Outskirts of Taktar, Sangheillos
"Alright, let's go over this again." Fox said to his two compatriots.
"You're retrieving the orb, I'm providing overwatch, and Radoven's hacking their security system." Kronos remarked as he finished buttoning up his grey Republican Guard tunic.
At the moment, the three Star Fox members were hiding out in a thicket on Taktar's outskirts. The two Elites were gearing up in their disguises while the vulpine was running diagnostics on the newly acquired stealth suit from R and D.
Once they were finished, Radoven turned to Fox.
"I know I've said this several times already, but I cannot stress it enough. Once you activate that suit, pretend that you're muzzled. No matter what you see or hear, don't make a sound. Don't even react. As bad as things are here, we have a mission to accomplish."
"Got it." Fox replied as he slipped the stealth suit over his grey vest and green flight suit.
The trio exchanged a look.
"You guys ready?" Fox asked his teammates.
"Ready when you are." Kronos responded.
With that, the vulpine activated his stealth suit and seemingly disappeared from view. He took note of how his Elite companions quickly set their expressions in stone. Ever since the Demon War, he had heard from the both of them about how not showing what you were thinking on your face was essential to survival.
Even in the present, that still baffled Fox. While he had fought against tyrants such as Andross and General Scales, he could not imagine what it would be like to be born into a dictatorship as Kronos and Radoven had been.
The vulpine focused up as the trio made their way into Sangheillos' capital city. Apart from a guard at the city gates, none of the local police seemed inclined to stop Kronos and Radoven.
That ought to have reassured Fox, seeing as it meant that their disguises were working and none of the fascist regime's scanners were able to detect his stealth suit. At the same time, he couldn't help but notice that soldiers seemed to be everywhere and the numerous propaganda posters extolling the virtues of Lord Synn's regime.
The vulpine noticed a pair of cops muscling someone away. Fox wasn't sure of the reason, or if there even was one. Following Radoven's advice, the vulpine kept his eyes forward and his mouth shut.
"If I never come back to this place, it'll be too soon."
After a time, they saw the monolithic headquarters of the State Intelligence Service. Kronos and Radoven's forged ID cards held up under the scrutiny of the guards at the front entrance. Fox however, knew that this was only the first checkpoint.
The next was the front desk in the lobby.
"State your business." the Elite behind the desk droned almost mechanically.
"Vetting some new recruits." Radoven responded as he and Kronos handed over their ID cards.
The man behind the desk looked over the cards and then ran them through a scanner. Fox waited with baited breath as the scanner beeped and had to restrain himself from sighing in relief when both came up legitimate.
"Records are on the third floor." the guard stated in that same robotic tone.
"Thank you, we'll be on our way." Radoven said.
The trio made their way towards the elevators, where a quartet of guards awaited them. Fox took note of the retinal scanner in one of their hands. Thankfully, he had a trump card constructed by Slippy in his retirement.
A device that could fool biometric scanners, or at least, the vulpine hoped so. Both times that the scanner was run over his teammate's eyes, Fox reached into the pocket of his stealth suit and activated the device.
He was partly relieved when both Kronos and Radoven passed the scans, though both had warned him that they could be stopped at any time.
In any case, the trio boarded an elevator and took it up to the third floor. After exiting and walking for a bit, Radoven turned to Kronos.
"You go pull all the civilian records. I'll handle the military records."
"Yes sir."
Understanding that this was where they would be splitting up, Fox kept following Kronos while Radoven went down another hallway. After a time, a beeping sounded from the Elite's wristcom.
"He's in. Let's move." he whispered.
The two mercenaries continued on down the corridor before ducking into a room full of computer terminals.
"Well, let's hope this thing works." the Elite muttered as he took a small, circular device from his pocket.
"Slippy's stuff usually does." Fox replied.
Kronos attached the device to the side of the computer and then began typing on the keyboard. He breathed a sigh of relief as the password screen was bypassed and he began searching through the headquarters' archives.
Fox in the meantime, kept an eye on the door in case of any uninvited guests.
"Found it. Vault 64." Kronos said, getting the vulpine's attention.
"Alright, let's get going."
