Author's Note:

Welcome to the rewrites for Transit of Cerinia! There's a lot of new material in Act I—to the point where it feels like a totally new story. Act II's rewrites are skippable since there aren't as many new scenes in comparison, but both are greatly improved since I started ToC back in 2018.

Enjoy!

-Elarix

(Rated M for all the good shit)

"Normal dialogue."

"Radio/synthesized/muffled/whispered/shouted dialogue."

'Telegraphed thoughts.'

Internal thoughts.

Mission No. 1

Venom
Andross's Stronghold

Prologue: "The Day Venom Fell"

ㅤ⨶ㅤ

"I WON'T BE KILLED BY A BASTARD LIKE YOU."

Those deafening words thundered from every direction at once, reverberating off each wall in the dark chamber—and the inside of Fox's skull.

What was left of the ape's monstrous face ignited. Orange bursts of flame sprang up between every muscle, pore, and extremity in his disfigured features. Mounds of superheated flesh melted and dripped off the bone beneath, glowing bright as they rained into the black void below. Yet underneath the mask of skin was neither bone nor marrow, but a skull of steel. As the last vestiges of cheeks, hair, and nose cartilage fell free, they revealed a skeletal casing of machinery beneath. In place of veins were golden circuits; instead of bone, a framework of bloodied steel—hell, that probably wasn't blood anymore, either. He had no eyes, but a pair of photoreceptors without lid or pupil. His tongue bubbled and sizzled till it fell from his mouth like a writhing slug, revealing ivory teeth set in a metal, trap-like jaw.

Fox watched in awe as the object of his hatred disintegrated. With a sickening feeling, he realized Andross had completely hollowed out his insides to replace them with cybernetics. He must have modified and exchanged his body piece-by-piece till there was nothing left of his original flesh. As more and more of Andross's interior was revealed to him, he wondered, at what point in the process had he ceased to be living and become machine?

While flames engulfed his greatest enemy, Fox's spirits fell, entering the postpartum stage of revenge. He was glad to have finally defeated Andross, but he felt cheated of his victory. He was disappointed to find metal and wires beneath his skin, rather than flesh and bone. In a slow, gradual process, Andross had killed himself, robbing Fox of that satisfaction.

Something critical inside Andross blew as he screamed, resulting in a brilliant flash of white ripping through his metal cranium. The light was blinding, but Fox forced himself to squint through it. It felt like staring at an eclipse or a planet transiting the sun. He wasn't supposed to look, but he couldn't resist, burning eyes be damned. This was a once-in-a-lifetime event; he needed to make the moment last, savoring every instant of Andross's beautiful disintegration. The searing light would only help brand the image into the retinas of his eyes; then he could close them and see Andross dying on the inside of his lids forever and ever.

"Mom… Dad… I've avenged you."

He sighed, releasing a pent-up breath he'd held since the war began. At once all the tension in his shoulders vanished, the shards of anxiety piercing his chest dispersed, and the weight of Lylat's dozen planets lifted off his shoulders.

It had been nine months since the war began; three years since Andross killed his father; eight since his mother. He'd gone on hating the ape for almost a decade, burning with no emotion or desire other than loathing and revenge, and now… he was free.

What remained of Andross finally impacted the floor of his seemingly-bottomless lair. Another explosion detonated, causing Fox's Arwing to shake. The shockwave dispersed the green vapors of gas polluting the chamber, while the flash illuminated the curved floor. At the base he saw a sea of twisting wires, mazes of circuits, and briars of thorn-like machinery all exposed at once, like an ocean of sea monsters finally illuminated by the rising sun. The initial explosion started a chain reaction of bursts up the side of the curved atrium; soon the whole chamber would succumb to flame and collapse—with him in it.

And that was fine.

Fox collapsed against the back of his seat and lay there, feeling the energy sapped from him. He didn't have the fight left in him to continue. Instead he closed his eyes to the blinding white, replaying Andross's death again and again in his mind.

A proximity alarm went off, but Fox didn't acknowledge it. A steel beam fell from above to strike his right wing, snapping the tip clear off. The ship rocked, beginning to list to the side as the stabilizers struggled to make up for the imbalance. The Arwing did everything in its power to alert Fox of the danger: it warned him with incessant beeping, flashed urgent messages, and anxiously offered him the control stick, begging him to retake it. But no matter what the ship could do, it all came down to the pilot—and he didn't feel like saving himself this time.

