'Stop whining! Your own suffering is a mere fraction of what we have endured over generations. Besides, it won't trouble you much longer.' Azer nodded to the other sand cats.
They placed explosive charges at the base of the lion statue behind the warlord. The lion watched them, not understanding what they were doing. Azer took a few big steps backwards, the other sand cats moving away as well.
'It w-won't...?' The lion asked.
'No.' Azer pushed the button on a detonator.
A loud explosion ripped away the base of the statue, sending it toppling forwards...straight on top of the lion.
Fox closed his eyes before the impact, looking away with a grimace on his face. Everyone watching had a look of shock on their face, except for Stan, who looked bored as he munched another handful of fries.
"Kinda graphic?" Fox's eyebrow raised.
"And Giichi is descended from that guy?!" Falco pointed at Azer. "These are the people we sided with?"
The sand cat hadn't budged an inch from his spot, even though the statue had crashed down not a couple feet away from him.
"What happened to diplomacy and decency?!" Fara glared at Peppy.
Peppy had nothing to say, awkwardly shifting in his chair. Apparently the recording surprised him as much as it had Fox.
"It was a different time." Stan folded his arms. "The Corneria back then is not the same Corneria it is now. We're considerably more gentle about first contact nowadays, like Sauria for example."
"Wasn't there any outcry back home about this?" Fara asked.
Stan shook his head, eating another fry. "Nah, not really. Your average Cornerian citizen has never cared much about what happens outside of Lylat. Even if anyone paid attention, the official story at the time was the sand cats stole the weapons and used them to kill their local lion warlord. We didn't make the real story public until seventy years later."
How convenient. Fox frowned, crossing his arms. Long after all of these Cornerian officers are dead, so they can't be punished.
"Regardless, at the time, it was the right move to make." Stan continued. "Despite the violence he used on his enemies, Azer gave an equal measure of hospitality to us, in return for our help. It wasn't long before we'd made him a king in his own right, letting him be our main point of contact as we began establishing our colony on Thaljista."
Fifteen years had passed in the next scene, showing a new Cornerian colony, large skyscrapers and other modern (for the time) buildings reaching up into the sky from the desert. Cornerian mining vessels buzzed through the sky in the background. The foreground featured the same palace courtyard that Azer had executed the lion warlord in, but now it was a market, various stalls set up selling exotic Thaljistani goods mostly to foreign Lylatians. Fine woven blankets, jewelry, glassware, and articles of gold and bronze lined the tables. Like a tourist destination. Interesting how Lylatians and the various species of cats on Thaljista now freely interacted all together, although tigers and lions were absent.
Azer himself could be seen strutting through the market with pride, wearing the robes of the local lion overlord, albeit recut to fit his smaller frame. He looked satisfied with himself, not to mention the results of his work around him. The lion statue from before had been removed, leaving behind a blank pedestal with a plaque marking the occasion where he'd gloriously freed this place from oppression.
The sand cat's smile vanished though, seeing something offscreen. His entourage around him stopped too, as the camera spun to see balls of fire falling from the sky, striking the various buildings around the settlement, bouncing off the ground and rolling about, catching anything ablaze they touched. Meanwhile, a group of cats—being led by a few lions—charged into the square, wielding swords and spears, charging headlong for Azer and cutting down anyone who got in their way.
"The lions by this point were getting desperate, realizing their world as they knew it was at stake," Stan explained. "They'd even managed to enlist some locals who were afraid we were eventually going to take over if our presence was allowed."
"I don't think they were wrong," Fara said.
Stan got a bit peeved at her, but let the video continue.
While the lion's attack was swift and brutal, it was not long before Azer's personal guard joined into the fray with guns, protecting their master. Azer himself drew a bronzed semi-automatic pistol from under his robes and returned fire with his guards. A lion covered in wounds somehow managed to storm past Azer's personal bodyguards, jumping atop the blank pedestal where the lion statue formerly stood. He threw a spear at the much smaller sand cat. Even as the spear whistled past his face and took some of his cheek fur, Azer didn't flinch, firing several times. He struck the lion in the chest, sending him collapsing on top of the stone. Azer had a look of mad glee on his face, jumping atop the pillar and finishing the lion off with a bullet to the head, grinning as the blood ran all over the pedestal.
Fox's eyes widened. He's enjoying himself a little too much...
