Star Fox: The Harmony of the Many

by NamaFox

The Aparoid Wars are over, and the Lylat System is recovering. Team Star Fox receives a distress call from just beyond the edge of the Lylat System. What starts as a rescue mission soon becomes something much more than the team anticipated. Fox McCloud soon finds himself contending with horrors beyond imagination, and it will take all his wits and courage just to survive.

11. Chapter 10 - Engine Trouble

The first thing Fox realized when the elevator left was the fact that he had absolutely no idea where to go. He didn't have even the slightest idea of what the layout of the engineering deck was. He assumed it was big, probably one of the largest and most important decks of the ship. Beyond that, he had no idea. Fortunately for him, there was only one direction to go at the moment, through a single closed door. At least he couldn't get too terribly lost yet.

He wondered if he was going to hear any further instructions from Doctor Aiten, and for a moment he even thought about asking him for assistance. That thought didn't really appeal to him all that much. The doctor would contact him when he was ready. Fox really didn't want to talk to him any more than he absolutely had to. The feeling might be mutual, considering the way the doctor enjoyed talking down to him. Maybe he felt that way toward everyone.

Well he didn't need any help for the moment. There was but a single path before him, a wide corridor that led to a massive door. He just hoped there wasn't a horde of those...things...waiting for him on the other side, an engineer who might have gone as crazy as that cat in medical, perhaps. He didn't think that was likely, though. He hoped not.

He also found himself without a weapon. Again.

He approached the large door, then pressed the door panel on the right. It blinked for a few moments, then a green light appeared. The door slid open, parting in three directions. Two parts of the door went to the side, and one part went up. All of them disappeared into the ship's walls. An interesting design choice, But Fox didn't think about it for long, as he had other things to worry about.

Stepping into the next room, he took a look at his surroundings. This seemed to be a...well, he wouldn't call it a reception area, that didn't seem appropriate for engineering. There was a security desk here, along with some equipment, including a few uniforms to wear, complete with helmets and other apparatus hanging up on the wall behind the desk. They were arrayed in such a way that they almost looked like people standing there, helmets hanging from a hook above the rest of the outfit, the clothes somehow attached to the wall. Fortunately he had clothes already, so he didn't have to worry about changing. He really doubted anyone was going to care that he wasn't in an engineering outfit.

There was no one at the security booth, which came as no surprise. He'd be shocked if he came by a manned security station at this point. There wasn't going to be anyone at their normal post, and he suspected that if there was someone there, that person likely didn't belong.

Walking over to the booth, he took some time to examine it, searching for anything useful. It took a while of rummaging before he found the access terminal. The thing still had power, but the system was locked with some kind of password or something. That or it was broken. Fox couldn't get in. Every time he tapped a button, a big flashing red "error" sign would pop up. This wasn't going to produce any results. He rubbed his forehead in frustration. Nothing could ever be easy, could it?

He supposed he'd have to figure things out on his own. He rose back up to his feet and approached the doors on the far side from where he had entered. There were three doors, each going in different directions. Fortunately for him, each one of them was labeled, blinking lights above the door revealing what was on the other side. To his left was the staff quarters. Some of the crew, probably the ones that worked here, must have had some basic accommodations. This made some sense, at least in a ship this size. They probably did that for all the decks. Medical had the same thing, though he hadn't ventured too far in that area.

The door to the right was marked as the cargo bay. Considering all that happened, he wondered if it was in good condition or not. He had no idea. Maybe it was fine, or maybe it was crawling with those hybrids.

Last but not least was the door straight ahead, the one marked as Main Engineering. That was probably where he needed to go. This would lead to the engine core, the monitoring stations, and all of that other stuff.

It was also where he was most likely to run into trouble. If the "Many" were somewhere on this deck, they almost certainly had a presence in main engineering, And here he was unarmed. He wasn't about to go in there without a weapon, not unless he absolutely had no choice. At least that made things relatively simple, leaving him with two choices now. Cargo bay or crew quarters.

A voice startled him, and he quickly looked around for the source before realizing it was all in his head. Quite literally. It was Doctor Aiten again. "It would seem that you are capable of some intelligence after all. You did not charge blindly in. I would have stopped you, of course. But it is heartening to see that you are not as stupid as you appear."

Fox rolled his eyes with a frustrated grunt. This doctor...

The voice continued, heedless of his annoyance, perhaps unaware of it. "You were brought here for a specific purpose. You need to take the warp core offline."

That caused Fox's ears to twitch. "Disable the warpcore? Are you crazy? I don't know anything about this ship or it's engines. Unless you want me to just shoot the thing."

"Absolutely not." The voice was firm, without any room for debate. "If you were to damage the warp core in any way and it resulted in a breach, it would result in a catastrophic explosion that would destroy the entirety of the Von Dross. That is an unacceptable loss. Your work will will involve a more...delicate touch."

Fox took a long, deep breath. He was doing everything he could to remain calm and collected, not letting his frustration show. "Yeah, except I already told you I don't know anything about engineering. Slippy is the expert on this stuff, not me."

"Irrelevant. I hold far greater knowledge than your engineer can even begin to fathom. I will walk you through the process. It is not terribly difficult. So long as you follow my instructions, you will be fine. As will the ship."

Fox wanted to argue with the man. To protest his overbearing arrogance, the seeming belief that everyone else was subject to error while he, Aiten, was not. Fox didn't know if the doctor was a genius or not, but Aiten clearly believed such, which made him the second "genius" Fox had ever met that he couldn't stand, the former being the mad scientist and would-be tyrant, Andross.

A thought passed through his mind, one that caused him to smirk. Maybe Aiten was somehow related to Andross. That would explain a lot. He came across as so...so...so...

The proper word escaped him. He'd think of it eventually.

Still, he had more important things to dwell on at the moment, sSuch as saving this ship, and for now he needed Aiten's help. He realized that he hadn't asked a rather important question. "Wait a moment. Why is it you want me to take the warp core offline?"

"I shall attempt to explain in manner that your mind can comprehend." There was a pause, as if the action took considerable effort on the part of the doctor. Fox closed his eyes and massaged his forehead. Condescending! That was the word he'd been searching for. Aiten soon continued. "This parasitic entity that has taken over the ship intends to use it as a means to transport itself to the heart of the Lylat System."

Fox didn't wait for Aiten to spell that out, instead murmuring the name quietly. "Corneria."

"Correct. Once it arrives, it will attempt to seize control, infecting everyone with its influence. Once the world is secured and fully under its power, it will move to the other planets in the Lylat System, one by one. Eventually, everything will be consumed. This thing must be stopped here and now before it is allowed to proceed any further. It is my belief that it will be impossible to stop should it manage to escape from the Von Dross. This vessel acts as containment for it, at least for the time being. Once the warp drive is repaired, it will not be contained for long. It must be destroyed before then."

Fox nodded, thinking the matter over for a bit. It sounded bad alright. Corneria had just barely managed to fight off the last influence that attempted to invade, the Aparoids. It simply didn't have the strength left to deal with another invasion of this kind. As much as he didn't care for Aiten, he certainly agreed with him on this. It was best to stop it here and now before anyone else could be hurt. "Alright, just tell me what I need to do."

"Good, you're listening. I notice you are unarmed, this is unacceptable. You shall proceed to the crew quarters. There is a small arms locker located at the far end of the area. It is locked at all times, save for emergencies. The area is relatively clear of your enemy, so it should be simple to..."

"Relatively clear?" Fox interrupted the man. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"My readings indicate that there is a small amount of activity. Someone is moving around back there. I am currently unable to ascertain what it is. Perhaps it is one of this..."Many." Or perhaps it is a member of the crew still alive. I recommend proceeding with caution."

"Great." Fox commented dryly. "Anything else I should know?"

"Yes. Move quickly. My readings indicate a great number of them in Engineering, in the part of the ship that you hesitated to enter. They are currently conducting repairs on the primary engine nacelles. They cannot activate the warp drive until those engines are online and they can escape the orbit of the planet. I do not know precisely how many of the enemy there are, nor do I know how close they may be to finishing the repairs. This is why you will need a weapon. There is no time for subtlety, even if you possessed a talent for such. I have not been impressed with your ability to blend in or hide. Perhaps brute force is more suitable for someone of your...talents."

"Thanks." Fox shook his head, trying to ignore the thinly veiled insults. "I'll get a weapon then."

"Good. I will send the access code to your device. You may contact me if you need it repeated. I am curious whether you can handle this or not. Now get a move on."

The voice ceased, and Fox had to assume he was no longer listening. He was definitely going to remember whatever the code was, no way in heck that he was going to ask the doctor for something so simple. He held up his wrist, activating his PDA and waiting for it to transmit the information. Sure enough, there was incoming message of some kind. Tapping on it, he was given the code. It was a pretty simple one, really. Just a few numbers. 0451.

He could remember that, he was sure of it. He'd better. Aiten already saw Fox as some kind of drooling simpleton. Fox wasn't going to add to that impression any more than he already had.

Admittedly, he had made some rather dumb moves since he first came here. He should've waited for the others before going in the hangar, he should've been more cautious during that first firefight, he never should have let that insane feline doctor get the jump on him. His mistakes just continued to mount. Maybe Aiten was right to think of him as a bungler, since this mission wasn't exactly Fox at his finest.

He still didn't like the guy though, even if it turned out he was right. He seemed to make a habit of rubbing Fox the wrong way.

Then there was Fara. What part did she play in all of this? Why was she here? She had said it was for the money and he doubted she was lying, but there had to be some good paying jobs out there that would suit her better. He couldn't imagine her being cooped up in what seemed to him to be a massive moving space station. Something else had to have drawn her here, but what? What would she need so much money for? Of course he'd had financial problems himself, the whole Star Fox team seemed as though it were held together with a thin piece of thread at times. They were barely making enough money to scrape by. Scraping was probably being generous, made them sound like they were doing even better than they were. He'd love to be scraping, that would be an improvement.

Still, they were an entire team, Fara was just one vixen. Back when they had dated, she had never shown evidence of extravagant tastes. She wore attractive clothing but still came across as quite modest. Surely good work wasn't hard to find for someone of her skill or talent. He knew firsthand how skilled she was. She was a remarkable pilot, almost as good as Fox.

He hoped to learn the answers to some of these questions later, but he'd have to set them aside for now. He had a job to do, and he'd see it through, no matter what. Hopefully with less mistakes this time around. He'd meet up with Fara later.

He proceeded down the corridor that would lead him to the crew quarters. He wasn't entirely sure if this was just a temporary unit, made for storage and quick access for the engineers who were stationed here, or if it was permanent. They might have their proper quarters elsewhere on the ship, one of the upper decks perhaps. Most large vessels did. Usually there was an entire deck devoted to crew quarters and recreational activity. They had to keep people well rested and happy, after all.

He'd find out which it was soon enough, he thought. For now, he would simply have to follow the corridor to wherever it would led him.

This part of the ship was unremarkable. The walls were a dull gray color, illuminated by bright lights on the ceiling, elongated narrow things that were spread evenly throughout the corridor, one of them placed every few paces. There were also some smaller lights on the sides of the room, at floor level. They didn't produce as much light though, likely more for emergencies than anything else. He wasn't even sure about that. Otherwise, it was just a hallway. The doors here were a little different, a complex locking mechanism on them that caused the front panels to undo themselves and pull away before the door was allowed to slide open. It was different from the more plain, unassuming doors of the medical deck. He wondered why that was. He would have thought that such a thing would be uniform throughout the ship, save for airlocks and such. The only thing he could think of was maybe this was a more sensitive area, requiring extra protection from potential enemies, locking things down so as to not give unauthorized access to the deeper parts of the ship. He still wasn't sure why the doors needed to be different. Maybe they were better designed to deal with a hull breach or something.

He supposed it didn't really matter. How the doors worked and why didn't really concern him. What mattered was finding a weapon and then stopping this "Many" from completing whatever it was trying to do.

Of course, that still meant having to deal with whatever it was that lay ahead of him. Something had been moving around, and that could present a problem if it was hostile, as Fox still didn't have his trusty blaster. He wondered where that thing had ended up. He really wanted it back. He was somewhat attached to the thing. He didn't want to buy a new one, that weapon had seen him through some tough times.

For now he'd have to make do with whatever he could find. Maybe he could go hunting for the thing later, if they ever managed to secure the ship. Maybe he'd get lucky and just happen to stumble upon it. That would work too.

As he came to the end of the hallway, he found himself face to face with another door. It started to unlatch as he approached it before parting in four different directions, granting him entry. It was dark in here, the lights weren't working properly. He tapped a button on his PDA, then held up his wrist and bathed the room in faint light. He found himself in what looked to be a sizable break room

There were a few tables scattered about, some of them tipped over. Fox began to walk through the room, proceeding cautiously, holding his light up in a way that allowed him to get a better look at his surroundings. A few of the tables had unfinished meals on them, the food unfortunately starting to rot, now giving a rather unpleasant odor. It still looked more appetizing than his last meal on the Great Fox, though he wasn't stupid enough to eat any of this stuff.

What was more concerning to him was what lay on the floor. He had to hold his light up and tilt it downwards to get a better look. There was some liquid there, it looked like gravy or something else, probably some kind of food or drink. He knelt down to take a closer look. It wasn't the stuff itself that disturbed him, but rather the pattern it made. Most of it was just slick and oozing on the floor in much the manner he would expect from spilled slop. Some of it, htough...some of it looked odd. Like something had been dragged through it. It would of course be more concerning if it was a blood trail, but this was kind of the same idea. It looked like a person, a body, had been dragged through the cafeteria for some reason. One possibility was that someone had a medical emergency, though in these circumstances he found it more likely that someone had been attacked and then dragged off. The implications of this were unpleasant.

