EARTHSIEGE- Mind of a Jedi,
by Sovan Jedi

Skimming across the vast blue of the salty sea, heading towards the
upcoming muddy- grey beach of the Bristol channel, Sovan Jedi was
relieved. He had hardly visited home in the last few days of the chaos,
and within that time all manner of fascinating things had occurred. He
had met with many people from all across the world and from far beyond,
fighting with them against the whole of Andross' fleet of fighter ships.
All that could go through his mind- Sovan snapped to reality, and lifted
the craft to narrowly miss a small tug boat. The people aboard were simply
gobsmacked as the fighter craft sped past with a deafening screech,
casting a great downforce of wind over the ship. Sovan looked behind him
to see the crew of the ship waving fists at him. He raised his ship higher
into the sky to glide swiftly pass the relatively low buildings of
Bristol, his old hometown before he lived in where he lives now. Sovan
remembered all of the things he had done. Before this he had never visited
anywhere outside Britain- now he had basically visited the whole world. He
reminisced about the tall skyscrapers and the large cities of the United
States, and the rough heated desert- like outbacks of the Australian
landscape. He remembered of all of the other places he had visited, and
smiled in a dream- like stance. But that was only Earth. He had the
potential to visit any of the other planets of the Solar System, or even 
of the Lylat System. And all of this was thanks to the Starfox Team, who
he imagined was once only contained in a single silicon game cartridge, in
his old cottage home, on a farm, in southern England.  Within a while the
small buildings of the towns trickled away to a few narrow roads and small
houses. He had reached further inland into the countryside. Sovan looked
around for where he could see the River Thames. His home was situated
nearby one side of it, which was a handy landmark to follow to get there.
He found the beginnings of it where it was at the basic start, and veered
his craft over it to fly above. For fun he flew lower to the surface of
the murky water, skimming the tips of his wings over the surface of the
water. A few swans flew closer to shores in surprise as Sovan Jedi's ship
whizzed right past them. The rest flew into the fields nearby in a flurry.
He raised up to avoid the low arched bridge across the water, then resumed
to follow the river, past the occasional lining of willow trees, draping
into the water.  He slowed down to allow for him to recognize the
landscape. As he did so the scenery reduced from the motion blur into a
more scenic view from his cockpit. Sovan peeked over the cockpit to the
fields either side of him. The occasional cottage would whizz past, then
they would cluster up. As Sovan resumed looking ahead, he could see the
riverside town of Wallingford up ahead. He ducked down below the bridge
like he did before, then raised again. He took a long look at any of the
scenery he could recognize. 

Wallingford was close to where he lived, so he wasn't far away. It was a
beautiful town for a small village, but it wasn't really a place he would
prefer to live in. He would rather live in an urban, highly populated
town, or somewhere full of technology like Corneria, or even somewhere in
the USA like New York or LA.  A few seconds later, he slowed down to only
a few kps, and looked ahead. Beyond the trees, set in the patchwork of
ploughed fields and rolling hills, a collection of cottages and a manor
nestled close by to the river's edge.