"Azer loved any excuse to go kill more lions, and the assassination attempts and plots gave him all the justification he needed to launch one final attack on King Mkango's stronghold in Gerrant, ending the lion dynasty's hold on Thaljista forever." Stan chuckled. "Also, I just love how we gave him all this help building his empire, then he goes and builds his own palace in Gerrant...but only cats are allowed in there. What a guy."
"Why would he do that?" Fox asked.
Stan looked a bit uncomfortable, hesitating to say his next few words.
However, Peppy joined in, pulling a binder out from under the table and opening it up. "Says here at the time we were forcing them to pay lots of taxes and tribute for helping them. Azer made that rule about his palace in retaliation, and it's stuck ever since." He looked at Stan. "Am I right?"
"Taxes? Tribute?" Fox asked Stan.
"Well of course." Stan shrugged. "You don't think we do space exploration, set up colonies and do nation building just for fun, do you? We also have to make a profit on the venture, otherwise it wouldn't be done. Why do you think Corneria colonized most of Lylat? Besides, it benefits everyone in the long run. For example, the life expectancy of your average Thaljistani has vastly increased compared to two centuries ago, even taking the recent civil war into account. They now have access to life-saving medical care we take for granted, plus police and military to keep order...when before bandits and warlords had free reign of the land."
"You do have a point," Fox admitted. "But obviously this alliance didn't last. Was it the heavy taxes and tribute then?"
Stan reluctantly nodded.
Peppy looked over something he had on his own laptop. "I think they need to see this too, Stan." Peppy changed the feed on the presentation screen to his machine.
The footage—now decades after Azer's reign—showed an Azerian official with some other Thaljistanis. None of the cats wore the old tribal robes from before, all of them having changed over to Cornerian-style clothing. The mood was no longer one of joy and cooperation, but submission and somberness. The Azerian official signed off forms before an equivalent Cornerian officer, as the other Thaljistanis handed over carts of boxes filled to the brim with priceless, historical artifacts. It reminded Fox of shipping containers full of bulk commodities, like rice and beans.
"We were taking that stuff in by the boatload..." Fox said. "No wonder they got pissed enough to rebel."
"As I said, different time." Stan took back control of the feed, the screen blanking out. "Anyway, the Thaljistanis weren't happy about their cultural heritage and history being given away like that. However, there wasn't a lot they could do about it. We didn't give them any weapons we couldn't defeat if they decided to turn on us, and we kept a battleship in orbit over Thaljista constantly. So you could say the Azerians were on a tight leash. Ironic, considering they're cats most of us here are canines, after all."
He chuckled at his own joke, though no one else joined in.
Fox thought the silence was getting a little awkward, so he moved on. "So if we had all of that to keep this planet under our thumb, how'd they get out from under it?"
~X~
"The Cornerians have always been jealous of our world, trying to conquer it for almost two centuries now." Taraksh continued. "In the end, their colony is just another way they have attempted to conquer us, only from the inside out. The Thaljistanis on the Separatist side have been corrupted by their propaganda into believing that more species on our planet is a good thing, and now they are willing to die for these ideals."
A large grin crossed the manul's face. "Fortunately, the arrogant Cornerians have always underestimated the Azer clan. They do not count on our sheer perseverance and will!" Taraksh declared with pride, a big grin on his face as he clenched his fist.
Panther's eyes widened at the display. The manul sure hadn't been this enthusiastic up until now.
Taraksh moved to the fresco on the other end of the dining hall, which depicted more recent history. A large image of Azer putting together a rifle was featured prominently, and the weapon appeared to be of local design rather than Cornerian origin. In the background, an entire arms factory lay behind him, cats of various species putting together their own weapons. Further back were assembly lines for things like tanks, cannons, even aircraft. Somehow, Panther doubted Azer and his clan had gone from borrowing guns to reverse engineering them to building things like fighter planes within the space of a decade or two.
Yet that's more or less what Taraksh said. "Azer always did like to be on the cutting edge of technology, his clan having experimented with things like gliders to ride the warm thermal air currents coming up from the hot sands. This translated into Azer soon mastering Cornerian technology and even creating his own superior versions of it! Azer and his descendants are truly blessed by Thaal-Ja with their intelligence!"
Panther was left dumbfounded at that explanation. He supposed he could see some simple desert dwellers inventing something like a glider, but was Taraksh serious right now?
