Chapter VI
-
Ashe tugged the eyepatch up over his head, blinking a few times to let his eyes refocus. The disguise had worked like a charm. All it took was a color treatment to lighten the fur on his face and head and an eyepatch, and Ashe had looked enough like Wolf to fool the guards.
The priest reached down and checked Pigma for a pulse. He was still alive, only stunned. Ashe always used only a stun blaster. Despite his years as a marine, he was still a priest, and he was morally opposed to the idea of killing people. He couldn't just walk up behind someone and kill them in cold blood; not even someone who most people would argue deserved a blaster to the head like Pigma.
Ashe replaced the patch over his eye. He turned up the collar on Pigma's jacket, hiding the small mark where his blaster had struck the back of Pigma's neck. With some difficulty Ashe dragged Pigma out of his chair and down onto the floor.
Checking over his disguise once more, Ashe pushed the intercom button on the desk. "Hey, Pigma's finally gone and had a heart attack. Call the meds."
There was a sound of frenzied activity from the lobby outside the office. Four Venomian soldiers stormed into the office, and with much grunting and straining, they began to heave Pigma out of the room. one of the soldiers turned to Ashe and asked, "How did it happen, sir?"
"The extra hundred kilograms of lard Pigma straps to himself is how it happened. He started shouting, turned red in the face, and fell out of his chair," replied Ashe.
A pair of paramedics burst out of the elevator and began to load Pigma onto a stretcher. After making sure that he was still alive, they started rolling the obese pilot back into the elevator. Ashe followed along with them. "Anyone got a breath mint?" he asked. "I had to give him CPR, and he had something nasty for lunch."
The Venomian troops cleared a path for the top-heavy stretcher as Pigma was rolled out of the building and into the waiting ambulance parked outside. The paramedics and Ashe climbed inside, slammed the doors shut, and quickly took off, sirens blaring. Ashe sat down in the back, casually reaching his hand underneath his coat. One of the paramedics unbuttoned Pigma's shirt and the other attached a pair of monitoring devices. The raccoon paramedic looked at the readout on the ambulance's medical computer while his partner, a weasel, placed an oxygen mask over Pigma's face.
"Hey, his heart's still beating," said the raccoon as he stared at the computer screen. "He didn't have a-"
The raccoon's words were cut off sharply as Ashe drew his silenced blaster from behind his back and fired at him, sending the surprised medic to the floor of the ambulance with a gasp of pain. A split second later, Ashe adjusted his aim and shot the weasel as well.
"Huh? Hey, what's going on back there?" asked the driver of the ambulance. Ashe jumped out of his seat and over the fallen raccoon, shooting the driver just before his hand could pick up the ambulance's radio. The lupine priest leaned forward, taking hold of the controls from the driver's slack grip, steadying it's flight.
"Sorry, friend," said Ashe, "But the Lord needs to borrow your ride for a while." He dropped his gun on the passenger seat and piloted the ambulance out of Oberon's dome and back down to Titania.
-
Ashe turned off the ambulance's lights and siren to avoid suspicion as he drove the wide ship into the parking lot of the motel. He had left the Guardian Angel parked there before he had gone to Oberon. He picked his gun up and put it back in the holster, and backed the ambulance up as close as he could to his ship. With some difficulty he wheeled the still unconscious Pigma out of the ambulance, stretcher and all. The fat pilot just barely fit into the Guardian Angel's small hold. Ashe took a syringe of sedative from the ambulance's supplies and injected Pigma with it, just to make sure that he didn't wake up for a few more hours. He shut and locked the doors on both the Guardian Angel and the ambulance, then he took off in his own ship and set coordinates for the nearest friendly planet: Katina.
The flight from Titania to Katina was uneventful for both Ashe and the still sleeping Pigma. The planet's automatic defenses detected Ashe's ship as he dropped out of hyperspace.
"Unknown vessel, you are approaching Alliance space from a hostile hyperspace vector. Please identify yourself," stated the automatic reply from one of the defense satellites.
