Chapter 2: Tormenting Sins of the Past
Diego I
13 years ago... somewhere on Venom...
I am suddenly awoken from a dream. I think I was fighting alongside my favorite superhero team, The Radical Devils, but I'm not really sure. My mind was really groggy and I strained my muscles against my eyelids in an attempt to open them. The bright neon blue lights in my bedroom suddenly turned on and I complained with bitter annoyance as my brain struggled to awaken.
"Diego honey..." I heard my mom call out. "You have to get up right now."
I stretched my arms and yawned as I tried to climb out of my hoverbike-inspired bed. The metallic floor tiles were quite warm on my fuzzy toes as I made my way toward my bedroom door.
"Mommy?" I managed to ask in just above a whisper. "What's wrong? Did something happen to Dad?"
My eyes were still basically half closed but even so, I could tell that my mother is more worried than I ever recall seeing her be before. Her usual soft amber face has been replaced with a nearly-broken visage of despair. My feet were seemingly frozen to the floor and suddenly I fear for my father's life for the first time in nearly a year.
"Daddy is fine." My mother knelt down to me and gave me an assuring hug. "But we have to leave and do so quickly. The city is being evacuated. We need to make our way to the safety of the vaults."
"You mean... we lost the war? Are we going to die?" I continued to ponder out loud and nearly started to cry.
"No we haven't lost yet. Grand Emperor Andross is still fighting the evil Cornerian invaders. Our great leader and his army can still hold back the... the fiends. He must have a plan."
My mother tried her best to assure me in with her comforting words. It worked for now as I wiped a few sleepy tears from my eyes.
"But just in case the worst happens... we have to go." My mother stood back up again as she placed a backpack on my bed. "Pack up some clothes and a couple of toys. We need to leave in less than five minutes."
I nodded my head and rub my nose as my mom leaves the room to pack her own stuff. I grabbed the bright cyan school bag and stuffed it full of shirts, pants, underwear and pajamas. I tossed my two favorite Radical Devils action figures into it and zip it up. I easily slid my shoulder through the two straps and walked out of my room.
My door opened with a hiss of air, which allowed me to suddenly notice the clear but faint sound of an alarm and an automated voice that was indistinct and seemingly too far away. The front door to our living quarters was wide open, probably due to the alarm. I didn't really know what was going on but I was scared. Scared for the first time in a long while. My imagination instantly wandered to an animated battlefield of junk and cars from my favorite holovision cartoon, only instead of seeing the villain laying down and broken in defeat, I saw my father, on his knees and struggling to breathe. He clutched his chest as he yelled towards the orange-set sky.
My mother suddenly snapped my mind back to the present as she holds my hand. I'm quickly startled but I managed to calm down rather quickly.
"Don't worry about the alarm sweetie." Mom told me with reassuring words. "It's just very loud so that everyone in the city can hear it and get to safety. Same as us. Let's go."
Without another word we walked out of our apartment for the last time. The exterior air was quite a bit warmer and smelled faintly of smoky chemicals and rustic sand. It's the only air I've ever known however so it doesn't take long at all for me to no longer notice it.
The sky, well, it wasn't a sky. Miles high above the city's vast skyscrapers was an absolutely massive cave interior. It was designed to mimic a "normal" atmosphere, with various tiny lights installed on it that lit up at nighttime to represent the stars. It also had a full on miniature bright sun during the day that slowly panned from one side of the city to the other. Since I'd only seen the real sun on Holovision I didn't really know the difference too well at the time. It was an engineering marvel… and it was only made for aesthetic reasons.
We descended through the building's stairs, running into only a few other panicked people along the way. When we got close to the bottom, I noticed that a lot of people who used the same exit were waiting down there. Many of them were afraid and whimpering, quite a few of them were children just like me.
"If you rich bastards wanna get to your bunkers, you'll have to pay the toll." Some member of a thug trio near the exit door said. "five hundred credits per person should just about do it."
"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" One of the imprisoned residents countered. "We're not rich, our family members are just in the military. They protect sorry bastards like you on a daily basis!"
"Five... hundred... credits." The criminal scoffed. "I won't say so again-"
The stuffed stairwell began to fill up with various yelling voices and screaming kids as people pushed and pulled against each other in angst as credit chips clattered to the ground. I couldn't even hear what everyone was saying it was just too freaking loud. I clutched my ears and began to cry. I heard many people shrieking in misery and pain as blaster shots rang out above everything else. I thought I heard my mother scream along with several others but I couldn't have been certain.
"Shut the hell up! All of you! If you don't I'll blow half of you to bits!" A high pitched venomous voice commanded half-weakly.
"You can't keep us here you freaks!" Someone either brave or stupid bellowed.
Without warning several more blaster shots went off. Lots of people continued to yell but my mother and I could do nothing but crouch down on a single stair and pray that we'd not get hit. More shots whirred out as tears still ran down my cheeks and my inner ears started to hurt badly. We heard more groaning and hissing, along with the smell of charred fumes. Something hard and heavy made a thumping sound. Then, almost as quickly as it started, the room went eerily quiet. Nobody seems to move or say anything.
I let out a whimper as I unclutched my hands from my still buzzing ears. My mother's grip around my torso loosened and I opened my moist eyelids.
"The way is open." Some random ape spoke in a rather calm tone. "Let's get going as quickly as we can. We are already way behind everyone else."
My mother picked me up without saying a word. I glanced at the floor for literally half a second and saw quite a few motionless bodies along with some that were silently shuddering in untold agony. I managed to look up to avoid their gazes. I forced myself to look away from the literal aftermath of death.
My mom and I ran with the crowd of about two dozen people. We made our way down to the street level just so we could enter a whole new field of chaos. Many hovercars were battered and shredded in various ways as they were littered across the road. Flames of red and blue filled various gaps in buildings and several people were fighting in the streets, most with some kind of improvised handheld weaponry or blasters.
My mom lifted me up in her hands and began to seemingly run faster, past the burning properties and corpses alike. I had never seen anything like it before and it horrified me. It was pretty much hell, except the demons with torches are replaced with real Venomians, who just yesterday were living relatively normal and peaceful lives.
After about ten minutes, my mom's breathing began to get heavier and heavier. She was unable to keep up with the crowd so she ran into a nearby abandoned building, probably some sort of former military communications office or something of the sort. She bolted into the public bathroom located inside and sat down on the floor, panting wildly and clearly winded. She still was gripping onto me tightly.
"Mommy?" I questioned innocently. "What're we doing?"
"I just need to rest for a few minutes Diego, then we'll keep going to the vaults…" She responded less assuredly than before.
"But what if it closes before we get there?" I asked an obvious question.
My mom's positive mask dropped for only a couple of seconds, but during that time she showed what she knew in her heart clearly on her face.
"We'll be fine." She assured me. "It'll still be open when we get there."
Even though I knew that it was my mother who was saying those words, part of my childhood mind began to doubt them. My mom, who'd always been a source of light and positivity in my relatively short life, seemed to be breaking apart right in front of me. All I could do was just sit there, in my safe-keeper's lap, and wait along with her.
