CHAPTER 5
Fox McCloud parked his Arwing in the usual spot in the Great Fox hangar and walked to his room to take a nice, long, hot shower. He was still hurting pretty bad from the Sargasso mission, even though he had received medical treatment. Lucky for Fox, he still had the sight in his left eye, something he truly didn't expect.
"Well, Fox. That was some reunion." Falco said as he came up beside Fox. Fox nodded.
"Yeah...good to see some old friends." Fox said sarcastically.
"Oh yes...always."
"So how long have we got until we get to Fichina?" Slippy asked.
"Oh...about a day or so. It's on the other side of the system." Fox said.
"Well at least we'll be able to land easily. That climate control center was a Godsend." Falco said.
"Yeah. That's good. Fichina's an arctic planet all-around, and those blizzards were something else. I heard they were hell trying to navigate through." Slippy said.
"All right, here's my stop. I'll see you guys later." Fox said as he stopped at his quarters. Krystal stopped with him. Falco grinned evilly and Fox glared at him.
Fox waited for Falco and Slippy to get out of his sight, then turned to Krystal and rolled his eyes. Krystal laughed.
"Thanks again, Krys. I really owe you one for that back there." Fox said and hugged her.
Krystal pulled away a minute or two later and said "Anytime, Fox." Fox smiled.
"Well, I've got to get a shower and go to sleep. I'm so tired I can barely see straight."
"All right, Fox. I'm sure you can take that mission." She said sarcastically. Fox's eyes got wide.
"Oh no! Not...the shower..." He said. Krystal laughed.
"See you later, Fox." She said and walked towards her quarters. She walked a little way, then turned her head back around to look at him. Fox waved and she smiled and turned her head back around and continued walking to her quarters.
Fox opened up the door and tossed his flight jacket towards the same chair and once again, he missed. Fox took off his flight suit and had the best shower of his life. He got out, got dressed in boxers and a gray shirt and sat down at the chair he had thrown his jacket towards earlier.
He pressed a button at the corner of the desk, and a small monitor came up from under it with the Starfox logo on it, and Fox said "Access Cornerian Military data on planet Fichina."
"Access requires level 1 clearance." The computer said back.
"Fox McCloud, Leader, Alpha Lambda 214." Fox said and the computer beeped and brought up a long list of information on the planet.
"Hmm..." Fox said as he scrolled down the pages of data. He found a paragraph labeled 'Climate Control Center'. Fox raised a brow as he began to read the paragraph. '...made habitation on Fichina possible...uses graviton beam to balance climatic patterns...' it read but nothing on it's current condition. Fox was afraid that Pigma would try to sabotage it, rendering Fichina uninhabitable and practically impenetrable by StarFox. "If he's sabotaged it..." He thought.
Fox rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger in an attempt to stay awake. His eyelids were heavy, and his eyes were watering from tiredness. About half an hour passed, and Fox finally shut off the computer and went to lay down and get some well-needed rest.
Fox rolled over on his side and flicked off the light on the night table with his picture in it of his dad in it. The room was completely black, except for a small sliver of light right under his door where the crack was. He stared up at the ceiling, even though he couldn't see it, and yawned as he began to doze off.
When Fox awoke, he couldn't have heard worse news. While he was getting dressed, his VAC chimed in. "Fox, we've got problems." Falco said.
"Let me guess. The climate control center is down." Fox said as he put on his flight jacket over his green shirt. Falco nodded.
"How far away are we from Fichina?" Fox asked. "Umm...about twenty minutes." Falco said as he looked off screen and typed on something.
Fox switched off the VAC, grabbed his blaster, and headed for the bridge.
"What's the situation, Falco?" Fox asked as he walked onto the bridge.
"I guess it's our lucky day, Fox. The blizzards are back, and the center is completely offline."
"Just our luck..."
"Slippy, have you overhauled the Landmaster yet?"
"Yep, all ready for you, Fox. Just try to bring it back in one piece this time." Slippy said.
"I can't make any promises, you know that." Fox said with a grin. Slippy rolled his eyes.
"All right I'm heading down to the hangar. Have that landmaster on the ground for me when I get there, Ok Slip-up?" Fox asked
"I'm on it."
