Disclaimer: See the Prologue
Chapter 36 – Oikonny's Grand Plan
Snapping the neck of the guard, Fara broke into the control tower's bridge, where a whole bunch of frightened technicians greeted them…
"LOOK OUT! INTRUDERS!"
…and about four more guards packing blasters. She raised her sniper rifle and quickly plugged them, splattering their brain and skull matter over the walls, floor and even over some unfortunate techs, which they cried out at having gore splatter over them. Slippy and Falco also stepped into the room.
"Whoa, harsh!" Falco commented, seeing the dead and splattered guards.
Fara shoulder her sniper rifle and called out, "Alright. We're assuming control of the base. If anyone doesn't comply with our orders will be executed immediately."
"Hey!" one of the techs cried, "We have right, ya' know? And what make you think…"
The stupid tech felt a laser bolt tear through his shoulder, spattering blood over the terminals. The defenceless Venomians all fell silent, except for the shot tech who was moaning and clutching his shoulder.
"Like I said, harsh," Falco remarked again.
"Alright Slip," Fara said, turning to the technical wizard of a frog, "Do your thing."
Slippy shook his head, "Yes ma'am."
Meanwhile at the cloning plant not so far; Fox, Jacques and Krystal couldn't believe what they were seeing once they had reached the end of the dark passage into the plant.
"Son of a bitch," Fox cursed softly.
"Indeed," Jacques agreed.
They were in a massive, white-coloured, clean and well-kept almost circular room, which was lined with possibly several thousand vats, each one containing a singular clone of Jacques, who upon seeing such heresy wanted to grab his chainsword and slice into each vat and kill the creature within each one.
But he knew better; they had to play it smart.
"All this five days after MacBeth?" Krystal queried as they begun to walk down between the vats, seeing each naked clone of Jacques float around motionless in each tank, breathing apparatuses connected to each one.
"They could have had longer," Fox added.
"I believe in Krystal," Jacques said, "They were all possibly spawned five days after MacBeth."
Fox stepped up to one vat and peered into it, seeing the clone inside of it, eyes closed as if it was asleep, which it was. He checked the terminal next to it:
Status:
Health: 100
Neuro-device: Installed
Muscle Development: Complete
Circulation: Normal
Completion: 95
"Pretty cool, aren't they?"
They spun around to see Andrew standing there behind them, arms crossed and smiling.
"Oikonny," Jacques begun, before demanding, "What treachery is this?"
"You should be proud of yourself, Space Marine," Andrew said, "We've created a whole out of you. Ten-thousand Space Marines and counting, each one just as strong, agile and smart just like you."
"If they're strong as Jacques, how come we bet them so easily?" Fox asked, hand reaching for his sword.
"Ok, I admit," Andrew said, rolling his eyes, "They've still got some bugs. But after a month, they'll be ready for total war, where…"
He begun to step towards them, slowly and menacingly.
"…I'll wipe both Corneria and Terra off the face of the universe."
Jacques eyes widened, "Holy Terra?"
Andrew nodded.
Jacques felt like laughing, but he could only smirk, "You are insane! Nothing has ever reached Holy Terra in thousands of years. It's defences will make short work of your forces."
"I know that," Andrew said, "I'm not as dumb as most people think. That's why we have him."
Andrew pointed behind them and they saw…
"Bill?"
…the daemon-infested, mutation formally known as Bill Grey.
"And the Forces of Chaos ourselves," Bill finished.
The daemon smiled, "Yes. Combining our power with Venomian technology, which is somewhat more advanced than even our weapons, we will bathe this entire universal in Imperial and Cornerian blood."
Fox's eyes were wide in complete shock.
"Bill," he said, shaking his softly, "No."
"Let me guess," the daemon smiled, "My host was a dear friend?"
"Yeah!" Fox said, starting to become vengeful, "Either you leave his body now, or I'll force you out!"
"With that little staff the Cerinian beauty carries?" the daemon asked, pointing to Krystal's staff, "Come and get me out!"
Fox suddenly grabbed Krystal staff and rushed towards him, where he swung it at the daemon. The daemon leaped high in the air, avoiding the swing, before swinging his left tentacle at the vulpine…
"FOX!" Krystal cried.
…and slashing him across the hand, forcing him to drop the staff and clutch his hand in pain.
"AH…SHIT!" Fox cried.
Jacques raised his boltgun and fired at the daemon who was still in the air, which begun to plummet towards the Marine, where he knocked him down, grabbed his gun and swatted him over the head with it, downing him.
Krystal was terrified now. The daemon turned to the vixen, whose eyes were now wide like saucers and she stepped back up towards a cloning vat. The daemon smiled and stepped up to her, where he stretched his hand forward and caressed his face gently.
