Episode 6: The Line of Discovery
Within the next day, Fox and the others are within the hanger as the Great Fox warp speeds to Fortuna. "Well, I hope we can get this done quickly and I can listen to my music again," Fay said as Miyu shakes her head at this.
"You and your pretty boy bands," Miyu said.
"Come on, it's jamming," Fay said as Miyu groaned at this.
"Sure whatever, can't stand that crap," Miyu said as she checks her Light Arwing.
"Hey Katt, do you like pop music?" Fay asked as Katt is in her new flight suit which is colored dark orange.
"Not really; more of a Jazz gal myself," Katt said as she is preparing her ship for combat.
"You kids and your weird music," Falco said as Fay pouts at him.
"Okay old-timer," Fay said bluntly for Falco shook his head.
"Whatever pup," Falco said.
"Cut the chatter, we are going to head for Fortuna. Stay sharp," Fox ordered as they arrive at the jungle planet.
"I wonder something, was the Great Fox destroyed during the Aparoid Invasions. How did you get a new one?" Katt asked deeply curious about this.
"We got a massive payday and we commissioned a new Great Fox. Bigger and sleeker than the last one but it was one of the last things my father passed onto me," Fox said as Krystal feels his sadness through their emotional connection.
"Fox. You still have everyone and me by yourself. You are not alone," Krystal said putting him at ease.
"Thank you, Krystal," he said.
"You are welcome, sweetheart. Come on, let's do our job," Krystal said as they get a message from the base.
"Hello, this is the research station Alpha. My name is Rachel, I am in charge of the base. We are being hit by the pirates here. We need your aid," Rachel said as she watches from the cameras from a drone as it was destroyed making one of the screens go fussy.
"Launching fighters," ROB said as all seven Arwings speed out of the hanger to see fighters, bombers, and frigates guarding their approach.
"We need to break through the blockade to reach the research station and secure it," Fox said as Katt is flying alongside her new teammates.
"Katt, how are you feeling?" Falco asked.
"Well, it's nice to work with people again. I will not disappoint you all," Katt said as she goes to engage the enemy with her custom Light Arwing Cat's Tail.
"I know you wouldn't Katt," Krystal said as she brings in her Cloud Runner Arwing to blast the column of fighters and bombers.
"Rachel, what is your research about?" Slippy asked sounding curious about this.
"Oh, it's some old alien technology about cloning, duplicating, and drones. Stuff like that, the military was deeply invested into it some time ago in the past," Rachel said as Fox is avoiding laser fire with him performing a barrel roll to deflect the shots away.
"Why would the military want that?" Slippy asked.
"I don't know, a lot of their military research is sealed off and classified. All I know is that it's related to something called the Ark," Rachel said as Krystal holds her head having flashes of memories going through her head.
"The Ark that word again," Peppy said on the end of the comms with Fox hearing Krystal groaning softly.
"Krystal, what's happened. Are you okay?" Fox sounded worried as Krystal got shot in the back with her ship holding well against the damage.
"Yes, I am having a flash to the past. A big sphere in the sky when I was 8 years old when my world was destroyed," Krystal said.
"Is this Ark the thing that destroyed your world?" Fox asked.
"I don't know, this technology relating to this Ark doesn't sound like a weapon at all. Doesn't make sense," Krystal said.
"Let's worry about the details when we saved the research station," Falco said as he uses his Multi Lock to launch several charge shots to 8 targets destroying them all at once.
"Right, hold on Krystal. We will sort this out later," Fox said as his Arwing fires a smart bomb to destroy a frigate. They only have four more frigates with fighters protecting them and the bombers trying to destroy the Great Fox.
"Hold them off, we need to go inside the base and destroy the data," the fleet commander said as Miyu and Fay used their Light Arwings' speeds to gun down incoming bombers. Fay uses a quick-charged shot to blow up a bomber. A few bombers strike the Great Fox with the large ship's shields holding up.
The Great Fox unloads heavy laser fire to cut down the other two frigates with eases. "Okay, two more left. Slippy, target the one to their left," Peppy ordered to look over the map of the battlefield giving tactical aid.
"You got it Peppy, here we go," Slippy said as he flies towards the third frigate with lasers and missiles trying to hit him but he deflects them away with a well-placed barrel roll. "Bombs away," Slippy fires three smart bombs to destroy the bridge and greatly damage the hull.
