Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox. All rights and characters (except my own) are reserved to Nintendo and the related companies that helped produce all parts of the game franchise. This work is also non-cannon, but does take place after Star Fox: Command, before Fox and Krystal decide to leave the team and start a new life together. Please support the official release.
"A Wolf's Redemption"
"Prologue: One Starry Night"Part Four:
The hall was a short one; it had been closed off part of the way up with a set of blast doors, just in case this section became compromised. As Lyall crept forward silently, he saw that the access panel in this hall was still functioning. Several questions raced through his mind: did they notice his break-in attempt? How many enemies were there? Was there a set of guards placed on the other side? The final question was answered for him as he cautiously put one ear close to the blast doors and he heard a series of muffled hissing and growling noises, like there was an argument going on. Whatever was piloting this ship was not from Lylat. That was certain.
Looking again at the access panel, he saw that there was a simple communicator that probably (he hoped) only contacted the other side of the door. After whispering a quick prayer, he edged over and pushed what looked to be the button to open the comm channel and said, "Heya, boys. How's it goin'?" At once the 'arguing' stopped and was replaced with confused hissing and clicking and growling. Lyall moved quickly and managed to prop himself above the door between to beams, waiting and mentally thanking Coach Andreugh for his now useful body prop training.
The blast doors quickly flew open and two reptilian creatures slowly walked through, looking left and right while flicking out their tongues, tasting the air. Lyall had never seen anything like these before. Their green, scaly skin that covered the massive muscled bodies of the red-eyed behemoths was itself covered in black armor with steel spiked studs. Lyall suddenly remembered hearing some rumors of when team Star Fox had its first out of system mission to Sauria. Apparently Fox McCloud had faced monsters similar to this that was called the Sharp Claw tribe. These must be what the Sharp Claws looked like. But, Sauria was a primitive planet, without any possible means of space travel. How could these lizards have built, let alone fly, something this advanced? It was mind-boggling!
Still, Lyall's mission wasn't to figure out who was flying the ship, it was to find the secondary bridge, and get the ship out of Corneria's atmosphere. Before the two Sharp Claws had a chance to notice him, Lyall dropped down behind the both and quickly fired two shot from his blaster, dropping them like rocks.
"Hey, kid! Come in!" Lyall nearly pissed his pants as Slippy's voice came through his wrist communicator.
"Geez, Slippy! Don't do that!" he hissed quickly. "I could've been spotted!"
"Sorry," the frog said in response, a bit defeated.
"Aw, Slippy…" he sighed. "C'mon, you know I was just a bit startled. Adrenaline rush and whatnot. Listen, I need you to tell me where the secondary bridge is. If the main one is still intact, then it'll be crawling with these lizard freaks, and I can't take on that many by myself."
Slippy seemed to regain some of his pep as Lyall spoke, and responded, "It's ok. That's what I contacted you for anyways. I just finished the scan. Sending schematics… now!" The wrist communicator made a beeping sound as the download finished.
"Thanks, Slippy! Just hold on a little longer—GAH!" the ship rocked as it fired another volley of plasma at the remaining team Star Fox. "Damn, this ship isn't very stable. I guess you guys did more damage than it appears. Hold tight, and I'll try to get in contact with you a.s.a.p." And with that, Lyall muted his wrist comm. The rest of this was going to have to be stealth.
On the outside, Fox and Slippy were doing everything that they could to slow the battle cruiser's progress. But for every drone they destroyed, several more took its place. "It's like we're on Venom all over again!" Fox exclaimed. "There's just no end to them."
"I know what ya' mean, Fox." Falco agreed from the GFII.
"What do you mean? This is nothing like the Anglar Invasion." Krystal said.
"Sorry, Princess," Falco replied. "Before you came along, there was a big war fought here against that mad monkey, Andross, who was based on Venom. Don't you remember? Peppy couldn't help but brag about how he led us to find that terraforming machine."
"You're right. I still don't know all of the details though."
"Now it's my turn to say, 'You're right.'" Falco said. "Put simply, Andross had his bio-weapon drones in mass production on his planet by the time we got to him, and boy was it ugly. Wave after wave of drones just kept on comin'! If it weren't for me, heh, we'd all probably be under his thumb now!" Krystal couldn't help but laugh. Even after all this time, Falco still had an ego big enough to plug up a black hole. "Hey, what's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing, Falco. Nothing at all."
Lyall had finally made it to the deck where the secondary bridge was located. Every passing deck had contained more guards than the last, and this one was no different. In fact, this one had twice as many guards as the last! Lyall cursed to himself. How was he going to get through this time? Not only did he have to make it to the sub-bridge, he had to contact Slippy, get the door open, and disable anyone inside, all without having anyone raise the alarm! "Now would be one heck of a time for a distraction," he whispered to himself. Looking down, he saw what looked to be the remnants of someone's lunch by his foot. He grimaced as he picked up the half eaten… leg, he assumed, of meat, but inwardly smiled. These things seemed to be driven by base instincts.
