Chapter 70: All or Nothing
Blasters flared. Sirens warned of overheating. Fox paid no mind as he shot relentlessly after the Aparoid queen. Its hull took hit after hit, yet the beast did not slow down. Eventually, safety protocols took over. Fox's blasters ceased firing, forcing him to wait for them to cool again.
A large hatch opened on the queen's rear. Something mounted on a long, bending appendage popped out. With glowing eyes and a snarling maw, it looked like a dragon's head. Breathed like one too as flames of plasma spewed towards Fox. He rolled quickly.
"Watch out!"
Extreme heat nibbled at Fox's weakened shields. He boosted and weaved for several moments until the queen's fuel ran dry. Its head then retreated into its body. As good as it felt to think that was the end, Fox didn't let down his guard. Neither did Krystal as she and Vixy returned fire.
Four lights then shone red around the queen's body. Red lasers tore across, nearly clipping Krystal's wing. The queen spun. The beams swept through again and out against the stone. Sections of the wall cracked and broke. With a curse from Fox, he and Krystal used their G-diffusers to deflect a shower of rocks.
"It's trying to bring the cave down on us!" Andross snarled.
Fox heard a beep from his console. His blasters were fit to shoot again. "We won't let it. Krystal, focus your fire on the laser barrels. Mom, keep the heat going on the queen's main body."
"On it."
"Roger."
Splitting the lasers evenly with Krystal, Fox opened fire upon his first barrel. His shots peppered the hull surrounding it. Alas, all missed their intended target by a mile. Fox gritted his teeth. Hitting the laser barrel was harder than threading a moving needle, but the alternative was being buried alive.
The tunnel opened wider. Fox found them back inside the chamber with the previous giant Aparoid. It laid in pieces on the cavern floor. The colossal earth spirit, though, remained. A dozen smaller Aparoids buzzed around its sightless head, yet they might as well have been flies for all the threat they posed.
"Old one…" Thene murmured behind Fox's ear. "The enemy's queen crosses your path. Destroy it, and the swarm will all fall."
The serpent's head turned at her prayer. Arching back, it lunged at the queen. They slammed into the wall. The impact clapped like thunder. Dust and stones shook loose from the ceiling. Fox rolled the ship to protect them.
"Bloody hell!" he snarled. "Would you mind telling your friends to not kill us too?!"
Thene's groan strained from the wild manoeuvre. "I'm talking to a living body of mana. Communication is not an exact science!"
"Enough! Both of you!" Krystal chided. "This is our chance while the queen is…!"
She didn't get another word in when a red beam sliced through the spirit's neck. Ethereal, violet light bled from the wound like a wildfire. The spirit's head rolled completely off. It shattered heavily upon the ground. The rest of the serpent fell limp. Its energy dissipated into the soil around it. Fox's shock paused his heart.
"Good Lord…!" Vixy gasped. "Is it…?"
"It's not dead. But it won't regenerate any time soon," Andross answered. Spirits that powerful could take weeks to recreate a body the same size. That's assuming its essence doesn't fragment into smaller spirits instead.
"Fox, watch out!"
Barely heeding Krystal in time, Fox glanced at the Aparoid drones that now turned their attention to them. He rolled hard to evade incoming fire. Fox then counted. Three drones survived the last tremor. No way to get past them at this point. Krystal already chose one target. Fox picked another and shot quickly. Both went down moments after each other.
Another Aparoid locked its sights upon Fox. Before it could fire though, an air spirit flashed through its back. Thunder rumbled in the chamber. A smoking hole split open in the Aparoid's torso. Lights flickered and died just as gravity dragged its lifeless frame down. The remaining two Aparoids suffered the same fate before Fox had time to take aim. He whistled in awe. Those air spirits made an Arwing look slow in comparison.
"Bogeys down," he then said, composing himself. "Concentrate fire on the queen."
By then, the queen had taken to the air again and gained some distance from them. Though as they gave chase, Fox saw it struggle to fly in a straight line. That collision earlier had done some heavy damage. All the better.
Large, blue orbs began spawning from the queen's tail. They floated through some unseen power. Fox didn't trust them. When he shot one, it exploded forcefully. "Those are mines!" he warned. "Krystal, don't let them near your ship!"
She did her best to fly through the growing river of mines. Sadly, her tank was too bulky and slow to handle. She made a few close calls. Fox concentrated his efforts on clearing her path. All the while, the queen fled further and further ahead, gaining more time to break the tunnel's supports down as it went.
After a minute, Krystal was finally clear. They boosted their thrusters as fast as the cavern would let them. "Fox," she pondered, "where do you think the queen is going?"
