CHAPTER FIFTEEN
A Wrong Turn
December 2nd, 2053
Hyperspace, En Route to Sauria
And so it happened, just as Marcus ordered it to.
The team had left Corneria at about six in the morning with everything they would need for their expedition on Sauria. It was also just as Anna had said: Sauria was much further away from Corneria than Venom. From her calculations, even at light speed, it would take approximately a half hour to reach Sauria.
The team hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, so they took the time to rest up before they reached the planet. Marcus, meanwhile, sat half-asleep in the captain's chair, thinking about the conversation he had with his parents before he left.
1 hour earlier
"Are you sure you've got everything you need?" Krystal asked.
"Mom, really, I'm gonna be fine." Marcus said
"Whatever you do, make sure that staff of yours is always at your disposal." Fox warned. "Believe me when I say that Sauria isn't even close to being as forgiving as Corneria."
"Dad, please don't start."
"Sorry." Krystal said. "It's just…Sauria is a long ways away from here, and we're just going to be so worried about you."
"Hey, I'm only gonna be gone for a couple days tops." Marcus said. "You guys are acting like I'm going to my deathbed."
Krystal flinched at that last word. She hated the mere thought of Fox or Marcus dying. In fact, she hated the words "death", "die", "dead", and even the phrase "pushing up daisies", simply because she knew perfectly well that they all meant something no one liked to think about.
"Sorry." Marcus said, scratching the back of his head. "But you don't need to worry about me! I've got the team to back me up, remember?"
"Just…be careful, OK?" Krystal said.
Marcus smiled.
"Come on. Group hug."
His parents smiled. The three McClouds all held one another in a family embrace. It was just as Falco had said: Marcus could figure out how to cheer literally ANYONE up in the blink of an eye.
And if there was one thing Marcus knew, it was that hugs always made Krystal feel better.
"You remember what to do if Kursed attacks your mind again, right?" Krystal asked sternly as they released each other.
Marcus rolled his eyes and smirked.
"Keep my mind clear and focus on something that DOESN'T involve being killed. No need to tell me twice."
"Be sure to come back safe, buddy." Fox said.
"I will, Dad."
Presently...
Marcus had made a promise. He was going to come back alive. No matter what, he wasn't going to die.
Suddenly, his thoughts returned to reality when the Great Fox began to slow down. The other team members were jolted awake.
"Why are we stopping?" Katt asked in a confused voice. "We can't be there yet."
"ROB, did you change our coordinates?" Chase asked.
"Negative." ROB responded. "Light-speed malfunction. Exiting hyperspace."
"Something's not right…" Marcus thought.
The Great Fox shifted into neutral position. The multi-colored hue of hyperspace faded away. Everyone looked out the window.
No constructions seemed to exist, as there were pieces of stone and rusted metal floating all over the place. The team could see an enormous Z-shaped nebula about a few hundred kilometers away, but shining brightly enough that they could see it from where they were
They were in the Sector Z Combat Zone.
"Sector Z?" Falco exclaimed. "What the hell are we doing here?"
"I don't know about you, but I've got a bad feeling about this." said Anna.
Chase jumped over his chair and checked the ship's status monitor. The wormhole indicating light-speed was flashing red.
"The light-speed's been disabled!" he called.
"Oh, perfect! Now we've gotta cruise the rest of the way!" Katt growled.
"I'm not worried about that." Marcus said. "What I'm worried about is why we stopped."
He thought the situation over for a moment. Then, just like that, the pieces fit together.
Marcus clenched his fist.
"Everyone, man your battle positions!" he barked as he proceeded toward the hangar bay.
"What is it, Mark?" asked Chase.
Marcus stopped at the door and looked back with a stern look one his face.
"The Venomians! We're being ambushed!"
Within minutes...
The five Arwings flew out of the hangar bay and switched to all-range mode.
"All ships, scour the area!" Marcus instructed. "Search for any Venomian units, and don't leave the Great Fox unguarded."
"Why would those black-hearted apes attack us all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?" Katt asked.
"Why wouldn't they?" Anna said. "We're not that far from Venom, so we ARE making pretty worthy targets by going through here."
Suddenly, an alarm went off. Dozens of Venomian ships swooped out from behind the debris and began barreling toward the team at full speed.
