CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Right to Remain Silent
Okami Desert, Planet Titania
"Hello? Hello?!" Marcus called into the comm. "This is the Star Fox team. Does anyone copy? Over?"
"Forget it, Mark." Falco said. "We aren't getting any radio transmission through this storm."
"Just our luck. I've been on a prehistoric planet for three days and now I'm lost in the desert."
While Damalgo stayed behind on the Great Fox with ROB, learning how to use the Arwing, the rest of the team had flown down to Titania's surface in an attempt to locate the missing military group.
The thing about Titania is that it is the most barren out of all the planets in the Lylat System. This was most likely because it frequently had sandstorms that caused a tremendous amount of radio interference. Unfortunately for the team, there was a sandstorm going on at that very moment, and they were smack-dab in the eye of it, so finding the militia was definitely going to be more trouble than it was worth.
"Good God, I can't see a thing!" Katt whined. "And it's just our luck that we've gotta find those troops with any radio conference."
"Just keep moving forward." Anna said. "We're bound to find them eventually."
"If by 'eventually' you mean in two days when our HOME PLANET BLOWS UP!" Chase responded.
The five Arwings shot through the thick of the inside strained their eyes to see as best as they could. Sand was literally whipping all over the place, but Katt could just barely see something sticking out of the earth below.
"Hey…what's that down there?"
A ship that was almost identical to the Arwing, except with a V-shaped wing formation. It was half-buried in the sand almost twenty-five feet below them. It was hard to make out anything, but Marcus was fairly sure that he knew what it was.
"Isn't that a Cornerian military fighter?" he asked.
"Hey, it is!" Anna exclaimed. "Oh, man. I hope the pilots are safe."
"I think I see some footprints in the sand down there." Chase said. "Looks like they only left recently."
"Those guys have gotta the only people I know who are stupid enough to go through a sandstorm on-foot." Falco grumbled.
Everyone slammed their feet down on their boost pedals and shot forward, deeper into the storm. Just then, Chase's radar beeped.
"Incoming bogies at 2 o'clock!" he shouted.
A group of Venomian fighters zipped out of the haze from the northeast.
"Guess they've got a base here, too." Katt growled.
"Where DON'T they have one?" Anna asked.
"Let's take 'em all out!" Falco shouted.
As the two groups grew closer together, a barrage of lasers flew through the sky from both sides. Marcus and Chase swerved to the left and blasted down two fighters. Katt, meanwhile, got a little daring (or otherwise impatient) and shot right through the group. When she broke through, two of the enemy fighters were hot on her tail.
"Grrr! Stupid apes!" she shouted. "Back off!"
Anna locked onto Katt's pursuers with her Multi-Lock and blasted them all with charged shots. The ships went careening down into the craggy landscape.
"Phew. Nice job, Anne." Katt remarked. "You're pretty good in a pinch."
"It's what I do." Ann replied.
Suddenly, two gigantic tanks rolled out of the haze, aimed their heavy 50-caliber guns at the team and fired.
"Watch out!" Chase shouted. "That thing's got some really heavy firepower!"
"Oh, perfect!" Marcus shouted said as he pulled up on the steering control.
Falco was so lucky. The giant blast just barely skinned the Sky Claw.
"Bah! I ate that!" Falco growled.
He deployed a bomb at the tanks. It soared to the ground and caused a massive explosion. Pieces of the tanks went flying everywhere as the explosion blew them to bits.
"Guess no beat-down is enough or these bastards!" Falco grumbled. "They just keep comin' back for more!"
"Then let's give 'em more!" Marcus said.
A large group of rock formations appeared out of the horizon. They zigzagged, fell, curved and back-turned all over.
"Craggy my ass!" Anna said. "This place is a frickin' warzone!"
Marcus swerved underneath one rock and had to somersault to keep from smacking into another one right behind it.
"Yeah, no kiddin'. My bedroom's cleaner than this." he remarked.