Ashe transmitted his ship's authorization code. "Ship name: Guardian Angel, StarFox team. Pilot, Ashe Rhinehardt."
"Acknowledged, Guardian Angel," replied the computer. "Begin your approach."
Ashe turned on the ship's communicators to try and reach an actual person instead of just a automated response. "Calling Katina Base, this is Ashe Rhinehardt of the StarFox team. Requesting marine escort upon arrival."
A new voice came over the communicator. "This is base commander Bill Grey speaking. Did you say that you're part of StarFox?"
"That's right, commander," replied Ashe. "I'm a new member of the team. My security authorization should match up."
There was a brief pause. "Huh. So you are. How is Fox, anyway?" asked Bill. "Haven't heard from him in a while."
"...He's fine," said Ashe. "I've got a Venomian prisoner in custody, and I would appreciate a marine escort when I land."
"Sure thing. Who'd you catch?"
Ashe smiled. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
-
Twelve marines, fully equipped in combat armor and with blaster rifles at the ready were waiting for Ashe when his ship touched down in the hangar of the base of Katina. The leader of the marines, a husky wearing sunglasses, approached the priest as he climbed out of the cockpit.
"I'm commander Bill Grey," said the husky, shaking Ashe's hand. "Where is the prisoner?"
"He's in the cargo hold," replied Ashe, walking around to the back of the ship and opening the hatch. The cargo door descended slowly to the ground, forming a ramp that a very groggy Pigma Dengar rolled down onto the floor of the hangar, still belted onto the stretcher.
Bill raised his sunglasses as he stared. "Pigma? Pigma Dengar!? I don't believe it!"
Ashe smiled. "Have a little faith, my son."
The marines began to surround Pigma as he shook off the effects of the sedative. "Ugh... Wolf? What happened?"
Ashe hovered over Pigma's head, grinning down at him. "Hey look, I got my sight back. It's a miracle."
Pigma's eyes widened in shock as he looked around at the Katinan marines which surrounded him. Bill just chuckled as he stepped forward. "Pigma Dengar," announced the husky, "You are under arrest for treason and war crimes against Corneria. You have the right to remain silent..."
Pigma was quick to forgo that right as he started shaking like a melting jell-o mold. Almost immediately, he broke down into tears, howling and struggling to free himself from the stretcher. The marines were quick to subdue him. Bill just stood there and waved good-bye while his troops hauled him away in handcuffs, hollering bloody murder.
Ashe reached into his pocket and took out the small electronic device Pigma had given him back on Oberon. "Commander, you might want to take a look at this," he said, handing the device to Bill.
"What is it?" asked the husky, turning the small box over in his palm.
"I'm not quite sure, but Pigma said it was some kind of control override," said Ashe. "There's a double agent somewhere around here, and he's got a whole bunch of these. He's going to attach them to your ships."
Bill stared at the priest again. "Damn... you're a regular miracle worker."
Ashe just smiled. "God works the miracles. I'm just the messenger." He turned and closed the cargo door, then he climbed back up into his ship.
"Hey, where are you going?" shouted Bill. "The general's gonna want to give you a medal or something. And how did you catch Pigma anyway?"
"I'm not doing this for medals, commander," replied Ashe as he turned the engines back on, letting the canopy come down around him. A moment later, Ashe was airborne, leaving a very confused Bill Grey standing inside the hangar.
-
"I don't believe it."
It was the next day on Titania. Ashe was holding the morning edition of 'The Lylatian Times' up to the spyhole of the bunker he had visited two days before. The large headline and color picture spoke volumes with just three words: 'PIGMA DENGAR CAPTURED'.
Once again a single eye peered through the small slot in the heavy door of the bunker. "How come you didn't kill him?"
"I don't like to kill if I can avoid it," Ashe said.
The figure on the other side of the door grunted.
Ashe put the newspaper down and looked into the spyhole. "Do you want to talk now?"
