CHAPTER 2
Fox parked the arwing in his usual spot in the Great Fox hangar, and was surprised to hear Peppy inform him that he had a visitor. Fox walked up to the bridge to see Trent Lanshius, the captain he had talked to earlier, standing on the bridge, waiting for Fox's arrival.
"Trent. Glad to see you made it through all right." Fox said and smiled as he shook his hand. "You too, sir." Trent said. "I promised you guys I'd buy you all drinks," Trent said and looked at the rest of the StarFox team.
"Well, here you go." He said and ROB 64 entered the bridge holding a tray of five bottles of Cornerian ale. "Thanks, Trent." Fox said as he and everyone else took a bottle. Fox held up his bottle as he said "To...umm...aww who cares." He said and grinned as everyone else held their bottles up towards his and Fox downed his bottle. After that, General Pepper entered the bridge.
"Captain Lanshius. Good to see you made it through safely." Pepper said as he shook Trent's hand.
"Thank you, sir. Glad you made it through safely yourself, General." Trent said. "Well, Fox? Did the mission go as planned?" The general asked as he turned towards Fox.
"Sort of...We got Oikonny, but then..." "Then what?" Pepper asked. "We had to blow up with this thing...Aparoid, I think it was called?" Fox said. Pepper hung his head low as if he had just gotten word someone had died.
"Fox, all of you, come in to the briefing room with me, now." Pepper said quietly as he turned and left the hangar. Krystal looked at Fox with that 'what's going on' look and Fox shrugged his shoulders. He was just as much in the dark as everyone else was.
Fox ran to catch up with the general and asked him, "General, what the heck is this aparoid thing?" Pepper said nothing. He just continued walking to the briefing room, ignoring Fox.
"This is serious." Fox thought. "Something is really getting to him about this aparoid thing..."
The door to the briefing room automatically swung open as Pepper walked in and rubbed his forehead in thought.
"Team StarFox...We are in grave danger. The Lylat system is in peril..." Pepper said as he hung his head.
"What! What do you know?" Fox asked. "I...er...the research director will brief you on the details..." Pepper said as Beltino Toad entered the briefing room. "Well hello everybody." He said. Fox cleared his throat and made a gesture with his hands that told Beltino to adjust his glasses.
"Oh..." he said and did so. "Dad! You never told me you were the research director!" Slippy said. "Well...umm...of course I...anyway,..." Beltino said and grabbed a remote attached to the base of the VAC.
"These aparoids -" Beltino began "Aparoids?" Fox asked. "Indeed. These are the enemies you faced earlier." "I believe it was about seventeen years ago..." He said and pressed a button on the remote, and a video image of the Cornerian Fleet came on the screen.
Beltino hit the play button and continued, "An entire fleet was destroyed by a sole aparoid. We've been able to analyze the core memory you picked up, Fox, but it'd be better if we had, perhaps, a whole specimen to work with," Beltino said and looked at Fox. Fox nodded as he watched the VAC display one Cornerian ship being destroyed after another. Beltino winced as he watched it.
"Wow...just one aparoid did this!" Krystal asked. Beltino stopped the tape and nodded. "Yes...and if --" Beltino began to say but was interrupted by General Pepper.
"Fox, we're receiving a distress signal from Katina, but...we've been able to contact anyone there." Pepper said. "I'm sure that these bastards are involved. We need you guys to go down there and figure out what is wrong."
"All right, sir." Fox said. "I'll fly down and try to find out where the distress signal is coming from a--" "You're going alone? It's too dangerous. I'm coming with you too, Fox." Krystal said. "No. I want you guys covering me from above in the arwings in orbit around Katina." Fox said and smiled at her. Krystal nodded. "All right, I'm really counting on you guys. let's kick some ass." Fox said.
"Hey, Fox. You want me to cover you in my Cruiser?" Trent asked. "Nah...you need to help with relief efforts from Oikonny's battle, Trent." Fox said.