Judging by the overturned chairs and the rotting food, he imagined that whatever happened here came suddenly. He wondered what it was that had caused this. Some kind of emergency, maybe? Perhaps the alarm had sounded and they had hastily abandoned the room. Or maybe something attacked them.

The result was the same either way. They were gone. There was little left in here. Now, where was that weapons locker? He panned his light across the room, looking for any sign of a weapon or the security station or anything. There wasn't much to be found. There was another door on the opposite side of the room from where he entered. He'd try his luck there.

Once again, it opened for him without him needing to press any buttons or pull a switch. It simply unlatched and slid apart as he approached, perhaps due to a motion sensor that activated in time with his movements. It was nice that none of these doors were locked. That would have complicated things considerably.

He found himself in another hallway. Though it was still difficult to see with the lights occasionally flickering off and on, he felt a rise of another emotion. Hope. At the far end of the corridor, beneath the flickering lights, was the security station that Aiten had told him about. Finally!

He strode across the hall, his boots echoing heavily against the cold metal beneath him. Then he froze, mid-stride. His ears twitched before flitting up. He turned his head and listened carefully.

Thump.

The sound was quiet, someone else might not have even heard it, but Fox did. And it was close.

Thump-thump.

He didn't know what was making that sound, but he had a bad feeling. He needed to get out of sight, right now.

THUMP!

It was getting louder, much louder. It sounded like someone banging against a door. In fact, he was quite certain that's what it was. He believed it was coming from the door right next to the security booth. He looked around, his mind working at a frantic pace. He could go back the way he came in, but that would leave him still absent a weapon. He could run back to the entrance, but that would waste precious time. If it followed him, where would he go? He wasn't even sure the elevator would make it to him in time. Plus there was a chance, however remote, that whatever was making the noise was not hostile.

Right, what he needed to do was hide. He held his light up, desperately searching for a place to hide and fast. There were three doors on the side of the room. These were different from the doors that he'd already passed through on this deck, slimmer and less secure looking. Each had a single window in the upper central part of the door, allowing one to see what was on the other side. One of them was a maintenance closet, one of them was equipment storage, and the last one, the one the noise was coming from, wasn't labeled. He wasn't getting near that one, not yet.

BANG! Another loud sound. This time, he saw the door actually give a little bit. Whatever was hitting it was putting a great deal of force into each blow. The door wouldn't take much more abuse.

He didn't have time to think. He chose the equipment storage room, the middle door. He rushed towards it, pressing the button and thendove in as the door slid open. He then jammed his hand on the switch, causing the door to slide shut. He held the close button down, as it didn't have a way to properly lock from this side. He swore under his breath, knowing how unlikely it was that this would work. Still, it was better than just standing out there like an idiot.

Maybe retreating had been the better idea after all.

There was another banging sound, followed by another...and then another. A final bang accompanied by the groan of metal and a loud, thunderous crash. If that sound was what he thought it was, the thing had just broken through the door, so it definitely wasn't a member of the crew. At least, not anymore. It would have required far too much strength. Fox closed his eyes, taking in deep steadying breaths as he listened. His ears were up, the fox on full alert as he listened for any signs of danger.

He was greeted with silence. Whatever the thing was, it wasn't moving. That or it was so quiet that he couldn't detect its movements. Somehow that seemed unlikely. Anything big enough to break down a door couldn't be -that- quiet. Could it?

He was just beginning to wonder if he should creak open the door when he finally heard something, metal sounding against metal. Something was approaching. All he could do was wait for it to get closer, to reach his door. Crap, it was going to try to open it. When it couldn't do it, it would bust it down and he'd be trapped in here. All that was inside were a bunch of suits that the engineers wore, in addition to some spare parts and tools.

Wait a second.

He took a closer look at the back of the room. There were a number of tools there, including a rivet gun of some sort that was intended to be used on the hull of the ship. He'd seen one of these before, the old Great Fox had one. It was a very powerful tool, so powerful that it could easily be considered a weapon. It wouldn't replace his blaster, but...

If he tried to get it, he'd have to leave the door, and that thing might get in. He might not have the weapon prepared in time to be able to fire at whatever it was that was coming. If he remained here, the door would stay locked, but then he wouldn't have any way of defending himself if the thing burst through!

While keeping his finger firmly pressed on the button, he rose to his full height and peeked through the window. Maybe if he could catch a glimpse of the thing, see what he was up against and maybe what it was doing...

He couldn't see anything. It wasn't there. Where had it gone?

Then he saw it. It was moving towards the room's entrance, where Fox had come in, and it was not at all what he expected. He had anticipated a monster of some sort, a large mutated creature corrupted by the presence aboard this ship. What he got instead...was a droid. The thing wasn't even that intimidating looking. It was roughly Fox's size, only made of cold metal. It had the very, very rough appearance of a humanoid, about how ROB appeared, really. Nobody would think it was a living breathing person upon looking at it. Again, it did not appear very intimidating, at least not from this distance and angle.

Yet every instinct in Fox's body screamed at him to take cover. Something was wrong here. This wasn't just a droid.

The thing was moving slowly, taking dragging steps forward with its head slumped. If Fox didn't know better, he'd think it was going through a bout of severe depression, the way it was hung over and bent. It was ignoring him, or rather, it hadn't seen him yet. It was moving toward the entrance. It would be out soon, and Fox would be okay. He breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like he was clear. He turned back toward where the nail gun was, still out of reach. He'd probably get that thing ready before leaving, just in case. He might need it.

He spared another glance out the window. He nearly jumped out of his fur.

The thing was now standing just in front of his door, its head inches away from the glass. He had a good view of it now, and its appearance unnerved him. A bizarre blend of metal and machinery mixed with something that appeared more sentient, the rough exoskeleton of an upright being. Those eyes were hollow and empty, cold. It was staring inside. With a muffled curse, Fox ducked down, still holding his hand on the button and hoping against hope the thing didn't try to get in. Better yet, hoping that it hadn't seen him.

He held his breath, hoping the thing would go away. It was so quiet when it wanted to be. He couldn't risk another glance, afraid that it might see him this time, so he just waited. Waited. Waited...

There was a loud buzzing sound, lasting only a second. Then another one. And another. Fox let out his breath in a frustrated exhalation, realizing what was happening. It was hitting the door switch on the other side, trying to get in. Crap-crap-crap!

It kept doing it, over and over again. As it did this, it spoke, the first words he'd heard the thing say. Its voice matched its appearance, sounding something like a person should, but still unnatural and artificial in nature. "Is someone here? My sensors indicate that this door should be open. Please allow me to render assistance."

The tone was supposed to be warm and concerned, perhaps even soothing. Fox found it to be -none- of those things. He kept his finger pressed firmly against the door switch. No way he was opening for this thing.

"Please open the door. I cannot help you if you do not open the door. I am here to serve." The machine was quiet for a moment or two after uttering these words, then it added, "DARIUS won't like this." With that, it emitted a loud electronic squeal, and Fox winced at the sound. It actually hurt to listen to, at least a little.

As abruptly as it began, the noise ceased. The room was totally quiet and still. Fox's heart was hammering in his chest, the sound of it beating filling his ears. He waited in dread anticipation of what was to come. It wasn't trying to get in anymore, or at least it wasn't hitting the buttons. He wasn't sure what it was doing. He didn't dare peer out. It was there, he knew that much. But where?

BANG! His question was answered almost immediately, causing him to jump. The door itself bulged backwards a little bit from the raw force of the droid's assault. It must have been throwing itself at the door. That was a strong droid. He had no choice now. He had to get that weapon. Now he had to pray it would keep ramming itself against the door and not try to just hit the switch again, which would open the door immediately once Fox stepped back. It was a risk he would have to take.

He scampered toward the far counter, looking for something that would help him. There was the rivet gun he had seen initially, but after lifting it up and looking at it, he knew it was broken. The thing had a massive crack on the far side, one he hadn't seen from his previous angle. It wasn't just cracked, otherwise maybe he'd hope that the thing still worked. Just holding it up, he could feel the lack of weight, it was missing some critical parts inside. That's probably why it was in here in the first place. It was being taken apart, maybe to be re-serviced or just recycled. It was useless to him. Had he trapped himself in a room with a rampaging droid and no weapon? Of all the blasted luck!

As the droid continued to slam itself against the door behind him, which gave just a little more more with each strike, Fox searched frantically for another weapon. It was dark, he had to lift up his light now in order to make the search more effective. It had to be somewhere, there had to be something!

And there it was! In the corner, in the dark. A maintenance bolt tool. It had been left lying there. He reached for it, snatched it up and whirled around, ready for the thing to break through...only to realize it wasn't loaded! It needed a bunch of bolts to do its job. His eyes scanned the table, finding nothing at first. He then spied a satchel draped over the corner of the desk. Reaching inside, his eyes lit up upon finding a box of ammunition. He gave a quick jerk of his wrist, causing the rather sizable ammunition canister to reveal itself on the tool. He started to put in the bolts one by one, as quickly as he could manage. He worked fast and efficiently. Fortunately, he was cool under pressure. His paws didn't shake, he didn't have trouble fitting each rivet into its respective slot. Upon finishing, he gave the ammunition receptacle, which was circular in shape, a hard spin, then jerking his paw to the right when it had finished, causing the mechanism to slide into place with a loud click. It was ready to fire.

Not a moment too soon. A low groan of metal accompanied the next bang as the droid threw itself against the door again. It simply couldn't take anymore abuse. The door broke in two, the lower half of the door falling forward and dropping heavily to the floor, the upper half sparking and sliding up out of the way. It left Fox completely exposed to the new threat.

It took a brief moment for the droid to detect Fox's precise location. Its eyes were a bright, hostile red color. This thing was definitely not about to give him a hug. Its voice sounded mechanical and distorted, yet friendly and warm in tone. "Allow me to assist you, sir!" It spoke, even while reaching for him with those vise-like appendages.

Fox had been too slow to react in the past. To the mad doctor, to the group of hostile targets he had encountered shortly after boarding. He'd never reacted as he should have. Every time, he hadn't been quick enough and he had nearly died for it.

Not this time.

Raising his weapon, he squeezed the trigger in rapid succession, using his other paw to brace against the weapon to reduce recoil. He fired rivet after rivet into the droid, targeting its head and upper chest. The thing had lurched toward him before it caught the first blast right in its head. The eyes flickered on and off, then it started moving again, reaching for him. "Tut tut!" It said, the voice even more distorted now that it was receiving damage.

Fox wasn't going to stop until the thing wasn't moving anymore. Again and again he fired. Some of the bolts pierced its head, others pierced its chest. Great hunks of metal and machinery were ripped from the thing. After firing a dozen or so rounds, he lowered his weapon as the machine took a couple of steps backward, reeling from the assault. It sparked, its eyes blinking off and on over and over again as smoke poured from its chest cavity. A distorted voice emitted from the thing as it tried to speak, an unnatural sound that kept repeating over and over and over again. If they were words, Fox had no idea what they were. It sounded more like a scrambled electronic whine. At last, the droid's head slumped, and the thing fell to its knees as it powered down. It continued to smoke and sputter as its internal systems failed, then it stopped moving all together, going silent as it shut down completely.

Fox approached the droid, putting his foot on its head before giving it a shove, causing it to fall backward. The thing was dead. As dead as a robot could be, anyway.

With another flick of his wrist while pressing the button that would unlock the ammunition canister, Fox turned to gather more rivets. There were a fair number still remaining in here, and now that he had a weapon (of sorts), he intended to keep it loaded. Fortunately, the clothes he was now wearing had deep pockets. He put in as many as he could comfortably carry, enough for a handful of full reloads. After going through these, though, he'd better have either found a new weapon or additional ammunition for this thing. Granted, it wasn't really intended to be used as a weapon, it was a maintenance tool. But hey, he wasn't complaining. It worked just fine like this. It was a heck of a lot better than nothing.

He realized that he probably needed to get moving now. Before he did, he decided to check one last thing. He wanted to investigate the room the droid came from. What was it doing in there? It didn't take him long to reach it, it was just a door over. The door was busted open, broken now beyond repair. Part of the door lay sprawled out on the floor, while the rest was trying to return to its normal position, but it kept sparking and moving back and forth, making a low rumbling noise over and over again. It was trying to shut, but it had been so broken that it couldn't do it. Still it kept trying.

The shattered door did not hold Fox's attention for long, though. It was what lay within that had captured his attention. Something much more disturbing.

There was a body in the room, just one. By the look of the jumpsuit and the tools sprawled about the room, he appeared to be an engineer. He must have been one of the ones that worked here. Fox dropped to his knees to examine the man more closely.

The body belonged to a fairly thin ape. He was a little bigger and stockier than Fox, but not as large as some others Fox had seen. His arms were limp and hanging to either side of hi,m his eyes vacant and staring into oblivion. His mouth was hanging open, his tongue hanging out and discolored. Fox tilted the ape's head up slightly, then winced at what he saw. The engineer's throat had been crushed. Half of his neck had sunken in from a grip that looked remarkably similar to the droid's. It must have strangled him. It did more than just that. It had utterly crushed his windpipe. The results made for a disturbing sight. He could only imagine how terrified he must have been, how painful his end was. He rubbed at his own throat gingerly. That would have been his fate, had he not destroyed the thing.

