A/N: I'd have put this chapter up sooner, if there wasn't any problem with trying to submit this and the next chapter. Sorry for the delay and I hope you enjoy reading this, and the rest of the story to come.
Chapter 35 – Strike
Fox, Falco, Slippy, Krystal, Jacques, Fara and Lord Calgar faced off against the dozen Venomian Marines who had just flown into the compound, and had drawn their ridiculously large blades and were staring down the warriors of Order.
"Imperial and Cornerian pigs," the lead Venom Marine begun, "You will surrender yourselves and submit to the will of the great Emperor Andrew Oikonny, or face his wrath right here and now."
Star Fox's eyes were wide in hearing that tone of voice, which was Jacques' voice.
"We will not submit ourselves to that damned, cursed ape!" Calgar exclaimed, "You fake Marines will suffer death by righteous hands."
Jacques gripped his chainsword while Fox unsheathed his blade, while Krystal held her staff in her hands, twirling it and readying to do some damage. Slippy, Fox and Fara raised their guns, where Falco was damn glad to be using his hell-gun once again, and he was smiling about it.
Fox rolled his eyes towards him.
'What's gotten into Falco?' he thought.
"Very well then," the Venom Marines said, "NO MERCY FOR THE PIGS!"
The Venom Marines roared and charged, while Falco cried out and opened up with his hell-gun, pummelling one Marine and finding out he was only slowing him down. Calgar, Fox, Krystal and Jacques also charged, where Calgar was the first to strike, sending several flying while Fara swung her sniper rifle against the armoured head of the nearest Marine.
Unamused, the Marine slapped her across the face, sending her falling to the ground. Fox caught wind of this and locked the Marine's blade with his.
"You shouldn't hit girls, you know," Fox said, glaring.
"And you should know never…to cross Emperor Oikonny," the Marine replied, his voice cutting through Fox like a knife.
Jacques and Krystal engaged in swordplay with several Venom Marines all at once, dodging their swings and retaliating with their own blows, where Jacques' blade cut through the chest plate until he reached flesh, where blood spurted out. He cried out and tackled him, sending his blade through the Venom Marine completely, ending his own clone's life.
It felt like he was killing himself…and he was knocked out of his thoughts when he felt a blade skim his back. He spun around and punched the attacking Venom Marine in the head, causing him to stagger back.
Slippy wasn't noticed by the Venom Marines, which he then unwisely fired off his shotgun, the shells bouncing off the armour of a Marine fighting Calgar, who then spun around towards the frog.
"Eep!" Slippy squeaked nervously.
The Marine walked menacingly up to him, blade ready.
"Die, froggy!" he cried, in 'the voice' which struck Slippy hard.
'Jacques?' he thought, knowing whose voice that was.
Falco jumped in between Slippy and the Marine.
"Hey clone?" Falco glared, "Pick on somebody you're only size, why don't ya?"
"Avian, I shall break you in half!" the Marine threatened and lunged at him, swinging his sword.
Falco stepped aside, where he felt the blade sliced some of his feathers off. He growled and pulled the trigger, the laser tearing into the Venom Marine's chestplate, who in return roared and lunged at him, grabbing his gun and tearing it off it's power source.
"Motherfucker!" Falco cursed.
He gripped his un-powered gun and drove it into the Marine's exposed gut, causing him to stagger back. He then squatted and grabbed the Marine's sword, where he drove it into the clone's gut, tearing it out along with his entrails, killing him.
Two Marines were swinging away at Krystal, who blocked every swipe. She swung at the nearest Marine's legs, sending him off his feet and driving the point of her staff through his chest. She then locked staff with the other Marine's sword.
The Marine then pushed forward, sending her onto the ground, each of his words cutting away at her mind, as if it was the real Jacques talking to her.
'Jacques would never call me that,' she thought angrily.
She then suddenly jumped back on her feet and swung at her staff, connecting with the Marine's head and knocking his helmet off. She gasped, seeing Jacques' face on this imposter, albeit he had some kind of device attached to the back of his head.
The Marine reared up to lunge at Krystal, where the vixen stepped back and opened up with her Ice Blaster, turning the Marine into an instant Popsicle. She then smirked and swung her staff, knocking him out the block of ice and sending him flying, an sharp piece of ice right between his eyes, killing him.
'Man, these guys are tough!' Fox thought as he ducked each of their swings, where he felt an axe hit him in the chest plate, luckily not breaking through but causing him to stagger back, breathless. The Marine attacking him smirked from behind his crudely built helmet and swung, aiming at his head.
Fox bent himself backwards, just feeling the blade skim his cheek. He swung and sliced through the Marine's arm plating and rendering his arm off. He heard the Marine scream in Jacques' tongue, which was really starting to tear away at Fox from the inside. He swung again, slicing his head off, silencing him.
