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CHAPTER 37
Premeditation
In the Great Fox II's armory, Fox slammed his locker closed, pulling up the zipper on his assault suit. It was the same armor he'd worn during the Aparoid Invasion. He sure didn't think he'd be wearing this for a mission on his own ship. Falco and Slippy had finished suiting up as well. Fara and Katt had brought their own combat suits. Fara's had a combination of greens and purples. Katt's suit of course had a pink motif, but she seemed down as she stared at it, ears curled back. No doubt it reminded her of what her fur looked like not too long ago. Dr. Deberti and Rachel huddled in one corner, both of them checking blaster pistols in silence.
"You two okay?" Fox asked them.
While surprised at being addressed, Rachel put on a quick smile as she holstered her pistol. "Don't worry. I survived the battle at the Aparoid homeworld, just like you."
Dr. Deberti scoffed at Fox's question. "I was already saving patients in the middle of battles when you were still in diapers, Fox. One intruder is nothing." Nonetheless though, it was hard to not see her ear twitching at every sound outside the armory's reinforced door. While she was the most senior of them in the room, Fox got the impression she spent most of her time behind a desk now.
And rounding us out…
Canma and Nail were there as well, looking over the gear they'd had when they'd come aboard this ship. Their kinetic firearms looked like ancient relics next to modern blasters. While Canma wore the gray Sentinel uniform she'd had on Fortuna, Nail sat in a wheelchair because of his crippled legs, and he was still wearing teal blue hospital scrubs, albeit with a spare armor vest over that. The sight was almost comical, but his eyes remained razor sharp as he reached into a metal box and fed loose brass rounds into pistol magazines one after the other. It looked so tedious.
"I don't get it," Fox said. "You've got hypermobility suits and crazy liquid metal gloves, but you still use those old-fashioned things?"
Nail didn't look up, still focused on the task at hand.
Canma spoke instead. "Thaljista is a harsh environment," she said as looked through her kinetic rifle's sights, pointed at a wall. "The desert wears down technology you bring into it, until you're left with nothing but simple tools. I know this well. It's good to have simple weapons like these to fall back on." She spared a sideways glance at him. "Something you should keep in mind if you find yourself out there, Fox."
Fox frowned at her words. While he did not like these two helping out, he also did not have the manpower to search the entire ship. Strangely, the two of them were not opposed to assisting when he asked. It was the opposite in fact. While Nail agreed to help but seemed indifferent otherwise, Canma was overjoyed to pitch in. Maybe a little too much. Back on Fortuna, Fox remembered how she'd said Tadao helped Star Wolf torture Nail. It wouldn't surprise him if she was looking for revenge.
I need to watch her. She's a wild card right now.
Reaching over, Fox put a box on a table in the middle of the room, full of comms headsets with matching eyepieces. "Here, everybody take one. Until we find Tadao, keep those radios on you at all times. Push the little yellow button on the side of them, and ROB will be able to track your location. Nobody turn them off. Nobody go anywhere alone. Anyone's radio going offline is an emergency to investigate immediately. Everyone got it?" He looked around the room, glaring at each person in turn.
Everyone nodded back, as they shuffled forward, taking headsets and powering them on. Fox put his on too, checking the eyepiece. "ROB, can you hear me? My camera working?"
"Affirmative," ROB answered back.
"Okay, so what we know so far…" Fox powered on a nearby wall monitor, displaying the blueprints of the Great Fox II. "For some reason, Tadao's been messing with a power panel in the cargo area of the ship." He tapped his finger on the diagram. "Since he's gone there more than once, he's probably hiding somewhere in the area. ROB has sealed off the deck's bulkhead doors. Slippy, did ROB see anything when he went through the security feeds over there?"
Slippy shook his head. "None of the sensors or cameras seem to have been tripped lately, except by us. But no security system is ever perfect, you know? Cameras and sensors have blind spots. Also, some sensors may not be working as well as others, or they may be offline and we don't know. The ship's maintenance is highly automated, but it still mostly comes down to just me to maintain it, you know? That's an entire carrier's worth of systems to look after. It's needed serious refurbishment since we got it. I've been prioritizing the most critical things, like the engine systems, life support, and so on. The security system is on my list of overhauls, but I haven't gotten around to that yet."