After they had swerved through the mess of stone, Anna's radar beeped.
"We're getting close to the Venomian base. I've got a hunch that the soldiers might be there." she said.
"A Venomian base in the middle of Titania?" Chase asked, raising his brow.
"…yeah." Anna replied. "Let's hope I'm wrong."
More Venomian fighters came flying out from the direction that Anna had pointed out.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing here?" one of the pilots shouted. "This is a secured area!"
"Umm, I don't know where to start with you." Marcus said. "I mean, do you even know who you're talking to?"
The enemy units jetted toward the team and began firing.
"Apparently not." Marcus concluded.
The boys swerved off to the left, barrel-rolled to deflect the enemy's shots, and fired at them. Turrets suddenly sprang up from the sand and used their remote sensors to fire at the incoming trespassers.
"I gotta hand it to these punks; they sure take security seriously." Falco said as he swerved up and to the right.
All of a sudden, a giant metal door built into a wall that seemed to stretch on for miles was standing tall in front of them.
"That's the main entrance." Anna said. "Hit that red spot above the door"
Sure enough, a small red spot was placed just above the mighty door. Marcus shot it. It turned green and the door slowly slid open. A large gust of sand flew through the opening and hindered the team's view for a few moments. When the sand had cleared away, the sight they saw was enough to make them stop and go…
"Son of a mother duck!"
They didn't see a base. Just huge chunks of debris lying on the sand and flaming. A few towers still stood, but most of them looked like something had taken a huge bite out of them.
"Wha…what the hell happened to the…" Anna uselessly sputtered.
"Somebody beat us here." Falco said. "It's all gone!"
Suddenly, one of the remaining towers came loose from its base and fell toward Marcus' ship. He saw it ahead of time and just barely managed to boost out of the way.
"Ai! Gab ar o nuhpt!" he shouted.
"Uhh, Mark…what did you just say?!" Falco asked in a bewildered tone.
"…I said 'Ah! Son of a bitch!' Why? You gonna complain about vulgarity?"
"Not in English, you didn't!"
"Huh?!"
"Sounded like a buncha gibberish to me." Chase said. "At least it had rhythm."
Marcus got a weird look on his face. If he hadn't spoken English…then what HAD he spoken? Besides, how could he speak another language without knowing he could? It couldn't have already become second nature.
Just then, a loud, yet low howling noise echoed through the air. Off in the distance, the team could see a large creature's shadow slithering in and out of the sand.
"I don't know that was, but he obviously ain't nice." Falco said.
"You think?" Chase asked sarcastically.
The sandstorm picked up. Two tall towers had lasers mounted on them. Unfortunately, the lasers had just sensed the team. Long, thin beams came out of the guns and began moving toward the five Arwings.
"Watch out!" Chase shouted. "Those beams will cut through us like butter!"
"Always have to do things the hard way, don't they?" Marcus grumbled.
The ships rose up and away from the lasers, which continued to follow them up. Katt and Falco locked onto the laser guns and fired smart bombs at them. The guns came off their hinges and plummeted into the sand.
"Hard way my ass." Falco chuckled. "We can down 'em in our sleep!"
Chase rolled his eyes.
"Really? Then down THEM with your hands tied behind your back." he said sarcastically as three more gigantic tanks rolled toward them.
"Sarcasm. Hate it. Stop using it." Falco growled.
These tanks were about as big as three Arwings put together. The team dropped smart bombs at them, but after the huge explosion from the bombs had cleared, the tanks were still there.
"Little help down here, ROB!" Marcus said into his comm.
With those words, the Great Fox's massive lasers shot down from the atmosphere and slammed into the tanks, blowing all three of them to pieces. A large, floating robot suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began firing at the ships.
"Hey, it's that prototype again!" Falco exclaimed. "We've shot this thing down twice already!"
"What are you talking about?" Anna asked. "I've never even seen that thing before in my life!"
"Yeah, YOU didn't!"
