Starfox: Medusa's Gaze Crrk....'General Pepper, come in Pepper!' Crrk. No answer. Crrk....'General Pepper, this is an emergency! We need full defensive on the ground level!' Crrk. Still no answer. Crrk....'GENERAL PEPPER! WE NEED HELP!! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!' Crrk....'This is Pepper speaking. Reading transmission. I'm sending in recruits. Over'. Crrk. Great. This isn't what Pepper needed right now. His planet was still in shock from the war against Andross to be bothered by anything. Those people sounded trouble enough. What could it be? Crrk....'Identify the enemy. Could it be Andross' fleet? Over' Crrk. Crrk....'Negative. They're of a different design. They're harder to destroy! WHERE ARE THOSE RECRUITS?!?! WE NEED THEM!!!' Crrk. There was only one thing to do; call the Starfox crew. It feels a minor job to resort to them, but there was nothing else he could do. Crrk....'Starfox, we're under attack. I repeat, we're under attack. We need your help. OVER' CrrK. 'The Starfox team, here. Fox reporting. Where are the enemy?' Crrk....'In zone 12. Over' Crrk. 'Roger. We're on our way!' 'Thank goodness for that', Pepper thought. At least that's one worry off his back. But it wasn't that that frightened him the most. What was the new type of craft that we were attacking? It couldn't be Andross' type, and the pilot confirmed it wasn't his regular type of ship. Or had the pilot been mistaken? Had he actually mistaken it to be something different, and Andross actually had started a war again? No. He reminded himself. The Starfox team ran Andross' "Empire" out of the Lylat System, and Andross was killed by Fox himself. That was only a month ago though. It could possibly be him.... Fox and his team headed to zone 12. "What a time for more trouble", Fox thought. Slippy whined because it interrupted him on a new invention of his. Another machine, no doubt. He mad a good job of the Blue-Marine though, so it might not turn out to be so pointless. Falco was always complaining. That's what Fox hated so much about him. He's so edgy, and never stops trying to show off. He's a good pilot, sure, but it often goes to his head. Fox only really trusted Peppy. He was a good friend of his father before he died, and remained faithful to him as well. He's getting a bit old for combat these dats though, so he needed to be watched occasionally. Suddenly, he could see some action up ahead on the horizon. This must be the enemy! Fox saw something flying towards his group. It was flailing in all directions. Briliant orange flames licked the hull as it dropped out of the sky and headed straight for them! 'All right guys, evasive action!' Fox called as all four Arwings dodged away from one another. The ship fell through the middle of them all, barely scraping past Slippy. 'Whoa! That was close!' Slippy cried. Fox just ignored him. Fox caught a quickglimpse at it while it plummeted past them. It was a badly damaged Cornerian Army battle cruiser. Giant electric arcs raced around the hull as the ship's atmosphere escaped. The massive gouge on one side of the vessel caught Fox's eye- no trooper ship of Andross' did anything like that. Then they reached the area. It looked ominous. The Cornerian fleet, only partially in formation, was clustered facing the southeast- presumably where the enemy lie. Fox looked ahead of the fleet but could only see a handful of bogeys. A few, compared to the huge cornerian armada. Nevertheless Fox glided to the head of the pack. 'Falco, Peppy, you split up and circle the group. Take some crew with you and surround the enemy. Slippy and I will attack head on.' Falco gruffly agreed. Peppy went ahead without complaint. Each soared around their separate sides, taking a group of fighters, and spread around the group of enemy ships. They weren't slow to react. The whole group flew forward in a straight line without even shooting. 'Slippy, look out!' Fox yelled into his microphone. Slippy responded by jerking out of the way. Fox did so too. As they passed by, he took a much better look at the ships. The charcoal black vessels had strange, spidery wing that arched forward menacingly. Their stramlined cockpits were surprisingly thin. The pilot must've be incredibly thin, too! The ships just flew straight through. A couple of cornerians weren't quick enough, and ended up sliced by the razor- sharp wings. Mangled wings, stabilizers, and miscellaneous wreckage fell to the ground without flames before finally exploding on impact. The enemies remained unscathed. It dawned on Fox. They're definitely not Andross' type! These opponents are fare more aggressive, and rightly so too. They're almost invincible! 'Regroup!' Fox radioed to everyone. They all did so. 'Crud!' Falco shouted. 'How are we gonna stop them?'. 'They must have a weakness' Peppy suggested. 'Fox, use one of your Nova Bombs!' 'Not yet, only as a last resort. They're precious!'