CHAPTER NINE
Taking Out the Trash
October 28, 2053
Eco-Dock, Planet Zoness
"Urgh!" groaned Anna. "This planet is disgusting, even for me!"
Zoness was best known as the filthiest planet in the Lylat System because its waters were heavily polluted with nuclear waste. At one time, this planet had looked almost like Aquas, as they were both covered in water. There was one big difference: Aquas' waters weren't a sickly greenish-yellow color.
"I hear ya, Anne." Falco said, covering his nostrils. "Woowhee!"
"I wouldn't live here even if you paid me a million clams!" Marcus muttered.
The Star Fox team had been assigned to reactivate the ventilation system on the ocean floor. While it was running, every bit of nuclear waste was ventilated into pure salt water. But when Andross attacked the Lylat System almost thirty years ago, it had somehow stopped working, causing the nuclear waste to build up until it chemically bonded with the water.
Chase slipped on a pair of work gloves, filled a vial with a bit of the polluted water and inserted it into an analysis machine.
Several loud beeps were heard from the machine.
"20% oxygen, 15% hydrogen, 25% carbon, 5% methane and 40% liquid uranium." Chase concluded. "A very mixed-up and deadly compound."
"Which means?" asked Falco.
"Not only is this water toxic, but it's radioactive, too. One touch will cause severe burns, partial paralysis…maybe even permanent mutation or, worst case scenario being you fall in and get your whole body drenched, death."
"And we have to clean this entire place up WITHOUT touching that gunk." Anna groaned. "Perfect. Just perfect."
"The vent's on the ocean floor." Falco grumbled. "How do we reactivate it if we can't even get down there?"
Marcus grinned and turned on his comm.
"ROB, deploy the Blue Marine!"
An area in front of the dock flashed. When the light faded, the Blue Marine drifted in the water.
"A brief warning." ROB stated. "The Blue Marine is not properly built for use in polluted waters. You may experience a total power failure if you are submerged for too long, and the targeting system will cease to function."
"Hey, relax. I come from a family of sure-shots." Marcus bragged.
He opened the hatch at the top of the submarine and climbed down the ladder.
"You guys keep the skies clear. Those Venomians are probably gonna get really up on my case about the Fichina thing if they catch me."
Marcus shut the hatch door. The entire submarine was dark. Marcus hit a button and turned on all the neon colored lights in the machine. He flipped open another hatch and pressed a button. The Blue Marine rumbled to life.
"Engines ignited."
Marcus tapped a few buttons above his head. A screen appeared.
"Sonar is online. Air pressure A-Okay."
Marcus sat in the seat and clutched the steering console.
"Beginning my submersion."
The submarine sank into the depths of the ocean. The windshield blocker slid off. Even though he was only 30 feet below sea level, Marcus couldn't see a thing.
"C'mon, lights! Stupid lights!" he grumbled, smacking the metal frame with his palm.
The headlights switched sight Marcus could see now wasn't pretty.
There was no sign of marine life anywhere, and the ocean floor was covered with corroded animal bones. The water itself was still the revolting greenish-yellow color of vomit.
"Guys, it's even worse under the surface!" Marcus said into his comm.
"And Fox always wondered why I stayed in the sky." Falco started. "Well…that says it all. So I don't have to deal with THAT kind of bullshi…"
"Anyway," Marcus interrupted before Falco could finish his curse word. "Anna, gimme the ventilation system's coordinates and this mission is underway."
"It's a little sketchy," Anna said. "But here's what we've got. It should be coming up on your sonar right about…now."
Marcus checked the sonar. A blinking dot labeled "228 S, 18 E" was onscreen.
"Yep, I got it. Let's get going."
The Blue Marine slowly sank deeper into the grime-filled waters. As Marcus went deeper, the water got darker.
"Skies are clear up here." Falco said to Marcus.
Marcus pulled the steering console over to avoid crashing into a huge hunk of oxidized coral sticking out from the ocean floor and barrel rolled to deflect a few pieces of debris that suddenly came raining down.
"Wish I could say the same for me." he grumbled.
"Hey, Falco." Anna spoke up. "Just outta curiosity, what happened with you and that girl…what's her name…Katt?"
Falco's face fell slightly.
"Haven't seen her in seventeen years. She worked for the Army back when she was still around. About a year after Fox and Krystal got married, she and the Labrador unit got sent to Venom to check for any suspicious activity…none of them ever came back.
"So…she's dead?" Marcus asked.
"I don't really know." Falco sighed. "Probably yes. But I'm not too sure...dammit! And I was just starting to like her."
Marcus actually felt a little sorry for Falco, even though he had never met Katt before. He couldn't stand to see anyone sad.
