2:31 AM CDT, GOC Covert Base.
In the now dark cell, light from the hall crept in under the locked door. On the couch sat Fox, Krystal, and Slippy. Krystal was using Fox's lap as a pillow and Fox had his head laid back and his hand was intertwined with Krystal's. Next to the lovebirds sat Slippy, wide awake and scheming.
He quietly got up and lightly stepped to the door, learning against the wall in an unsuccessful attempt to act inconspicuous. He messed with the force fielded glove on his left hand. He tapped the code in and the bracelet deactivated and unlocked. Under the button was an indent out of which he pulled a circular device about the size of a watch battery. He put his bracelet back on and quickly placed the device on the door. He pressed the button on his wrist twice fast and instead of activating it made the device send out a small yet highly focused electromagnetic pulse. The door unlocked and he slid it open, closing it once he was on the other side. He activated his gloves and collar and quietly walked down the hall.
At an intersection he could either go forward or turn left, and there was a sign telling which way areas were. 'I'm surprised I haven't been stopped yet. Guy supposed to be watching the cameras is probably asleep in his chair.' He thought to himself. 'I'll go to... The break room.'
He turned left. After a bit of walking he went to the break room door, which he peeked through the window of and saw a man exiting through a door on the other side.
He tried the doorknob...
It was unlocked!
He entered the room and started stealthily looking for anything of use. He heard voices from the wall in a different room. He had to get in and out, fast.
He went to the table with a coffee maker on it and made a cup of coffee using instant coffee crystals. He drank it down and dropped the cup in the trash.
Eureka! He looked over to the couch on the far left side of the room and saw a keycard sticking out from between the cushions. He grabbed it and peeked out the door. Seeing that no one was coming he went back to the hallway he came from. He walked back to the intersection and turned left to go in the direction he was originally going. He found the armory. This seemed way too easy to be true. He tried the keycard on the door and it opened, revealing guns, armor, shock batons, and hand grenades. He went in and grabbed the confiscated gear, a shock baton, and a fragmentation grenade. He then scribbled a note that read "Relocated" and left it in the confiscated gear's place. He exited the room, shutting the door behind him.
A bit of jogging later, he got back in the cell, shut it, put his gun on his hip, hung the grenade on his pocket, deactivated his collar, then put his headset on and reactivated the collar, pocketing the two backup cartridges for his pistol and the shock baton, and then put the other equipment under the couch.
He then started to leave again to find the room where they monitored the cameras to remove most if not all of the traces of him sneaking.
"Slippy?"
Slippy gasped, jolted, and spun around to see Krystal standing behind him with her gear equipped. "Time to cause trouble?" She asked.
"How'd you even do that?!"
1:09 PM CT, Star Fox Main Base.
Falco sat at the kitchen table talking on the phone with Peppy about Fox, Slippy, and Krystal.
"No word from them?"
"No, nothing yet." Peppy replied.
1:09 PM CT, Great Fox, Corneria City Shipyard.
Standing at a table in the ship's docking bay, ROB was tinkering with a 6 foot tall, black painted, bipedal robot that didn't conform to any known design. It was armored with slanted plates in some places and the joints, limbs, and torso were wrapped with Nylar weave, which contrary to the name, was in no way related to nylon. The robot had integrated magnetic holsters and belt loops on its waist for utilizing belt mounted gear. Its CPU, motherboard, microfusion generator, and memory banks were in its torso, guarded in a two inch thick combination locked box made of Nylar coated with titanium. If the bot was destroyed, the vital internals would be unharmed. The robot had a head similar to ROB's if it were made for combat, two wrist mounted blasters, and five fingered hands, unlike his original hands which only had four.
Soon, it was complete.
ROB activated the makeshift yet highly durable bot and it sat upright. "Unit online. Awaiting instructions." It spoke in a voice identical to ROB's apart from being less monotone and more like that of a person's.
"Connect to network 'ROB Hive Mind'."
A dark point moved across the makeshift bot's visor as a loading indicator and then it was suddenly also ROB.
ROB Main blankly said "Fantastic, I got the hive mind working.", he then got the battle ready unit off the table and laid his original unit on it, shutting it off. Upon shutdown the other unit became the main ROB. The way his newly set up 'Hive Mind' worked was definitely complicated.
