Artifice
Fay fidgeted with one of her long, fluffy ears. She hated waiting, although the view could be worse. She had pointed the craft's nose down towards the planet, so that she had a first-row view of Fichina, its vast snow-covered plains interrupted in places by darker mountain ranges and glaciers giving in faint blue hues. Veils of white swirled around the planet, storm clouds dumping ever more snow on the tundra. A green speck seemed to fight against the big freeze, a small fertile patch surrounding the climate control centre. There was something metaphorical about that, Fay mused, thinking of how Krystal was taking on a military organisation by herself.
She turned her attention back to the cockpit. The controls were very similar to her own Light Arwing, yet with subtle differences making it appear a little dated, perhaps. The biggest difference was the cockpit position at the very front of the craft. She had never piloted Krystal's Cloud Runner before, but the choice of transport had been very deliberate. Behind the pilot's seat was a storage compartment that could double as a bunk, with just enough room where a passenger could hide out of sight. Someone stirred in the shadows.
"As we feared, SIRIUS are trying to lay a trap for Krystal," said Kayuq.
Fay immediately reached for the throttle. "Then we must help her!"
"No!" Kayuq's firm voice startled Fay. "She can take care of herself. I have faith in her."
"We need more than faith," Fay protested. "We need action!"
"We need more information, so we will wait and see," said Kayuq sternly. "Krystal mentioned stunt doubles. SIRIUS may try to capture Fox as well."
"What?" Fay spun around and leaned over the backrest, only to find herself staring into Kayuq's cloudy, unseeing eyes.
"They would only use body doubles is they want to make it appear as if nothing has happened." Kayuq scratched her chin. "They will not attack the Great Fox, but sneak onboard, presumably by returning with the shuttle. When they do, I will read their minds and find out the details of their plan."
"But we must warn Fox!"
"Indeed." Kayuq nodded. "But discreetly."
Fay shivered, since they must assume that SIRIUS might be tapping the standard comms channels. Still, it was a scenario they had planned for. She took a deep breath before calling Fox.
"Hiya, Fay, wassup?"
"Just bored waiting for Krystal to return." Fay tried to sound as normal as she could. Hopefully, the microphone wouldn't pick up her nervous tone. "What's happening on the GF?"
"Double- and triple-checking everything for departure. Miyu is playing with Marcus."
"I hope they're not going through my stuff."
"Umm..." Fox hesitated for a fraction of a second. "They might be. Should I get them out of there?"
Fay's fur stood on end from hearing the secret code words: 'get them out'. She faked a giggle. "Yeah, that'd be good."
"Alright." Fox chuckled. "I'll check what they're up to right away."
Katt rubbed her hands and stuck them in her armpits. Her thermal controlled flight suit kept her body warm, but she cursed herself for forgetting to put gloves on. Falco didn't seem bothered by the cold where he stood with a feathered avian hand on the blaster holstered at his hip, surveying their surroundings and making a good impression of being a mercenary protecting the cargo. He casually flicked some snow flakes off his shoulder with his other hand.
Katt cast an envious glance at the bison who meticulously used his PDA to scan every box on the pallet that had been unloaded from the shuttle. Snow gathered in his hair, which reached below his shoulders, and there were some ice crystals in his moustache, yet he was dressed only in shorts and a polo shirt with the Space Dynamics logo.
Looking past the shuttle she'd piloted and Falco's Sky Claw, she could see the spaceport's hangars and beyond that Fichina City with its pyramid-shaped and near-windowless buildings, built to withstand the snow and ever-present winter.
"Okay, that all checks out against the delivery docket." The bison hummed and nodded. "It's expensive parts that should not fall into the wrong hands, but hardly worth a special escort, I would've thought."
"Hey, if Mrs. Phoenix pays, I'm not gonna complain," said Katt with a shrug. She wasn't sure how Fox got Fara into the plan, but somehow he had.
"I wouldn't either." The bison cracked up in a wide smile and waved at a caribou behind the controls of a forklift. "Alright, Rudy, let's get this moving."
The caribou slotted the forks under the pallet while barely touching the controls. The bison jumped on top of the boxes and the forklift scooted off towards the nearest hangar at full speed. OSHA would probably have a thing or two to say about that, thought Katt.
Falco's wrist comm chimed and with a press of a button Fox's holographic face appeared.
"Hiya Fox, miss me already?" Falco quipped.
"Honestly, the sendoff is a bit quiet without you." Fox grinned.
"Don't you have a plan B?"
"Yeah, I guess I'd better activate it."
Falco and Katt exchanged a glance at the code word hidden in plain view: 'plan B'.
"Well, you have fun with Marcus and the ladies," Katt chimed in. "We'd better make a move here. Things to do, places to go."
"Touch base before the Great Fox departs, will ya," said Fox with a poker face.