There was something lying near the body, and Fox quickly recognized it as a PDA. As he went to examine it, he saw something flashing. The latest entry in the engineer's audio log. He knew he didn't have time to waste, he needed to get moving and take care of the warp core situation, but checking the log, he noticed it was quite short. Perhaps it would offer him some useful insight? He quickly downloaded the log to his own device, along with any passodes and clearance the ape possessed. After tapping the button to play the last known message, he listened to what may have well been the ape's last words.

First he was greeted with the sound of heavy breathing. No words, just someone struggling to catch their breath.

At last the words came. "I saw them. I saw them get the others. Daniel was shot dead, took a full blast from a shotgun straight in his belly. Melissa was dragged off screaming."

"Figured we'd have some security, but Jeff was one of them. He shot Sparrow in the back. Then he shot at me. I was already running. He grazed me, but it wasn't bad. I got in this storage unit, now I'm just waiting. They can't get in here. They can't get me. I don't know what in hells is going on here, but they won't get me. They won't. I'll be safe in here. I'll just wait a bit longer. I know I'll be safe in here..."

Fox could hear the sound of footsteps in the recording. Someone or something was getting close. He heard a panicked gasp, a startled cry of alarm. There was a sound of the door opening, then something metal stepping inside. The man screamed and seemed to panic. "Hey! No, get away!"

There were a series of sounds that Fox couldn't identify. With those noises, there was the sound of an energy weapon being discharged. Two or three shots in quick succession.

Fox heard a couple of heavy footsteps. A scream. And then a choked gasp. It was followed by a loud clattering sound. Fox wasn't sure what that was, not at first. But then he looked at the place the PDA had been. Sort of to the side, turned over. He must have dropped it when struggling with the droid.

Sounds continued to play, but they were muffled now. He thought he could hear a grunt, the sound of struggling. And then there was the sound of something crunching. After that, silence. All that was left was a soft chime indicating the recording had ended, likely turning off automatically in order to preserve power.

That poor soul. Fox felt terribly for him. There was nothing Fox could do for him now. Wondering just how long ago this happened, Fox checked the date and time on the recording. Unfortunately, there seemed to be some kind of error. The date was scrambled. Maybe it was damaged when dropped the thing. Or maybe it was some kind of malfunction. Either way, he had likely been dead long before Fox entered the room.

The door panel had been blasted. The guy must have shot it by accident, perhaps causing the door to malfunction and trap droid and himself inside. Perhaps that's why the bot had been in there. Perhaps had been lying in wait, dormant until it detected movement nearby, Fox's movement.

There was a weapon on the ground, but it was completely crushed and broken beyond repair. It was likely the very weapon that the ape had used and fired wildly at his attacker. It had not saved him.

It was time for Fox to move on. There was nothing more he could do here. He rose to his feet, giving one last look at the fallen engineer before turning and walking away, setting for the security station to see if there was a better weapon inside.

He could see the problem before he even got close. He had found the security locker. Unfortunately someone had beaten him to it. The door was hanging open. More disturbing, there was blood dripping from the handle. He took a quick look around, searching for a body. Once again, there were marks on the floor, as if a body had been dragged somewhere. There was nothing useful left.

At least the encounter had answered one question for him. Whatever malevolent presence had invaded this ship had taken control of the robots as well as the security system. This meant he couldn't trust anything mechanical or electronic aboard, at least none of the things that were moving around or intended for security. His most recent attacker had just been a maintenance droid, not a battle-robot or anything like that. He could face something so much worse before long. Well, if he were careful and quick, perhaps he could avoid any such encounters.

Yeah, right. Fox thought to himself, knowing full well that if something bigger was aboard, he would probably have to fight it. It seemed as though everything and everyone was drawn to him here. Well, everyone hostile anyway.

Fox walked around the security booth, searching for any further clues, or better yet, weapons. There were none to be had. The place had been stripped clean.

There was something useful here. As he studied the monitor, he noticed a number of cameras, all of them still working and operational. That was something. It looked as though it were monitoring main engineering. That might help him a great deal actually. He sat down in the nearby chair, then immediately stood back up when he felt something moist and sticky clinging to his clothes. Looking back at the chair, he was all but certain that it was coated in blood. He decided to do the work while standing, flipping through the various cameras and taking note of what was on the screen.

There were a fair number of them, it would seem that the Engineering deck was rather substantial in size. Almost everywhere he looked was crawling with those things, people who appeared compromised by whatever alien influence that had hijacked this ship. It wasn't just the so-called Hybrids, there were also a number of droids wandering around. Neither of the two groups seemed hostile to each other. If he had to guess, Fox would imagine that they had all been reprogrammed, possibly on an individual level, but more likely on a broader scale. As in, if there was some sort of artificial intelligence that directed things on the vessel, that was probably what had been corrupted or hacked or whatever they had done to it, rendering any robots on the ship under new management.

It was going to be hard to sneak around these things. On the bright side, they were occupied. A number of them were manning stations and acting very much like a proper crew should. If it weren't for the bizarre growths emanating from their neck and skull, and the way some of them had their chest cavity breached, he might have thought them as normal. For some reason, it seemed strange to him that they could handle machinery and computer stuff like this. He didn't know why, it just did. They didn't seem terribly intelligent when he had run into them, just very angry and very persistent. Here they were demonstrating the ability to work on some rather complicated equipment.

What was more, they seemed to be working together fluidly and in a sort of harmony that Fox couldn't imagine being normal. There were no words among them, yer they were all working in unison, synchronizing their work without any need to verbally communicate, or even to look at each other. Were the circumstances a little different, Fox might have been impressed.

With circumstances being what they were, he found himself considerably less inclined to care what they were up to at the moment or how they were accomplishing it. He just needed to make sure they didn't succeed.

So the question was, how?

They seemed quite focused on the primary engine nacelles; he was interested in the warp core. With a few more button presses, he found it. Fortunately, the thing didn't have a ton of guards. In fact, they seemed to be pretty much ignoring the core for the moment. He found that strange. As smart as these things seemed to be, it was curious that they wouldn't even post guards there. There had to be other members of the crew still left alive, resisting.

Then again, maybe they didn't think anyone was stupid enough to mess with the warp core. If Doctor Aiten was correct, a breach would rip the ship apart. Whoever remained on the Von Dross now was likely in a desperate fight for survival. He doubted any of them would risk blowing the ship up. He knew first hand how strong survival instincts were, even when in the face of certain destruction. The ones who could resist would fight on to the bitter end, he knew this.

So did they.

It wasn't going to be easy to get there. While it may not have been heavily guarded as it could have been, at least on the inside, it would be no less difficult for that fact. There were far too many hybrids between the entrance to Main Engineering and the warp core control room. What was more concerning to him was that there were a number of droids wandering around. Some of them looked like maintenance bots, but he couldn't be sure. They certainly weren't treating these infested crew mates with any degree of hostility, most of them barely acknowledging that the other was there.

Considering how his most recent encounter with a droid went, he had to assume that the rest of them would be hostile towards him as well. That would make things a bit more complicated, but at least he was armed now. That was of some comfort in of itself.

There was a problem, though. There were still too many for him to handle. He couldn't fight them all at once. Nor could he pick them off one by one. It would take only one to raise the alarm for Fox's mission to fail. They would immediately overwhelm him. So what was the solution?

"What are you waiting for?" A familiar voice filled where once had been silence. "You need to move."

"Are you kidding?" Fox gestured toward the monitor. "Do you see how many of them there are? There's at least a dozen in there, probably more. I'm good, but I can't take on that many at once, not without much better equipment. That's to say nothing of whatever reinforcements they might summon."

He was prepared to be berated by the doctor yet again, but he found himself surprised. "You are correct. You would stand no chance in a direct battle. On your own, this task would be an impossibility, a hopeless scenario. That is why I am here. That is why you are still alive. And this is why I had you operated upon.

Fox blinked. "What?"

"The implant that has been grafted into you provides an energy that allows you to make use of certain...latent abilities. I will not bother explaining how it works, so I shall be brief. It draws from the untapped potential that lies dormant in most sentient life."

"What are you talking about?" Fox asked, not at all sure that he liked where this was going.

"Strictly speaking, psychokinesis. The ability to influence the world around you without having to touch it." The doctor stated this matter of factly, as though it were nothing at all unusual. Fox had never heard of this technology before, nor of anything like it. Of course some beings had that power, but to his understanding you were either born with it or you weren't, like Krystal. Andross had been rumored to possess such abilities. He certainly had been studying the power, if nothing else. Either way, Fox had never heard of a person without those gifts to be suddenly able to use them, artificially or otherwise.

Such a statement brought questions to his mind, questions he couldn't help but voice. "You've been running experiments here, haven't you?" Fox asked. "You've been trying to develop psychokinetic powers, making them accessible to others."

"That is correct, such experiments were but one of many others that took place here. This vessel's primary function was to explore, research, and re-purpose technology and phenomena, then market the finished product. Your implant is but one of many other valuable experiments. It was not finished, lamentably. It still remained in the testing phases."

"Great." Fox groaned. "What can I expect from it? It's not going to kill me, is it?"

"Don't be ridiculous. It will not kill you, though it will give you intense migraines from time to time. Your body is attempting to adjust to the changes. There are some adverse effects you may or may not experience as your body acclimates. It will grow stronger in time."

"These things..." Fox reached up and gently traced the shape of the implants in his head. "Are they permanent?"

"They can be removed. But it will require further surgery. This is not an option at the moment. Besides which you will need the implants to survive this ordeal. Now I have given you the information you require. It is up to you to make use of it."

As much as he hated to admit it, the doctor was probably right about this. He stared into the monitor, watching the Many's servants as they continued their work. "Okay, so how do I do this?"

"Your implant was installed with a basic cloak. However, it is very limited on energy. You only get one shot at this before it will need to be recharged. It will not last long, and you will not be able to use this power again for some time. If at all. You will need to be quick. Efficient."

"Alright, I get it. In and out." Fox cleared his throat, frowning. "But how do I start it?"

"Envision it."

Oh, well that's just SUPER helpful, Fox grumbled to himself. Envision it? How the heck was he supposed to -envision- cloaking? Wasn't that the whole point, that you couldn't see it? With a sigh, he raised his paw up in front of his face, staring at it. "I don't get it."

"Focus. Imagine your body turning invisible. Imagine looking into a mirror and finding yourself not reflected, yet everything around you is. Envision it. Keep focused upon it, lest it end prematurely."

Fox tried to do what he was told. Aiten was asking him to tap into psychokinetic powers, abilities that he did not possess naturally and never would. He never even dreamed of having them. Now he was told it was just as simple as imagining himself invisible? That was just ridiculous. How was he supposed to...

His paw started to become transparent.

Fox gasped, his eyes going wide. His paw went back to normal, fur, flesh and blood once more. Had he done it? He concentrated again, attempting to duplicate the effect. It took a bit. At first, nothing happened. He was wondering if maybe he had just gotten lucky once. Just before he was about to give up, it worked! It took some concentration, took a few moments of intense effort, but his paw turned invisible again! He had to admit, he was more than a little impressed. He wondered what else these implants were capable of doing. If the scientists had managed to come up with something like this out here, what else might they have created?

Questions for later.

"Very good. It seems you are grasping the concept." Doctor Aiten was speaking again, though he didn't offer much. "I will be monitoring your progress. I will assist as needed."

Fox took a deep breath, steadying himself. Alright Fox, he told himself. Time to save the day again.

Fox pulled away from the terminal, then marched back in the direction that he came from. His footsteps were quiet, his every movement cautious. He had his weapon at the ready, just in case he ran into anything between here and main engineering. Thankfully, the walk back to the elevator was uneventful. There was no sign of anyone in this part of engineering, hostile or otherwise.

He made it to the junction. Straight ahead was the cargo bay, to the right was the elevator. To his left, his destination. He wasn't looking forward to this. He'd have to be quiet and stealthy, traits that he wasn't exactly known for. None of the Star Fox team were particularly discreet in how they accomplished missions, but he needed to exercise caution now. If he alerted these things and the whole group came after him, he would never be able to fight them all off. He'd have to be smart, quiet, and resourceful. He could at least be one of those things. He hoped.

Holstering his weapon, he took another deep breath to steady his nerves. He reached for the door panel. The light above it glowed red, but as soon as he touched the button, the color changed to green. The door began to slide open, and Fox quickly darted to the side, peeking in carefully and hoping there wasn't anything there.

So far so good. It was time to test his new abilities. He focused on his paw again, concentrating intently. His paw began to disappear by degrees, starting with the finger tips and then covering the rest of his hand, his wrists, his arms. He had no way to tell if he was completely invisible yet or not. His fur did feel a bit tingly, so he hoped that meant something. He closed his eyes as he continued to concentrate. One more deep breath, one last attempt to psyche himself up. You can do this, Fox. He was practically having to give himself a pep talk. Come on, you can do this. With that, he entered the room.

Oh crap.

As he rounded the corner, he found himself in the primary engine room. There were dozens of those things wandering around, the Hybrids. With them were a bunch of droids. The stupid security cameras that he had used earlier had not given him an adequate picture of what was going on in here. He felt that tingle fade for a moment, then realized that his invisibility might be fading, as he was losing his concentration. He focused once more, concentrating on remaining unseen. He wasn't entirely certain if it were the case, but it seemed to be working. No one was looking at him, anyway.

It was do or die time. He took a quick glance around the room, getting his bearings as fast as he possibly could. There! Thank goodness for the signs everywhere. There was a clear path to the warp core. That was his destination, and he marched right for it.

Little wonder they hadn't posted guards. Why would they need to? They had a small army in here, complete with androids bustling about and the various hybrids wandering around. They didn't need guards. Anyone who came here with nothing short of an army would be in serious trouble.

Or without a cloaking device, at least.