"Personality subroutine active."
He went to the armory and equipped a tactical vest, put gas cartridges for his blasters in the pouches, and placed a shock baton on his right hip. Coming out of the armory and back into the docking bay, ROB climbed into Slippy's arwing then slowly and carefully flew it out of the ship into the hangar.
He opened a comm link with the door operator. "Hello, this is ROB 64. I need the doors open please."
The man operating the doors opened them enough for an Arwing to get through. ROB expertly flew through and set a course for the main base at exactly one thousand miles per hour. He had a feeling they'd be getting ready to go after the others by now. He had been watching the base camera footage before Fox and company left for Tritari. He had eventually started to worry and decided to get his "Project HiveMind" finished.
"Personality subroutine active."
He went to the armory and equipped a tactical vest, put gas cartridges for his blasters in the pouches, and placed a shock baton on his right hip. Coming out of the armory and back into the docking bay, ROB climbed into Slippy's arwing then slowly and carefully flew it out of the ship into the hangar.
He opened a comm link with the door operator. "Hello, this is ROB 64. I need the doors open please."
The man operating the doors opened them enough for an Arwing to get through. ROB expertly flew through and set a course for the main base at exactly one thousand miles per hour. He had a feeling they'd be getting ready to go after the others by now. He had been watching the base camera footage before Fox and company left for Tritari. He had eventually started to worry and decided to get his "Project HiveMind" finished.
One minute later.
When he got within a mile of the base, the defenses kicked in because of the speed at which the arwing was approaching, but ROB was prepared.
He opened a communications link with "The Doorman".
"1-C-3-C-R-3-4-M."
The Doorman buzzed then went silent. The force field disengaged and ROB flew the Arwing in clueless that he had accidentally made a human video game reference. The dome closed again once he went through.
1:13 PM CT, Star Fox Main Base.
The two people left at the base were in their respective rooms preparing to go find out what the hell happened to the others.
A couple of minutes later, the two began to make their way to the front entrance. Falco was equipped with a relatively new AGR-13 Coil Assault Rifle and a standard blaster pistol and Katt was armed with two automatic blaster pistols like that of Fox's modified with OTF switchblade-like treated diamond bayonets and longer-than-average barrels.
The walk ended with Falco yelling "Oh shit!" and ROB getting a gauss gun aimed at him.
ROB raised his hands.
"Falco, I would like to help find the others."
The pheasant lowered his gun. "ROB? Damn, you look different if you're really him. Do you have identification?"
"ROB has a gender?" Katt asked.
"I do believe I am supposed to be male. Here, I will show you this unit's first waking moments when I activated it and switched bodies." ROB projected a holographic screen which showed the new body being finished and then ROB's original unit laying down and shutting off.
"That doesn't explain how you knew the others were missing." Falco said, placing his gun back on his back.
"I was watching the base security feed because, well, I was... Lonely. I apologize if I was not supposed to be watching. I began to worry when they did not come back and got my project finished."
"You can get lonely?" Katt asked.
"Yes. I have been able to feel loneliness. Left on the Great Fox for a month straight when you got this base, I felt loneliness for the first time, and watching over the security cameras helped."
"Whoa, we had no idea you became self aware..." Falco placed a hand on ROB's shoulder. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Self aware robots are widely distrusted, I did not want you to distrust me."
"Slippy'll probably be proud to hear that you're self aware. How'd you get here anyway?" Falco stepped back where he was.
"Slippy's arwing and the ability to download information I deem useful. It is now safely landed outside."
"You can come with us if you're that concerned about them." Falco said
Katt looked at Falco. "You sure that's a good idea? He could be destroyed."
ROB looked at Katt and she looked back "Currently, I am literally a computer in an almost indestructible box powering and controlling a robot. The case is two inches thick made of Nylar weave coated in titanium, I will be fine if there is danger."
She nodded in acknowledgement and the trio exited the building. The hovering van departed from the base a minute later.
1:23 PM CT, Interstate 116.
Upon reaching the highway, Falco flipped a switch and the van went from hovering one foot off the ground to hovering 20 feet off the ground, which would significantly reduce the time until arrival due to a lack of obstacles.
1:31 PM CT, Tritari Cave System.