"Hey, chin up, Falco." he said. "Don't let depression drag you down. Besides, she's probably still alive, trying to get back home right now. The important thing is to be positive and patient. She'll turn up eventually."
Falco grinned. Marcus sure knew how to cheer a guy up.
"Don't worry about me, bud. You've still got the mission to focus on right now."
Marcus nodded.
"Right. We'll have this over with soon enough."
Suddenly, a few dots appeared on Marcus' sonar.
"I got some unidentified vessels a couple clicks from my current location. There headed for me right now. Chase, gimme a bioscan." Marcus said.
"Yeesh. Always coming to me for help, huh?" Chase said.
"What, you can't do it?"
"No, I can do it. I just don't want SOMEBODY to ASSUME I can do it." Chase replied, glancing at Anna.
Anna faked laughter, then responded,
"Why, thank you, Chase. And I guess you can ASSUME that I can provide Marcus the right coordinates and ASSUME that he can figure out where he's going!"
"How about we all ASSUME that I want you guys to stop arguing and ASSUME that Chase does what I told him to do! That way we can ASSUME that I can get the mission done and ASSUME that we get paid!" Marcus said sternly.
Chase rolled his eyes, but started up a bioscan anyway.
"According to my scan, there's no wildlife on this planet at all except for the fabled Gargantuan Eel."
"Hey, I heard about that." Falco spoke up. "That guy Soren Halen killed the only other one. But how could that thing possibly survive in a place like this?"
"I'm gonna say a tough exoskeleton. But that's just me. Always resorting to estimations." Chase replied.
"Hang on. If those aren't marine creatures, then…"
Marcus looked out the windshield. About five small, torpedo-like ships were closing in on him.
"Bogies!" Marcus shouted.
The Blue Marine swerved out of the way of the ships as they sailed by.
"They're turning around!" Anna shouted. "Be careful!"
Marcus pulled up on the steering console and did a somersault over the enemies as they rocketed by him again.
"Fire in the hole!" Marcus shouted.
Marcus hit a red button above his head. A torpedo flew out at the enemies and detonated close enough to them to wipe them out.
"There's more on the way!" Chase shouted. "Keep a sharp eye out!"
Sure enough, ten more enemy units shot through the contaminated water. Marcus pushed a button on the steering console repeatedly and the Blue Marine fired powerful lasers, cutting right through the enemy units as though they were butter.
Suddenly, the Blue Marine's engine sputtered and a warning siren started blaring inside. Marcus shut off the siren.
"ROB, what's going on?"
"Blue Marine experiencing power failure." ROB's expressionless voice crackled. "The pollution appears be damaging the vessel's interior."
"Just my luck. How much power do I have left?"
"63% power remaining."
"Marcus, you need to hurry up and find that vent system or the sub will shut down and you'll drown!" Chase hollered.
"OK, I'm going! Jeez, now I'm under even MORE pressure!"
Marcus slammed the boost pedal and shot through the murky depths at supersonic speed, but stopped when the siren blared again.
"59% power remaining." ROB blared.
"Lay off the boost!" Chase warned. "You'll conserve more power."
Marcus stopped. Up ahead was a gigantic pipe that arched up into a metallic island-like structure that was held up by huge beams on the ocean floor.
"I've found the vent!" Marcus said.
"Ok, now head up the pipe. You need to get inside the system and activate the override." Chase instructed.
"56% power remaining."
"Just put it on the screen, ROB. Stop telling me." Marcus ordered.
Marcus was about to proceed up the pipe that lead into the main control unit, but suddenly he stopped and didn't move a muscle.
"Something wrong, Mark?" Falco asked.
"Uhh…Chase?" Marcus asked.
"Yeah?" said Chase.
"That eel you mentioned before…did it have red eyes, REALLY sharp teeth and a head that could blow a hole in the Great Fox?"
"That's so accurate that it's creepy…but yes. Why?"
"It's staring me in the face right now!"
The eel's head slithered out of the pipe. The marine beast took one look at Marcus and roared.
"It's blocking the vent! I can't get in!"
"You're gonna have to flush it out somehow!" Chase hollered.
"That's easy for you to say! Where the hell is this thing's weak point?"
The eel swung its massive head at the Blue Marine. Marcus barrel-rolled out of the way. The eel roared again.
"That's it!" Anna shouted. "Shoot a torpedo in its mouth!"
Marcus hit the button the explosive flew into the eel's mouth. Believe it or not, it swallowed it. The torpedo exploded. The eel roared in agony, then slithered out of the pipe and straight toward Marcus.
"It's coming after me! Switching to all-range mode!"