"…I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the Aparoid Invasion, right?" Marcus asked.
The Aparoids were a group of robotic insects that literally became hell-bent on assimilating everything in the Lylat System, and would have succeeded if Fox, Falco, Slippy and Krystal hadn't killed the Aparoid Queen and made all the Aparoids self-destruct.
"Hey!" Chase shouted. "Why are we talking about some stupid bugs when there's a frickin' ROBOT shooting at us!"
Marcus snapped to attention, dodged the prototype's blasts and used the Mach 4 smash maneuver to send it colliding into the base wall.
The low roaring rang through the air again, as did the shadow off in the distance for all off three seconds.
"Whatever that thing is, it's gotta be huge!" Katt exclaimed. "Those soldiers could be dead for all we know!"
"Let's keep moving and hope to God they're not!" Marcus said.
"Incoming enemy group behind us!" Chase hollered. "Everyone do a loop!"
The team pulled up on their steering control and their ships somersaulted over and behind their pursuers.
"What're these punks doing here?!" one of the Venomian pilots shouted.
"We're not trying to cause trouble!" Marcus responded in an aggravated tone.
"That's easy to say after all YOU'VE done!" another pilot shot back.
"What, you freaks think WE did this?" Falco yelled, glancing at what remained of the base.
"Oh, right. Our base just HAPPENED to be in ruins and you inferior beings just HAPPENED to be here when we came back from scouting."
"Shaddup, you fleabag, or you and I are gonna settle things the old-fashioned way!"
"Why you insolent little…"
Before the Venomian could finish the insult, five long, spindly tentacles shot up from the sand, seized the Venomian fighters and dragged them down out of sight. The entire team sat there in their ships with their mouths agape.
"Oh…my…god." Marcus trailed out.
"OK, now I KNOW something's not right!" Katt shouted.
The five Arwings rounded a corner and zipped through a narrow, turret-lined crevice before they reached the opposite side of the base. Falco shot the red spot above the door. With a loud, metallic, creaking noise, the door slid open and the team jetted through it.
As soon as the base was about five clicks behind them, the ground quaked.
"When the said this planet was hazardous, they left out the earthquakes, didn't they?" Marcus said. "Man, I'm already sick of this place."
"Mark…" Chase said. "That wasn't an earthquake."
"…we've got trouble?"
"We've got trouble."
In an instant, a large amount of sand erupted from the planet surface.
"Agh! What the hell?!" Katt shrieked.
Suddenly, a massive beast erupted from the sand. It had two gigantic crab-like arms and six long, spindly ones with scythes-like protrusions at the end. Its face looked like the combination of a spider and a moth.
"Gah! Freakiest freak of the freaky freaks!" Anna exclaimed.
"I don't even WANNA know what that is!" Chase said with his mouth wide open.
The freakish beast roared at them. It was then that Marcus noticed that the beast held something in its right claw: a large, metal, spherical cage. Inside, Marcus could see five men dressed in Cornerian military suits and frightened looks on their faces.
"He's got the militia!" Marcus shouted.
"Then go for the claws first!" Anna hollered. "We don't want those guys to get hurt!"
The team immediately dove at the right claw.
"Shield analysis complete." Chase said. "Bringing it up on the monitor."
The shield bar appeared on Marcus' monitor.
"Hit him hard and don't hold back!" he shouted.
Lasers went flying through the air as the five ships engaged the hideous Hybrid's claw. The Hybrid swung its free claw at the team. They dropped below the beast's appendage. Katt, Chase and Anna swerved over the Hybrid's back to its other side, leaving Marcus and Falco to fend off the right arm.
"Oh, sure! Leave us alone, why don't ya?!" Falco shouted.
"Dividing tasks evenly." Marcus said. "It's a smart move when you think about it."
"Not when you're about to get smoked!"
Right as he said that, the Hybrid swung its arm at them. Marcus managed to swerve up just in time, but Falco's ship was just barely skinned by the claw.