Apparently he was, not noticing Panther's expression. "For many years, the Cornerians have used the colony as a beachhead on our planet, a place to stage operations for their military. For decades, they always kept at least one battleship over our world at all times, to ensure we didn't try anything." He gave a small chuckle. "That didn't last forever, though."
He indicated towards the ceiling directly over the table, pointing to the aforementioned Cornerian battleship being attacked from all sides by space craft, the designs resembling those of the earlier fighter planes being made in the factory behind Azer. The battleship was helpless before the onslaught, explosions on numerous parts of the hull.
It took every bit of Panther's will to keep a straight face. "The Azer clan managed to build space fighters and train with them without the Cornerians somehow knowing, and they managed to pull off this surprise attack?"
"Of course!" Taraksh's smile didn't waver. "I told you the Cornerians have always underestimated us! It wasn't just scientific genius, mind you. The Azer clan is also skilled in military tactics. We paid a lot of attention to how they operated their battleships. Often they only had one of these ships around at any given time, and their movements with these ships were predictable. They followed a very rigid schedule, doing their maintenance and resupplies timed down to the minute. The Azer clan took advantage of that, attacking the battleship Brigadier while they were in the middle of a resupply and helpless to defend themselves. We knocked out all of their weapons and took that ship for ourselves! Once we had it, we'd won against them. Corneria was multiple months' travel from Thaljista at the time. They had no way of sustaining any kind of war effort that far from home. So, the existing Cornerian forces on the planet were forcibly evicted, but not before we forced them to surrender all of their weapons and the Brigadier to us."
He waved to one more picture, depicting someone who appeared to be Azer's descendant, in a traditional Thaljistani robe and seated on one side of a red velvet table, forcing Cornerian officers to sign documents of surrender, all of the dog officers drawn in what looked like terrible caricatures. Most of them were depicted as being like comical, but sad monsters.
Panther narrowed his eyes. Obviously, the Cornerians weren't in charge on this planet anymore, but somehow he doubted Taraksh's story was how that came to be...
~X~
"It took the Azer clan generations—until the reign of Azer IV—but they got really good at figuring out ways to get ahold of tech they weren't supposed to." Stan smiled. "Wanna know something? It's kinda funny...Azer IV had Lylatians helping him. Because by this point almost a century had passed and generations of Lylatians and their families had grown up on Thaljista, never having seen their ancestral home before. They identified a lot more with their birth planet than some far off world they'd probably never get to see, but still had to pay tax to. Anyway, these Lylatian sympathizers...they smuggled tech to Azer IV, and they got pretty good at reverse engineering a lot of our technology over time.
"We only kept one battleship—the Brigadier—around Thaljista most of the time because we thought that was all we would need. Bad miscalculation there. Also, most of Azer's pilots were disgruntled Lylatian fighter pilots, who even assisted in training the natives. Those pilots are the reason the Brigadier is now a museum on Thaljista. We've asked for it back a number of times over the years, but the Thaljistanis have mostly just laughed and said no." In spite of the situation, he chuckled. "Hmm, I wonder why?"
"Sounds like a pretty sordid affair..." Fara remarked. "Seemed like that whole Thaljistani venture was really about nothing but war and profit."
"Just the cold reality, unfortunately." For a moment, Stan's cheery attitude faded, a more somber expression on his face. "Everyone's just trying to amass more wealth and power. That's really all it is. Anyway, I'm telling you about these historical events as a warning. The Separatists may officially be our allies, but they have not forgotten their colonial past under us. I suggest you be careful when dealing with them. A lot of Separatists are of Lylatian descent, but they are also descended from the same Lylatians that helped take down the Brigadier. This is why they had no issues helping Star Wolf steal the case from the Corneria City base. Speaking of that..."
An image of a staff appeared on the screen next to Stan. A very familiar staff.
"What? This has to be a mistake. Isn't that Krystal's staff?" Fox took a harder look at it though. "Uh...except the color doesn't seem to be right."
Peppy nodded. "I know. I remember Krystal's staff when I used to be on that ship with you. I was surprised too, Fox. The similarities are uncanny. This is the item that Star Wolf stole from our vault."
"Which we stole from Thaljista first," Fara blurted out, glaring at Stan.
Everyone in the room turned to her, an uncomfortable silence settling over the room.
Fox knew she had a point, but it wasn't his concern. He had other things on his mind. "So it's a Cerinian artifact?" he asked Peppy and Stan.
