Chapter 9:

Schism

Joss and Abraham stepped out into the warm, humid air of the Venomian November. They'd just recieved that Star Fox was on their way to Venom. Did they know about Saturnalia and Lupercalia? Did they know Andross was behind this?

"It's going to be a long ride," said Abe, "so I put all of our luggage and special passports in the compartment beneath. It'll be at least twelve hours until we get there. I can't risk going any faster, especially since we're going around Meteo, and there are all sorts of debris out there. Star Fox will be coming in the other way—according to Andross' calculations, and they'll be here in under nine hours, so we need to get going. Andross wants us out of here long before they come."

Abe jumped in the pilot's seat. Joss climbed behind him into the passenger's seat. "Buckle yourself in, now. And if anything bothers you, let me know, okay? We'll go over some regulations as soon as we're off of this stupid planet."

Abe fired up the engine and they were in the air within a matter of seconds. He flipped some switches and grabbed the throttle. They flew into the air, right into the sky. Joss held her breath at the view. She'd never seen this side of her home.

Abraham caught her looking. "Just you wait until you see the outside. Then you can see the big bastard as it really is...."

The sky around her was soon turning more orange than normal. She felt the ship heat up. A few minutes later they were out into a black blanket. There was nothing. It was quiet. And pitch-black.

Joss shivered. "It looks "

"Of course it's cold. It's space. But it's not really cold yet. Not until we get away from the planet. Don't look at the sun. You'll go blind."

Joss avoided it. She averted her eyes to the stars that were coming into view. Little specks of white light—sometimes blue, red, or orange—all in clusters. She wondered what Corneria would be like. Joss couldn't wait to get there. From all the stories she heard, it sounded like some sort of fairy tale. Perhaps it was; with kings and queens, knights, and princes and princesses riding white horses and wielding swords. Abraham had told her a story of Aquitaine, which was one of the countries of ancient Corneria, back in the Third Age. She had a curiosity to hear more stories about Corneria.

"Abraham, could you tell a story about the Third Age?"

Abe set the Rostik to autopilot. "Sure. I wouldn't mind. Let me think of one...."

"Any one works."

Abe scratched his head. "Heck, I dunno. Have you heard the one on the beginning of the empire?"

"Yes. Care to tell it again?"

Abraham stretched his arms. "Where to start....?"

"So what's the plan, boss?" asked Wolf.

Andross, dressed in all dark black, with the exception of a red cape that was draped over his left arm, gave a smile. "I've made arrangements with Dengar. He was astounded that we existed, but I gave him proof, right on his private transmitter. I also told him that if he lead McCloud and Hare right to me, I would let him live."

"But sir," protested Wolf, "Dengar was one of those responsible for capturing you back on Corneria. Don't you think it's a bit suspicious of you to let him live when clearly you'd like nothing more than to kill him as well as McCloud and Hare?"

"You're right, of course," Andross said, his eyes twinkling. "I would like nothing better than to have all three of them dead, along with Pepper and Peregrine. But I'm afraid that's not possible right now. Not yet. As far as suspicious, no. Who cares? In the Cornerians' eyes, Dengar is a traitor and nothing more."

"Sir," Wolf began again, "I don't want to work with—"

"You'll do as I ask, O'Donnell, or you'll pay with your life, just like the escapees from the prison compound," snapped Andross.

Wolf was quiet immidiately. He'd seen how they died.

Calan was itching for a way to get out. He sensed that Andross knew this as well.

"Calan, I want you, Wolf, and Leon to join Dengar at the prison compound in exactly one hour. Star Fox will be here in at least thirty minutes. I will take care of them first in my own way. You will stay in the prison compound until I contact you. Understood?"

"Yessir."

"As you say, sir."

The prison compound was zippy and spontaneous. Leon was excited from recieving a secret text message from Pigma Dengar, the third member of the Star Fox team. Leon waved the printed copy around as he sat in his desk in his office quarters. Wolf sat on the corner of the desk and Calan paced.

"See this?!" Leon tossed it to Calan. "Dengar's on our side now, and soon the Cornerians will be informed!"

Calan read the paper. "Coming in soon. Be ready. James and Peppy don't suspect a thing. Have a place for me. With any luck you'll finish off both of them." Calan looked up at Leon.