"All right, I hope to see you again, Fox." Trent said as he left the briefing room to return to his shuttle. Fox, again, took the walk down the corridor that lead to the Arwing hangar. "Whaddya think is goin' on, Fox?" Slippy asked. Fox shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine, slip-up." Fox said.
"Ok, slip. Try not to get stuck in the cockpit this time, will ya?" Fox asked him and laughed. "Sure..." Slippy said, obviously embarrassed.
Fox jumped in his Arwing and closed the canopy as he strapped on his wrist communicator. "Ok. I want you guys to hold in orbit around Katina. I'm flying down to inspect the base. I'll signal you guys should there be any trouble." Fox said as he began the startup sequence.
A 'copy' came from them simultaneously. "Ok. We all set then?" Fox asked as he released the lift locks on his Arwing. The rest of the team released their lift locks to signify they were ready as well. Fox nodded to nobody in particular as he grabbed the throttle. He grinned as he pushed it all the way forward, sending his head into the cushioned seat of the Arwing.
"Didn't Pepper say they couldn't contact anyone at the base, Fox?" Krystal asked as they flew out of the hangar and into space.
"Yep." Fox said and did, rather poorly, an impersonation of Pepper, to liven up the situation. "But...we've been unable to contact anyone there." Fox said as Krystal, Falco, and Slippy laughed over the comm.
Fox saw fire from the atmosphere lapping around the nose of his Arwing and he gave the signal for the rest of the team to peel off and hold in orbit. Fox broke through the atmosphere at the coordinates ROB had transmitted to the Arwing before departure and he saw the base.
The base consisted of one central building with four separate parts of it, making it look like a + sign. There were ramps at all ends of the complex, for unloading provisions, Fox thought. The base was surrounded by six walls that were perpendicular to the extensions on the + sign of the complex. At the two corners farthest away from the complex were two raised platforms, and on those platforms was the symbol on Katina's flag, spinning on a raised area on the platforms.
Small fires were strewn throughout the complex, and the central tower was burning and smoldering badly. Fox looked around on the ground, hoping, praying, to see some friendly troop movement. He couldn't see anyone.
"Yo Fox. Whatcha see down there?" Falco said. "Nothing...I can't see anything. No troops, no...nothing." Fox said in disbelief as he cocked a brow at the base. "What the heck is going on here!" Fox thought.
"Something's wrong. I'm going on foot. I'm gonna need you guys to come down here and give me some air cover, should this whole place go to hell, okay?" Fox said and a 'copy' came from them.
Fox landed the arwing just outside the base, near the main entrance, which, to his surprise, was wide open.
He sat in the cockpit and waited...waited for something, anything, to happen. "Holy crap...Where is everybody?" he thought.
Fox adjusted his wrist communicator, opened up the canopy, and jumped down to the sandy soil of Katina. Fox looked up to see the other three Arwings flying in for air cover. "Falco. You hear me ok?" Fox said. "Loud and clear, McCloud. Watch your ass down there, Ok?" Falco said back.
"Right." Fox said and withdrew his blaster from his gear pack. "Hmm...it's too quiet..." Fox said as he walked slowly into the entrance of the base.
Fox heard a hissing, then a loud beeping behind him as the huge door closed down behind him. "Damn! It's a trap!" Fox said as he looked around in all directions, gritting his teeth. 5 aparoids, insect-like in appearance, jumped right in front of Fox, scaring him out of his fur.
Fox ran from them, and while he was running, he turned, held his blaster at arm's length in his right hand, and fired wildly into the oncoming onslaught of aparoids, stopping them dead in their tracks as their limbs were blown clean off from Fox's blaster. Fox walked back up to them, a smirk on his face, and held his blaster at arm's length. Fox shot directly into the eyes of the aparoids, ceasing their movements completely.