The echoes of the chaos outside is quite muffled now but I could still hear it fairly clearly, almost as if was burned into my brain now. I tried to ignore the audio assaulting me but I was unable to drown it out. Screaming, shattering fragments of violence was all that could be heard. Yet despite the unyielding environment, I wam mentally exhausted and I quickly fell asleep.
My dream was full of starship pirates and sand ninjas. They're arguing and shouting amongst themselves but I can't quite tell what about. A vast sea of gemstones of all sorts surrounds me. Despite its tranquil beauty I feel quite sad and lost and I'm not really sure why.
I try to run towards some nearby tree shaped rocks off in the distance but I can't seem to get any closer. I grasp my hands out in front of me in a desperate attempt to grab them and find nothing in return. Beneath my feet lay a bunch of fresh fruit. The smell they emitted was a mixed one of some kind of synthetic plastic and a sharp, sweet odor. I grabbed one of the oval shaped fruits but it turned into a bunch of green worms as I held it. I felt my throat let out a scream but my ears are silenced.
I fell down through an ocean of worms and a velvet void began to engulf my surroundings. I tried to escape through whatever I had fallen into but my arms refused to move. I began to suffocate as I continued to sink down.
"You've lost…" A voice as clear as the morning sun shouted. "This is all that remains now."
I am somehow released from the slimy space-worm soup and I landed in a small stone room. Iron bars have me trapped in this small cage and I try to bend them in desperation but they don't move an inch.
"Yeah we caught him just outside of the border, can you believe it?" A voice that was very familiar to me laughed.
It's one of the Radical Devils, Crimson Blade! A spark of hope ignited within me. Surely one of my favorite super heroes could save me!
"Poor kid," Crimson Blade lamented just out of my sight, "His father was a traitor so we had to send him to the lunar prison for execution. Damn shame it is."
A shockwave ripped through me and I screamed. This time I heard myself loud and clear. The very world around me crumbled and faded as I entered some other realm. Everything was black. I was scared and couldn't see anything.
"Diego…" I heard my father's voice coming from behind me and I turned around.
A bright spotlight was shining on him and he was hunched over on his knees. His arms seemed to be chained up to a wall that wasn't there.
"Dad!" I cried out. "Don't worry I'll get you outta here!"
"Diego…" My father now barely whispered.
I stopped in my tracks as I shuddered at the hoarseness of his speech.
"I brought you a gift, I hope you like it son." My father smiled through a torn up and beaten down face.
I looked down to see a green box with a purple ribbon around it. I couldn't resist trying to open it.
"I hope you're doing well at looking after your mother while I'm away and fighting the bad guys." My father continued to have a warm expression.
The wrapping came loose and I was able to open the box. Inside was a bold new Crimson Blade figurine.
I managed to smile as I look at my father, my eyes seemingly stained with tears.
"It's time for you to go now son. I hope to see you soon…"
"Father!" I managed to shout as everything faded away…
My mom woke me up in a panic as she quickly stood up. I could hear various voices that seemed alot closer now. I was about to say something but my mother covered up my mouth as tightly as she could. The sound of a couple of desks flipping over and glass shattering on a hard concrete floor managed to bypass the bathroom door. Some looters were inside with us in the next room and arguing hard.
"Where the hell is it?" I heard a loud and chilling voice yell loudly. "Where's the fucking money!?"
"I-I don't know!" A second voice cried out. "I thought it was inside the commander's office safe… that- that's where it was supposed to be!"
The rupturing wave of a blaster goes off, It's so loud that I covered my ears instinctively but in vain.
"Fucking worthless…" I listened to the same voice complain.
My mother started to slowly crawl towards the other side of the bathroom. She silently signaled for me to follow her and pointed up at a nearby window, where the faded street-lights were beaming through. I overheard grunting in the next room, the sound of some one getting knocked around was readily apparent. I gasped lightly and made my way towards the window as quietly as I could.
But suddenly a loud bang from the door behind me interrupted us and my mother screamed. I tried to turn around but a roughly textured hand grabbed the nape of my neck and lifted me up.
"Hey boss!" The scaly soldier shouted. "There's a scrawny kid and a woman in the bathroom! I think they were tryin' to hide."
I struggled with all my strength in an attempt to turn around and was physically unable to. All my eyes can do is glimpse the navy blue cuff of an army uniform.
'Corneria's colors...' I thought in a panic. 'The enemy is holding onto me!'
I attempted to break free of his grip but I couldn't. I listened to them laughing and my mother screaming.
"Mommy!" I cried out.
"Looks like we found ourselves some Venomian scum… hehehe." One of the other soldiers chuckled.
I saw my mother get pulled out of the bathroom and thrown onto the ground. She hit a desk on the way down and I screamed. In my attempt to do something I bit my captor's arm but the armor below his uniform is too thick.
"We got a little feisty one here ehh?" The smelly lizard smiles at me in a twisted way.
I yelled again as I'm thrown to the ground. The lizard kicked me in the stomach with a powerful blow, one that I never even knew existed. I slammed into a desk and coughed loudly. My head hurt, as did everything else. I stretched out my arm to reach my mother but she was too far away. That was when I saw it.
One of the soldiers was standing on top of her, hitting her over and over again. Her protests and outcries for help kept growing more and more faint. The evil laughter around me seemed to be intensifying. I tried to scream but my eyes are filled with water instead. I can't move, can barely breathe.
The blue lizard bandit took out a knife, I had only seen villains carry them in my comic books and cartoons before. But this knife wasn't fictional. By the time my childhood brain realized how real it was it was too late.
He stabbed her twice, each hit ricocheted soundwaves like a scratching, fluid blow. Three more times… each hit was more gruesome than the last one. She had stopped twitching now, yet still he still kept cutting into her. I have lost count now. Make it stop… please… just stop. I closed my eyes but could still hear it.
Red. So much red clouded my vision. I don't know what this pain is I'm feeling but I absolutely hate it.
I wanted to go home. Let me go back to the morning to do things again... so that I didn't waste any time. So we can get to safety quicker and live… please.
But no matter how much I wished for it, nothing happened. I was no superhero, I was just a kid. My vocal cords managed let out a scream one more time, seemingly louder than their wicked cackling.
"Well I guess it's about time to finish up here." The leader of the goons sighed.
He drew his blaster and pointed it at me when I suddenly heard a loud slam from several feet away.
"What the hell are you doing?" Another new voice yelled, clearly furious.
"Stand down Corporal Selmont, we're simply dealing with Venomian Trash." The cheetah pointing the weapon at me stated coldly. "Stand down."
"This woman was a mother… and that is simply her child. They are civilians!" Selmont shouted, seemingly even louder.
"Tsk." The feline thug was clearly not happy.
I couldn't see what was happening but I could hear it. I wondered who this Selmont person was. Three or four shots rang out around me. The cheetah who was standing over me moments ago is now a smoking corpse, his face forever locked in a pain-filled expression.
"Damn you!" The lizard who hurt my mother cracked. "Fucking traitor!"
I tried to stand up as the reptile drew his firearm. He was clearly not paying any attention to me.
"Eugene!" He hissed. "Get outta the damn way I don't have a clear shot!"
