Chapter 24

Corneria had changed little since the last time Bill had seen it. He had originally come to Corneria with Perry to visit Perry's wife. Now, though, he had a much different agenda.

The door opened after Bill's third knock. "Bill! It's been a while"

"Fara, good to see you again."

The vixen opened the door fully, allowing Bill access to her house. It was a quiet place in what was otherwise one of Corneria's busiest suburbs.

"Fara, I have news. About Fox." Bill suddenly blurted out. I guess I could have been a bit more subtle…

Fox had met the vixen during the first Lylatian war. The two had taken a liking to each other and had recently gotten engaged. Seven years was a long time for it, but they certainly loved each other.

"Tell me." Fara said quietly.

Bill took a deep breath. "The forces around Solar have disappeared. We don't know how, but the official story is that they vanished after a freak flare-up. The entire Star Fox team was there."

Fara sat down. "No word from Fox?"

Bill shook his head.

"Any sign of wreckage?"

"Well High Command's not giving away much, but they're saying that there's no wreckage whatsoever. The fleet just vanished."

Fara seemed to be taking it well. There had to be that hope that somehow Fox had made it out or that the fleet had not been instantly annihilated. After all, fleets didn't really just vanish without a trace.

"That doesn't make sense." Fara replied. Despite her matter-of-fact words, her tone reflected the slightest hint of fear and worry.

"I'm sure Fox is fine." Bill said. "He's disappeared like this before." He didn't add 'Albeit not with an entire Cornerian fleet.'

Fara nodded. "He's probably just hiding somewhere."

"Yeah." Bill said. Bill felt a lot more worried than Fara looked, though.

Fox buddy, wherever you are, you'd better start letting us know what's going on.

Matt thought his head would explode from the silence when Blaze finally turned and whispered to him.

"All right Keeler, we split up here. You take the boy and head north until you reach the top of that hill. I'll be down that way. When I'm ready I'll give you the signal."

"Wait, what's the signal?"

"I'll set fire to something big. If you see anything at all catch fire, that's your cue."

"Won't they see the fire?"

Blaze shrugged. "I need you to be seen more."

"All right." Matt nodded and raised his rifle. "Good luck."

"You'll need it." Blaze replied, then he slung his rifle over his shoulders and leapt up into the treetops.

That man never ceases to amaze.

"Come on." Said Matt, moving quickly but silently in the direction Blaze had specified. Damon followed just as quickly, but not as quietly. Matt was rapidly going from watchful to twitchy with the noise behind him. Neither of them said a word as they made their way uphill. When Matt thought he was on the highest point possible, he went into a prone position, set his rifle and waited. He noticed Damon sitting up, nervously fingering his pistol

"Get down, Damon. We don't want to be seen."

"Sorry, I forgot." The boy complied, getting down into a prone position beside Matt. He kept his pistol pointed towards the base, a walled fortress with searchlights pointing in every direction.

"Nice gun." Said Matt. He had thought it a good idea to let the boy keep his weapon so he could defend himself, and though this voided any status he had as a non-combatant, Matt had little doubt the enemy would kill the boy anyway.

"Thanks, it's not mine." Replied the boy. "It was my dad's."

Obviously. That high-powered pistol is the kind you would only give to intelligence officers. It was easily recognized as a J-Tech Type 3 Magnum blaster, horrendously powerful and accurate, despite a poor rate of fire. If it was fitted with a specialized second muzzle, as this one was, the light and sound would be eliminated, at the cost of a little power. That pistol's accuracy would be more devastating in my hands.

Matt was just about to ask if they could swap pistols when he saw a tree begin to go up in flames on the opposite side of the base. "Stay low, keep your head down Damon. This could get rough."

Matt took a deep breath to calm himself, then lined up his rifle to one black-clad guard patrolling the top of the base's wall.

The red bolt crossed the intervening distance nearly instantaneously. Matt clearly saw the guard's head snap back and his body crumple to the ground. Despite the fact that many of the troops in the base were little more than specks at the distance he was at, the sudden confusion was evident. He lined up another shot and fired a quick burst, taking out another enemy troop. He had just gotten ready for another shot when red bolts came back in his direction, causing him to snap off the shot early and miss high. Though none of the return fire hit, it came far closer than he liked.

They are good troops.

Matt backed up and started crawling to another spot so he could fire without being fired upon. He beckoned for Damon to follow, but as he crawled, he noticed the fire following him, striking excessively close to his body. He decided to reduce his exposure and move deeper into a ditch. They've probably got night-vision goggles too. Matt exposed his head to look for the barest of moments, but a laser shot missed by an inch, singeing his fur, and causing him to duck out of panic. But he had to keep the diversion up, and he took advantage of the ditch to move along unseen, then popped up around ten meters down, snapping off a quick burst before ducking away from a storm of enemy fire. From a brief glimpse, Matt saw that it was actually a patrol coming up the hill, rather than sniper fire from the enemy base. He pulled a grenade from his flightsuit's pocket, and pressed the detonator button.

He waited three seconds, then threw it out of his ditch, in the direction of the oncoming patrol. Someone downhill shouted "MOVE!!!"