He thought he was 'the man', wasting these 5 aparoids, until he looked past the smoldering aparoids, and saw countless numbers of the same type. "Oh...shit..." Fox thought. And, as if that didn't make his situation worse enough, the sky had been filled with airborne aparoids, giving the rest of the team a hell of a fight. "Fox! Find another gun! Get a rifle...or something!" Came Falco's voice over the comm.
Fox picked up a machine gun, and an extra mag from a dead soldier, then Fox realized it. He winced as he looked at the dead Cornerian trooper. Fox dropped the magazine out from the right side of the machine gun. He read the gauge and grinned as he rammed it back into the magazine well.
The reason he grinned is because of the ammo reading: 164 rounds. Fox made sure the safety was off, and held it at his hip and drilled all the aparoids, knocking most, if not all, their limbs off. Fox looked around and now he knew why Pepper couldn't raise anyone on the VAC. Dead.
The aparoids had killed all the troops stationed here. Lucky for Fox, this gave him even more reasons to waste these bastards. Fox ran around a corner of the central complex and ran right back, scared out of his mind. Fox saw an aparoid, but it was three times his height, and stood on four colossal legs.
Fox ran back around, steadied the MG on his shoulder while he was still moving, and fired bursts at its head. Fox nearly wet his pants at what happened next. That aparoid had a shield...some kind of barrier.
"Fox! That thing isn't workin'!" Falco said sarcastically as he swooped down in his Arwing and vaped the aparoid. "Thanks, Falco." Fox said and waved his MG in the air at Falco. Fox began to take a sigh of relief but an explosion that occurred beside him knocked him off his feet. Fox shook his head to clear it as he got up, picked up his MG, and ran in a nearby hangar for cover.
"Falco! Watch where you're aiming that damn Arwing at! You just about blew me up!" Fox yelled into his wrist comm. "Uhh...Fox. That wasn't me. I've been chewin' up the airbornes up here."
Fox slowly moved his head from around the corner of the hangar, and near the very end of the base, on the raised platforms with Katina's symbol on it, sat another of the colossal aparoids, and it reared back on its hind 2 legs as a dark orb came from inside it, straight at the hangar.
Fox watched it soar high into the sky, and as it came closer, Fox saw it was an orb of pure energy. Fox dove on the ground as he dropped his MG and covered his head as the hangar was blown to pieces. Fox slung the MG over his back, and ran like hell.
He dove behind a wall, out of range of the aparoid, and stood up. "Holy crap! There's no end to these damn things." Fox said through his wrist comm. "Peppy! I need a Landmaster. NOW!" Fox said. "Ok. On its way. What's the current situation?" "Well, my hands are full, but what else is new, right?" Fox said as he rammed another mag into the MG and held it around the wall and fired blindly into a bunch of aparoids, wasting most of them, waiting for the Landmaster.
"Done, Fox. Here's your Landmaster." Peppy said as a blue beam shot down from space, from the Great Fox, and Fox could see the silhouette of the Landmaster begin to form. First it was transparent, like a reflection from the sun, but the beam intensified, and before long the Landmaster materialized before Fox's eyes.
But...unfortunately for Fox, Peppy transported it dead center in an open field of the base, and was almost immediately surrounded by the aparoids. "Damn, Peppy. It's great to see that the transmitter's targeting system is as sharp as ever." Fox said as he ran out from the cover, surprising the aparoids as he drilled them with the MG.
He checked the gauge: 86 rds. Fox opened up the canopy to the Landmaster and jumped inside as he flipped the safety switch on the MG to the 'on' position and set it in the floorboard of the Landmaster.
Fox buckled up his harness as he began to warm up the engine and bring the targeting systems online. Fox grabbed both the control sticks, steering with the right hand, gun controls in the left. Fox's HUD came up from the dashboard console, and the radar came online as well.