Fara glared at him over changing the subject.
"Curious you ask about that, Fox..." Peppy held up another binder, lowering his glasses as he flipped through the pages. "Archaeological digs on Thaljista couldn't find any evidence of sentient habitation before about a millennium ago. That syncs up to what Thaljism religious texts say, believe it or not. But this staff... They call it Thaal-Ja's Calling, and apparently it's many centuries older than that. No one would've been around to make this thing, but somehow it was amongst the treasures we took from there."
Everyone in the room looked at each other, surprised by the news.
"There's stranger stuff about it too." The presentation screen zoomed in for a closer-detailed look at the staff, showing the craftsmanship in detail. Aside from engravings, the metal was seamless. No welds, no forge marks, no hammer scuffs, and the engravings look like they were done by a high precision laser cutter rather than by hand.
"There is no way Thaljistani tribals could've made this thing with what they had available around a millennium ago. Look at these staffs that were built centuries afterwards. We have these in our collection too."
Pictures of several similar staffs appeared alongside Thaal-Ja's Calling for comparison, revealing all of the little scuffs and flaws endemic to handmade pieces. They were still beautiful and crafted to a high standard, but obviously created by a blacksmith as opposed to...wherever Thaal-Ja's Calling came from.
"It has to be a Cerinian artifact." Fox's eyes narrowed, studying the staff. This picture was driving him crazy. It doesn't make sense, but somehow, I think if I solve the mystery of it, I will find Krystal. "I know for a fact Cerinian civilization is older than a millennium. Krystal's told me all about it." He looked at Peppy. "So...you guys studied it. Was it able to do all the same things as Krystal's staff? You know, the fireballs, the energy shields, the earthquakes?"
Peppy shook his head. "No, we couldn't replicate any of that. Instead..." He flipped some pages in the binder. "Says here it had very strange electromagnetic properties. Weird semiconductor through some parts of it. Signal modulation when exposed to electromagnetic fields. Magnetometers went crazy when they were near it, not able to get a proper reading at all. No other artifacts brought back from Thaljista do these things. But it's not magical in nature, not like Krystal's staff was. It may not be Cerinian in origin at all."
Fox frowned, glaring at the picture. That Cerinian colony on Thaljista...this staff has to be some kind of clue it's there!
"But that design!" Fox pointed at the engravings. He tapped through his phone, scrolling through old photos, then brought up a picture he'd taken about a year ago of Krystal's old staff, showing it to everyone. The resemblance was very close. "You see what I'm talking about?"
Stan, however, didn't seem receptive. "Fox, it's not impossible for two separate civilizations—living independent of each other—to end up creating what's basically the same thing. It has names: multiple discovery, or simultaneous invention. Before all species unified on Corneria, multiple species ended up creating similar tools, like the knife, the wheel, or the bow and arrow. This is likely the same phenomena in action."
"But then where would that have come from?! Who put it on that planet? You said it existed before Thaljistanis did!"
Peppy sighed. "I'm sorry Fox, we just don't know right now, and we won't be able to find out unless we get that staff back again."
Fara folded her arms over her chest, incensed over that comment. Fox sighed and slumped in his seat. However, the next thing got his attention again.
"Moving on, there's something else I need to show you." Peppy reached under his desk, pulling out a silver briefcase.
"The hell?!" Falco tilted his head. "Isn't that the case you told us to get back in the first place?!"
Peppy smirked, shaking his head. "No, this is a companion piece to the staff. It was in the case next to the case Wolf stole." He undid the clamps, pulling out an orange gem, in a cylinder shape. "This is supposed to go at the head of the staff. We'd taken it off for a little more study at the time of the theft."
"That looks so much like the gem on Krystal's staff...aside from the color anyway." Fox stood up to get a closer look, comparing the gem with a photo on his phone. "Star Wolf took the staff itself, but not the gem?"
Peppy shrugged. "Not sure why. Maybe Wolf had incomplete intel or something. Based on our research though this gem appears to be a power source for the staff itself, so I'm not sure if the staff would even do anything without it."
"So... What does that mean?" Fara asked, crossing her arms.
"Let me take over, Peppy." Stan said, grinning. "I have some brave men...uh..." Stan hesitated, tapping the side of his head, like he'd forgotten something. "And women...on the ground within the Azerian capital. They say the staff is to be used to raise the god Thaal-Ja. Hence the name...Thaal-Ja's Calling."