The spyhole snapped shut, and a moment later the heavy door swung open on squeaky hinges. The occupant of the shelter was a gray and white wolf with a black patch over his left eye. His face was sad, almost haunted.
"Come on in," said Wolf.
Wolf's shelter was large enough for four people to hide in, or one person comfortably. The spare cots had been turned up against the wall to give the shelter some more space to move around in. Clothing and a few personal objects were dropped over the floor carelessly, as if Wolf had been staying here for some time. Ashe ducked his head as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "I don't think we've been properly introduced," said the priest. "My name is Father Ashe Rhinehardt." He extended his hand to Wolf, who shook it gingerly.
"Nice to meetcha. I take it you know who I am," said Wolf, sitting down on his cot. "So, let's dispense with the small talk. What do you want?"
Ashe sat down in a folding chair that had been pulled out from the wall. "I've recently become involved with StarFox... please, hear me out!" said Ashe as he saw Wolf's lone eye narrowing.
"This better be good," Wolf growled.
"Fox has had a nervous breakdown of sorts. Something from his past has been eating him up inside," said Ashe.
"I'm lstening."
Ashe related the tale of the last week's events, as well as Fox's story of what had happened to him shortly before his father died. As he talked, Wolf's expression changed from wary, to concern, then to outright shock as Ashe's story ended.
"I could tell Fox was longing for someone, and I wanted to hear your side of the story," Ashe said. "So I went in search of you and... you know the rest."
Wolf looked down. "Wow... I knew Fox and his old man weren't exactly on good terms, but I didn't think it was like that."
Ashe nodded. "Yes. Hard to believe, I know, but he was telling the truth."
"How're you so sure?"
"I just am. I know."
Wolf arched his brow suspiciously. Ashe coughed. "Well, anyway, I came here to hear what you had to say on the matter, if you would care to share it with me?" asked Ashe.
Wolf sighed deeply, closing his eye and tilting his head down towards the floor. "Alright. I'll tell you."
-
Ashe tugged the eyepatch up over his head, blinking a few times to let his eyes refocus. The disguise had worked like a charm. All it took was a color treatment to lighten the fur on his face and head and an eyepatch, and Ashe had looked enough like Wolf to fool the guards.
The priest reached down and checked Pigma for a pulse. He was still alive, only stunned. Ashe always used only a stun blaster. Despite his years as a marine, he was still a priest, and he was morally opposed to the idea of killing people. He couldn't just walk up behind someone and kill them in cold blood; not even someone who most people would argue deserved a blaster to the head like Pigma.
Ashe replaced the patch over his eye. He turned up the collar on Pigma's jacket, hiding the small mark where his blaster had struck the back of Pigma's neck. With some difficulty Ashe dragged Pigma out of his chair and down onto the floor.
Checking over his disguise once more, Ashe pushed the intercom button on the desk. "Hey, Pigma's finally gone and had a heart attack. Call the meds."
There was a sound of frenzied activity from the lobby outside the office. Four Venomian soldiers stormed into the office, and with much grunting and straining, they began to heave Pigma out of the room. one of the soldiers turned to Ashe and asked, "How did it happen, sir?"
"The extra hundred kilograms of lard Pigma straps to himself is how it happened. He started shouting, turned red in the face, and fell out of his chair," replied Ashe.
A pair of paramedics burst out of the elevator and began to load Pigma onto a stretcher. After making sure that he was still alive, they started rolling the obese pilot back into the elevator. Ashe followed along with them. "Anyone got a breath mint?" he asked. "I had to give him CPR, and he had something nasty for lunch."
The Venomian troops cleared a path for the top-heavy stretcher as Pigma was rolled out of the building and into the waiting ambulance parked outside. The paramedics and Ashe climbed inside, slammed the doors shut, and quickly took off, sirens blaring. Ashe sat down in the back, casually reaching his hand underneath his coat. One of the paramedics unbuttoned Pigma's shirt and the other attached a pair of monitoring devices. The raccoon paramedic looked at the readout on the ambulance's medical computer while his partner, a weasel, placed an oxygen mask over Pigma's face.