Smoke slowly lifted from one of the cottage chimneys, suggesting the
homely presence of company, resting before the fire in their living rooms. 
But Sovan paused. He looked around him, at the cool blue of the sky, and
the small thumb- sized circle of bright light shining onto them from
above. The whole place was actually quite warm, for England at least. Too
warm, in fact, to have a fire lit in the house.  A giant metallic claw
lifted from behind a cottage, smashing down onto the small house. Planks
of wood and glass shattered from all around it, and dust lifted up from it
into the air.  Sovan Jedi's mouth dropped, aghast. What was happening to
his home? It had nearly been attacked before- now his home for the last 8
years was beginning to be demolished. He banked to the left, gliding for
the remains of the fallen cottage. As Sovan Jedi looked down, he saw the
remnants of the home that had fallen, sticking out of the rubble. He hoped
his neighbour wasn't in the home at the time.  Sovan turned his head- and
quickly boosted higher to avoid the swiping claw of the robot below him.
It looked like a giant metallic scorpion, but with four claws sticking at
90 degree angles out of the central body part. The helmetted top of the
robot swiveled around, watching Sovan's ship fly by.  Sovan Jedi was even
more distraught. This one machine had been here for sometime, for the
whole farm area was reduced to rubble. The giant Manor, the cow sheds,
even his own home was gone. Tiny fires flickered inbetween the piles of
wood, concrete and machinery. His parents' cars were smashed under the
tree that used to stand proud in his courtyard.  As Sovan flew over the
scenery, laser bolts flew narrowly past his ship, off into the sky. With a
few quick maouvers he spiralled through the sky, managing to U- turn to
face the robot. Only a tiny bit of anger was inside Sovan's mind now, but
it was building through realization of the reality. His home, his
parents, basically his whole life, was now dust ground into the ground. He
fired onto the robot, who was still unleashing green bolts from the clawed
hands. A lucky bolt penetrated through the shiny plating on the whole
body, exploding upon impact. As if it had a mind of its own it looked onto
the large hole in its fuselage, the bolts of electricity furiously jumping
out from the loose wiring, over the whole body of the robot. He looked up
as Sovan Jedi's ship skimmed over the top of it. The body of the robot
swivelled around too, and with snapping of the metallic claws it was
ready again.  Sovan tried a somersault. Up into the air he rolled, feeling
a slight case of vertigo when he looked straight upwards. Like a roller
coaster his ship turned over. When he started to face the ground again,
the robot was in his view. It was in the wrong position to try and fire,
as Sovan Jedi was beyond its sight, up above it. It raised its claws to
face straight upwards, firing random green bolts into the air. Through the
somersault Sovan dodged the shots, rolling to rebound another shot to the
ground, where it exploded.  Sovan took an aim squarely for the top of the
flat head of the robot. He fired, and the head exploded as it came into
impact with the metal. He raised the nose to level his ship parallel to
the ground, and turned so Sovan could get a good look at what was left of
the ship.

The robot, no longer with a CPU chip to control it, keeled over onto its
side, and exploded. The ball of flame lifted into the air, slowly
vanishing into the sky. The rest of the robot had wisps of smoke from the
joints of the segments raising out of it.  Sovan lowered to the ground,
landing in a relatively flat field. The hull of the ship was still jolted
by the grassy lumps of the field as the landing gears came down, but it
slowed down, and stopped. The cockpit glass lifted away, and Sovan Jedi
leapt out of his ship onto the ground, kneeling to absorb the
impact.

He slowly walked over to what was left of his home.  He entered
what was left of the farm, upset. He took wide steps over fallen planks of
wood and straw and reached the stone road which snaked through the houses
on the farm. He remembered it as having two wide circles of grass in the
middle of the whole area, and the roads branched off from there. To the
left hand ramp up to a courtyard, was his house. In shambles.  A figure
walked from behind the remains of the row of stables opposite his house.
Sovan watched with curiosity as the figure scavenged through the remains
of his home. Sovan slowly walked up the ramp into the courtyard, keeping
as quiet as he could, watching the figure look through his home remains. 
The figure heard something from Sovan Jedi's direction, and quickly looked
up and over to him. Immediately the figure raised up straight and strided
over to him. The figure from the distance already looked massive, and
mean.  But as he came closer, Sovan's face turned to an expression of
utter fear. He knew who this creature was.

'Thraktor.....?' Sovan Jedi asked, astounded.  The monster had reached up
to Sovan, standing two times his own height. Sovan was hardly six foot,
yet this thing was almost 12 foot tall in height. Metal plates were welded
carelessly over his dull green skin, and he wore a dull red armour covered
in scr atches. Both of his eyes were covered with focusing lenses, which
looked down onto the frightened pilot.

'SSsssssooooo.....' The monster barely rasped with a metallic voice to
Sovan. 'You have been informed by Starfox of mee.....'
Sovan discreetly shook his head. 'No, Thraktor Nessai Khar''lissen, they
didn't say a thing about you.'

Thraktor looked puzzled. 'How do you know my full family recognition?'

'Because I..... created.......you. In my mind....' Thraktor opened his
crocodilian jaws wide open, screeching with metal laughter.

'Foolish maggot! I was not created by you pale skinny little things! I
hate all species, all living things. Especially you.'
'Which is why you destroyed my entire humble home.' Sovan remarked bluntly
and sadly.
'If you may feel better, yours will not be the last.' He lowered his head
closer to Sovan Jedi, bearing teeth. 'I want you to take a message to Fox
McCloud for me....'

Any courage Sovan Jedi had filled his body now. 'I don't need to take
messages for you- I'm an NSider!' With lightning speed Thraktor pulled his
barbed sword out from his belt buckle and held it to Sovan's throat. He
lifted his relatively small head up to stare at.

