Disclaimer: See the Prologue
Chapter 14 – Loyalties
MacBeth, formally the Venomian supply planet and staging area of Andross' forces during the first war, has more or less gone under new management. With Cornerian troops and ground weapons grouping on the planet's surface, it was as if it was ready for a massive ground invasion of it's neighbouring planet Venom, which surprisingly has been abandoned by Andrew's forces, following the Aparoid incident.
At least all those troops, tanks and other armoured vehicles made the surface virtually impregnable…or at least that's what they thought.
Stationed at the massive railway base, decommissioned at the end of the last war, only to be recommissioned as the Cornerian's voice main HQ, 2 technicians sitting up at the control room were also surprisingly busy, the dregs of laziness having not caught up with them.
"Status report," the officer standing in the centre of the room said, startling the 2 techs.
"All vehicles and ground weaponry have been secured," one of them replied.
"Troop status?" the officer asked again.
"Locked in," the other tech replied, "The Railyards, office complex, barracks and command centre secured."
"Meaning we're ready in case Oikonny tries to move in on us," the officer said, smiling, "Let's see them try."
A soldier chose this moment to step into the tower.
"Sir," the soldier saluted, "General Pepper requests a holo-conference, sir."
The officer nodded, before following the soldier out of the room, leaving the techs to themselves.
One of them exhaled and said, "Finally, now I can safely say with fear of being disciplined 'What a big, fat waste of my time this post is.'"
Everyone else nodded in agreement.
"And to think I begged Corneria for this post," the tech continued, lamenting, "Begged them. Believing I'll see some proper action out here."
"Relax, Petersberg," another tech said, who was still working at his terminal, "We hear you. You wanted to see blood, guts and Imperium up close, you should have joined the army."
Everyone else turned to him, suddenly.
"What…what was that last thing you said?" Petersberg asked hesitantly, almost fearfully.
"Imperium," the tech replied.
Everyone else felt cold inside.
"What?" the tech said, looking at everyone.
"Never say the 'I' word," Petersberg said, frowning, "Or the 'H' word, not even the 'M' word. And I don't mean 'Motherf#$#er.'"
"Yeah," another tech said, "It's bad luck to mention…er…them."
The tech looked at Petersberg in disbelief, before shaking his head.
"Oh c'mon," the tech retorted, annoyed, "They can't be all that bad…right?"
"Try having your planet blow up, that just so happens to be slightly in their part of the universe," Petersberg said.
"Oh, ok," the tech said, "Just felt like mentioning the…'I' word, which is got to do with blood and guts."
In the holo-conference chamber, all of the officers were before the image of General Pepper.
"Prepare your ships to immediately intercept a line of Oikonny's transports that are passing through this sector," Pepper said, "They are not to pass by MacBeth in one piece."
"Don't worry, general," the base commander assured him, "Those apes will not even graze the planet's atmosphere."
"I hope not, colonel," Peppere replied, "Out."
His image disappeared and all sat up from their seats.
"You heard the general," the colonel said, "All crews to their stations."
Meanwhile in space, approaching the planet at a laughable speed, 4 slow transport hulks lumbered through the void. On board were rather nervous crews and their passengers.
All of them sick and wounded, following their last defeat at the hands of Pepper's forces.
"Sir," one of the pilot's turned to the captain on board the lead craft, "We're approaching MacBeth."
"They're gonna blow us all out of the sky, knowing the pigs," the captain growled, "Send a message, stating we are not armed, we don't intend to attack and we require urgent medical assistance to most of our passengers."
"In other words 'We surrender?' sir" the pilot asked.
"Yes!" the captain exclaimed, "Godd#$# we surrender."
On board the rear ship, it's crew were in for a massive shock.
"What is that coming up on us?" the captain demanded, eyeing the radar on the main screen.
"We don't know, captain," the main pilot replied, gripping the controls, "Whatever it is, it's huge and the computer can't identify it."
Suddenly, what appeared to be a tremor in space rocked the ship, sending everyone off their feet.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS…" the captain cried out, only to be cut off when he saw something on the main screen that made his blood run cold.
5 minutes later, death was upon the Venomian hulks…which was noticed by the technicians in the control tower on the planet's surface.
They were all looking up at the big screen, and from one of the orbital satellites in space, that the hulk were exploding.
"Whew," one of the techs whistled and smirked; "Those flyboys were made quick work of those bastards."
Of what? a voice came over the radio, We haven't gotten off the ground yet?