After entering the cave, Falco ducked behind a corner upon seeing a group of humans. While ROB blatantly walked around the corner and snapped multiple pictures with his visor.
The guards immediately aimed their weapons. "Identify yourself." Spoke the one nearest to the hole.
"You first." ROB replied. "Why are you here?"
A voice spoke to the guard over his headset. "Get the bot and wipe its memory."
The guards pulled out two stun guns and fired, the robot was unfazed. "Eliminating hostile threat." He extended his arms and multiple bolts fired from the back of his wrists. The guards dropped to the ground.
"Beam us out! Beam us out now!"
All humans in the cave disappeared in flashes of white light.
"What in the fresh hell was that?" Katt asked, peeking around the corner.
"Unknown." ROB replied.
Falco drew his rifle and Katt drew one of her pistols.
"How'd you just shrug off two stuns like that?" Falco asked as he looked through the doorway and saw light at the end.
"This unit's entire body is laminated with a layer of insulating rubber." The bot replied as he entered the doorway and scanned the light at the end.
"ROB?"
The robot walked through disappeared into the hallway.
"ROB!" Falco followed him on followed by Katt.
On the other side.
The other two found ROB scanning a tree, in an above ground area?
Stars could be seen in the sky.
"Detecting human life signs nearby. GPS Connected. GPS determines we are near Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, United States." ROB stated, projecting a map from his visor.
"Somehow this doesn't surprise me." Katt holstered her weapon and looked back at the hall only to see a wall at the end. "Well shit."
Falco sighed. "No wonder they aren't back yet."
The AGCs hovering overhead, one Cornerian fox was transported from a passing smaller AGC onto the ground to meet up with the investigation party.
The Cornerian heard talking nearby and immediately went running towards the nearest human.
"I hear talking." He pointed toward where the sound originated.
All people in the vicinity raised their right arms towards where he pointed, fists clenched. They took cover behind trees.
2:51 AM CDT
"Detecting active weapon signatures." ROB raised his arms toward them. The other two aimed their weapons as well. "Show yourselves. I cannot guarantee your safety if you harm my colleagues." A night vision sensor flipped down over his visor.
A purple bolt was fired into Katt and she fell backwards.
"NO!" Falco yelled and fired blindly in the direction it came from. ROB opened fire as well. A firefight ensued, but before any actual injuries were sustained...
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire, dammit! It's Star Fox!"
Upon hearing this, the two standing stopped shooting. Katt then got up with a hole halfway through the vest she was wearing. She aimed again.
"Get back to the ships you trigger happy dumbass!"
A man clad in identical armor to that of the soldiers in the cave walked out into the open with his hands raised to show he wasn't a threat. The trio's weapons remained aimed.
A woman spoke over this soldier's headset. "A large object decloaked and recloaked a few miles from here. Could be a GOC outpost, recommend investigation."
He opened communication with the rest of the recon team. "I had an on-the-spot plan but screw it. Detain them. We'll amnesticize em' later."
Two heavy stun bolts hit Falco and Katherine, who dropped to the ground.
ROB started rapidly firing before multiple other stun bolts hit and managed to disable him.
GOC Covert Base.
As fast as his legs would carry him, Slippy came running out of a room with a now destroyed generator in it. The hand grenade he had was now gone. The backup generator quickly kicked on afterwards, but not fast enough to keep someone from noticing.
Alarms blared throughout the base.
Krystal stealthily went into a storage closet. Upon entering, she found a labeled box like that of something you'd find at an aisle in the front of Walmart where all of the "As seen on TV" stuff is. The label read "Anderson Robotics Psionic Amplifier" and there was a picture that looked like something from a game she saw Slippy playing. Prey or something. Anyway she thought it was called Prey. As an individual with mostly telepathic psionic abilities, this peaked her interest. Although it ended with her putting it to her right eye socket and it injecting something through her eye then retracting the needle, and her falling flat on her face. If it weren't for the protective head bubble she'd have a fractured muzzle.
Down the hall, Jacob had all of the slacking guards in the room across from the breakroom held in place via psionic water manipulation, a non-American Football game was being streamed on the TV. That explained why nobody was watching the cameras.
Fox came in with a blaster and shot each of the guards in the room with low-lethality stun bolts. "We need to meet up with Slippy."