. Plus, Fox thought, it might wipe out the entire Cornerian crew. Their Arwings would cope- they have special armor that could witstand the massive impulse of a Nova Bomb explosion, but he wouldn't want to take innocent lives. 'Everyone, space out, all around them. Don't get within a few feet from each other.' The whole group flew their way around the little group, who were now returning for another flight. They charged in again. This time, everyone was ready for them. The ones who were in front of them dodged out of the way, and only one person lost a wing. The ones who were facing the same direction as them were now following them, shooting at them. Fox and Slippy followed suit. Slippy was surprisingly useful now; he had an enemy on target, and kept shooting at him. Fox was behind another. He tried his lasers and kept pummeling the ship for a whole concentrated minute before it finally fell in defeat. Slippy's bogey had now somersaulted, and was after him. He was taking heavy damage. 'Help me Fox!' he squealed. Fox flew over behind him and shot the enemy a couple of times until he rolled off to the side. In fact, he was flying out of the battlefield and out of the sky entirely. Fox thought of following him, but there was too much trouble here. He decided he had to resort to a Nova Bomb. 'All Cornerian ships, fly to safety!' They carefully veered off back to the group left behind. Fox got a Nova Bomb docked in the funnel of his launcher. He would just need to lock-onto them. He got his sights up on the tracker, and turned to one of the ships. It beeped, confirming a lock-on. 'So long, fellas!' Fox said to himself. He launched the bomb. He turned to the side and averted his eyes from the explosion. A huge, bright flash of light was emitted from the point of explosion, and was accompanied by a deafening boom. Fox and Slippy turned and headed back to the group of fighters. Fox looked back. All he could see was specks floating down from the fleet. That's all that's left of the fighters, then. Fox noticed a ship lying on the ground as he headed back. It was the one he shot down earlier. It was still in good condition, despite all the firepower he put into it. Then he could see something climb out. It was green in skin, and had a strange suit on. He fell to the ground. Then disintegrated. Fox did a double take. Disintegrated? How was that possible? Then Fox looked worried. Forget Andross, they weren't even from this system! Then he looked at the group of fellow pilots. The damage was worse than he had first thought. The group was whittled down to a third of the size, and many had lost their wings. Even Peppy had sustained damage. 'Hey Fox, you left a ship! It was a good job I was here to take care of it!' Falco mentioned smugly. Fox quietly gritted his teeth. Falco, he thought, you are really annoying. They all headed to base. It had settled down for a while after the attack in the morning, but Pepper had other worries. He gathered the Starfox team to one of the debriefing rooms. 'Fox, it appears that we may start another war soon. Looks like Andross wasn't destroyed before, and has returned' But Fox knew of better. 'General Pepper sir, I saw one of their ships up close. They're not of Andross' type. We may be dealing with something else here' He hesitated to tell him of the pilot. He'll mention it when he needs to. 'That doesn't prove much Fox. It might be Andross just making a new type of soldier. Whatever it is, it must be stopped before anything serious happens'. Pepper turned in his chair to consider what to do. He might as well mention it. 'That.. that's not all I saw, sir' He was having some trouble getting it out. What if he thought of him as being mad? 'As I shot down one of them, the pilot crawled out. It.... it disintegrated' Pepper stopped what he was doing. That got his attention. Peppy, Slippy and Falco was also surprised. He turned to face Fox. 'Disintegrated, you say? Are you sure?' 'I am positive, sir. It climbed out and just disappeared. I believe that these new ships aren't even from our galaxy.' That did it, he thought. Now they're going to throw me into the Cornerian asylum and throw away the keycard. Put Pepper was more interested than anything. 'This pilot's ship, is it still in one piece?' 'Yes sir.' 'Hmmm. I had already sent a team of scientists down there to analyze the remains, if any, so their search will not be in vain. Okay, Fox, you are dismissed'. He turned back around and turned on his radio for statistics of some sort. Fox and the team walked uniformly out into the docking bay, and back into the inteprid Great Fox which laid idlly in the hangar. 'Fox, are ya sure of what you saw back there?' Peppy asked. He had a tinge of doubt in his voice. 'Of course I'm sure. My eyesight isn't bad' 'I bet he just made up the whole thing up to cover his mistakes. 'Falco mentioned, leaning on the wall. 'Falco, just what is your problem?' Fox couldn't take it anymore, he just wanted to unleash all his anger into him, to get it over and done with. Falco now got up and stood face to face with Fox. He was looking angry too. Then the message alert was bleeping. There was someone on the radio. ROB trundled into the room. 