"Wonderful." Fox sighed.
"I think Tadao's using the utility corridors to move around the ship without being detected." Slippy indicated towards the small hallways all around the panel. "They snake all over the place, since we need access spaces for things like pipes, electrical lines, and whatnot. The security system has a lot less coverage in them."
"And it's dark in them." Fox picked up a second box and put it on the table. It was full of tactical flashlights for their guns. "Everyone take one of these too."
"Where can you get food and water on this ship?" Nail asked.
Everyone turned around to look at him, several with a surprised look on their faces. Nail had actually spoken up on his own, without being prompted?
Nail appeared to not care about the stares. "Tadao would need to get food and water."
"Water wouldn't be an issue," Fox said. "Restrooms, sinks in various places. Or he could tap a water pipe somewhere. As for food, the galley of course. But that's one of the busiest parts of the ship. Even if the security system missed him, one of us would have caught him raiding the fridge by now. Or we would notice food depleting faster than expected. I don't think he's that stupid."
"Where else can you get food?" Nail asked. "He's getting it somewhere."
Fox wracked his brain. Where else? Inside his mind, he rushed through the ship's passageways at a breakneck pace. The only other thing he could think of was the small hydroponics farm near the galley for food and oxygen production, but again it would be noticed if parts of their crop were vanishing. Where else could food be?
His mind turned further towards the front of the ship where the cargo bays were, although he couldn't think of much there but their fighters and the supplies they'd need for this trip. Spare parts, fuel, weapons, ammunition, survival supplies… Hold up. Yeah, they had emergency supplies stashed in that part of the ship, like in case they got shot down in hostile territory and needed to wait for rescue, or if they were going on long excursions far away without support. There would be crates of emergency rations and MREs there. Horrible tasting, but good enough to survive on if you could put up with that.
"Survival supplies." Fox snapped his fingers. "He's using those. They would be stashed near where the malfunctioning panel is."
"Then secure those supplies," Nail said. "Once Tadao's food supply is cut off, he will have to surrender to us or starve."
"Or he'll go crazy and try to blow up the ship." Canma clenched her fist.
Nail cocked his head, looking at her. "…That is a possibility too."
"You aren't helping things, Canma." Fox's ears flattened back. "I know you hate Tadao for what he did to Nail, but could you cool it, please?"
"We don't know what's going on in his head, Fox!" She shouted, as she went off on a tear. "Why would he grab his old uniform? He's gone back to his old, hyper-patriotic Venomian self, and he's gonna blow up the ship for 'the glory of the Emperor' or whatever."
While Fox didn't like her screaming, she did raise a good point. "Slippy, if Tadao wanted to sabotage, how could he do it?"
"Hmm…" Slippy grimaced. "He's got a lot of options. Life support. Messing with our engines to make them overload. Or even destroying our food supply."
"We can't let him run free." Fox ran a hand through the white mohawk of fur on his head, grumbling as he looked at the other faces in the room. "But we've only got nine people here. Two of you are medical staff, and one of you is in a wheelchair."
"I can still help." Nail put his kinetic pistol in a holster.
"How?" Fox scoffed.
"I can assist ROB on the bridge, act as overwatch for you."
Fox almost laughed. "But ROB's an AI. He can watch every camera in every part of the ship at the same time, on top of other things. Can you do that?" To be fair, with how much Nail seemed like a robot, Fox imagined Nail plugging his finger into their systems like a thumb drive to access them.
Nail was unphased by Fox's sarcasm. "AIs are not perfect. They aren't as adaptable as an actual sapient mind. I know this well from Giichi. I may be able to spot things or deduce conclusions ROB would miss. For example, I don't think ROB would consider limiting the search area by locations of food."
Fox narrowed his eyes. He hated to admit it, but Nail was right. ROB was an AI but he was older and too limited in his programming to think laterally like that. Also, Fox couldn't think of a more perfect person to pair with ROB's personality anyway. "Okay you've made your point." He glanced over at Rachel and Dr. Deberti. "You two can stay on the bridge with Nail. You should be safe there; it's one of the most secure parts of the ship."