The Blue Marine's rudder extended and Marcus drove away from the serpent's blunt head.
"Look out, Mark!" Falco warned. "That thing looks really steamed."
Marcus rolled his eyes.
"As if I didn't notice." he thought.
"Shield analysis complete. Bringing it up on the monitor." Chase said.
Looking onto the screen, Marcus saw a bar representing the eel's remaining energy. He also saw that he only had 49% power left.
"Gotta take this guy out fast!"
"Marcus, I'm detecting a weak point on its tail!" Anna said. "Get around behind it!"
Marcus U-turned and swerved around to the eel's backside. The eel itself started looking around the water, looking for the metallic morsel that had just fled from it.
"Good God, this thing's gotta be at least forty feet long!" Marcus said.
Marcus looked at the tip of the eel's tail. Some of the exoskeleton was cracked off, revealing a bare fleshy part.
"OK, Mark!" said Anna. "Concentrate your fire right there!"
Marcus pressed his thumb down on the button and switched the laser firing mode to fully automatic. When the lasers collided with the tail, the eel shrieked and turned around. It could see him now. It started barreling toward Marcus with its mouth wide open. A multi-colored aura emitted from its mouth.
"Watch out, Mark!" Anna screamed.
Marcus swerved away just as a gigantic laser erupted from the eel's mouth.
"Wait a minute…lasers? Eels can't fire lasers!" Marcus exclaimed.
"Maybe the eel's been bio-engineered. That's probably what those Venomians were doing here." Chase pondered.
"And that monster certainly knows how to put those extra chromosomes to use!" Anna said.
The eel roared again.
"Shaddup, you big lizard!" Marcus retorted.
He hit the bomb button again and launched another torpedo into the colossal beast's mouth. The eel swallowed it, and it exploded. The eel cried out in pain again, then made an odd choking noise and stopped moving. After a few seconds, it drifted down to the ocean floor and lay dead.
"Jeez, first I'm Grandpa reborn and now I'm Halen reborn." Marcus breathed.
"22% power remaining." ROB blared.
"Mark, quit dinkin' around!" Anna scolded
"Don't start whining. I'm headin' in now." Marcus replied.
Marcus reverted to single-range mode and piloted the Blue Marine up the gigantic pipe. The vessel surfaced in a rusted, metal cavern. Marcus powered down the submarine and climbed out of the hatch. He landed feet-first on the ground.
"OK, I'm inside the vent. Talk to me, Chase."
"First, get to the control unit and turn it on.
Marcus flicked the on the power switch for the computer. A login screen appeared.
"Username: VentinlationStaff. Password: j8l9oa." Chase said.
Marcus typed in the username and password.
"OK, now just do the same thing you did on Fichina." Chase instructed.
"Copy that."
Marcus scrolled over My Computer, then clicked on System Repair. He heard a rushing noise. Then he looked at the water. The revolting greenish-yellow hue was fading away!
"Mark, you did it!" Anna cheered. "The water's back to normal."
Outside the vent and above the surface, Falco, Chase and Anna watched in wonder as the waters of Zoness changed back from clouded green and yellow to pure blue. Soon, the planet would be full of life again, and Zoness would be a more hospitable place to live.
Marcus smiled at his work.
"Mission accomplished, gang."
He climbed back into the Blue Marine, powered up the engine and submerged.
After five minutes of cruising along back to the Eco-Dock, the siren went off again, this time even louder than before.
"Now running on emergency back-up power." said a robotic voice from the Blue Marine's monitor. "Power will be drained in 1 minute."
"Oh, for the love of…" Marcus growled.
He didn't even think. He hit the ejector seat button and shot up into the water. He could see where he was going now, but he was fast running out of breath. All he focused on was getting to the surface.
It almost seemed like he wouldn't make it when…POW! He burst out of the water. He took a moment to catch his breath, then started front-crawling toward the Eco-Dock. After a minute or two, he made it to the ladder and immediately started climbing. When he reached the platform, he got down on all fours and started gasping for breath.
Falco, Anna and Chase landed their ships, jumped out and ran up to Marcus. Marcus himself looked at them…and burst out laughing.
"Wha…what are you laughing at?" Anna stuttered.
"You guys should see the looks on your faces. Ha! Priceless!" Marcus howled.
Falco rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, ha, ha, ha. Laugh it up, wise guy. You nearly drowned! That's certainly no laughing matter!" he scolded.
Marcus stood up, shook the excess water from his fur and established a comm link with the Great Fox.
"ROB, send a retrieval unit to pick up the Blue Marine." he ordered.
"Affirmative." ROB replied.
