Chapter IV - Backup
The briefing room on board the Great Fox II was a sizeable space with a sleek, minimalist design. Except for the crew quarters, most of the rooms and corridors aboard the Great Fox II were encompassed by a cold, silver plating on each side. The briefing room, however, had darker matte gray paneling, dotted by large tiles of sound dampeners along the walls.
A black microphone on a metal stant sat pointing straight upwards in the center of the smooth, rectangular mahogany table, picking up every instruction, discussion, conference and meeting that took place in the room. A small wire ran under the table and into the floor, carrying the recordings of every sound it heard towards an antenna before it was fired off into the endless void of space.
Fox McCloud sat at the head of the table, followed by the rest of his team, everyone's eyes on the holographic display. The projection of General Pepper's head floated freely in front of the wall as he filled them in.
"Our scout that returned when you left has managed to uncover some information that should prove quite useful," the General explained.
Pepper's head floated to the right, and several images appeared next to him.
"Here's a floor plan of the entire base, including diagrams of the reactor," the hound said simply, making Fox's eyes widen slightly.
Krystal, sitting across from him, noticed this, and peered into his mind, only to find two words echoing through his head.
'Spot. On.'
The hideout's construction was quite simple, really. In order to make the base blend in more with its surroundings, the majority of it was actually just a bunch of tunnels connected together with large spaces in between. This made the snowfall from the frequent blizzards pile up unevenly from the gaps in between the corridors, making it look like it was just a rocky surface underneath. Had it been just one giant rectangle, the snow would have piled up in one central location, most of it spilling down the sides, essentially making a small mountain of snow in one very conspicuous location.
Though the layout of the base was pretty much redundant at this point, Fox wasn't about to turn down a freebie.
'The reactor diagram should be pretty helpful, too.'
"I'll say, I wasn't expecting that, but we'll take what we can get. Is there anything else you wanted to tell us?"
"Not at the moment, I'll have my officers contact you if something else comes up."
"Alright. Thanks, General," Fox said as he ended the call. The hologram faded out, leaving a blank wall for everyone to stare at for a few moments before Fox did a small spin in his chair and faced the table.
"Did you find anything in those messages, Slippy?" Fox asked.
"Yeah, you're not gonna believe who's behind all this." The amphibian said sarcastically.
"Let me guess... Wolf?"
"Bingo."
"Great... Now he's got a base on some random planet. Anything else we should be worried about?"
"There was a few mentions of some kind of prototype tossed around," Slippy said uneasily. "This could be some kind of weapon... Or worse."
Fox sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?"
"I wasn't expecting you to end the call with Pepper so early!" Slippy replied, hands coming up defensively.
"Question." Falco said.
"Yes?"
"What exactly are we going to be doing in there?"
"Glad you asked," Fox started as he got up and pressed a button on a control panel down towards the end. A small chime indicated that the ship's AI was now listening for a command.
"ROB, pull up the battle plan."
The metallic, modulated voice of ROB 64 flooded the room from a speaker in the ceiling.
"Affirmative, Fox. Displaying battle plan on briefing room table."
Several arrays of cameras, holographic projectors, and other sensors mounted above the table instantly lit up a few moments later, causing a bright, pellucid white grid to cover the mahogany table. After several loading bars had finished their small journey, the grid filled out into a solid sheet, and an outline in the shape of the floor plan the General had sent them rose from the table in three dimensions, flickering slightly as most holograms tended to.
Fox tapped a button projected onto the tabletop, and the base exploded into cross-sections each floor now standing upright as a blueprint in midair.
"Here's the ground floor," the vulpine explained as he traced out a path through the tunnels with his finger. A small red line appeared on the projection, trailing closely behind his finger like an Arwing chasing a Venomian fighter.
"We'll be splitting into teams of two; Falco and Slippy, you'll be infiltrating the server room to make sure they don't know we're in there. Krystal, you're with me, we're going after the reactor itself," he finished. A solid red and blue line ran from the side entrance, splitting away towards the destination of each group.
"Okay, but what do we do once we get there?" Falco asked impatiently.
"Slip, I don't care what you do in there so long as they don't know what we're doing until the very last second. Falco, you'll be covering for him. If need be, do what you need to do."
The avian smirked and let out a small chuckle, and the amphibian gave a thumbs-up in response.
Fox tapped another button, and the floor plans slid off to the side, making room for the newly acquired diagrams of the reactors to appear in the center.
"The maintenance hatch for the reactors is further up the mountain, about a two-hundred foot climb," the vulpine continued, an aerial view of the mountain confirming his statement.
"We'll need to get inside, attach an antimatter charge to the reactor core, and blow the place off the map once we're out."
Just then, a morbid thought came to Krystal's mind.
"What happens if one of us gets hit... or worse?"
Everyone looked at the blue vixen with solemn expressions. The mood had dropped like an Arwing without its G-Diffuser to hold itself up.
"Standard protocol for losing a teammate in battle is to... well... leave them behind." Slippy said eventually.
Krystal was speechless. She couldn't imagine a team going into battle, and the rest leaving a fallen teammate behind. Back on Cerinia, warriors killed in battle were always brought back to be buried, no matter the cost. Respect for the fallen was always kept, even if it meant sacrificing resources to get them home to the families that mattered to them.