Fox nodded and left the bridge. Krystal followed him out, but Fox didn't notice.
"Fox if you're going on the ground then I'm going with you." She said
"What? No. That Landmaster won't hold two."
"I know, but I'm used to the cold. Cerinia was normally a pretty cold place year-round, Fox."
Fox sighed. "All right, but you're gonna need a really big jacket. I'm telling you. It's negative temperatures down there." Fox said, with great reluctance.
Krystal nodded and Fox smiled at her. "Watch yourself down there." He said and pulled her into a kiss.
"Always." she said as she pulled away and walked down to the ship's armory as Fox turned and headed for the hangar.
Fox laid his blaster on the floorboard of the Arwing and hit the startup as he put on his wrist comm and disengaged the lift locks.
"All right, Fox. Slippy should have that Landmaster to you shortly after you land." Peppy said over the comm.
Fox nodded and hit the throttle, accelerating out of the hangar at a blinding speed. Fox looked at Fichina, which loomed larger by the second as it came into view. It was all white. One big ice cap. All of the clouds were flickering on and off from bolts of lightning from the planet wide storms. This was worse than anything Fox could've imagined.
He was scared to see what would be underneath those clouds when he got to them. Fox could see some fire lapping around the nose of his Arwing as Krystal's Arwing came into his field of view on his right wing.
"All right, I'm hitting the atmosphere. I'll contact you guys when Krystal and I reach the surface." He said as he grinned and cut communication.
Fox parked his Arwing about fifty meters from the climate control center in, what appeared to be an open field according to radar, grabbed his blaster and jumped out of the cockpit into the harsh landscape of Fichina.
Krystal parked her Arwing beside his and walked over to Fox, who was checking the ammo count on his blaster and looking around for the Landmaster to appear.
"Wow...it's just a bit chilly out here." Fox said with extreme sarcasm.
"Weather's fine to me." Krystal said with a grin. Fox rolled his eyes and took his digital binoculars out of his back and aimed them at the CCC (Climate Control Center). Fox was surprised at what he saw. A huge green and blue ring surrounding it, reaching up as far as his eyes could see.
"ROB, scan the Center." Fox said.
"Scanning...the Climate Control Center is protected by a shield." Rob said. Fox gritted his teeth. "Oh just great. Slippy, I need that Landmaster now." Fox said.
"Well, I'm still trying to transport it, but it won't go through for some reason. Something wrong with the transmitter."
Fox rolled his eyes. "Well that freakin' figures. Luck is always on my side, it seems. Well, I guess we'll have to blow these things up ourselves until the Landmaster shows up."
"Good. A mission together." Krystal said. Fox grinned and nodded. She smiled and walked back to her Arwing.
"What are--oh wow..." Fox said as he cocked a brow. Krystal had opened up the compartment in her Arwing and pulled out one of the several rocked launchers held by the Great Fox. She grinned as she handed it to Fox, and she took his blaster along with her own.
Fox looked at the ammo gauge on the launcher. One round. "Krys, how many shield generators do we have to hit?" Fox asked.
"Radar's picking up two of 'em."
"Well that's great. One round and two generators." Fox said as he checked his wrist radar. One of the two generators was only thirty feet away but Fox couldn't see it, or anything else for that matter. The snowstorm was planet-wide. The cold was causing his eyes to burn, and the snow was always getting in them and his fur.
"Umm...Peppy. What do these generators look like anyway?" Fox said into the comm over the deafening noise of the storm. Fox had to hold his wrist up to his ear just to barely hear Peppy's voice.
"Records show they're fifty feet tall. You should see them when you get closer to them."
"Fifty feet! How can I destroy something fifty friggin' feet tall?" Fox asked in disbelief.
"Hit the power supply. It should be halfway up the structure on the side facing away from the climate control center."
"Got it." Fox said and jogged towards the nearest target, but stopped dead in his tracks, ears pointed all the way back to full alert.
"What is it, Fox?" Krystal asked. "Wait. I can hear something." Fox thought. Krystal nodded as Fox gently set the rocket launcher down on the ground and Krystal tossed him a blaster. Fox's eyes narrowed as he became even more alert and at the same time try to see what was out there. He steadied his blaster and fired a few aimed shots of green energy into the blizzard around him. Krystal did the same.