Dr. Deberti let out a sigh of relief that was probably more evident than she wanted it to be. Rachel gave a small polite nod.
Fox looked at the rest of the faces in the room. For the search party, that left himself, Falco, Slippy, Fara, Katt…and Canma. Fox gave her another hard look. Though her face was neutral, she appeared to be holding back a grin, the edge of her lip twitching up. He didn't like the look of that.
"What should we do if we actually find Tadao?" Slippy said, bringing Fox out of his thoughts.
"Huh?" Fox turned to the toad.
"Do we shoot on sight?" Slippy asked.
"Umm…" The question caught Fox by surprise. As he collected himself, he thought he wouldn't feel good about just gunning down Tadao. But after that last outburst when he was handed over to the Cornerian officials, who knew what was going on in that lizard's head right now. Fox decided on a compromise. "If you see him, give him a chance to surrender first. We only kill him if he becomes an imminent threat."
"You're gonna regret not killing him Fox." Canma scowled. "I can feel it."
"And I can feel you're not helping out just to be nice." Fox returned the glare back. "You want revenge. You mean to kill Tadao. I can see it on your face. You step out of line, and I may consider not helping the Separatists."
"You're not going to back out now," Canma cradled her rifle. "You need the money. You have no choice."
Fox grumbled under his breath. Damn, he wanted to snap back at her, but she was one hundred percent right.
"You both need to chill out," Katt stepped between them, staring them both down. "We're not going to be able to catch Tadao like this. We need everyone focused, or people could die."
Fox considered calling out Katt for stepping out of line…but then he remembered. He was training her to lead Star Fox. Perhaps this was her way of showing a little bit of leadership? It wouldn't look good if he just clamped down on her when she tried to take charge.
"Perhaps you're right." Fox spoke through grit teeth, glaring at Canma, who returned the expression. "Let's go find him, then."
~X~
After securing Nail, Dr. Deberti, and Rachel in the bridge, the search party arrived at the closed bulkhead doors leading to the cargo bays. Katt gulped as she looked at them. Somewhere in there, they didn't know where, Tadao hid and lurked. It was like the entrance into a maze where a mythical beast stalked the halls, ready to kill anyone that crossed its path.
Oh stop it Katt. You've had to do things like this to capture bounties before. This shouldn't be anything new. Besides, we outnumber Tadao six to one. That's what she told herself, but given Tadao's unpredictable behavior, she couldn't help but be uneasy.
"Open 'em up, ROB." Fox said into his communicator. "Close them behind us too."
With a hiss, the bulkhead doors groaned as they pulled open, revealing an empty metallic corridor behind, nothing but endless rows of doors on both sides leading to more rooms.
"We're going to lock ourselves in with Tadao?" Falco asked. "Uh, is that a good idea?"
"We can't let him roam the whole ship." Fox looked at him. "The cargo deck is already a huge area for us to search."
"I don't like it but…all right." Falco shuffled his feet, as he checked his automatic blaster.
Fox nodded for the group to follow him in, with Katt bringing up the rear. Once she crossed the threshold, the bulkhead doors groaned as they sealed shut behind her, slamming closed like a bank vault. Fox's wrist communicator displayed a digital map of the area, guiding them to Storeroom 256, where the emergency rations were.
Within a few minutes, they were in front of the door. Everyone paused, leveling their guns at it. If Tadao was anywhere on the ship, this would be the place. Fox used some hand motions, pointing at each of them in turn and then pointing where he wanted them to stand. He wanted them to slice the pie. Everyone would stand around the door in a semi-circle so that they wouldn't have any blind spots as they looked inside. Within seconds they were all in their spots, working together as if they'd done this many times before. It sure helped that all of them had gained plenty of combat experience in their own ways. Fox counted down from three with his fingers, and pushed the door's button. As the door whooshed open, Katt pointed her gun inside the room, seeing nothing but pitch black darkness. With a buzz, the lights turned on, illuminating rows of racks filled with large shipping containers.