Krystal is going for the last frigate using her spacecraft's speed and shielding to hold off the enemy ship's turret defenses. She cuts through the laser turrets with her twin lasers easily destroying them.
She launches a smart bomb into the command tower to cripple the ship leaving a hole in the enemy's defenses wide open.
"This Ark and those ruins are connected. Seems like finding out about this Ark is the key to finding out about my world's fate. I hope we can find something in this research notes in the servers," Krystal said as they clear out the orbit of enemies to head down to the planet's surface.
All seven Arwings descend into the sky along with the Great Fox to see the research base within the jungle. They see a bunch of pirate ships trying to fight off the defense system around the research base.
"Goodness, thank you for the aid. Our defenses are getting destroyed by their bombers. Please take them out for us," Rachel said on the radio.
"Okay everyone focus on those bombers," Fox said as Miyu, Fay, and Kate used their Light Arwings to swiftly go after the bombers.
"I am going in, taking out incoming bombers," Fay said as she uses her amazing speed to take down several bombers with quick charged shots and twin laser shots.
"I will show you, girls, some real flying," Kate said as she is using her new ship to tear through the slow-moving bombers.
"Don't get cocky old lady, we got moves of our own," Miyu teased as Kate is offended by this.
"Old Lady, yeah right," Katt said as she fires twin laser blasts to tear through several bombers.
Krystal detects five people coming this way and they find familiar to her. "Fox, it's Star Wolf. There are here," Krystal said.
"Well good to see you here Fox McCloud," Wolf said within the radio as five Wolfens appear on the battlefield along with more fighters and bombers.
"Good to see you all, time for the killing to begin," Leon said within his modified Wolfen called Rainbow Delta.
"Good to see you again Panther. Too bad you are with the fox," Panther said as he is using his personal Wolfen the Black Rose.
"Good to see you, Fox. It's been a while," Fara said as she is using a modified Wolfen called the Blazing Phoenix.
"Killing them all, killing them all," Algy said as he is using a personalized Wolfen called Monkey's Paw.
"Fara, why are you with Star Wolf?" Fox is surprised his old flame Fara is with Star Wolf. Krystal can feel something odd within Fox when Fara is talking.
"Why are you bothered by her Fox?" Krystal asked.
"We used to date a long time ago but that is in the past now," Fox said.
"You know why Fox, this is the only path I have to take after the trash my father put me through," Fara said.
"Falco, what the hell is going on here?" Katt sounded surprised.
"Fara was Fox main squeeze over 12 years ago but due to some nonsense by her CEO father. She was forced off-planet and wandered the outskirts of the Lylat System," Falco said.
"She is blue blood huh. So, it much had been serious," Katt said as they engage the Star Wolf Team.
"Sir, we manage to get into the research base," a Wolf Pack soldier said on the radio as Fox noticed dropships coming into the hangers of the building.
"Oh crap, Wolf's team is going inside the research base," Fox said.
"Seriously, this keeps getting worse," Falco said.
"Miyu on me; we are going to secure the base. Everyone hold Wolf off while we keep Rachel and her research safe," Fox ordered.
"Of course, be careful do there honey," Krystal said as she is engaging Panther.
"Why can't you be sweet with me like that Krystal," Panther said.
"Not in your life Panther," Krystal said as she fires her twin lasers to bash into Panther's shields shaking from the attacks.
"Let's do this Fox," Miyu said as they go into the hanger to go into walker mode to see a lot of mechs and robots. Miyu launches several charged shots to destroy the mechs with her leaping to the left to avoid the incoming missiles.
"Rachel, the enemy has pierced the perimeter. We are going to secure your safety," Fox said on the radio as the researcher is within a panic room.
"Good, these pirates are all over the place. They must not get to the server room. The data must be safeguarded," Rachel said as the two Arwing walkers are going deeper within the base.
Falco locks onto several bombers as several charge shots launch out of the Skyclaw's nose cannon wiping them in an instant. Leon is trying to shoot down Falco with his unique rapid-fire charge shot cannon.
Falco deflected the charge shots with barrel rolls but he got hit by one of the charged shots. "Shield strength at 50%," the ship computer said.
"Shit, what is that?" Falco wondered as he does a U-Turn to avoid Leon's rapid-charged shots.
"You like my new toy. I can shoot my charge shots faster than you can use yours," Leon taunted him.
