"Rob, I want you to zoom in here,"
Done.
"Perfect. Now give me a still shot."
"CANNOT PERFORM REQUESTED ACTION."
The mechanical navigator of the Great Fox stood no more than three feet away from the main controls, however, giving him commands could be done from just about anywhere, yet not by just anyone; his voice recognition software had been programmed exclusively for the Star Fox team and Corneria's General Pepper.
Rob64 was property of Lylat Systems Robotronics, a subsidiary of Phoenix Industries, and Fox knew damned well who owned that, but this was a discerned risk worth taking, for the odd feeling within was his seemingly fateful connection to this lovely fennec fox, which in turn came the unsettling feeling about the stranger seen with her.
"Rob, I command you to do it."
"My surveillance initiatives are not able to spy on civilians."
"I'm not spying, just making sure everything's okay....you know, protection."
"THEN WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENGAGE THE SPOTLIGHT, COMMANDER MCCLOUD?"
"No—! I mean....please, Rob, no need to alarm anyone, right? Just get a few still shots and load them to my local server, and make sure to get some close-ups of her friend, understand?"
After a quite long strike of silence, Fox heard clicking within the mainframe's circuitry and a turn of whatever device it used to switch the lenses on the Great Fox's powerful telescopic camera built into hull just below the ship's lasers, and he watched the smaller monitor on the right side of his controls, keeping his eyes focused on the image of the young woman at her doorstep with her companion as Rob64 created stills of the scene every six seconds, with the final shot of the couple embracing, but stopping just short of a kiss before the young lady opened the door and went in by herself.
"That's good, Rob. Thanks."
"ANYTHING ELSE, COMMANDER MCCLOUD?"
"Erase the data you've just collected from your memory, and don't worry, I'll never ask you to do this again."
Rob's internals clicked again. "WORRY? I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH THAT TERM."
Fox swiveled his chair slightly to the right and punched a button on the back of his right glove, and the monitor he had been watching faded to black. He then looked back at his old robot pal.
"I'd say your were better off but I'd be lying. Just a few more days, Rob," He leaned forward, holding a small, soft cloth which he used to shine the piece of rare jewelry held in his hands. "Just a few more days and she'll be here,"
"A VISITOR?"
"No.....more than that...."
"I DON'T UNDERSTAND. ANYONE WHO BOARDS THIS SHIP OTHER THAN THE CREW IS A VISITOR."
A subtle smile crept upon Fox's face as he looked somewhere into the sky and thought of the dream he'd had the night before.
"She'll be family. This ship will be her second home."
Just as Fox had said, the young lady, Miss Fara Phoenix, came aboard ship a few days later and stayed a while, giving Rob time to familiarize her image in his database just before Peppy gave her the immediate order of dismissal.
"COMMANDER MCCLOUD, DO YOU WISH TO SEE THE PHOTOS I INSTALLED ON YOUR LOCAL SERVER?"
Fox shielded his glistening eyes as if the robot would see his sadness.
"...No. As a matter of fact....enter my alternate password then encrypt them on the server."
Done.
"ANYTHING ELSE, COMMANDER?"
"That's it. You can take a break and shut down for a while."
Done.
Rob64 stayed down for three hours. When he came back online, Peppy was at the controls and had activated emergency status.
"Rob, gimme me Fox's location!"
"NEGATIVE. LOCATION OF COMMANDER MCCLOUD'S ARWING UNKNOWN."
Next, Peppy gave orders to the remaining two members of the crew.
"Okay guys, looks like we're goin' in,"
"Man, Fox can be such a lame brain sometimes!" said Falco as he put on his flight jacket, smoothed his blue feathery skin and headed out to the hangar.
"Hey! That's not nice! He's got feelings too, ya know!" Slippy grabbed his gloves and headed out behind Falco, whose usual cross glare quickly sharpened.
"Yeah...feelings....whatever. Do me a favor, Slip, and stop your whining. We wouldn't be doin' this if Fox wasn't such a lovestruck pup—"
"Knock off the scuttlebutt, both of ya!" Peppy engaged the ship's automation then hurried out. "Rob, take over. We're outta here!"