"Sure will," said Falco with a somewhat too wide grin and hung up, before quickly turning on his heel and jogging towards the Sky Claw. Katt hurried towards the shuttle. Within a minute both craft were airborne, crucially not heading for interstellar space, but the nearby mountain ranges.
With her pulse racing, Krystal fell down the elevator shaft, its basalt rock walls reflecting the light from her staff. She kept her eyes peeled on the darkness below; the last thing she wanted to do was to end her rescue mission, or worse her life, by slamming into the cab's roof. When she finally spotted it, it was approaching fast, too fast.
She fired another jet blast, holding on to her staff with one hand while grabbing the elevator's steel cable with the other. She gripped it hard, tearing the glove to pieces in an instant and sending sparks flying. Her boots landed on the cab roof with a muted thump. Her nose caught a whiff of a burning smell and she could sense some heat travelling from her prosthetic hand into her arm. While the palm was slightly singed, she wiggled her fingers to make sure it worked just fine.
But on which level was she? She had not had time to check any displays before she jumped down the shaft. She took a moment to compose herself and reach out with her psionic sense. Guards were already gathering on the level below, assuming that she'd break into the cab, and waiting for her to open the elevator doors. She would disappoint them. She probed further and searched for her fellow Cerinians' minds, using what Kayuq had taught her to locate them in the physical world. While she had presumed that they might be sedated, or that SIRIUS actually had developed an anti-psionic drug that worked, what she found surprised her. She mulled over the new information for a moment before springing into action.
The guards below were getting restless, preparing to enter the cab below her feet, but the level above seemed mostly empty. She reached up, pried her staff between the doors and blew them apart with a quick energy burst. She jumped high, soared through the opening and rolled onto the floor. A quick check of the display by the doors revealed she was on the level above the laboratory, and where the research subjects presumably were held.
She took a moment to call Fox, only to find that the long-distance comm channels were jammed. It didn't surprise her. While the psionic static had increased as she went deeper, she could still feel some contact with Kayuq. She tried to make her thoughts as clear as possible, hoping that the old vixen would pick up her progress. Still, her communicator wasn't useless. She had downloaded the control centre's schematics to it, and scanned the projected hologram for a suitable way into the lab.
The corridor formed a circle around the control centre's core. She could sense people approaching from her left, so she entered someone's mind to see them running up a stairwell, and set off to her right instead. She sprinted along the pathway cut through the black rock, letting the LED strip in the ceiling guide her way. According to her map, it led through the control centre's own HVAC and server rooms, and she soon reached another fire exit. She burst through the door and reached out as she ran down the stairs, sensing two people on guard behind the door on the level below.
Weighing her options, her mind slipped into a familiar state of mind she'd often relied on years ago: calculating, effective, and indifferent. 'A cold killer,' Bill Grey had called her once, but she didn't want to be that anymore. The guards ahead were not her enemy, only believing in what they were protecting, possibly duped into doing so. Still, she had to be fast, while causing minimal damage, so she snuck up to the door with her staff at the ready.
"The intruder is heading this way," she called out, while entering their minds to make her voice sound darker than it was and to plant an image of a CDF soldier in their minds. "I need backup."
She could not control people, only blend her thoughts with theirs, but during her life as Kursed she had found it was often enough; people tended to act on impulse. Fortunately, the guards fell for her deception, since they unlocked the door, only to promptly be incapacitated by two quick strikes to the head from Krystal's staff when they passed through.
After picking up their blasters and tucking them into her belt, she consulted the holographic map once more. Time and the element of surprise was of the essence, so she had to find the quickest route into the lab before reinforcements arrived. After a short sprint she found herself in front of the entry: a blast-proof door, which was not quake-proof, since the butt end of her staff sent it flying off its hinges.
She burst into a room filled with machines she did not recognise, but beakers and test tubes lined up on the stainless steel table in the middle told her that this was the heart of the laboratory, probably where the drugs were being made. Chemical fumes stung her nose. The sole occupant hardly had time to look up from his microscope before she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, practically lifting the diminutive man off the floor.
"Take me to the prisoners," she growled and held the pointy end of her staff to the chihuahua's nose. "Now!"
"But I don't know where they are?" His eyes nearly crossed as they tried to focus on the glowing gem. "I swear."
"You know who I am!" A quick scan of his mind showed that he did, but that he only knew the general area the captives were held in. It didn't matter; she had located them already, and she was more interested in the keycard hanging around his neck. It was her entry to the rest of the lab, providing her access to her fellow Cerinians. She carried the chihuahua to the next door and set him down in front of the scanner. "I could invade your mind," she added with a snarl, confident that he'd fall for her bluff. "But it would be easier for me and less painful for you if I didn't have to."