This sent the room into a buzz, everyone wide eyed at Stan.
"Raise a god?" Falco raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like bull crap to me."
"Is it that unbelievable?" Fox glanced over at Falco. "Remember what Andross did on Sauria? I don't think we can count out that possibility."
"Is that true? A god?" Fara asked.
Stan narrowed his eyes. "Unfortunately, the inside of the Azerian Palace, where this whole scheme is going on...it's a tough nut to crack. The Azer family keeps to itself a lot, and most of its most important affairs are handled by family members themselves rather than outsiders. Neoptism, taken to the extreme. Anyone who is in on the scheme...nearly all of them are related by blood. They haven't turned on each other...at least until now. We do have an agent in the palace working on it, but unless you have Azerian blood it's going to be near impossible getting near those secrets.
"With that being said... Here's my take on it." Stan removed his glasses. "Religions...legends, myths, scriptures, texts, whatever you want to call them...they all start with a grain of truth. While it may not literally be a god that rises when this staff is used, it would not surprise me if something else does happen that a believer in Thaljism would attribute to Thaal-Ja.
Stan pointed at the jewel in Peppy's hand. "We have not been able to find a matching gem like that one anywhere. Also, there were strange indentations and markings at the bottom of the staff...like it was supposed to link up with something. Maybe it's like a big electronic key, using the power of the gem to unlock whatever it unlocks. So, like we said, it's not magical...it doesn't seem like something you'd use to raise a god. Still, I don't think we should rest easy until we have more information about what exactly this thing is capable of. I don't think the Azerian kingdom would spend one hundred million credits to get it if they weren't sure of this thing's power. Hopefully our agents within Gerrant can find out more."
"Either way, we're going to keep this gem under extra safe keeping, in case it's important." Peppy slid the gem back inside the case, closing it. "We're hiding it somewhere even more secure than that vault."
Fox sighed. He would've liked to take that gem with him, spend a little more time getting a closer look at it, see if he could learn some more secrets... More leads back to Krystal, after all.
"While we're talking tech... I can't wait to see those other things you've got there." Stan let out a big grin, walking over to a nearby table covered with a sheet. He ripped the sheet off. Underneath laid Nail's special suit, plus the communicator that Canma had apparently used to speak all the way to Thaljista in real time. "The mobility applications of such a suit, plus communication at that level of instantaneous transmission. Can't wait to get that stuff taken apart and analyzed."
"The suit's cut up though, and the communications device blew up." Slippy said.
"We'll salvage what we can. Gonna have the brightest minds in Lylat looking over this stuff, including your dad Slippy." Stan smiled at the toad. "Who knows, we might be able to start replicating this stuff before long. Thaljista may look primitive, but they've got some really cool stuff like this we'd love to see more of. Did you know they've even got shapeshifting gloves? They can become any kind of tool or weapon you can think of. In fact...Nail should've had one... Would've liked to see that too."
"Really?" Fox asked.
"Yeah." A collage of images appeared next to Stan, showing various photographs of Nail with Giichi in Lylat, mostly from Giichi's student days. In all of them, Nail had the glove that they spoke of over his right hand.
"But how could you make something like that?" Slippy asked. "That's so far beyond anything I've ever seen!"
"There's something else that's weird about Nail himself too..." Fox mentioned. "When Canma made that call to Thaljista, a gray wolf answered. He wore this general's uniform. Canma said he was Nail's father. Do you know anything about a General Gail Strafer, Stan?"
"Aside from Razir Azer, he's the top commander of the Separatist forces on Thaljista. Supposedly, he is Nail's father, but..." Stan trailed off.
"But what?"
"His wife was a snow fox, but foxes and wolves can't have children. We're not sure exactly where Nail came from, because of that. Perhaps Nail was adopted instead?"
"I'll answer that." Dr. Deberti abruptly entered the conversation. "Do you mind if I borrow your podium, Stan?" The horse stepped up, moving over.
"Oh, go ahead!" Stan stepped back.
After hooking up her own machine, Dr. Deberti displayed a medical chart, most of it blurred out except for the top listing the name Augustine Strafer.
"Where'd you get that?" Fox asked.
"I took the liberty of downloading the data from the auto doc on the Great Fox II." She gave him a smirk.
"Excuse me?" Fox glared at her. "You couldn't have asked first?"