The two of them left the room and headed towards the elevators, taking one down to the basement of the headquarters. Stepping off the lift, Fox and Kronos looked about and saw that there weren't any guards.
"We're still between shifts." the Elite remarked while checking the clock on his wristcom.
"Than we'd better move quickly." Fox replied.
The vulpine headed down the hall of vaults while Kronos stood guard. It didn't take Fox long to find Vault 64. He put a decrypter that Slippy had given him on the keypad and waited anxiously as the numerous security measures were bypassed.
Eventually, the red lights around the vault door turned green and it slid aside, revealing the strange, multi-coloured orb floating in a maze of lasers.
Yet once again, Fox had a solution courtesy of Slippy. He removed a rectangular device from his pocket and pressed a button. Several small spherical objects were released into the room and entered the paths of several lasers.
They were designed to reflect the light back to the sensor and make it think the laser was still unbroken. With a clear way to the orb, Fox headed towards it.
The vulpine began to feel a strange sensation as he got closer. It almost felt like he was being charged with electricity. Indeed, Fox could feel his fur standing on end.
As he reached towards the orb, Fox saw that his stealth suit was deactivating of it's own accord.
"Damn. Getting out's gonna be a bitch."
Fox grabbed hold of the orb and pulled it out of the anti-gravity field. He listened carefully for alarms or footsteps, and hearing nothing, began to leave the vault.
Suddenly, a ball-shaped object rolled into the vault. Before the vulpine could react, there was a bright flash and a loud bang. Fox was blinded and could feel ringing in his ears. He felt strong arms grab a hold of him and drag him out of the vault.
From there, Fox's stealth suit was removed along with his blaster and his arms were wrenched behind his back. As his vision started to return, the vulpine felt a pair of cuffs being slapped onto his wrists. After that, he was hauled to his feet.
Feeling the ringing in his ears subside, Fox took stock of his situation. There were over a dozen members of the secret police pointing guns at him while two more held him in place.
The group parted way for another Elite. Judging by the fact that his collar tabs and trouser stripes were red instead of blue, Fox figured him to be of a higher rank.
"Welcome, Mr. McCloud." he said. "We've been expecting you."
He parted his mandibles, the Sangheili equivalent of a grin.
"Damn, they knew we were coming." Kronos thought as he watched the scene play out from the alcove he was hiding in.
The Elite was racking his brain thinking about how he would rescue his friend when he felt a pistol being pressed to his temple.
"Hands up, traitor."
"Look what I found, Director." Fox heard someone remark.
The vulpine's eyes fell on Kronos, hands laced behind his head, being prodded forward by an armed Guardsman. After a couple of the secret policemen cuffed his hands behind him, Kronos was shoved next to Fox.
"Your friend should be joining us shortly." the Director gloated as he activated his wristcom.
"Status report."
"No sign of him, Director Kazan."
Kazan's eyes widened.
"Impossible. We have the whole building locked down."
"Sorry sir, but he's just not here."
"Find him!" Kazan exclaimed.
Fox and Kronos felt a glimmer of hope upon hearing that Radoven hadn't been , the Guardsman who had caught Kronos folded his arms.
"This does not reflect well on you, Director Kazan."
Kazan met his gaze.
"With all due respect, Lieutenant-Commander Synn, even if he does escape our headquarters, I've alerted the city police. He'll never escape."
Zarran Synn tilted his head.
"For your sake, Director, I hope that's true."
Kazan turned his gaze onto his prisoners.
"Would either of you care to tell me what the rest of your team is up to?"
Both Fox and Kronos simply fixed him with hateful glares, to which the Director simply shook his head.
"Doesn't matter, everyone has a breaking point. It's just a matter of pressure and time."
He snapped his fingers.
"Take them to the holding cells."
As Fox and Kronos were muscled towards the elevator, they could only hope that Radoven made it out and found the others.
Elsewhere
After spending an unknown amount of time crawling through the headquarters' air ducts, Radoven emerged by the side of the building, covered head to toe in dust.
"I'm getting too old for this shit."
The Elite focused up and set off. As he dodged patrols all through the government district, one thing dominated his thoughts.
"Krystal is going to kill me."