Selmont was fighting somebody else in close combat, I couldn't tell the species of either one of them, except that one was a white bird of some kind. My vision was too blurry and it was painful to even have my right eye open. I continued to try and get up, using the desk's beaten leg as support. I saw a thick orange-furred arm wrap around the bird's waist. I heard the loud crackling sparks of a shot going off but I did not see any weapon.
The lizard slumped over, half of his face was charred and melted from the laser blast. It was quite disgusting but I have a momentary feeling of satisfaction. It only lasted for half of a second though, because then I remembered that my mother was seriously hurt.
I looked over at the brawl again and I noticed that the avian had two arms wrapped around his waist and he was partially lifted into the air.
"You piece of-" is all that the bird could manage to say before I felt a loud and disturbing crunching sound.
Selmont roared loudly and slammed the paralyzed fiend down onto a desk, shredding it apart and leaving only a bloody, feathered and splintered mess behind. He groaned deeply and went down onto one knee, seemingly out of exhaustion. He was wearing the same blue devil uniform as the rest of the fallen meatheads.
My instincts told me to run away but I'm too tired to even take a single step effectively. I glanced over at my mother, who's not moving, just like the rest of them.
"Mom!" I called out rather weakly. "Get up… please..."
In my attempt to move towards her I tripped over myself, my uncontrollable sobs clouded my thoughts. I could only listen to myself and some really loud noises outside. The azure demon who saved me for some reason must have left the door open.
'Why did he help me? Is he not the enemy? Is he not just as evil as the rest Corneria? No… no I must run… danger...mother… help...'
The sounds of uproar got louder and I was lifted gently into the air and onto a fuzzy shoulder. I smelt nothing, except for the scent of agonizing fire. It filled my nostrils and I coughed violently.
I was so dizzy and yet I didn't fall.
I felt really sick but I can't throw up.
Opening my eyes was too painful right now, so they just stayed shut.
Tired, I was so very tired.
"Mother…" I wept out softly.
"I'm sorry…" I overheard a gentle, warm yet sad voice say to me. "I'm so sorry but we have to go."
That was the last time that I saw my mother. My thoughts left me and my sleep consisted of motionless gray skies. I found myself on a soft bed in a bright room when I awoke, I didn't know how long I'd been unconscious for. The floor and ceiling were a sleek moonsilver metal, I had not really seen anything like it before. It looked completely different from any material I'd ever seen on Venom. The metal back home was entirely black, at least in the area that I grew up in.
As it turned out I was on a spaceship. The Cornerian solider who rescued me had seemingly taken me someplace safe. I was apprehensive at first but I came to realize how genuine he was very quickly. We flew to his home which was actually located outside of a city and in a small town of only about roughly six-thousand people. It was a stark contrast to the bustling underground metropolis that I was used to. I quickly learned to never stare directly at the sun. The real thing was much brighter and more beautiful that I could have ever imagined.
A few weeks passed… the fighting across the star system was apparently over, The massive conflict that the Cornerian media simply labeled as "The Lylat War" had ended.
Venom lost.
Everyone here who ever spoke on the holovision, or in real life for that matter, had called Andross an evil tyrant who was finally put down by some elite mercenary group known as Star Fox. I guess they were some kinda real life version of The Radical Devils. Venomian news networks had never spoken of them before so I didn't really know who they were yet.
I- I didn't know what to believe anymore. It felt like I was lost in a nightmare that never ended.
My whole life I was taught that Venom was the pinnacle of righteousness and justice in society and that Corneria was corrupt and evil. Now, in my new home, everybody was saying the opposite. Sadly all I knew is what I personally experienced. My mother was gone… my Venomian father was missing and my entire life had been turned on its head.
Looking back, I had to grow up in some ways rather quickly. Too fast for one who was only eight years old. In the end, the only thing I knew was that some people were good… and a few too many people were downright monstrous. I had a great deal of anger and hatred within me, but I had no idea where to place such emotions. I didn't even fully understand what they were yet. They continued to gnaw away at me, whether I realized it or not.
A couple more months passed and I was enrolled into a school. I was assigned to a special class along with many other children who's education was altered or hindered by the conflict. It was some sort of Special Education that was basically designed to get us used to the Cornerian academic system. Along with allowing us to get caught up to where we were supposed to be at our ages of course.
I didn't really get to know many of my classmates really. I mostly just kept to myself. A few kids were friendly to me but I always kept them at arms length so to speak. We never talked about anything remotely serious or personal. I learned some more math, a lot of new words and a few basic concepts of various scientific fields. For downtime we simply had an Art and Gym class although obviously not at the same time.
It took me a couple of weeks but it was around that time when I started to notice it. Things were not quite right at my new home. The man who rescued me and his wife, Steven and Tigeress Selmont, basically became my adoptive parents. I didn't know of any other relatives that I had in Venom at the time so they just kinda took me in. I guess they just felt sorry for me, as any normal person would. Tigress tried to be as friendly and caring as possible to me but like with my classmates, I kept myself distant most of the time. I didn't want a second mother. I was hurting way too much still for me to even think about considering it.
As for Steven… it felt like he was… different, changing.
Within the first few months of me living in his home he stayed with me as much as he could. But now, abit more than half a year since the war, it seemed like he was barely home at all. I heard him and Tigress arguing almost all the time when I got home from school. My brain just drowned it out as background noise. To be blunt, I really didn't give a shit, even though now I wish I did. They usually continued bickering for a few hours, up until the sun was setting on a vast majority of the days. Between that and the fact that I barely spoke to anyone I usually kept my tent pitched in my room so to speak. I felt as though there was nothing for me out there and no future to be had.
It was uhh, a rough time indeed. I only found out a long while later that Steven had given himself up to drugs. When his wife was unable to comfort him on a deep emotional level… when booze was unable to drown out such negativity I guess it made sense in terms of a spiral of regressive behavior. He was severely depressed after killing four of his comrades, two of which he knew since high school apparently. Despite being a soldier and preparing for the consequences of that, the blood on his hands was seemingly too much to wash off.
I don't really know much else nor do a care to say anything more about the subject. It only was a month later when he left our home one night as usual but this time he didn't come back. He didn't pack a bag, didn't even take his smart comm device with him. As far as we knew he took his wallet and nothing else.
Of course, we'd never really know sadly. Afterwards Tigeress was left in a state of great heartache and despair. I'd imagine it was similar to how I felt when I lost my mother but I don't like to believe that I know exactly how other people can feel. I think something like that is impossible. Regardless about two months or so after that, when our local spring ended and summer began, we moved to Venom. She just didn't want to be in a house full of memories of her missing husband any longer I guess.
We relocated to a completely different city from the one that I grew up in. It had been just over one Venomian year since I'd been on my home world. From what I know now the city we moved to was funded and built within that same time-frame, hundreds of billions of credits from across the Lylat System went into this project. Outsiders simply called this charitable restoration the "Venomian Relief Fund" or something else equally generic, I can't quite remember.
It was quite impressive. A massive domed city on the surface that could house five million citizens. It was built to be a model city, a place that would inspire citizens to follow their dreams and build a better future for Venom and Lylatians alike. The amount of AI construction robots and living employees who worked on constructing this place so quickly must've been insane. The city had only been open to the public for a few weeks so, either Tigeress had amazing coincidental timing or she knew about the new settlement ahead of time, probably the latter.