The grenade went off, and Matt rose for another shot. He was rewarded with the sight of one body going into the air, propelled by the explosion. Three other figures were on their feet, running away from the blast. Matt took down two of them with automatic fire before a few shots came too close, making him duck for cover again.

Dammit, hurry up Blaze.

Damon, meanwhile, was keeping close and quiet, sitting against the ditch's wall, facing away from the gunfire. Matt was just going to tell him to move back down the ditch when the boy's eyes widened and he fired a shot into the woods behind them. An enemy troop fell from the trees in the distance. Some red laser bolts were fired hastily from somewhere else behind their position, but Matt quickly put a single shot right into the offending soldier.

"How did you do that?" Asked Matt, amazed.

"My dad taught me how to shoot and fly." Said the boy sheepishly. "I've been told I'm pretty good."

"Damon, you are good." Matt chuckled. He should join Husky squadron when he gets older.

At that moment, a tank and two fighters started coming over the hill. The tank fired a shot which exploded behind the ditch. The fighters started lining up for a strafing run.

If Blaze doesn't get here soon…

With a flash of its laser cannons, the second fighter fired directly into the middle of the first, utterly destroying it, then it fired a missile at the tank, reducing it to a burning hulk.

"Yeah! Go Blaze!!!" Yelled Matt.

The fighter circled, then dropped a bomb, clearing a large crater near Matt's position. Matt nodded to Damon and the duo charged towards the flaming bomb site, getting there just in time to see the ship touch down. The cockpit canopy opened, revealing that it was a two-seater. Blaze beckoned for Matt to run, and run he did. He vaulted into the fighter, then helped Damon inside. Damon took a seat in the small personal cargo compartment behind the seats.

"Hang on! We're lifting off!" Blaze gunned the throttle upwards, but the ship did not have the same power as the Kodiaks of Husky Squadron. Just as the fighter was taking off, an anti-aircraft cannon opened up nearby, stabbing into the side of the fighter as it began to move away.

"I could use some acceleration now!" Grunted Blaze. Another shot glanced the engine as the ship began to move out of range.

Blaze checked the damage console. "Not good! I can't keep her airborne too long. I'll get as far away as possible, then ditch this piece of junk."

As it turned out, he managed to fly on for another five minutes, evading additional fighters and finally finding a good landing spot.

"Hold on, this could be rough!" Blaze yelled. A fire broke out on the right wing, but he ignored it, instead bringing the bucking fighter into a slow descent. As the ship hit the field, it became apparent to all three occupants that the shuddering wreck would skid much farther than expected. It smashed into the forest bordering the clearing, bringing down trees and deforming the leading edges of the once sleek fighter. Despite this, though, Blaze had managed a relatively safe crash landing in the forested area.

"Great. This is the second time for all of us." Growled Matt.

Damon looked despairing and Blaze seemed unfazed by the setback.

Matt looked down at the consoles before him. They were still functional.

Blaze opened the canopy and some smoke began to waft in. "Let's get out of this mess."

Matt, however, was in thought. "Blaze, how long until they find us?"

"Matt? The ship's burning. Let's get out." Blaze, for the first time, seemed confused. He had also called Matt by his first name.

But Keeler had grabbed a small cylinder the size of a water bottle from under his seat.

"Put out the fire. I got an idea that needs this fighter."

Blaze took the fire extinguisher and started spraying it on the fire. "If it is, it's going to have to take less than fifteen minutes. That's when enemy troops start getting here."

Matt had already started overriding the ship's computer systems. He began configuring it to accept unusual commands and transmit on non-regulation frequencies.

They say Pawson's a master mechanic, who can modify ship components and systems to do anything. Well here I go, in that other critical field of combat aviation; the onboard computers.

"Fire's out!" Said Blaze. "Fourteen minutes."

"Blaze, I need you to rig the comm system to be connected to the sensor array, just like what we did during the battle."

Blaze ripped into the fighter, reconnecting wires and systems to Matt's specifications.

"Keeler, of you're going to call for help, you might want to consider that you put others in jeopardy by doing that."

"I'm not calling for help." Matt replied bluntly. "I'm sending the information on that computer core to High Command via this thing's comm system. Give me the core."

"It's in the pack, down in the cargo compartment." Blaze replied. "Thirteen minutes."

Damon was already picking up the box and handing it to Matt. Matt hefted it into his lap, then started connecting its output to the ship's transmitters.

"And what if the message is intercepted?"

"I'm counting it won't be. I'm transmitting it on a tight beam, so unless there's a ship directly between us and Katina it'll slip through undetected. And, I'm programming this thing to use an encrypted Katinian fleet frequency. If they detect it, they won't know what it says."

Blaze still seemed dubious. He pulled two pistols from his pockets and held them 'gangsta style', aiming out towards the likely direction of an enemy approach. "Hurry up, Keeler."

The console before Matt flashed up the words 'Signal Lock' and displayed the image of a Katinian Communications controller. The controller looked at the screen.

"This is Katina Fleet Command… Hang on, who the hell are you?!"