'You are a pathetic creature, and are nothing more. The only
reason I am not slicing your little throat now is so you can inform the
stupid Starfox crew and your race that they shall die under a Mexnavien
sun.' With that he slowly moved his sword from under Sovan's throat and
back into its buckle. Sovan knelt onto the floor, clutching his throat. 

Thraktor lifted a small communication panel from his pocket, making a
combination of scraping metallic hissing noises into it. Then in a flash
his whole body was gone.  Leaving Sovan Jedi, in the middle of the
countryside, with the remains of his whole life, before his feet. 

F. J. McCloud sat down with Fox again to confer- they had become good
friends since they had both met. It was AceMcCleod's turn to play at
Starfox 64, this time against Peppy, Falco and Slippy, naturally choosing
themselves as their players. Within a few minutes Slippy was already
burning in a glorified computer explosion on the large television screen.
He crossed his arms and huffed, watching Falco and Ace in a little
dogfight on their own screens.  Wolf walked in, watching the action. He
shook his head.

'Why didn't they have me as one of the characters?' He mumbled. 'Why am I
one of the people on the levels that get shot down easily?' Slippy looked
up to the imposing Wolf character.
'Perhaps the maker didn't see you fit as a good pilot. What was his
name..... Shoga..... Shagi....' FJ perked his ears up from Slippy's
stumbling.
'Shigeru Miyamoto's the name I think you're looking for, Slippy.' He
friendly advised him.  Slippy looked to the side. 'Yeah, whatever.' He
watched the fighting again. Peppy had been shot out now, and he too was
watching the others fight.  Rob64 trundled into the room. 'Attention.
Sovan Jedi has docked onto the Great Fox.' He told everyone. Within a
while, Sovan stormed into the room.

'Hey, Sovan Jedi.' Peppy called out.
'Nice to see you again.' Fox, Wolf, FJ and Slippy all politely said hello.
Falco and Ace almost grunted it. Both of their ships were burning out of
control, and the game could go to either of them. None of them noticed  
Sovan as he slumped onto the seat near the window, and began to stare out
onto the open space beyond them.  'Ffffffffff....' Ace almost shouted
profanely as his Arwing plummeted to the ground, bounced a bit and
exploded in a virtual fireball. Falco raised his feathered hands up into
the air. 'In your face!' He shouted. 'Ha ha, I knew I'd do it sometime!'
'We've been seeing this on non-stop since it came onto the Great Fox.'
Peppy complained. 'Can't we play something else?' 'Yeah.' Slippy chipped
in. 'Why not that other game you've got. The one with the 'go- carts', or
that one with the man with the 'golden' eye?' Ace smiled as Slippy
stumbled over his memory again. He nudged Falco. 'Have you tried against
Sovan Jedi? He seems to think he's good at it- he's one of our highest
scorers at home. Perhaps you should put him out of his...' he trailed off
as he looked to Sovan over by the window, sobbing into his hands. Everyone
else was quiet and watching too.  FJ asked first. 'Sovan, what's wrong?'
Sovan looked to the others through a teary face. He was deeply embarrased
of himself appearing to them like this- but he couldn't help it. He
coughed, clearing his throat.

'I went to see my family back home in England today...' Fox nodded. 'Are
they okay? is everyone at home fine?'
Sovan seemed to shed another few tears, stumbling over words. 'They're all
dead.' He said bluntly, breaking out into more tears.  That shocked
everyone. They all looked to the young man there burrowing his face in his
hands.  Falco tried to sympathize. 'Dead? But how?' Sovan lifted his head
again, trying to calm his nerves down.
'They were all killed..... by Thraktor.' FJ was shocked- the Starfox crew
was surprised. 'Thraktor?!?'
They all shouted in alarm.  'But how did he come here?' Fox asked
rhetorically.  'How did he become real?' FJ also asked.  'What do you
mean, FJ?' Falco asked too.  'You mean he's.....' Wolf shouted. 'Everyone
stop!' He raised his hands to silence everyone. When they all looked to
him he began. 'Right. Let's start from the beginning. Who's Thraktor?'
'Yeah.' Ace also inquired.  Sovan cleared his throat. 'Thraktor Nessai
Khar''lissen. Age of 256 suncycles- 35 years to us. He lives in the Zhek
system, on the second planet of Mexnar. He's of the Mexnavien race, and
was banished from his homeplanet 6-7 years ago. He had another punishment
of half his life taken away from him. In Mexnavien terms, that meant one
of his eyes were removed. As such he has a permanent covering over his
right eye.....' Fox's eyes were almost out of their sockets. He stuttered.
'H-h-how do you know all of that?' He asked.  Sovan Jedi tried to tell him
as best as he could. 'I wrote a story about him, when I lived at........'
He gulped. 'How he became real, I don't know.' Falco promted Sovan. 'Giant
battle at Solar.... Medusa's Gaze.....' 'Medusa's Gaze!' FJ exclaimed. 'I
thought it sounded similar. It was a story he wrote.' Slippy was confused.
'But.... how?' Wolf pondered, then thought. 'Andross' original
brainwashing device he used on Earth before- perhaps it slipped into Sovan
Jedi's mind as well..' Sovan, not one to think of being too special,
reasoned. 'Why me? Surely it happened to others as well...' 'It has,
Sovan.' FJ explained. 'Some NSiders have come across other people they had
presumed they created, right here with the Starfox crew. Perhaps the
brainwashing affected others influenced by the Nintendo games, but only
with a few minute characters.'