A good question. Fox doubted that Star Fox's orbital raid upon the surface was news anymore. "My best guess is some other part of the nest. But you've given me an idea."
Krystal heard him out and agreed. How they'd manage it though, she couldn't fathom. Honestly, Fox wasn't sure either. But anything was worth trying at this point.
"Hey, Andross. Are you busy with anything?" he said.
"I'm neither the pilot nor gunner on this thing. Why would you ask?" Andross huffed.
"We need you to tell us if any branching tunnels come up ahead. Any that are large enough for the queen to fit through."
Through Krystal, Fox sense Andross ponder his words. A flame of interest rose. "You plan to cut off its escape and steer its course."
"Exactly. Then when we get close to the surface, I want you to contact the Great Fox and tell Falco to fire on sight."
"I won't be able to get a signal through until we're right below the exit."
Fox figured as much. "Do what you can. Krystal and I will take care of the rest."
By then, they caught up with the queen. Fox focused his shots upon its lasers again. Luck favoured him this time. One struck a lens squarely. Energy discharged throughout the barrel, blowing up a small chunk from the queen's body. The beast bellowed loudly. Fox liked to think it was in terror and agony.
"Another route is coming up on your right," Andross called. "In 20 kilometres."
With thanks, Fox increased his speed. The Aparoid's second head re-emerged, spotting him quickly. It lunged at him. He dodged its fangs. Fox then accelerated through alongside the queen's injured side. He ignored the smaller weapons popping out to intercept him. He weaved through the incoming fire. His shield readings flashed red after a graze or two. But he soon reached the queen's head and overtook it.
The tunnel that Andross mentioned came within view. Fox maintained his speed and aimed at the roof of the cave's mouth. He fired relentlessly. His blasters grew hot, and the rock cracked and crumbled, but the passage didn't collapse like he hoped. "Damn it," Fox growled. If only he had another missile or two.
"Vassals of Cerinia, make her tremble."
Fox glanced back at Thene's voice. A sudden earthquake drew his gaze forward again. He watched the walls and ceiling heave inside the chamber. Fissures raced across their surface in spiderwebs. In moments, the tunnel collapsed like ruptured vein. Just in time before the queen could slip through.
Fox sighed in relief. "Nice work, Thene."
"My pleasure. I suggest that we close the next passage before the queen shoots us down, though."
Good point. Fox glanced at the rear-view screen. A dozen lights burned crimson around the queen's bug-shaped head. "Hang on to something!"
Thene stifled a yelp as Fox dived quickly. Several beams flashed where they'd been a second before. More continued to fire. Fox turned hard and ascended. He tried to dodge, but the queen refused to let up. With his shields so weakened, he chose to fall back behind the head. They thus lost their lead. However, they could now at least catch their breaths under the safety of Krystal's covering fire.
Fox felt some tension leave his head. He hadn't noticed it until then. Krystal's concern rose as she felt the same relief. "Fox, you need to be careful. If you get too far ahead of me, our ehn will break."
"I know. I'm sorry." Fox pinched between his eyes. "Krys, I need your help over there."
They paused as the queen sent a barrage of mines and dragon fire their way. Fox made it through unscathed, though Krystal suffered a few hits to her shields. "We're not as nimble as you are," she fretted. "I'll need an opening to get ahead."
"You'll need to make one fast, because another escape route is coming up," Andross interjected.
The pressure rose as Fox pondered their current problem. "Thene, can you call on those air spirits that helped us earlier?"
"They're already on their way," she replied. As she spoke, two bolts of lightning passed by Fox's wing. The spirits burrowed into the queen's back. Bright, blue arcs twisted through like ravenous parasites, triggering a series of small explosions. The queen shrieked and thrashed. Its weapons ceased their onslaught.
"Go now!" Thene barked.
Both ships throttled along the queen's side. Vixy opened fire on their way through, tearing through armour and adding to its misery. She then delivered a special shot for its face. Fox almost felt sorry for the queen. The sentiment lasted only briefly.
Desperate to avoid further damage, the queen shifted its remaining armour plates. They encased its head like a turtle shell. Fox then discovered that this tactic also benefited them. Locked up inside itself, the queen couldn't shoot back from the same angle. Nor could it turn to aim with its other weapons. The queen's great size worked against it inside its own nest.
Equally thrilled and relieved, Fox led Krystal to their next target. More Aparoids appeared in their path, but something was off about them. The drones jerked and seized mid-flight, moving in strange patterns. Fox watched a couple of them suddenly drop from the air. They hit the rocks below hard enough to echo through the tunnel.
"Excellent! The virus is spreading throughout the swarm!" Andross exclaimed heartily.
