The battle continues for the Starfox team. However, what little good luck they've had so far starts to go down the tubes. How does it happen? You'll have to read to find out.
Chapter 31: The Gatherer
Well, Falco got his wish. We have what looks to be a fight on our hands. I hope that nothing will be complicated in this one though, as I don't like going into battle without the Nova Bombs working on all craft. They've saved my ass before, and they'll do the same again if I had to make a guess. – Fox
"Do you see it?" asked Fara a short time later.
"I do," replied Fox as he stared at the rapidly approaching object. "What is that thing?"
"Sensors still aren't picking up our target," said Peppy as he tried his hardest to gather any information. "Too much interference from that star, even from this distance."
"Then we just blow it up blindly," interjected Falco. "Nothing can stand up to our combined might as it is."
Fox sighed, worried about this situation. He hated going into battle with absolutely no information, and something in general seemed wrong about this whole situation. But they couldn't leave whatever this was just flying around the system. "Keep trying, Peppy. Everyone else, be careful. I don't like this one bit."
"You worry too much," said the avian.
"Shut up, Falco."
The four continued their approach, details becoming apparent on the strange craft as they neared. It was a spherical shaped object with three wings – one up top, and a pair to either side and below. Each wing had some kind of long, flexible tube trailing behind it, somehow pointing towards the single large engine behind it. An oversized mining drill was attached to the flattened front, giving their target a very menacing look.
"What the hell is supposed to be?" asked Fara. "Or do?"
"I have no idea," replied Fox. "But whatever it is, it knows we're here."
His statement was correct as the hostile craft shut off its main engine, retro-rockets firing to slow it to a halt quickly. It turned to face the pilots, the drill pointing directly towards them. But in a move that surprised the four, it didn't pass along any menacing messages.
"Awfully quiet for one of Andross' cronies," remarked Falco as he noticed this. "No fancy name for this thing?"
"Tell me about it," said Fox, now getting worried. As he neared, he began to notice possible targets that would be worth taking down first. He decided to get this fight over with quickly so they could return home. "Crew, I'm highlighting your first target – that drill thing that's sitting at what looks to be the front. Stay in formation and attack as soon as you get into range."
The team replied with their affirmatives as they advanced, lining themselves up for an easy attack run. Due to a lack of information however, what happened next came as a bit of shock to the pilots.
The three tubes somehow moved away from the engine, twisting around to point towards the pilots. The group ignored them as they got within firing range, their blasters brightening up the already lit space around them. Their shots struck the shield protecting the craft, doing little visible damage. The tubes continued to follow the Arwings as they passed, but didn't make any threatening moves.
"That was easy," said Falco as he followed Fox around for a second pass.
"Too easy," commented Fara. "What are those tube like devices sticking out of the ship?"
"No idea," Peppy replied, checking out the information provided as he followed. "Sensors are still providing very little data on that craft due to the proximity of the star."
"Just be careful," said Fox. "Let's make another run."
The Gatherer's programming was at a loss at what to do against its current threat. It had never registered any hostile craft capable of moving at such a great speed, nor with such offensive weaponry. It wasn't properly armed for combat, but it had multiple ways of defending itself. It decided that now was the time to use some of them, before it lost what shielding it had protecting the vital areas.
As the Arwings approached for a second pass, it fired up its primary defensive mechanism – a pair of forward mounted tractor beam emitters, mainly used to capture asteroids and other smaller objects for the mining drill to break down for transport. The four craft shuddered slightly as the beam attempted to grab all of them, but they were simply moving too quickly to have any effect. Detecting this, the Gatherer narrowed the beams, concentrating on a single Arwing.
By pure luck, or lack thereof, it happened to pick Fara's craft.
She was thrown hard against her restraints as her advance was halted far too quickly for the G-Diffuser system to compensate. Trying to maintain consciousness from the shock, her retro-rockets flared as she attempted to escape. At the same time, the mining drill began to spin, its next move very clear. "Somebody help me!" she yelled, her fear of being trapped and unable to do anything about it threatening her self-control. "I can't break free!"