'Message from Corneria. Priority three'. It must be Pepper, they must have analyzed the remains of the craft. Slippy went to the control room and switched on the radio. Pepper's face appeared. He looked freaked. Crrk....'Fox, you were right. It is an alien spacecraft. Analysis suggests it's made of an unknown metal, three times harder than anything we have here, but light enough to be used on the small craft. The controls are written in a different language. Please come to the debriefing room again. Over. 'Crrk. 'Well' Fox said. 'Looks like we'll be kept busy. Come on, guys'. He stared at Falco, smug. Falco was slowly going red with anger, which was quite a feat, since the feathers around his face were red anyway. 'Fox, this is a top priority. That alien craft was, as I told you, nothing like what we've seen before. We have reason to believe that they are planning an attack on Corneria. That may have just been a scout troop, sent to analyze our defenses. We also think that they may have taken Andross' base on Venom. We need a small scout troop to fly there and check it out.' Fox just nodded. 'We need extra people, as we're being strained enough already with our defenses on the ground. There may be another attack on our base. We can only send two people, you are one of them. It is your job to select your co-pilot. You are dismissed.' Fox and the team suddenly found themselves outside of the room. That was a quick briefing! Pepper must be really stressed about this- if he wants to hold all the people back for defenses. They headed back again to the Great Fox. 'Who am I going to take with me?' Fox asked his teammates. 'I'll go, Fox' Slippy replied. 'Huh, we're all doomed' Falco muttered, leaning on the wall again. 'I can handle it' Slippy tried to reason with Falco. 'Yeah, like the time we had to save you from Titania' Falco snapped. 'You're lucky we didn't leave you to be eaten by the wildlife there!'. 'Hey, calm down' Fox said. Then he turned to Slippy 'Slippy, I admire your enthusiasm, but you'll do better as defenses at Corneria' Slippy seemed content, so he kept quiet. Peppy, after a while said 'I would like to join you, but you know I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. I might fail and get us killed, like with your dad' Ouch, that hurt. 'I'll also stay back on Corneria.' Great. Now what was Fox meant to do? He didn't want to take Falco with him, but there was no-one else he could think of. Fox sat down and pondered on the solution for a while, before realizing. 'I know who to take....' Morning was just dawning on Titania. Actually, it was quite hot here, being closer to Solar than any other planet. Bill was on his morning patrol around the central building. Actually, there wasn't much point. Nothing much had happened after the battle with the Saucerer over this base. Bill pondered on that for a while as he passed around the roof again. They mad a great job of clearing the rubble from the fallen spacecraft. The Saucerer was huge- it would completely block out Solar from the point of view from the ground. It was a good job the Starfox team had arrived in time and destroyed it. But after that, nothing happened. No more enemies. No more shipments of anything. Bill was tired from waking early in the morning and forced to do his flight. It was boring, with nothing happening. Then he saw something flash in the sky. There was only one flash, indicating someone coming out of hyperspace. It was heading towards them. Bill got ready to attack if needed. But then, he looked closer at it. He recognized it. It wasn't any old ship, it was a friendly ship. It was- an Arwing! A message came in on his radio. Fox's face appeared. 'Bill, how ya doin'?' Bill quickly replied. 'Fox, long time no see!' He never got around to having a talk with him after the war. 'No time for that, Bill. We've got a job to do'. 'We?' 'Yeah, if it's alright with ground defense' 'Ah, nothing much has been happening here anyway' Bill said. 'They'll get a replacement to cover for me' 'Alright, let's go!' His Arwing flew straight into the air, and disappeared. Bill didn't even have time to ask him anything. He simply followed. Out in space, Bill spotted Fox's ship, and flew close to it. 'So let me in on some information' Bill asked. 'Where are we going?' 'We're going to Venom' Fox replied. There was none of the original defenses left around the planets atmosphere, so they could simply fly through to the base. 'Why?' Bill asked again. 'Bill, we've got trouble. There may be a new base on Venom, with a new fleet' 'Andross again?' 'No, it's a different enemy. I've seen their ships. It's not even from this galaxy.' Bill was perplexed. A new kind of spacecraft, alien to this galaxy? Bill tried to keep calm. This was trouble indeed. They came out of hyperspace close to Venom. It hardly changed over the last month or so. The toxic flumes emitted from the surface were as menacing as ever. There were even swirls of clouds forming on the surface. They were probably storms. 