"Nice welcome!" Falco shouted sarcastically.
The five ships split off in different directions, all the while making sure they didn't fly too far away from the Great Fox.
"Now didn't THEY pick a pretty damn good time to get us." Anna grumbled.
Marcus charged head-on at one group of the enemy units with his Arwing's laser blaring.
"Come on! Show me what you got!" he shouted.
"Hey, Mark, don't get cocky." Anna nagged.
Marcus blew a puff of air from the corner of his mouth. Did she know how hard it was NOT to be cocky when a bunch of people everyone hated picked a random, yet well-selected time to attack them?
Harder than she knew, he was sure.
Marcus hit the brakes and U-turned just as the bogies past him. Laying his thumb on the fire button, he sent the enemy units careening into the broken metal beams.
A couple more bogies grew hot on Falco's tail. He floored the boost pedal and swerved between several crisscrossing beams. When the bogies attempted to follow him, they crashed into each other and exploded.
"Don't mess with me, punks!" Falco mocked.
Katt swerved out of the way of a couple more lasers and his between a few gigantic slabs of floating concrete. Just as she hoped, the Venomians passed right by her and didn't see her. As soon as they passed her, she rocketed after them, fired a smart bomb and took all of them out.
Chase took a loop around the Great Fox and shot down one bogey, then swerved off to the left and hit another. Finally, he U-turned and hit the one behind him with a charged shot.
"Pretty smooth flyin', Chase." Falco remarked.
"You think that's smooth?" Chase said. "Check THIS out!"
He shot between two beams, U-turned, and blasted another bogey, then somersaulted, swerved off to the right and hurtled a smart bomb at a large group enemy units.
"Heh heh. How's THAT for expert piloting?" Chase said triumphantly.
Katt smirked and crossed her arms.
"Don't look now 'expert pilot', but you've got one on your tail."
Sure enough, Chase was suddenly hit from behind by an enemy laser. He looked back and saw a group of Venomians firing at him.
"Well, that's just great…." Chase muttered as he floored the boost pedal and shot away.
Chase literally tried every trick in the book, but no matter how hard he tried, the Venomians stayed hot on his tail.
"Grrr….can't…get away from…..okay, can someone help me out here? I mean, seriously. Hello?"
Anna shot toward the enemies and blasted them all down with barely any effort.
"I guess I was just showing off back there…thanks, Anne."
Anna smirked.
"Gimme a kiss and we'll call it even." she said mischievously
"You say WHAT now?" Chase sputtered.
Marcus, Katt, Anna and Falco all started howling with laughter. Chase, on the other hand, started fuming.
"Ah, shaddup, you schmucks!" he retorted.
Suddenly, an alarm coming from the Great Fox went off.
"Red alert!" ROB's voice blared on their comms. "Six missiles coming from the south!"
Sure enough, when Marcus looked to the south, he could see a ten-foot long, copperhead missile rocketing right at the Great Fox. And it was coming fast!
"Oh, perfect!" Marcus shouted angrily.
"Missile one is headed for Great Fox! Distance: 50!" ROB blared. "Collision with Great Fox will cause severe exterior damage!"
"Here it comes!" Marcus shouted. "Take this thing down hard and fast!"
Chase, Marcus and Falco U-turned toward the missile.
Another group of bogies was guiding the missile. As soon as the boys were within firing range, the bogies flew toward them at full speed.
"Eat this, you losers!" Chase hollered, laying his thumb on the fire button.
Lasers went flying through the cold, oxygen-less air of space. Marcus and Falco swerved away from the pack of Venomians and locked onto the missile.
"Fire in the hole!" Marcus shouted.
The two Arwings fired smart bombs at the missile.
When the blast radii had cleared, they saw that the missile was heavily dented, but was not otherwise damaged. Marcus swerved back toward the missile and laid his thumb down on the fire button. The flying lasers pierced the missile's armor and detonated it.
"Now THAT'S what I call a short round." Marcus chuckled.
"Alert!" ROB blared. "Venomian crawlers attacking Great Fox! Assistance required!"
"Don't worry, boys." Katt called. "We've got 'em. You take care of those missiles."
Katt and Anna jetted toward the Great Fox. Odd mechanical spider-like things were crawling all over the ship, tearing at the hull.