"I think I will give you the honour of becoming one of the brides of Chaos," the daemon said.
Krystal throat went dry at those words.
"N…no," she cried, "Never!"
And with that, she felt the daemon hardened knee drive into her gut, causing her to fall forward, where both pain and shake knocking her into unconsciousness. The daemon smiled with immense satisfaction, before noticing that Andrew was watching all this time, and grinning.
"Amused, Oikonny?" the daemon asked.
"Very," Andrew replied, not wiping that smile off his face.
Meanwhile in the control tower, Slippy was typing away at the nearest terminal, cursing softly at somehow he wasn't able to hack into the system.
"You can't just hack into the defence!" a technician cried, "You'll leave us all open to attack!"
"That's the idea," Fara replied, his gun aimed at the technicians who were all force into a corner, "Any luck, Slippy?"
The frog shook his head and replied, "No. I can't even begin to breach their network's safeguards. Something is stopping me from even logging in."
"What?" Falco exclaimed, "How?"
Slippy shrugged, not noticing the sweat rolling down his forehead, "I don't know. Maybe some kind of unseen force."
Fara rolled her eyes and stepped up to the terminal…
"Let me try something."
She crouched underneath the terminal, opening the circuit panel and placing her hands in it. A few seconds later…
"Try hacking in now," Fara said.
Slippy nodded, and begun typing away at the terminal once again, where Falco shot the vixen a questionable glance.
"What did ya' do?" the avian asked.
Before Fara could reply, Venom Marines smashed into the room, guns drawn and aimed at Fara, Falco and Slippy.
"Hands up, intruders!" one of them cried.
Fara did so without hesitation, which earned the confused looks of both Slippy and Falco. She looked slightly towards them and winked, as if in assurance.
Falco sighed, "We surrender."
And with that, Falco and Slippy put their hands up, where they suddenly shoved forward by the Marines.
"Ow!" Slippy cried.
"Silence, hacker!" the Marine ordered.
Meanwhile Fox, Krystal and Jacques were once again floating through the place where there is neither pain nor thought.
'Not again,' Jacques nevertheless thought, counting that this was the third time he was knocked out cold.
And how he was woken up wasn't any different: Abruptly. As he felt several thousand volts circulate through him.
"WAKE UP, HUMAN!"
He opened his eyes to find four reptilian guards armed with shock-prods standing around him. He saw that his hands were tightly bound before him. The guards looked down at him with cold, hard hatred flowing through their eyes.
"I don't think he's awake," a guard said, smiling, "Give him another shock."
"NO!"
He quickly got up and rammed into the nearest guard, knocking him down.
"SHIT! HE'S LOOSE!" another guard cried, gripping his prod.
He tried to pull his binds apart with his immense strength, but…
"ARGHHHHHHHH!"
…several thousand more volts circulated through him from the binds, with him feeling like his organs were exploding inside of him. He fell to his knees, energy draining rapidly. He then heard the sharp chuckle of a reptilian officer as he entered the room.
"Guess good ol' fashion electricity can only bring a man down, eh?" he said with amusement.
Jacques shot him a glare, "Where is Fox and Krystal? If you have harmed them…!"
"Relax, humie," the officer said, "They're waiting for ya'. But I doubt they'll be in one piece before you reach them."
Alarmed, Jacques once again tried to pull his binds apart, only to be shocked once again, where he fell forward onto the floor, face first. He exhaled painfully…
"Krystal…" he moaned, "No."
Somewhere not far off, Fox felt an armoured fist smash into the side of his face as two Venom Marines held him up, another one punching him smiling evilly. Krystal was standing somewhere off, where she did her best not to cry out in alarm as she was held back by two more Marines. The Marines all had their helmets off, revealing Jacques' face.
"Are you ready to talk yet, Fox?" the one punching him asked.
Fox spat blood and a molar, before replying, "Fuck you, clone-freak!"
"Fox!" Krystal exclaimed, "Don't."
The interrogating Marine slapped her across the face, yelling, "Shut your mouth!"
Fox struggled against the Marines holding him, only to feel the Marine's foot against his crutch, causing him to let out a silent scream, where the Marine let go of his arms and allowing him to sink to the floor.
"You…bastards," Fox said painfully, "I'll…gonna kill you all!"
"You are in no position to make threats, McCloud," a familiar voice sounded off with glee.
Out stepped Andrew from the doorway, accompanied by the daemon and another Venom Marine, who was armed with a laser minigun.