"As much as I don't want this job, it is my responsibility to look after him while we are en route to Thaljista. Rachel and I need as much data about our patient as possible in order to do our jobs. The Great Fox II was formerly a Cornerian carrier, upon which I have served, so I already knew how to operate the medical bay's computers. I thought I would simply go ahead and download his patient file. Besides, you're a mercenary working for the Cornerian government, and we have the legal right to data regarding the missions you are doing for us. It's how you get paid, you know?" She got a smug grin. "How do you think General Pepper tracked all the kills you made during the Lylat Wars, in real time no less?"
"I don't approve of what she did." Peppy glared at her. "But she is right, Fox. We do have that authority over you, since you are in a contract with the Cornerian government."
Fox clenched his fist under the table, wanting to make some kind of smart remark, but he held his sharp tongue. "Okay, so what do you have about Nail then?"
"Your auto doc is an older model than in current carriers, but it still takes a DNA sample from its subject, analyzes it to determine species, and then uses that to create a treatment regimen. Pay attention to this part of the chart." The presentation screen zoomed in on the species analysis section, unblurring the text as it did so:
SPECIES DNA MATCH
47.5% gray wolf
47.5% snow fox
5% sand cat
"...What?!" Fox went to his wrist communicator, typing in some commands. "Hey ROB! The auto doc diagnosis system's not on the fritz or anything is it?"
"No, it is functioning at ninety-nine point five accuracy on diagnostics." ROB replied from the Great Fox II.
"But Nail's genetic makeup is impossible!"
"Very interesting..." Stan got a big grin on his face, his glasses gleaming. "Genetic modification technology on Thaljista, possibly? Nail's basically his own species, yet there don't seem to really be any abnormalities about him at first glance."
"That's what I think," Dr. Deberti said. "Your guest Nail may have been grown in a test tube rather than a mother's womb."
While surprising, that explanation made a lot of sense. Even when I met him as a teenager I knew he was a little off somehow. Like a machine pretending to be a flesh and blood creature. But he really is an artificial creation?
"So he's some kind of hybrid then," Fox said. "Why is he five percent sand cat of all things?"
"Some types of Thaljistani technology are hardcoded to only respond if you are a cat," Stan said. "It's their way of ensuring it doesn't fall into the 'wrong' hands." He gave finger quotes, chuckling. "The 'wrong' folks being us...Cornerians. We're looking for workarounds though. Nail was likely given some cat DNA to ensure there'd be no issues with him interfacing with their technology, like that liquid glove. Interesting. Perhaps we could pursue that route with our own people, once we learn more about their genetic modification technology. Anyway, years ago, Nail was part of some special Azerian program called the Retinue, which is basically for breeding super soldiers to guard the Azerian royal family. As you can see from that historical reel, they need them. Sometimes they are also used as spec ops for certain high priority missions. All of the Retinue since Nail have been cats, so perhaps he is an early prototype model."
"But why a canine as the first...model?" Man, it was weird to use that word to refer to a living person. "It's a planet of cats, and a lot of them don't like other species."
"I suppose if the technology behind the program didn't work out and Nail ended up dead or a puddle of goo after he was 'born', they could just sweep the project under the rug since nobody would mind if it was a canine." Regardless of that grim statement, Stan let out a big laugh. "Oh, it's too bad you're taking Nail back to Thaljista with you Fox. I'd love to have our guys look over Mr. Fax-Machine-For-Emotions and find out all of his secrets. There are so many questions I want to ask him, although I suspect it'd be like asking questions to a block of granite." Laughing, he turned to Dr. Deberti. "Suppose later you'll just have to share what you learn during his rehab, Patricia."
"Of course," the mare replied, a smile on her face.
Fox switched to a camera feed of the medical bay on his communicator. Nail still hadn't moved from his bed, and Canma was still right there next to him, having set up a cot of her own right next to his bed. After finding out Canma had been partly responsible for allowing Star Wolf to attack the Corneria City base, he'd locked them in the medical bay, but Canma hadn't even seemed to have noticed.
What the hell are you, Nail? How did they make you?
~X~
A/N: Apologies for the long chapter, but I wanted to get all the exposition here done in one chapter. It's also been a big challenge to try to keep this exposition interesting, while trying to not repeat earlier plot points too much. Next chapter should be shorter and finally get Star Fox on their way to Thaljista :P