He charged up the main gun and hit the gas. "Fox! Head out to the bigger targets on your radar. They're marked red." Came Peppy's voice over the Landmaster's comm. "Got it." Fox said as he barrel rolled the Landmaster, wiping out several aparoids in doing so.
Fox turned the Landmaster towards one of the ramps, blew the maintenance door off, and bit his lip as he saw another type of aparoid on the ramp. They were small, and had wheels on both sides...almost resembling some kind of tank or assault vehicle.
One of them turned, faced the Landmster, and opened fire with a wave of green lasers. Fox floored the Landmaster, wasting all the aparoids as he climbed up the ramp. As Fox got a bird's eye view of the situation, he thought "Man, these bastards are everywhere..."as he wasted one of the targets, the aparoid type that fired the purple orbs at Fox earlier.
Fox checked the radar. 5 more targets, and about twenty times that many stragglers. Fox drove the Landmaster around the perimeter of the base, maneuvering, firing, and obliterating the targets, along with everything else in his path, until one of the tank aparoids that Fox had missed fired a laser blast and took out Fox's radar.
"Oh hell no!" Fox said as he turned the Landmaster and ran the aparoid over, causing it to explode. Fox tapped the buttons on the dashboard console frantically, trying to get the radar back up, but nothing worked.
"That's it, Fox. Just a few more targets left." Peppy said. "Umm...Peppy! In case you've not noticed, I'm driving this thing BLIND down here!" Fox yelled into the comm. "Ok...just hold out a little bit...I'll see if I can transmit a new console to you shortly..." Peppy said.
"Ok." Fox said as he grabbed his MG, opened up the canopy, and jumped out of the Landmaster. Fox ran behind cover of a wall and waited...waited to see Peppy's beam from the Great Fox transmit the new radar console to him. About ten minutes passed...nothing.
"Peppy!" Fox said into his wrist comm. "Sorry, Fox. No-can-do up here. I'd have to transmit the Landmaster back up here, replace the con--" "OK! I get the idea!" Fox yelled in anger as he drilled a few insect aparoids with the MG.
Fox took a deep breath and dove for the Landmaster, just as a group of the tank-like aparoids appeared from behind a wall and headed straight for him. In midair, Fox held the MG at arm's length and squeezed the trigger, knocking one them out of commission.
He hit the ground and steadied the MG on his shoulder and drilled away at the aparoids as they returned fire. Fox rolled around on the ground like crazy, desperately trying to dodge the blasts, then stood up, placing the MG at his hip. He again squeezed the trigger and wasted the rest of them.
Fox slung the MG over his back and looked up to see Krystal vape a bunch of the flying aparoids. Fox smiled as he crawled under the Landmaster to try and fix the radar system. He felt the heat of a laser blast and withdrew the MG from his back. Fox fired blindly into the direction it had come from, carefully making sure not to take his foot off in the process, and the laser blasts stopped abruptly.
He tossed down the MG as he wiped sweat from his forehead and began to set to work on the damaged Landmaster. "Dammit, there's nothing left here!" He said as he got a good look at the damage. There were a few sparks where the wires that fed power had been. Fox picked up the MG and read the gauge. 73 rds. left in the clip.
Fox was stumped. That aparoid blew a hole in the weakest part of the Landmaster's armor. "Maybe, I cou-" Fox began to say. "Fox!" Came Krystal's voice over his wrist comm.
"What! What's wrong, Krys!" Fox asked, instantly stopping working on the Landmaster. Fox froze. "I've got bogeys on my six! I...I can't shake 'em. It's unbelievable! Waste 'em for me, Fox!" She said. "Shit." Fox thought. "I'll do my best, Krys." Fox said as he crawled out from under the Landmaster, stood up, and steadied the MG on his shoulder, getting a clear sight picture and lined it up with Krystal's arwing as she flew over his head.
Fox fired a burst, knocking down one of the three flying aparoids behind her ship. Fox whirled around 180 degrees as her Arwing passed over his head, and Fox kept firing bursts from his MG. Fox knocked a second ship down and quickly checked the ammo. 26 rds. "Shit" Fox mumbled.