'Just like old times' Bill murmured. They entered through Venom's atmosphere, and were now in the lower quartile on Venom. It was a barren, stinking landscape, with absolutely no warming aspects to it. There were no lifeforms or plants on the planet, and it just looked an evil place. Of course, it didn't use to be like this. In fact, it's beauty was once second only to Corneria's, until Andross was banished to here and began his bio-chemical experiments. Once he was gone, Pepper was going to restore the place to it's original splendor. They passed over the old base, but it remained the same as he last left it. There was definitely nothing going on here. 'Fox, there's nobody involved here' Bill said. 'Let's look around if we've missed anything' 'Alright Bill, we'll meet here at...' Fox turned to adjust his internal timer to match that with Venom. Bill did so too. 'Bill, we'll meet up here at 10:00 hours. Over. 'That would give them 4 hours to find the base. 'Copy.' Bill flew off to the south, keeping low. Fox flew up to the north and did the same. This part of the planet was all full of canyons and valleys. It seemed the likely place for an enemy base to be hidden, somewhere in the deep trenches. It would take him a long time to find it though, but he had the time. He lowered the Arwing to fly through the start of the winding canyon. It was smaller than it had first seemed from the sky; perhaps he misjudged the scale of it. He passed through the stone arches and stalagmites. this part was too full of stalagmites to contain an enemy base. No matter how hard the ships are, they would no doubt crash trying to glide through them every time. He lifted up to avoid them all, and looked out of his cockpit to check. Sure enough, there were no hangars or such for bases. But Fox carried on flying around the canyons on the lookout for bases. After an hour, he gave up; there was definitely no base here. Suddenly, his radio clicked on. Bill was on the screen. 'Arrrgh! *fzzt*.... Fox, come...*fzzt* *crrkle*' 'Bill?' It was trouble. He flew back to where they were to meet up. 'Hang on, I'm coming!' '*crrkle*... Fox, no! It's a trap! They're waiting *fzzt*. Then it fuzzed out and finished. That was it. He wouldn't let his friend die at enemy hands, trap or no trap. He switched on the turbo boost. When Fox got there, he couldn't believe his eyes. Bill's ship was really badly damaged- it had no wings left, and was on fire. It was being held in a tractor beam by a much larger ship. All around were lot of fleets of the little crafts that were fought back on Corneria. They remained poised, flying around in a ring. Around Fox. Fox didn't have a chance. He knew what only a handful of around 5 did to the fleet of Cornerian craft, but there was around two, perhaps three hundred of them around. They would rip apart his Arwing in a second. Fox had no choice but to keep off. 'Dang!' Fox said to himself. After Bill had been taken by the ship's beam, it re-adjusted to take Fox. As the beam came on, he had no control of the Arwing. It was being pulled up by a tractor beam. But also, Fox was all of a sudden getting tired. Very tired. His eyelids were becoming heavier to hold up. It must have an effect on the pilot as well, a sort of anesthetic. Fox needed to rest his head. He couldn't keep alert anymore. He lost consciousness. Fox pried his eyes open, and looked around. He was in a square, gray room. There was a hatch on one wall. It smelled of an unusual smell, of spice and rust mixed together. It itched his nose. Fox went to lift his hand to rub, but he couldn't. His hands had been tied behind his back. Right next to him was Bill. He was waking up as well. 'Bill' Fox groaned. 'Are you alright?' 'Uuh, yeah'. He was more badly affected from the fight than Fox thought. He had suffered with a black eye, and his face was scratched. 'Where are we?' 'I don't know. Last thing I remember was being pulled onto the ship in a beam.' 'We must be still on there' 'I don't know, we might have been out for a long time'. Then Fox noticed something on the hatch on the other side. A flap had just opened. 'Bill, keep quiet.' Fox whispered. Bill did so. But there was already someone staring at him. All he could see was the eyes on the guard gaze at him. They were pitch black, except for red pupils. As Fox stared at it, they contracted- sideways. Fox broke out into a sweat. He couldn't stop looking at the eyes staring at him. Then the guard faced away from the slit and spoke into his pocket. Actually, 'spoke' was farther from the truth- he was making noises like a series of scraping metallic noises. Then Fox realized. Of course, if they came from outer space, they wouldn't speak Lylat. A similar voice spoke to him from his pocket. That was probably his radio to talk on. The guard stepped to the side of the latch. Fox could hear some tapping close by. Then a series of lasers came down from the roof and cut Fox and Bill from another half of the cell. The door was on the other side of the lasers. It was a safety precaution, presumably for visitors to the captives. 