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Chapter 9: The Luck of the Fox
Why can't anything ever go right? I've had more problems testing the Arwings than I can shake a stick at, and now this. One of these days everything will go perfectly, and on that day I'll die in combat or something equally stupid. - Fara
Peppy knew he had a problem with his Arwing the moment he accelerated to lightspeed
as an alarm sounded and his monitor changed, indicating a failure within the
FTL drive. The computer told him that a critical component in shutting off the
drive had failed, warning him that there was no way for him to stop his craft
short of him running out of fuel in 30 minutes.
Needless to say, he was not pleased in the slightest. He knew that the others
would come looking for him as soon as they noticed that he hadn't stopped,
but there was the definite possibility, albeit minor, that he wouldn't
have 30 minutes of flying distance before he hit something. Thinking back to
the detailed data schematics he had read two days ago, he worked on formulating
a plan.
Some distance behind him, Fara was attempting to catch up to the speeding Arwing. Cursing to nobody in particular, she wished she had the time to give all five craft a good thorough flight test before passing them to the rest of the team. She knew a possible solution to get Peppy's craft to stop, but the communication equipment onboard was unable to get a signal from ship to ship at this speed. Hoping that Fox wasn't dumb enough to follow her, she continued the chase, worried that Peppy might not be able to stop the Arwing before it ran out of fuel for the FTL drive, or worse, ran into something.
The hare smiled as an idea popped into his head. He knew that more advanced
systems in the Arwing were controlled by the computer sitting in front of him,
so all he had to do was shut down the system, or power down the entire Arwing.
He was just afraid of what kind of damage he would cause as a result.
Having a gut feeling that it wouldn't work, Peppy tried turning off the
ship by just shutting it down normally. For a moment it looked like it would
work, as he watched as the internal lights turn off, his oxygen systems stopped
their life giving air, but as he expected, the shutdown sequence failed when
it got to his engines. His craft quickly powered back up afterward with the
computer once again showing his problem.
"There goes the easy solution," he muttered to himself. Wondering
just how user serviceable the Arwings were in flight, he dug through the survival
tools behind him looking for a screwdriver.
Knowing that in theory her computer would tell her if Peppy's Arwing
dropped out of lightspeed, assuming it was still in range, Fara changed her
attention to what was in their path. Scanning through the star charts on her
computer, she knew that Corneria had a small mining base on a large rogue asteroid
somewhere near the planet. It was just a matter of figuring out where it was
and hoping that they weren't heading towards it.
After spending a few seconds looking through the data, she cursed, realizing
that their bad luck streak was going to continue – the two Arwings were
on a direct course towards the mining operation. Dropping out of lightspeed,
she quickly attempted to communicate with them. "Mining Station Beta,
this is Fara Phoenix of the Cornerian Military, please respond."
She was about to repeat her message when they replied. "This is Mining
Station Beta, reading you load and clear. What can we help you with?"
Fara sighed, grateful that there was somebody around to listen to her message.
"You are not going to want to hear this – we have a out of control
spacecraft headed directly in your direction."
The voice on the other end grew anxious with worry. "Is there anything
we can do to help?"
"Not when it is going at near lightspeed you can't. I highly recommend
taking a break away from your work, at least until we get this under control."
"Noted and understood. Good luck on the recovery of your ship."
"Thanks. Over and out." Fara kicked in the FTL drive once again
and continued to follow Peppy's craft.
In the meantime, Peppy had unbuckled himself from his seated position and was
currently lying underneath the computer monitor, screwdriver in one paw and
a flashlight in the other. With a final twist a large panel came off in his
paws, revealing the internals of the main computer. Being very careful at what
he touched, he moved wiring out of the way searching for any kind of power source.
"Let's see," he mumbled to himself. "This looks like
it." He was about to disconnect the power supply when he heard the computer
give another warning alarm. Not knowing what it was for from his position, and
frankly not really caring at this point, he braced himself and unplugged the
power. With a jarring lurch his maneuvering jets fired a quick burst, throwing
him hard against the side of his craft, and then his entire ship powered down.