"Krystal! Bring 'em over towards me again." Fox yelled into his wrist comm. "Ok, Fox. Why aren't you using the tank?" She asked as she turned her arwing towards Fox. "No radar." Fox said as he shot at, and hit, the aparoid and watched it fly towards Katina and explode on impact.
"Thanks, Fox. I really owe you one for this." Krystal said. "At your service, madam." Fox said sarcastically into the comm as he checked the gauge on the MG. empty. Fox tossed it aside and drew his blaster as he once again crawled under the Landmaster.
Now, Fox had some time to put his plan into motion, he just didn't know how much. "Oh yeah..." Fox said as he crawled out from under the Landmaster, picked up the MG, took the clip out of it, and ran back to the landmaster and opened the canopy to cut off all the power on it.
Fox did and crawled back under, and the sparks from the wires had gone. Fox looked at the empty clip, looked at the hole that the aparoid had created, and jammed the clip in there as hard as he could. Fox took his blaster and hit the clip with the butt of the handle repeatedly, just to make sure it wouldn't budge. He reached up and tugged on it a few times, just to make sure it would stay. It didn't move an inch.
Fox climbed out from under the Landmaster and jumped in the cockpit. As he closed the canopy, he fired up the engine and brought the main gun online as he prayed for the radar to come back. Fox looked at the switch that would bring the radar targeting online and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and flipped the switch.
When he had opened his eyes, the radar display was still blank. Fox could feel his eyelids twitch with frustration as he reached for his blaster. Fox stopped with his right hand just a few inches away from the blaster handle, and looked at the console with a look of utter disgust on his face. He cursed under his breath as he reared his arm back and pounded the console with his fists, hoping it would fire up.
Lucky for Fox McCloud, it actually did. Fox looked at the radar and smiled at his accomplishment as the line circled the display, illuminating the targets as it passed over them. Fox headed out to the closest target out of two, bulldozing every small aparoid in his path as he did so. Fox was on a war path.
He grinned as he watched the smaller aparoids fly into the air and then right back to Katina and explode as he rammed them with the Landmaster. Fox held the trigger, charging the laser, and let it fly to the target as it reared back, trying to let loose another purple orb of energy at him, but never got the chance.
"Wait...what the hell!" Fox said as he looked up into the sky. "Peppy. What are these things? You sendin' me a supply drop or something?" Fox said into his wrist comm. "No...we haven't sent any...oh no..." Peppy said. "Fox...we've got some problems...Those things falling from the sky, hatchers, spawn more aparoids. You've gotta waste 'em, Fox." Peppy said. "Damn...it just gets better and better, doesn't it, Peppy?" Fox asked.
"Don't give it up, Fox. Go on and kick some ass." Falco said over the comm. Fox nodded to nobody in particular and said "All right. Consider 'em wasted." and fired a shot from the Landmaster, vaping one of the targets.
"Peppy. How many of these things have I got to blow up?" Fox said. "Umm...scanners are picking up 10." Peppy said. "All right." Fox said as he ran over a bunch of the insect aparoids. Fox once again drove around the perimeter of the base, knocking off target after target, and about a hundred stragglers around each one, but Fox still had a few targets left.
"Fox. Check inside the buildings. You've gotta find a way inside somehow." Peppy said. "10-4. How do I get inside?" Fox asked. "Sorry, Fox. You're on your own here. Try to find an elevator to get inside." Peppy said.
Fox parked the Landmaster beside one of the extensions of the + sign complex. He grabbed his blaster as he opened the canopy. Fox wasted insect aparoids one after the other as he tried to make his way to the ramp of the complex that would take him to where the elevators were located. Fox pressed the 'open' switch and ran up the ramp, to the nearest elevator, which was at the very center of the complex.