Fox began to fire even faster into the blizzard as he heard a rather familiar sound.
"Aparoids!" He yelled. The sound he heard was of the one on Katina after he had shot an aparoid's limbs off, and heard it cry in pain. Fox took off in a run towards the generator, shielding his eyes with his arm the best he could, with Krystal behind him, firing into the blizzard, covering his back.
"Wow this blizzard's something else." He said to himself as he neared the generator. He glanced up towards the sky and he could barely see the top of it. "There it is." Fox said. Krystal nodded as Fox steadied the RL on his right shoulder and flipped out the eyepiece with his left hand. He looked through it until the numbers read 25.00 ft. Fox got it as close as he could to that number and gently squeezed the trigger.
The rocket went towards the generator and exploded in a huge ball of orange flames, temporarily illuminating the area where Fox and Krystal were standing. Fox grinned. "One target down."
"Good. The landmaster's on its way, Fox." Peppy said over the comm.
Fox looked at the radar and saw that there were lot more yellow blips on it, and they were moving towards him. All of them.
Now Fox was shivering from the cold. His flight suit was designed to keep in his own body heat, but this was too much. "Fox!" Krystal asked. Fox shook his head.
"I'm fine. Now come on, we've got to get to that Landmaster. Stay behind me, Krystal. And Keep shooting!" He yelled over the deafening roar of the blizzard and drew his blaster and fired blindly into the blizzard as Krystal did the same.
"How far away is it?" She asked.
"About thirty yards." Fox yelled and took off in a run towards the Landmaster.
Fox and Krystal arrived at the Landmaster a few minutes, and by now Fox had ice forming on his fur and on his suit. He climbed on top of the Landmaster, still shooting into the storm, and flipped open the canopy and jumped in and strapped on his harness.
"Krystal, you hear me?" He said into the comm.
"Loud and clear."
"Ok I can see you on radar. I'm gonna need you to cover the tank while I take out the generators." He said.
"Will do, Fox." Krystal said and Fox hit the gas and headed towards the second shield generator.
Fox glanced at the Landmaster's radar to see it was covered with yellow dots, and most of them were moving towards him from every direction. Fox fired round after round into the snowstorm, which by now had intensified and obscured his vision completely. If he lost radar, his hopes of finding that last generator were gone.
He could feel the Landmaster shudder as he plowed through the armada of aparoid resistance that lay before him. Finally Fox saw it. A bright red dot on radar, to his right, facing Northeast.
"Krystal, you holding up OK out there?"
"Never better."
Fox grinned as the remaining shield generator came into targeting range, but he felt an unexpected jolt and heard an explosion. He turned the Landmaster to the nearest contact and fired several rounds in it's direction.
He didn't feel another jolt after that. Fox accelerated to the far side of the pillar and aimed the turret upward until the crosshairs turned red. He charged up a laser blast, and let it fly. He heard the explosion, and glanced at the Climate Control Center's shield. It slowly dissipated and as soon as Fox saw it disappear, Fox headed straight for it.
"Fox look for an entrance. I don't think there's one that'll fit the Landmaster." Peppy said.
Fox parked the Landmaster beside the Center and climbed out of the cockpit, back into the unforgiving environment of Fichina's snowstorm. He felt alongside the Center with his right hand, trying to find a door of some kind. He kept his blaster in his left, firing into the snowstorm to keep the aparoids at 'arm's length.'
"I...can't...find a door." Fox said, but barely. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably from the cold, frostbite beginning to affect his hands and feet.
"Fox!"
"I-I'm f-fine." He said in his wrist comm through chattering teeth. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to him, Fox found a keypad but as he felt past the small keypad a few feet he found a door, closed.
"P-peppy I've found a keypad. I need you t-to open the door for me."
"I'll try." Peppy said through the comm. Fox paced back and forth, trying to keep warm, while he prayed that Peppy would be able to override the keypad console. By now Fox's fingers were completely numb, and he had to look at his blaster in his left hand just to make sure he was still holding it. He was, and out of frustration, fired several charged rounds at the door, causing little more than a scratch.