Struggling to stay conscious, Peppy looked wearily past his feet out the cockpit
window, hoping that the stars had stopped moving. Unfortunately, what he saw
was even worse – his ship hadn't slowed down one bit, but on top
of that he was now spinning completely out of control. Thankfully the FTL drives
had powered down, allowing him to slow his craft. Hoping he made the right move,
he plugged the power back in.
Nothing happened. Other than the sound of his own breathing he heard no signs
of the ship coming back online.
Groaning, he pulled himself from underneath the monitor and floated over to
the pilot seat, trying to ignore the spinning stars seen through his cockpit
window. Strapping himself in, he happened to glance outside. Something was out
there, and whatever it was, he was getting closer to it. He looked again, ignoring
the churning in his stomach as he continued to spin and tried to figure out
what it was. His mouth dropped open in shock as he identified what was out there.
It was an asteroid.
Desperately Peppy reached over and tried to restart his Arwing. His first attempt
caused what sounded like an electrical overload somewhere behind him, the arid
smell of melted components overpowering in what was left of his air supply.
Having no other choice he tried again.
This time his Arwing powered up. With a burst of static his communication system
came back online as he fought to regain control of his ship. "I repeat,
incoming craft, your current trajectory places you on a collision course with
our mining station unless you veer off. Please respond."
Power back online, Peppy desperately tried to right his Arwing. He could feel
his craft beginning to stabilize with his attempts, but it was slow going as
he could tell the maneuvering thrusters weren't working properly. "Mining
station, this is Peppy Hare in the incoming craft. I hope someone warned you
ahead of time as I don't know if I can get this thing under control."
"We've been notified fortunately, however I don't wish to
lose the station, and something tells me you don't want to lose that craft,
considering that I've never seen that design before."
As dangerous of a situation he was in, Peppy had to laugh. "No kidding,"
he said, starting to regain control. He just needed a few more seconds, seconds
he really didn't have.
With a flash of light Fara's Arwing dropped out of lightspeed, her voice
coming over his headset immediately. "Peppy, this is Fara. Are you okay?"
"If you would define okay for me, I'll be glad to give you my opinion."
With his Arwing no longer spinning like a top, he attempted to slow down his
craft. His retro rockets flared brightly, but he could tell that he wasn't
going to stop in time. He simply had too much speed built up.
Fara sounded resigned as she came back on, coming to the same conclusion. "Peppy,
eject if you have to. The Arwing is replaceable, but your life isn't."
"I'm not giving up that easily, my dear." Turning his damaged
craft so he was parallel with the asteroid, Peppy fired his boosters, attempting
to fly around the rock instead of stopping.
Fara watched his progress, knowing that he had only a matter of seconds before
impact. "Peppy, you're cutting it very close."
"I realize that, Fara." A proximity alarm blared inside his craft,
warning him that he was going to hit. Peppy continued to hold down the throttle,
knowing that if he didn't clear the asteroid he would be nothing but a
pile of debris drifting through space.
She watched from the relative safety of her Arwing, her eyes glued to the other
craft as it quickly closed the distance to the asteroid. "You're
going to get yourself killed," she muttered to herself.
The hare was unable to visually judge just how close he was to clearing the
asteroid, but his computer still insisted that he was going to hit. He refused
to simply give up though, the survival of the Arwing just too important to him.
Closing his eyes as he neared impact, he hoped made the right decision, his
boosters glowing brightly the entire time.
Much to Fara's relief, he missed it completely by mere feet. "You
silly old hare," she said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Don't
you have any common sense in your head?"
Peppy turned his Arwing around and began slowing down, trying to calm his pounding
heart. "Sorry, Fara, but something told me that you would dearly miss
this craft if I destroyed it before its first battle."
"You do have a point there," she replied with a laugh, hiding her
true feelings. They had almost lost an Arwing already, and they hadn't
even seen combat yet. "Let's head back home and let the techs figure
out what the heck happened."
"Good idea. I've had more than enough problems for one day."