All eyes went wide upon learning about that little, disturbing fact.
"What was that?" the officer asked, surprisingly not believing it at first.
Suddenly the camera from the satellite went offline, followed by a massive shrill of an alarm.
"Don't tell me…" the officer begun, ears drooped down.
The screen brought up a radar image of the planet's atmosphere and the past near it, and revealing thousands of tiny blips descending upon the planet.
"Oh my God!" the officer exclaimed, "It can't be them!"
A technician looked out the window, his eyes suddenly shot open in fear.
"SIR!" he cried out, "LOOK!"
Everyone looked out the window to see flaming chunks descending upon the distant hills, followed by what appeared to be badly cobbled together dropships landing.
"God help us," the officer said softly.
Somewhere far away on the other side of the Lylat system to be precise, life aboard the Great Fox was as normal as it can be, with everyone going about their business.
Slippy was humming a tune to himself as he used a monkey-wrench on a computer console in the engine room, only to almost jump out of his skin when a pile of boxes landed on the table next to him, courtesy of a certain superhuman. Who was out of his armour, but luckily dressed in what appeared to be blue pants and shirt.
And that the Omega symbol was imprinted on his back.
Jacques cringed for moment, before saying, "Apologies, Slippy. I did not mean to startle."
Slippy gave a nervous chuckle and replied, "That's alright, Jac. Can I call you Jac?"
"If you can't pronounce my name properly," Jacques replied.
"Oh, no," Slippy said suddenly, shaking his head, "Is just a shorter way of saying your name."
"I suppose so," Jacques said, scratching the back of his head.
Slippy eyed the boxes on the table.
"What's those for?"
"Fox told me to give these to you," Jacques replied.
Slippy checked the label on them, before almost squealing with delight.
"The new computer systems' finally arrived!" he cried out happily embracing Jacques suddenly.
Jacques eyes then went wide, over being hugged by an amphibian xenos. Slippy realised what he was doing and let go.
"Sorry," he said, chuckling again, "I'm just that happy."
Jacques nodded, his eyes brows queered, "I see. I will take my leave now."
The Marine then turned and left the engine room. When the door closed behind him, he shuddered. Falco, who just happened to be passing by, smiled at the Marine's behaviour.
"Let me guess…" Falco begun, "He was happy to get his new toys."
"I would say very happy," Jacques replied, before stepping past Falco and walking down the hall.
Falco chuckled, 'Didn't see that one coming, that's for sure. Heh!'
He then frowned, remembering whom he was just talking too. He shook his head, before walking to the simulator.
Meanwhile, Peppy was sitting in the Archive chamber at his desk, studying over a map of what appeared to be a very familiar planet.
'Looks just like Corneria,' he thought, 'And to think it's the centre of the entire human race.'
He then heard a knock on his door. He adjusted his glasses.
"Come in," he called out.
The door opened to reveal Jacques.
"Oh, Jacques," Peppy said, quickly putting the map away under his desk, "What can I do for you?"
The rabbit smiled at the human, who had noticed he had quickly put whatever he was studying away. He then looked at Peppy.
"I was wondering you had anything on Corneria and it's military strength," Jacques replied.
"Let's see," Peppy said, getting up from his chair and walking over to a large filling cabinet, where he opened it and went through it towards 'C'.
"Here we are," Peppy said, pulling out a file marked 'Corneria' and passing it to Jacques, "Enjoy reading."
"My thanks," Jacques said, "Does that cabinet document all of Lylat?"
"Oh yes," Peppy said, yawning slightly, "We always have to know what makes up the galaxy we live in."
Jacques nodded, this practise of documentation mirrors that of the Blood Ravens chapter of Space Marines.
As he turned to leave…
"Say, Jacques?"
…where the Marine stopped and turned, holding the file in his hand.
"How do you feel about being part of the Star Fox team?" Peppy asked.
"The feeling of being part of a force once again," Jacques replied, affirmatively.
"What about among us?" Peppy asked again, "Aliens?"
Jacques eyes went wide, "Pardon?"
"Among us? Aliens? Xenos? Whatever we're referred to us by humans," Peppy asked again, glumly.
Jacques didn't know what to say, but he did know that Peppy wanted to clear this issue up.
"You…could say I am used to it," Jacques said, "I always have been used to living amongst those who are not my species."
Peppy was confused over this human. Most Imperials are somewhat xenophobic towards over humanoid species, and Lylatians are no different.