Either way we were assigned a small apartment once we arrived, a simple two bedroom loft with a balcony overlooking a well tended public park. It was filled to the brim with various compatible flora from around The Lylat System but I hardly remember ever going there to see it. I'm sure we did a few times though.
The immigration process was surprisingly simple. The city was built for displaced Venomians and their off-world families so we fit right in. The strange looks that I'd gotten from some kids and adults alike on Corneria were completely absent here. I felt more at ease than I had in a long time. My inner emotions were still all over the place and I mourned for my mother of course, but the pain was more numbing and far less overwhelming than it had been before.
For a while I finally found some semblance of comfort in my new life. I was able to find new friends in school that I could talk to. It really felt like I was back home again for the first time since the war. One of my new friends was missing some fingers and another one had a large scar from his forehead all the way down to his lower jaw, it's a miracle that they both survived to be honest. I thought that they were cool at the time and I still admire them for their bravery when I think about them today. Really, we were just all victims of a cruel conflict between powerful forces... but we came out of the other side alive, though not unscarred.
Two Venomian winters came and went and it was my eleventh birthday, Tigress decided to do something special for me. She arranged for a fancy dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in the city. We dressed up, I wore a nice shirt and pants while she wore a beautiful azure dress. She'd not been with anyone else since... since... well you know. I kinda hoped she'd find someone new but she remained on her own. Of course I was still a child at the time, I knew nothing at all about relationships. But even still she was focused almost entirely on me, on doing her best to raise me.
I... am still so grateful for that. I don't know if I'd be who I am today without her guidance. I may have turned into some kind of monster without her. The dinner was lovely. I ate everything on my plate and cleared it away before asking for seconds. It was the best meal of my life up until that point and even today it sits up there pretty damn highly. You don't forget memories like that, at least you don't think that you do.
Anyways, it was about two weeks later when I told Tigeress my plans for the future. I knew she wouldn't like what I was about to say. I wasn't sure whether or not I could convince myself to tell her. I was happy where I was. I was comfortable. But I was also scared and terrified, I didn't want to ruin the happiness that I currently had built up for myself.
But I remembered how brave my newest friends were, so I brought up the fact that I wanted to join the military academy on Venom. She was surprised and upset of course, I could see it in her eyes.
But then she smiled and said. "It makes sense. You want to protect people right? I think that's wonderful."
For the first time, I believed that I saw true joy in her face. She was proud of me for making such a selfless decision on my own. However, from time to time I'd noticed her trembling while she was by herself before returning back to normal seconds later. Tigeress was obviously deep in thought during those instances but she just kept them to herself and did her best to support me. I didn't even realize at the time how much stress I was putting onto her.
Nearly everyday now I wish that I did. But I can't change anything now.
Another two years passed and I was enrolled into the 11th Venomian Military High-School, as it was named inside the city. My friend Ethan, the one with the obvious but badass scar across his face, joined me at the same school. All of our other friends, several of them had moved away. Only two others stayed in the city, both of whom we stayed in contact with.
We were all still good friends though, even though we'd lost touch for a while. We'd vidchat alot with the others throughout the years, although Venomian's Intranet was by all accounts finicky at best due to the often horrid toxic storms and poisonous lightning strikes within the atmosphere.
Yay science. Ahem... where was I? Oh right.
For the first year or so, it was mostly a normal high school life. The only combat related courses we took were the bare bones military basics that we'd start to put into practice in our second year. The curriculum was brutally crunched down in terms of knowledge versus time. But it had to be. We had to learn everything faster than the average teenager while also learning blaster safety and other combat related topics at the same time. It was hard work but I pressed on, my goal was firmly in my mind and I wasn't going to let a shit-ton of homework stop me.
We learned about the many threats that were constantly outside of the city walls. Mutants, bandits, giant dangerous sandworm snake things that wreak havoc and mayhem on anything they run across. Yeah that last description was rather… long.
I'm bad at puns ok? Get off my back.
Anyway, Venom's surface outside of the city's protective dome was downright perilous, as it had been for centuries before. We did learn briefly about the Cornerus civilization, the one that existed on Venom back during ancient times, but we didn't learn nearly as much history as most high school students, since a lot of our extra-curricular work was on combat related stuff as I mentioned before.
With The Lylat War ended, Venom's military has now almost entirely been focused on self defense and self preservation for the last five years. The current leader of Venom was apparently a somber and wise individual who never did anything on an emotional whim. He always thought things through an unbiased eye, or as unbiased as possible. I wish I could have met him in person. Sadly, I did not.
As the first school year came to a close we had to decide which specialty we'd focus on. We were given five basic choices, all of which were vastly different from one another and would take our military careers down very different paths.
We could choose to learn hand-to-hand combat and non-lethal melee weapon takedowns, along with basic blaster training. These military personal were essentially an enhanced police force that were spread throughout the city. They'd be most commonly seen protecting some rich mansion, some famous celebrity or politician or usually guarding a huge event's entrance where a bunch of people were gathered in one place. Oh and spaceports, lots and lots of them at spaceport checkpoints. It was basically the easiest thing you could do out of the five although it still required rigorous training. Almost half our class took this option.
Another choice available to us was a pilot. Pilots were responsible for flying the enormous ships that carried cargo and occasionally people of military or governmental importance between cities and planets. There were also fighter pilots that fought against others during aerial or space battles, but that was rare, since there was no war currently. Most fighter pilots only ever flew solo or small group missions against land-walking threats like as mentioned before, sandworm snakes. Since the only way to take them down in relative safety was from the air. About a dozen students in our class chose this.
Our third option was to be a medic. Medics worked closely with the rest of the military personnel, doing everything from healing wounded soldiers to setting broken bones. Not as glamorous as the previous two options but still vital to the overall stability of our army. They would be trained for two years longer than the rest of us but at the end of it all they'd come out with more anatomical and medicinal knowledge than all of us in the class combined. Only three of our classmates chose this option.
The fourth decision we could make was to be a sniper. They were the backbone of the entire defensive line of the city. Scattered all across the massive circular wall were dozens of small outposts manned by sharpshooters. They would be the ones that took out the occasional bandit or mutant that got too close to the edge of the outer wall. They were also the first line of defense for whenever such monstrosities decided to attempt a raid. That was when a shitton of them, usually dozens if not hundreds, would attempt to breach the wall through sheer force of will or numbers. But so far they've been unsuccessful. A bit less than ten of us chose to be a sniper.
The scariest thing that happened was that part of the wall got heavily damaged once. It was left vulnerable for several days while it was repaired and many people and sadly some civilians lost their lives that week. It was the biggest loss of Venomian life since the war. Raids are quite uncommon but usually occur at least twice a month. Most of the time someone loses their life to some random lowlife but it's never usually more than five or six people.
Still, any and all life lost needlessly is painful. I know from personal experience.