Lylat: Level 7
"Our financial resources have taken an unexpected hit because of this," said General Pepper to the attendees of his special meeting. "Fox McCloud was on the planet of Venom approximately one hundred and eighty three days, during which he was brainwashed and drugged. Another one of our young countrymen, Hawk Raymo, was also coerced into serving with the enemy until he was killed...unfortunately, it was Fox who delivered the fatal blow to the specialist agent. We managed getting in and stopping another one of Andross's horrid schemes, but our army suffered substantial casualties in the process. I've now learned that Fox, while being under Andross's control, helped test secret weapons to be used against Corneria, and in no way is it pleasant for me to reveal this next bit of information, but he also had some less than acceptable dealings with Miss Phoenix while she was contained as a hostage,"
High level Cornerian council members had already taken their reserved places in the Aramence Conference Hall—twelve of them to be exact—brought in by General Pepper and thoroughly briefed on the events that would go down as one of the greatest blunders in Lylat's history. Yet worse was the presence of a certain civilian who made things extremely uncomfortable from the moment he stepped in and took the reserved seat at the table. That look, with the penetrating cold as steel eyes, came from Mr. Phoenix, a man not at all happy about his daughter's capture or Fox McCloud's daredevil stunt to save her, not to mention how long she'd been trapped on Venom only to return home and end up aiding and abetting a guy he had referred to as the "cocky little overpaid fighter pilot and his oddballish renegade pals." It was bad enough when the man who some referred to as "Chief" learned of how Peppy had ordered Fara to leave the Great Fox without first getting clearance from the sky patrol at Fortuna; had the standard procedure been followed, he would have been notified of the system-wide transport alerts. Furthermore, Mr. Phoenix was hopping mad when he found out about Fox's hot pursuit of Fara the entire time they'd been on Venom, which was now being blamed on trace amounts of a relatively unknown drug.
"We know their location," General Pepper finally admitted after his lengthy address to the council.
Once more, Peppy felt those cold eyes lingering hard and heavy on him as the General continued.
"And we now know for sure, Fox has come around. Bill Grey received a message from him at Katina Air Base. Apparently he's well aware of the impact of his actions but refuses to give himself up. Peppy, I need you to go to Slippy's laboratory at Kelm. You can talk to him, tell him he'll be treated fairly. I'll make sure of it. It's either that or we'll have to use force, and you know well as I do that consequences of that could turn ugly."
Peppy's mouth opened but failed to speak before Mr. Phoenix made his last absolute request.
"You'll bring my little girl out of there in one piece. No exceptions,"
Phoenix stood, and everyone in the room gazed up at the tall and lanky mogul who looked not so much like the breed of vulpine he was but more like an old world creature from an ancient myth, and Peppy thought to himself how the sir name seemed utterly fitting.
"General, I'm leaving. You'll let me know what you decide and keep me informed."
After that, Mr. Phoenix was escorted out by two officers and Peppy finally exhaled again just before being addressed by General Pepper.
"You'll have twenty-four hours. I'd think that would be more than enough time for you to get Fox to surrender. Any longer and the army will have to move in."
Senior Hare had no intentions of letting this get any further out of hand. Inevitably, Fox would have to come out of hiding and fess up to his mistakes and plead his innocence. But no...he wasn't quite without guilt, was he? He'd done some things that warranted severe punishment by the law and there was no way out, but sure as hell Peppy wasn't going to let the kid face it alone. He'd be there, just like he'd promised his pal James from day one of the little cub's life.
Personal Vendetta
She endured through many months of solitary confinement, but weakened after days on end of suffering at the hands of someone she had trusted with her life. How they would get out, she really didn't care, just stayed quiet and let him lead the way to freedom, if that was his true intention this time. Now that she had helped commit murder, treason, and truly believed his claim of not being able to control his other reprehensible actions, the thought of returning home wasn't all so glorious anymore. As a matter of fact she was sure the shame would consume her once the citizens of her home world were informed of the truth.
One hundred and eighty days had been spent in the enemy's so-called training, inside an isolated camp near the abandoned Bolse Satellite. Her companion was not even aware what had taken place during the past six months, but Fara knew well enough why the Venomian ships roared above her cell just hours after her transport was hijacked and brought to the planet's repulsive leader. Andross got what he wanted.
He had trapped her inside his horrible prison.
A once dedicated special agent had been lured with the promise of a huge reward.
The most talented fighter pilot in Corneria was captured and held for the largest ransom in the entire planetary system.
Let the war begin, Andross snarled and cackled.