Fox quickly took charge as he tried to get the situation back under control. "You are free to engage!" he ordered. "Get that thing's attention, but avoid the front! Peppy?"
"I know," replied the hare, desperately trying to gather information while maintaining an aggressive profile. This was not what he was good at, but he was the best out of the four currently there. "It's going to take time."
"Time is one thing that Fara does not have!"
The three still mobile pilots separated and sped away from each other, picking a different time to turn and attack their target. Each hoped that they could draw attention away from their trapped companion. However, the Gatherer had other ways of defending itself.
As the Arwings fired, the three metallic tubes, which until now had been only curiously following the craft, pointed directly towards the incoming blaster fire. The pilots, fearing an unknown reprisal, quickly broke away from their target, watching carefully to what happened afterward.
In the diffused lighting being thrown from the star behind them, a red beam could be seen emanating from the tubes, passing over the blaster fire. When it struck, the Arwing's firepower simply vanished, the energy of the shot absorbed into the storage batteries on the Gatherer.
"What the hell just happened?" asked a perplexed Falco.
"It looks like," started Peppy, pausing as he moved into position for another attack run, "the shots were just absorbed somehow, drained of their power."
"Keep attacking, guys," said Fox. "Make sure they don't decide to focus on Fara, as they'll suck her Arwing dry given the chance."
"No shit," said the vixen, calmed down somewhat, knowing that the team was doing their best to free her. Her retro-rockets continued to burn, halting her advance towards the spinning drill for the time being. Try as she might though, she was unable to break free, nor gain any distance from her captor. Out of desperation she fired her blasters, surprised to see them strike a shield instead of them being drained into some other system on the craft. "My shots are still getting through."
"Want to try a Nova Bomb?" suggested Fox.
"I'm just outside of the blast range, but any resulting debris could easily be the end of me."
"A last resort then." Fox dove towards his target as he talked, firing his blasters in an attempt to get past the defenses. Unfortunately, he was just as successful as he was the first time. "Damn it! I can't get past these things. I need options, people, and I need them now."
Falco moved parallel along the craft and sped by, killing his engines, strafing the entire length of his target. Every shot was countered despite his best efforts, frustrating him to no end. "Blasted piece of shit is stopping everything I throw at it!"
"I have an idea," said Peppy as he continued to look over the data, firing shots at the Gatherer just to keep its defenses busy. "Not a good one though. We could all—"
He was cut off as Fara suddenly came on over the com. "Guys, something's happening up here." She watched as the drill slowed down and came to a halt. It only paused there a moment before it split into three separate sections, moving apart from each other, and locked into place after a few seconds. Sitting there in her seat, she worried what was going to happen next, and if her Arwing would be able to take the punishment. "I don't like the looks of this."
Fara's worry was well placed, because if the hostile craft had emotions, it would have been furious. As it was, the rudimentary AI was confused as to why it hadn't eliminated the threat in front of it yet, as it had never encountered a hostile that could defeat the strength of its tractor beams before. While its defenses kept the others at bay, it assumed it was only a matter of time before they found a way around them. It decided to eliminate the one it had captured and then turn its attention to the others.
Powering down the drill, it brought its other weapons online – a multitude of mining lasers. While individually they wouldn't do much damage, against a craft that couldn't escape or dodge, it would be deadly. Reconfirming the targeting info, making sure that every available gun behind the drill was operational, it opened fire on the immobile craft, intending to kill.
Fara's mouth dropped open with shock as she watched the laser fire erupt out of the hole where the drill used to be, all of it headed directly towards her craft. Desperately she redoubled her efforts to get free, twisting her Arwing in an attempt to dodge some of the assault. Shot after shot impacted against her shields despite her best attempts however, alarms quickly blaring as her shield level plummeted. There was just simply too much firepower to dodge with her extremely limited mobility.
Fox watched as the Arwing struggled to free itself, laser fire pounding against the shields like a waterfall to the rocks below. He debated on throwing himself in front of the attack, but that would only put him into danger instead of Fara and leave them with still no idea how to defeat this thing. As it was, he didn't even know if it would free the other craft.
