So, what exactly did the command staff see last chapter? How could the Starfox team hope to take on a force like that? Read on to find out.
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Chapter 24: And the Problems Continue
This is what I hate about my position – do I send my pilots on a mission of almost certain death, or do I hold them back and see what develops? Do I dare do anything other than order them to their demise in the defense of the system? – Pepper


As expected, the next morning came far too quickly for an exhausted Fox McCloud. While he could have used a few more hours of sleep easily, he knew that he needed to be awake if the General decided to call him early. After grabbing a quick shower and some breakfast, he decided to just remain in his quarters until he was called.
Now that his stomach had something on it, he found that his mood lightened considerably, as did his overall awareness. Something had been nagging him as he got his morning meal, and now that his sleep-deprived mind was working again, he figured out what it was – the general mood of the base seemed to be down.
Normally, breakfast was a relatively jovial place at the military base. People had just woken up, ready to begin another day's work, and everyone was always in the mood to talk. Not this morning however. It had a rather somber mood, which was not only unusual, but made little sense, especially since Papetoon was just reclaimed the day before. Everyone should have been dancing around in excitement, pleased that they had recovered the first of many planets in the system.
Any further thoughts of Fox's were interrupted by the door chime. "Come in," he said. "It's open."
The door slid open, revealing Fara dressed in her usual flight garb. She smiled as she walked in. "Good morning, Fox," she said cheerfully, ready to spend more time in the Arwings.
He smiled back, pleased to see her. "Good morning, Fara. Glad to see that you're in far better mood than the rest of the base."
She frowned as she came into agreement with him. "So you noticed that as well. Any idea why?"
"Not a clue." Fox leaned back in his chair as he continued. "Did you happen to see Pepper's interview last night? I dropped off to bed as soon as I left your room, and he didn't ask me to help out like last time."
"I wouldn't call it much of an interview," she said with a laugh. "See—"
Her story was interrupted by the door chiming once more. "Come in," said Fox.
His latest visitor was Peppy, dressed and ready for combat as well. He nodded in greeting to the two pilots. "Good morning you two. Anything exciting going on this morning?"
"Sorry, Peppy," said Fox, "nothing exciting short of waiting for Pepper's call today. Although Fara was just about to tell me about the interview I missed last night with the General."
Peppy gestured for the vixen to take the spare seat, but she simply shook her head. Shrugging, he took the chair himself, dropping into it with a tired groan. "Well, I didn't watch it either, so I'm just as curious myself. Care to enlighten us, my dear?"
Fara giggled at the sudden attention she was receiving, thinking back to the night before. "You didn't miss much, guys. It was really odd though – something or another interrupted Pepper less than five minutes in. He promised to continue the interview later in the night, but he never came back on."
"That's seems unlike him," said Fox.
She shrugged. "I've known him for far longer and that's really unlike him. He always completes what he starts."
"There must be a good reason," suggested Peppy.
"We'll just have to ask—" The door chimed yet again, interrupting Fox this time. "Must be Falco. Come in."
Fox's guess was correct as the avian sauntered in, a grin on his face as he was ready for battle. "Morning. What's up?"
"Nothing much," replied Fox. "Just chatting until Pepper calls us in today."
"What fun." His expression changed quickly though as he leaned against the wall next to the door. "Did you guys see Slippy last night? He looks terrible."
The other three pilots nodded. "That he does," said Fox. "The doc says it will be a few days before we see him again unfortunately."
"That's what they told me yesterday." He thought for a moment. "Hey, did you wander out to get a bite to eat this morning? The people there seem so bummed out or something."
"I noticed that myself," said Peppy. "Nobody wanted to say why either." He motioned to the other two. "Did you see the same thing?"
Fox nodded while Fara said, "Fox and I were talking about that earlier. Neither of us knows why."
The computer terminal behind Fox sprang to life suddenly. "And that would be the General if I had to make a guess." He spun around in his chair, hitting the button to accept the call. "Fox here."
Pepper's face appeared on screen, looking like he had not slept well the night before. "Morning, Junior. I need to see you and your team in my office immediately. Pepper out." The picture vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
"Well that was blunt," huffed Falco. "Nice to see that he likes us so much."
