Chapter Twenty Six: Cognizance

Rob Dougan - "Clubbed To Death"

Thresher

Bridge

Friedrich was patiently watching the battle as it unfolded. The greyhounds keen eyes were focused on one of the separated groups that were retreating from his carrier and following the Star Fox squadron.

"Sir, we still have a few more men to deploy. Should we do so?" One of the grunts inquired.

"There will be no need to, this'll be over in no time…" He exclaimed with a grin. He could see that things were going better than planned, and he was going to come out victorious at this rate.

But as he silently celebrated, the canine saw something he had failed to bring into the equation. A bright beam of light suddenly shot from Great Fox III, making contact with the right-most carrier. Outside, there was a blinding flash that enveloped the area momentarily, followed by a blast that knocked practically everyone off of their feet. The lights went out and the ship began to list slightly to starboard, making the situation even worse for those trying to get their footing again. All around Friedrich, there were sirens blaring and emergency lights flashing in every direction. His ears rang so violently, that long term effects could drive one insane.

In this stressful situation, Friedrich did not panic. He was not the type of person that would do such a thing. However, deep within the crevices of his mind, was a suppressed thought of fear. He knew that he had let his guard down, and because of it, his own life could be in jeopardy. But still, he hid it well, but for how long?

As the ship slowly stabilized and the lights began to flicker back on, the soldiers began to regain their bearings and assess the situation. The alarms were still going off. Friedrich looked over to the control panels and saw that all information regarding the structural integrity of the midsection of the carrier was gone, indicating a catastrophic failure in that area. Even the slightest crack in the hull would take out the air supply within roughly ten minutes. The panels also indicated that their life support mechanism was destroyed by the shockwave, not that it would really matter since everyone the air supply was already compromised. While he had no idea what the condition of his other carriers were, he knew that him and his crew's fate had been permanently sealed.

"Sir?" One of the grunts quietly asked. The canine failed to respond. A sound began to emit from one of the sets of headphones that was on the control panel. He picked it up and listened in.

"Mayday! Mayday! Storm is losing power and our life support systems are failing! We have no word from Hawking. Who el-" The transmission was abruptly ended. Frustration began to show as the greyhound changed frequencies.

"Gamma Squadron, what is your status?" He spoke apathetically.

…Nothing…

"Gamma Squadron, what is your status?!" A little louder this time.

…Still nothing…

The canine stood at his post, not making a sound. Everything that he had worked for was either blown to bits or about to be its equivalent. In a way, he was disappointed. If it was going to end up like this, Friedrich would have rather preferred to die in style, like an explosion or a flurry of bullets. But in the end, he would merely die a possibly agonizing death as the air supply dwindled, leaving him to squirm until he finally passed out from the lack of oxygen getting to his brain. At least after that, it would be painless, but it was still what he considered to be a not-so dignified way out of this world.

Friedrich turned around and faced his fellow men, all watching him with intense curiosity. At the moment, they had no idea what was going on, but they did know that whatever was, had to be something of grave importance. The attentive leader still showed no signs of fear as he took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Gentlemen…I'm sorry I've failed you…"

The Shadow

Bridge

It was over before anyone knew it. All around the Star Fox squadron was debris for as far as the eye could see. The plasma cannon had done a lot better than expected, the resulting in four of the seven ships to be completely obliterated, and the other three to be crippled beyond repair. Large chunks of the previous were blasted so far, that they were beginning to burn up in the Besdolorean atmosphere. Once again, the Arwings, Wolfens, and ARK Fighters were able to withstand the forces that pummeled them as the shockwave hit them. It was eerily quiet, and nobody was sure if it was really over or not. Nobody wanted to ask, fearing that it would come back to bite them, so they waited…

Otto decided that he would be the first to break the silence after what felt like an eternity. He tried to say something, but all that escaped his muzzle was his steady, but at the same time, deep breaths. "It's done…" He finally uttered over the comm link weakly. There was no reaction to the statement, but he knew that they heard it. As the wreckage began to scatter, the ships began to turn back and head for their respective carriers.

Even though the man he had been waiting to defeat for almost half a year was now surely dead, he still felt empty. He never got to see Friedrich meet his demise, and to be honest, he wasn't even sure if he had died or not. Nobody knew of his deeds, and he would get no recognition from Besdolore. Thus, he would remain a drifter with his now smaller group of outcasts, in oblivion forever.

The hound got up from his seat and walked across the room and down into the hallway toward his quarters, which may have been better than The Junkyard's amenities, but at this time, felt oddly claustrophobic with it's clutter of metal and bed sheets. This sudden movement did not go unnoticed by Teveroth, who followed him to his room, but stopped himself from intruding. The lupine thought that whatever it was that was on Otto's mind was sudden and unplanned, so he thought it would be best that he stayed out of it. He also never thought of himself as much of a motivational type of person, so in a way, he believed that it was more appropriate for him to not interfere.

Teveroth sat himself back down at his post on the bridge and could see that the carriers were practically tearing themselves apart by then, the chance of any survivors in them appeared to be slim to none at the moment, making him grin widely. But further off in the distance, came something else. A maroon colored carrier that appeared to have more of a rounder appearance than the enemies was what he saw from his window. He was not aware of any other enemy fighters , and no orders were being given to attack, so with a cautious eye he surveyed the ship as it approached their general area.