It was difficult to keep his focus. There was evidence of damage all over the room.. Sparking equipment, scorch marks from blaster fire. There was blood, a lot of blood. To Fox's great shock, there were even a couple of bodies on the floor, lifeless and still. The infected crew ignored them, continued their work as if the corpses weren't even there. The amount of blood didn't match up with the two corpses that he saw, there was far too much of the stuff. They must have disposed of the other bodies. Part of him wondered why and where, but maybe he didn't really want to know the answer.

He stayed out of sight of the Many. He had a feeling they'd detect him if he got too close. He had no idea how their senses worked. Fortunately, they seemed preoccupied at the moment, and as long as he stayed out of their way, they'd leave him alone. Or so he hoped. They spoke occasionally, though Fox couldn't really make out their words very well, not from the distance he was at combined with the loud hum of the engines. He wasn't even sure if they were talking to each other or just talking to themselves. Whatever they were doing, it was making them relatively easy to avoid, so that was good. They were more distracted with what they were doing to the engines.

That all being said, some of them, the ones that were closest to him, seemed as though they were aware of his presence. No, that wasn't right, he realized. It was more like...they knew something was wrong. A couple of them turned toward Fox, and for a moment he thought they might see him, but as he kept moving, their eyes did not follow him. One of them murmured something, just loud enough for him to hear. "Something...out of place." They looked around, searching for whatever presence that had disturbed them. Fox just kept moving as quickly as he could. They didn't seem to be following him. They knew something was there, but they didn't know what or where. He'd have to get out of here before they figured it out.

He wouldn't be able to avoid the robots so easily, though. They were wandering around, patrolling. Now he would find out just how well this cloak worked. Did it even affect machines? There was one maintenance bot between him and the nearest corridor to the warp core. He took a deep breath, then started forward, doing his absolute best to walk in a casual but measured manner, still concentrating on making himself invisible. Were it not for the continued tingle up and down his body, he might question if it were even working. He held his breath as he walked in front of the droid, half expecting its eyes to turn red and emit an ear-piercing metallic shriek before charging.

But nothing happened.

The robot didn't react to him, didn't even seem to register that he was there. He was able to just keep going.

Well, that was easy.

He continued to follow the path to the core. It was a bit of a walk. The ship's engines were -massive.- Bigger than anything he'd ever seen, that much was certain. The engines seemed to match the rest of the ship in scope, but with all of the Hybrid and hostile bots around, he didn't have much time or inclination to enjoy it. He just wanted to get what he needed done and get out of here.

Thump thump thump.

What was that? Fox turned his attention to the direction that the sound had come from, just ahead and to the left. His eyes widened when he saw what was making the noise.

There was a massive combat bot in front of Fox, its movements slow and lumbering as it plodded forward on four legs, each of those monstrous limbs being about the size of Fox himself. Atop the four legs, two of which moved at any given time to propel it forward, was a sizable chassis supporting the rest of the robot. It had been fitted with some kind of cannon on top, along with twin machine guns on either side of its torso, where the arms would be. It was basically a walking set of guns.

"Glory. To. The Many. Be Productive. DARIUS. Watches. Over. Us." The massive mech spoke, its voice box barely working. The voice was low and rumbling, distorted, its tone deliberate and slow, much like the robot itself. With all of the static that accompanied its words, it was difficult for Fox to make them out, though he got the idea.

There was no way he had the firepower to take that thing on. If that were the only thing in the room, he'd STILL have to run from it. That thing was the robotic equivalent of a tank. He could take it out no problem with his Arwing, but on foot? That would be trouble. Maybe with a rocket launcher. Or a device that launched an Arwing's payload from a safe distance. Those bombs could take out almost anything. That wasn't an option here, though.

Fortunately, it was no more aware of his presence or identity than anyone else on this section of the ship. It ignored him as it ambled by. Fox found himself quite relieved at that fact.

He shook his head. He couldn't waste any more time, he had to get moving! He quickly made his way in the direction of the warp core control rome.

A familiar voice filled the room at the sound of a chime, a voice he had only heard a handful of times thus far. He was able to recognize it now. It was the vessel's compromised AI.

"Attention. This is DARIUS. All members of the crew are reminded that they may take additional work-shifts at any time. Due to the recent influx of sick-leave, double payments have been authorized for any who volunteer for extended work cycles. In the spirit of the upcoming season, we hope that you have a very pleasant Non-descript holiday soon. Just one or two additional cycles a week could make this a very special holiday indeed." There was another electronic chime that sounded at the end of this, and the message ceased.

That was weird.

If Fox hadn't known it was an AI before, he certainly did now. He had begun to suspect it not long after the first time he heard thing, but he didn't know for certain. It could have just been some crazy person over the loudspeaker. Now he knew better, Aiten and Fara had told him. The fact that it was talking about some "normal" things in a time of great crisis, combined with the rather bizarre way it mentioned the holidays, how the voice had changed, deepened, became more mechanical and artificial...

Well, it wasn't hard to put things together now. That must be the ship's AI. They had been right, it must have been corrupted or hacked or something. Whoever was responsible must not have been terribly thorough, as it was still making pointless announcements.

He had no more time to dwell on the matter, he needed to get things done. He quickly moved toward his destination, keeping his head lowered and one hand near his face, trying to nonchalantly shield himself from the gaze of others. Most ignored him, more distracted by whatever work they were performing. It seemed they weren't even considering the possibility that someone might try to blend in. That was good. The cloak certainly helped.

Hopefully Fox wouldn't have to get anywhere near the wandering hybrid and droids in order to get to the Warp Core. He wasn't entirely sure where it was, and at this point he was basically just winging it, walking through the place and keeping his eyes open.

Most of them were occupied on the nacelles, restoring whatever damage had been done to them. They must have been trying to restore power to the primary engines, allowing them to cruise through space. If Fox disabled the warp drive, he wouldn't be stopping them altogether, just preventing them from moving too quickly. Anything was better than nothing, he supposed.

A familiar voice rang in his ears, one he hadn't expected to hear just yet. Doctor Aiten. He was to the point, giving him curt directions. "There is an elevator to your left. It leads to the primary monitoring station. It will be too heavily guarded. However, there is a secondary station that will suit our purposes. Turn left at the next junction. Move quickly. Avoid the hybrid."

Fox obeyed. He followed the instructions to the letter, turning as he was directed, which took him to a more isolated portion of the engine room. There were no crew here, only a handful of droids. While the robots occasionally looked in his direction, they made no hostile movements.

Sure enough, there was another elevator here. He entered without giving the nearby droids a second glance. They made no move to stop him. Once the elevator chimed and opened, he stepped inside and pressed the only button that was there, which led him up. The door opened after a brief lift, chiming once more as he reached his destination.

He was not alone. There was someone else in here, another one of those hybrid. The sound of the door opening must have gotten his attention. The thing had been at the monitoring station itself, though Fox had no idea what he had been doing there. Now the hybrid had swung himself around, staring at the open and apparently vacant elevator, where Fox was standing.

This particular hybrid appeared to be a dog of some kind, another worm digging into its skull much like the ones Fox had seen earlier. The disgusting worm was fully grown, and it almost appeared to be worn like some kind of slimy scarf by the dog. He stared at Fox, advancing slowly. He had an engineer's tool in his hand, some kind of heavy wrench as he advanced.

Fox's concentration was wavering. He was still invisible, but for how much longer? It wouldn't matter if he was invisible. He didn't have a lot of maneuvering room here. Invisible or not, if the dog kept moving, he'd simply walk into Fox.

"Is there another?" The dog asked. For a moment, Fox wondered if he had been detected, but the dog gave no other indication that he had seen anything. He just continued to move forward. The room he was in was cramped and narrow. There was so little space, with a couple of electronic work stations set up in the middle of the floor. The far wall had a large, oval window that stretched from side to side, from one corner of the room to another, along with the primary control panel directly in front of Fox. That's where the Hybrid had been standing, and he blocked Fox's access.

The thing spoke again, looking around, a low and unpleasant growl emanating from him. "We do not welcome you." It was brandishing its weapon as it searched for Fox. Thankfully, it still couldn't see him, but he was getting closer. It seemed as if he had a faint idea of where Fox was, but couldn't pinpoint his precise location.

Fox didn't have a choice. There was barely any room to maneuver in here, and even if there was, it wouldn't matter. He wouldn't be able to maintain the cloak in order to do whatever it was the doctor needed him to do. This needed to be handled. He sighed quietly, then reached for his weapon, leveling it at the advancing hybrid. He could see his own wrist materializing. So could the Hybrid.

It let out a roar of fury as it charged forward. "Not part of our song!" It raised its weapon over its head, intent on bringing it down in a vicious swing, one that likely would have cracked Fox's skull had it connected.

Not this time.

Fox simply aimed, then fired. Not just a single shot either. He pulled the trigger in quick succession. One round, two, three, four. The first two shots caught the enemy squarely in the head, piercing his skull with the powerful rivets. The latter two burrowed into his chest cavity, where the worm had made its home. He screamed as his charge came to a stop, falling backward while writhing on the ground, his screams soon becoming a pitiful whining mewl. Eventually even these faded, and he went still.

Approaching the remains of the compromised crewman, Fox knelt down beside him and ensured that he was indeed dead. A normal person could not have possibly survived that, but these things were not normal, they could take considerably more punishment. That had caught him off guard before. This time, it did indeed seem to be dead. He watched the worm writhe for a few moments, then go still.

He didn't know much about these matters. After all, he wasn't a scientist or a doctor or anything like that, but based on what he was seeing, it seemed to him that both the host and the parasite could exist without the other. When the host died, the worm seemed to die with it. Just to be sure, he tipped the body to the side, raised his boot, then drove it hard into the body of the worm, right in the center of it. There was a satisfying splat as the thing was crushed, then he pulled away from the thing, confident that it wouldn't be getting up again. Now he could continue whatever it was he came in here to do.

"Approach the console in the front of the room, overlooking the engines." Aiten's voice again, giving him instructions.

"Got it." Fox affirmed, then did as he was told. There were a number of empty chairs and unmanned stations in here. Aside from the guy he just killed, there was no blood or anything, so it didn't look like there was a big fight here. Maybe the crew manning this station had been elsewhere when the fighting started. Maybe they were drawn out by the conflict. Or maybe they had all been compromised before whatever it was that happened here. Either way, he didn't have to worry about getting jumped or anything. That was good.

He soon reached the console, tapping on one of the displays with his fingers. A screen popped up with a vast amount of data and information on it. He didn't have the slightest idea of what he was looking at, let alone what he was supposed to do next.

Fortunately, the doctor seemed to have something in mind. "Good, you're there. Now take your PDA. Insert it in the appropriate slot at the side. I will take care of things from there."

"What?" Fox asked, blinking in surprise. "You can...how did you do that? When did you do that?"

"Your last meeting with Fara. I instructed her to insert a program into your PDA. Simply insert it in the appropriate slot, and it will upload that program, one of my design. You need not concern that insignificant piece of meat you call a brain with the details."

There it was. More insults. "Fine, alright, I'll do it." With no further protest, he slipped his PDA off his wrist and placed it against the console. It took him a while to figure out exactly where he was supposed to place the thing, and a moment longer before he had lined the two devices up appropriately. Once that was done, he pushed gently until he heard a clicking noise as the two devices connected. So that was what Fara had put in his PDA. At least he knew now.

"Well done, you've proven your exceptional ability to follow simple instructions. Now you may remove the device."

"Already?" Fox raised his eyebrow. It had only been a couple of seconds.

"Yes. The program is intended to do its job slowly. If you were merely to overload the warp core with no warning, you would be overwhelmed by a responding force almost immediately. I still have use for you, therefore I could not allow that to happen."

Fox was getting so tired of feeling like a pawn on this ship. "Alright, fine. What now?"

"Now...now it is time for you to contact your team."

"Wait, what?" Fox widened his eyes, freezing for a moment at the mention of contact. "I can...I'll be able to get in touch with them?! How? When? What do I need to do?!" He didn't mean to sound so eager, but he couldn't help it. He was very excited at the possibility of making contact with his friends. That would be an incredible relief to him.

"Calm yourself, McCloud. You won't make it any easier by getting excited." The voice paused for a moment before proceeding. "You must reach the primary communications array, then send a signal from there. You will be able to contact your team. However, a word of caution. It is unlikely that your broadcast will last long. If you are fortunate, it may last a few minutes. If you are not, it will be seconds."

"Why? What's going to keep it so short?"

"The fact that I will be able to get it through at all is a testament to my magnificence." Aiten couldn't resist bragging, which caused Fox to just roll his eyes. This guy had a serious ego problem. "I have discovered a way to broadcast over the jamming signal that the other vessel is sending. The one belonging to the so-called Dominion."

"The ones that attacked us out there." Fox nodded his head slowly. That made sense. He figured they were the ones that had cut them off in the first place. They were still there, huh? That begged another question. "Are you sure my team is okay? What if they departed, or...what if they are no longer..."

"Your team is in acceptable condition and present. However, they lack the ability and necessary knowledge to determine their own course. They are probing and prodding their enemy with no idea as how to strike." Aiten seemed to want to give Fox a little time to let all this sink in. "You will provide that idea. If you convey the appropriate message, then the Dominion ship, designated as the V.D.S. Bulwark, will be eliminated. Assuming, of course, that your crew possesses a degree of competency."

Fox growled quietly at the doctor's words. He was getting so sick of this guy. But whatever, he had a job to do, and he wasn't about to say no to a chance at regaining contact with his team. It would be a huge relief to know that they were alright. "Alright, fine, what's the plan?"