Sovan sighed. 'Like Thraktor.' He looked up to the others, recovered from
his upset mood. 'But in my story, he had died in the end, and Macbeth was
completely destroyed....' But Fox shook his head. 'That hadn't happened
with us. Macbeth is still with us, and Thraktor was still alive.' 'Yeah.'
Slippy added. 'But the jerk flew back to his home planet, and we don't
know where he is.' Sovan remembered more. 'Then I wrote another story
after, about his two brothers coming here, and a new member of your group-
Chaz Lionheart.' The animal members of the Starfox crew all seemed
confused. 'Nope.' Peppy said. 'Nothing like that's happened yet.' Sovan
scratched his head. This was confusing! 'Maybe the brainwashing hinted a
teeny bit with that story, and my imagination just sort of filled the rest
of it in.' Ace's face brightened. 'So what you're saying is, that the
brainwashing has informed you of Thraktor's two brothers....' Wolf
finished. '....and the rest you made up. Right?' Sovan Jedi looked to the
wall. 'Ummmm... yeah.' Fox still looked confused. 'But what... how......'
Sovan shrugged. 'No point asking me, Fox. I'm stumped about it too.' 'Then
how did he appear on Earth without any of our sensors picking him up?'

'That's easy, that one. He teleported here.' Fox looked a bit worried. 'So
if he could do so, so can any fleet of fighters he has, anywhere in the
galaxy. The Universe, even.' Sovan nodded. The others had nothing else to
say, either. They all stayed silent for the time being, thinking about it.
Then Wolf broke the silence. 'Sovan Jedi.' He asked the English teenager.
'You said you were affected by the brainwashing, and as such knew about
him. Right?' 'Yes.' He replied.  'So, you should know the most about him,
seeing as you were allowed to probe more- or- less into his mind. Right?'
Sovan knew what he was getting to, but remained doubtful. 'I'm not sure it
would work that way....' He began.  'So you should know where he lives.
Where his homeplanet is. We could nail him before he has a chance.' Sovan
shrugged again. 'It seems more of a stab in the dark, though....' Fox
stood up from the table. 'Sovan has a point. If they were wrong in the
prediction of his location, it could prove disasterous. What if we were to
take so many of our fleet to the designated spot, and find nothing? We
would leave Earth open, and either Andross or Thraktor, or any other
enemy that has come to light, could dessicrate it. If we were to send
people, they would have to be in limited numbers.'
'I understand.' Wolf admitted. 'It looks like taking the Great
Fox there would be pointless...' Fox nodded. 'Or a lot of the people of
our fleet. We might have to constrain it to only, three or so people for
the scout.' Slippy piped in. 'But what if his army IS at the designated
spot? The scouters could get creamed!'
'Radio in before you enter their space. Then we shall send more people
there.' Fox concluded. They all agreed.  So Sovan then stood up. 'You can
be sure I'm one of them who are going. I used to be proud of Thraktor. But
now..........' He added. 'So who else will be coming?' F.J. Stood up.
'I'll join, Sovan.' He concluded proudly.  Falco and Wolf looked to Sovan.
'We'll join as well.' They both said, at the same time.  Sovan looked
around. Everyone else was silent. 'I think that should be plenty enough
for me. Thank you for your help, everyone.'