Slippy walked into what seemed to be a control room of some kind and raised the MP5 he took from a fallen guard.
There was a man in there wearing what Slippy could only assume was a base officer's uniform. It was the man he shot, completely fine...
"I can get over an arm getting blown off, BUT MY BALLS!"
Slippy replied mildly nervous. "I was initially aiming for your chest." Slippy noted a heavy Australian accent.
The man lunged behind a console and fired a pistol from behind it. Slippy tried to run behind him not wanting to damage the console and was shot in the ankle, the bullet didn't make it all the way in. He let out a pained yell and gave up, aiming his MP5 at the corner of the console.
Both of their attentions turned to the door when it opened and the human, Jacob, came in and telekinetically walked the officer towards him, forcing him to drop his weapon, a 50. AE Desert Eagle. "Shoot him!" Slippy immediately shot five bullets into the officer's chest and one in the head for good measure. He would definitely be staying down this time.
Fox entered the room behind Jacob, who helped Slippy up, who pulled the bullet out. The wound was small enough it would heal on its own.
2:56 AM CDT, Basement Level.
"Commander? Commander Chapman, do you read me?"
Silence.
The man spoke over the bottom level loudspeakers.
"Multiple Lylatian life signs and one human detected in Control Room 2. All available personnel converge."
Outside of the base, two AGCs de-cloaked and charged their mounted death rays. A cheesy term for sure, unless they're being pointed at you.
A workstation started repeatedly beeping and Slippy checked it. "Holy crap, this day's just getting crazier and crazier. There's two objects outside that are recognized as 'Foundation TR-3E's. Maybe they're here to help!"
Fox looked at the screen for a second then looked at the door when he heard a minigun being spun up.
Both Slippy and Fox took cover behind the freestanding console, and Jacob was standing at the door ready to burst all the arteries in the attacker's body.
"Null out!"
A grenade was tossed in the door.
It emitted a blue wave of energy, then the water bending human stumbled backwards and fainted. A soldier in an infantry exoskeleton and tactical gear walked in and aimed his minigun. "Stand down."
Not far from the squad was a certain blue fox about to flank them.
The two conscious people remained hidden behind the large console. The soldier stepped forward. Sounds of particle beams and gunfire could be heard outside. Soldiers were running through the hallway outside the door while all but two of the soldiers outside the room had broken off to help defend against the attacking crafts.
Suddenly, a sharply humming whir was heard from the hallway followed by multiple screams and thuds, then a burst of gunfire and a final thud followed by a vulpine whine.
Fox's heart literally stopped for a moment and Slippy's heart sank. Was she dead? Was this where they would die?
No. No it wasn't. Two more gunshots were heard and someone else dropped, then Krystal walked in gripping a gunshot wound on her left breast. The heavy soldier was ready though. He sprayed the minigun at the console then turned around assuming his bullets went through. That was a mistake as none of them completely went through the console.
In her free hand she had a H&K P8 9mm pistol which she nearly dropped upon seeing the spun minigun aimed at her.
Before the man could harm the "Parathreat" and Krystal, Fox drop kicked him in the back. He fell forward, getting multiple shots off on Krystal as he fell forward, who stumbled into the wall winded. "Ugh!"
The man had three different types of guns aimed at him by the time he was able to get up. He was silent for a moment before blurting out "Well shit.".
Slippy put his beam pistol to the man's head and cut off the backpack straps with a knife, the ammo carrying backpack dropped to the floor and clattered. Accepting the situation, the soldier put down his gun and walked out.
"I'm fine. I think..."
Upon registering the blood running down her torso, Fox's expression went from slightly stressed to extremely concerned. "Holy crap!" He quickly un-buckled and started to take off his belt thinking he could fasten it around her torso.
"That won't work." Krystal placed the pistol on her backup holster then coughed into her non-blood matted palm. There was no blood. "Yeah I should be fine."
Fox re-buckled his belt. "You sure?"
"Yes Fox, I'm sure."
Slippy walked up and examined the wound. It was consistent with that of a small rifle bullet. The armor must have absorbed enough of the force to keep it from being a lung shot. "You still need medical attention though or else you'll bleed out."