"Peppy get this damn door already! I'm about to die out here!"
"Sorry, Fox...I...I can't override the console."
"Peppy...you da--"
"Fox! Get back from the door!" Krystal said over the comm. Fox dove into the snow out of instinct and the it exploded, sending it flying into the snowstorm out of Fox's vision.
"W-what was t-that?"
Then he saw what caused the door to explode. The Landmaster rolled into view out of the treacherous snowstorm and Krystal climbed out of the cockpit after it had come to a stop.
"W-wow you're a sight for s-sore eyes."
"Fox you're completely frozen." Krystal said as she ran over to him and took him in her arms. Fox was shivering uncontrollably as Krystal carried him to the Landmaster and set him inside the cockpit, the only place on the planet where it was warm.
She gently set him in the seat of the Landmaster and kissed him on the cheek.
"You'll be all right." She said. Fox looked up at her dark blue eyes, but couldn't say anything through his constant trembling. "I love you." He thought.
"You too, Fox." she said and closed the canopy and proceeded into the Climate Control Center.
The Climate Control Center was a circular room, about fifty feet in diameter, with a tall rectangular mainframe unit on a raised platform in the middle of the room, and it was about a foot taller than Krystal. The floor was blue and the Center had a small vent that circled the length of the ceiling, with a few snowflakes falling in occasionally.
Krystal glanced around the room for any immediate threats. Seeing none, she approached the mainframe, looking and walking around it searching for some kind of accessible console. After walking around three sides of it, she found a keyboard extending slightly from the unit, and a monitor directly above the keyboard. Krystal placed her blaster in her thigh holster and studied the keyboard. Standard Cornerian alphabet. "At least it isn't some kind of ancient language." She thought. She felt along the left side of the keyboard and found a small button. She pressed it, and the mainframe hummed to life.
"Good work, Fox. The Center is back up. Now just get that beam back." Peppy said a moment after the mainframe was activated.
"Peppy it's Krystal here. The cold here hit Fox worse than any of us thought it would. He's got some frostbite on his limbs, but he'll be ok. He's warming up in the Landmaster."
"Oh my...Well, all right. Glad to hear he'll be ok."
"Yes, I am too." Krystal said. "I'm going to try to get the beam back online."
Peppy Hare sat in Fox's chair on the bridge, waiting anxiously for the Control Beam to come back online. He drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair nervously as he stared at the viewscreen, showing Fichina still shrouded in monstrous snowstorms. "Come on, Krystal. Just don't get killed in there..." He thought. Then he saw it on the planet. The clouds began to dissipate from over the planet.
"Good goin' Krystal. Now get Fox a--"
"Peppy...I've got some problems down here." Came Krystal's voice over the radio.
"What's the matter." Peppy said as Falco walked onto the bridge.
"I've gotten the system back online, but it seems that I've activated some sort of defense system." Krystal said over the comm.
"Krystal, what was that noise?"
"Laser blasts. They've got bots in here coming after me." Krystal said as she moved her head slightly, dodging a laser blast, and fired a few rounds into one of the several sentry model defense bots, doing no damage.
Fox sat in the Landmaster, still warming up from the unforgiving environment of Fichina as he heard Krystal's report over the comm. He was instantly alert as he heard the laser blasts over the comm system.
"Krystal!"
"Fox. You're all right." Krystal said.
"Yeah I'm fine, but you've got your hands full. I've got an idea. It's crazy, but I think...I think it'll work."
"All right, Fox, what is it? I'm all ears." Krystal said as she fired more rounds into the bots, which were closing on her even faster.
"I need you to destroy one of the bots, and find out what frequency it operates on." Fox said.
"What!"
"I know. It sounds impossible, but trust me. You've got to do this if you want to get out of there alive."
"But I'm not doing any damage to them. The charged rounds aren't even scratching them."
"I know this model of sentries. You've got to wait until the armor opens up and expose their weapons. That's the only vulnerable spot on 'em." Fox said.
"Ok...I trust you."
"All right. Just keep your blaster aimed steady, and wait for it." Fox said.