The fifth and final choice that we had was to be a land machine operator, namely running tanks and the occasional mech or even more rarely, a Dreadscout. Dreadscouts were basically a super-tank about thirty-two feet in height and twenty feet in width. But they were obviously quite slow while in transit, not to mention difficult to maintain. As such, there weree no active Dreadscouts in duty right now from what I understood. Mechs are generally more reliable and mobile anyways and made up about 40% of our land-based war machines.
However, this was also the military branch that has the most deaths since the war so, alot of recruits discussed this task like it was cursed or something. The last two kids in our class chose to go regardless. They were either brave, suicidal, or stupid. Or a mix of all three. That's what most of our class thought anyways. I personally thought that they had the most courage out of all of us even though I never said so aloud.
Ethan chose to be a pilot. Mostly because he wanted to travel around Lylat and meet a bunch of different people and take in the sights.
"Our worlds are beautiful." He used to say. "And life is too short to not see it all if you can."
I knew that the difference in appeal between Corneria and Venom was like night and day. But I'd never been anywhere else yet so I couldn't speak for the other planets in Lylat. All I could say for certain was that I loved my people, their cultures and our city. I wanted to protect it and them. I'm sure you felt the same way.
So I guess Ethan was right. The world was beautiful. People were anyway... or could be. They could also be downright evil. And that's why I needed to do this. I wanted to learn how to defend myself so that I could save others from harm. I chose to be a sniper. I'd never held a gun before in my life but I made my decision months ago. I'd defend this city from the literal monsters who wanted to tear it down.
After summer break, our second year began. This was when Ethan and I parted ways, since we were going to separate divisions of the military to learn different things. New classmates, teachers and dorms. These new ones weren't quite as cramped s before but we had to share our rooms with another student. That took some time to get used to, not going to lie, but it turned out alright thankfully. My roommate was friendly but we didn't become friends if that makes sense, we mostly kept to ourselves and learned very little about one another.
I still had contact with Tigeress of course although she was becoming more and more busy these days. She'd barely have time to talk on the vidchat anymore, but we still got together for a meal sometimes. From what I knew she actually decided to go working for the military as well, although she took a more administrative position and she worked just as hard as me if not harder. From what I understood she was developing new shield tech at some expensive R&D development company. Maxis? Markson? Something like that. A company that made flashy combat suits for billionaires and some actual practical stuff on the side for real soldiers.
But yeah... life was going well. Not much else to say about that second year really. My physical training began and it was tough at first but got easier as time went on. I learned a lot more advanced math than I ever thought I would as a little kid. Wind speeds, weather, distance, rifle quality and barrel length, along with about a million other things had to be taken into account when shooting. I also practiced shooting in VR and learned how to dismantle and reassemble rifles. Besides the math that was the hardest thing I had to learn yet. There's so many small pieces and so many varieties of weapons and ammo that it took a long time to get right.
If you got something wrong in the actual field or during an emergency, the rifle won't work at best but it'd explode at worst. If mismatched components were accidentally touching when that trigger is pulled, it could be lethal… and not for your target. Thankfully with the strict guidelines and grading system in place, that almost never happened… anymore.
It was... stressful, for sure. But I got through it at the top 5% of my class that year. My grades were solid and my body was developing well. I was very healthy and my vision was much higher than the average Venomian. Some snipers needed aim assist eyewear in order to be as effective as possible in the field. I didn't need any such thing.
The last notable thing to happen in that year, 2347, was a speech given by Venom's current leader, Grand President Cross, as he was known. He was a tall and very bulky elderly gorilla. His umber fur had grayed with age but his mind had remained untainted.
After the catastrophe that was Andross' Reign of Terror as it came to be known, certain laws were changed. To very briefly sum it up, our leader was elected once the previous leader died. The elected leader then reigned until their death or until they deemed himself or herself unfit to rule.
'That sounds like a dictatorship...' I can hear you asking now.
You'd be correct. It was with Andross for sure. That's why, elected officials nowadays had to be 55 years of age or older. It's crude but basically we elected old leaders so that they would die off within a decade or two, to ensure that no one had absolute power for too long. Also, extensive research and background checks had to be conducted on each candidate. So if you so much as punched a random dude in a bar one night, something as silly and random as that could have been the thing that got you disqualified from the election.
It has only been a sample size of one ruler so far, since Andross, but a lot of people were optimistic about this change. The Grand President of Venom had been a valiant symbol of peace and justice for these past five in a half years. I still remembered the day of his speech very clearly.
We had the day off and everyone at the Academy was invited into a grand theatre, where rows upon rows of chairs were waiting for us. The floors were carved out of some kinda fancy dark wood from Fichina, the elegant bronze marble pillars were from Corneria and the walls were made out of local Venomian alloys to complete the aesthetic. Just one of many buildings in the city I guess that was supposed to represent Lylatian unity or something. On top of the stage there was a massive Holovision screen on display, with a countdown clock on it. It was slowly ticking down.
Most of the students eagerly went to their seats, lots of us hadn't seen the Grand President speak live before so this was a big deal for some. After waiting around for about ten minutes, the screen flickered to life. The president was wearing a classic suit and red tie and had a pair of black square glasses on. He was someone with conviction, you could just be told with a glance. That conviction which demanded but did not enforce respect.
He was a lot like you in that regard.
He began to speak in a clear and deep voice.
"My fellow citizens of Venom," His voice carried a great weight of authority behind it. "It has been nearly six years. Six years since we lost a war that should never have been started. In the time since then, I've seen countless amounts of you do many great and wondrous things. Triumphs I would have never thought possible had I not been there to witness them. Real changes have happened that will hopefully bring our society to a state of peace and prosperity, one of which we've not seen in decades. But I can see the shadows cast by our past and the darkness of what could be."
He paused for a few moments before continuing, a genuine concerned look filled his face.
"There has been something, something that I have kept hidden from the public eye for about a week now. In my shame I must confess that I gave into the political pressures of my advisors and I have stayed silent on this topic. But I speak to you all today... to break that silence. Because this is no longer about me as a leader or my political stance but more so than anything else, this is a matter of international security. It's something that will have an impact on all of you, the people of Venom. The cities of Redberg Heights, Asenna, Bogstrem, Danogburg City and Menfil have been hit with a serious and as of now unknown sickness."
There was a stunned silence amidst the crowd. Grand President Cross carried on.
"Our initial efforts to contain the outbreak have failed. I was advised against telling you all this by three of my closest advisors, all of whom have now been removed from my service. I am telling you this because I fear that not telling you would have led to greater panic in the long run."
Soft murmurs began to go through the crowd. Several comm devices beeped and twittered as the President carried on.
"Do not be alarmed. We will survive this. We will save as many Venomians as possible. As of today I am sending extra supplies and relief efforts to all the affected cities. Citizens are to remain isolated in their homes in these settlements for twenty six days. These zones will enter a quarantine and the infected people will be taken safely to various hospitals and treated by our best doctors throughout the world. Food and water and other daily needs will be provided to all the civilians who're staying in isolation. Please follow our guidelines and take this seriously."
The crowd was silent now but the devices were not.
"Lastly I will say that this disease... whatever it is it primarily effects children, although adults can be carriers from what our initial research suggests. My own grandson... is ill. I am deeply sorry that it took something so personal for me to act. To show everyone my devotion and my commitment to this plan, I to will remain in isolation for the quarantine. I want nothing more than to be reunited with my family and to bring freedom back to my beloved people."