The next day, after a few more NSider fleets came in and out of the Great
Fox laying above the rich blue earth, Sovan further probed his mind more.
He tried to think of everything that he knew about Thraktor, the creature
he had once thought he himself had created. He imagined the great beast
before him, and himself as a tiny little point of light, zooming straight
into the unnerving red eye of Thraktor. He went through everything
Thraktor knew, or what he had been made to know of Thraktor. His
inspiration of details that Sovan Jedi concluded even went through his
mind (like the name 'Thraktor', coincidentally suggested to Sovan in a
cartoon he saw), and of Thraktor's great descendant Skee Thanak, who he
was going to have appearing in a sequel to 'Lisen's Wrath', but
eventually gave up on it because he had no time to work on
it.

After much thinking, Sovan came to the information on Thraktor's
planet, Mexnar. A small, relatively low gravity planet, around the same
size as Earth. Murky yellow in colour, and swirling dust clouds adorning
over the whole of its rocky surface.  Zooming out, he saw the planet
shrink before him, further and further down, until it eventually got lost
with all of the stars of the galaxy. He recognized the galaxy as the Milky
Way- to the very edge of the long tails of the spiral of the cluster of
stars, millions and millions of them, floating outwards in space.  Sovan
opened his eyes. 'He's here!' He exclaimed. 'He's in our galaxy!' Everyone
jumped back as Sovan sprang to life. Slippy walked off to a nearby
monitor, busily tapping into it. Fox looked at Sovan. 'Are you sure?' He
asked.  Sovan nodded his head excitedly. 'Yes! His planet is in our
galaxy, on one of the largest and longest spirals of the main cluster.'

'Huh.' Falco scoffed. 'That narrows our scout to.... let's see.... 3, 4
years of searching.' Slippy looked over his broad flat shoulders. 'Not so.
If Sovan's memory is as good as we hope, he could recollate the place on
the galaxy map.' He took a step back, and a simulated holographic image
appeared on the screen, slowly rotating.  He walked up to the screen,
studying it carefully. He saw the tiny dots spread across the screen,
cogulating into two little tails off the centeral hub of stars, coiled
around it like a galactic whirlpool.  Closing his eyes, Sovan Jedi's image
of the galaxy appeared again. With lightning movement his image jerkily
flashed to Mexnar, then more slowly (and still jumpy) he zoomed out. He
pinpointed it exactly to the lower of the two tails, amonst a less dense 
colony of stars in its substance.  Sovan opened his eyes- amazed to see
that the slowly turning galaxy on the screen looked almost exactly like
his vision, angle and all. Without hesitance he pointed to the part in the
coil.

'There!' He said. 'Mexnar is there! The small, yellow rocky planet
of Mexnar is there!' Slippy placed his hand onto a large panel below the
huge monitor. He rubbed his hand diagonally down, and a marquee appeared
around where Sovan pointed. The area enlarged, and everyone looked,
astounded.  The system had 9 planets in it, three or four of them
exceedingly larger than the others. Between the first large one and a
small red planet, an asteroid belt rested.  Ace's mouth dropped. 'I don't
believe it! Our Solar System? Here?' Fox looked doubtful. 'Thraktor the
alien and his species have been living in your solar system, all of this
time?'

'Try a scan around the area for any other planets or large bodies
of gravity, Slippy.' Peppy urged.  A quick few taps on the buttons and a
confirmation buzz clarified it. 'No. there aren't even any bodies of
gravity anywhere near here. The closest planet, which has no lifeforms on
anyway, lies some 10 light years away.' Sovan couldn't even understand it
himself. 'Where..... how..... whe- WHY?' He eventually shouted.  Fox had
an explanation. 'Your race don't know as much of your own system as you
may think. Remember, your type is advanced in colony terms, yet you still
have to master space travel. You don't even have any firm information on
your farthest away planet.'
F.J. sigh, in a fox- like manner. 'It's true, and we know it. Their entire
race could be located anywhere in our Solar System.' But Sovan Jedi only
knew of one planet which matches the look of his vision. 'The only planet
Mexnar looks like is Venus. But it can't be.'
'Why not?' Wolf asked.  Sovan pulled his chest in. 'We may not be as good
at space travel as you lot, but we DO know enough on some of the planets.
And Venus is the closest planet to us!' 'Ah.' Wolf remarked.

'Sovan' Ace explained. 'We humans don't actually know that much even on
Venus, despite how close it is to us. But it does seem strange. Why
haven't they attacked? They're a viscious race, from what I heard.' Fox
broke in.
'Yes, but they are also a patient race. They've been in our galaxy for six
years, maybe even longer. Perhaps they've been neighbours with you for
centuries, without knowing it. They may not have been there forever, which
is why they haven't tried slaughtering you already.' 'But even centuries
seems hard to swallow. Why haven't they had contact with us?' Then Sovan
thought a bit. 'Oh yes. Perhaps they have. This may sound extremely corny,
but we could finally give an explanation to the UFO encounters we've been
having......'