"The Comms Array has been damaged. It is on Deck 4. I have sent Fara there to repair it ahead of you. However, she lacks one component that is necessary to finish the job, in order to create a signal powerful enough to break through the jamming."

"Let me guess." Fox interrupted. "You want me to get it."

"An apt conclusion." Fox genuinely couldn't tell whether Aiten was mocking him or meant that as a compliment at face value. He didn't have a chance to question it. "It is located within the cargo hold, on the very deck you are now on. Make your way to it. The cargo hold is located in..."

"I know where it is, I passed it on the way here." Fox sighed, shaking his head. "Let's just get this over with. I'm heading back out there. I figure you'll know when I reach the cargo bay."

"Indeed. You may wish to hurry. The warp core will overheat in a few moments. Do not be there when it happens."

"Few moments?" Fox widened his eyes. "I thought you..."

"Move, Fox."

Crap. Sure enough, he could hear a low whine emitting from the system he had just accessed. He wasn't sure what was about to happen, but it couldn't be anything good. He had to get out of here, and he had to do it now! Once again, he had to focus on making himself invisible, of disappearing. With a bit of concentration, he could feel the change washing over him. He raised his paw, smiling as he saw his wrist disappear. It was working!

As he did so, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He winced, gritting his teeth. Along with the pain, he suddenly felt so incredibly tired. What had just happened?

"Oh, there is one other matter I believe I forgot to mention. That cloak drains the energy stored in your cybernetic interface at a rapid rate. It will cause intense headaches and drowsiness as it nears the end of its supply. If you feel this, I suggest you move quickly. You have but moments before the energy is completely drained. Now go."

He raced for the elevator he arrived on, slamming his fist against the button. It didn't seem so slow on the way up, but the descent was nothing less than a snail's pace. He tapped his foot impatiently against the steel floor of the device, then stepped off the second the platform came to a stop. He moved quickly, as fast as he could manage, keeping his head down. He needed to get out fast.

Everything was going just the way it had the first time, with the exception of the incredible and growing headache that Fox was currently nursing. Fox was barely even aware of the presence of the others. They were all busy with something else. The infected crew were still working on the primary engine nacelles, using various tools to weld and repair what they could. They were distracted. The robots still ignored him. The invisibility was still working, at least for the moment, but it was weakening. Each footstep made his head pound even harder, made him grit his teeth with the strain. It was becoming an unbearable agony. He wasn't sure he was going to make it.

He was about halfway to the entrance when he heard it. That low whine. It was getting louder, louder. More high pitched. A steady hum of power emanated from the engines now. Several of the infected crewmen stood up, abandoning their work and speaking. They spoke as one, yet they were many.

"Discord! It grows!"

He had no idea what they meant by that. At this point, he did not care.

The hum of energy grew louder, becoming a deafening roar. Fox couldn't hear anything else now. He had to hold his hands up over his ears to attempt to drown out the noise. Then there were a series of small explosions across the surface of the nacelles, sparks flying and pieces getting launched from the machinery as they overloaded. For a moment, Fox wondered if the engines were going to overload entirely. If they did, it would almost certainly result in a catastrophic explosion, killing him and everyone else here.

Just when he thought that maybe this was it, the sound stopped. Most of the repairs seemed to be undone in that moment. The core itself, glowing brightly in the center of the massive device, pulsed with a faint, blue energy, as if spent. It had been drained considerably, and Fox knew right away that the plan had worked. The engines would not function now, at least not well enough to break orbit, and they'd have to repair the warp core too. That would take a while.

Somehow, despite the chaos that erupted when the engines were sabotaged, no one managed to notice Fox as he slipped through the door that connected the engine room with the rest of the deck. He wasn't sure how. He couldn't concentrate anymore, the cloak was failing, but luck was still with him so far. He needed all the luck he could get. As he approached the exit, the strain became too much for him, and his concentration on the cloak completely failed. On the one hand, this provided some immediate relief for the fox, as his head stopped pounding and the drain on him lessened, no longer feeling so tired. That was good!

On the other hand...

He spared a quick glance behind him. Thankfully, the forces of the Many were distracted with the new problem they were having with the engines. Some were working on immediate repairs, others were rushing to the monitoring station where Fox had done his work. No one was looking in his direction.

Except for one.

That massive combat robot appeared to be staring at him. It was hard to tell, the thing didn't exactly have a face, just sensors and cameras and other equipment. It didn't move, didn't fire, didn't even speak. It appeared to be looking at him for maybe less a second before the door opened and Fox dove inside. He wasn't sure if the robot had actually detected him or not. He wasn't sure how accurate its sensors were, how quickly they could lock on to threats. That varied from machine to machine, depending on how well they had been built and what their purpose was.

He sat there by the now closed door, panting heavily as he began to recover. His headache soon faded, and his mind seemed clear. Somehow he suspected that he wouldn't be using that cloak again for a long while, if ever. Well, never mind that. It was done now, and he was free. He'd better get moving before trouble showed up. If the bot had detected him, he wasn't going to stick around and wait for it to find him. He'd just dip into the cargo bay now. Maybe it wouldn't follow him. Assuming it had detected him at all, of course. After regathering his nerve and his wits, he rose to his feet and rolled his shoulders, stretching before he moved on.

Fortunately, the route to the cargo bay was right beside him. He had passed by it earlier. He had thought it would be a single door leading into the next part of the ship. In truth, it was more like a series of doors, and not little ones either. The first door was small enough, quite average in size, but the next few doors were massive, the length of which spread several paces to the right and left of Fox. They opened slowly with a low, rumbling groan, parting in the middle and moving vertically, one half of the door sinking into the floor and the other half disappearing into the ceiling. When Fox stepped through one of them, he found himself in front of another, waiting for the process to repeat itself.

He didn't understand the need for so many doors, but he supposed they must have served as some kind of precaution. He wasn't sure why such measures were taken with the cargo bay in particular. Maybe it had to do with the sensitive nature of certain equipment that they stored, or maybe it was just some kind of safety thing. He supposed it didn't really matter. It was a bit inconvenient, that was all.

Once the final door opened, he found himself in a much, much larger room. He quickly realized that this was the cargo hold itself. It wasn't hard to figure out. Massive crates and storage units were placed about the room, some of them stacked on top of each other, while others simply rested isolated. They came in all shapes and sizes. Most were rectangular in shape, several times the size of Fox, leaned on their sides, in essence just large metal boxes. Others were placed vertically, reaching upwards. It wasn't just where he was standing, either. The bay had multiple levels, with cargo elevators on either side of the room that went to the upper reaches. The next level was pretty far up, Fox estimated if three people stood on each other's shoulders, they'd make the distance. And if each level had the same distance from its floor to the top, combined with how large the rooms were from side to side, well... that would be a huge amount of space. And while he couldn't see everything from where he was, he could tell that the second level had a number of supplies for itself. Each level must have been stacked with goods.

Fox couldn't even begin to imagine all of the stuff they had stored here. It must have been...jeez, it must have been thousands of different things. Just taking a quick look around, he could guess what some of the items were by the way the crates were marked. They all had numbers on them, and he was sure that it was for some kind of identification process. The information was probably stored on the ship's computer, maybe also stored with whoever worked in this part of the ship. Whatever it was, he didn't have access to that information, but he did notice a number of symbols on the various crates. Most of them he had no idea what they were, but he did recognize a few. One crate, for instance, had a red cross against a white background painted on its side, and he assumed that contained medical supplies. The majority of them were marked with an orange circle, depicting an image of a bolt within. Tools, perhaps? There were the other markings he couldn't identity.

There must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of crates in here. They came in all different sizes too. Some were large, some were small. Some of them were stacked together in such a way that they reached the next floor! Others were packed away in a corner somewhere. It didn't look very organized to Fox. Again, he didn't know that for sure. It was not like he had a manifest for whatever was contained within.

The storage area for the Great Fox had only been a fraction of this size. Considering the Star Fox team had almost never been out of debt, their cargo hold had never exactly been brimming with supplies, aside from the occasional mission to transport goods from one place to another, usually because of passing through hostile territory. He wondered what they did with all this stuff. The ship was massive, that was true. But was it truly so large to justify carrying all of this?

For now, he had some more important questions on his mind. "Alright, doc, what am I looking for? And where will it be?"

"You are searching for a component. Specifically, you're looking for Relay Component X-13A. This matches the specifications of our particular communications array, as our former one has...malfunctioned. Either way, we cannot contact your team without that component.

"Alright. So how do I find it in here?" Fox looked around, studying just how massive the room was. In addition, he noticed some rather large doors to the side. Even while speaking and waiting for the doctor's response, he approached them. He let out a little groan at what he saw.

He had assumed that this was the cargo bay. As in, this was the extent of it. It was massive enough, it looked like it contained enough supplies for the entire ship. But no, there were at least two more massive bays built for storage, and they looked as though they had been crammed to capacity. There might even be more bays than that. The cargo bay was enormous. He would never find that component on his own. If he had to search for the thing by hand, it would take him days. Weeks, maybe. That would also assume that he could even figure out a way to open the containers themselves, or at least scan what was inside. He'd have to find a working console for that, and then pray that whatever noise was made didn't attract any unwanted attention.

The doctor's next words made him breathe a little easier. "Fear not. I know where the component is. If you go to your right, you will find it at the far end of the cargo bay. Go until you reach the farthest wall and cannot proceed any further, then take the cargo elevator to the second floor. The components you're looking for will be locked in a container, crate G71-34-2. You may have to find the console in order to open it up. Or, failing that, you may choose to open it yourself, perhaps by cutting through. However you choose to do it, exercise caution. Do not risk damaging the device through your inept clumsiness. Find it and return to the elevator, where you must then proceed to Deck 4"

"Yeah, sounds simple enough." Fox wasn't even sure himself whether he was being serious or not, because he didn't know what to think. On the one hand, it did sound simple. He knew where it was, he knew how to get to it. He just had to open it up. That's the part that worried him.

Following the doctor's instructions, he turned to the right and proceeded through the bay, the sound of his footsteps echoing against the walls and containers all around him. At least the place seemed to be deserted. That was something. Perhaps he'd be able to do all this without further incident. God, it would be nice if he could do at least one thing today without something horrible waiting for him.

When he rounded the corner to pass through the first door, he let out a strained groan, knowing immediately it wasn't going to be that simple.

There was a body there, slumped against the wall. If one could even call it a body. It had two massive holes in its torso, and the belly was riddled with bullets. The poor dog looked as though he had been ripped apart by a machine gun. He didn't know what made the bigger holes; a larger weapon of some kind? He leaned closer, taking a better look, even reaching for the wound with one of his paws. It could have been anything. Not a rocket launcher, that would have left very little behind. As he knelt down and studied the corpse, the answer came to him. A high powered laser weapon, in a similar vein to certain sniper rifles he had tested in the past, only bigger. It was unlikely to be a precision weapon. The body was scorched, cauterized. The weapon had torn clean holes through him. He couldn't help but wonder who or what was responsible for this. Of far greater concern was whether or not the one responsible was still in the area or not.

The dog's PDA was still clutched in his paw. Fox thought about leaving it alone, but there was a chance that whoever it was might have some useful data on that device of his. He might be a worker here. Worker or not, at the very least Fox might learn what had happened to him. It was simple to take the device, connect it to his with a few button pushes, and then download all of the data that he needed. He was getting much better at this.

There was some useful stuff this time. A map, for one, detailing the layout of the cargo bay. He studied that for a moment after tapping a button on the holographic display revealing the map before him. He was in Cargo bay 2 E. Evidently, 2A started at the far left of where he came in, and each compartment of the bay was an advancing letter from left to right. The Bay that he first stepped into was 2D. He had gone into the immediate right one at 2E. This meant that the room the doctor had been referring to, the compartment he was trying to reach, was in fact 2G. That meant just two more compartments to go. That wasn't too bad. It did make him wonder where the other cargo bay was. If this was a "2", there must have been a "1". Maybe it was on another section of the ship. Strange that it wouldn't be down here, though. He hadn't seen any evidence of it coming in. It made him wonder who designed this thing. Sometimes he got the impression that this ship had just been slapped together haphazardly, though he supposed it might just feel that way because he was unfamiliar with the vessel.

He was about to put the PDA away and get a move on when he noticed a small flashing indicator on the device. Tapping on it, he pulled up what appeared to be a log of personal entries and audio logs. There were quite a few of them, and most of them looked like maintenance reports. He doubted there was anything of importance in them. The last couple of entries were marked differently, the guy had added a couple of question marks to the label for some reason. He decided he'd take the time to listen to those. Maybe it would help somehow.

After pressing the button, there was a faint chime before an unfamiliar voice started speaking.

"This is the daily log of Cargo Bay Loader Jeffries. Reminder, I gotta speak to the maintenance guys. Was performing my duties today just as usual, and one of those stupid maintenance bots was watching me. They've been acting weird for the last couple of days. Normally they just do their jobs and move on, but the bots in here...they keep stopping. And I swear, they're staring at me. I don't know why. It's freaking me out." There was a pause and then a sigh. "And then there's that stupid security mech. It's supposed to just be a deterrent for exploring the more sensitive areas of the bay. But that thing was tracking me earlier. I heard it. I saw it. But when I got close enough to inspect it, the robot was offline. I reported it, but they said I must have imagined things, there was no log or indicator of it ever turning on in the first place."

Robots, Fox thought to himself. Great. Seeing as there was a body here, he took a quick look around as he listened, making sure there was nothing dangerous nearby. He didn't see anything. No turrets, no killer robots, nothing. He seemed safe so far. He then resumed listening to the recording.