Fox glanced back to the rest of the party, but everyone shook their heads. Nobody could see Tadao. He signaled for them to move inside. They crossed the threshold, Katt again pausing to shut the door behind them. They took cover behind the end of a row of storage racks, waving their guns everywhere. Katt tried to look everywhere at once. On top of the storage containers, underneath them, in between gaps in the boxes, up in the rafters… Tadao had so many places to hide and ambush from in here. The only comfort was the bright lights.
Fox tapped his headset, whispering. "ROB, which container has the rations in it?"
"1BL4. Shipping manifest indicates it is here."
ROB updated the interface on all of their eyepieces, pinging the container's location in the back right corner of the room. That meant they'd have to walk past rows and rows of these giant containers to get to it.
"Tadao could be hiding in any of these containers. They're all big enough for a person to stand in." Katt whispered over her mic. "Check they are locked before you pass by them."
Fox glanced at her, a mixed expression on his face. She didn't mean to be rude, but then he did want her to take more charge, right? Nonetheless, he appreciated the advice, signaling with his hands for the others to follow. They walked as one through the room, with Fox taking point, Katt watching their rear, while the rest kept their sights up and to the sides to watch the flanks. So far as Katt could tell, all of the containers had locks. It wasn't much comfort though. Tadao had shown he knew how to hide, and they didn't even know if he had a gun. If he was armed and he got the drop on them, they'd be easy targets.
They reached container 1BL4 without incident. Fox held up the lock on the latch. It was undone and the bottom had multiple scratches on it, like it had been lockpicked. Fox frowned, setting the lock down on the floor. He put his hand on the latch, nodding to the others. Everyone raised up their guns. Fox ripped the door open.
A wall of crates filled the inside, stacked floor to ceiling. While there was no room for anyone inside, Katt noticed two crates in the first layer of boxes had been pried open. One was empty, and the other was partly emptied too.
"Shipping manifest said each of these boxes contains about fifty rations," Nail whispered over the comms as he watched the feeds from their eyepieces. "About a month to get to Thaljista, so around thirty days. Tadao would need ninety of those rations if he was going to eat three meals a day. Looks like he got enough boxes for that. He's been here."
A ripple of paranoia coursed through the group, all of them taking another look around the room. The sound of every little step they made bounced and echoed off of all the metallic surfaces, making it sound like every noise was coming from everywhere at once. Without even thinking about it, everyone stepped closer to the nearby wall, so they couldn't be caught from behind.
"If Tadao's been here," Katt whispered, "then maybe his hideout is close? He wouldn't want to move around much, or he'd get spotted."
"Mhmm," Fox hummed, scanning the whole room just like she was. "Any other containers with tampered locks?"
Fara gave Fox a gentle pat on the shoulder, before she pointed at a container a little ways down this aisle. She held up the lock to show the others. This one had also been picked. They all stacked up again next to the container, guns leveled at the door as Fox put his hand on the latch. He counted with his fingers one more time, before pulling it open.
No one was inside, but they found more evidence of Tadao's presence.
A sleeping bag from one of their survival kits was laid out, alongside multiple spent wrappers and containers from the emergency rations, not to mention full containers of water. And on the other side of the container, the door at the back had been removed, with the opening aligned directly with an entrance into one of the maintenance passageways. Tadao could sleep and eat in here, plus he had direct access to the maintenance corridors, all without having to step outside of this box. No wonder he was camped out here.
"We found his lair…" Fox whispered. He examined a stack of ration boxes, but there weren't enough to cover the rest of the trip to Thaljista. "Where's the food? He took more than this. Where did he put the rest?"
"He may have stashed the rest in a backup location, in case his first hiding spot was discovered." Canma peered around the container, nodding in understanding. "I've done similar things to survive the Thaljistani wastes. It's nice to have a backup stash hidden away. Don't want all your stuff getting stolen by bandits."
Katt eyed Canma. The way she talked about all of these things so casually raised a lot of questions. Just what did this vixen have to go through on Thaljista?
Fox tapped some buttons on his headset, seeming to update the map on his eyepiece. "This isn't good. You guys might want to look."
The rest of them received the updated map. Just on the other side of the door, the passageway split into three separate directions, and each of those split into at least three more directions not far away. Nine separate directions Tadao could've gone in, all within the space of a few dozen meters. And the options only increased from there.