"Isn't he quite the traitor?" Leon rambled on, excited.

"So are you, Cornerian-boy," muttered Wolf.

Leon chose to wave the comment off. "This guy's trading in his own friends for a little reward! I don't even know what this reward is, but His Excellency knows, he always knows things like that. Our rewards are coming in too, if we can eliminate any opposing mercenary teams hired by the Cornerians."

"Apparently we're all a bunch of traitors," said Calan. "To the other Lylatians, anyway. I was convicted and you two have joined with Andross, therefore they're going to see this as treason."

"It won't matter. We'll win." Leon snatched back the paper and with his lighter, he lit the paper on fire. He tossed it into the metal wastebasket.

"I'm getting a headache," Calan complained.

No one answered him.

Leon's comm link went off. "Yeah?"

"They're nearly here.Get in your Wolfens and take them out. Our laser should be able to damage their ships bad enough to the point where resistance is futile."

Leon's mouth curved into a malicious smile. "Good."

James McCloud sat in a dark cell while Calan, Wolf, and Leon stood, waiting for Pigma and Andross to come. He sat in the darkest corner, so that only the shadows of his face were visible. McCloud had drawn himself up in his arms, with his emotionless face staring straight ahead.

Footsteps. Andross and a middle-aged pig in a green pilot suit were striding toward them.

"Excellency, Hare escaped," said Leon. "But he's useless anyway."

Andross grinned at their captive. "Hello, James. Remember me?"

James McCloud gazed up and saw Pigma. An intense wave of fury flickered in his eyes. "Andross...."

"Yes, yes. Aren't you in the least bit surprised that my empire has grown to love me?"

"Pepper thought there was something fishy about this," James said, his smooth, deep voice sounding more and more angry.

"Fishy," repeated Andross. "He thought it was fishy. Of course, I have seven million people, unbeknownst to existence, waiting at my call. Every man, woman, and child will fight for me because they know that I am their way out of isolation and imprisonment underground. They can finally see the sun, they'll be able to live under blue skies, they can grow fields of fruit and vegetables, they can sit on a back porch and watch the stars—all thanks to me. Even more, they'll no longer be fugitives."

"You're a crazy man. You're leading them into oblivion, once Corneria knows—"

"They already know, McCloud!" Andross snapped softly. "Pepper will know by now—your hare friend has probably transmitted messages to him. By tomorrow I will announce you as dead. No one will know you're alive. Even your teammate thinks you're dead. Only we will know the truth."

"My son will come after you, and so will Peppy," James breathed, his fists clenched.

"Of course. And they'll both die. I'll be kind enough to let you watch." Andross nodded to Leon. "Get Dengar situated and see to it that a new Wolfen is built for him." Leon and Pigma disappeared down the hallway, leaving Wolf, Calan, and Andross with James.

"You bastard!" snarled James.

"Throwing insults at me will not hurt me, James. Oh, don't worry. You'll see your son again. And probably your wife. And your friend." Before he left, Andross added, "I just hope you have fun watching your precious Corneria crumble to bits. I plan to rule it with an iron hand, and no foolish mercenary team is going to stand in my way."

Joss yawned and opened her eyes. She hadn't meant to doze off. Abraham was still piloting the ship. His eyes were always alert. He noticed she had wakened.

"Oh, awake now? Look. There's Corneria. We'll be landing in about twenty minutes." He pointed out the window at a large planet, with swirly clouds of white and blue oceans. Green bodies of land littered and stretched on different parts of the planet. A few moons could be seen in the distance, like little pricks.

Joss almost leaped up. "Space is so beautiful...."

Abe smiled. "I never get tired of space flight. Or air flight. It was wonderful to fly in Cornerian skies, looking down at the highlands and hills. The coast is also very beautiful. You'll find Corneria to be very green. There are few deserts on Corneria—I think maybe there's one, and small at that. The polar ice caps are small. It's a very temperate place."

Joss pointed to one of the moons. It was the closest, with its color visible. "Which moon is that? It looks like a white swirl!"