"I swear, the security systems on this ship are getting worse with every passing day. I don't know if it's a general breakdown or someone's tampering with it. I know that thing was on, I'm not an idiot and I'm not hallucinating. But hey, what do I know? I just move boxes around all day. So who cares?"

There was a click as the entry ended. Fox checked the date. It was dated only a few days ago. About a week, in fact. Whatever compromised the ship started to mess with the robots around then. It sure seemed as though whatever happened here happened very fast.

Only one more audio log to go through. Fox tapped it, causing it to play. The voice was different this time. It was the same speaker, no doubt of that. Only this time he sounded strained. Worn. Afraid.

"Something's happened. Dunno what. I can't get a hold of anybody. I keep trying to contact people, and nobody's answering. Maybe it's some kind of crazy equipment failure, but I dunno. Never seen anything like this."

"I thought maybe I'd head to the elevator, get off this deck. Maybe the problem is here. If I get out of engineering, maybe I can head up to Deck 5. See if I can find my friends. Or just barricade myself in my room."

"Couldn't get there, though. I had just cleared the bay when I heard some loud noises. Sounded like gunshots. And explosions. There was yelling and screaming. Just like...chaos, man. I went back in here, I don't want to know what's happening out there. Just gonna hide 'til this blows over. Or...or until things quiet down enough so I can get out of here."

The log made a chiming sound. Maybe there had been some kind of delay before he started speaking again. Eventually it chimed again, resuming.

"Trapped here now. Can't hear anything anymore. It's all quiet. Dunno what's going on. Not sure if I should leave or not."

"Wait."

There was a pause. Fox narrowed his eyes, his ears flitting up as he listened carefully. There was something else he could hear. It was faint, almost undetectable. But there was something growing louder on the recording. A heavy thudding noise that sounded as though it were drawing closer and closer, along with some sort of mechanical whirring noise.

Jeffries' next words were filled with fear. "I hear something. Is...is anyone out there?"

The noise stopped. Fox heard a different voice, a voice cold and deep, flat in tone. "DARIUS, Unit A42 eliminating hostile force." The voice didn't sound normal. Fox wasn't sure what it was. It didn't sound like those things he'd run into earlier, the people infected by the Many. The voice was too deep, too empty and void of emotion. It was like the droid that attacked him, but far more distorted.

The dog pleaded for his life over the audio log, which he must have inadvertently left on, still recording his final words. "Oh crap! No! No wait stop, don't shoot! I'm not armed! I-" His voice was cut off. There was a high pitched electronic whine, then the sound of a weapon being discharged. Then a scream.

The abrupt ending of the audio recording chilled Fox's blood, combined with the corpse that lay beneath him. He had an idea of what had happened to him now, he must have been killed by one of those massive robots he'd seen earlier, maybe even the same one that had been in the engine room. Fox found himself hoping now more than ever that the thing hadn't detected him earlier. If it came in here while Fox was looking for that component, he'd be trapped with it! That pitiful tool he was using as a weapon wouldn't even scratch the machine's paint.

Well, whatever had happened here, there was nothing he could do for this man now. He was long since dead. Fox had absolutely no interest in joining him. He placed the man's PDA beside him, having no further use for it. He had a map, he knew where he had to go. Now he just had to get there.

The dog's body had been leaning against a wall on the right side of the room. But there was a little more to it than that. The cargo bay room that Fox had entered was shaped something like a large box, a box with three vertical layers. However, on either side, there were two open doors, which led to a wide but short corridor that apparently connected to another section of the bay, with two openings directly ahead. Fox assumed that this was designed to make for efficient traffic when multiple people or machines were moving cargo around. He suspected that the wall itself between the various bays could retract, allowing for larger cargo to be moved, but he didn't know that for certain. There were also likely additional ways for cargo to be transported to the cargo bay, but again, he didn't see that for himself. It was too bad, as if the place had multiple exits he could make use of, it might make him feel a little safer. As it was, he felt like he was trapping himself. If something went wrong, he'd be at the wrong end of a dead end maze, forced to retrace his steps in order to escape. All he could do was hope that nothing went wrong.

It could happen. Right?

With a sigh, Fox began to move, traversing the first separating corridor and entering Cargo Hold 2D. Once he was inside, he found himself treated to a room that looked largely similar to the first one. The only real difference was the cargo contained within. There weren't as many crates, and they were arranged in a different manner. Some of them had different marks, likely indicative of what was contained within. If he had a way of cracking open the things, he might have considered having a peek. He might find something useful. A weapon or medical supplies, perhaps. He didn't have a way of opening them, and even if he did, it could take him a considerable amount of time to find anything of use. It would be best just to press on, get what he needed, and get out of here.

The thing that bothered him the most about this place was how empty it felt. There were sounds occasionally, the distant rumble of machinery that he couldn't see, an automated process, perhaps. There were creaks and groans from the ship. No signs of life. No people, infected or otherwise. The ship's AI was silent. Even Doctor Aiten was too busy to berate him at the moment. As much as he hated the doctor's arrogance and being insulted by him, hearing any voice right now would be of some small comfort.

At least, that's what he thought. Right up until he actually heard another voice, a voice that sent chills down his spine.

Fox McCloud...

The voice was unfamiliar, though maybe calling it a voice was inadequate. It was more than one voice, several all at once, speaking in a sort of distorted harmony. The voices varied in pitch and tone. He had no idea who or what it was, he had never experienced anything like this before. It felt like it had somehow gotten in his head, wormed its way inside his skull. He winced, gritting his teeth. It was overwhelming.

It took him a moment to realize it had said his name. How did they know who he was? He most certainly didn't know them. He looked around, his eyes peering at the various corners of the room, searching for a camera hidden in some nook somewhere. How were they watching him? Where was that voice coming from? "Who are you?" He asked, still scanning his nearby environment.

We...are the Many. We sense your confusion. We sense your fear. Your loneliness. You are disturbed by what you see, by what you have encountered.

Fox clenched his fists, struggling to keep his cool. There were no cameras. The voice wasn't coming from some nearby speakers. It was -inside- his head. Was this a result of those implants that the doctor had installed inside him?

We see your thoughts laid bare before us. We touch your mind with ours. We yearn to become one with you. For your biology to join ours in ecstatic union.

"Urgh..." That was the only thing Fox managed to get out, the limit of his communication at this moment. It was more of a grunt than anything. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, as if somehow he could force it out of his mind with mere willpower, brushing it away like the cobwebs of sleep after first waking. It was of no avail. It continued to speak to him, filling his mind with its disturbing voice.

The others...they are not gone. They have been added to us. And sing our song. You believe them dead. You believe them infected, controlled. But they are not. They are part of us, singing our song as one. We are family, united in eternity.

The presence, whatever it was, was strong. If its words were true, Fox suspected it was the very thing behind all of this madness. "What...do you want?" Fox managed to ask. He wasn't sure if it could answer him. He wasn't even sure how it was communicating with him. Could he even talk back?

The thing seemed to understand, as it responded to his words. We wish only to bring balance and harmony to the Lylat System. To spread joy instead of chaos and war. We will unite all with our song. To end the tyranny of the individual.

"What?" Fox was having trouble concentrating. The thing's presence was quite powerful and potent. Keeping his thoughts straight was hard. It confused him, caused all kinds of strange sensations within his mind. Yet even though he was certain he had never made contact with this thing or anything like it before, for some reason it struck him as oddly familiar. "What tyranny?"

You are all ruled by base emotions. By individual needs and desires. Harmony eludes you. Your home system is filled with discord. Greed. Hate. Suffering. We will end it all. We will bring such wonders to you. To all of you.

"Yeah?" Fox had to focus as hard as he could to keep his thoughts clear. A stubborn sense of resistance welled up within him. "Well don't count on it. I've seen the 'harmony' you bring. And I'm not going to let you spread it."

Why do you resist? Why do you cling so desperately to your...individuality? The individual is obsolete.

Then he felt something new. It was much worse than before. Something was reaching in his mind, he could feel it, trying to influence him, change him. Corrupt him. He grit his teeth even harder, biting hard enough on his lip to draw blood as he fought back. He wasn't sure how long he could last. The thing's presence was powerful, so difficult to resist, but he had to. He would NOT surrender to this thing!

A wave of pure agony washed through him, like a powerful electric current, a shock of some kind! He yelped as he dropped to his knees. It caught him completely by surprise. Was this the work of that thing as well? How could he possibly...

The thing didn't resume its attack. It stopped. It continued to speak, offering one last lingering thought before disappearing entirely.

You bear her mark. So be it. The line is drawn. It only remains a question of who will be your end. Us? Or you?

What was that supposed to mean?

With that, it was gone. He fell to his knees, panting heavily. What the heck was that? And where did that shock come from? The creature? He hadn't felt anything like that up to this point, and he'd seen no evidence of the thing being able to do that. Was this part of its will?

No. No, something felt off about this. He got the impression, somehow, that the entity was as surprised as he was at that shock. There was no reason for it to back off after that. Something had prevented him from being completely overwhelmed. He wasn't sure that he would have been beaten, necessarily, but that fight of wills might have gone on a while, testing his willpower. It might have crippled him while the Many sent reinforcements to finish him off.

Speaking of which.

He could hear footsteps from somewhere nearby. He couldn't figure out exactly where they were coming from, it seemed to be from all around him. In that moment, he realized that's exactly what was happening. He was being surrounded!

He had to move fast, he was exposed where he was. He was done hiding from these things, whatever they were. He withdrew his weapon. It wasn't much. It was really more of a mechanic's tool, but it was designed to be used for some rather heavy-duty and dangerous repair work, even on the hull of a ship. It would do the job.

He needed to get to that device he was after, so that's the direction he chose to go. He passed through the entrance, holding his weapon at the ready. No sign of anything so far, just approaching footsteps with a mechanical whir behind them. Unless he missed his guess, he was dealing with some kind of robots.

His guess turned out to be a good one. As he rounded the corner, he found himself face to face with one of the things. It appeared quite similar in appearance to the one that had attacked him earlier. In fact, it was almost identical. It was still a few paces away from him, but walking in his direction. It even offered a friendly wave. It spoke in a pleasant, cheerful tone as soon as it caught sight of him. "Sir! May I offer you some assistance?"

Fox didn't hesitate for even a moment. He raised his weapon, then started firing, pulling the trigger in rapid succession. The first rivet caught the thing squarely in the chest, ripping clean through and bursting out the other side. It left behind a trail of sparking inner components. Yet the thing didn't stop or even slow down. Fox continued to fire, catching it in the torso, the shoulder, the waist. Each rivet pierced the thing, but did not kill it. The rivet that hit its waist caught a joint on its left leg. That slowed its progress, it started to limp instead.

"There's no call for that, sir! You're making things worse! Allow me to..."

He didn't allow it to finish that thought. With careful aim, he fired directly at its head. The rivet shattered its face plate. The voice sputtered and uttered a string of complete nonsense, babbling in rapid-fire speech before deepening in pitch, its head slumping forward as it fell to the floor. "Task-d-d-directive-f-faaillluurrreee-Darriiiuuuuussssss"

There was no time to celebrate his victory. He kept moving forward, reaching for more ammo for his weapon, hastily inserting rivets into the empty slots in the canister before jerking it back into the ready position. Just in time, too. As he passed one of the nearby crates, he found himself being sandwiched. There were two directions he could go, left or right. They both led forward, into the next compartment of the bay, and both directions had a droid advancing toward him.

No time to think. Only act. He took aim at the one on his right, firing off a couple of shots as it closed the distance. Thankfully, the things didn't seem capable of running at a full sprint. Even so, they were certainly fast enough to be dangerous. Not this one, though. He missed with the first shot, but the second one caught it directly in the head. The rivet didn't even pass through to the other side this time, it just lodged itself inside the robot's "brain." It let out a mechanical whine, then slumped over, falling heavily to the floor.

"You're going to hurt someone with that!" Fox turned around to take care of the only one left, only to find it had already reached him. One of its hands seized his throat, lifting him in the air as it began to strangle him. It was inhumanly strong. It might even irreversibly crush his wind-pipe if allowed another moment or two.

He didn't intend to allow that. He placed his weapon directly against its head, firing off multiple shots point blank The machine sputtered and sparked, though its grip did not loose immediately. In fact, for a moment Fox thought that maybe shooting it was a bad idea, it might just continue to grip him, squeeze him until he passed out. As it stumbled to the ground, uttering a repeated and distorted "Error, error...errrooorrrrrrr," Fox managed to pry himself out of its grip.

The thing was faster than he had given it credit for, and he'd almost paid the price. He wondered how many more close encounters he'd have before the day was done. He gasped for air, still struggling to catch his breath. He couldn't rest for long. He could hear more of them coming from behind. And something else, something much louder. Heavier. He wasn't about to stick around to find out what it was. He had to go deeper into the cargo bay!

He raced forward, not having time to stop for even a moment. They were right on his tail, he could tell. He rounded a corner to head into another cargo hold. As he did so, he found himself staring at something unfamiliar as he approached, something jutting out of the floor. It was short, stout, and cylindrical, separated into two halves, like it was cut down the middle with a horizontal slice. The top half suddenly raised up as Fox approached, revealing what was hidden within. Fox had to process this information quickly, but it didn't take a genius to figure it out, especially in the half-second it took for him to realize that what had appeared was, in essence, a gun.

Aw crap

He raised his weapon as the turret rotated, whirring as it took aim at Fox. He couldn't turn around, not now. He had to keep moving. He had to plow through. He did the only thing he could.