Fox let the Arwing slowly lose altitude, enjoying the sinking feeling as it picked up speed into the white hell churning below.

Then, he felt something at the back of his head tingle.

'What are you doing?' a voice said: loud and clear over the detonations and roaring flames. He would've thought it was his own internal monologue if it wasn't so uncharacteristically gentle to him.

Fox blinked his eyes open and looked out at the collapsing chamber. There, floating over the fiery abyss, was a strange blue glow. The ghostly figure hovered just above the nose of his ship, and it shimmered and wavered like a hologram struggling to maintain its form. Was he… hallucinating?

'What are you doing?' it repeated, curious.

"What?" he asked, throat dry. "Who—?"

'If you continue to do nothing, you'll die, you know,' it simply said: matter of fact.

He stared at the glistening… person for a moment, unable to identify any of their features for certain. So, he just shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I have nothing left."

The glow dimmed, and he imagined he saw a pair of ears folding down. 'Don't say that.' Their voice was quieter now, and with a hint of sadness. 'You must have something left.'

"But it's true," Fox said. "I just feel… complete. I accomplished my life's purpose. It doesn't matter what happens after this moment. It's the end; cut to credits. I can't imagine my life going on after this."

The figure merely hovered in silence while the roar of the explosions only grew.

"Hey, you should get out of here, ghost thing. I don't want to drag you down with me."

The shimmer flickered weaker and weaker as his ship descended. 'I… can't,' it admitted, voice forlorn. Then it sparkled all the brighter, and something like a tail swished hopefully behind it. 'But you still can. You can be free, if you wished. So, why don't you?'

Fox shook his head as the flames climbed up the walls, nearly engulfing his vision and outshining the sapphire glow. "I-I—"

'If you don't survive, the ones you loved will have died for nothing. You may have lost them, but their memory still lives with you. It has to survive, and that won't happen unless you survive—right?'

The rising fireball engulfed Fox's cockpit, drowning the windshield and everything outside in white. He couldn't see the figure anymore, nor hear the voice over the overpowering roar. Hell, he couldn't even see the control panel through the blinding light—but their last words continued to resound in his ears as the world began to melt.

Then his hand instinctively caught the control stick, gripping it tight.

Seconds later the Arwing burst free of the growing fire, trailing lines of smoke and glowing red-hot. He desperately pulled the fighter into a vertical climb, struggling to gain altitude with the off-balance ship while keeping the rising flames behind him.

Heart pounding with a new will to live, his eyes swept over the ceiling, urgently looking for the tunnel he'd entered through.

'This way!' the voice echoed. 'Hurry!'

Finally he caught a telltale blue glow hovering in front of the opening—the one he could've sworn was previously locked by Andross.

Sucking in a breath, Fox held the Arwing steady enough to slip through the narrow exhaust port. But the blooming explosion still nipped at his engines, only growing in intensity as the ventilation shaft focused it behind him.

Fox fought hard with the control stick, lurching as smaller explosions in the shaft walls went off milliseconds after he passed. Escaping Andross' lair was a balancing act; he had to juggle going fast with keeping the Arwing righted in its upward climb, battling the planet's gravity and his broken wing simultaneously. The ship kept wanting to list to the side whenever he left it unattended, but scraping a wing against the vent wall would spell instant death.

Warning alarms blared in his ears, each one clambering for attention. There was so much going wrong with the ship at once it just became a wall of white noise in his head, threatening to deafen him.

His grip slipped, and the Arwing listed too far to the side. His left wing sliced into the wall, sending a rain of sparks down—but they were nothing but drops in a sea of fire. A metallic screeching tore at his ears while the wing tip tore a long scratch up the shaft wall.

Augh, no, NO!

By the time he jerked the ship back in the opposite direction, he'd sawn through part of the wing tip, making it even more difficult to maneuver. The fires had nearly caught up with him now, outshining the light at the end of the tunnel as the sun's light outshines a tiny, evening star. But he kept his eyes on that light all the same—and the blue shimmer that raced ahead of him like his guardian angel.