As it drew closer, the actual size of the ship became quite apparent. It dwarfed Great Fox III, Canis, and The Shadow by considerable amounts, with it's width outdoing the Great Fox III, the largest of the group;by roughly two. Length wise, the craft could have easily fit eight and a half of the same ship inside. The engines must have been surprisingly quiet, as there was no vibrations rocking the ship, it was truly mind-boggling. At this point, Teveroth was feeling extremely vulnerable and finally gave in.

"Guys, who the hell is this?" He anxiously inquired into his microphone.

"That?" Fox responded in a sly tone. "That my friend, is your future…"

Otto continued silently lay in his bunk, still in a bit of a pessimistic type of mood. Much like the majority of his time between his exile and his arrival on Bothsiloth, the canine was staring blankly at the ceiling, counting the rivets that held his ship together.

Without any announcement, Teveroth burst into his room with the widest of grins on his face. Otto was so startled, he burst out of his bunk to see what the commotion was all about, only to bang his head hard on the ceiling. He let out an annoyed grunt and attempted to regain his bearings before seeing that who had intruded.

"God dammit Tev, what the f-"

"Get your shit together, we're docking."

"Docking?! Where? And with whom?"

"The Besdolorean Army."

"What? Are we being-"

"No, we're going home…"

The words hit him with such a force, he had to take a step back just to keep his balance. It was too surreal for him to register it in his brain. He was liberated from the chains that the Besdolorean government had shackled onto him, and was free to return to the planet that he had once called home.

"But how?"

"Come down to the hangar…"

After a short walk, Otto found himself in the medium sized hangar that was in the lower decks of The Shadow. The surviving crew had already arrived back from the fight. Co'ort and Lars were leaning against one of their Arwings, talking about the battle and whatnot, Otto honestly didn't care at the moment because he noticed that there were two extra Arwings in the hangar. He had a feeling that he knew who had docked there.

Turns out his suspicions were correct as he found Fox and Falco waiting for him behind one of the fighters. It was obvious that they had something to do with all of this. Otto tried to say something, but he appeared to be lost for words.

"No need to say anything Otto, I'm sure this is all pretty shocking to you." The vulpine said.

"Yeah, I think we need to explain ourselves here." Falco responded back. "A few hours ago before the battle, Bill sent us a message telling him that he contacted the Besdolorean Army for some backup."

"Well look how that turned out…" Otto replied sarcastically, causing a nervous chuckle to erupt from the group.

"Yeah, but what he didn't tell us was that he also informed them of all the men had with us, yourself included. Obviously they recognized your name. But at the same time, they recognized another name, the name of the enemy we thought we were going up against; Michael Drescher."

Fox continued where Falco left off. "They remembered that you accused him of being a double agent. Apparently a few months ago they found Friedrich's body in an abandoned home, but an autopsy later confirmed that it was in fact just a body double. Upon looking at Michael's records, they found that both Sturm and Drescher had strikingly similar physical characteristics, and came to the conclusion that the two were the same person."

"So I guess I wasn't the only person he was able to fool. The fucker got by a whole military organization!"

"I know, it's pretty sad. However, because of all of this, they've cleared your charges and are allowing you to reside there again."

"I thought Bill didn't tell you that, Falco?"

"Well, yeah, he wasn't aware that it would cause all of this to occur. He literally got the news a few minutes ago."

"Point is, you're free."

"Damn, I guess this really is happening." Otto took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Look, I don't think I have enough time in my life to tell you how thankful I am for your help guys. Falco, if I hadn't run into you, who the hell knows what I'd be doing now."

"Hey, I aim to please." He replied as he outstretched his hand toward the canine, who heartily shook it. "Keep in touch, you got some talented men with ya. Wouldn't mind working with you guys again. And those Arwings, keep em'. We've got more than enough of those back in Corneria."

"Hah, thanks, and likewise." Otto then turned to Fox who was smiling, but still showed signs of distress.

"It sucks seeing people like you guys go." He replied. "They really don't come around that often. Falco wasn't kidding, you guys have a lot of potential. If this system doesn't have one already, I suggest that you think of setting up an official mercenary group. You can really rake in a lot of cash from it, which definitely won't hurt now since you'll have to re-establish yourself once again."

"You know, I might just do that. I can see it now; Star Hound, defenders of Besdolore!" He laughed at the thought. The response from Fox and Falco was mutual.

"Go for it, there needs to be more of those types of units in the galaxy. You might as well since you were a hired gun beforehand anyway."

"Will do." He sighed, looking back at Lars and Co'ort who were now joined by Teveroth. "Thanks again, for everything." As he walked over to his colleagues to explain what was to happen, the vulpine and his fellow avian pilot headed back to their Arwings, knowing that they had won in more ways than they would have ever thought.

Authors Notes

Coming up on the final chapter, I thought it would be appropriate to thank you for reading this piece of work. It's really rewarding to know that this still has followers. Hopefully I can publish the last chapter before the New Year arrives. But until then, I want to wish you a Happy Holidays.