A few hours later found the Starfox team, now numbering five, walking towards
the mess hall for dinner. The techs had gone over Peppy's Arwing and found
nothing more than a malfunctioning part in his FTL drive that caused the complete
failure of the system. The other craft had been checked out as well, but no
problems were seen.
The team had just returned from Nova Bomb training in the simulators, and they
were currently discussing what they experienced, with Fox recounting the powers
of the weapon. "Okay, let me make sure I got this right as Gary clearly
had other things on his mind this afternoon. The Nova Bomb is a powerful limited
use weapon with a 1000ft blast radius, and about half that as a near guaranteed
kill zone."
Fara nodded, impressed that he had remembered the details. "Yup. The crystals
used to focus the energy tend to last through three or four uses before shattering.
They're somewhat rare on this planet, but we have more than enough stockpiled
so don't worry about using them."
The team made the final turn to the mess hall as Falco commented, "A weapon
that powerful always has disadvantages."
"Unfortunately, Falco, yes there are some, but they are considered bugs
as far as I'm concerned."
"Great," he muttered. "What's wrong with them?"
Fara looked over at the avian as she continued. "Firing the Bombs currently
cause a total power failure in the Arwing, and we're having problems configuring
the shields to resist the blast. Also, the bombs basically need to impact something
in order for them to explode - a craft, your blasters, anything like that. We're
trying to get them to detonate based on range, but no luck so far."
"Lovely. So we're flying a deathtrap."
"It's not a deathtrap," said the vixen,
offended at the term after she'd spent so much time testing the craft. "It
just has some issues."
"Okay then, it's a buggy deathtrap."
"They'll get it fixed," said Fox, shaking his head in dismay.
Changing the subject as he thought back to their training, he said, "Anyone
have any idea why Gary was so to the point today? He's always been so
wordy and he wasn't this afternoon."
Peppy laughed as he moved out of the way of somebody traveling in the opposite
direction. "Wordy is an understatement, Fox."
"Your guess is as good as mine," said Fara with a shrug. "I've
known him far longer and that's definitely not his way."
The team walked into the mess hall and much to their surprise was greeted by
Gary at the entrance. He motioned them to wait there as he walked up. "Hey,
crew, I need you to wait just a moment. The General has something to say, and
he needs you to be easily visible while he goes through it."
"Criminey," muttered Falco. "And all I wanted to do was have
a peaceful meal tonight."
Fox motioned to someone pointing a camera their way from across the hall. "Showing
us off already, Gary? We haven't done anything interesting yet."
"More or less," replied the cheetah with a grin. "Talk to
you later."
Fox watched as Gary ducked out and walked over to the bar area, saying something
to Pepper, who was sitting there having a drink. He got up in response and put
on a headset, giving a quick nod in greetings to the team.
Pepper's voice could be clearly heard in the mess hall, and from the echoes
behind Fox, he assumed that he was speaking to the entire base. "Attention
Corneria Base, this is General Pepper speaking. I need your full attention for
just a minute for an important announcement."
He pointed towards the team as he continued. "On your screens, or if you
are here eating, over there, are a few people I'd like to introduce you
to if you haven't met them already. They are the Starfox team, and are
what I hope will be the ones who end the war against Andross once and for all."
Fox groaned from the sudden attention as he went on. He didn't like this,
not one bit. "Their names in no real order are: Peppy Hare, Fara Phoenix,
Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, and their leader, Fox McCloud. If you weren't
watching the flight earlier, they are the pilots of our highly advanced Arwing
fighters. Treat them as you would anyone else on the base."
The person with the camera spun around to Pepper, leaving the team alone. Gary
waved them over, indicating that they were no longer needed. "Sorry about
that," he said, "but the base needed to know who you all were. The
boss isn't done yet though, so keep listening."
"Unfortunately, I must be the bearer of bad news as well. We have detected
on long-range sensors a Venomian Battleship on route to Corneria." The
team looked at each other in shock as Pepper spoke. "Based on their current
speed, we are expecting an assault early tomorrow morning before daylight our
time."