"Chew on your ass, not one of us!" Anna hollered.
The girls split up and took either side of the Great Fox. They sent their lasers blaring and knocked all of the crawlers into oblivion.
"Why do they even bother?" Katt said, smirking.
"Missiles Two and Three approaching!"
Two more missiles were rocketing toward them.
"I'm heading for the missile now!" Chase called, laying his foot down on the boost pedal.
"Chase, get back here!" Marcus shouted.
More bogies appeared out of seemingly nowhere and started zooming right at Chase.
"Too late." Falco groaned.
"Crap, crap, crap, crap!" Chase screamed as he U-turned away.
Falco groaned again. "I got 'em. Mark, you get rid of those missiles."
Falco U-turned back toward Chase. Marcus shot toward Missiles Two and Three. They were approaching the Great Fox even faster than the first one.
"Missile approaching! Distance: 20!" ROB blared.
Marcus tried boosting ahead, but the missiles were too fast even for that. Then, he got an idea.
"If one is to catch a speeding bolt, one must BE a speeding bolt!" he said in an oddball sort of way.
With that, he turned on the Mach 4 converter that he had won from the F-Zero GP.
The Arwing III suddenly rocketed forward at four times the speed of sound. Marcus quickly swerved off to the left and smashed right through both missiles. He turned the converter off.
"Wow! Not a scratch!" he said enthusiastically after looking over his ship's hull. "This thing works great!"
"Y'know what else would work great? If these jackasses would drop dead!" Falco said.
Marcus shot toward the helpless Falco, targeted the bogies with his Multi-Lock and shot them down.
"Sorry, Mark. I'm not too proud of what you just witnessed." Falco said apologetically.
"Hey, don't get discouraged, Falco." said Marcus "Besides, it could be a lot worse."
Anna chuckled.
"Yeah…you could be Oikonny!"
Katt swerved down below a pile of debris, when suddenly a bogey smashed into her.
"You tryin' to damage my pretty face?" she asked in an insulted tone. "What a savage jerk!"
She swerved around behind the bogey and shot it down with a charged shot.
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" she mocked.
"Missiles four, five and six approaching at high speed!" ROB blared.
"All ships go for the missiles!" Marcus ordered. "Don't let even one of them get through, or ROB is toast!"
"Thank you…now I feel MUCH better."
The entire team shot for the missiles. These ones seemed to be the fastest of them all.
Chase, Katt and Anna grouped around Missile Four and detonated it with several charged shots, but….
"Missile distance: 20!"
"Oh, crap! Everybody hurry!" Falco shouted.
They all grouped around Missile Five, locked onto it and hurtled more charged shots at it. This one detonated, as well, but…
"Missile distance: 10! Unable to evade!"
Katt rocketed directly above the missile.
"Make way for Katt!"
She hit the ejector seat button and dove down with her fist thrust out.
Believe it or not, when Katt's fist connected with the outer structure of the missile, she burrowed right through and out the other side!
The missile detonated as Katt landed safely back inside her Arwing.
She shut the cockpit door, then smirked and blew on her fist.
"That strength-enhancing stuff works like a charm. Chase ain't such a screw-up after all."
"Oh, sure, pick on the little guy. How original!" Chase retorted.
Everyone swerved back toward the Great Fox.
"ROB, is everything OK?" Marcus asked.
"Great Fox is OK." ROB said.
"Phew! All aircraft report."
"I've taken a few hits, but everything's right as rain." Chase said.
"Everything's A-OK." Anna called.
"I got a little cooked back there, but I'm good." Katt breathed.
"You worry about your own hide!" Falco replied.
"Alright. Good to see no one got hurt too badly." Marcus said. "ROB, did you have any luck at fixing that light-speed?"
"Negative." ROB replied. "Light-speed booster requires maintenance. May take up to three days."
"Dammit!" Katt cursed. "We're gonna have to change our route to Sauria."
"And it looks like the only other way…" Anna said, pointing forward. "is through THERE!"
Chase's mouth dropped open.
"Oh, no! No way am I goin' in there!"
Anyone who got the real ending of Star Fox 64 should know what he's talking about, but I digress. Here we are, with half of the story uploaded, halfway to the ending, halfway to the...well, you get it. Nothing much to say other than see you next update!