"Falco, hush," groaned Fox as he thought through what he did the night before. "After the verbal thrashing I gave him last night he has no reason to be polite to me."
Falco looked surprised to hear that his normally peaceful leader had gone off on their boss. "So you gave that windbag of a canine a piece of your mind, eh? Good job. Do tell."
Fox stood up, ignoring the comments from his teammate. "I'll tell you later. Let's go see which planet we're going to take back today."
The group left Fox's quarters, eager to find out their latest mission.


A few minutes later, the four filed into Pepper's office. To their momentary surprise, not only was the General there waiting for them, but Gary was standing nearby as well. As the team sat down, Fox knew that he had to say something before the meeting started. "Pepper, I need to apologize for…"
The canine stopped him quickly, shaking his head. "No need, Junior. You were completely correct in what you were saying." He looked over the team with tired eyes. "Let's get this started as I have quite a bit to say today. Unfortunately, you are not going to like what I'm about to tell you."
The pilots looked at each other anxiously as Pepper continued. "We were worried that Andross might stumble upon our spy satellites one day. That day has come upon us. Sometime yesterday, one of them was destroyed. Before it was vaporized however, it detected a fleet of warships building up just outside the normal range of the probe."
Now the team had a very good reason to be worried. "What are we looking at, sir?" asked Fox in a concerned tone. "And what do you suspect their overall goal to be?"
Gary flipped open the remote Pepper used all the time and pushed a few buttons, taking control of the meeting for now. "Simply put, we're looking at more concentrated firepower than we've ever seen out of Andross' forces. It's an attack group consisting of four, that's right, four battleships of the kind that you faced here on Corneria."
The pilots gasped as they realized the difficulty of their next mission. All short of Falco anyway, who bluntly stated, "Four battleships, four Arwings, all armed with Nova Bombs. What's so difficult about that?"
Gary shook his head. "Because you haven't seen the whole picture yet." Pushing one last button on the remote, the screen next to him sprang to life. On it were the four battleships that he'd described before, two in front and two behind the oversized ship in the center. "The battleships seem to be guarding this massive ship."
"What is that thing?" asked a stunned Fara as the rest of the team looked on in shock. She couldn't believe what she was looking at. "It's absolutely gigantic!"
Pepper spoke up this time as he looked over the pilots sadly. "We have no idea what it is, short of the fact that it seems to be carrying enough firepower to destroy a city and then some from orbit." He looked over to Gary for a moment. "If we had to make a guess, based on its current flight plan, that's its goal as well – head straight to Corneria and blow this planet off the galactic charts."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, Pepper," said Fara, almost regretting that she was going into combat again, "but the Arwings aren't designed to attack a vessel of that size. Especially with that kind of fighter cover. They simply don't have the staying power against those kind of odds."
The General nodded glumly. He hated to admit it, but she was right. "I'd be lying if I said that you weren't correct in your statement." He sighed. "I'd also be lying if I said that this wasn't a suicide mission."
Falco was the first out of the rest of the team to recover his composure. "Isn't this just wonderful," he groaned. "Off we go to our deaths after starting off so well."
Pepper jumped to his feet and slammed his paws onto the table. "Don't you think I feel the exact same way, mister?" he hollered. "If you think you have a better plan, I'd love to hear it!"
The avian shrank back from that outburst, as did the rest of the team. Trying to break the sudden silence, Peppy stood up and calmly walked over to the monitor. "Is this data current?"
Gary nodded. "We have two probes following alongside them outside of their sensor range. It doesn't give us too much data on the capital ship though, but it does allow us to watch where they're going."
"How long until they arrive?"
"Based on current speed and position, about eight hours. They're not exactly fast moving vessels."
Pepper looked over from his seat. "You are not waiting until those craft reach Corneria to attack them."
"We have no intention to, sir," said Fox as he finally spoke up. "Gary, has their direction and velocity remained unchanged in the last few hours?"
The cheetah nodded. "Other than the ships getting up to cruising speed, yes."
Fox brought a paw up to his face in a thinking pose. It took him a moment, but he smiled as the pieces of a plan fell into place. "I think I have a plan. Falco is right in one aspect – we have four Arwings, and four battleships to destroy with a Nova Bomb each."