Rumbles were heard from the mess hall as people began discussing what was just
said. The canine raised his paws to get everyone's attention once more.
"Quiet down everyone. From past history, Andross makes a direct assault
towards any type of military installation before claiming the planet. Needless
to say, that makes us his first and only target."
"Unlike every other time he has attacked a planet however, we have a defense
ready for him - the Starfox team. I know that they will do their best to fight
off and defeat Andross' forces. I need everyone to do anything in their
power tomorrow morning to help them out as we are the only thing keeping the
entire Lylat system from Andross' clutches."
"I've already contacted the necessary governments here on Corneria,
and they'll let the planet know when they need to. Those of you who fly
our patrol ships, be warned about potential rioting issues in our area. At least
until they learn that we've won anyway." The canine grinned before
continuing. "I'll announce when the hostile ship comes into planetary
range in the morning. Expect an hour's notice at best. See you all tomorrow.
Pepper over and out."
Taking off the headset, Pepper announced to the entire mess hall, "Anyone
here have any questions?"
Fox quickly stood up. "Pepper, for us with no real military knowledge
of Andross' fighter capability, what are we facing?"
"Good question. If the battleship approaching us is the same type as the
rest we've seen in previous assaults, you can expect a heavily armed cruiser
with a fighter compliment of around 80. The average fighter is armed with a
single low-powered laser and tends to be unshielded. Next question."
A young looking feline male stood up. "Do we have any contingency or evacuation
plans set up if we fail here?"
Pepper shook his head. "None at all. Either we succeed here or die trying.
We have no other stations to fall back to, nor do we have any other planets
which to regroup on. If we fail here, we have lost."
Peppy followed afterward with his question after the silence caused by the grim
response. "What's the defensive capability of this base short of
the five Arwings in its hanger?"
"Two large laser cannons, eight point defense lasers, and a dozen security
ships armed with a single laser and minimal shielding."
"In other words guys, nothing but us," whispered Fara to the team.
She stood up and asked the General, "Do you have an ETA on fixing the
Arwing's known quirks?"
Pepper just shook his head. "Sorry, Fara, no." He looked around,
waiting for another question. When he noticed that none was forthcoming, he
decided to end the meeting. "Well, it looks like I'm done here.
Sorry to ruin everyone's dinner like that, but I figured now would be
the best time to let you all in on the details. Sleep well tonight, for tomorrow
we go to war."
Fox turned to his team as the canine walked off and said, "Eat well everyone
as I doubt we'll get a chance in the morning. We're also going back
to the simulators afterwards as it's still early."
"Of course I already had plans to spend some time helping out in the gardens
tonight," said Fara with a sigh. She liked going there as it helped her
relax, especially after problematic days like the one she had just been through.
"All work and no rest make for a tired pilot,"
commented Peppy, thinking more of the upcoming battle than the conversation
around him. While he trusted the skill of the pilots sitting there, he wondered
if any of them realized the true danger ahead of them, or if they were just
hiding their true worries.
Fox smiled. "Two days training and 16 to 1 odds make for a dead pilot.
We need all the help we can get."
Fara giggled. "Peppy's got the better proverb."
He looked at her jovial face, wishing he could feel the same way with such a
decisive battle bearing down upon him. "Sorry, Fara, but proverbs are
not my specialty. I leave those for my older teammates to think up."
Peppy had an evil look on his face as he defended himself, having noticed the
comments directed his way, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Older eh?
You know, Fox, I could start calling you Junior as well."
Fox countered with the same look, trying to stifle a laugh. "You wouldn't
dare, old hare."
"It is tempting some days as you youngins never seem to respect your elders."
"You aren't old, Peppy," said Fara kindly. "You're
just more wise than the rest of us."
The hare nodded. "See, Fox, now here's someone who has the right
idea. You all should pay more attention to that."
The whole table broke out into laughter. "Enough talking for now,"
said Fox, restoring order. He was as prepared as he could be for the upcoming
battle, but he wanted to make sure the rest of his team was as well. "We
have a long night and an even longer day ahead of us. Let's go eat."