Fox could then see another massive opening in the wall ahead. Krystal charged forward. Together, they bombarded the passageway's ceiling. Shot after shot, the stone cracked. Yet it did not collapse. Thene attempted to beckon the spirits again. But alas, they did not heed her. She complained about their fickleness.
Time was running out. Everyone realised it. Vixy then took it upon herself and turned the Star Tank's turret upward. She lined up her shot and fired. Her last nova bomb flew into the cave like a red pill. Its explosion consumed the opening. The rest of the nest trembled.
Vixy's work became too effective though. Debris fell loose throughout the main tunnel. Alarm rose through Fox and Krystal as their path filled with hazards. The queen was too close behind for them to slow down or take evasive action. Krystal's G-diffuser would protect her, but Fox didn't have the room or visibility to use his. As bowling ball-sized rocks descended towards his canopy, his horror and Krystal's ran their bloods cold.
"FOX!"
An unseen force washed past Fox. It projected out through the fighter's frame. The air shimmered just before the first rock shattered against it. Fragments scattered around the Sky Bunny without ever touching her. Only when the second and third bounced off in the same fashion did Fox recognise the barrier formed around them.
"Thene…"
"I can't take much more," she grunted. "Do something. Quickly!"
Thinking fast, Fox flew closer to Krystal. She met him in the middle, settling just above him. Her shields then defended them both. Their ehn synchronised their movements, enabling Fox to follow Krystal as perfectly as her shadow.
Eventually, the cave-in began to settle. Fox shared a sigh of relief with his wife. "What just happened?" Krystal asked.
"That explosion set off a chain reaction," Andross answered simply.
"Sorry…" Vixy mewled. "I didn't really think that through."
"It doesn't matter. You likely just hit a fault in the nest's structure," Andross replied. "Bad luck is all that was."
"Bad luck as it was, it got the job done," Fox remarked. "Is the queen still following us?"
A great, mechanical shriek answered them. The queen emerged from a pile of boulders with the force of a surfacing whale. Sections of armour plating were warped or broken off. Many dings and cracks marked the queen underneath. The tunnel rang with the sound of metal screeching on stone and groaning under pressure. The queen's struggles caused another few rocks to break loose from the ceiling.
"Damn! Not enough to kill it," Andross growled.
Black fluid sprayed from the queen's mouth. To Fox, it looked as though to be coughing blood. That could be either the virus, the cave-in, or both together. "Doesn't look like it can take much more. Should we finish it off here?"
"No," Andross replied. "The nest is unstable. We need to get out of here before it collapses."
"But what about the queen?" Krystal asked.
"In its current state, I don't believe it'll want to stay down here any more than we do."
"I'm with Andross," Fox said. The tunnel continued to shake as the queen dug itself free. "Let's keep cutting off its escape routes and see how the rest plays out."
Krystal soon agreed. Her immediate worry for Fox's safety and the state of his ship outweighed that of the queen. She sheltered him from further debris as they ascended the nest. Fox glanced behind them. The queen gave chase, but it was slow and chose not to shoot them down. It probably wanted to avoid bringing the nest down on top of itself. That, or maybe it no longer could shoot. Now was not the time to say.
Fox looked up at Krystal. He praised her; encouraged her. He counted on her guiding them safely. And they would make it out of this infernal place. He believed in them all.
"Looks like things are quietening down on the surface there, Falco" Slippy reported.
Falco examined the Aparoids on the display. Thanks to Katt and Lucy's onslaught; and the surprising help from Cerinia's spirits; their numbers thinned out drastically outside the nest. The Aparoids that remained now acted out of sorts. They became sluggish and collapsed haphazardly across the terrain. A good handful spontaneously exploded on their own.
"It looks like the virus is working," Dash stated. His grin grew as the crew all pumped their fists and cheered.
"They really did it," Peppy said wistfully. Falco turned to him. His expression swelled with pride. But there was also sorrow there; a terrible grief yet to pass. Falco only noticed it because he felt the same within his heart.
Fox had accomplished what he'd set out to do. Now, they all had to pay the price of his choice. They had to discover how to live their lives without ever seeing each other again. Amongst the cheerful noise throughout the bridge, Falco took a deep breath and steading himself inside.
"What do you think, Falco?" Katt asked from her post. "Should we finish of the Aparoids above ground?"
It took Falco a moment to return to the world and process her question. He looked to the insects struggling on the monitor. Hardly seemed worth wasting the cannons' batteries. "The virus will take care of them any minute. Right, Slippy?"
"Right." Slippy then leaned closer to the display. He squinted, tilting his head for a moment. "At least… It should be. I'd have thought the drones would all bite the dust by now, but I can still see a few of them going strong."