"Those swirls are blizzards. The planet is Ameba. It's a blob of white in a dark, dark place." Abe sped the ship up and prepared for re-entry. "The commander of the single base there—Governor of Ameba, actually—is a very nice guy. Very nice. Alastair Thatcher. I don't suppose you've heard of him. I'll be staying at Ameba for awhile. My fake I.D. shouldn't be inspected too carefully at Ameba. They only have about 40,000 people there, in total, at the base. For a moon, it's not bad, but...."

Joss nodded. "So, what's this governor like? Have you met him or something?"

Abraham flipped a couple of switches, and they jetted toward the atmosphere at the correct angle. "I have. He's my mother's first cousin. Back in Corneria, it was pretty cool to have a relative that was the governor of a moon."

"I can only imagine."

"Yeah. Pretty cool."

The sky around them was turning a shade of orange. But their efforts to get to the airport were becoming vain. A group of four starfighters jetted to the Rostik. Joss' heart was pumping rapidly. "Abraham–-!"

"Identify yourself," was all that came out of the first fighter.

"We're a ship from...Jastarian."

"There are to be no ships docking today, or at any time this week."

"Under who's orders?"

"General Pepper's orders, bud."

"But why?"

"That's not important to you. Turn around, now."

"No."

"Abe!" Joss panicked silently.

"Turn that ship around or we'll shoot you down."

"We have no choice but to keep going, Joss," Abe said, avoiding her gaze. He leaned toward the microphone. "We're not moving."

"Fine." The first fighter shot a missle at the back of the Rostik. Abe geared the ship straight downwards. The fighters pursued them. The missle hit the ship and made it creak and rattle. An explosion blew apart the back.

"We're going down!" yelled Abe. "Get ready to eject!"

It was then that Joss noticed soldiers and a few tanks lining up on the ground, watching the view.

Abe hit his ejection switch, and Joss did the same. They flew out into the Cornerian air, which smelled of the ocean—in fact, they could both see it, being so high up in the sky. Their seats spirted down at an angle, towards the plains. A forest area was nearby—they'd need to get there in order to escape. Joss knew that they had run out of options. They couldn't land anywhere but Corneria, according to Andross' orders, and they wouldn't have enough fuel to get back to Venom. And since they couldn't get into Corneria like that, how would the assassins, who were to come later, get in?

Joss couldn't breathe very well; they were going so fast. She was following Abe to the bottom, and the ground was getting closer and closer. A small squad of soldiers was running to retrieve them—good luck with that, if Joss had anything to do with it.

Abe was yelling something to her, but she couldn't hear it. The seat slowed down as Joss got closer, to the point where she could see individual strands of grass. Joss unstrapped herself and leaped into the green ground, as Abe had done just seconds before. She rolled a little, but luckily nothing broke. Abe was running all ready. "Come on!" he bellowed, as he made his way to the forest. Abe took out his gun and was ready to face soldiers. Joss did the same. It was a dash over the plains.

"Sir, we're detecting something—Agent Grissom and Agent Lafayette have left their ship," said an aide, clearly puzzled.

Andross moved to the aide. "So they ejected, or they landed?"

"Uh...ejected. The ship is gone, sir."

"It crashed, I suppose." Andross sounded indifferent.

Calan moved by the aide as well. "You saying they're running out there?!"

"Yessir. Vital signs show heavy heartbeats. They're being chased, I'd say."

Calan looked at the emperor. "Your Excellency, permission to—?"

"No." Andross stared expressionless at the aide's monitor. Agent Lafayette's signs suddenly jumped and then went into the classical straight line.

"Sir!" the aide yelped. "She's going!"

"Leave her. Grissom might yet make it."

Calan was tied up in knots on the inside. He balled up his fists and held his arms straight down. "Can we at least have a memorial service, sir?" he said through gritted teeth.

"Captain, I would hardly stop you." Andross frowned. "So much for our plan. I do hope Grissom dies quickly; we can't risk having information spilled out."

Calan held his tongue and did his best for his temper.

Brizius was sitting in the back, chattering to his wife—one of the Lafayette sisters. They didn't appear to have noticed the commotion in the far front of the room.

"Porter, I'm leaving it to you to inform Mrs. Brizius, please," requested Andross, still sounding neutral and bored.

"Yessir." Calan moved to the back. General Brizius swallowed the rest of his champagne and poured himself more. "Captain Porter, it's nice to see you. Erika and I were just talking about you."

"Really...."