"Gee, this is a pain in the neck," Falco said as he is doing some crazy maneuvers to avoid his line of sight.
Slippy is getting targeted by Panther as he is using his powerful laser shot which is eating through his shields. "What in the world, my shields are draining out fast," Slippy's normally powerful shields are getting blasted.
"I have you in my sights, Froggy," Panther said as Krystal got behind him to start firing her twin lasers into the Black Rose's back.
"Back off from Slippy Panther," Krystal cut into its shields.
"Damn it, going from behind. So fiery Krystal," Panther said.
"No foreplay. Going in fast and hard," Krystal fired a charged shot to blast Panther weakening his shields. "For Fox that is," Krystal said.
"You don't have to rub it in," Panther said as Krystal is blasting him with her lasers.
Fara is dogfighting with Fay as the Light Arwing is outrunning the Wolfen. Fay is spinning and turning trying to avoid the lasers, missiles, and mines.
"Don't get in our way poodle," Fara said.
"You used to be with Fox. Why are you with Star Wolf?" Fay wondered as Fara gets annoyed by this.
"It's not something you should be concerned with. I was forced into something and I had to make a choice which led me here," Fara said.
"That is nonsense, you are with criminals. I have been through things too doesn't mean I would be with criminals," Fay said as she deflects the laser shots from Fara's Wolfen.
"Like you know anything about me?" Fara said as Fay is dodging her attacks. Fara peppers the Wolfen with a few charged shots reducing Fara's shields.
"I know who you are, you are me. We are blue blood from powerful corporate families. The difference is, I tried to fight back while you turn tail and ran away," Fay said as she performs a barrel roll to knock away several laser shots but got hit reducing her shields about 25%
"Just shut up poodle. I don't have time for your trash," Fara said as she is tailing Fay but she hits the brakes to let the Wolfen slip by. Fay is blasting the Blazing Phoenix as Fara is trying to avoid her shots.
Fox and Miyu are stopped by a door too small for their walkers to walk through. Fox exits out of the cockpit to wield a Blaster Autorifle while Miyu is using an energy shotgun-like weapon called the Scattershot. "I got your back Fox," the short Lynx said to set the gun on semi-automatic mode with 12 shots per power cell.
"Shit, it's Star Fox. Don't let them near the server room," the pirates open fire on the duo as they take cover behind some crates. The laser bolts pounding against the metal boxes with Fox and Miyu scoping out the narrow area to form up a plan of attack
They see a grenade toss over the crater for them both to roll back to avoid the blast which destroys the piles of crates. Fox rolls away to fire precise bursts from his Blaster Autorifle with Miyu slides into a pirate to blow off a chunk of his torso with waves of energy pellets from her Scattershot.
Miyu switches to full auto as she is dashing forward to rapidly cut down pirate troopers with shotgun blasts. She tosses a sticky grenade to latch onto the armor of a Wolf Pack trooper. The blast tore them apart scattering their body parts onto the floor.
They both go into a large area to be right nearby the server room as a huge mech walker appears to open fire with its turrets. "I will not let you nearby that server room Star Fox," the pilot said as they avoid the path of laser fire.
Fox draws out a stun baton to see a nearby Wolf Pack member about to tackle him. He shoves the baton onto his chest to stun him in place with Fox drawing his pistol to rapidly shoot laser bolts into the man's chest until he dies.
He takes the fallen pirate's Grenade Launcher filled with EMP grenades. Miyu is firing her scattershot but it's shielding it blocking her shots quite easily. "Miyu. I got EMP rounds. I will disable it while you take out the turrets," Fox ordered on the radio.
"Yes Sir," Miyu said as she looks for something with more punch with Fox distracting the big machine by lobbing an EMP at it. The grenade manages to knock out its shields and disable the mech.
"Not so fast Star Fox, this bad boy has reboot capabilities. it will be back up in no time," the pilot mocks him with Fox having few grenades to work with.
Miyu blows off the head of a pirate to grab his Homing Launcher along with some missiles. "Perfect," Miyu locks onto the first turret. She launches the missiles to blow up the turret reducing the amount to two left. "Yes," she is evading the twisting barrage of lasers with the duo trying to bring the mech down.
"How long are you going to be inside?" Falco asked with him dogfighting Leon.