'Fly, whoever you are, and be free; if not for you, then for me…'

Right when the blinding clouds began to curl over his windscreen, the Arwing burst free from the exhaust port. Fox blinked, almost not noticing the walls disappear around him. Before the flames could melt his ship any further, he pulled off to the side, allowing the column of fire to erupt harmlessly into the muddy sky.

Fox righted his Arwing and slowed down, heart beating at a million miles an hour. Looking around, he found himself above a flat plane populated with stone obelisks. Below him lay arid fields, while above towered blankets of murky clouds.

He smiled stupidly and sighed. Never before had he been so thankful to see Venom's putrid skyline.

"Fox, you made it!" Slippy's voice greeted him. "You're alive!"

"Of course he made it!" Falco chided him. "Was there ever any doubt he'd give it to that monkey prick?"

"Are you okay, Fox?!" Peppy demanded.

Fox took off his glove and wiped his face, surprised at the amount of sweat he found there. His crop of premature white hair and clothes were disheveled, but he didn't care too much about his appearance right now.

"Yeah Peppy, I'm fine. I'm alive—but barely. I feel like my soul flew out of my body on the way up."

"Your Arwing's covered in soot and missing half a wing! Don't move an inch, ya hear? I'll be right down with my tractor beam and help you into the Great Fox for repairs."

"Hang tight pal, we're coming!" Falco promised.

The vulpine looked up to see the Great Fox slowly descending, along with the outlines of three familiar Arwings silhouetted against the cloud-covered sun.

"So… is he dead?" Slippy asked.

Fox spared a glance down, watching as Venom's arid surface began to fracture apart, and the stone monuments toppled into growing fissures. There was no sign of the glowing figure now…

"I'd say so, Slip. No one's surviving that."

Peppy audibly sighed, his Arwing breaking off from the rest to approach Fox. "When we get you back inside, I'll report his death to Pepper. I'm sure the Venomians will turn tail and run when they hear their supreme leader is dead! I just wish I coulda been there to see it happen. Dammit, I wish I coulda' pulled the trigger myself. You certainly earned that right more than anyone, Fox, but you oughtn't to have rushed in alone like that…"

Fox leaned back in his seat, rubbing his face and wondering how much of that he'd hallucinated. "I'm sorry Peppy, but I didn't know for sure if anyone would make it out of there alive. I wasn't even planning to make it back myself. I wouldn't have, if not for… for…"

Fox suddenly clutched his head, hearing a silent roar growing between his ears. It felt like an axe was splitting his skull from the inside-out.

"Fox, are you okay?" Slippy asked. "Fox?"

"Ugh…"

The headache had come on so suddenly, rising from a dull buzzing to a deafening thunder before he'd even noticed it. He flinched over-and-over as it pounded his head in waves, threatening to knock him unconscious at the crest of each one.

"H-Head," was all he managed to get out.

Without his input, the Arwing began losing altitude, dipping towards the ruined earth below. As darkness closed over Fox's vision, the last thing he heard was Peppy, Slippy, and Falco all desperately calling his name. And he imagined himself spiraling down, down, down…

ㅤ⨶ㅤ

On the other side of Venom's military complex, the battle raged on.

At the helm of both Husky and Bulldog units, Commander Bill Grey led a flanking attack towards the least-protected side of the enemy's headquarters. Hours of grueling fighting had already passed, but now it seemed they finally had a shot at crippling Venom's military might. If they could just slip through for their attack—

"We have movement below, Commander: straight ahead!"

At the sound of Lieutenant Miyu Lynx's voice, Bill looked down. Venom's arid, rocky surface seemed to come alive for a moment, before a trio of massive drill bits broke free of the churning earth. They bored through the dry soil, flinging dust and rocks in every direction.

"Astro crushers!" Lieutenant Russet Casse gasped. "Watch your bellies!"

While the astro crushers' main purpose was to bore tunnels through soil and planetoids, Andross still outfitted them with defensive weapons, meaning the bulky industrial vehicles were far from harmless.

"Shit, they're directly in our path," Bill said. "We'll have to take them. Scout ships, draw their fire; bombers, sneak in last and deliver each a present. We can't afford to slow down now!"

But as the astro crushers' drill-bits spun down, their weapons didn't power on.

"They're not firing," Russet Casse murmured. "What's going—?"