Confused, Falco examined the display again. It took him a minute, but he spotted an Aparoid that still flew with a firm sense of control. That did not look right. "Slippy… What does it mean if they aren't all kicking the bucket?"
Slippy hummed worrisomely. "The point of the virus was to spread across their hivemind. But if some of the drones are still fine, something must be blocking the distribution. But if Fox infected the queen first, none of the other Aparoids should be able to block a signal from it. So, if something is blocking the virus…"
"The queen might still be alive," Dash finished for him.
"And it's resisting the virus," Slippy added in horror.
"How bad is that?" Peppy asked, concerned.
Slippy barfed up a long, complicated explanation that had something to do with computers and the common cold. Falco didn't catch every word. However, he picked up all he needed to understand. If the queen survives long enough, the virus will fail; and they'll never get the chance to upload another.
The only solution that Slippy came up with was to damage the queen enough for it to succumb and let the virus spread completely. Unfortunately, Fox was going to have to figure that out himself. Falco didn't care to leave everything up to him though.
"Peppy, switch the radio to speaker," he ordered. "If Fox's team try to make contact, I want to hear it directly." Peppy made adjustments on the console. Static crackled in Falco's ears. "Katt, Lucy, keep the cannons charged and stand by."
Minutes passed. Very little changed until the nest began coughing up dust. Falco hoped for the best as they continued to wait. 'Come on, Fox. Please be okay.'
Finally, the radio crackled loud from a faint signal. They soon heard broken syllables. Barely anything intelligible yet. Falco listened closely until the channel cleaned up at last.
"…Team to… Fox… queen is on… ace…"
"Slippy?" Falco urged.
Slippy waved his hand. "Just give it a second."
"I repeat! Ground Team to Great Fox! The queen is en route to the surface! You need to shoot it down! Do not let it escape!"
Dash straightened. "Grandfather?!"
Falco stepped closer to the projector. "Great Fox to Ground Team, we hear you!" To Katt and Lucy, he ordered them to prepare to shoot again. "What's your situation?"
"Package delivered. Target is fighting it." This time, they heard Fox's voice. "We're almost out of the nest, and the queen is right on our tails! Take it down for us!"
Falco swore under his breath. "We're ready for you. Just get clear the second we get visual."
"Copy that!"
Alight, moment of truth, Falco thought. "You heard him, ladies. Fire on my mark."
Time to finish this once and for all.
'Almost there.'
Fox rolled suddenly. A burning, red beam flew past his right wing. His eyes darted between the rising tunnel ahead and the Aparoid queen on their tails. It no longer worried about causing another cave-in now that they were approaching the surface. Fox did all he could to prevent him and Thene from being taken out.
Vixy fired again upon the queen. She helped enough to give Fox a little breathing room. Her turret forced the queen to alternate between offense and defence. Fox would have liked it if she could keep it on the latter, but the barrels suffered from overheating. Eventually, they'd fail entirely.
At last, Fox saw the first trace of sunlight. Falco's voice over the radio told him that Andross finally got a message through. Fox gave Falco all the intel he could spare at that moment. Then, he and Krystal pushed their thrusters hard.
The queen fell behind, but it did not stop. It forwent caution and charged another attack. Nothing Vixy did stopped it. This next one would be big, Fox realised. His ship might not survive it. Thus, he accelerated even faster. It wouldn't matter if he rammed into a wall at this point.
He saw the exit. He could almost touch it! The queen's energy grew hot and bright. Fox pushed the ship faster. Every second brought success and failure towards a fine line of chance. 'Faster… Faster…'
Light swallowed him whole. Fox turned the yoke hard. His ship veered beyond the opening. Krystal followed a split-second behind. A red column of light then spewed from the nest's opening, barely brushing past their tails. Seconds later, the light faded, and the queen emerged in its absence.
"Now, Falco!"
"Fire!" Fox heard.
In the span of a few breaths, the arethanite skies opened wide. Twin streaks of light descended upon the queen. They tore through it like paper. Flames and dark fluid expelled throughout the queen's scuttling body as it shrieked one last time. It then disappeared inside a great explosion.
Around Fox, Aparoids fell apart all at once. Not a single once remained airborne in the next 60 seconds. Andross scanned the ground for possible survivors. Yet he detected no signs of life.
"It's over," he said. "The Aparoids are all destroyed!"
Celebrations rose in Fox's ears and from his own chest. Relief washed all his adrenaline away in an instant. It left him spent but also immensely happy. Krystal's same feelings outweighed his. The nightmare was finally over. Her people were safe at last.
That then raised the question. What of her family? Krystal needed to know. So did Fox. As soon as he regained his bearings, he turned the Sky Bunny around, charting a course for Kezamat.
"Good work, everyone. Let's go home."