Fox hated this procedure the most.
'It's the reason why dad's grave is empty.'
It was the reason why he could only stare at an empty coffin at his father's funeral after Peppy had returned with the news that they'd been betrayed by Pigma, and James died in an explosion of both his Arwing being shot to pieces, as well as it crashing into the surface of Venom. Fox spent years scouring every inch of the wretched planet's surface, hoping to find something, anything that would give him something to bury back home.
Every time, he'd come up empty-handed, with nothing but a red scarf and what few memories he had to comfort him.
Trying to change the subject matter, the vulpine pushed the painful memories out of his head.
"I want all of you to bring your A game. We don't really know what we're dealing with, and I'd prefer to come back to a live crew than a dead one. I'll shoot a message to Pepper and ask for some backup, but don't be surprised if we have to get ourselves out of a jam. This meeting is now dismissed." He said, well aware that even his non-telepathic teammates could tell what he was thinking about.
Falco and Slippy got up to leave, but Krystal stayed behind.
"What's up, Krys?" Fox asked as he stared out the window.
The azure vixen walked over to him and embraced him in a tight hug.
"If you need anything, just know that I'm here for you, just as you were there for me," she said softly into his ear.
Fox smiled, and put his hands over hers.
"I know, its one of the many reasons why I love you."
Hearing Fox say that made her flutter a little, even if it had been already established. After she and her beloved captain held each other for a little while longer, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before she left to go get ready for bed.
As the last of his teammates left the room, Fox pressed the button for ROB on the control panel once more. The same chime from earlier played from above.
"ROB, clear the table for me, and send a message to General Pepper."
The AI's voice responded as the lights from the hologram covering the table slowly faded out from corner to corner.
"Understood. What should the title of the message be?"
The vulpine paused for a moment, then said one word.
"Backup."
/
A vulpine couple sat in their living room on Corneria, enjoying what little downtime they got from their constant workload. The man, his fur dyed a deep Egyptian blue, with hints of orange stripes running across his arms and legs, was sitting on a couch with his arm around his wife, a vixen with fur dyed a bright orange accompanied by blue stripes peeking through the color on her back and arms. The two were mercenaries, like Star Fox, but only worked alongside each other; A team consisting of only a husband and wife, out kicking ass across the galaxy together.
A small buzzing noise emanated from a small end table to the left of the couch, causing both of their ears to perk up and swivel towards the familiar sound. The man begrudgingly let go of his wife, and reached over to pick up his communicator. Pressing the button to answer the call, the living room was flooded with the monotone voice of a computer-generated message.
"You are requested to meet General Pepper for a briefing in two hours. While we apologize for the short notice, this mission has been rated as "high priority." Please bring your identification with you to the Cornerian Defense Force headquarters so that you can be given clearance upon arrival."
The man looked up at his wife as the message replayed itself, and smirked.
"Looks like we're needed for something important."
The vixen turned to face her husband on the couch and smiled.
"Such is the life of a military contractor."
/
A little over an hour later, the two pulled into their driveway in a jet black SUV.
"I'll grab our gear. Fire up the Wyvern and I'll see you in a few." The woman said before opening the door and walking quickly into the house.
The man nodded, and got out of the car. He jogged over to the hangar next to their house, and turned off a pump on the wall. After flipping a few more switches, the lights came on, and a giant fighter craft became visible under the sharp glow of the incandescent lights high above him.
The Wyvern was a custom fighter jet that only seated two people, but could fly at insanely high speeds. Two large wings stuck out from either side, swept forward and bent to form a W shape across the entire wingspan, accompanied by two smaller wings just in front of them, as well two tail fins in the rear. Despite most liquid fueled spacecraft being replaced by their fuel cell powered counterparts nowadays, these two mercenaries have had this fighter for over two decades, and refused to get rid of it until someone got lucky in shooting it down, not to be shot by them soon after in revenge for their prized spacecraft.
The man's wife came out of the house holding two duffel bags containing rifles, medical supplies, and other munitions. After she tossed them into the fighter's cargo bay and shut it, the two climbed into the cockpit and closed the canopy. A welcome message displayed itself on the HUD as the engines began to fire up.
Retinal Scan Confirmed.
Welcome, Troy and Madison Groomes.
- If I had to pick a voice model for an upgraded ROB, it would probably be the ship's AI assistant from Time Machine VR (also named Rob, funnily enough), or, for a hyper-realistc, way-too-human-sounding one, the "Orange" voice preset for the Google Assistant. If any of you have a Google Home or an Android phone, you'll know what I mean.
- The Wyvern is based on the X-02 Strike Wyvern from Ace Combat 7. I've finally unlocked it, but it'll be flying just a little bit faster than its rated top speed of Mach 2.5. (By faster, I mean we're slapping an FTL drive in this bad boy and they're gonna catch up to Star Fox in about a day. Remember, the Great Fox II can only travel up to light speed. Also, it should be noted that FTL drives/Warp drives use their own separate power cell, especially if the vessel is liquid fueled.)
- OC's belong to Troy Groomes. Also, I blame him for being the reason I bought Ace Combat 7. Somebody do me a favor and ask him if the color of the sky means anything. (Adios, you damn fool!)