Before she could finish, blinding white energy particles began materializing and falling like snow into the ground-up soil between the three crushers.

"They're not meant to attack. They're… excavating something," Bill realized. Then his eyes widened. "Scatter!"

The energy buildup reached its crescendo, suddenly releasing in a brilliant flash. A dazzling beam of plasma burst free from the ground, melting the rocks between the crushers to white magma. Bill managed to pull off just in time—but he could feel the heat from the beam melting his wing tips and hear its thunderous crackle. The energy stream lashed around the sky like a whip, managing to strike several of their fighters, completely disintegrating them as their comms erupted in screams and static.

Eventually the plasma stream choked out, revealing a lidless red eye peering up at them. A metallic, three-pieced shell emerged from the ground, molten rocks dripping off its hull in streams of white. Before Bill could react, a three-pronged claw shot up into the sky. He flinched, but the claw instead snagged one of his wingmen. The tentacle-like appendage whipped around, bashing the ship against the rocks till it was little more than scrap-metal, and the pilot's screams were silenced.

"What the hell is that?!" Miyu cried.

Bill didn't have time to answer. The second arm swatted the rearguard from his formation, while the third closed its pinchers and deftly skewered his last wingman right from the air beside him. The canine's pulse galloped now, barely registering his friends had perished in the blink of an eye; now he was the only one left.

The first claw coiled back before whipping forward, striking at his ship like a serpent. The commander tried to bank to the side at the last second, but was too late. The claw pinched closed around his fuselage, beginning to crush it like a shell in a crab's claw. Panicking, he gunned the throttle and tried to break free, but couldn't. The pincher held him firmly in its grasp, rearing back to dash him against the rocks.

"BILL!" Casse's voice screeched.

His canopy flashed with emerald light, and the claw suddenly released him. Bill's fighter fell for a second before he managed to right it and fly to safety. He breathed heavily, knowing he had been mere moments from death.

Looking out his window he saw Lieutenant Casse had broken formation with her own squadron to save him.

"Are you alright, Commander?!" she cried.

"I'm fine, th-thanks, Russet. You should… get back to Husky unit."

Regaining altitude, he pulled away to observe their new enemy. Now that they were out of reach of its claws, the mystery weapon began charging up another shot; its core glowing bright red.

"INCOMING!" Lieutenant Lynx yelled.

…But the energy never released. Instead, it dissipated back into the air again, and the humming died down. The strange ship began to shrink back without explanation, retreating.

"What the…?"

"Look, to the east!"

Turning their attention away from the enemy, Bill and his men paused to look out their canopies.

A black cloud of smoke towered against the rising sun, unfurling like a blossom of ink in water. The pillar rose from the valley of monuments, connecting the broken earth to the muddy heavens above. That was where Andross's lair hid…

At the sight of the dark cloud belching into the sky, all fighting ceased for a moment. Bill regrouped with Husky and Bulldog units, while the rest of the Cornerians did likewise. Even the Venomians pulled back to their defensive lines as the skirmish ceased, and all eyes pointed east.

Then Pepper's broadcast came, and chills raced up Bill's arms.

"Heroic soldiers of the Cornerian Defense Force, I have just received word from the Star Fox team that Andross, Supreme Commander of the Venomian Empire, has met his death at their hands. The mad ape has been slain!"

At the sound of those words, Bill's spirits soared higher than his fighter could ever carry him. Over the comm network he heard his men erupting in cheers. He distinctly picked out the sound of Casse's voice rejoicing at the top of her lungs, and he couldn't resist adding a whoop of his own.

Fox you crazy son of a bitch, you did it!

Since the outbreak of the war, many had lost friends and family all over the system to the Venomian onslaught, while others died in the initial tragedy that spurred Andross's exile eight years ago. But in this moment, Star Fox had avenged them all. No one else would die that day; they had made it. Lylat would once again be at peace. Already millions of soldiers wistfully daydreamed about returning to their homes and families, relieved they had survived the most devastating conflict in Lylatian history.

…But Pepper's voice resumed, ending their premature cheers.