"Dang, this can't happen to me!" he growled.
The Hybrid fired plasma beams from its eight, beady eyes.
"Yeow! Gotta get…outta…the way!" Chase screamed as he clumsily dodged the beams.
The beams came down like rain as Marcus and Falco literally looked all over the Hybrid's claw (which they had to keep dodging from the massive bug constantly swinging it at them.), looking for any trace of a weak point.
"Anne, hurry up!" Marcus shouted. "We can't hold off like this forever!"
"OK, calm down! Try shooting the arm segment!" Anna replied.
Marcus had a close look at the section that connected the Hybrid's arm with its body. Pieces of the tough exoskeleton were cracked off and revealing a fleshy internal spot. Marcus and Falco locked onto the spot and began shooting at it as quickly as they possibly could. The Hybrid responded by angrily hissing at its attackers. Its two antennae glowed and launched mercury rings at them.
"Heads up!" Chase shouted.
Everyone swerved out of the way of the rings. Once the projectiles had cleared, Marcus locked onto the arm segment and blasted it with a charged shot. This time, the claw was severed from the Hybrid's body. The beast cried out in pain and the cage holding the Cornerian soldiers went hurtling to the ground.
Falco swerved around and flew back towards the cage.
"I'll check on the soldiers! You guys take that thing down hard and fast!" he shouted.
The Hybrid was now even more furious than before. It roared at the team again.
"Ewww, there's just something creepy about this guy." Chase said, hitting the brakes to avoid slamming into the Hybrid's hideous visage.
"Destroy the other one! Quick!" Ann shouted.
The Hybrid began shooting more beams from its eyes.
"Stupid bug! Just die already!" Chase growled. "Man, do frogs on Earth really eat things like this?!"
Katt swerved through the beams, targeted the second segment and released a smart bomb.
"Bombs away!" she shouted.
The bomb collided with the segment and blew the arm off. The Hybrid shrieked even louder than before and began angrily stomping its feet.
"OK, NOW he's pissed!" Marcus said.
Suddenly, a crack appeared on the Hybrid's back, getting wider and wider with each second the creature remained idle.
"What's going on?" Katt asked. "Is it gonna…"
A scorpion's tail came crashing out of the crack and immediately began swinging at the team.
"Oh, great. Another tendril we need to worry about." Anna grumbled.
The Hybrid's eight eyes suddenly lit up. Anna knew that kind of glowing spot anywhere.
"Mark, shoot its eyes!"
"Copy that."
Marcus dive-bombed toward the creature's ugly head. As soon as they were level, the Hybrid spewed hot flames from its maw.
"HA-CHA-CHA-HOT!" Marcus yelled as he swerved out of the way. "I think this guy's eaten one too many hot tamales."
As soon as the flames dispersed, Marcus shot toward the creature's face and started blaring off his cannons. After about ten laser blasts, three charged shots and a smart bomb, the Hybrid's eight eyes exploded. It let out one last pained shriek before collapsing dead on the ground.
"…well, I could've figured that out." Chase said.
"So why didn't you?" Marcus asked with a smug grin on his face.
"We've caused this much trouble to the Venomians and they send a BUG to fight us?" Katt said. "They must think we've got no spines at all."
"But it looks so weird…" Chase said. "I've gotta analyze this thing."
"Guys!" Falco said. "I've just spoken with the soldiers. They're all OK."
"Got it, Falco." Marcus said. "We're heading in your direction."
The four Arwings U-turned and shot down toward the soldiers on the ground. They carefully landed their ships and hopped out.
"Hey, Star Fox!" the commander said. "Thanks for your help back there!"
One of the other soldiers, probably the youngest one, spoke up.
"I almost thought we weren't gonna make it when that bug showed up. We owe you one!"
"Say no more." Marcus said. "We've gotta get back to Corneria and speak with General Hare. We can give you a lift back if you want."
The commander sighed out of relief.
"THAT would be a big help."
Home at last...