Fox rubbed a hand over his face. "ROB, lock all the hatches into the maintenance corridors in this sector. Let us know if anyone tries to breach them."
"Affirmative." A loud series of 'clunks' and 'clangs' sounded in the distance as the hatches sealed themselves.
"How come you didn't have them locked before?" Katt asked.
Fox turned to Slippy, glaring at him.
"Uh, well…" Slippy had a look of embarrassment on his face. "I thought it was just going to be us aboard the ship for a month, so I didn't see the need and it made it a little easier to get in the corridors if I needed to?"
"So you're saying you don't even know if he might still be in here?" Katt shook her head. "Well, that's just great."
"At least if Tadao is in here," Fox said, "he's locked in now, and this is the only exit. If he isn't, then he's in the regular corridors and it's much more likely security will pick him up. Either way, it helps us. We should also lock this hatch behind us once we're inside."
"We're gonna go in there?" Falco pointed at the dark, narrow space before them, shaking his head. "Uh uh…nuh uh. I've played too many horror games like this, Foxy. Tadao's gonna have so many places to hide, and we can't use our numbers if we have to come at him single file. If he's stolen a gun from somewhere, he could mow us all down in one go if he catches us by surprise. Why don't we just wait out here and starve him out?"
Slippy shook his head. "There's a whole lot of damage he could do in here. He could cut so many wires, damage so many pipes, put our systems on the fritz."
"So we need to end this fast then." Fox put a grim look on his face.
"I've got an idea." Katt continued to look into the dark passageway. Upon getting some curious glances, she said, "I had to track down a bounty inside a derelict ship in Sector Z one time, kind of like this. Was not a fun time. The bounty shot some of the other guys I was working with. I mean, I got a bigger share because of that, but…it was nasty business. Anyway there was-"
"Power surge detected," ROB spoke up.
"What?!" Fox replied.
"Power panel within the maintenance corridors is overloading," ROB continued.
"Oh, that's bad…" Slippy shook his head. He glanced at his communicator, seeing a power panel blink red. "If it is not shut off quickly, it will short out systems in that part of the ship."
"No, this is a good thing." Katt smiled, a surge of excitement going through her body. "He just gave away his position. If we hurry we can catch him!"
Fara spoke up. "But what if it's a trap?"
Fox squinted, looking at the digital map as the panel kept blinking faster.
"Look, we'll split into two groups of three." Katt pointed at two potential routes to the panel. "Hit him from both directions. That way we can trap him. That's what we did when we caught that guy in Sector Z."
"Let's do it." Fox said. "We can't wait around anymore. Katt, you take Falco and Slippy. I'll go with Fara and Canma."
"All right, let's go!"
The six of them activated the flashlights on their weapons and climbed into the passageway, Katt leading the way with her map while Fox's group broke off in its own direction. They rushed down the corridor past power boxes, pipes, cables, and the like, everyone keeping an eye on any potential spots where Tadao could pop out from. About a minute later, the two groups met up again at the power panel in question, with Tadao nowhere in sight.
"He's not here?!" Fox waved his blaster around. "Slippy, panel!"
"Got it!" He ripped it open.
There was an EMP grenade embedded in the many wires and switchboards within the panel…a weapon designed to short out electronics. Of which this area was full of them. By ripping open the panel, Slippy had just pulled a wire wrapped around the grenade's trigger. With a loud bang, the EMP grenade went off with a flash, briefly blinding everybody before the entire complex of corridors went black. The only light left came from sparks spitting out of everything all over the walls, but even those gave out before long, leaving them in total darkness.
"Damn it! ROB? Nail? Hello?!" Fox got no answer. "Comms are shorted out. Our guns are too…" He checked his weapon, noticing the power indicator light didn't turn on. Only the flashlight still appeared to work, probably because its design was too simple to be affected. "And we can't call ROB or Nail to unlock the hatches for us either. We're stuck in here."
Katt checked her blaster too, and it was the same situation. So was it with everybody else. Her heart raced as she looked up and down the dark corridors with the point of her flashlight, thinking she could see Tadao hiding in every shadow. What have I done? I led us right into his trap…
"Wait," Canma whispered. "My kinetic rifle and pistol aren't affected by EMP. Fox, I'll give you my handgun."