"Steady now, my valiant men and women! The day is not won yet. Our enemy knows he is defeated, but beware his final death throes. Many Venomian cowards will surrender and plead for mercy, but those that remain loyal to Andross will fight all the more viciously, like rats trapped in a corner. The day is lost for them, but they stubbornly hold out in the hopes they may negotiate more favorable conditions to their surrender: an armistice on their own terms. Rest assured, Corneria and her allies will accept nothing less than complete and unconditional surrender! We will not relent until every mechanism of war is destroyed, every Venomian has laid down his weapon, and every criminal leader has submitted themselves to the Cornerian justice system for fair and firm punishment!"

Bill's heart sank slightly; he had hoped the Venomians would unilaterally surrender after the defeat of their emperor, but that wasn't to be. From bunkers in the jagged wasteland crags, enemy forces began vomiting forth like plagues of insects. The strange demon that had crawled from Andross's box of horrors turned to face them once again, determined to fight to the last.

"Pull off and regroup," Bill ordered. "We'll make another pass at that thing, same plan as before. But for god's sake stay out of arm's-length of those claws, and if it charges another shot, scatter like roaches! Commence second pass in five—"

"Belay that order, Commander!"

Before they could begin, thick emerald lasers fired over their heads. They sailed into the mystery weapon, penetrating straight through its tentacles and armored shell, sending it flailing back into the grave from which it had climbed.

Looking at his rear-view screen, Bill saw none other than General Pepper's own flagship descending towards the surface, escorting several wings of Cornerian fighters. Cheers went up from Husky and Bulldog units as they flew ahead, making swift work of the remaining astro crushers.

"General Pepper!"

"Your willingness to fight in the frontlines is admirable, Commander Grey."

At the sound of Pepper's voice—speaking his name, no less—Bill snapped to attention in his seat.

"You served Corneria well in the battle for Katina, then vanguarded our push to liberate the Lylat System. Your men's courage is well-known in the upper Cornerian echelons. Therefore, I have selected you for a very special mission—one I wouldn't even trust Star Fox with."

"Y-Yes, General?"

"Andross's death triggered an automatic destruct sequence in his lair. Cornerian Central Intelligence has warned me this is only the beginning of the emperor's 'Zero Decree.' Even in his death he wants nothing of value to fall into our hands—nothing that would help us defeat the remainder of his forces around the system, nor even help our people recover from his scourging.

"A wealth of technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs lie entombed beneath Venom's surface—but if we don't act quickly, Andross's loyal servants will see that they are buried there forever. Even our allies, Macbeth and Eladard, will want to claim these inventions as their due reparations from Venom—but Corneria has suffered the hardest, borne the main brunt of the invasion, and sacrificed the most blood out of all the allied planets. By right we have earned them, and need them the most. Moreover, I shudder to think what might happen if Andross's inventions fell into their hands. They must be secured before his henchmen destroy them, or rival nations claim them for their own selfish purposes."

"We can handle it, sir! What are your orders?"

"The labs lie to the north of Venom's military headquarters. Fighting will be heavy there, but you can skirt the main battlefield while we provide a screen for your assault. You are to take the hangar and storm the labs on foot with Husky and Bulldog units. A Cornerian scientist will guide you through the labs via radio, overseeing the capture of Venom's top experts.

"Accomplish this task, Grey, and you may soon find yourself a captain. Pepper out!"

ㅤ⨶ㅤ

Lights flickered in the Venomian war room. Muffled booms reached the occupants' ears, while water and alcohol trembled in glasses. Five figures sat at a polished oak table, nervously watching a holographic map of the battle unfolding somewhere above their heads. Against the might of the Cornerians and the quickly-arriving swarms of Eladard and Macbeth, the blue dots representing the Venomian forces stood little chance. Each time the command center shook, another section of the compound went red.

"I suppose you all know why you are here," Gibbons, Andross's Minister of Propaganda, asked. The ape sported tan fur beneath his uniform, his leathery, black face sunken with beady eyes.

The other men tore their gazes off the map for a second, exchanging somber looks.

"Because the unthinkable has occurred," Guereza, the Minister of Security said. While the white fur encircling the colobus monkey's face gave him a regal air, it couldn't hide the defeat in his eyes.

A lemur spoke next: Albert Sifaka, the Venomian Minister of Industry. "As much as the Emperor's death is tragic, and surely the darkest day for the Empire, we can spare no time for mourning. We shall grieve after the day is done, be it victory or defeat."