The Great Fox lowered itself down into the hangar in the Grand Cornerian Airway. Just before the ship touched down, Marcus spotted several police cruisers just outside the building.
"Did any of you contact Peppy and tell him about the…code red situation?" he asked.
"No." Chase replied.
"Then why are the cops here?"
The team, Damalgo and the five soldiers beamed down to the ground, but as soon as Marcus stepped outside the building, all the police officers had their guns trained on him.
"Whoa, hey!" he shouted. "What's the big idea?!"
"Some welcome." Damalgo said sarcastically.
The Chief of Police stepped forward.
"Marcus James McCloud?" he asked.
Marcus hesitated, then stammered: "…yes?"
The Chief stood behind Marcus, grabbed his wrists and pulled them behind his back. A loud snap went through the air. For a moment, Marcus thought that the Chief had broken his wrists, but then he looked behind him. Binding his hands together were a pair of silver handcuffs.
"You're under arrest."
Across the galaxy...
As she came up on the hangar near her house, Coyote scoured through the Cornerian family files on the monitor in her ship's escape pod. She looked up the name "O'Donnell", but only Wolf appeared. No one on Corneria but the Star Fox team even knew she existed.
She was still slightly guilty about trying to kill Marcus, but right now she was trying to figure out what that voice in the Gamewell Maze had been talking about. She could gripe about her own bad decision later.
Just then, she remembered that her mother's last name was Grey, so she typed that name in. As soon as the results came up, Coyote's mouth dropped open.
Connecting to Lori with a line that represented a sibling bond was Bill Grey!
"Bill Grey is my…wait, but that means…."
She scrolled down through the file again and saw something that shocked her even more: she had a cousin! And not just any cousin.
"No way!" Coyote stammered.
As she landed the escape pod in the hangar, she hopped out. Now she felt absolutely horrible. Not because of what she had just seen, but what she had done. Just a few hours ago she had tried to murder the only boy she'd ever kissed. And why? Because her father told her to. That had been her mission the whole time: to blast his sorry ass into oblivion.
"Why did I do that?" she whispered. "I'm such a bitch!"
She furiously kicked her ship's remains. Just then, the hangar's robotic constructor spoke.
"Hey, Coyote. Why the mope?"
A.D.A (Autonomous Dutiful Android) was a robotic arm that served as a construction robot for Coyote's ship. ADA was Coyote's only other friend, as this robot was actually capable of showing emotion. Whenever ADA saw Coyote upset, she would do everything she could to make her feel better.
"…I did something bad, ADA." Coyote said, sitting down in front of the robot.
"What happened?" ADA asked.
"I…I finally found my knight in shining armor…and I betrayed him."
ADA moved over toward Coyote.
"You loved Marcus, didn't you?" she asked.
Coyote nodded as small tears started to form in her eyes.
"If Dad finds out, there's no telling what he'll do…I don't want him to be mad at me, but I don't want him to hold me back, either. I don't know which way to turn."
"My advice would be to just tell him the truth." ADA said. "At least then he'll know how you really feel. I know you, Coyote. You're a big girl. Don't let him see that you're afraid."
Coyote looked at ADA. With those words, she felt herself getting braver.
"Okay…no matter what happens…I've gotta take a stand."
She stood up and walked out the door, but not before saying "Rebuild my ship while I'm up there."
Coyote stomped up the moon-illuminated hill towards her house, her heart fuming with rage at herself. Even if she was able to stand up to Wolf for loving Marcus, she'd still never be welcome around the young McCloud ever again.
As soon as she opened the front door, her mother hugged her with so much strength that it nearly snapped her spine.
"Oh, Coyote! Thank God! Are you OK?" Lori asked almost hysterically.
"Nice…to see you, too…Mom." Coyote gagged. "Could you let go now?"
Lori let go of her daughter. Coyote looked to her right Wolf was standing in the doorway, and he looked very cross with her.