'Wonder what's happening? 'Bill said after a long pause. 'I don't know' Fox dumbly replied. Then, the door opened. in walked the most monstrously grotesque being Fox had ever seen. He was around eleven foot tall, and was similar to a giant crocodile with satanic horns on his forehead. He was covered by a dull red chest of armor, polished enough to give it a reflective highlight. Strapped to his thigh was a terrifying curved sword with ominous barbs. He had an assortment of skulls tied to his belt too, many of which Fox couldn't make out. A lens of some type covered his right eye. Fox could see a targeting sight on it. The being eyed Bill. As he came closer, Fox noticed a smell of rotting flesh. He was making a grating metallic sound as he opened his mouth. 'Haxxgb ftrg.' 'Huh?' Bill asked. The creature straightened himself up, and reached to his back. He pulled out a little contraption, and aimed it at Bill's forehead. A deep red laser slowly beamed to Bill, but it didn't seem to harm him. A few seconds later, he pulled it away again. 'Bill' Fox whispered worriedly. 'Are you okay?' 'Yeah' Bill whispered back. 'But it felt cold.' Now the being stared into the contraption with his lens eye. The lens was flashing with lines of coding. After another couple of seconds (exactly the length of time taken to extract it from Bill) he put it back into his belt. 'Well, now' the being rasped. 'I have enough of the voice recognition to speak your language. Lylat, I think' His voice still had a metallic sound to it, but it was more understandable. 'Wh-who are you?' Fox asked. He was shaking slightly by now. 'HA! I wouldn't be bothering to say anything to you, scum' he replied. Then he squinted at him with his better eye. 'But as I'm going to feast on you, I needn't be worried of anything. Allow me to introduce you to your god. My name is Thraktor Khar''lissen of the Zhek system. I had long been banished from there though, so I have been looking for other systems to conquer. I found this system- the Ly-laat system- ten of your years ago. It was perfect for conquering' He walked to the other side of the room and leant on it. It reminded him of Falco. For once, he was wishing that he turned up to help, much as he would hate to admit it. 'But if you came here that long ago, where have you been?' 'My men' Thraktor rasped 'Had been taken by a pathetic ambush on our way in to here. We wiped them out easily, but then a band of three fighters arrived and somehow disabled us. I had still the upper hand, of course, but I decided to fly in with these fighters. They were referred to as Starwolf, I think...' 'Starwolf!' Fox cried. 'Silence, scum!' Thraktor snapped. Then he resumed his story. 'Their leader, Andross, was a cruel and insane scientist. He was second rate compared to me, but otherwise a bearable person, and his bio-chemical weapons were admirable'. Then Bill asked; 'How did you two communicate? You needed a knowledge of Lylat to speak to us'. 'Andross spoke to me with his mind. He had developed a way of speaking without using his tongue, native or not. It was quite ingenious, but he had lost it when he died, so I had no way of speaking to you with it.' Those experiments were evil, and Andross was an insane fool. Yet Thraktor was talking about him like he was almost a friend. 'I made a pact with him that we would both rule the system, using his bio-chemistry and my mechanical skills. I supplied him designs for the perimeter leaders, although the idiot used the weak metals from this system to design them. As he grew older and his body dying, the stupid old creature needed my technology just to keep him alive. Now he was beginning to annoy me. I was secretly planning designs to conquer the system after he had won' He now stood up normally and paced alongside his side of the cage. 'But now that he has finally been killed, I can carry on regardless with my plan of system dominance. I have been building a machine capable of taking out the whole enemy armada, with the finishing touches being added. Nothing will stop us!'. Then he turned to face Fox 'With some difficulties' Thraktor added. 'On our scout on the furthest planet from Andross' planet, we ran into trouble with some...' Thraktor looked disgusted 'admittedly skilled pilots. Only one of our crew survived. That's one survivor out of a group of eight' He seemed to be crying in an alien way, but Fox could see it was fake. This guy didn't care about his people, he just wanted power. 'Andross warned me of this team of pilots before he died. Their leader had a vow against him because of his father's death at his hands. His name, I can remember....' Now he leaned close to the laser beams separating them. '..was Fox McCloud. Hello Fox.' Oh no. Not only did he know about Starfox, he even knew who was the leader- and that he had him as their captor. This was really bad. 