"Indeed. Our first order of business is establishing Andross's successor."

Gibbons passed several copies of physical, printed booklets around the table, and the Venomian council flipped through them. Each bore the unmistakable seal of Andross—unmistakable because it was pretty much just his face.

"In the wake of his nephew's death at Bolse, and the unknown whereabouts of his other kin, his Excellency has dissolved the position of emperor. In his place, he has promoted to supreme commander… Grand Admiral Kāru Dōnatsu."

The others poured through the copies of Andross's will, reading the words simultaneously as Gibbons announced them. Some acted rather disappointed at the news.

Guereza scoffed. "Dōnatsu? Fat lot of good the Admiral will do; his defenses couldn't stop a four-ship squadron of children and one measly dreadnought from swooping through the heart of our compound—virtually unopposed!"

Gibbon's fingers tightened around his copy of papers. "It was Andross's will," he emphasized through grit teeth—though the others in the room knew he'd also hoped to be his successor. "Unfortunately, Star Fox destroyed our communications array, severing contact with Dōnatsu and his Area 6 forces in preparation for Corneria's invasion. Therefore we must choose a temporary leader till comms can be reestablished."

The colobus monkey shrugged his arms, revealing the royal mantle of white fur hanging from them. "Is our choice not obvious?"

Gibbons smirked. "You fell out of favor with the Emperor long ago—or did you forget how your Venomian air force crumbled before the onslaught of… oh, how did you put it… 'a four-ship squadron of children and one measly dreadnought'?" He smiled when Guereza glared at him. "As for Sifaka, he mislead Andross on our industrial output. I should lead; if Andross were here, he would choose me. Have I not been his most loyal, successful minister?"

A snort came from Sifaka. His lanky, anxious fingers were always fidgeting with something when he wasn't designing, to the point of distracting the others at the table.

"That is easy for you to say, Gibbons. Your job is summoning lies out of thin air. If only I could do the same and pull armaments out of my—"

A muffled BOOM shook the entire defense headquarters, causing the lights to go out momentarily. When they came back on and the hologram reappeared, the base's shield gauge was down to 68%.

Gibbons opened his mouth to retort, but Sifaka cut him off. "Look, the curs are at our doorstep; this is no time for petty squabbles of successorship! Let us decide our next course of action together, as a council. So… suggestions, anyone?"

Geureza was first to speak. "Why not make one final stand and break out? We shall fight for our freedom, and the freedom of all remaining Exiles! We can use Dōnatsu's forces as a shield to cover our escape, then slip-out through the ratlines. Our agents are prepared to ferry us through the system to sympathizers in Macbeth. There we can work with the corporatists again and raise a new army!"

Gibbons smirked. "Every second the Allies close their net around Venom. You may try to escape, but in all likelihood you will be captured."

Guereza's eyes darted around as he thought. "Then… then we must surrender at once! If Dōnatsu puts up a strong front, we may be able to capitulate with more favorable terms—"

Gibbons burst out laughing, revealing his shining white fangs. "You imbecile… Do you know what will happen if we surrender? They will make a spectacle of executing us after a show trial! And, lest any of you think you may find mercy with the Cornerians, I remind you Sifaka used slave labor to build the Empire, Liebegute and Bonobo oversaw Andross's experiments on prisoners of war, and you, Guereza,authorized the murders of millions of civilians! What do you even think their mercy would look like?" He laughed a second time. "Would they banish us to Venom again?! My dear compatriot, when you're already in hell, there's nowhere down from here."

Guereza clenched his fists, looking more and more erratic. Then his eyes lit up. "What of Andross's experiments?" He looked at Doctors Liebegute and Bonobo excitedly. "Are we not sitting atop Andross's most powerful, unreleased bioweapons? Why not make use of them?!" The ground quaked again, and the colobus shook his fist at the ceiling. "Unleash the last swarm of terror on those curs up there! You know, Golon, Specimen 49, the Cerinians—"

But Liebegute and Bonobo exchanged uneasy glances. The former, a lanky baboon with a long face, shook his head. "I'm afraid we can't. These weapons are unfinished, untested, and could potentially destroy Venom before they even reached the Cornerians, causing more horror and destruction on us than even our enemies could."

"Well, we have to do something with these monsters! We can't just… leave them down there!"