Damn, I didn't sign up for this, the scientist thought as he fumbled with the keycard and had his paw print scanned. The pay's great, they said, but it's not worth this.
Krystal scanned the next room while holstering her staff: there were only two civilians and they had no weapons.
"Nobody move," she shouted and pointed a blaster towards the chihuahua's back while she made her way across the room. Two scientists in lab coats sat behind a computer screen each, obediently holding up their hands.
The next door led to a short corridor, past small windowed cubicles resembling the interrogation rooms she had seen in Peppy's memory. She could sense more guards up ahead.
"Stay put," she growled and shoved the scientist into one of the rooms, closing the door on him, which locked with a solid thunk. Up ahead was a larger room with plants and a wooden table, looking like the one in the video feed SIRIUS had shown, but this time without any Cerinians. However, two individuals with weapons ready hid in a corner each.
Needing to get past them quickly, she looked around for options and spotted a fire extinguisher. Ripping it off the wall, she sprayed a generous helping of smoke into the room before throwing it ahead of her. One guard fired a couple of random shots towards the clanging noise, while the other waited for the smoke to clear. Krystal didn't need to see with her eyes though, the guard's psionic waves giving away their location. Stepping forwards with one blaster in each hand, she pulled both triggers simultaneously, and was rewarded with a cry and a moan.
As soon as the smoke settled, she ran past the two stunned guards and into another corridor that was at least sparsely decorated with a few potted plants and paintings of Cornerian landscapes, looking like a cheap motel. She scanned the pass she'd taken off the scientist in front of the lock to a door, but it did nothing.
It worked opening locks on Sauria, so maybe it will work here, she thought and slammed the butt end of her staff through the control panel. She let the staff build a charge for a moment, before unleashing it. The quake surged through the circuits and overloaded the magnetic lock, which released with a loud clack. Prying her composite fingers into the gap that appeared, she pushed the sliding door aside to reveal a small room, painted and furnished in muted and calm shades of green and brown. An azure fox rose from the single bed, but his expectant emotional aura was at odds with his surprised facial expression.
"Krystal?" He bowed his head, performing the Cerinian greeting.
"Ryuga, I presume," she said and entered his mind, sensing that he was about to ask about his master. "I'm sure we have lots to talk about, but we need to get out of here first."
SIRIUS didn't know about Kayuq, Krystal's secret psionic weapon, and she preferred it stayed that way. Ryuga nodded. "I am at your service."
"We need to act fast." Krystal holstered her blaster. "Is there anything you want to bring?"
"We escaped the starship with nothing but the clothes we wore and our staves" —Ryuga shook his head—"which were confiscated of course."
"I will need your help—" She pulled her own staff from her back and thrust it towards the azure fox "—so you will need a weapon."
He tentatively grasped it with both hands. "But what about you?"
"I'm quite handy with the blasters." She gave one a quick pat before closing her eyes, recalling another of Kayuq's lessons. Staff, I entrust your powers to Ryuga, she commanded it. His eyes widened as power surged through the weapon, briefly connecting and synchronising their minds. She released her grip and it expanded in his hands, while his gaze was fixated on the gem, its pulsating light reflecting in his irises.
She turned around and dashed to the next door, needing another way to enter. Using the full force of her prosthetics, she grasped the panel, which crumbled in her hand. Extending a lead from her communicator and clipping them onto exposed wires, she activated a present from Slippy: a digital picklock program. It found the correct combination within seconds and the door was unlocked with a satisfying beep.
It was flung open by a tall tod with cerulean fur, who hastily gave Krystal the Cerinian greeting, before jumping out into the corridor. Kabura's ponytail whipped around as he turned his head to the left and the right, looking as if he was ready to punch the nearest Cornerian.
Meanwhile, Ryuga jammed Krystal's staff between the door and the frame to the room across the hallway. Prying it open, two cobalt-furred hands emerged through the crack, and with a loud grunt a short and stocky fox finished the job, sliding the door open. Mitsuru grinned and flexed the muscles of his arm.
Krystal pulled up the schematics on her communicator again, working the hologram with her fingers until she found their current location, then let it plot the route to an exit from the compound. She could sense more people approaching-fast-and there was no time to lose.
"Let's move!" Krystal pointed back towards the common room.
"Wait!" Ryuga's shout startled everyone. "There's someone else."
Krystal cocked an eyebrow. Was there another Cerinian she didn't know about? Kabura rolled his eyes.
"You should know better than to play with a woman's feelings." Mitsuru snickered. "It can work both ways, you know."
"She was an honourable researcher who tried to help us escape." Ryuga looked at Krystal to ignore Mitsuru cooing and fluttering his eyelids. "I sensed her nearby before they medicated us."
The Kursed side of her wanted to tell Ryuga to shove it, but maybe she had gone too soft after having a family. "...Alright then."