His first action was to transform the two male prisoners by using a series of injections with a substance he had created and tested only once on a few less fortunate victims. The drug would turn them violently against each other, and when it proved successful, he had forced Fara to watch the ensuing showdown that would leave only one alive. Hawk, the strong, burly pigeon, had been picked to win long before the brawl began, yet it took no longer than the span of a few seconds for the match to end. Fresh blood ran down the sides of the platform right in front of Fara's seat, and she sat there, drenched with fear as one lied dead and the other proclaimed victory with blood from one of his own on his hands, and she had blinked away tears when remembering how those were the same hands that had touched her with a gentle passion not so very long ago. Within days, Andross had Fox completely in his control. Fara saw all of this whenever she was let out of her cell and taken to the armory where Fox worked endlessly at testing the new weapons. Once finished with each assignment, he would find the place where the guards kept her and ordered them to leave, then pressed her to join forces with Andross for as long as it would take, at least until they made it out alive, "We'll make a pact," he said, "Just you and me. I wouldn't want it any other way, especially now that we've been together..." She had refused to accept his disgusting offer, no matter what. To be with him now was almost sickening, but he'd come to save her, just as he promised.
"I don't' care if you save me."
"Don't say that," He glared and opened his holster, then placed the blaster he had used to slay his comrade on a table in front him and performed a quick diagnostic test with the touch of a button on the back of his specialized glove. "I'm not willing to die here and sure as hell I'm not about to let you die here. The Conservatory at Zoness has already been hit by one of the secret weapons and Andross has vowed to begin a new attack against Corneria soon as possible. I'll get you out of here before that. We're going home, Fara, and soon....very soon."
She'd never been scared of him, yet somehow the coarseness of his voice reminded her of the rage just before he pounded six rounds of ammo into Hawk, then with the gloved laser on his right hand, finished the guy off with a massive blow to the back of the skull.
. "I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't absolutely necessary. You can't possibly believe Hawk didn't get what he deserved after hijacking that transport. Turning over classified information to Andross was worth more to him than your life. I may be guilty of murder and some other things but he could have killed you in the process of committing the highest form of treason,"
"Stop. Please. Just stop,"
For the moment, Fox gazed quietly at her, and she looked away, hoping not to do anything to make him so demonically aroused again.
"What did I say, Fara?" His voice now sounded more scolding than anxious. "I'm not giving up. Andross has got me now but he won't win, I'll make sure of that. He probably figured I'd give in to him after that whirlwind crushed my ship... Not a chance."
"....it should have killed you," she mumbled vehemently and sat down on a bench which was the only place for sitting in the small cell.
Not long after that she quivered when feeling him come near, and refused to look when he stood in front of her.
"I don't know what I've done but I promise never to do it again,"
"Yes....never." She got up quickly and bolted away, not getting far before he snatched a good hold of her and tightened it as his determination increased.
"Six hours is about what we've got left before our guys get here. I'm sure they're coming since Andross made that first strike on Zoness. You can bet they'll come for us, and they'll find us," He then took a brief pause, kept his eyes focused on her and his tone steady. "We'll go home. This'll be behind us. We'll start over—"
"I don't want to start over."
"You don't mean that."
"I do mean it,"
He gripped her harder, brought her in closer to him. "Dammit, Fara, you're letting him win.,"
"This isn't a game, Fox."
His silence lasted only for a second before the sharp response.
"Oh really? Then what the hell did you think it was when you started seeing Hawk Raymo?"
That was so totally demeaning that in a breath of fury she smacked him across the face with a force that knocked him back and stunned him into releasing her. About time. She had thought. Whatever drug Andross used has turned him into an obnoxious fool almost not worth loving anymore... if I ever did love him... Those feelings rippled through her but she was certain of what she'd done, and now looking at him, it seemed he'd lost all the color in his already pale fur, and for some reason he stumbled backwards, missing the wall before he went down...
"FOX!"
It was like a dream and he couldn't wake up from it, but then his eyes opened and he felt his body being shaken from the floor beneath him.
"GET UP!" someone cried. "You have to get up! They're dropping bombs on us! We have to get out—"
Get out... ....I came here to get her out, and I won't fail...
He came to his senses and looked around, sighed with relief after seeing Fara clearly, and soon as he heard the constant whir of sirens and shrill alarms blaring overhead, he got up on his feet to finish what he'd started, then noticed the open cell door and wondered, which led her to refresh his memory.
"You broke in, remember? You fought your way in here and we were trying to plan an escape when we got into an arg—"
Not another word before he grabbed his weapon from the table nearby then immediately took her hand and bravely looked ahead. "Let's go."
She went with him, no objections.
He hadn't told her that he really had no plan. Couldn't admit it was a matter of luck as they entered the chaos and managed getting across an open area where troops were too busy running for their own lives to worry about recapturing any prisoners. If not for that, it would've been over for sure. Next, he kept a strong hold of her hand along a maze of corridors, following nothing more than his own basic instincts and the scent of unfiltered air.