"Oh, really?" Fox seemed a little dumbfounded, given how they'd argued before, but he accepted the gun all the same. "Uh, okay, thanks." He examined the weapon, seeming unsure of himself as he looked at it. He needed a bit to find the magazine release so he could check how many shots he had.
Katt knew that the Cornerian military trained on ballistic weapons. They kept stockpiles of the old things from decades ago. This training was in case Cornerian troops ended up needing to fall back on them. Even so, Fox hadn't been in the flight academy since over a decade ago, and going by the look on his face that was the last time he'd had kinetic weapons training. Not like Katt herself was any better though. She'd never touched the things in her life.
Well…Tadao is only one guy. One bullet should be enough to take him down, and I'd think Fox could hit one shot out of all the bullets in that magazine.
A loud banging noise echoed through the halls, repeated again and again, like somebody was hitting a hammer against a piece of metal. Everybody snapped their heads around towards the hall where the sound seemed to be coming from
"Hey," Fox said. "Is that sound…one of the hatches?!"
Several more loud bangs reached their ears, followed up by the sound of a loud thud. As if something big and heavy had smacked into a wall
"Tadao broke through!" Fox said. "Slippy, where would that hatch be from here?"
"Uh…based on the sound, I guess about twenty meters forward, ten to the right, forty to the left?"
Fox raised Canma's pistol. "Hurry!"
With Fox leading the way, they soon discovered the forced-open hatch, letting in the light of the hallway outside like a bright ray of sunshine at the end of a tunnel. Fox rushed as fast as he could for the exit, but Canma grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket.
"What are you doing?!" Fox whispered back. "He's escaping!"
"Floor." She indicated with her rifle's flashlight.
While confused, Fox looked down, along with everybody else.
Katt noticed a fleck of something on the ground, and reached down to pick it up. "It's a fleck of a leaf." She rubbed it between her fingers. "Why's it here?"
"There." Canma pointed a finger down a dark side passageway to the right, next to the hatch. "More leaf flecks."
"Tadao's uniform…" Fox said. "It was covered with bits of twigs, dust, mud… The smell of the jungle was baked into it." He gave a couple of sniffs in the air, pointing the gun at the corridor that Canma indicated. "Smell's coming from over there."
Katt could smell it too. Felines had sensitive noses too, just like canines. While that scent would've been perfect for hiding in the wilds of Fortuna, here it was a dead giveaway. So that broken hatch is a decoy? But why a decoy to lure us away? He's got us right where he wants us here.
"Canma, behind me," Fox said. "I'll go first. Fara, Katt, you two back us up. Falco, Slippy, go grab some fresh weapons and radios. Tell ROB and Nail what's going on. All clear?"
There were nods all around. Falco and Slippy jumped through the open hatch, sprinting as fast as they could. Meanwhile, Fox stepped down the dark corridor, keeping an eye on every little nook and cranny Tadao could be hiding in. Canma covered from behind with her rifle, albeit its long length made it unwieldy in this tight space. Still, she did a good job watching any blind spots as Fox moved forward.
Behind them, Katt kept her ears peeled for any strange noises. But she couldn't hear a thing. That being said, the jungle scent was growing stronger. Tadao is here. Right here. Katt swore the lizard had to be in touching distance with the strength of this scent. But there was nowhere left for him to hide. The corridor reached a dead end not far away. Where the hell is he?
Canma and Fox seemed to pick up on what Katt was thinking, as they stopped on the spot and checked more thoroughly, probing every potential hiding spot with the barrels of their guns.
Maybe Tadao hid his jacket behind one of these pipes, and he actually did flee through the hatch? Katt tried to look behind a fuse box. Guy seems clever enough for that.
Fox lowered his gun, turning around.
A speck of something floated through the air in front of Fox, tumbling to the ground. Katt caught a glimpse of it with her gun's flashlight. Another floated down. Bits of leaves.
Fox snapped his head up to the ceiling. "Tadao!" he raised the gun.
The iguana's camouflaged leg flew out from behind a set of pipes overhead, the boot connecting with Fox's forehead. He toppled to the ground.