An odd smell tickled Krystal's nose, a faint but somewhat pleasant floral scent that she sort of recognised, but could not put her finger on. The men's eyes widened.
"Oh no," said Kabura.
Panther growled when Krystal blasted through the elevator door and disappeared from view. Leaning forwards, his gaze darted between the monitors.
"Why is there no camera feed from the elevator shaft?"
"Because no one goes there," said the spotted dog behind the controls with a shrug. His nimble fingers flew over the keyboard, changing camera views on the monitors. "The elevator is on the lab level, so the best I can give you are the feeds from that floor and the one above it."
"I'll go talk to her myself," said Panther and turned around only to be stopped by someone grabbing his arm.
"You already tried," Jackson deadpanned.
"Not face-to-face—"
"You are too emotionally involved." Jackson's gaze was a glare. "I'll deal with Krystal, while you take the shuttle with the stand-ins to the Great Fox and follow through with the plan. That's an order."
Panther tried to think of something to counter Jackson with, but he was out of leverage. Reluctantly, he realised that the second best he could do was to board the Great Fox II and make sure Fox handed himself over quietly.
"Yes, Sir."
"Commence operation Doppelgänger," said Jackson into his communicator as Panther exited the control room.
Atmospheric generators hummed loudly as Panther walked through the narrow corridors. The operations centre was close to the heart of the Climate Control and any psionic interference it might produce. It was only a short walk to the nearest elevator, but two other persons arrived at the same time as him; SIRIUS worked efficiently. They stepped into the car in silence, and Panther studied his crew as they rose towards the surface.
Miguel was a red fox from the CDF special forces, selected both because of his likeness to McCloud and his combat skills. It was easy to imitate the famous mercenary, who always dressed the same while on duty: white jacket, green jumpsuit and red scarf.
Krystal was trickier to make a body double for; orange fur of an ordinary fox was hard to dye blue. Instead, they had picked a pomsky from within SIRIUS's intelligence division, since Natalie's light grey fur was easier to work with, and she was also a trained pilot. Dressed in a black and blue jumpsuit—they had pre-made replicas of both Krystal's Star Fox as well as Cornerian Army outfits—she made a passable impression of Krystal, at least from a distance.
The elevator reached the surface, and they promptly made their way through the airlock and into the freezing cold hangar. Instead of three released Cerinians, three soldiers joined them as they filed onto Krystal's shuttle.
Natalie took a seat behind the controls. She turned to Panther after running through the start-up protocol. "How do I look?"
"Better than you sound," he replied with a wince. He plugged in a small PDA to the shuttle's dashboard and uploaded a file to the comm system. "This should do the trick."
"Gotta love a little deepfake," said Natalie and eased the shuttle out of the hangar before reaching for the comms. "Krystal McCloud of Star Fox calling traffic control."
The schnauzer reappeared on screen. "Mrs McCloud, please proceed to orbit, and good luck with your expedition."
"Thank you. I'll send a postcard from Cerinia."
"Please do." The schnauzer grinned, before ending the call.
"That was the easy call," said Panther and frowned.
"No point hesitating." Natalie opened another channel and Fay appeared on screen.
"Oh, there you are, Krystal!" Fay's bow bobbed as she spoke. "How did it go? Did SIRIUS give you grief? Do you have the Cerinians with you?"
"You can chill, Fay," said Natalie. "Everything went smooth. SIRIUS wouldn't dare mess with Star Fox, although it took a while to fill out all the paperwork. My friends are having a rest in the back."
"That's good to hear." Fay sighed in relief, seemingly unable to tell the difference between the real and the fake Krystal. "I'll escort you back to the Great Fox."
"I'm sure it won't be necessary, but it's good to have you here." Natalie ended the call and turned to Panther with a smirk. "Easy as pie."
Fay turned the Cloud Runner around and eased on the throttle, leaving Fichina behind as the ship accelerated in the direction of the Orbital Gate, while keeping an eye on the shuttle's transponder on her monitors. She fingered the yoke nervously. That voice had sounded eerily like Krystal.
"It wasn't," said Kayuq in the shadows behind her. "But the good news is that they think you bought it."
"How many are there in the shuttle?" Fay asked while engaging the autopilot.
"Five soldiers and the panther named Caroso."
"What?" Fay yelped and accidentally knocked the yoke, but the ship kept flying straight thanks to the autopilot. "What if Fox can't fight them all?"
"I'm sure he could beat them with the help of Miyu and yourself." The old vixen chuckled. "As well as a little gaslighting."
"You can do that?" Fay cocked an eyebrow.
"I can't mess with people's free will," Kayuq mused. "But I can plant little thoughts, make them think they hear and see things that are not there."
"We need to alert Fox and Miyu!"
"I will do it telepathically once we're close enough. Until then I'll keep eavesdropping. I have an idea..."