The attendees were hushed once more as a few louder quarrels broke out.
"I will not lie to you all. This will not be an easy task. But it is one which must be done if we are to succeed. The lives of thousands of our children rest us. And in that regard... for the sake of those you love, and for the sake of Venom. Be strong. Keep your heads high and stay united. We will survive this. We will not bow our heads to fear. We will stand tall. Thank you and godspeed."
With that, the speech ended abruptly. Most students and even the teachers didn't know what to say to the news. We mostly just walked back to our dorms in silence, with heavy hearts that had been set over us.
Months passed by and my 3rd year was about to begin. I just turned 15 so I could legally start actually shooting my rifle. Well I didn't own one yet it belonged to the academy but you know what I mean. It was tough as shit at first. Even though the VR simulations were good practice tools, it wasn't real life. It took time to adjust to the real weights and the real math behind what I was doing. But I persevered.
You're probably wondering what happened with the pandemic hmm? Honestly not much. It began and ended within a month in a half. We heard that hundreds of kids lost their lives in various cities from the sickness, including our own. But even months later the general public had never been explicitly told what it was. All we had was a name.
KV Virus.
According to official government reports, some local archaeologist brought some random artifact from some random deep dark archaeological site or some shit. I don't really know exactly but they say that the plague must've been dormant on that thing and reactivated once it saw the Lylatian sun again.
I called bullshit on it, as did many many people. Grand President Cross' reputation took a massive hit and never recovered. There was so little info on it that honestly people stopped talking about it. Mostly everyone at least. There were thousands of online conspiracy videos about the "truth of the plague". Everything from it being a terrorist attack by evil Cornerians to Andross' ghost haunting the old cities and sprinkling death dust on random kids. Yes an extremely small amount of nutjobs actually believed that and posted about it. Or maybe they just pretended to for the small amount of credits that they could scam off of vulnerable people. Absolutely disgusting behavior.
But yeah, I still don't know the truth down to this day. I just remember that the third year of military school was when Venom's stability started to decline again. Crime was on the rise, riots broke out often and some poorer parts of the world started to look a hell of a lot worse than before. People were angry and full of hate. I knew the feeling.
I hated the scum who killed my mother. I loathed Andross, the one Venomian who I could blame for everything and rightfully so. Without his stupid war, Corneria would never have come to Venom looking for blood.
A few years back Ethan showed me some hard rock music that I'd not really heard before. It was kinda like the key that allowed me to finally vent my emotions in a healthy way instead of leaving them buried for so long. I discovered many other bands that I enjoyed after that.
On some days that I had off I'd blare the music for hours, screaming most of the while. I was always by myself of course. It wasn't that practical but it helped me release tension instead of keeping it buried. I felt... healthier and more alert. I guess the music gave me focus, it let me work through things instead of letting it eat away at my heart as it had done for so long.
It's kinda crazy when I think about it now because I was 12 years old when I discovered it and I still love it at 23. Nearly half my life. Hmm.
I guess I don't have much else to tell you. Do I Peppy?
...
No... no you are right. There's still two things left. Well a bit more than that but yeah you know what I mean. Or you would know if you were still alive. Fuck.
Lets uhh, get back on track here. Gotta mention the first time I heard about Star Fox in years and learned about Scales. Right. Ok. Let's do this. Fingers to keyboard... lets continue.
The third year came and went without much else going on really. We're gonna jump ahead in time a tadbit and talk about my graduation party. It was quite nice actually. I got to see my fellow classmates from a few years back, well the ones that didn't drop out anyways. Most of them were still here though thankfully.
We had a venue organized for us by the academy. Several dozens kids who had once just been mere recruits, were now considered to be nearly adults who had completed their military training. We all thought that we were ready for the real thing. Rather naive of us honestly but we were not quite adults yet. Some of us were sixteen, others were seventeen. My birthday was about a month ago, May 11th.
Anyway when we arrive, we found that the place had been set up quite nicely with tables filled with food and non-alcoholic drinks, there was some floral decorations scattered around and various vibrant fabrics were hanging from the ceiling. They put our class picture up on the wall, which made me smile. There was even a professional band playing some upbeat jazzy electronic music on a stage on a far end of the hall. Not really my kinda jam but not too bad either.
Everyone was seemingly having a good time too, we talked amongst ourselves and caught up on each other's lives. Even though we were only mostly acquaintances before at best, now almost four years later we were now mostly filled with respect for one another, due to our slightly increased understanding of the seriousness of our line of work. Oh sure there were a few loudmouth dicks at a small handful of tables but that was to be expected. Every class had its idiotic rich kid with blind leeches following them and doing anything they could to suck them dry. Not in that way though.
But with Ethan and our small group of eight students, we were really all quite civil and pleasant. Not that we didn't joke around a tadbit though. It was nice to laugh and relax, didn't do that nearly as often as I could have.
Eventually I saw Tigeress come into the party, along with what I assumed were most of the other graduates family members as well. We took various pictures with my teachers, trainers and friends then most of the parents left with waves and goodbye hugs. Tigeress stayed behind, it seemed like she had something she wanted to discuss with me. I politely excused myself for the evening with several handshakes and we made our way onto the sunset city streets. We walked for a few minutes in mutually understood silence and we came upon a sleek black hovercar.
"I know we've not seen each other much lately... or talked. You know I'm always here if you need me right?" She said concernedly.
"I'm fine." I replied plainly. "Just busy. Getting ready for the move and all."
"You're going to be stationed at the military apartments inside the inner wall correct?" She continued, "I know your graduated and legally you can start doing your service but does it really have to be so soon?"
"I want to be able to protect the city as quickly as possible." I responded. "You know that. We've discussed this at length before."
Tigeress sighed, "I know. But now that the moment has come... it's difficult. You may not have my blood but you're still my son. You and I, we have no other family left. We have to do what we can for each other."
"Yeah..." I concurred while looking away, slightly ashamed. "I can't imagine how hard this is for you. But I need to do this. For everyone that's been lost I... I just need something to counter that, to put my own good into Lylat ya know? There's a lot of bad people out there. If I didn't do my part to keep them in line I'd feel like shit all of the time."
"It's just natural for me to worry about you." She carried on. "But even so I will do what I can too."
She pauses for a moment and we hug.
"Thanks... mom." I said with an embarrassed look. "But you didn't bring me all the way out here just for this conversation did you?"
She opened the trunk of her personal hovercraft and inside there was a small wooden box with flowers and snakes engraved on its cover. She held it between us.
"This is for you. Open it up." She ordered rather sternly.
Inside was an old and small one-handed blaster. Like very old. However it had its quicksilver sheen like the day it was crafted. There was a small and thin wooden engraving of a rose on either side of the handle. It looked like something straight outta an old cowboy movie. There was a classical black leather holster included. It looked brand new but it was in designed in some kinda imitated historical style.
"I had a friend of mine restore this." Tigeress said while her arms shook slightly. "It once belonged to Steven's Great-Great Grandfather. It's been in our family for generations."