Krystal nodded her head and got a sight picture on her blaster. One of the bots moved up, and went up in the air about ten feet. She looked at it, keeping the others in view out of the corner of her eye, and it opened up. She fired an aimed shot, and the sentry came careening towards the Center's floor in a ball of flames. Krystal picked up a small yellow box, the bot's CPU, that had fallen close to her feet. Glancing at the numbers written on one side of it, she found the frequency of it's operation.
"Ok, Fox. I've got it. The frequency is two hundred fifty gigahertz. Set the EMP for that." Krystal said as she fired another round at a bot, destroying it in a ball of flame.
"Got it." Fox said as he typed frantically on the keyboard in the Landmaster, desperately trying to get the EMP sent. Fox typed in the frequency and hit the 'enter' key and watched the screen as it showed a computer graphic of the EMP shooting out of the radar dish.
"Did it do anything, Krystal!"
"Well they...wait...oh no." Krystal said.
"Krystal! Take cover!" Came Falco's voice over the comm.
Krystal looked at Fichina's dark sky and saw a small flash of light. That light grew bigger and came towards her position faster and faster. She dove behind the mainframe and sat down with her head covered in her hands as she heard numerous laser blasts directly behind her, and then the whole Center shook violently.
"Falco what in the world was that!" Krystal said as Falco parked his Arwing outside of the Center.
"Well that's gratitude for you. I take out the whole mob of sentry models comin' after you, and you ask what that noise was."
Krystal laughed. "Thanks, Falco. I owe you for that."
"It's no problem."
"Hey, Falco. Good to see you drop in unannounced." Fox said as he walked in the entrance of the Center with blaster in hand."
"I always like to make an entrance."
"Fox you're OK." Krystal said as she smiled and ran over to Fox and embraced him. Fox kissed her.
"Good to see you're OK as well." He said.
"So...we've got the Climate beam online, but where's Pigma? That filthy little bast--" Falco began to say until he noticed a dark purple-blue beam come from the sky and fall on an engineering section of the CCC.
"What the hell was that!" Falco said, walking back to his Arwing and taking out his blaster.
"I...I don't know. I'm picking up a..."
"What is it, Krystal?" Fox asked.
"I'm picking up a thought pattern from that engineering section...the same one that the beam hit."
"Not good." Falco said as he ran this time back to his Arwing, threw his blaster on the floorboard, and switched engine power on as the section of engineering freed itself from the ground, and with two slender, powerful legs, began making it's way to the Center.
"Krystal. Take my Arwing." Fox said and threw her his blaster.
"Well...Fox. What're you goin' to do then?" Krystal asked.
Fox signaled to Falco to wait, and ran to his Arwing and opened up the compartment behind the cockpit.
"Trust me. I'll be ok." He said as he pulled out a shoulder-mounted plasma cannon. Fox picked it up by the carrying handle and walked over to Falco's arwing, and hopped up on the left wing.
"So, Fox. You want to go wing riding, do you?" Falco asked. Fox nodded and shouldered the plasma cannon.
"Falco, hit the switch." Fox said.
Falco flipped open a glass cover over a switch near the HUD and pressed the red button. That switch created a magnetic field, allowing Fox to turn and fire the cannon at any angle, while keeping him from falling off the wing, to his death.
"Ok, Falco it's working. Punch it."
Falco started the engine and brought up the throttle as he pointed the nose of the Arwing up and ascended into the dark Fichina sky.
Fox steadied the plasma cannon, switched it's firing switch to full auto and fired at everything in the sky that moved, save for Krystal's arwing. Fichina's sky was filled with hundreds of the enemy, and they were gunning for Falco and Krystal. Fox glanced up and saw a flash of red light, like a shooting star streaking through the sky. The light swelled larger, and went straight into the center of the airborne enemies and exploded brilliantly, vaporizing countless numbers of them around the vicinity on contact.
"What the hell was that?" Falco asked as he looked around in all directions inside his cockpit.
"Hey, guys! Don't take all the fun from me for once." came Slippy's voice over the comm.
"Slip-up, take a good look around. I think there's plenty to go around." Krystal said.