He hit the 'down' button and descended into the depths of the central complex. Fox drew his blaster as he neared the lower level, and was greeted with a whole slew of the insect aparoids as the elevator hit the lower level. Fox wasted them all, with minimal effort, and slowly made his way to the target.
Fox finally got a good look at the hatchers. It was disgusting. It was circular, had a slimy green color, a bright yellow center, and it was clinging to the wall of the room with three long, slender legs. Fox stepped back, charged up his blaster, and let it fly, obliterating the target completely.
"Target down!" Fox said into the comm. Fox ran back to the Landmaster and glanced at the radar. The remaining targets were bunched up close together and Fox hit the gas, headed straight in their direction. Fox stopped the Landmaster and looked at the radar closely.
Fox looked out of the cockpit and saw a huge warehouse door. Radar said they were inside. Fox backed up the Landmaster about a hundred feet, charged up the turret, and blew the door down. Fox grabbed his blaster and slowly walked inside the warehouse full of boxes.
Fox slowly moved his head around the corner of one of the boxes and saw countless numbers of the insect aparoids guarding two hatchers. Fox took a deep breath and fired shot after shot into the mob of aparoids. Fox gritted his teeth as the aparoids were demolished, wailing out their cries of pain as Fox finished them off with well-placed shots to the head. Fox pulled a grenade out of his gear pack, pressed the 'arm' button, and threw it at the hatchers.
He watched it shine bright red, then change to a white light. Fox smiled as it exploded brilliantly, taking both of the hatchers with it. "All right, Fox! Get back to the...Oh no..." Peppy said. "What is it?" Fox asked. "We've got a new enemy presence in the base. A big enemy presence. Get to the Landmaster." Peppy said.
Fox got outside of the complex, and saw what had scared Peppy. A huge red semi-sphere of energy, made out of small hexagons, had formed over the northeast quadrant of the base. "Oh...I've got a bad feeling about this..." Fox said. "Oh shit!" Fox said as he saw what came through the barrier of energy. A HUGE, colossal aparoid that towered twice the height of the tallest part of the base.
It had a head that looked like a UFO, and it stood on four colossal legs, with it's feet the size of the Landmaster. "Damn we're screwed." Falco said over the comm. Fox nodded as he gritted his teeth at the aparoid. "So...This big bastard's the leader, huh?" Fox asked to nobody in particular and charged up the turret of the Landmaster.
"Fox! Aim for the flashing red ball in the center of it's underside! That's the weak point." Peppy said. Fox nodded and fired a shot into it. Nothing happened, but the aparoid shot a huge wave of missles from it's underside, straight at Fox. Fox rolled the Landmaster, dodging the missles, but it knocked off the bearings he had for the orb on it's underside. "Damn! I can't get a good shot off!" Fox yelled into the comm.
Fox stopped the Landmaster and pointed the turret at the orb. He fired, and it hit it's mark. The aparoid's legs gave out and it collapsed onto the ground of Katina. Now, Fox! Get on top of it!" Peppy yelled. "What! I thought you said that the frigging underside was it's weak point." Fox said as he hit the hover switch.
"Sorry, Fox. You've got to hit the underside to get on the top. The aparoid's most vulnerable point is on the top." Peppy said as Fox switched off the hover. The Landmaster shook as it landed, and the aparoid stood back up. "Shit...what am I doing here!" Fox thought.
The small tower-like structure in the center of the aparoid's top opened up, exposing another, bigger red orb. "Shoot it, Fox! That's it!" Falco said over the comm. Fox fired round after round into the center of the orb, and it closed after Fox had gotten just a few shots off. "Crap! Am I doing any damage?" Fox asked Peppy. "Yes. Keep it up, Fox." Peppy said. "Fox! Hit the hover!" Krystal said.
Fox hit the hover and looked down at the aparoid's head. A huge wave of green electricity had covered the surface of the head. He desperately steered the Landmaster, trying to keep it lined up with the aparoid as it moved about, trying to keep the Landmaster off of it.