He squeezed off multiple shots in quick succession. He wasn't sure how many. All he knew was he had to keep firing until the thing was busted. A number of rivets pierced its central parts, causing sparks to fly. The gun, which appeared to be some kind of automated laser turret, emitted a faint glow from the barrel of its weapon as it charged up.

Just before it had enough power to fire at him, one of his shots managed to hit a critical system. The thing sparked and sputtered, giving Fox the satisfying sound of the weapon failing to charge. The energy drained from the thing, and a thick cloud of black smoke escaped from it as it died.

He really hoped that was the only one around. Not just because of what a close call that was, but also because he was running out of ammo. Reaching into his pocket in order to make sure, he found considerably less ammunition than he had started with. He had only a handful of rivets left, and he couldn't afford to waste those.

He was so busy just running from whatever it was that was chasing him that he almost didn't realize that he had come to the end of the path. He had reached the end of the final cargo bay. There was nothing but a steel wall before him.

He was trapped!

There had to be some way out of here, somewhere he could go. He quickly looked around, getting his bearings. This place looked exactly the same as the last three compartments he had been in. Big, full of crates, and...

Elevators!

With no time to lose, no time to even think about things, he rushed for the elevator, bringing his paw down on the call switch. Nothing happened. The button was pushed, but nothing lit up. He looked up to see the platform above him. It was frozen in place, halfway between the second and third floor of the cargo bay. Looking down at the panel, a few words were flashing on the display screen below the call button. "Error. Elevator scheduled for maintenance. Please try again later."

You have got to be kidding me!

It occurred to Fox that there had been two elevators in the previous bay, one on either side, so hopefully it was the same here. He took off for the opposite wall of the bay, hoping that he'd find the switch and get out of here before those things arrived.

No such luck.

He made it to the switch without a problem. But the droids were in the room, and the elevator platform was on the third floor. Fox hit the button, praying that the thing actually worked this time. Thankfully, there was a chiming sound to the affirmative, and he could hear the low drawn out rumble of the cargo platform as it descended.

The droids were on him now. He turned just in time to see them mere steps away. They spoke in their fake cheerful manner, as if nothing was wrong as they planned to murder him. "Let me assist you sir!" One of them said. The other said, "I detect elevated stress levels. Please relax. You're becoming hysterical."

Fox reacted without even thinking, pure reflex. He raises his weapon, then squeezed off a couple of shots in rapid succession, one at the head of each of the machines. It worked, the shots had been well placed. The two machines crumpled to the ground, sparking and smoking as they ceased to be. It gave Fox a little breathing room, and he stepped back while panting.

He heard the elevator seconds before it would have squashed him. Without even realizing it, he had stepped back into the path of the thing. He leapt forward, narrowly avoiding a rather inglorious end. His boot wasn't so lucky. The tip of it got caught by the descending platform. Thankfully, it caught the sole of the boot, not Fox's actual foot. The boot was yanked off, and he was left barefoot on one leg while the boot was completely crushed by the elevator.

Didn't the thing have some kind of safety measures to prevent stuff like this?! Then again, nothing else on this ship seemed to be working. Why should this be any different?

That's about when Fox realized he'd forgotten something. He was reminded of those heavier footsteps he had heard earlier. Looking up, he felt his heart leap into his throat.

There was that massive combat bot in front of Fox, its movements slow and lumbering as it plodded forward on four legs, each of those monstrous limbs being about the size of Fox himself. It looked just it did before. Two legs moving at a time, massive chassis, big guns. It turned from side to side, scanning the room. A cold mechanical voice emanated from the machine. "DARIUS, acquiring target."

The armor was thick. He knew he couldn't penetrate it with his "weapon" the moment he laid eyes on the thing. As it came to a stop, it slowly started to rotate in his direction.

Time to move.

Fox had risen to his feet by this point, stepping on the elevator and mashing the panel, wanting it to go up as far as possible. The third floor! Thankfully, there was no delay. The elevator started to move immediately. But the sound of gunfire erupted from the spider-tank-robot thing, and Fox dove to the floor of the lift. The wall behind him, as well as the bottom of the lift itself, was riddled with bullets. He could hear the sound of raw energy gathering as the main cannon charged, then fired. The lift rocked from the force of the explosion...but somehow kept going!

Thank goodness this lift was so sturdy. He would not survive toe to toe with that thing down there, not without a rocket launcher or something. Even then, the space was kind of tight. Using any high powered ordinance would likely be dangerous even to the one firing, depending on how close the bot was. Or if the person missed.

He crawled over to the edge of the lift, then peeked down as he neared the upper levels of the hold. The robot was tracking his movements, or at least the movements of the lift. It wasn't firing anymore, perhaps because it didn't have a clear shot. There was no question of the grim situation Fox now found himself in. He was trapped up here.

As the lift came to a stop, Fox took a moment to study his surroundings. He seemed to be alone up here. The only thing he could hear was the sound of that big robot moving beneath him. He wasn't sure what it was doing down there, perhaps searching for a way up, or perhaps just making sure that Fox didn't somehow sneak out. Either way, he could hear it patrolling. On occasion, the thing emitted a deep, artificial voice. It sounded cold and unpleasant, like grating steel. "DARIUS, unknown hostile, this location. Intruder presence is verified. Initiating scan."

Well, that was just great. A heavily armed behemoth of a robot was below him. It knew he was there, and he doubted very much that it was leaving any time soon. How was he going to get out of this?

Well, first things first. He was in the right area for the component that he needed. He stepped off the cargo lift, then looked around to study his surroundings. It looked largely like everything else in the cargo bay. Lots of crates lying around, most of them sealed up pretty tight. Even if he found the thing he was looking for, would he be able to get to it? If it was sealed in a crate, he wasn't sure how he would open the thing. If he had his blaster, he might just melt a hole in it, or at least try to. That wasn't an option. Besides, he might damage what he was looking for inside.

There was nothing useful to be seen from where he was standing, but the crates were arranged in a sort of 'U' shape. If he walked to the left, he could walk around and explore a bit. So, having absolutely nothing better to do at the moment, he chose to do just that.

As he rounded the corner, he came across a body resting in the middle of all the crates. His back was propped up against the far end of where Fox was standing. His head was lowered, and there were bloodstains all around him. Another corpse, it seemed. Fox went in for a closer look.

Approaching the body, he dropped to a kneeling position in order to get a better look at him. It looked like a wolf. Fox had never met him before, which was no surprise. Whoever he was, he was probably a member of the crew, though he was wearing a jumpsuit of sorts. By the look of things, he might have been a pilot of some kind. Fox reached for the ID badge, scanning it for information. "Raphael" He murmured the wolf's name. That was the name that Aiten had mentioned, the one that Fara had seemed concerned over. This must have been the "trouble" that Aiten said Raphael had run into. "What happened to you?"

Fox wasn't really expecting an answer, particularly since he was talking to a corpse, but he got one anyway. The wolf's eyes blinked open, and he emitted a pained whine as he jerked his head up.

Fox was so surprised that he leapt backward, reaching for his weapon and leveling it at the wolf. The other canine offered no resistance or indication of hostility. He just blinked his eyes, wincing and clenching his teeth as he studied Fox. "Who...who are you?"

"I was about to ask you the same question." Fox kept his weapon leveled at the wolf. He had been surprised far too many times today, and he wasn't about to let that happen again. While searching for any sign of corruption or a worm growing out of the guy somewhere, Fox gave the wolf an answer. "Fox McCloud, team Star Fox. We're here to help."

"Star...Star Fox?" The wolf sounded incredulous, then coughed, moaning after he did so. He shifted a bit, and he appeared to be trying to grin at Fox, though he appeared to be in much pain. Fox still wasn't sure if he could trust the wolf or not. So far, though, the wolf seemed harmless enough. It certainly seemed to be the most friendly reception Fox had gotten down here thus far. "Raph...Raphael...flight crew. Test pilot." He took a few strained and painful breaths. "Can't...can't believe you're here. Star Fox. She said you'd come, you know. I didn't believe her."

"Her?" Fox asked, arching an eyebrow. "Who? You don't mean..."

Fox came to the conclusion a mere moment before Raphael voiced it aloud. They said the name simultaneously. "Fara."

The wolf grinned at him, then coughed. "She said you'd remember her! That you'd come! I...I honestly didn't believe her, you know." He grunted as he shifted, trying to get to his feet. "Not about you two knowing each other! But I didn't think anyone was coming for us. I figured we were on our own."

Fox shook his head. "You're not alone, my team and I are here now. Though, uh...things haven't exactly gone as planned."

"Ha! You're tellin' me!" The wolf managed a quiet rumbling chuckle as he got to his feet. That's when Fox noticed how big the guy was. He wasn't A LOT bigger than Fox, but he certainly had the height advantage. He looked pretty tough too and appeared to be in excellent physical condition. Fox would be much more concerned about him being a potential threat if he wasn't as wounded as he was. Raphael smiled at him, then offered him one of his paws. "Nice to meetcha, Star Fox."

Internally, Fox groaned. Sometimes he hated that name so much. Everyone called him Star Fox. He wasn't Star Fox, he was a MEMBER of Star Fox, that was the team! But he was a Fox, and he was known for piloting a starship, so everyone just assumed he was Star Fox. He could forgive it this time. No one ever meant anything negative by it, even though it annoyed him. This guy was obviously hurt, now wasn't the time to nitpick. Instead he just reciprocated the introduction. "Good to meet you too, Raphael. You're wounded. Let me see if we can get you patched up."

"Wait!" Raphael protested, stopping Fox. "You're down here for a reason right? That, uh...the doctor. He sent you here for something."

Fox blinked, then nodded his head slowly. "Yeah, that's right. You know Aiten too, huh?"

"Oh yeah. I've known him for a while. Didn't know him well, but I've seen him around and even talked with him once or twice. But lately..." He shrugged before continuing. "He's acting weird. He's been organizing some resistance, but I swear he's acting like a different person now. But then, I guess...I guess who can blame him, you know? What with all this going on. Plus, it's not like I knew him real well to begin with. But he seemed kinda quiet before, more the kind that gets walked on, not does the walking on, you know what I'm saying?"

"Yeah." Fox took a moment to process all this information. In truth, these words concerned him considering everything that had happened on this ship thus far, but there was no point in worrying about it right now, or giving Raphael more distress than he already had. Fox just went along with it. "This is often the case. People handle crises differently."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess so." The wolf hissed in pain as he shifted. He reached behind him, then withdrew something from his pocket. Fox had his weapon at the ready just in case, though he didn't really think the wolf was going to try anything. Fox's assumption soon proved to be right. The wolf simply withdrew a device that Fox had never seen before. "Is this what you're looking for?"

Fox studied it curiously, tempted to reach out and just take it. "I don't know what that is. But then, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for either, at least what it looks like. I'm searching for...one second." He had to bring up his PDA in order to find the precise name, it had escaped his memory for the moment. Eventually he found it. "Ah, Relay Component X13-A."

"Well...today's your lucky day, McCloud." The wolf paused, then raised his paw to offer whatever he had retrieved from his pocket to Fox. "Just so happens I've got one."

Now this really was a surprise, and a happy one at that! Fox reached for the thing, and the wolf happily relinquished it. He held it up to his PDA, then looked the two things over, making sure it was the correct component. There was a schematic of the precise part he was looking for displayed on the screen, making it easy for him to tell if they matched. They did indeed! It was exactly what he was looking for. He turned to the wolf, curious. "I don't think you have this by chance. He asked you to get it too, didn't he?"

Raphael nodded with a smile, holding up one paw as though Fox had caught him red-handed. "You got me. He sent me here, I got overwhelmed those droids, and I managed to crawl up here for safety. I've been holed up here ever since."

That would explain why the lift had been at the top when Fox had arrived. Raphael must have been the last one to use it. "We've still got a problem. I've taken out a number of those droids, but that big one is still below us."

"Oh yeah. That's, uh...one of the heavy security bots. I dunno what it's doing down here." The wolf rubbed at the back of his neck, gritting his teeth before continuing. "DARIUS has overridden almost all of the bots on the ship. Almost every robot serves him, and he serves that...thing. The Many, I guess."

"Anything useful you can tell me about any of them?"

"I...doubt I know much more than you." He shrugged, looking apologetic for not having more information to offer. "Other than, uh...don't get shot, I guess?"

Despite himself, that managed to get a little chuckle out of Fox. "I'll keep that one in mind. Now take a seat. Let me take a look at that wound."

The wolf tried to wave him off. "It's fine. I'll be alright. And we don't have time to just sit here, you know? You need to get moving, get this component to the doc."

"I'm not leaving you here." Fox said firmly. "You need help. I'm not abandoning anyone today."

"Guess you're not gonna change your mind easily, huh?" The wolf asked, a faint smile spreading across his face. "Alright. Well...look, even if I could move, there's no way I can outrun that bot. It'll murder me. And we don't have the weaponry to kill that thing. All I have is my blaster, and that ran out of power a few rooms back."

"Great." Fox closed his eyes and tried to think of a way out of this situation. Nothing immediately came to mind. His weapon would be about as effective as the bite of a flea, and Raphael was wounded AND with a depleted blaster. That was of little help.

And to make matters worse, Fox was without his left boot. It was still down there, crushed by an elevator that didn't have a working safety mecha-

Wait a minute.

"Raphael, how dangerous are those elevators?" Fox asked the wolf.

"Huh? The elevators? You mean the cargo lifts? I dunno, I don't work down here." He straightened his back, grunting with the effort. "I mean...mostly safe? There was an accident a while ago. They tried to keep it hush-hush, but a buddy of mine told me somebody lost his leg. Malfunction or something, and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time or tripped or...I don't know. Anyway, crushed it flat. Wasn't a leg left." There was a pause, then the wolf gave him a quizzical look. "Why do you ask?"