"If we get out, we could make it to the ships on the dock," she told him as they descended to a lower level. "But it's a heavily secured area,"
First and foremost was getting out facility as the alarms got louder and the bombs started dropping at more frequent intervals. In the next two minutes they came to the last level and saw the light of day at the end of a tunnel and made it out safely.
They were out, but far from freedom.
"Geez...."
He could barely see the sky through the billowing smoke and barrage of Venomian jets going up against the Cornerian's, but then Fara started pulling on him and he realized the line of ships in the dock up ahead. They had to run for it again, shielding themselves from the debris with only his jacket and he made sure to have his weapon handy as they made it to the gate where a soldier stood on guard. It was Fox who caught the guy from behind and Fara who supplied a good swift kick in the crotch, then two hits with the blaster put the guy out cold.
Fox looked around and saw the shadow of another soldier in the distance.
"Shhh.." he scrambled and pulled her with him. They went around the other side as he readied his weapon and moved her behind him when the soldier approached from the rear of the pristine ship. "You go...I'll take care of him,"
She started to move but then stopped suddenly and made him look back.
"I said, go—"
"Not without this," she held in her hand his gift, the diamond Cornerian wings. "...For good luck."
With little time to waste, he pinned it onto her jacket just above her heart, and then whatever had taken place in the beginning must not have mattered anymore, because she held him, brought her lips to his for a kiss, then whispered into his ear.
"I'll have a very nice surprise for you when we get home, Fox."
His whole body warmed just before she let go, and as he watched her climb upon the wing and open the hatch, he saw all the more reason to go out there and kick some serious ass, starting with the next soldier who came around the ship and aimed at him with some sort of laser-powered weapon, but before the fellow could shoot, he was doused with a cap of sleeping gas that Fox had purloined from the main base.
Next he heard the Venomian ship's engine firing up behind him, and he looked up, quickly exchanged glances with Fara then rushed over to the next jet and rolled in, powered up, and after getting set into the harnesses, he made a quick a com check.
"...Testing....you copy, Fara?"
She looked over and gave a thumbs up, "Yes."
"Perfect," He checked the gauges and adjusted the volume. "I'll lead, you follow, got that?"
"Got it."
She'll be fine, he thought to himself. The Venomian ships have the same basic controls as ours, and she knows well enough how to fly...
Once in the air he instructed her to stay on the outside as not get caught up in the fray, and that strategy had worked until one of the Cornerian ships spotted her and went in for the kill.
"Fox! I've been hit!"
He banked a sharp right and closed in on the ship, locked on the lasers, then blasted the Cornerian fighter with a few good hits, imposing enough damage to make him back off of her tail. Bad thing about was now the Cornerians had reason to chase him and go after Fara again, and he had to take out a whole cluster of them with a V-bomb.
"Good grief....looks like this is it, babe... Go ahead of me. I'll cover you."
He then looked over at her and saw the fright in her eyes just before she boosted ahead, breaking through the smoky layer of clouds, and just as she did that, he heard a familiar voice over the com.
"...It's heading out! Catch him before he gets away!"
"Bill!" Fox shouted anxiously over the com. "Call 'em off! That's Fara out there!"
".....Fox? Is that you? What's your location?"
"Over here in this Venomian heap of junk. I'm signaling you now,"
"Hey! I can see you!" shouted another voice.
"Slippy...boy what a relief it is to hear from you,"
"Hey guys! Hold off!" Bill called out to his unit. "Let her go! She's one of ours! Don't worry, Fox. I'll take her in through Aquas and get her back home."
"Thanks, Bill. I owe you one."
"Forget it, this one's on me."
Fox then saw Bill's ship head out after Fara's and they both vanished over the horizon, then came a rude awakening when something hit him from the rear.
"Fox! They must know where you are, too!" yelled Slippy. "There's one right behind you!"
Now the Venomians were on him. He made another quick break for the perimeter and diverted their shots with a barrel roll but couldn't quite handle the throttle like his Arwing which made it too easy for the enemy to spot him and gang up on his tail. While it was obvious that the Cornerians were winning as they knocked Venomian jets out of the sky like flies, Fox couldn't maneuver after losing a quad wing and couldn't gain enough speed to shake the enemy, and he took yet another hit, then another,
"Hold on, Fox! We're comin' for ya!"
Peppy.
"You should've listened to me the first time, but I'm here to save your hide anyway."
Falco.
The two of them took out the ones behind him and after that helped finish off the rest of the Venom fleet, then pounded the installation with bombs until the first explosions started and the entire base commenced disintegration.
"That's it! Everybody clear outta here!" Falco shouted, and his orders were immediately obeyed.
a/n: WHEW! Finally an update!