"Uhh…hi, Dad." she said stupidly
"Where have you been?" Wolf asked.
"I-I did what you sent me to do."
"You've been gone for THREE DAYS! Fighting Star Fox doesn't take three days. Do you know how worried we've been?"
Coyote sighed and her face fell. There was no way she could lie to Wolf. He could read her like an open book.
"Tell me the truth." Wolf said. "What were you doing?"
"Well…the team was going to Sauria to find some ancient treasure and…"
"And?"
"…I helped them."
Wolf was taken aback by Coyote's sentence.
"You WHAT?!"
"What's the big deal?! You helped Fox when you were in Star Wolf, so why can't I help Marcus?"
"Because every time we help our enemies, we wind up regretting it!"
Coyote scowled.
"Why is it always 'we'?" she angrily thought.
"You can't help him because it'll only make him more superior." Wolf continued. "Aren't you tired of living in the McCloud family's shadow?"
Coyote was fed up. She hated hearing about this rivalry, and she definitely hated talking about it. She was sick and tired of it.
"That's all my whole life's been about!" she said in a furious tone. "I don't want to fight Fox, Krystal and ESPECIALLY not Marcus! When are you gonna stop telling me what to do and just let me think for myself?!"
"When you learn how to live on your own without assistance just like I did. You've never gone a single day out on your own."
"You're not my damned commanding officer! You're my father! If we didn't live in complete isolation, maybe I COULD go off on my own! I've never had a single friend in my life because we live so far from civilization! Being with Marcus made me feel happy! I cared so much about him and you made me do something so terrible to him!"
Wolf was beginning to get incredibly suspicious. Why was she defending Marcus like this?
"Coyote…are you saying that you're in love with that tramp?"
Coyote sucked in an angry breath and screamed her answer.
"Yes, okay?! YES! I admit it! I, Coyote Lorraine O'Donnell, am head over heels for Marcus James McCloud, leader of the Star Fox team. And don't you dare call him a tramp!"
Wolf stared at her with wide eyes.
"And you're not afraid to admit that in front of your own father?" he asked
"No!" Coyote screamed. "I'm not afraid of you! And you know why I helped him? Because I owe him! He saved my life more times than you know! But now he hates me for doing what you wanted me to do!"
"Good! Now he won't care about your next attempt!"
"What next attempt?! No matter what you say to me, I'm never going to do something so stupid and wrong ever again!"
"Don't you talk back to me, young lady! Whether you like it or not, that boy is your enemy!"
Coyote had had enough. She couldn't take this anymore. She turned on her heel and yanked the door open.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?!" Wolf asked angrily.
Coyote didn't look back. She just stood there in the doorway and answered.
"Try using your head. Seems to be the only thing you aren't good at yet."
She slammed the door behind her and ran back to the hangar. Wolf stepped back and sat down on the stairs as he felt guilt close around his heart like a metal gauntlet. He had scorned his own daughter simply for being in love…and now she was gone.
"What kind of father am I?" he thought.
Lori stooped down next to him.
"Wolf…she needs to start making her own decisions. She'll never be a real woman if you keep deciding what's best for her. It doesn't work that way."
Wolf buried his face in his hands.
"Lori…I thought I knew better than this by now..."
A fit of rage conquering all thought later...
"Where will you go?" ADA asked as Coyote hopped inside the fully regenerated Iron Maiden.
"I don't know…but anywhere is better than here."
Coyote gripped the steering control in utter fury. ADA rolled up to her.
"Coyote…I just want you to know that wherever you go…I'm rooting for you. Be strong for me, alright?"
Coyote looked at her robotic friend as a tear fell from her eye.
"Thanks, ADA."
Coyote hugged the robotic arm and waved good-bye as she closed the cockpit and piloted her ship out of the hangar and into the atmosphere. She took one fateful look back as she left her home behind.
No one cared about her anymore…not her father…not Marcus…nobody. So right where Coyote sat, for the first time in her life….
….she burst into tears.