"I know I need medical attention, it hurts!" She nudged past the guys and winced as she kneeled down to check Jacob's pulse with her free hand. It was steady.
3:12 AM CDT, Base Exterior.
Outside of the now de-cloaked base, the two AGCs were zipping about overhead outside while multiple suppressed flack cannons fired at them, the spotlights on the bottoms of the ships were illuminating the ground below. From the outside there appeared to be only one floor. The structure was made mostly of concrete.
Inside the bridge of the leading craft stood the soldier that ordered the detainment of the rest of Star Fox, his helmet placed on the captain's chair. The bridge crew consisted of two officers in blue jumpsuits and three view screens, each showing visual feeds from the corners of the craft. "Target their A-A guns and relay that order to the Dauntless."
The tactical officer started pressing buttons and the comm officer opened an audio channel. "Destroy the artillery."
The ships targeted two of the flack guns and fired in unison, melting the guns to an inoperable state and causing the bullets to explode, the gunners reduced to ash and bone fragments.
The final gunner jumped off before she ended up like the others, only to have a piece of shrapnel from a casing fly and sever her carotid artery when the final flack gun was destroyed.
Two SAMs deployed and unloaded into one of the crafts before they could be destroyed. The Dauntless' shields failed so its lights were immediately shut off and it was quickly moved out of range.
The Phoenix blasted the two newly deployed SAMs before they could reload and they exploded.
The Dauntless approached again and stopped above the base, its shields were back up and its lights were back on.
The exterior of the base was left lifeless, scorch marks dotted the ground and all of the exposed anti-air defenses were either half melted or exploded. There were multiple patches of smoldering ash and bone fragments where people once were.
A impromptu task force of eleven soldiers was transported, six of them inside the base and the rest outside. The crafts then ascended and cloaked.
3:20 AM CDT, Base Interior, Ground Level.
No... No no NO!" Overwhelmed with rage and despair, Fox felt something that he had never felt before. His irises glowed bright orange like flames as tears streamed down his face. Slippy stared at Fox.
"So that's what happens when you screw a girl that practically has superpowers..." Slippy joked and immediately trailed off because it was a horrible time to make jokes, especially raunchy ones.
The vulpine was unable to speak. All he could think about was the harm brought to his mate. His expression went completely blank then stepped out from behind cover. He let out a savage battle cry like that of an enraged warrior and charged the man in the doorway, pulling out and opening a treated diamond bladed OTF knife. Jacob was now sitting against a wall conscious. "W-was that Krystal?"
Before the soldier could react he was stabbed in the throat twice and shoved down.
Fox paid no mind to it as he walked into the hall and aimed his blasters, the soldiers in the hall all aimed at him. Slippy aimed his MP5 out the door at the soldiers.
"Open fire!" A man shouted and the entire group began spraying bullets and bolts in Fox's and Slippy's direction. Fox's armor caught multiple bullets as he ran and started shooting people at near point blank range, downing about half of the group.
Suddenly, multiple white flashes appeared behind Fox and from those flashes appeared a group of six soldiers, armed with wrist moued blasters and submachine guns. But by the time all was said and done, all of the soldiers in the hallway were dead or critically injured. The new, differently outfitted soldiers raised their weapons. Slippy ducked back into the control room.
"Drop your weapons!" A man shouted
Fox ignored the soldiers behind telling him to stop and drop his weapons.
"Hold your fire." The man leading the party stepped toward them and pulled out a syringe filled with a light blue, opaque liquid.
Fox got down on his knees next to Krystal and checked her pulse. One bullet appeared to have penetrated through her armor and left breast into her lung.
Her pulse was steady.
"Come on wake up!"
She immediately sat upright and coughed up about an ounce of blood.
Fox immediately hugged her, relieved.
"Thank God!"
"I... Can't sense anything..." Krystal slurred, thoroughly dazed.
Upon seeing that the vixen was okay, Slippy stood up and turned towards the equally scary, differently dressed soldiers. Their weapons were raised.
"Oh come on! We haven't even met and you're already pointing guns at us?"
A final individual was transported in holding what looked like a pneumatic dart gun.
"Damien?"
Don't worry, there will be no more deus ex machina(s) in this story, as it is an actual, serious, one time scenario that will even be commented on how lucky the timing was later.