Fox tried not to think about how close he had come to losing a leg himself. That would have been a horrible way for the mission to end. But this new idea he had...it was a long shot. There was a good chance that this wouldn't work. It might not be enough pressure, and even if they had enough force for it to work, they'd have to time it perfectly. But maybe. Just maybe.

"I think...we might try crushing the thing with one of the lifts. I'm guessing if there's any safety features in the things, they've been turned off at this point, or they're just not working. Nearly got my leg caught under one of them before I came up here."

"Crushing it, huh?" Raphael lowered his head as he thought. "Yeah...yeah, that might work. Well..." He paused, then looked back up to the fox. "But how? How are you going to manage that?"

"You have to pass under those lifts in order to traverse each hold, right? There's cargo blocking the center of the rooms, in addition to the structure of the ship itself. I think that maybe I can get past the thing and trick it into following as I bring the elevator down. If I time it right, well..."

"Yeah. Yeah, that's not a bad idea! You're pretty good, Star Fox!" Raphael grinned at him, and Fox just sighed quietly, shaking his head. The wolf's grin faded, then he cleared his throat and sounded more serious. "Still gonna be tough. What's your plan exactly?"

"I need you to distract him. From up here." Fox gestured to where he had come from. "Just...take this." Fox offered the wolf his weapon, the rivet gun. "Fire this at him, keep his attention. And keep your head down. You don't need to do any damage to him, you just need to keep him focused on you. I just need you to provide enough of a target to keep him distracted."

"Oh. Yeah, alright. That makes sense. I'll try. Uh..." He cleared his throat. "I'm not really uh...I'm not really a fighter, you know? I'm not the best aim with this."

"You don't have to be. Just point and shoot, doesn't really matter what you hit. So long as it's not me."

"Got it." Raphael nodded his head. "I'm good at distracting people. Heads always turn when I enter a room!" He stared at Fox with a dumb grin on his face, and Fox offered a quiet chuckle. It was refreshing to see a sense of humor in the face of such danger. "I'll cover you, Star Fox!"

Fox then remembered that there might be a flaw to his plan. Perhaps a critical one. He spoke quietly to Raphael. "Alright, stay here for just a moment. I've got to check something."

"Sure thing, Star Fox!"

Fox turned away from the wolf, who still had an easy-going smile on his face, before the fox approached the other lift, the one that had been marked out of order. Sure enough, it was still stuck where it had been before, between the second and third floor. He couldn't get down all the way, but if he jumped, he could land on the lift, then slide down to the second floor. He might be able to descend from there. If he had to, he could simply lower himself off the edge and drop. He should be able to make that distance without hurting himself. He couldn't do that from the third floor though, no way. He'd break a leg, and that's if he was lucky.

Nothing was ever easy, was it? He saw no other way out of this mess. He just hoped he could trust Raphael to do as he was instructed.

He returned to the wolf, who was still watching and waiting for him. Fox offered a few last instructions. "I'm going to drop down and get to the second floor, then I'll see if I can get lower. Give me exactly one minute, then start shooting. When that minute is up, hit the button to make the elevator descend, that'll give you a good shot at the thing. You only have a few rounds in there, so make them count." Fox warned him, then set for the other elevator, opposite of the one that he'd arrived on. The robot was likely covering that one, or at least he assumed it was. That was where he had disappeared, so it would make sense if the robot was focused on that.

He'd need to be careful here. If he moved too soon, the robot would detect him coming down, and it would blast him into pieces. He had to make sure Raphael had its attention. Fox moved in a crouch, trying to limit the noise that he made as he approached the lift on the far side of the room. Once he finally made it, he turned toward the wolf, who was staring at him while still holding his wounded side. Raphael gave him a wave with one hand, still holding the rivet gun.

Fox then crawled over to the edge. He could see down there now, could see the broken lift. He could also see the bot to the side. It was focusing its attention on where Fox disappeared to, but it did occasionally turn to scan the rest of the room. It never turned quite far enough to where it might lose sight of the lifts, and it seemed to be turning between the two. It would have been impossible to escape its notice without help, and even then, he didn't know for sure if the distraction would work. He hoped so. Otherwise...

This was going to be intense. He took a deep breath, his eyes closed as he braced himself for what was to come. He then turned to Raphael, giving the wolf a nod of his head.

Show time!

Fox stood up, braced himself, then made the leap. It was a bit further of a drop than he expected, but not too bad. He landed with a thump, quickly repositioning himself in order to continue on. Unfortunately, the bot had detected him. "Target identified, DARIUS. Pursuing."

Before the thing could act, Fox made another leap, landing in a crouch on the second floor of the cargo bay. Not a minute too soon. He heard another hail of gunfire striking the lift where he just was. Not only that, but the lift groaned as it was attacked so mercilessly. After a moment, it fell out of place, crashing against the floor.

So much for maintenance.

He was pinned down now. He could hear the bot moving, trying to reposition itself, presumably to get a clear shot at Fox. The one advantage Fox and Raphael seemed to have over the thing was that it lacked speed, its movements slow and lumbering. That was good, or this never would have worked. Still, it was getting closer, and Fox wasn't sure where to go next. He hugged the floor tight, waiting for his moment.

He could hear the bot shifting, and that low static-riddled voice rumbling. "Scanning for targets, DARIUS. Eliminating hostiles."

He started to wonder where the heck Raphael was. If he didn't start shooting soon, that thing was going to see him! He turned his head a little so he could look in the same direction that the robot stood.

Still Raphael didn't fire. Against his better judgment, Fox risked a peek at the robot, raising his head. As soon as he saw it, it saw him as well. It wasn't far from its original position. "Target acquired, DARIUS. Elimina-"

That was when Raphael chose to strike, and not a second too soon. Fox heard him yelling at the top of his lungs. "YAAAAAAH! Eat this, you metal freak!" This was accompanied by the loud popping sound of the rivets being fired through the air. As expected, they simply bounced off of the chassis of the large mech, doing no obvious damage. The thing was just built a little too sturdy, it would take a lot more than that to even put a dent in it. "Plenty more where that came from!" He shouted.

He couldn't hurt the thing with that puny weapon. He did, however, manage to get its attention.

"DARIUS, minor damage sustained. Returning fire."

The thing turned from Fox, leveling its weapons at the upper floor. Within moments, a hail of deafening gunfire erupted from its torso, complete with laser blasts. There was a startled and pained yelp from above. Fox wondered if the wolf had been hit, and how bad.

He couldn't dwell on it. This was his chance, and he couldn't afford to waste it. He had to get down now!

He rolled over the side, gripping the ledge before letting his body hang down. He let himself drop, wincing as he landed heavily on the floor of the bay. He didn't think he'd done any serious damage, but that had hurt just a little bit. He only paused for a moment before darting for the only exit to this part of the cargo bay. The robot must have detected his footfalls, as it stopped shooting and turned toward him. Whether it was moving or turning, it couldn't do it very quickly. If Fox didn't have that advantage, he never would have made it out of that room alive, distraction or no.

Even with the distraction, he could hear and practically feel as the weapon systems bared down on him, the sound of the central turret spinning up, the whine of lasers being powered. He just managed to duck behind a crate before the room was filled with the sound of gunfire and laser blasts, causing him to wince and his ears to pin back. He had no time to rest. He heard the heavy thud and groan of metal as it moved towards him.

The elevator panel was right by him. Fox leapt to his feet, slamming his fist into it. It might be a little early, he wasn't sure. He hoped not.

Nothing happened.

He pressed it again, then again. He heard a familiar and increasingly annoying voice fill the air. DARIUS. "This lift has been taken offline due to errors. A complaint has been logged, and a maintenance crew will arrive shortly. Thank you for your patience."

Well, that was a slight hitch in the plan. He heard the weapons powering up again, and it was all he could to dive away from where it was aiming. It once again managed to fill the space he was just occupying with weapons fire as it plodded forward. It wouldn't be long now. It was coming for him.

He got to his feet, sprinting for the next section of the bay. Fortunately he could use the crates as cover as he went, blocking line of sight from the rumbling robot behind him.

There was no way he could call the lift down and cause it to crush the thing as is, even if the lift -was- working. The robot was too slow! By the time it was in the right spot, the lift would be down, and it would just walk over it, unharmed. He couldn't call it later, as that would leave him exposed to its attacks, blowing him away before Fox could escape. He had to think of something else.

An idea came to his head. A silly idea. Maybe a stupid one. At the moment, it was all he could think of. He had to get a head start, as much as possible! As he ran, he started pressing the upper buttons for the elevators, smashing his fist against the panel as he ran by, causing them all to lift up. He stuck to only one side of the bay, leaving an obvious trail for the robot to follow, activating the lifts as he went, the noise of them rising and falling being an obvious indication of where he was and where he was going. Sure enough, the robot seemed to be taking the bait.

He looped around once he reached the entrance of the Cargo Bay, approaching the far wall and continuing his strategy of calling or sending the lifts. He could still hear the thing plodding behind him, never once losing his trail. It had fallen behind, that was good.

Okay, that should be enough. He made it to the last lift, in the bay just preceding the one where he had found Raphael, calling it down and looking up at it anxiously as it descended. He then removed his remaining boot, tossing it in the direction that he would have run. He hoped it would be enough. He the hit the "up" arrow on the lift panel and quickly ascended, this time with him on the lift.

He waited breathlessly, hearing the machine as it drew closer and closer to his position. Would it take the bait? Would it follow the little breadcrumbs he had left, or would it somehow sense him, or at least sense the trap?

It was getting closer. Closer now. Closer!

Very close now!

He looked down, staring through the crack between the lift and the current floor. There it was, walking right beneath him. He reached for the panel, ready to send the lift down. He'd have it!

Then it stopped.

It was but a step away from where it needed to be. If it walked forward even an inch, it would be enough. But it wasn't. It was just BARELY out of place. What was wrong? Did it sense something? Was it suspicious? Was it even possible for the robot to feel such?

The robot turned from left to right, scanning the area. Then, ever so slowly, it tilted back, looking up in Fox's direction. He hid from sight, gritting his teeth as he wondered how the thing managed to detect him, assuming it had.

Oh shoot.

"Hey! Hey you! Over here!"

A familiar voice rang out from across the bay. Fox couldn't see him, but he knew who it was. Raphael?

"Yeah, I'm talking to you, you sorry bucket of bolts!"

Fox risked another peek, noting the robot shift as it turned its attention to Raphael. He couldn't see the wolf, but the robot clearly could. "DARIUS, unit will terminate hostile."

It took a step forward.

That was enough. Fox pressed the button on the lift, and it began to descend. The robot never reacted as the lift went down, even as the lift began pressing against it. Fox hopped clear as soon as it began its descent, the lift rumbling loudly as it made contact. Turning around, Fox was treated with the sight of the huge robot being completely obliterated by the descending lift. It lost its balance as the pressure increased, slipping until it was lying on its side, growing more and more compressed, sparks and smoke shooting out of it. It emitted some kind of high pitched, electronic shriek as it was crushed. Bits of machinery burst out of its torso from the immense pressure, and it tried to speak, but the voice was barely able to come through. "Er-err-rerrrorrerr...crit-cri—tica-fail-"

That was the end of it. The machine went still, great columns of smoke pouring out of it. They'd done it. The thing was dead. Of course, they'd also irreparably mangled the lift in the process, but he felt that was more than a fair trade.

It took a bit for Fox to catch his breath. He just stood over the thing, panting before looking up and seeing Raphael limp toward him. The wolf was grinning. "Man, are you good, or are you good?! Guess Fara wasn't telling tall tales, huh?"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Fox had to laugh at that. It felt good. One less nightmare to deal with on this ship. "Not sure I could have pulled that off without you."

"Nah, you'd have figured out something. But hey, I'm glad I could play some small role in a Star Fox adventure!" The wolf had reached him by now, still holding his side with one paw and offering Fox the rivet gun with the other. "Here." He looked a little sheepish. "It's, uh...it's out of ammo, though."

"That's alright." Fox shrugged his shoulders. "There wasn't much left to begin with."

"Yeah...oh!" The wolf then reached for his blaster, offering that to Fox. "I know it's empty, but there's a station for recharging energy devices not far from here. I couldn't get to it on account of the robot, but..."

"Ah." He gladly took the engineering tool, the one that had seen him safely through the harrowing experiences of this deck up to this point, strapping that back to his waist. When offered the blaster itself, Fox hesitated.

It was a beautiful piece of equipment, of course. It looked sleek and modern, and was the first thing even close to a proper weapon that Fox had found down here, at least from someone who wasn't trying to shoot at him. It was of a very simple design, though elegant in form. A white base color, with a black trigger and dark lines that went to either side of the weapon. It didn't appear to be a weapon of immense power, but it would certainly do the job. He guessed it would be roughly equivalent of the blaster he had lost shortly after arriving. "Don't you need this to defend yourself?"

"Nah, I'm terrible with the thing, you'd make better use of it than me. Besides, we're getting out of here, right? I'm gonna hole up somewhere safe."

"Yeah. First things first, though...let's get you patched up, alright?" Fox gestured toward the wound that Raphael was clutching.

"That uh...that sounds nice, actually. Thanks." Raphael offered a grateful nod, and then the two set off together. They'd done what they needed to do. Fox would charge that weapon, Raphael would get some medical attention, and they'd finally get off this cursed deck. He wanted to believe, somehow, that the worst was over, that it just couldn't get any worse than what they'd already gone through.

But he knew better.

"Oh, and uh...I think we can find you some spare boots!"