A Marine went for Fara, who instantly felt a laser bolt tear through his head as she raised her rifle and fired, putting him down before he even got close to her. She smiled…
'This is easy.'
…before quickly dodging another Marine's swing. She let loose a flurry of punches and kicks against the armoured soldier, causing him to stagger. She then aimed a well-timed kick to his shoulder, causing him to drop his blade, which she quickly grabbed and drove it through the Marine's chest and heart, causing blood to shower out and onto her.
"ARGH!" she cried, pulling her sword out and wiping the blood of her face.
They all then looked at the dozen dead Marine laying before them, all killed through close combat. Falco smirked…
"Those guys weren't so tough," Falco pointed out, unstrapping his Hell-gun battery, seeing how it was now useless.
"If they were clones of Jacques," Slippy said confusingly, "How come they aren't as strong as him?"
"Perhaps Oikonny does not know how to fully tap into a Space Marine's true power," Calgar answered.
"That is bound to be the reason," Jacques said, "I feel like such a fool, allowing the forces of Disorder to create replica soldiers based off me."
"You can't blame yourself," Fox said reassuringly, "We don't how they got hold of your DNA…"
He then had a brainstorm…
"Unless…"
Just then, the squad of Scout Marine appeared at the gate, who at first glance at all the carnage were all astounded…
"What…what the hell happened here?" one of them cried.
Calgar stepped up to them, brushing his hands of dirt and blood.
"What news?" he begun.
The lead Scout continued to look over all the carnage, before shaking his head and focussing on the chapter-master.
"We've scouted out the main base, which is located in the large crater," he explained, "Apparently our intelligence was correct. It's heavily defended against air strikes and our sensors detect some kind of EMP weapons situated around that huge gun they are building, which appears to be almost complete."
"Meaning?" Fox asked, walking towards them.
"They would short out any drop pod strike deployed towards that base. They would fly blind, and the results could be fatal," the Scout finished.
"The second wave of Marines are waiting to be deployed," Calgar said, "It would be madness to deploy them now, with those defences and an unknown amount of Venom replicant Space Marines."
"So what do we do now?" Slippy asked, albeit hesitantly.
Calgar looked over and down at the frog, "We will take care of those defences ourselves, allowing the our reinforcements are clear passage down."
Slippy pupils diluted in fear. He squeaked, "Wrong question."
"I'll say," Falco agreed, gripping the sword he now held in his hand.
Meanwhile at Oikonny's main HQ in the crater, Andrew stood nervously in the control room…
"Has the Marines reported back yet?" he asked.
"No, sir," an officer replied.
"Darn," he cursed out loud.
He then heard a voice come from within the shadows, which made his blood freeze.
"Is there a problem, Oikonny?"
The monkey smiled nervously and turned to face the darkness, "No, of course not."
"You could just open the daemon gate and allow my people to take care of Star Fox," the figure asked, his red eyes cutting through the darkness, "If you can't handle them."
"I can handle them," Andrew replied, "Just give me a couple of hours and their heads will be on a pike at the nearest town."
The figure smiled, stepping out the darkness to reveal a heavily mutated Bill Grey. He had grown a few feet as his arms and legs were pumped up and heavily muscle. His muzzle had grown a few feet, making him look like a werewolf on a really bad day.
"I hope so, Oikonny," the daemon inhibiting Bill said, "My masters would not be pleased one bit of you were to fail."
Unknown to them, the heroes was crouched behind some large rocks outside the crater base, which they reached after half-an-hour of trekking across the grassy plains. Fox looked over it with his zoom-goggles.
"That is a really big base," Fox said, nodding slightly, "No doubt about it."
"I'm more concerned about that large gun," Fara said, where she and everyone else noticed that massive cannon aimed at the air, "With a weapon like that, Oikonny could target any planet in the Lylat system."
One problem, though, Peppy's voice and image came over the com, The gun, even though it's not built yet, doesn't appeared to be aimed at any of Lylat's planets.
"Come again?" Fara replied.
"Let's cut the chatter," Fox said, "We'll go in towards the control tower and we'll shut down their defences and whatever else they've got that prevents the Marine from doing what they do best."
"Damn right!" a Scout exclaimed with glee, gripping his large sniper rifle.
"There's appears to be a lot of heat around the buildings, especially the control tower," another Scout pointed out, who was looking over the whole base and it's many smaller buildings situated around the cannon.
"And I'm more concerned about the tunnel carved into the side of the canyon," Calgar said, "It would appear to lead into the Chaos Temple that is on this planet. If we are going to do this, we must act with haste."