"Hey, his heart's still beating," said the raccoon as he stared at the computer screen. "He didn't have a-"
The raccoon's words were cut off sharply as Ashe drew his silenced blaster from behind his back and fired at him, sending the surprised medic to the floor of the ambulance with a gasp of pain. A split second later, Ashe adjusted his aim and shot the weasel as well.
"Huh? Hey, what's going on back there?" asked the driver of the ambulance. Ashe jumped out of his seat and over the fallen raccoon, shooting the driver just before his hand could pick up the ambulance's radio. The lupine priest leaned forward, taking hold of the controls from the driver's slack grip, steadying it's flight.
"Sorry, friend," said Ashe, "But the Lord needs to borrow your ride for a while." He dropped his gun on the passenger seat and piloted the ambulance out of Oberon's dome and back down to Titania.
-
Ashe turned off the ambulance's lights and siren to avoid suspicion as he drove the wide ship into the parking lot of the motel. He had left the Guardian Angel parked there before he had gone to Oberon. He picked his gun up and put it back in the holster, and backed the ambulance up as close as he could to his ship. With some difficulty he wheeled the still unconscious Pigma out of the ambulance, stretcher and all. The fat pilot just barely fit into the Guardian Angel's small hold. Ashe took a syringe of sedative from the ambulance's supplies and injected Pigma with it, just to make sure that he didn't wake up for a few more hours. He shut and locked the doors on both the Guardian Angel and the ambulance, then he took off in his own ship and set coordinates for the nearest friendly planet: Katina.
The flight from Titania to Katina was uneventful for both Ashe and the still sleeping Pigma. The planet's automatic defenses detected Ashe's ship as he dropped out of hyperspace.
"Unknown vessel, you are approaching Alliance space from a hostile hyperspace vector. Please identify yourself," stated the automatic reply from one of the defense satellites.
Ashe transmitted his ship's authorization code. "Ship name: Guardian Angel, StarFox team. Pilot, Ashe Rhinehardt."
"Acknowledged, Guardian Angel," replied the computer. "Begin your approach."
Ashe turned on the ship's communicators to try and reach an actual person instead of just a automated response. "Calling Katina Base, this is Ashe Rhinehardt of the StarFox team. Requesting marine escort upon arrival."
A new voice came over the communicator. "This is base commander Bill Grey speaking. Did you say that you're part of StarFox?"
"That's right, commander," replied Ashe. "I'm a new member of the team. My security authorization should match up."
There was a brief pause. "Huh. So you are. How is Fox, anyway?" asked Bill. "Haven't heard from him in a while."
"...He's fine," said Ashe. "I've got a Venomian prisoner in custody, and I would appreciate a marine escort when I land."
"Sure thing. Who'd you catch?"
Ashe smiled. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
-
Twelve marines, fully equipped in combat armor and with blaster rifles at the ready were waiting for Ashe when his ship touched down in the hangar of the base of Katina. The leader of the marines, a husky wearing sunglasses, approached the priest as he climbed out of the cockpit.
"I'm commander Bill Grey," said the husky, shaking Ashe's hand. "Where is the prisoner?"
"He's in the cargo hold," replied Ashe, walking around to the back of the ship and opening the hatch. The cargo door descended slowly to the ground, forming a ramp that a very groggy Pigma Dengar rolled down onto the floor of the hangar, still belted onto the stretcher.
Bill raised his sunglasses as he stared. "Pigma? Pigma Dengar!? I don't believe it!"
Ashe smiled. "Have a little faith, my son."
The marines began to surround Pigma as he shook off the effects of the sedative. "Ugh... Wolf? What happened?"
Ashe hovered over Pigma's head, grinning down at him. "Hey look, I got my sight back. It's a miracle."