Jacques noticed Peppy's silence, so he decided to break his own.
"I was raised by my family to be tolerant of others, whether it would be my own species or anything or anyone not of my planet or form," Jacques explained, "They said we were all equal in that we are life."
Peppy agreed, "Not a bad philosophy, that one."
Jacques then sighed and leaned against the wall, "They of course paid for it with their lives. And now I am all that's left."
"What happened to your family?" Peppy asked, "If I may ask?"
Jacques eyes downcast, before saying, "I have said enough. But enough to let you people know that you should not fear me."
Peppy nodded, relieved to know that truth behind his tolerance and acceptance of him, Fox, Falco and most of all, Krystal.
"I understand."
Jacques smiled slightly and stepped out, only to see Krystal stepping backwards from the door.
"Jacques," Krystal said, smiling and almost with surprise, "I didn't know you were with Peppy."
"I was," Jacques said, "I was just gathering intelligence on Corneria."
He then stepped past Krystal and walked towards his quarters, not caring if she overheard what he just said to Peppy.
Which she did in fact; she knew from the start that Jacques was different, even unique, to other humans, but with himself confirming that little fact…
…she could only smile.
Later on, they were all assembled at the bridge. Fox sitting in his usual seat, as did Peppy, Slippy and Krystal. Falco and Jacques stood around.
"What are we waiting for again?" Falco asked.
"We're waiting for Pepper to show his face once again," Fox answered, "Hopefully he'll come across some unstoppable Venomian force and he'll call us a split-second later. That's how it works."
"That may not be the case, Fox," Krystal said, "Things have being really quiet. I mean…"
She chuckled.
"…Venom has more or less lost this would-be conflict."
'No,' Jacques thought, 'So much for fighting these Forces of Disorder once last time.'
ROB then broke the simple-minded chatter…
"Incoming message from General Pepper," the robot blurted, "Priority One!"
'It's always Priority One,' Falco thought, amusingly.
Pepper's image appeared over the holo-projector.
Star Fox, he begun, then noticed everyone was already present, By the devil! Fox, have you being waiting for me all this time?
Fox smiled, "Nothing much to do nowadays, general. You're the only reason we ever want to get off this ship."
Very funny, McCloud, Pepper said, The situation is bad, and I mean incredibly bad. Just 2 hours ago we lost contact with our forward defence station on MacBeth. All communications were down and infantry, vehicle and fighter transponder signals were cut.
"MacBeth?" Fox said, remembering the 'train' planet.
We intercepted this transmission just before we lost contact entirely, Pepper said.
The transmission played, it's message entwined with sounds of gunfire, yelling, screaming, explosions and most of all, white noise.
This is Cornerian Outpost to anyone…we're under heavy attack from…enemy forces. We thought it was…ground forces destroyed, structural damage…
The transmission ended there. Pepper was quick to be gruff.
Whatever's hit that base has managed to wipe it off the map completely, Pepper explained, I want you to find out what is going on down there, then report it right away. No action, just a simple recon sweep of the planet and the base.
"Things are never simple nowadays," Falco grumbled under his breath.
"Sure, general," Fox said, with fake enthusiasm, "We're look over the blood, guts and debris of the base and report to you the second we see something that aims it's gun at us and tries to kill us."
Listen to me careful, Fox, Pepper said, No doubt something is very wrong here. Oikonny doesn't have the resources to launch this kind of attack and besides, before whatever we're dealing with landed on MacBeth, they wiped out one of his convoys that was just happening to pass by.
"You mean this isn't Venom we're dealing with?" Fox asked, unsure.
I don't know, Pepper admitted, But whatever it is, I have decided not to risk your lives and will be sending a company over to retake it. In the meantime, I am asking you to scout out the planet and report what you see.
"Understood," Fox said, standing up from his seat.
I feel that something is out of line here, Pepper sighed, Ever since the fight at Sector C and the discovery of…
The general eyed Jacques, who was standing nearby. Fox decided to end this conversation.
"We'll head for MacBeth right away and take out whatever landed on that rock," Fox said.
Well, then, Pepper cleared his throat, Good luck. Pepper out.
His image disappeared, leaving Fox to ponder on their situation, deep in thought.
"Alright," Fox said, raising his head, "Let's get ready."
Everyone nodded and stepped off the bridge. Jacques immediately headed for his room, edger to get back into his armour.
Not just to fight, but to find the answers he now longed for.