Canma raised her rifle, but she was a hair too slow. Tadao jumped down from his hiding spot behind the pipes. She tried to adjust her aim, but Tadao brushed aside the rifle's barrel with his right arm, sending her shot ricocheting around the corridor. He gave her a punch to the ribs, followed up with another punch to her throat, leaving her gasping for air and collapsing to the ground.
Next in line was Fara, but considering she was unarmed there was little she could do. Tadao grabbed her, whipped her around, and pulled his machete off his belt, holding it to her throat, using her as a shield as he marched down the corridor…straight towards Katt.
Katt froze, not knowing what to do as she too was disarmed. Tadao didn't give her time to think, as he pushed Fara directly into her, knocking both of them down.
Disoriented, Katt heard Tadao's boots as he leaped over the two of them and ran for the open hatch. In the space of several seconds, the lizard managed to subdue all four of them. And without Falco and Slippy here, he was about to make a clean break for it. Cursing, Katt and Fara scrambled to their feet, hoping to catch back up again, but that turned out to not be necessary.
"Freeze."
And then there was dead silence. Even though the word wasn't shouted, the voice radiated authority, to where anyone who heard it would be compelled to obey. As Fox, Katt, Fara, and Canma dragged themselves off the floor and stumbled out into the hall, they saw what had happened.
Just down the corridor was Nail, pointing his own pistol at Tadao. But he was still in his wheelchair. Somehow he'd wheeled himself all the way to this side of the ship in record time.
Guy's arms must be screaming right now, or they're made of steel.
Tadao had his hands up, the machete in one of them. The canine gestured with his pistol. Tadao lowered it slowly, putting the blade on the ground.
Fox pulled some handcuffs out of his pocket, but Canma stormed past him and reached Tadao first. She slammed him in the back of the head with the stock of her rifle, sending him to the ground.
"You bastard!" She cried out.
"Whoa, Canma!" Fox ran behind her. "Don't shoot!"
"Don't get in my way, Fox!" she snarled. "He's gotta pay! You saw what he did to Nail over there, didn't you?"
Despite Tadao indeed being part of the reason he was in the wheelchair, Nail observed the scene in silence, not having any reaction other than watching intently.
"He did it because Star Wolf lied to and manipulated him, Canma," Fox said. "He didn't know any better."
"I-it's true…" Tadao muttered, trying to speak as he lay on the floor.
"Did I say you could talk, you snake-skinned scum?!" She gave him a kick.
Tadao rolled his head to the side, letting one of his slitted yellow eyes look up at Canma. "Please, I-I don't want any trouble."
"Then why'd you attack us?" Canma shouted.
"I didn't want to attack you. I just wanted to get past you to hide again. That's all." Tadao looked over to Fox. "I'm sorry. I had a moment of weakness back on that space station. I couldn't get myself to trust those Cornerians, no matter how hard I tried. I was too scared. I wanted to get away from Lylat…start over somewhere else. Fox, that's why I wanted to go with you in the first place." He looked up at Canma. "Honest."
In spite of her earlier shouting and anger, now she was subdued, lowering the rifle. With her permission, Tadao rolled over and sat with his legs crossed on the floor.
"Ideally, none of you would've ever known I was on the ship. Until you caught me, my plan was to hide until we got to Thaljista, sneak off the ship and…that'd be it. You'd never know I was here. That's the only thing I wanted to do."
"So if you didn't want to hurt anyone, why didn't you surrender?" Fox asked.
"Before I answer that…" Tadao gestured to one of his pockets. "Do you mind?"
Fox didn't know what he was reaching for, but nodded.
Not making any sudden movements, the lizard reached into his pocket and pulled out a radio. Like the ones everyone else had.
Fox's eyebrows raised. "You were listening the whole time?!"
"As soon as you found out I was aboard, you told everyone to go to the armory." Tadao wasn't angry with Fox, more like disappointed. "Would you have surrendered then, if you were in my shoes?"
The vulpine's ears curled back, his tail drooping. "Fair enough, but then why did you grab that thing again?" Fox pointed to the machete on the floor next to him.