As quickly as it started, the lasers from the Gatherer abruptly stopped, the drill closing back up once more. Unbeknownst to the pilots, the mining lasers had overloaded from use, the weapons never designed to fire like that over an extended period. The AI switched back to defensive mode, knowing that it was exposed with the drill out of the way. It knew it had time to wait while the weapons cooled down however – the captured craft wasn't going anywhere.
"Are you okay, Fara?" asked Fox worriedly.
"No!" she replied tersely as she fought to maintain control of her emotions. She was on the verge of falling into a complete panic, knowing that she couldn't escape, knowing that her death could easily be a slow, agonizing one if her silent captor decided to play around with her craft, its weak lasers striking the more vulnerable places before dealing a deadly blow. "Shields at 20 and charging. They won't last through another assault."
Fox noticed the fear in her voice, one filled with worry and desperation. He tried his best to calm her down, knowing that any hesitation due to her unsettled state could get her killed. "Don't worry, Fara, we're going to get you out of this alive. I promise."
She took a deep breath, knowing somehow that he was telling the truth. It's not like she had any other options other than to trust him. "Okay. What are your orders?"
He quickly thought of a plan of attack, as she needed to keep her mind occupied, something to focus her energies away from the situation at hand. "Since you can get through the defenses to the shields directly, just keep firing. If we can get them down, you'll have direct access to the tractor beam emitters."
Peppy interrupted the pair. "Fox, incoming tube from above."
Twisting in his seat, he spotted the metal tube that he had been keeping occupied, now moving up front to go after Fara. "I see it." As he turned to attack, he said one last thing. "Fara, tell me the moment that drill opens up again. Until then, keep it busy with your blasters."
"Okay."
Fox fired upon his target, speeding off and continuing to fire to keep its attention off his trapped teammate. Knocking the vixen out of his communications, he ordered, "Guys, I need options, now!"
Falco kept quiet as Peppy suggested a plan of attack, passing along his idea on the monitor. "It looks like these tubes can only target a single location at the same time, so if two pilots attack simultaneously—"
"I get your drift." Fox selected his goals on the screen as he continued. "Falco, these two are yours."
"Yes, boss."
"Peppy, let's get to work. Have you found a weakness on this thing yet though?"
The hare sighed. He didn't like being relied on for something that wasn't his area of expertise. "No."
"It'll come to us later then. When these shields come down and Fara's free, then we can worry about killing this thing off."
"We have a bit of time as I think it's overloaded those lasers it had."
"Good. Time is the one thing we need a lot more of."
Armed with a plan of attack, the mobile Arwings went to work. As Falco kept two of the three tubes busy by speeding back and forth between them, Fox and Peppy began to make a dent in the shields of the hostile. The Gatherer was only capable of defending against one attack at a time on each side, and its programming wasn't good enough to detect that it was being tricked.
The shields were surprisingly strong though, as nobody expected such a strange looking craft to be well defended. Andross had built it well, as it was designed to sit inside asteroid belts and near smaller stars to gather supplies. On top of that, only two of the Arwings were even hitting the shields, so this fight was a lengthy one.
One that was taking far too long.
"The drill is opening again!" yelled Fara suddenly.
Fox cursed as he spun around, firing his boosters in an attempt to get there in time to interfere with what was going to happen. He had one last hope though. "Peppy?" he asked privately. "Any ideas?"
"I'm sorry, Fox," replied the hare. "I haven't found the weakness of this thing."
Speeding off towards Fara, Fox knew what he had to do – he just had no other options. He just hoped that he could get there in time. "I'm coming, Fara. Just hold on."
Staying put was the last thing she wanted to do. She saw Fox approaching, but judging by the lack of a plan from the other pilots, he was coming to do only one thing – get in the way. Not wanting to see that happen, that left her with only two options. The first was to fire off a Nova Bomb way too close for comfort, hoping that she would survive any resulting debris.