"It's gonna be a while before we can use THAT again." Chase muttered.
"I'll take the sky any day." Anna said.
"Let's just get out of here." Marcus spoke up. "We've done our job. But trust me, I'm not going NEAR a pool for at least a stinkin' month!"
45 minutes later
Back in the Great Fox, Chase was analyzing the data he had collected from the Gargantuan Eel while Anna scanned the planet's surface for any remaining radioactive water. Marcus was speaking with Peppy on the hologram device.
"Mission accomplished, sir." Marcus said.
"Way to go, Mark." Peppy said, smiling. "You're just like your old man...and you know that you don't need to call me sir. You and I are like family, after all."
Marcus smirked and rolled his eyes. When WASN'T he like his old man? For killing the Gargantuan Eel, he should have said he was just like Halen.
"Chase is analyzing the data we collected from that monster we ran into. It may lead to the source of all the attacks going on."
"Well done. Report back to me when you receive any further information."
"Got it. Marcus out."
Marcus shut off the hologram device.
"Mark, I've got something!" Chase called.
Marcus quickly walked over to the computer where Chase was working at. A bunch of random symbols that he couldn't understand were onscreen.
"Uhh…what is THAT supposed to mean?" Marcus asked.
"It's Saurian language. I was analyzing the eel's brain stem, looking for any possible reason on how it could fire lasers. It turns out that someone…or something bio-engineered it to do that, just like I thought. When I attempted to access the data, this showed up."
"Can you translate it?"
"No, I don't have the right moderator. I'll try to get one soon."
"But we can assume that something from Sauria did this, right?"
"Not at the moment. This data's about 2 years old. I could be a little off. Besides, no one on Sauria is smart enough to use machines except the deceased Sharpclaw leader, General Scales."
"Anything about this Scales guy?"
"He had a run-in with your dad 21 years ago and no one's seen him since. Not even his own tribe."
"Then it looks like this info's just a pothole. Let's head home, ROB."
Across the galaxy...
Later that night on Fortuna, Coyote lay sleeping in her bed. She couldn't really explain why, but ever since Marcus had rescued her on Fichina, she'd been able to sleep like a log. Just the same, whenever she thought about him, she smiled and her skin warmed up, as though there were a fire in her soul that burned bright at the mere thought of "that blue-furred cutie."
Suddenly, Coyote began dreaming.
Dreaming...
She was lying on a tile floor wet from the immense amount of rain falling from the sky. She seemed to be at the top floor of some sort of temple. Normally she liked rain, or at least didn't mind it, but now wasn't the time for basking in it as she watched in terror at what was going on.
A large, stone statue in front of her had fractured from its base and was now falling towards her. She screamed and held up her hands, as though she would be able to push it away.
Suddenly, it stopped about 6 inches from her face. Coyote looked up and saw someone holding the fallen statue up on his shoulders. At first, she had no clue who it was, but just then, lightning cracked across the sky and for a split second, she caught a glimpse of her savior's face.
It was Marcus!
"Man, even in my DREAMS this boy's saving my hide." she thought.
Marcus grunted as he lifted the statue away from Coyote, then gave one last shout and threw it over the wall. Coyote had no idea was she was thinking, but she stood up, sprinted at Marcus and jumped at him so quickly that he fell over.
Coyote lay on top of him and gazed into the entrancing hazel eyes. How she loved seeing them. She almost felt as though she wanted to drown herself in them.
"My hero…" she whispered to him.
He smiled. "My maiden…"
Once again ignoring all common sense, Coyote leaned her head down and pressed her lips to Marcus' mouth. The fire in her soul became a raging inferno. She felt as light as a feather. She felt so alive!
But just then, the worst possible thing happened…
…she woke up.
Awakening...
Coyote's eyes slowly cracked open. She felt like she was still kissing the lips of her teenage dream, but when she opened her eyes all the way, she found that she was smooching her own pillow.
Coyote spat out her pillow and groaned out of disappointment.
"It felt so real…"
She looked across to her beside table. A photo of Marcus (which she had taken while she was stalking him like a bloodhound stalks a wild pig) was sitting on it.
She picked it up and gazed into the hazel eyes again. Every time she saw those eyes, she went into a lustful trance. She wanted to be where he was. She wanted to know what he thought of her. Most of all, she wanted to let him know about her feelings for him. Maybe he would understand, and maybe they weren't so ridiculous after all. The eyes themselves seemed to pierce her gaze, look down into her heart and feel her true emotions toward her. His gaze soothed her.
Coyote smiled salaciously at the picture.
"Now I've got a little mission of my own." she whispered.
She kissed the picture good-night, then turned over on her back and went to sleep.