"Yes," said Mrs. Brizius, a kind but introverted woman. "You have a lot of approval from others in the military." She smiled rather shyly at Calan.

Calan started, "I—I—"

"Yes?"

"I—Mrs. Brizius, something happened, and His Excellency wanted to report it to you...you see, your sister—she's dead."

Mrs. Brizius cupped her hands to her mouth. "No!"

"I'm awfully sorry."

Brizius hugged his wife. "There, there...it's all right, come on, let's go back to the house. Come on...." She leaned on his shoulder, and Calan could hear her sobs as the couple strode down the hallway. Calan went back to Andross.

Calan felt like saying, "I hope you're pleased, sir..." to him, but he kept it to himself unwillingly. He thought it better to try to appear a little more disciplined so that Andross wouldn't have to execute him or something of the sort.

He scrunched his nose, thinking of Mrs. Brizius. How could she marry him?!

Abraham could hear the shots. He had looked back to see Joss go down, and his heart sunk horribly. Was she thinking of him, or maybe the story about the Third Age? Was it about surviving, thoughts of a failed plan, or sitting in a prison? Perhaps it was none of those things, just the will to run, run, run.

He ducked into the trees and knew he coudn't hide from the soldiers there. He'd have to escape into a house of some form. The area, he noticed, was abundant in ocean-side homes and cottages. If he hurried to one, maybe jumped through a window, he could get away. The soldiers weren't very well equipped with proper machinery, seeing as they didn't have a speeder bike and could only run to catch him. Abe found the edge of the small forest and sprinted through a community of houses. He saw a shed with an open door next to a sky-blue painted house. This was his moment. Abraham dived into the shed and scrambled up, shutting the door as quickly and as quietly as he could. It was a good time to catch his breath.

Abe guessed he was in the outskirts of Corneria City, in some ocean-side suburbia. He didn't know where to go from there, except to maybe find Andross' nephew, as the emperor had ordered them to do on the way. Andrew lived in Corneria City, so Abe figured he'd have to walk. Or run.

He peered through a crack in the wooden wall. A few soldiers scattered and checked homes. But no one knew anything about a loose man. It was only a matter of time until he was caught.

Calan was seated at a desk near the aide who was tracking Abraham when Old Ray Garnett barged into the war room, much to the protest of the guards outside.

"Hey! Emperor! I've in mind to have a little chat..."

Andross wheeled around. "Mr. Garnett, do not even bother."

Over the past two years Garnett spent his time and energy speaking against Andross and his regime, calling him corrupt and a tyrant just waiting to get some bloodshed before he thirsts for more. Once, Ray had shouted that 'all of Andross' plans were demoralizing' in a conference room packed with some of the emperor's top generals. Calan had glanced at Ray and said, "I dunno, Ray, but I think a lot of 'em are both genius and crazy." Garnett had stormed out of the room and didn't say much to Calan after that.

Now he was standing before Andross himself. "Bother what, boy? I might be old but I ain't out of my mind, unlike you!"

"Mr. Garnett, I will ask once and only once—stay out of this and stay out of my fur. If I catch you near my officers—"

"I told you time and again that meddlin' with the Cornerians if bad business. Now you're draggin' innocent people in with this. Well, I've had enough. Time I did somethin' about it. I am not gonna live with it!"

"I'm afraid you aren't going to live at all if you keep this up," Andross replied coldly.

Garnett pulled a pistol out, but Andross was faster. One shot was all that was heard, and Old Ray was dead before he hit the floor.

"Was that really necessary?" whined Premier Tucker, who'd been in the room for only an hour.

"Of course. Traitors will not be abided by me or any of my staff. I told you all that if an officer disobeys or shows some form of treachery, you are to execute him or her on the spot, did I not?"

"Yes, Excell—"

"And I will not accept loose-tongued people either."

"Naturally, sir!"

"Thank you, Forrest. Besides, I was getting sick of him barging in Imperial conference and war rooms."

Calan tallied up his latest casualties. Joss Lafayette and Ray Garnett. That was decent compared to what could come when Andross finally declared war on Lylat. It wasn't that Calan didn't grieve, it was that he feared that sooner or later he wouldn't have time to grieve because there would be many casualties. The whole Lylatian army out to bite them in the tail!