"I am working on it," Fox said as the mech recovers quickly from being hit by an EMP and the shields coming back online.
"Come on Falco, play with me for a while," Leon said as his Rainbow Delta is locking onto Falco's ship constantly with some of the charge shots hitting his shields.
"Gee, this is getting annoying," Falco said as his ship is taking a real beating from Leon's powerful yet fast-charged shots.
Fox and Miyu are trying to stop the mech with him disabling it again with EMP grenades. Miyu fires a few shots from the Homing Launcher to take out the remaining turrets leaving them vulnerable. She fires the missile into the cockpit to take out the pilot and destroy the cockpit.
"Good work. Rachel, we secured the area," Fox said on his comlink.
"Thank goodness, you all did very well," Rachel said as Wolf Pack begin to pull out.
"Screw this, fall back. Better watch yourself, Star Fox. We will not hold back next time," Wolf orders a retreat.
"Sorry, we can't catch up. See you later Fox," Fara said on the radio as the Wolf Pack and the Crimson Horde exit out of the planetary system.
"Well, all enemy contacts are gone," Peppy said as he looks at the holo map to see no signs of the enemy anywhere.
"Oh, thank goodness," Krystal said as she lays back into her cockpit for they managed to complete their request.
"Well, Star Fox. You are worth every credit. I will be pouring in that 10,000,000 credits within your team account," Rachel said on the radio.
"Good, can you tell us more about what is in these servers. We are quite curious about the Ark and what it does?" Fox asked.
"Well, you did me a great service. I will give you all the data on it without breaching government limits. It's been a long time since anyone cared about Ark. Why are you curious about it?" she asked.
"Well, just for our inquiry," Fox said.
"Whatever you say," Rachel transfers the data onto the Great Fox with Peppy and Rob 64 looking over the information. Peppy strokes his greying chin to be quite interested in its contents.
"This is interesting. Everyone, get back inside. Come into the bridge, this is quite serious," Peppy said as everyone parked their Arwings within the hanger to meet up within the bridge.
"Peppy, you found anything in there. Old Timer?" Falco asked as he pulls out a holoscreen filled with information.
"This is related to Ark. This was an old military project made by the Cornerian Government about over 15 years ago. This was the ultimate defense platform against Andross and his growing empire. It is a powerful factory able to make entire armies in months instead of decades to make," Peppy said as everyone looks surprised by this.
"Seriously, you can outproduce the enemy into oblivion. A limitless army," Slippy said.
"Why didn't the military use it in the Lylat Wars?" Fox asked.
"Well due to some accident. It warped randomly and it was never found again. This took place two years before the Lylat Wars started. Before its disappearance, it was involved with a weapon's test on the deepest edge of the Lylat System. This place is called Cerinia which was destroyed by this weapon," Peppy said as Krystal looks alerted by this.
"Seriously?" she asked.
"Yes, but it's used as a codename for a planetoid. This weapon test was a government-approved operation," Peppy said as everyone is shocked by this.
"Okay, so the government is straight-up covering genocide. This is insane," Katt said with her voice etched with disbelieve.
"General Pepper would never do something like this," Fox said as Peppy nodded his head.
"I know, he is an honest soldier to his very core. He would never approve of this but rouge elements of the military sectors and the business sectors would do this. You know not everyone wants to play nice and only care about the results," Peppy said.
"Indeed. So, the elements of the government were involved with Krystal's world being destroyed. I am sorry Krystal," Fox said as Krystal shakes her head.
"It's okay, we are finally getting somewhere with this," Krystal said as she still feels shocked by all this. "This cover-up, what monster would do this to my home," she thought.
"Those pirates want to find this thing and it's still out there. A bad guy getting their hands on this would spell doom for everyone within the Lylat System," Slippy said.
"Exactly, we are going to find out more info about it. The trail has gone cold for over a decade and it could be in dark space for all we know," Fay said.
"We need to put her ears to the ground and find more intel. We must not tell the current government at this point especially with baker in charge," Peppy said.
"I agree, we need to do this ourselves. This is getting pretty heavy," Fox said.
"We are getting into some government rabbit hole. We need to be careful," Slippy said as everyone agrees with Krystal looking out the window to look down onto Fortuna.
"So, elements of the Federation is involved with my home being destroyed. I will get answers for this," Krystal said as she is feeling determined to find the truth of her home world's destruction and the Ark involved with it.