"What have you done with Jacques, Oikonny?" Krystal demanded, "If you dare hurt him…"
"Oh, he's right behind us," the daemon answered.
They stepped outside to allow Jacques to be thrown into interrogation by two Venom Marines, where he then coughed up more blood.
"Jacques," Fox managed to say, getting up slowly with one hand covering his crutch.
The young Marine was breathing through his clinched teeth, with both pain and anger searing through him, which he would be happy to direct it towards Oikonny right now.
"Are…you…alright?" Jacques asked, facing Krystal.
She nodded, only to feel an armoured hand grab her throat. Jacques' eyes shot open in alarm, but he couldn't find the strength to stand up.
'I am sorry, Your Highness,' he thought in pain.
"Bring them all to the gun," Andrew ordered, "I feel like showing them my grand plan before I cook them and…"
He turned towards Krystal, smiling.
"…have some fun with this here vixen."
Andrew's comment really sent both Fox and Jacques over the edge. They wanted to break out of their binds and smash his head into the wall until there was nothing left but a bloody stump of a spinal column.
"Fuck you!" Fox exclaimed menacingly.
But knowing they would die if they would try to put any resistance, they grudgingly stood up as they felt the Venom Marine's feet nudge at their ribs.
They were all soon escorted through the base as several Venomian personnel trained their guns at the group, especially the Space Marine.
"Relax," one of them assured the others, "He's not gonna break out of those electro-binds."
They all then sighed with relief, where then Jacques thought; 'When I break out of these cuffs, I will show you all a world of immense pain.'
Star Fox were made to walk towards the megacannon, towards a separate facility next to it, which it was connected to by a skyway. They stepped into the facility through some large double doors, where a large circular room greeted them…and so did Fara, Falco and Slippy, also in binds.
"Damn it!" Fox exclaimed, "You guys should have escaped by now."
Fox was shoved right before Falco, who had a rather disturbed look on his face.
"We would have if Oikonny didn't 'send in the clones!'" Falco replied.
"SILENCE!" Oikonny boomed out, trying to sound authoritarian.
Falco rolled his eyes, "Whatever monkey-boy."
He then felt the muzzle of a blaster rifle against his neck.
"Respectively," he added, 'Goddamn it.'
They watched as Andrew frowned, before walking towards the centre of the large room, which had what appeared to be an in-ground terminal station. He stepped past the technicians operating the computers and looked down, presumably over a screen. He then smiled.
"You guys should check out the view," Andrew called out, "It's great."
The group was pushed forward, before he walked over towards the station, under escort.
"You know how Terra is heavily defended against any sort of attack," Andrew said, "What with minefields, defence platforms and thousands of warships, it would make any sort of assault suicide."
"And you are insane to even think of trying to land on the Emperor's throne world," Jacques responded.
Andrew smiled as Jacques became close, "That's what inspired me to build this big beauty of a ray-gun."
Jacques' eyes widened, "What?"
What appeared to be a large telescopic eyepiece extended from the other side of the room towards the station; where Andrew was still smiling.
"Take a look through the telescope I 'burrowed' from Beltino."
Jacques stepped up to it and put his eye to it. He then gasped out loud.
"Holy Terra!" he exclaimed
"That's right," Andrew said, "This telescope is that powerful you can actually see your own homeworld."
"I wasn't born on Terra," Jacques replied, turning towards him and frowning.
"Then I'm sure you won't mind me blowing it up."
Jacques' eye shot open, as did the others.
"WHAT?"
"You heard me, human," Andrew continued, glaring, "I'm gonna blast that planet's defences and anything else between here and there. Then with about a hundred MILLION of your own clones, I'm gonna land on Terra, step up to your so-called Emperor and spit in his face."
Jacques couldn't believe he had just heard that.
'No!' he thought alarmed, 'This is cannot be happening.'
Of all of Disorder's most diabolical schemes, this was bound to be the worst, craziest plan to ever be concocted. And as a loyal subject of the Emperor and of the Ultramarines, he had to stop it.
"You ARE insane!" Jacques cried, "If you destroy Terra, the million other worlds of the Imperium will arrive here in Lylat and burn it. Billions of innocent Lylatians will die."
"Relax," the daemon said, "That won't happen in at a month. But in a few hours this cannon will be operational and we will pave a wave of destruction onto the Imperium's worlds…"
He then eyed Andrew.
"…I hope."
Andrew nodded nervously, "Of course."
"Enough of playing the villainous stereotype," the daemon growled, "Kill them...slowly."
The Venom Marines cocked their guns, followed by a massive explosion, which shook the entire base, sending everyone off their feet and landing on the ground painfully.
"What in damnation was that?" the daemon demanded.