Showdown at High Noon
"So, uh, Peppy," Slippy asked, "What's this Coyote guy like?" The Great Fox was still traveling through hyperspace, but they were over halfway to Titania.
"I have no idea," Peppy said. "I mean, I was just a lil'un then; too young to remember. I imagine he'll be very reluctant to help us out. It'll be difficult to persuade him.
"Persuade him?" Krystal spoke up. "I got the impression that Pepper issued him a command."
"Not from this data we just received," Peppy retorted, holding up a paper. "It says here that the Coyote Star is a mercenary unit. It also says they are also do a lot of military aid in addition to their reconnaissance expertise."
"That explains the need of persuasion," Fox said, "but why will it be difficult?"
"We're dealing with a man who has seen the horrors of war firsthand at a very early age," Peppy answered. "Back in the days of the old wars, exploding ships did not destroy the crew so utterly that ash was all that remained. Corpses could be seen floating around—many still clearly recognizable—with large pieces of the ship's outer hull piercing their scorched bodies."
"Please stop, Peppy!" Krystal demanded in revulsion. "I can't bear it anymore!"
"Sorry, Krystal," Peppy sighed. "I was just trying to explain the kind of environment this man lived the majority of his youthful years in. It is very likely that a man like him could be traumatized in ways unimaginable. If he is sane enough, which I'm sure he is, he probably won't want to enter the combat zone again."
"How do you know so much about the old wars anyway?" Slippy asked.
"I used to read up on it," Peppy seemed reluctant to admit. "I was still naïve back then; I still thought war was 'cool'. That was before I joined Star Fox with James and Pigma way back. Then there was the Venomian prison, and that was a real wake up call for me."
This idle conversation was ended when Rob 64 announced, "Exiting hyperspace. Now entering Titania's atmosphere." Once again, the Star Fox team had to deal with the sand-blasted world.
"Okay, here's the plan, team," Peppy informed them. "Fox and Krystal, you'll enter Coyote Star's ground base. Falco and Slippy will use an Arwing and a Landmaster to guard you guys from any of Titania's fearsome wildlife."
"Got it," Fox agreed.
"We're on it, right Falco?" Slippy shouted.
"I call dibs on the Arwing!" Falco exclaimed, running for the docking bay.
"That's not fair!" Slippy cried, running after him. "You didn't even give me a chance to call dibs!"
"Guess that means Krystal and I go on foot," Fox said with slight interest. He knew he couldn't hide his joy from Krystal, who sighed and walked off with a smile on her face. Fox went after her. Peppy sighed and shook his head.
"Lovebirds," he grinned to himself.
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The team was out on the field. "Still can't believe I got stuck with the Landmaster," Slippy complained over the COM link.
"Relax, Slip," Peppy retorted. "All our tests show you can even outperform Fox in the Landmaster."
"Yea, so stop complaining and start shooting," Falco snapped, acknowledging an approaching group of high-threat predatory creatures.
"This is Fox," McCloud reported, "We're entering Coyote Star's base."
"Acknowledged," Rob 64 noted. Fox and Krystal walked up to the main doors. They opened automatically, without voice confirmation, an ocular/hand scanning, or password entry.
"That's sort of creepy," Fox admitted. "Sense anything, Krystal?"
"I can sense faint brain waves from within," Krystal stated while in concentration. "It seems as if the alloy the walls are made of suppresses my powers to some degree." This unnerved Fox further; it was almost as if the base was designed against their arrival. They nodded to each other and entered the breach and into a dark hallway. A light shone at the end. After crossing over into the light, they saw that it was open area. The roof over this area was a hologram up to the mountainside that the base was built into. In the middle of this open area, two figures stood at opposing sides.
One was a reptile. He was smooth, and brown like the desert plateaus. He wore a uniform of loose-fitting pants colored like brown leather. He had no shoes. A belt of what appeared to be alligator skin held up the pants. The shirt he was wearing was merely a vest made of the same brown leather as his pants. His facial structure confirmed him to be of the monitor lizard variety. The other was a canine of sorts. His fur was a reddish-brown on the face. His snout and the underside of his neck had a grayish fur, and his nose was (of course) a moist black. A cigar protruded from the right side of his mouth and was smoking gray from the tip. He wore a brown overcoat that trailed to his knees, though it was open all the way. Around his neck, a red bandanna was wrapped. His shirt appeared to be long-sleeved—though the coat made it hard to tell—and was of a lighter brown than the monitor's clothing. His gloves, which matched the monitor's vest in material, each had four straps trailing off the outer sides. He had a bronze belt buckle depicting a cactus with a couple of clouds behind it. The buckle held together a black leather belt. The pants were of similar color to the monitor's. This one, however, had boots that came over the pants and almost up to the knees. They were of a brown leather, with no laces or Velcro. Each boot had a platinum spur on the heel.
"Got any last words, ya lily-livered varmint?" the canine shouted to the monitor in a drawl.
"You are the one going down, amigo," the monitor replied back in an accent. The canine threw off his coat, confirming the sleeves' long length. Now, a gun holster was visible. Fox noticed a gun holster on the monitor's belt as well.
Suddenly, a voice sounded off on an unknown intercom, saying, "Draw!"
The canine whipped out his gun with such speed and finesse, and fired with equal speed and skill, that the monitor had only begun to grip his weapon before he was hit. He yelped, "You got me, hombre!" The monitor then fell back, and the two spectators could see a red mark. Krystal gasped, drawing the attention of the canine and the monitor.
"They're both enjoying this!" she exclaimed as if she didn't believe it.
"Of courssse, amiga!" the monitor cried in protest while sitting up as if nothing were wrong.
"…You're not hurt?" Fox inquired.
"Paintballsss alwaysss sssting," the monitor replied, wiping the red mark off.
"Ah!" the canine spoke at last. "You must be Pepper's men!" The canine turned to reclaim his coat, he dusted it off, and put it back on. With a full frontal view, his age suddenly became more obvious. His facial fur was very scruffy, especially under his chin and on the sides of his face. His eyes had gray irises, which were a stark contrast to the vivid yellow eyes of his reptilian companion. "I'm Coyote, and this is Cid."
"Pleasssed to meet you, amigosss," Cid hissed involuntarily.
(Thanks to Kit-Karamak for pointing out the error I fixed.)