Ace shook his head. 'Not quite. Some of those UFOs had grays flying them.'
'But some of them don't, and never had any explanation to them at all.
Also, there were many, many kinds of UFO. Grays only piloted one kind.'
Fox, Falco, Slippy, Peppy and Wolf were watching the humans discuss beyond
them. They had no idea what they were talking about, and didn't dare to
interrupt.  Sovan relaxed. 'Well, can you come up with a better idea?' He
asked, irritably. Ace's head shook quickly.  'But we have no time to spend
squabbling.' Fox told them both.
'We need to check the planet Venus for Thraktor and his army of
Mexnaviens. Then we can get rid of him, once and for all!'

Because of the more acessible predicted location of Thraktor's homeplanet,
more of the NSiders were allocated to coming with them. There was Sovan
Jedi, F.J., Ace, Starfoxandwolf, TheSilentAssassin, Foxmccloud101, Jonnie5
and Stick, and many more which he couldn't remember or knew. There were
about twenty in all, as well as Wolf o' Donnell, Falco Lombardi, and a
couple of others whih he didn't recognize.  Because of the limited space
inside the Great Fox the launchings of the ships occured in groups of
four. Sovan Jedi, declared group leader for the mission, was launched
first in his trusted old ship, followed by Wolf, Falco and F.J. McCloud,
who Sovan had become good friends with since they met for real. They
patiently flew in formation around the Great Fox, waiting for the others
to dock and launch out. They spent the time admiring the scenery of space,
the Great Fox and the blue sheen of the planet Earth below them.  Sovan
looked down to the tiny, tiny little island off the coast of Europe,
almost completely opposite of where everyone else had come from. England,
his home. Where his home used to be. But now, he would have no point going
back to that little place. His home had been destroyed, and nothing could
bring that back. His parents, his sister, were probably gone, with that
farm. His life had been practically erased off the face of the Earth. Now
he had to decide carefully, not simply on what to do now, but on what to
do for the rest of his life. He was open to anything he wanted.  But Sovan
never really wanted that. He wanted a simple life, and not to worry about
anything like this, what he was about to do. About to destroy an alien
race, secretly existing in their own system, who he had for a year
believed was nothing more than a made up story in his own mind. A memory,
that cost him his home.  With a bit more patient waiting all of the others
of the group had emerged from the hangar of the Great Fox. 'Is everyone
clear and standing by?' Falco ordered for everyone to reply. The three
leaders of the party all got a choruses of number registrations and
confirmations, suggesting everyone ready. Without haste, Wolf messaged
everyone the co-ordinates of Venus, which everyone adjusted to, ready for
hyperspace. A flash from the edges of every wingtip of every ship, and
they passed through the fabric of space into a wormhole of strands of
light. Then they were gone, onto an important voyage.  Merely a few
minutes afterwards, they all reached Venus. It was almost the Solar System
equivalent of Venom, covered in foul yellow clouds, tornados and
thunderstorms. Not a trace of the planet beneath appeared through any of
the atmosphere of it. They all headed for the planet, prepared for
anything. Sovan had sudden flashes of the planet he saw in his own mind,
then of Thraktor and his two brothers. He shook his head to clear his
thoughts.  Sovan warned everyone. 'Okay, this is group leader SJ. For
those that don't know, Venus is a very hostile landscape. It can get
extremely hot like a furnace. Our scientists have presumed there can be
heavy volcanic activity, active lightning through the sulphur clouds, and
earthquakes. Keep prepared, even if there isn't anything there.'

'Huh. Thanks pal.' TSA radioed in.  Eventually the
plating of the ships heated slightly. This signalled their entrance into
Venus' atmosphere. The gravity of the planet also acted upon them too, so
all of the ships levelled slightly so they wouldn't be plummeting towards
the ground. Not that they could actually see the ground, through all of
the sulphuric clods. Glowing flashed through a few clouds here and there,
a crackling noise eminating from them. A thunderstorm was approaching. 
But they had not time to worry about that, for they could already see
fighters popping out from the murky yellow clouds of Venus and heading up
to them. They were small, thin and had wings shaped like spider legs
curving forwards. Their black bodies shined from the sun's light.