I looked at the relic gun with awe but hesitated to touch it.
"I know you don't have the best impression of your father... of my husband," She continued sorrowfully. "But he was a good man. He did what he had to do to protect you. That's just the kind of soul he was."
"Yeah..." I murmured while taking ahold of the box. "I'll keep it safe. I assume it's decommissioned?"
"Of course." She stated. "You can legally carry now though right? I'm sure if you tinkered with it enough you could get it working with modified modern day parts, should you wish to."
I paused for a few moments as she shut her hovercraft's trunk.
"I can but... I'm not really all that qualified to go around customizing weapons right now." I kinda half mumble.
"That's ok. You can just keep it at home." She smiled. "I hope you like it."
"It's uhh, a nice gift. Thank you." I reply rather awkwardly. "I'll keep it close by."
With that end to the conversation we entered the hovercar and headed to my current dorm, which I'm going to leave in just a few days. She said her goodbyes at the academy entrance and drove off. That was one of the last times I saw her in person… before… everything.
By the next week I was in my new apartment. It was rather small and just had a simple bathroom and kitchen along with a cheap but comfortable cot. The building was literally a part of the inner wall of the city. Besides the dome itself, along with the outer shell, it was technically the biggest structure in all of Holt. Guess I forgot to mention the city I lived in was named Holt. Whoops.
Anyway thousands of new recruits lived in these long halls that slowly curved inward in both directions. When my service started in a couple days I would actually get paid. It'd be my official job. The government covered all living expenses for the military, so the pay was barely anything but it was enough to slowly build up a collection of personal items. So for now it'd be enough. Although the place wasn't exactly luxurious it was certainly nice.
With that my new daily life began. It wasn't all that interesting but uhh, the point of me telling you this is for what's coming next. It was almost two months later, in very early August, when all of Venom heard about the news. It was also the first time that I ever saw you, although it was on the holovision.
I was sitting in a lounge just relaxing and watching abit of HV when the news hit. Every channel was playing it. The other military members with me who were in the room also looked up at the Holly in that moment. A young badger woman in a white business suit began to speak from her podium.
"Recent reports have surfaced about a series of battles and conflict from within Sauria that can only be described as a brief civil-war. Authorities are saying that one tribe, as they call their civilizations, tried to forcefully take over and rule the entire planet. This led to a brutal set of coups and skirmishes that thankfully, have seemingly gone in the least awful direction that they could have. We will take you now to a video that was filmed mere hours ago that the Cornerian government has sent to us, to be broadcast to all Lylatians, including to our great Venomian men and women around the globe."
There is a brief pause before the prerecorded video begins.
"I'm here today interviewing Peppy Hare," A rather averagely middle-aged feline male spoke with confidence. "He's been a member of Star Fox since it was founded and I'm sure many of you watching know who he is. First of all I just want to say that as a Cornerian, I thank you for your service. It's a pleasure to meet you sir."
The camera then focused on an elderly hare in a blue and white uniform. You looked fairly dignified for your age. I remember the impression that you gave off right off the bat.
"Thank you for having me..." Your emotional expressions were warm when you replied. "I'm glad I can be here to bring this story to you all."
The interviewer began his next question with a careful tone. "So what do you have to say to your fellow Lylatians, most of whom do not know what's been happening these last few weeks?"
"It's a long story but I'll do my best to explain it as clearly as I can." You continued on rather seriously.
You then began to recount the rather shocking events that occurred on Sauria. This was the first time that many Venomians had heard about Scales, about sharpclaws, and their ongoing wars against their fellow tribes. It's not surprising that we don't know much about Sauria here honestly, since it's a world that's very far away from us.
Still though, this news, while it was meant to inform Lylatians that another evil tyrant like Andross was stopped before he could do any real damage, didn't help to quell the rising tensions on Venom. In fact I'd say that they got worse. Since there was no reports of Scales' death, a lot of Venomians were freaked out. Most people didn't want another Andross like figure to suddenly invade. However some people began to question whether or not he was truly as evil as we remember him, as if they'd forgotten what had happened over seven years before. Some of them even began to take drastic actions that led to mistakes and choices that could not be undone.
After only a couple more months passed and November began, I swear I was being sent out to 'keep the peace' in the city more often than I was defending the walls. Civilians were scared, especially those in poorer areas which were barely better than slums at that point. Crime lords were growing in power, corrupt government officials were becoming more and more common by the day. I felt powerless at the time. All that I could do didn't seem to change a damn thing.
It didn't take long after that for some cities to literally fall into chaos. When the dust settled a few months later in March of 2351, about a dozen cities out of Venom's forty three major settlements were under the control of a rival faction that called themselves "Andross' Legacy." It wouldn't take long for their leader, Andrew Oikonny, to reveal himself and proclaim that he was the next emperor of Venom. He claimed to be related to Andross by blood although such claims were never confirmed.
I could tell you the story of that war and all the details but... you already know the jist of it. In the span of just four in a half months, nearly 400'000 Venomian soldiers and civilians were dead. I must admit that during the time I was angry at Corneria again for not coming to our aid. Of course, now I understand why. But at the time I was once again filled with a burning unending hatred.
We weren't the only planet that was dealing with a major crisis. Macbeth and Fichina were completely out of Corneria's control and on top of that The Aparoid Invasion had begun. We didn't know about it initially. Information between our worlds at that time was mostly lost... and only came through when it felt like it.
So yeah, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Even if Corneria tried to send a fleet or an army there was no guarantee that they'd arrive before our civilization completely fell apart. And even if they did, it wasn't guaranteed that we'd win against Andross' Legacy.
But we had no choice. We had to keep fighting. And that's exactly what we did. As an elite sniper unit in the Venomian military I knew I had to put my life on the line and do my part to stop this rebellion. However, on July 17th of 2351, that's when the shit really hit the fan. The Aparoids were here... and they didn't discriminate about who they killed, ate and infected. We saw the true terror of war that day. Not that Andross' Legacy wasn't already terrifying, but this shit cranked the horror up to eleven.
Even though it has been five years since then... I still honestly don't know how we survived. But we did. It didn't take long for Andrew Oikonny to flee Venom like a coward, along with most of his army that was still intact. We didn't hear about how Star Fox and Corneria intercepted him just outside of Fortuna and managed to destroy him and his fleet until much later on. Some empire he had.
It only took a few weeks after that for Corneria's half beaten down army to show up with aid. But in those few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Venomian's were added to the death counter everyday, for twenty three days straight.
All in all, once I calmed down and we had all of the facts, I was relieved... but also deeply depressed. Venom's world population dropped by 14%. Fourteen fucking percent in the span of five months, with 96% of those deaths being when the Aparoids landed in those last few weeks. It went down in our history books as one of the worst years of the century. I know millions upon millions of others died across The Lylat System but damn, it hit me the hardest at home... as I'm sure it did for you.
We did our best to recover but our trials were far from over. We got a new leader shortly after the end of the invasion, a mysterious yet well respected person that simply called himself Lord Draklore. And we all remember how that turned out. Laws be damned, I don't know how he fully came into power but most of us were blind-sided. I think it was just a situation of corruption and desperation from those in power. Probably some of both.