She never got to clearly thinking about her second option before the mining lasers fired again. Her shields began to plummet once more as they struck home. Glancing at where Fox was right now, it quickly became clear that he wouldn't arrive in time before her shields failed. Without wasting any more time, she chose her second option.
She charged straight towards the attacking vessel.
"What are you doing?" asked an astonished Fox. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. "You're going to be killed!"
Her response was swift, as she had almost reached the Gatherer, her shields at critical levels from the continued pounding. "Watch."
Knowing that she could generate far more thrust via the main engine instead of just the retro-rockets, she hurtled forward, quickly gaining momentum. Her hope was that she could gain enough speed to simply break free of the tractor beams. Failing that, she held a finger over the launch button for her Nova Bombs. Her aggressor wouldn't capture another Arwing, even if it cost her life to do so.
Her shields moments from collapse, she reached what was the point of no return. Hoping that her plan would succeed, she yanked her flight stick hard to one side, her craft vibrating as it fought against the vice-like grip of the tractor beams. "Come on," said Fara quietly. She could feel the Arwing beginning to break free, as she had simply built up too much speed to be stopped. As it was, she had stumped the limited programming of the AI she was facing with her actions, and it didn't react properly to her plan.
"Yes!" she yelled as she shot away from the tractor beam's grasp, maneuvering past a wing before pulling away from the hostile to her freedom. "I'm firing a Nova Bomb at this damned thing as soon as—"
She never got a chance to finish her sentence as the Gatherer had other plans.
While the AI was momentarily confused at Fara's plan of escape, it recovered quickly enough to take further actions against the pilot. The three tubes pivoted in different directions, releasing their stored energy as something that looked like thruster exhaust. That, combined with the standard maneuvering thrusters it had installed, caused it to spin around rapidly, reacquiring its prior target within moments.
It locked onto her Arwing with the tractor beams once more, slowing down the craft greatly, but unable to bring it to a complete halt. Fara blacked out in the process, her body unable to take the physical strain a second time in as many minutes. The Gatherer targeted her still flaring engine with its mining lasers, intending to make sure that the craft never attempted escape again.
The lasers spewed out once more, striking with pinpoint accuracy against the engine. Her weakened shields collapsed within seconds, giving the hostile plenty of time to do its damage before the other Arwings could interfere. The engine sparked and shut down after a few well placed hits, the mining lasers too weak to cause the catastrophic chain reaction that would normally happen if the highly volatile thruster had taken a powerful hit in the wrong area.
It quickly retargeted, redirecting its weapons to bear at one of the boosters as it continued to fire. By this time, Fara was jolted into consciousness again, desperately trying to do anything in her power to keep herself alive. Sirens blared inside her craft, warning her that she was seconds from probable destruction. The eject lights flashed furiously for attention, telling her to escape while she still could.
Being caught inside of a tractor beam however, kept her from exploring that avenue of escape.
Laser fire raked the underside of her craft, sparks shooting into space as the armor gave way, internal systems becoming compromised from the damage. Fox finally arrived at this point, passing in front of the line of fire to become a better target, after yelling for help privately from his companions. To his surprise, the Gatherer stopped firing just long enough to let the other Arwing pass by without damage, refusing to take the bait. As soon as he cleared the firing resumed, the left wing booster exploding into a small fireball a few seconds after.
At that moment, the lasers stopped as quickly as they started, the weapon system once again overloaded from continuous use. As before, the Gatherer closed up, the drill beginning to spin as the Arwing drifted towards the hostile. The AI knew that its target no longer had any chance of escaping, so it ignored it for the time being, concentrating on the other threats.
Left with not enough thrust to maintain her distance from her current direction, Fara spun around, facing the menacing drill head on as her retro-rockets flared. Due to the damage she had sustained, she was losing ground. Desperately searching for options while she hoped the others were formulating a plan, she brought up her computer, trying to reroute power away from her damaged systems, attempting to at least hold her position in space. She glanced at the covered button for the Nova Bombs as she worked, debating on risking it all.
Fox's voice came over the line, interrupting her thoughts with his worried concern. "Fara, how's everything holding up in there?"