Pigma's eyes widened in shock as he looked around at the Katinan marines which surrounded him. Bill just chuckled as he stepped forward. "Pigma Dengar," announced the husky, "You are under arrest for treason and war crimes against Corneria. You have the right to remain silent..."
Pigma was quick to forgo that right as he started shaking like a melting jell-o mold. Almost immediately, he broke down into tears, howling and struggling to free himself from the stretcher. The marines were quick to subdue him. Bill just stood there and waved good-bye while his troops hauled him away in handcuffs, hollering bloody murder.
Ashe reached into his pocket and took out the small electronic device Pigma had given him back on Oberon. "Commander, you might want to take a look at this," he said, handing the device to Bill.
"What is it?" asked the husky, turning the small box over in his palm.
"I'm not quite sure, but Pigma said it was some kind of control override," said Ashe. "There's a double agent somewhere around here, and he's got a whole bunch of these. He's going to attach them to your ships."
Bill stared at the priest again. "Damn... you're a regular miracle worker."
Ashe just smiled. "God works the miracles. I'm just the messenger." He turned and closed the cargo door, then he climbed back up into his ship.
"Hey, where are you going?" shouted Bill. "The general's gonna want to give you a medal or something. And how did you catch Pigma anyway?"
"I'm not doing this for medals, commander," replied Ashe as he turned the engines back on, letting the canopy come down around him. A moment later, Ashe was airborne, leaving a very confused Bill Grey standing inside the hangar.
-
"I don't believe it."
It was the next day on Titania. Ashe was holding the morning edition of 'The Lylatian Times' up to the spyhole of the bunker he had visited two days before. The large headline and color picture spoke volumes with just three words: 'PIGMA DENGAR CAPTURED'.
Once again a single eye peered through the small slot in the heavy door of the bunker. "How come you didn't kill him?"
"I don't like to kill if I can avoid it," Ashe said.
The figure on the other side of the door grunted.
Ashe put the newspaper down and looked into the spyhole. "Do you want to talk now?"
The spyhole snapped shut, and a moment later the heavy door swung open on squeaky hinges. The occupant of the shelter was a gray and white wolf with a black patch over his left eye. His face was sad, almost haunted.
"Come on in," said Wolf.
Wolf's shelter was large enough for four people to hide in, or one person comfortably. The spare cots had been turned up against the wall to give the shelter some more space to move around in. Clothing and a few personal objects were dropped over the floor carelessly, as if Wolf had been staying here for some time. Ashe ducked his head as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "I don't think we've been properly introduced," said the priest. "My name is Father Ashe Rhinehardt." He extended his hand to Wolf, who shook it gingerly.
"Nice to meetcha. I take it you know who I am," said Wolf, sitting down on his cot. "So, let's dispense with the small talk. What do you want?"
Ashe sat down in a folding chair that had been pulled out from the wall. "I've recently become involved with StarFox... please, hear me out!" said Ashe as he saw Wolf's lone eye narrowing.
"This better be good," Wolf growled.
"Fox has had a nervous breakdown of sorts. Something from his past has been eating him up inside," said Ashe.
"I'm lstening."
Ashe related the tale of the last week's events, as well as Fox's story of what had happened to him shortly before his father died. As he talked, Wolf's expression changed from wary, to concern, then to outright shock as Ashe's story ended.
"I could tell Fox was longing for someone, and I wanted to hear your side of the story," Ashe said. "So I went in search of you and... you know the rest."
Wolf looked down. "Wow... I knew Fox and his old man weren't exactly on good terms, but I didn't think it was like that."
Ashe nodded. "Yes. Hard to believe, I know, but he was telling the truth."
"How're you so sure?"
"I just am. I know."
Wolf arched his brow suspiciously. Ashe coughed. "Well, anyway, I came here to hear what you had to say on the matter, if you would care to share it with me?" asked Ashe.
Wolf sighed deeply, closing his eye and tilting his head down towards the floor. "Alright. I'll tell you."