It didn't take long for Lord Draklore to gain loyalist followers and for the military to fall under his administrative control. He poured so much of our remaining economy into biological resources. Venomians were going hungry and supply chains were iffy at best.
He secretly spread a modified KV Virus in some sort of twisted science experiment for his own personal gain. Hundreds more children died and a world that was already weeping was brought to its knees. The rebels got their wish from beyond their graves, we got a new evil leader.
I am so thankful that Star Fox and Star Wolf worked together to bring him to justice. My brief time spent working with you made me respect you guys more-so than ever before. That gave me a small semblance of peace.
But it was only a brief moment. For within the next year, 2352, Scales returned from the shadows of the void. Thus, what came to be known as The Great Sauria War began in fury. Scales thought that a broken and bruised Lylat System would be easy to conquer and control. And for the most part, he was correct.
But he underestimated the power in Lylatian's hearts. God that sounds so fucking corny but it's true. He seemingly won the war with ease.
But it was not truly over was it? Star Wolf and Star Fox, two of his most hated foes by that point, were still on the loose, organizing militias and doing whatever they could do to slow Scales down behind the scenes. I too was doing my part but on a much smaller scale. All I could do was protect Holt with a few thousand men, who by this point were unofficially under my command. Someone had to step up and I somehow had the strength left to do so.
In the end, it took nearly two in a half years of guerrilla warfare for us to finally put an end to Scales and his ambitions. Fox and his friends fought him on Sauria and won. Scales was dead for good.
But the cost was far too great... especially for me. I don't know when or how it happened but... Scales got his mental claws into Tigeress... and corrupted her. She was sent to retake control of the city with some scattered remnants of Scales' army that he could spare.
I'd like to think that she was just infected by the Aparoids and she was already dead inside... but that doesn't make it any better. No matter what the reason was, she was driven mad... and I was forced to kill her to defend myself and my remaining comrades.
What a fucking life. My biological mother brutally died to lowlife thugs in blue suits, the man who saved me abandoned me and the last person to really love me like a son... died by my hands. If I wasn't emotionally broken before I sure as hell was then.
...
Do you remember what happened? Probably not since your dead as well. Fuck, how was this supposed to help me again? Ehh, whatever.
I was taken to a medical facility that Corneria had temporarily setup on Venom. where I just laid in bed for hours on end. I don't know how long I was there. A few days? Week? not sure. It's all a blur. My next memory though is of you. You heard about me from the story that my fellow squadmates must have spread about the final battle and came to visit me personally. I had no idea why at the time.
But you were there, just sitting beside me for awhile, observing in silence. When I woke up and opened my eyes, I saw you and didn't even react. I was still so distraught that I didn't care about anything anymore.
"You're awake." You said to me with the same warm tone that you had on HV years before. "Good. I'm glad to see that you are looking well."
I looked at you with a blank expression. You continued to talk to me.
"...you know that you have to stay strong right?" You spoke calmly to me. "I heard about Tigeress. From what I've been told, she was your adoptive mother right? I'm very sorry for your loss Diego."
"Don't act like you know me." I responded with a normal volumed yet angry tone as I turned my head away. "What the hell do you know about loss?"
"Too much." Was your reply. "We've all lost too much. These days the darkness seems to be ever persistent, both in our hearts and just outside of our eyesight."
The way that you spoke hit me hard. I didn't know how to react to that. I laid there in silence with my own clouded thoughts. It didn't take long before my eyes fell closed once again. A couple minutes later I felt your hand reach over and touch my arm gently. I opened my eyes to look at you and then back to the ceiling, as if searching for answers in the stars that weren't there.
"I... I don't know what to do. It's never enough, never been enough." I said almost tearfully. "And every time I think it is, something or someone else comes along to remind me that it's not true."
I felt like such a failure. Like, we'd lost the war despite our clear victory.
To be honest, you were right. We lost so much and yet nothing truly changed. Scales was dead. My mothers were gone. Nothing mattered. Death was all around us.
"What about Ethan? Ethan Brooks I believe is his name." You reminded me as you seemingly read my thoughts.
'Our worlds are beautiful.'
...
'life is too short to not see it all if you can.'
I was stunned into silence again as I heard him speak inside my head. After about another minute I manage to say.
"He's alive?"
"Indeed he is." Was your response. "And your home city of.. uh, Holt was it? It's safe. A little worn down but still intact. The Venomians there owe you and your fellow soldiers their lives. You fought bravely and protected that fractured city for years."
I felt myself start to shake. Tears started to stream down my cheeks. My mind wasn't thinking straight at all. Everything seemed to slow down to a crawl. My heart felt like it would shatter from all the pressure it was being forced to hold. Ethan's life, after all these years, was still going strong. I still had someone that cared about me, a friendship that was not yet torn in two.
After a few emotional minutes I calmed down abit.
"Thanks." I managed to say, embarrassed at my recent tearful display. "I needed to hear that."
"I just... don't know where to go from here." I continued on. "What should I do? What's even left for me?"
"That is for you to decide." You replied warmly. "But I do have an offer for you. Whether or not you take it though is entirely up to you. I'd like you to join Star Fox. We could use a new and young team member such as yourself."
It took a second for me to digest what you said. In my mind I thought that it was an insane suggestion. I didn't know if I could ever trust anybody again, let alone become some sort of hero through the eyes of Lylatians. But I also knew that I didn't want to live out the rest of my life as the government's lapdog... and that you were right. We had lost so much. And now we still had so much left to lose.
I was still bitter. Very bitter in fact. However, my desire for protecting people grew stronger within me again and those feelings overtook the negative ones. I guess I'm writing this letter… because I needed to talk to you.
I want to talk to you again even if it's only for five minutes. But I can't, can I? You went ahead and got yourself killed bya bunch of lowlife terrorists… and now everyone is lost in darkness again. The bitterness is out in full fucking force.
...
Did you see it all Peppy? Did you appreciate the beauty of our worlds? Were you… truly happy?
I cannot answer those questions… because you left us too quickly for me to get the answers.
Even so I will see it all. I will appreciate life in your memory. That is what I must do. That is all I can do. We'll track down the scumbags that killed you, I swear it.
They'll see the beauty of their cold dark cells soon enough… or they'll be dead and buried. Either way works for me.
"You uhh, trying to right a novel?" I hear Falco speaking right next to me as my head jolts up.
"Not really." I huff a little as I turn off the PDA and put it away. "A friend of mine told me I should write a letter to Peppy. Said it'd probably help."
I half-expected him to laugh or at least smirk but he just stands there in silence for about five seconds.
"Good for you." He replies with a hint of nostalgia. "I hope it works for you. Can't hurt to try."
Before I can say thanks Katt yells from the cockpit.
"Three minutes till landing! Be sure you're all holding onto something this could get bumpy!"
As we enter Galloria's atmosphere, the scent of tar and sand fills my nose. It sorta reminds me of home. I always hate that smell whenever I happen to notice it. I do one last safety check on my blaster and manage to smile as I glance at the engraved rose on the grip.
'Just wait a little longer Peppy.' I ponder, 'We'll catch Gatorbile… and bring him back to his rotten jailcell.'