'Actually, it wasn't Andross who killed your father' Thraktor smiled in a sweetly evil way. 'He gave that honor to me. In fact, I think I have something of his here' He reached to his belt, and got something out. It was a pair of dark glasses, with a huge crack on the side. He recognised them to be his father's. Now Fox was full of anger. He felt like ripping out of the cage and killing him. 'You... you...' Fox felt the tears stinging his eyes. Thraktor chuckled cruelly. He dropped the glasses on the floor and crushed them under his foot. 'Don't even bother saying anything. In a few hours, you will be joining him.' He flung around and walked out of the hatch. 'I'll be putting you into cryogenic suspension for feasting later. SSSKT!' The lasers disappeared from the ceiling, and two guards walked into the cell. They were much smaller than Thraktor with less armor, but were still menacing. 'I will enjoy feasting on you later, undeveloped worms. Now I am removing myself of a minor problem. Your homelands!' He marched out of the hatch and laughed maniacally walking down the corridor. The two guards undid the locks holding Fox and Bill's arms behind them, then carried them out of the cell. They put a simple pair of handcuffs on their hands as they go them up off the floor. 'Hey Bill. We need to get out of here' Fox whispered. 'Ya don't say' Bill said sarcastically. 'But how?' 'I'll think of something'. As they were being taken, they passed by a large long sheet of glass. When Fox stared into it, he saw it was a window to the hangar. He saw the giant ship that took him in the tractor beam. It was a very strange shape, being cylinder(side on) but quite flat. The three thrusters of the ship stretched alongside the whole of the ship. It had four wings which curved forward, like the ones on the little ships. It was pretty frightening to see all the gun turrets attached over the torso- even the beacons on the wings were defended. Then the boosters started, and it flew off out of the hanger. Fox could see the entry to the hangar, leading outside of the building. It was a dull gray surface, with a beige tinge to the clouds in the sky. He could see a rail track in the far distance. A rail track? It didn't pass by this base, so it wasn't used by these aliens. He only knew of one place that had a track. It must be Macbeth! So their base had actually been on Macbeth, not Venom. Obviously, Thraktor's opinion on priority of planets was different to Andross'. The guard behind Fox fired a laser at him. It merely shocked him, but stung him in the back. 'Thwwwwwwwk, xxxghxxx ttttttttk!!' The guard snarled behind him. Fox couldn't understand what he said, but he caught the gist of it. He hurried alongside with Bill. 'I have a plan to get out' Fox whispered again. 'We just need to get rid of the guards' 'Leave that to me' Bill replied. He started slowing down, and walked behind the guard following Fox. The guard didn't seem to notice, as it wasn't really paying attention. When the guard reverted his sight, it noticed Bill. 'Ffkfffx!' it shouted. It got it's laser beam out. Bill quickly dodged to one side, where it passed by and hit the other guard. It shocked the guard with greater force than it did with Fox. Fox elbowed the guard in the chin, and charged into it's stomach, where it smashed into the wall and slid to the floor. He quickly grabbed the beam off it's belt. Bill leashed his elbow into the other guard, but it merely winced. It smacked Bill out of the way, who fell to the floor next to the fallen guard. As the other guard charged up his laser, Fox shot his one in it's face. He kept it on constantly for a long time. When he finished, the guard screamed an almighty metallic scream and fell to the floor clutching it's eye. It seemed to be in a lot of pain, but it gradually laid down on the floor. Fox watched it in horror as it was withering around. He could smell rotten flesh again. Then, the thing was still. It disintegrated, and left a fine dusty sillouhette of itself on the floor. He looked at the wall where the guard hit it. There was a huge dent, but it slowly flattened out, and reverted to normal. Fox gestured at Bill's handcuffs. He held them out, then Fox aimed the beam at them. It snapped in the center. Bill grabbed the other guards laser device and did the same with Fox's handcuffs. Then Fox realized. The other guard hadn't disintegrated. It must still be alive! Who knows how long he knocked it out for? They have to run. Quick! 'How did you know how to operate it?' Bill asked. 'What? Oh, the laser. I didn't see any buttons. It must have been pressure operative. We have no time for that. Hurry!' Bill and Fox ran down the corridor and hid in a little alcove in the shade. 'There must be some way we can get rid of these people!' Fox gasped. 'If we could get to an operative device, we might get some idea of Thraktor's plans.' 