Taking a quick look, he saw the door he was looking for. He'd have to be quick, but if he tossed the bone far enough, he could toss a grenade he'd found on a previous deck and take out any Sharp Claw stupid enough to go for his bait, which he hoped would be most of them. Just then, an alarm went off and a strange language began to play over the ship's communications system. Had he been discovered? A mass of Sharp Claw began to move away from his position, leaving only six guarding the door that Lyall needed to get through. Perfect. His blaster would be quieter anyways.
Lyall counted to thirty. He didn't want to risk any stragglers to hear him firing away at their comrades. As soon as he was done counting, he took another peek and saw that all of the remaining guards were still in the same positions. Several even looked to be asleep. He then quickly jumped out and started firing away. Three fell immediately, while the remaining half were shocked by the sudden assault. One Sharp Claw went to signal an alarm, but was quickly disposed of by Lyall's gun. The remaining two chose to rush Lyall, who managed to dodge the first, but was body slammed by the second, slamming into the wall with a thud and having the wind knocked out of him. He managed to barley avoid another attack from the first and aimed his blaster at the lizard's lower jaw, firing and leaving a large hole in its head.
The last one finally realized that it was outmatched and began to run away. Lyall wasn't about to let that happen. No, he couldn't risk anyone raising the alarm yet. Before the Sharp Claw could turn the corner, Lyall pounced on it and put the barrel of his blaster right at the base of its skull and whispered, "Goodnight, jungle breath." Then he pulled the trigger. Activating his wrist comm and taking it off of mute Lyall contacted Slippy. "Ok, I'm about to enter the secondary bridge. What should I look for when I get in?"
Slippy's voice finally crackled through the device, "Since it's the sub-bridge there should only be about three guys in there. Other wise it'd be pretty cramped. So that shouldn't be hard to take care of…"
"I don't need to worry about that, Slippy. I need to know what console to look for."
"Hold on, hold on! I'm getting there. You'll need to find the only one that has a dual quadro-processing modem with twelve external hard-drives at the least and probably a couple of really big towers that are in a hexaquad design and-."
"Slippy!"
"Y-yeah?"
"In layman's terms?"
"Oh," Slippy blushed, forgetting that he often knew a lot more than anyone else when it came to technology. "Just look for the biggest computer in the room."
"Thanks, Slippy." Lyall said, and muted the comm device once again.
On the bridge of the massive battle ship, over a dozen Sharp Claw worked to maintain what control was left of the massive spacecraft. A large throne was placed in the middle of it all, and on the throne sat a deflated looking Sharp Claw, who was bigger than the rest. In his prime, this Saurian had once been a warlord, ready to take over the planet. But the betrayal of one whom he considered to be his ally had left him crippled and weak. Too weak to even stand without assistance. "What is the condition of that wretched team of furred ones?" he asked in his native Saurian tongue, his blood red eyes glowing with rage.
"They are not faring well, General Scales," a subordinate replied. "Only two little metal birds remain. One of which is the Orange One that thwarted you all those years a—GHAK!" The General had lunged out of his throne and managed to pierce the throat of the subordinate officer who had been speaking, using the chair as a crutch.
"Remember this well!" he shouted. "I am still your feared General Scales! Never speak of that day in my presence, or you will DIE!" All of the other officers on the bridge simply nodded out of fear. Even though their general was a shadow of his former self, Scales' attitude had not diminished one bit. Suddenly the ship shook and warning sirens began to blare. "What is going on? TELL ME!" the general shouted.
"Sir. It seems that someone has infiltrated the secondary bridge and hacked our systems. They've input new coordinates and completely locked us out!" Down in the sub-bridge, Lyall thanked Slippy for the procedure to fully take over the ship's systems. "There's nothing I can do, sir! Nothing is responding."
"Then somebody get down there and FIX IT!" screamed General Scales. He was too close to attaining his revenge to lose it all now.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing that anyone can do! A firewall was planted that requires a pass code, and we were not provided with the technology to break the code, sir!"
General Scales was screaming inside. If he could not kill Fox McCloud, then he'd at the very least destroy Corneria City. "Detonate the propulsion systems. I'm going to make the Orange One suffer for what he did. If I cannot take his life, then I will take his home!" All of the Sharp Claws on the bridge lowered their heads. It had been foolish on their leader's part to take that mad man's help, and they knew it, but they would never question their leader. It was how they were: loyal to the bitter end.
Author's Note: End of Part Four. Will be re-uploading Part Three with some new edits and whatnot. Like always, please review!