Slippy opened fire with his hyper lasers, vaping aparoids left and right, as Fox continued to do the same with his cannon. Fox was pumping round after round into every aparoid that came into his field of view. He made sure that he didn't miss a single shot. Fox fired, not to save the Center, or even Fichina for that matter, but to keep Krystal, and everyone else, alive to fight another day. He didn't care about the Center now. The only thing he was firing for was his friend's lives. He had completely forgotten about the Climate Control Center.
Falco opened fire with his lasers as well as he began to pick up speed, still careful not to bank the Arwing too far to either direction, but soon after he began firing, a warning light flickered on and off inside the cockpit.
"Fox! Hit the ground! They're lockin' on to me." Fox glanced at his wrist radar and found a blinking red dot on radar. He whirled around to it's direction and moved the cannon out of his line of view to get a clear of sight, and saw it. A conical structure, about the size of the Landmaster, drawing in energy from all around it. Yellow beams of light began forming around it's center, then they were drawn into it. "How in the world..." Fox thought as he raised the cannon and began firing directly into it. The cone began to swivel towards Falco's Arwing.
"Come on, Fox! Hit it!" Falco yelled.
"I am!" Fox yelled back into his comm as he kept painting the ground target with laser fire. Just as it began to level in on the Arwing, Krystal flew by in her own and blasted it with her lasers, destroying the target, engulfing it in a ball of flames.
"Good shot, Krys. I owe you one." Fox thought.
"Anytime, Fox, you know I love you. You don't owe me anything." Krystal thought back. Fox smiled as he turned back around and aimed the cannon to take down whatever else he could.
"Fox! Target on my six!" Falco yelled.
Fox whirled around to see a wave of missiles headed straight for him. He squeezed the trigger, picking off the missiles one by one. When Fox finally destroyed the last one, it was no more than twenty feet away from the engine of the Arwing. Fox felt the heat of that last explosion, and he shielded his eyes from the flames.
"Falco keep a good eye on your radar. I need you to be my eyes here. It is a little hard to use the wrist radar out here."
"10-4, Fox. I've gotcha covered."
"Slippy, Krystal. I need you guys to take care of that piece of engineering. Falco and I will cover you." Slippy and Krystal did a barrel roll, both to signify that they got Fox's orders, and to shake some enemy fire. Fox squeezed the trigger, and aparoid after aparoid careened to the snowy surface of Fichina as the blue laser blasts continued to find their marks.
"Fox! Ground target at 8:00. 20 meters away."
Fox whirled around and painted another of the yellow conical structures as it focused in it's deadly energy. Fox carefully reached into his vest pocket and exposed the only grenade he had.
"Fox, you know if you miss that target...you won't be wing riding anymore."
"Don't remind me." Fox said as he pressed the 'arm' button. He looked at the ground target, and it began swiveling towards the Arwing. Fox took the grenade in his left hand and threw it high into the air, in the direction of the target. It fell towards Fichina, and the white light emitting from the grenade grew as it fell.
"Come on..." Fox mumbled as he reshouldered the plasma cannon. The grenade exploded, and Fox let out a whoop as Falco let out a huge sigh of relief as the warning lights went off inside the cockpit.
"How's it coming with that chunk of engineering, guys?" Fox yelled into his wrist comm.
"Not so good. We've isolated a weak point, but the lasers aren't doing any good. And, when it exposes the weak spot, it fires a powerful beam at us." Krystal said.
"Use the novas. That should work." Fox said as he fired another shot into the sky, vaping another airborne aparoid.
"Fox we don't have any no-"
"Fox! Let me handle the engineering!" Said a new voice over the comm.
Fox looked up and saw a green light streak through the sky, and towards the huge chunk of engineering, cylindrical in shape, and balancing on two slender legs. Fox raised an eyebrow and smiled. A small, older model Cornerian fighter, with some slight modifications it's owner had installed on it, streaked through the sky of Fichina at blinding speed. The gray husky inside the cockpit gritted his teeth and squinted his eyes under his shades as he let a nova bomb fly towards the target, damaging it badly.
"Bill! Holy...I...I can't believe it." Fox said.
"Long time no see eh, Fox?" Bill said over the comm.
"Yeah, and almost too long at that." Fox said as he fired into the sky.