"What do you think!" she yelled in response, continuing her work while she chewed his head off. "I'm about to say the hell with it and drop a Nova Bomb while I'm well within range of the blast, as nobody else has thought of a better idea, and you're asking if I'm okay?"
The vulpine was left speechless by that remark, not having any idea how to respond. Fortunately for both of them, Peppy had a bit of good news. "You'll be pleased to know then that I've found a far more effective way of destroying this thing than simply firing blindly."
"About damn time," said Fara, calming down slightly as she looked over her systems, making sure she wouldn't blow a power junction when she rerouted power. "Tell me what to do, and hurry."
"How close are you to that thing?" asked Peppy.
"Just over 800 feet and falling. The retros aren't working right thanks to the damage I've taken, but I should be able to reroute power to them in just a second." Three button presses later, she transferred power away from her non-functional systems and provided a boost to the retro-rockets. The panel she was working on with her left paw didn't like the adjustments, the device shorting out in a shower of sparks. She grimaced as she jerked her paw away, hoping that the scorch marks now visible on her glove were only that and didn't go deeper. Much to her relief, her modifications seemed to work as the Arwing slowed to a halt.
"Not good. Are your shields working?"
Fara looked over the respective indicator, reporting the status. "Shields are at 5 and trying to charge. Why?"
Fox continued to stay quiet, not having been told the plan yet. Instead, he just fired at the hostile, keeping himself occupied as he had nothing better to do while Peppy went over his explanation. "How effective are the shields at absorbing a Nova Bomb blast?"
She quickly went through what she knew. "At full power, they are designed to resist the destructive power of the weapon, doing little damage short of some tossing of the occupant. At this level though…" She quieted, not liking what she had to say. "They are completely untested as nobody wanted to risk a pilot or a ship. For that matter, they haven't been tested against an Arwing much at all."
Peppy kept quiet over the lack of testing, knowing that nothing could be done about it at this exact moment. He transmitted some data as he continued. "Well, here's the weak point. Fire a Nova Bomb exactly where those lasers come from, as it seems like the shields there either become extremely weak or fail completely when that craft fires."
"I don't like that plan at all, Peppy," said Fox as he came back into the conversation.
"You don't like that plan?" exclaimed Fara before the hare could respond. "I'm the one who's going to be inside the blast radius when it goes off. Don't you have any better ideas?"
"I'm sorry, Fara, I don't." From the limited data he could gather, this seemed like the best, and only, answer. Peppy hoped it was the right one though. If his plan ended in her demise…
"That's just great." She sighed, resigning herself to what she had to do. "Don't get me wrong, you've done your best. I just don't like the solution."
"We'll be here for you," said Fox as he flew past, trying one last time to get the Gatherer's attention as he fired wildly at the hostile craft. Like before, it didn't work. "Remember that. No matter what happens, we won't lose you."
"Thanks. I'll hold you to that by the way." Glancing forward, Fara noticed that the drill was slowing down once more. She knew what that meant. "This thing is opening up again."
Taking command once more, Fox pulled away, his boosters firing as he got clear. "Starfox team, time to go. This thing's about to blow." As the two other Arwings moved to follow, he added privately, "Good luck, Fara."
She sat there, smiling weakly at the attention. Thinking about her position, she felt like she was in front of an old-fashioned firing squad, like in the movies of old, staring death directly in the face. She was standing there, unable to move, a tall wooden post holding her upright and facing her executors. Unlike most in that situation though, she had a weapon hidden in one paw. The only problem was that it might kill her to use it. If she didn't though, she faced a most certain death. This only gave her a chance.
The drill powered down and split open like it had done before. Making sure she was lined up, she flipped off the safety to the Nova Bombs. After pausing long enough to make a quick wish to whoever might be watching over her, she pressed the button.
After the usual short pause, the ball of energy streaked out of the launcher, hurtling towards the expanding gap between the sections of the drill. It passed through silently, the ball illuminating the half-dozen mining lasers that lay within for just a moment before detonating upon them.
She had only a second to think about what she had done before the resulting blast engulfed her in its blinding aura.