'Got ya.' Bill leaned forward to look around the corner. Nobody was coming. Bill and Fox searched down the long, tube-like corridor, hiding when they heard guards coming. They didn't run into any trouble when they found a large door. As they sneaked up to it, the doors slid open. Actually, they 'molded' into the walls on either side. Inside, they couldn't see anything, except for one side of the room almost completely covered with flashing orbs of lights. A single screen was in the center. 'This looks like it' Fox whispered. Fox ran up to the screen. When he got to it, it was, surprisingly, in Lylat. How could it be, if these were aliens? It may have been used by Andross' old minions when they were in conjunction. But Fox didn't argue anymore. He tapped into the computer network, and searched for any blueprints for the plans. Bill, guarding by the door with both the laser beam and his handheld gun, was being cautious. They were saving the fate of the galaxy. Bill didn't want to let his home planet down, and neither did Fox. After a while tapping, Fox found some blueprints. It had a full blown diagram of the plan-out view of the ship in the hangar. He could see every room that was originally built in it. Again, it was in Lylat. He had the plans for the ship, but that couldn't be enough- it simply wasn't powerful enough, from the blueprints, to be able to take the entire galaxy. There must be more pages of information. Fox continued looking for other pages. He still didn't understand the understandable writing. This was getting confusing. Could these really be aliens, or are they merely using a cover of fear to seem more fearsome? Bill was waving frantically. Fox had just found another file, although he didn't actually see any of it. 'We've got company!' Bill whispered. Three slightly dangly- looking creature, who were more scaly than the guards, were heading towards the room. Fox didn't have any more time to do anything else. He downloaded the two pages onto an Infodisk which popped out of the slot. He didn't notice it in the slot- it must actually form the disks when needed. This might be alien technology after all. Now Fox notice a device on the wall. On it had written the words; SELF DESTRUCT. 'Fox, what are you doing?' Bill asked irritably. 'When they go past, I'll activate the self- destruct mode to remove the heart of the base' The aliens didn't walk past the door. They walked into the room. They immediately spotted Bill and Fox. 'WQik?' one of the aliens bleated. Bill reacted quickly. He blasted his gun, which singed through one of the guards heads clean. It disintegrated before dropping to the floor, leaving a pile of green dust. The other two panicked. One of them ran straight at Bill and lunged for him. Bill blasted, but it merely went through it's shoulder. Although it left a massive hole, it didn't seem perturbed. It landed on Bill, making him drop his laser gun. 'Fox, help me!' he cried. Fox used his laser beam on the creature's head, but it didn't even make him react. He ran up to the alien and kicked it squarely on the snout. He felt a satisfying 'Crack!', and the alien fell backward onto his back, facing upward. It too disintegrated. The other alien reached for a button on the wall and pressed it. They felt a deep rumbling and vibration, along with a low beating sound. It kept repeating. 'That must be their siren!' Fox remarked. Fox went to the SELF DESTRUCT button and pressed it. The alien reached out with one hand. 'ALMQ! It squealed. Bill grabbed his gun and shot at the alien. It's arm fell of, with no blood. It pulled the stump of the remaining arm back and cowered into the corner. Fox placed the Infodisk in his pocket. He noticed a little pattern on the computer screen. It was rotating, but decreased in size with every cycle. Then he realized. This is their timer, bit it's in alien! They didn't even know how long they had to escape! 'BILL! RUN!!' Fox shouted. They ran straight out of the door and up the way they had come. 'I know a way out!' Fox yelled at Bill. He nodded. Up the corridor, they came past the window again. Fox gestured to the glass panel. Bill got his gun out and fired a couple of rounds at the sheet. The holes on it expanded and the whole sheet melted to the floor. Fox looked over the edge into the hangar. The drop down wasn't too far down. He leaped out of the window and landed on the floor. He looked around, then signaled to Bill. He jumped out onto the floor next to Fox. 