"Of course we will," Liebegute assured him. "In the event of Andross's death, we are to terminate all experimental subjects and prevent them from falling into our enemies' hands—except what lies on the last level." He tapped a paragraph of Andross's will. "This command has always been known to Dr. Bonobo and I, but you will find it here…"

With his last idea exhausted, Guereza despaired, collapsing on the table with his head in his hands. "Then all is lost. We should split up and meet our ends in any way we see fit, killing ourselves to avoid whatever fate the Cornerians sentence us to…"

"I'm afraid not, my good Minster," Gibbons said. "We are not released from the Emperor's service until our final tasks are complete."

With a cold glimmer in his eye, the simian flipped the page. "I turn your attention to page 5…"

ㅤ

"Decree Concerning Demolitions on Imperial Territory"

ㅤ

"The Zero Decree…" Sifaka groaned. For once he stopped taking his pen apart and putting it back together.

"All military and industrial infrastructure in Venomia and the wider empire is to be destroyed. Everything: factories, supply depots, food stores, munitions… even Guereza's precious art gallery," he sneered. "We must not let our enemies turn our own infrastructure against us, nor steal the Exiles' rightful recompense we confiscated during the war. We have all the explosives ready. We just have to give the word, and it shall be done."

But Sifaka tossed his pen aside, slamming his hands on the table. "No! We cannot follow this order. To do so would be to rob the remaining Exiles of their only means of recovery after the war!"

The gibbon bared his curved fangs at Sifaka. "You dare contradict the Great Andross?! This is a direct order from the Emperor himself! He would have you executed for such defiance!"

"We cannot do this!" the lemur insisted. "Our people will fester and starve without it!"

Gibbons' eyes gleamed madly. "You fool! It is not we who shall live on without Andross; Andross will live on without us! We will go down in one final blaze of glory, taking as many of those flea-bitten mutts with us as possible—and I don't need you or anyone else in this council to do it!"

He launched from his seat and stormed to a radio set on the table by the wall. "This is Minister Gibbons," he announced into the mic. "Under the authority vested in me by the late Emperor Andross, I hereby authorize the execution of the Decree Concerning Demolitions on—"

A gunshot rang out, and the ape's head snapped towards the wall. A red bead appeared in the back of his skull, while the polished wall in front of his head now bore a spatter of blood. His body slumped over the radio unit.

All heads in the room turned back to find Albert Sifaka brandishing a smoking blaster. Rather than anger, his sweat-covered brow revealed terror. The blaster shook in his hand.

"Should have chosen a shorter name," Liebegute mumbled, rolling his eyes.

At once the door swung open, allowing their personal guards in. "What happened?! What happened to the Minister?!"

Sifaka lowered his blaster and looked at his remaining compatriots with twitching, yellow eyes, but none of them spoke a word against him.

Ignoring the guards, the lemur rushed across the room and shoved Gibbons' body off the radio unit; it slumped to the floor. Picking up the mic, he blurted, "This is Minister Albert Sifaka. Disregard that order! Continue the defense."

The guards went to recover the body, but he waved them off. "Leave it. Let the curs do our janitorial work when they arrive…"

Returning to the table, he commanded the remaining Venomians. "The Empire is over, but our people will live on. Guereza, re-establish contact with the Supreme Commander. Urge him to negotiate a surrender with the Allies while holding out as long as possible. It must be done while we still have bargaining power—something left to surrender. After you relay the message, I don't care what you do. Shoot yourself, turn yourself in, or try your silly ratline plan—I don't give a damn."

Guereza stood up, anxious to leave the command room. He nodded enthusiastically. "Th-That's a good idea, Albert…"

While the colobus shoved his way from the room, Sifaka turned to the remaining two doctors. Just then the largest explosion yet rocked the compound, and this time the lights didn't come back on; only a series of red emergency lights.

"Dr. Liebegute: while we hold the Cornerians off, you are to uphold Andross's last wishes for the experiments. They must not fall into Corneria's hands—especially the Cerinians. Terminate them immediately, down to the last blue-furred monster!"

Liebegute stood up and bowed, shaking Sifaka's hand. "It will be done."

"Goodbye, Wernher, Karl. In this life or the next, we will meet once more—and maybe, Venom will rise again…"