Fox switched off the hover and the Landmaster shook violently as it impacted the surface of the aparoid. The tower opened back up again, and Fox fired madly into it. The aparoid closed it, much quicker this time, and tried to electrify the Landmaster. Fox hit the hover, but when he disengaged it, he was on the very edge of the aparoid's head. "Don't let it throw you off, Fox!" Falco said. Unfortunately, it did.
Fox squinted his eyes tightly shut as the Landmaster tumbled towards the ground. Fox's only thought was of Krystal as he fell... The Landmaster shook violently and Fox opened up his eyes to see that everything was upside-down. "Wow..." He said.
"Fox?" Krystal's voice came over the comm. "Aargh...damn that hurt...I'm OK, Krys." Fox said as he tried to get to a more comfortable position in the seat. "Falco, has anyone got any novas left?" Fox asked. "Nope. Sorry, Fox." He said back. "Hmm...Peppy. Bring in the Great Fox, and...charge up the main guns." Fox said with a smile.
"You got it, Fox." Peppy said and laughed. Fox found his blaster somehow, and blew open the canopy. When he got out, he ran like hell into one of the aircraft hangars nearby. Strangely, it was the one that had gotten obliterated by the purple orb fired at him in the beginning of this hellish operation.
Fox heard a low rumble, and saw the Great Fox in the clouds, descending by the minute. "Find some cover, Fox. This is gonna be one hell of a fireworks show." Peppy said as the ship broke through the clouds.
"FIRE!" Peppy said and looked at ROB 64 hit a button on the tactical console. Peppy looked back at the monitor. The aparoid was still standing. "Damn..." He thought. "Fox! How's the landmaster?" Peppy asked. "Totaled." Fox said.
"Figures..." Peppy thought. Fox looked up to see the Great Fox fire another volley of plasma fire, and aimed it precisely at the tower structure again. Lucky for Peppy, it was open this time, and the aparoid wailed in pain as it practically tore itself apart. The aparoid leaned to one direction, and it's legs shook, desperately trying to hold it's own weight up. It moaned again, and crashed to Katina, shaking the planet violently. "Oh crap..." Fox said as he felt the ground shake under his feet.
"Nice goin', Peppy." Fox said as the Great Fox headed back up into the clouds. "Anytime, Fox." He said. "Fox. That thing's got a core memory." Krystal said. "Get it, but be careful. We don't know what we're up against here." Peppy said.
"Yeah I know that. I haven't seen many of these things before either. Hmm...This is weird. That distress beacon isn't transmitting anymore." Fox said. "That can't be good." Peppy said.
Fox jumped onto the aparoid's head and heard a ship over him. He looked up and heard, "Hey Fox! Long time no see, huh?" "Holy shit! Pigma!" Fox said. Pigma laughed over the comm at Fox's surprise.
"Well, since I'm here, I guess I'll help myself to this, then." Pigma said and launched a tractor beam to the core memory, bringing it into his ship's holding bay. "No wait! That's--" Fox said. "Damn is it that important?" Pigma said. "Well then I'm gonna be rich!" Pigma said and took off, out of Fox's sight.
"Damn!" Fox said as he kicked the tower of the aparoid where the core memory once was, shattering some of it. "Fox calm down. I'm tracking his ship on radar." Peppy said. "I've overridden the door where you parked your arwing outside of. Get to it and get back up here." Peppy said. Fox nodded and ran for the arwing.
Fox threw his blaster in the floorboard and hit the startup. "Are you Ok, Fox?" Krystal asked him. "Never better." He said and laughed. "And you?" He asked. "Good. Thanks for asking, Fox." She said.
Fox smiled as he slowly moved the throttle and pointed the nose away from the base. Fox threw the throttle all the way forward and flew into the clouds, towards the Great Fox.