'Looks like they've been expecting us.' Falco remarked.  'Okay everyone!'
Wolf radioed in to all of the fighters. 'Be prepared for action! They're
coming in fast!' Before they were ready the first starting fighters were
accelerating towards them, not firing but still at a dangerous speed. The
NSiders and the Starfox team members all spread out leaving large spaces
between them.  Sovan used his known knowledge of them to warn the pilots
of their attack patterns. 'Remember everyone! These fighters attack on
kamikaze styles. They have weak firepower, but their sharp wings are
deadly. Whatever you do, don't let them near you!' He veered sharply
upwards to dodge a passing fighter ship. It also missed the other two
behind him, coming out of the back of the group. Without haste the ship,
and all of the other speeding ships, turned around for another try.  The
largely spread group split apart, all for the fighters. Wolf and Falco
stuck together, ganging up on an unfortunate fighter who tried to get both
of them before. Sovan was on the trail of another fighter, madly attacking
it with gun lasers a-blazing. The hapless fighter simply resumed its
dodging. The other Nsiders had a fair chance against them. Indeed, many of
the alien fighters were downed in only a few minutes of action, where the
Nsiders were getting away with a few measly severed wings. A mistake on
the pilot's control and it leapt straight into Sovan Jedi's line of fire.
It hurtled to the side in explosions, sprinkling the air with tiny
glimmerings of black metal. He barely glimpsed the reptilian pilot,
clutching for his neck, then disintegrating into dust. Looking around, he
saw that everyone else had dispatched of most of the fighters. The rest
were acting hyper, though. They certainly weren't going to be sitting
ducks to the NSiders.  Wolf had time before they had eliminated the other
fighters to radio to Fox.

'Fox, we've got trouble. The Mexnaviens are on this planet Venus, and they
knew of our arrival.' 'Copy, Wolf. I'll send more recruits.' His voice
assured on the comm.  'Hey.' TSA broke in. 'Who or what is that?' Sovan
looked around him to see what he had seen.

Flashing from out of the clouds, a tiny little lizard being flew out into
the path of the group. He kept his clear distance from them, showing
himself. He had silver wings, and he was seemingly trying to signal to
them with his four arms.  'Oh no....' Sovan mumbled.  'Go away,
creaturesssss.' The being rasped to them, all radioed onto their comms.
'Leave now, or die.' 'Who are you?' Falco tried to radio to him. But the
signal was only one way- he had no proper receiver of his own.  'I can
answer this one Falco.' Sovan radioed, then he opened his signal to reach
everyone's comms. 'People, this is Navos Khar''lissen, brother of
Thraktor. Open fire on him- he is agile, strong, and extremely dangerous.'
'So THIS is one of the brothers you mentioned, Sovan.' Ace replied. 'Who's
the other one?' Sovan shook his head. 'There's no time to explain that.
When we meet him I'll tell you everything.' Navos circled in the air, then
flew back down through the clouds. 'Everyone, seek and terminate Navos.
Now!!' They all went below the cloud beginnings, through the musty brown
smoke down to the actual surface of the planet. The air was extremely hot,
but the Arwings of the Starfox crew adjusted them to more comfortable
levels. Everyone else had to suffer more with less luxuries.  Navos was
spotted cornering around a live volcano. The lava melting down its
charcoal black sides was almost revolting, and a bubble of it would spray
glowing hot fragments of itself further outwards. More volcanoes spread
out to the horizon of the planet. It looked very hostile indeed, complete
with random lightning from above. The others followed Navos across the
planets surface. He ducked and dived to avoid spurts of magma and flying
boulders, and so did everyone else. A few flew over the mountain tops,
uncertain of their own skills. Instead they kept an eye out for any other
craft in the sky.  They needn't had bothered. From the dense clouds
dropped hundreds of fighters, black in colour and evil in shape. They
intimidated those in the air who panicked and flew with the others in the
cavern. The fighters made a mad dash for them closer to the gr ound. Some
even carelessly flew into the rocky terrain, exploding. The rest were in
hot pursuit of them and still above them, all chasing after the single
lone pilot and Sovan Jedi, bent on revenge.  Past more volcanoes, Navos
skimmed past a cliff edge, quickly dislodging a boulder, falling for
Sovan's ship. He dodged it, and so did the others behind him. An enemy
craft which was low down was hit squarely on, falling downwards into an
opening crack of an earthquake. Then Navos dived straight down, followed
by Sovan.
'Sovan- wait!' F.J. called to him. He kept going forward, looking down to
the two going to the ground. What was hidden by the rocky hills was that
they were, in fact, heading for an extremely deep hole in the ground. They
both disappeared from sight. And they were left, on the surface of Venus,
surrounded by fighter craft.