"Fox, you and Falco cover us with the cannon. Me, Slippy, and Peppy will take care of the engin--"
"Peppy?" Krystal said.
"Oh...sorry. What's your name, then?" Bill asked sarcastically.
"Krystal."
"Oh..." Bill said with that 'Fox got a girlfriend..." Tone in his voice.
Fox didn't say anything, but rolled his eyes at his old friend's remark and fired into the coming onslaught of more aparoids as the infected engineering section opened up it's mouth-like hatch and released more into the air.
Bill dodged left and right, desperately trying to get his crosshairs centered on the opening of the hatch.
"Fox! Cover me while I lock on to the hatch."
"Gotcha. Falco, bring the Arwing around. Take us to where Bill is."
"Ok. Just keep me covered, Fox. You know, with you on the wing, I can't maneuver hardly at all."
"I know. Trust me, Falco."
Fox fired just ahead of Bill's 'Grey 1' ship, blasting the aparoids that blocked his line of sights as Bill continued to maneuver to get a lock.
"It's open! Hit it now!" Fox yelled as he continued firing at the chunk of engineering. Bill took a deep breath as his thumb settled over the bomb launcher, and he pressed the button. The bomb went straight for the target, but impacted another airborne aparoid before it reached the core.
"Damn!" Bill said in frustration as he pounded his HUD with his fist.
"Fox you've got to hit all of 'em. I've only got one more nova left." Bill said as he threw his 'Grey 1' into a kick spin, hurtling it away from the menacing engineering section as he fell back for another attack run.
"All right. Ready, Fox?" Bill asked as he turned his ship around to face the enemy.
"Go for it."
Bill punched the gas, and Fox squeezed the trigger on his cannon, moving it in a sweeping motion, taking out countless numbers of aparoids as bill came closer to the leviathan aparoid enemy. Fox moved his aim closer to the engineering as it opened it's hatch, and blasted hundreds of aparoids as it opened up the hatch.
"NOW!" Fox yelled.
Bill hit the launcher and closed his eyes as the nova bomb hurtled towards the open hatch. Fox held his breath as he watched the bright red light streak through the sky. There was a mighty explosion, and Bill opened his eyes.
Fox and everyone else cheered as the once gigantic fragment of mechanics was enveloped in a colossal explosion and the remaining, much smaller, aparoids began to retreat away from Fichina. Fox opened fire with his cannon, and the rest of the team with their lasers, completely obliterating the retreating aparoid forces.
"Fox, I just scanned those bots that attacked Krystal. Turns out that they were all aparoids." Slippy said over the comm.
"What! But...how?" Fox said.
"Well, aparoids, I guess they can just manipulate machines, and for that matter, those without strong wills to fight against them."
"Those without a strong will..." Fox thought.
"What's wrong, Fox?" Krystal asked.
Fox shook his head as Falco landed the Arwing near the Climate Control Center.
"Nothing...it...it just sounds like somebody I know, that's all." Fox said as he sat down on the wing, looking at the stars before Bill's voice interrupted him.
"What's up, McCloud?" Bill asked as Fox jumped down off of Falco's wing and patted his old friend on the back.
"Well, you know me, Bill. Wherever I go, something always blows up." Fox said with a smirk. Bill nodded.
"So...Foxie's got a girl?" Bill said sarcastically. Fox nodded and smiled slightly.
"What's her name?" Bill implied with a grin as he took off his flight helmet and held it under his arm.
"Krystal. She's a Cerinian."
"Oh wow. How'd you two meet?"
"Bill, it's one hell of a long story. If you've got some time, I can explain it to you on the Great Fox if you wish to come. I'm sure the rest of the guys, and the girl, wouldn't mind seein' you." Fox said with a smile. Bill nodded.
"All right, then. Just follow my Arwing in the hangar, and we've got an extra space in there for you." Fox said. Bill grinned and stuck his OD green flight helmet back on and walked back to his ship.
Fox ran over to his Arwing, some twenty meters away, jumped in, and hit the startup. He pointed the nose up and punched the throttle, and the Great Fox loomed larger by the minute as Fox accelerated towards it at near blinding speed, with Bill on his right wing.