Fox thought for a moment, before snapping his fingers, "Distraction. We create a distraction on one side of the base, while me and the others will go in."
"Leave that to me," the Scout leader said, pulling out some remote-detonation explosives, "Get into position. I'll wire these up and once the fireworks start, get into the tower."
Fox nodded, "What about you, Calgar?"
"I will secure this area," the chapter-master replied, "With my height, they'll pick me up in an instant."
"Obviously," Falco said cynically, "Alright, let's do this."
Everyone nodded. The Scout Marines took off towards the eastern side of the base while Star Fox including Jacques begun to rappel down towards the back of a small supply depot at the edge of the base.
'Emperor be with us,' Calgar thought.
Meanwhile in the control room…
"We have company," the daemon said, head jerking upwards.
Andrew turned to him suddenly, "How do you know?"
"I sense another psionic force nearby," the daemon replied, then smiled, "Two, to be precise."
"Well, let's raise the alarm and go get em'!" Andrew exclaimed.
The daemon inhibiting Bill's form shook his head, "No. Let's lure them into a false sense of security."
Fox, Falco, Slippy, Krystal, Fara and Jacques had their backs against the wall of the supply depot at the bottom of the crater, where Fox looked behind the corner, seeing Venomians including primates, lizards and even clone Marines patrolling everywhere.
'Damn,' Fox thought, 'They're churning out those Marine everywhere.'
He then saw a large building with what appeared to be several bio-vast situated around it. He glared.
'And they're coming from over there.'
He turned to the others…
"Change of plans," he declared, "Falco, Fara, Slippy; you take care of the control tower. Krystal, Jacques, on me."
"Where the hell are you going?" Falco demanded.
Fox frowned and replied with finality, "We're gonna make sure there is only one Jacques Mortensen."
Suddenly, they all heard a massive explosion near a fuel tanker at the other side of the base. The plans were now in complete motion.
"Go!" Fox exclaimed.
Split into two groups, they headed toward both the control tower and the cloning centre, making sure to dive in and out of cover as the Venomians all ran towards the source of the 'attack.'
"MOVE IT YOU MAGGOTS!" one lizard cried, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK HERE!"
The Scout Marines quickly made themselves scarcely, activating their camouflage and making themselves scarce near the buildings.
There was still some security outside the control tower doors, where their blaster rifles were up and they were ready for war. Fara, Falco and Slippy kept their backs to a nearby wall.
"Nuts," Slippy said, "So much for going in easy."
Fara smiled, "Leave this to me."
She then broke cover and walked towards, sauntering herself as they took notice of her and her rather seductive looking smile.
"Hello, boys."
One of the four guards, a monkey, smiled, "Hello, there. You have clearance."
"Yeah, sure. HERE!"
She then ran and drop kicked one in the face, sending him toppling onto the ground. She then grabbed the rifle of another and threw him over herself, before snapping his neck. The other two guards charged at her, before being put down by Slippy's shotgun.
"Nice shooting with that buckshot," Falco said, smirking.
"Thanks," Slippy chimed, smiling, "Those were my last two shots."
With that he dropped his Imperial-made weapon.
"Let's get inside," Fara said.
Falco nodded, "Ladies first."
Outside the cloning plant Fox, Krystal and Jacques fought their way outside the back entry into the planet, against security guards and Marines.
"Kill Mortensen Prime!" a Venom Marine cried.
"Not before you!" Jacques cried, slicing the Marine head off with his chainsword.
With his blade in one hand and his plasma rifle in the other, he fired off a energy bolt into the chest-plate of one Marine and finished him off with his blade, tearing into his exposed chest. Krystal smacked one Marine with her staff in the knees, bringing him down. She then swung her staff and drove it through the neck of the Marine.
'God, I feel like I'm killing the real Jacques,' she thought, disturbed.
Jacques then tackled several Venomian guards down, where he pounded the head of one into the ground with his armoured fists and then cracked the chests of the others with his foot.
"Let's get inside," Fox said, still gripping his weapons and not noticing the blood on his armour.
They ran into the back door of the plant, which led them down through a dark hallway lit up by neon lights. At the other end was a light…
"I bet something unexpected will greet us once we hit the light," Krystal cried, puffing as they ran.
"Always does," Fox said, gritting his teeth and trying to blink away the blood, which was running into his eyes.
Meanwhile outside the crater, Calgar watched as the distracted Venomians ran towards both the control tower and the cloning plant, weapons drawn and armed. He bit his lip, knowing this was not a very good sign.
"Damn it," he cursed, "They'll be overwhelmed."
"We should get the strike ready," a Scout Marine suggested, having returned from the crater, "They must have broken into the tower by now."
Calgar nodded, "We may have only another one hundred and fifty brothers left, but they will fight to the death."