"There's no way you can get close enough to them to fire before they launch their entire compliment of fighters," said Gary. "And there's no way you could attack that capital ship with 300-plus fighters assaulting you at the same time."
Fox just smiled. "Not quite, Gary."
The other pilots just looked his way, thinking through what Fox was trying to say. Peppy was the first to speak up, as he had an inkling to what was on the vulpine's mind thanks to having worked with him and his father over the years. Good minds always thought alike as far as he was concerned. "Ingenious idea if I'm thinking what you're thinking, but the timing would have to be perfect or else the repercussions would be fatal."
"Interesting," said Fara thoughtfully, making a guess at what he was saying. "Peppy's right though if I'm thinking of the same thing – the timing would be everything."
"You're nuts," said Falco as he came to same conclusion. "Absolutely nuts."
"Thanks, Falco," said Fox with a grin as he looked at his teammate. "I can always count on you calling me crazy."
Both Pepper and Gary gave the vulpine a confused look. "Care to explain, Junior?" asked the General.
"It's like an old fashioned pirate raid," started Fox. "Just on a much faster scale and with a whole lot of explosions." He noticed that his explanation went over both of their heads, so he tried a far simpler way of putting it. "My goal is to drop out of lightspeed right next to all four of the battleships, fire off a Nova Bomb to take them out, and then move in for the kill against the capital ship. They won't have time to react."
Gary's eyes lit up in excitement. "I have to say this much – your idea is original at least."
Pepper's mood lightened considerably for the first time today. "It sounds like it would work."
Fara crossed her arms and frowned as she thought through Fox's idea. "I'm not quite sure if the Arwing will work like that, Fox. Then again there isn't anything that says it won't either."
"Care to explain?" he asked, hoping that he wouldn't have to trash his idea as he couldn't think of anything else at the moment.
"Sure." She smiled as she noticed that all eyes were once again on her. "When traveling at lightspeed, all weapon power is diverted to the engines and the defensive systems as you simply couldn't fire your blasters traveling at that speed anyway. It's ultimately a question of how quickly the weapon systems come back online, and if the charge in the Nova Bombs is maintained during lightspeed." She thought for a moment. "Ask Cyrus – he'd know the answers for sure."
"I'll get him," said Gary as he turned and walked out of the room, turning on a small headset as he left.
The pilots looked amongst themselves, thinking of what else to ask. Peppy was the one who said something first. "General, what do you know of the capital ship in the middle of that fleet? There isn't much data being displayed on the screen there."
Pepper looked at the monitor on his desk, double-checking what he knew verses the image behind him. "That's one of the problems – we can't get a probe close enough without being detected." The door swished open, admitting Gary once more. "Gary, do you know anything else about that capital ship?"
The cheetah shook his head. "We don't have a probe close enough to scan it properly. As it is, it's blocking our more basic scans, so whatever it is, it's extremely well defended." He pointed at the larger screen. "The ship has at least four dozen weapon mounts of various sizes and configurations, and it's the size of a small city. Exact shielding and power configurations are unknown."
"The joys of assaulting the unknown," mused Peppy.
"And how we'll get ourselves killed," complained Falco.
"I just hope the Nova Bombs will do something against that thing," said Fox.
Gary shook his head. "Doubtful. The shield systems on the larger craft seem to be able to withstand a Nova Bomb based on your prior experience."
"At least the battleships will go down in a single shot," said Fox.
"Thank goodness," commented Fara. "I'd hate to take on that kind of fighter compliment."
"As do we all."
At that point, a quiet beeping could be heard at Pepper's console. After checking the screen for a moment, he pushed a button, the door sliding open to admit Cyrus. He looked around at the gathering as he said, "Good morning, sirs." He then noticed Fara in the corner. "And lady," he added with a slight smile. "You asked for my services?"
Pepper gestured in Fara's direction, prompting the badger to look her way. "Technical question for you Cyrus," she said after a moment. "It's about the capacitors you installed on the Arwings – do they receive power during lightspeed or are they installed as part of the weapon system?"
The badger stood there for a moment before responding. "'Tis installed outside of the power loop of the weapons for the most part. They'll keep their charge during lightspeed. Just don't expect them to charge any further."