Sovan flew further and further down through the striped corridors at
incredible speed and vertigo. He was still facing straight downwards, and
was going far below the crust of the planet. Navos had skillfully turned
in mid air, taunting to him with three hands. He turned around and
resumed his trek down the corridor. Windows and tiny buildings flashed
past them from the outside of the cockpit, colonies of the things. Sovan
gazed around him in awe- it was something clearly from a Science Fiction
book, yet it was all very, very real. And frightening.  Navos flew
downwards out of his view, showing the large cavern. This was far into
Venus' surface, perhaps even in the planet's mantle. The very walls of the
cavern glowed red- hot, perhaps not as warm as the very core of the
planet, but close enough. Sovan's relatively old ship was heating up
terribly, glowing slightly. He looked at his readings to find the lifeline
of his ship slowly sinking away. He had precious little time to stay here.
'So, Navos. You've done well, brother!' An amplified voice from behind him
echoed. Sovan quickly spun his ship around to see what it was.  Three tiny
ships were floating before him. Well, one of them was still Navos,
unaffected somehow by the temperature of the cavern. Thraktor's snarling
face showed in his tiny cockpit, and to the left of him was Ynoxyn's
shriveled little face. Their ships were of no astounding features at all-
simply a small blob with little wings horizontally sticking out. Thrusters
barely kept them up in the air, and they had rather weedy little blasters
in the front of them. Nevertheless, Sovan remained poised.  'Navos, Ynoxyn
and Thraktor Khar''lissen' said Sovan. 'The three banished brothers of
Mexnar.' 'Otherwise known, as 'Venus'.' Ynoxyn said proudly with a deep
rasping voice.  'The sons of the devil- Lisen.' He also added. 'You want a
piece of me? You don't stand a chance'.  But Thraktor, in the way that all
villains were, kept as calm as before. 'We'll just see about that. Jon!'
Sovan was shocked. How did Thraktor know about his real name? Everyone at
the NSider refered to everyone else by their User names. But Thraktor
somehow knew about his name. However this is far from threatening to him,
for it didn't spell certain doom. Or did it? After all, he knew about
Thraktor's middle and last name, and his life. Almost everything Thraktor
himself knew. Certainly he would be on their list of targets to- Knew
everything he did? And Thraktor knew his name? Perhaps........ oh no, he
thought. He doesn't.  'Yes, Jon. I know everything about you, as much as
you know about me. I've been controlling the passing information from mind
to mind....' 'With the help of me.' Ynoxyn the magical Khar''lissen said. 
'Yes. When Andross had passed his telekinetic powers to this system my
thoughts were somehow caught with it, all channelled into you. When I
realized this, Ynoxyn used it to reverse the powers of it, so I could
gather information from your kind. Knowing of things like this planet,
and the UFO stories, we inserted a story to your paltry little brain of
our existence.' Sovan looked confused. 'You mean...... you don't actually
come from this... planet?'
'No. And we have had no other contact with your planet. Until now, that
is. We shall plague your planet, slay all, then leave. We hate life. We
simply hate. We are the Sons of the Devil.' Sovan saw the whole place
lighten. His body lost consiousness. His mind was put to sleep. 

Sovan opened his eyes. He was staring at the ceiling of the cabin
quarters. He got up, to look around the room. He was rested on the bottom
bunk bed, in a grey little room, the floor covered with magazines, socks
and other items. There was the large window on the other side of the
room, open to the view of deep space.  Sovan got up to look around the
room, his room. How...... he decided not to even bother. He was still in
his uniform, tattered and dirty. He scratched his head.  Peppy walked into
the door. 'Thank goodness you're awake! We thought you hadn't made it!'
'Uhhhnnn....' Sovan moaned. 'What happened?' Peppy cocked his head. 'You
mean you didn't remember your ship hurtling into outer space?'
'I.....What?' He looked distressed.  'Your ship blew out of the ground in
a ball of flames. We found you up in the upper atmosphere of Mexnar in
just the cockpit. The rest of the ship was scorched.' 'Peppy.....' He
paused. 'I saw them. The three brothers. Including Thraktor. They
explained it all.' And he told Peppy, then the rest of the crew, about the
three brothers, all ready to attack the earth. They were frauds, and used
Sovan Jedi to their advantage. But they are still dangerous. This is
hardly the end of the battle. More like the end of peace.

TO BE CONTINUED.......