"This weapon and this uniform... They're the only possessions I have left. The only things in this universe I can truly call my own. I'll admit I was a fool to think Andross was still alive, but these things bring me comfort. Something familiar to hold onto, while everything has changed around me. But even though I wear this uniform again, I have no intention of continuing Andross' war." He reached for the Androssian patch on the uniform's shoulder, and ripped it right off. It tore away easily with how old it was. The one on his other shoulder came off just as fast. He looked up at Fox. "Please, take me back to the brig. I'll stay there until we get to Thaljista. It'll be like I'm not here. Just promise me you'll let me go once we get there. I'll figure out what to do next after that. What do you say?"
In spite of all the trouble Tadao had caused, Katt couldn't help but feel a little sad about what Tadao wanted. Sure, it would be best for their mission if Tadao vanished, but they would be abandoning him in a whole new world by himself. Lylat wasn't the friendliest place for those who fought on the side of Venom, but Thaljista didn't sound much better. Even Canma appeared taken aback by how modest Tadao was with his requests. Katt thought for sure she was going to accuse him of putting on an act or something to get pity points.
"Well," Fox said, "if that's what you really want, we can definitely do that. It's too late to turn around and head back to Lylat, after all." He rolled his eyes, seeming exasperated with the whole situation. "Maybe you could volunteer to fight for the Separatists or something? I'm sure they need the help."
Canma's face twisted up upon hearing that, though again she remained silent.
This didn't escape Tadao's notice however. He gave her a wary eye, not to mention looking back at Nail every so often. Out of all the people here, the iguana had ended up caught between the two who would have the most reason to want him dead.
"I will need to think about that," he replied, still glancing at Canma. "May I stand? I would like to go to the brig now."
Fox nodded his approval. He rose off the floor with slow and deliberate movements, not wanting to alarm anybody, especially not Nail. While the pistol was lowered, it was still in the canine's hand. Might as well have still been raised.
"Do you have cuffs? Put them on me, please," Tadao held out his hands.
"You sure?" Fox asked. "Uh, okay then. Fara, take his machete and put it somewhere safe."
As Tadao was cuffed and taken away by Fox, Fara collected the machete and followed behind, leaving Katt alone with the two Sentinel members.
Canma seemed dazed, confused as she watched Tadao be taken away. Quite a difference from a minute ago where she'd been prepared to execute him on the spot.
"Are you all right?" Katt asked.
"Huh?" She turned to face the feline, surprised by the attention. "Uh… I guess so. I was just on edge before. We all were. Just nerves, that's all."
"You sure did change your mind awful fast about killing him," Katt pointed out. And I know it wasn't nerves. Not after how you acted in the armory.
Clearly not liking Katt's words, she glared at her. "He wasn't a threat anymore. I'm not a monster. Why kill someone who's surrendering?"
Katt glared at her. I bet if you were alone when you ran into Tadao, you would've happily gunned him down and then later claimed it was self-defense, that you feared for your life. Like a crooked cop.
"Look, think what you want to think," Canma sighed, slinging her rifle over her back. "It doesn't matter anymore. As soon as we're on Thaljista, he'll be out of our hair for good. So I don't care about payback anymore."
Her bitter tone betrayed that wasn't how she really felt, though. Without saying anything else, Canma left in a huff, walking at a brisk pace down the corridor. Katt would have to remember to keep an eye on her.
That left Katt alone with just Nail, still sitting in his wheelchair. He had watched the entire exchange in silence as usual. She stared at him, and he stared back without a word.
To break the silence, she asked a question that had been on her mind, but hadn't had time to ask until now. "Why'd you come over here like that? In your wheelchair?"
Nail spoke as if he thought Katt should've already known the answer. "Didn't Fox say anyone's radio going offline was an emergency?"
~X~
A/N: I wanted to get Star Fox to Thaljista this chapter. Actually have some text already written for that. That being said, it didn't feel connected enough to what was happening in this chapter, plus I thought this was a good spot to end it anyway.
Looking back, I kinda regret how much this story focuses on Tadao. If I were editing this story to reduce wordcount, one of the first things I'd do would probably be trimming down a lot of the parts he is in.
Don't worry though, the Star Fox crew will finally make it to Thaljista in the next chapter :) There's a lot of plotlines I'm eager to kick off there.