"Thanks Cyrus. As usual, you've been—" Her approval was interrupted by the wall monitor suddenly beeping at the assembled group.
As everyone turned to look, Gary told them what he knew as he muted the warning. "Sorry about that. The capital ship has been giving off some unusual power readings every so often. We're not really sure why either."
Cyrus maneuvered behind the seated pilots, working his way over to the monitor. Acting like he had done this his entire life, and without any permission at all, he began touching the controls for the screen, looking for something in particular. Gary made a move to stop him, as what he was playing around with was essentially classified data, but Fara waved him back. "Don't worry, guys, he won't break anything. Just give him a minute."
A minute was all it took for the badger, who stepped back and admired his handiwork. Turning around to the group, he said what he found out as the monitor displayed the data. "Sorry about that intrusion lads, but I believe I found a correlation." He pointed back to the screen as he continued. "Every time the main launch doors open, and to a lesser point the two secondary ones, you'll notice a spike in power. But it isn't an increase of power use like one would think."
"Because opening launch doors should take next to no power considering the size of that thing," said Fara.
"So what it is then?" asked Fox.
"Possibly an uncontained power source somewhere inside?" speculated Peppy.
Cyrus grinned, having come to the same conclusion. "Aye, that's my opinion as well. A ship that big would have an absolutely huge reactor, even by our standards."
Fox thought for a moment as he considered the data. "So what you're saying is that the launch doors have some kind of direct access to the reactor of that thing, right?"
"'Tis my point exactly," confirmed the badger with a grin. "With luck, the passage will be big enough for the Arwings."
That lightened the spirits of everyone in the room greatly. "I think we found ourselves a weak point," said Fox with a smile. "Let's get the details of this mission worked out as we have a battle to fight. And one heck of a long flight ahead of us."
No longer needed, and thanked by everyone in the room, Cyrus left the planning to the pilots, amazed that they were so eager to get into a combat that could prove to be way over their heads.


The group spent the next half hour planning all the details of their attack, knowing that any mistake in their calculations could easily spell doom for the pilots. They also hoped that Andross wouldn't do something simple like divert his fleet somewhere else while the Arwings were in transit. Their entire mission was stacked upon a list of hopes and possibilities.
But no matter what the outcome, the Starfox team was more than ready to risk their lives for it all.
Not too long after that, the four pilots were in the skies, headed off to a rendezvous with fate. The Arwings were loaded with fuel, armed with a fresh set of crystals for the Nova Bombs, had a definite plan of attack, and a simple goal of kill or be killed.
About 10 million miles out from the approaching fleet, the Arwings came to a halt. The computers started with their preprogrammed sequence, moving the craft into position. It had been decided earlier that Fox and Fara would take the more dangerous position of assaulting the front battleships, while Peppy and Falco would engage the rear pair. It had not pleased the avian much that he would be attacking the rear, but once he realized that it was a more dangerous approach as he had to speed past the capital ship, he kept his machismo to himself.
Fox sat back in his seat, looking out into the blackness of space. Fara's Arwing floated nearby, having finished its maneuvers, while the other two craft were nothing but a speck in space as they had to move to the side of the incoming fleet for their final approach. His computer beeped at him once, then twice, telling him that all four Arwings were now in position.
Looking over at Fara's craft for a moment, worried that he would be putting all his friends into extreme danger in just a minute, he knew that he would have to get this battle started before he lost his nerve. "All Arwings, this is Fox. Report go or no go status for our assault."
Falco was eager to get into battle, no matter the odds against him. "Falco here. I'm ready for some major asskicking."
Fara laughed as she listened to her much more enthusiastic teammate. "Fara here. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
Peppy just shook his head at the younger pilots. Wishing that he still had the youth and energy that they all did, he simply said, "Peppy here. All systems are go."
Fox took one last look around, still worried about the battle ahead of him. Making sure that his Arwing was ready for combat, he told his teammates, "I'm good to go. Let's do this." He held his paw over the button to finish the approach to the hostiles. "Good luck everyone. See you in a minute."
All four Arwings accelerated in unison as he activated the autopilot, jumping to lightspeed after a few seconds.