'C'mon, let's go!' Then they ran. Fox had almost forgotten about the bomb set in the control room, but it had an unidentifiable timer. For all they know, they could be too late. Now they made it out into the outside of Macbeth. They decided to head towards the ruins of the train track that MechBeth used to run on. That would act as a bomb shelter. They made it after a long run. The time given must have been very generous for staff to evacuate. And indeed they used the opportunity. He could spot little craft flying out into all directions in the sky. He took a look at the base for the first time. Like every other machine of Thraktor's, it was evil looking, night black and spiny all over. It had lots of hangars open over the whole ship. Theirs was the only hangar at floor level. Then Fox notice a glowing from the inside. It became brighter, and light beams were shining out of the hangars. He could feel a rumbling of tremors from the base. He was sweating like mad. An Arwing would protect him from an explosion that tough, but he felt bare. They couldn't run anymore. In a blink of an eye, the entire base disappeared behind an astronomical ball of light. A thunderous explosion filled the air and deafened itself out. A gale force blew from the base and almost sent the two flying from the cover. They kept low and lied on the floor. Just in time, for bits of shrapnel were now coming in their direction- one narrowly missed Fox's head as he ducked down. Up ahead, they could see the ground being ripped up and flown out. After a full 2 minutes, it stopped. The wind petered down to a gust, and only dust could be seen in the air. It was pure luck that Fox and Bill weren't crushed by any debris. They kept down for a while after to make sure. Nothing happened. Fox got up first, then Bill did. 'We did it! We stopped the enemy!' Bill jumped and punched into the air. Fox looked dubious. 'No, not yet Bill. Most of them escaped the base exploding, and Thraktor had left beforehand. They're still alive, and more dangerous.' Bill had a look of soberness on his face. 'Besides, we need to find a way to get off this planet' Bill hadn't realized that. When Fox reminded him, he started to look worried. 'Perhaps' Bill added 'There's a couple of ships around this old base. We could use them to fly off'. 'Good idea' Fox replied. They looked around them, and to the old base. They started trekking into here. It was a tiring walk, hampered by the rubble spread liberally around the landscape, both from the old base and the new one they just destroyed. Occasionally, a malfunctioning gun turret would detect them and try to kill them, but Bill would shoot them with his blaster. Fox had foolishly forgotten to bring his with him on the mission. As much as Bill was a close friend, it felt slightly degrading to keep relying on him to do everything. It made him feel like a coward. They crossed the old train track. It brought back memories of the Lylat Wars he had fought. 'Let me guess. You destroyed it' Bill asked. 'Huh?' 'The base.' 'Oh, yeah. Well, we just sent their weapon depot train into it by changing the tracks, which detonated within contact. It was Peppy's idea.' 'How is the old critter getting on then?' 'He's fine, but aging' That didn't come out quite like what Fox had intended. 'I understand' Bill terminated the topic quickly. He stared into Solar, which could be seen peaking over the clouds. His shades glinted from the reflection. 'I can't believe you actually saved our galaxy from destruction. Just you four fighters against the whole of Andross' fleet. It must have been a nightmare.' 'Well, it wasn't just us...' 'Yeah, I know I contributed a bit, but it was mostly you.' 'No, it wasn't just you. There was another fighter. We met her on Zoness.' 'Her?' 'Yeah, her name was Katt.' 'Oh, right. Her. I remember her being in with a group before the new Starfox team was created.' Bill seemed a little dampened when her name was mentioned. 'She had a real crush on Falco.' 'He still remembered it when they met up. You should have heard him then, hurling insults at her. If words could win the war, he would have been our secret weapon!' Fox cheered up after reminding himself of that, and they both laughed. Their laughter echoed around the entire base. 'I wonder what she's doing now?' Bill continued. 'I wouldn't know' She was a strange woman. Fox didn't even know where she came from. They had just realized that they had completely walked past the base, and were now entering the scrapyard. Well, it was as good as place as any to look. They spent the entire afternoon looking around the base. Eventually, they came to an area that contained the machinery ready to be smelted or crushed. To Fox's surprise, he found his Arwing among the aircraft, but Bill's ship wasn't found. There were a couple of enemy planes left over, deserted after a long time. Bill had to make do with what he could find. There was, luckily, a prototype ship there, similar to the Arwing but with a shorter snout and bulkier. Bill climbed into it's cockpit, and powered up the energy. The beakers glowered a couple of times, then continued normally. 'Looks like it had a couple of bugs, but I'm okay' Bill gave the thumbs up to confirm it. Then Fox climbed into his Arwing. Boy did it feel good to be sitting in his familiar old Arwing again! He powered up his craft, and it did so with no hiccups. He trundled his Arwing to a relatively smooth strip of ground. He flicked his G- Diffuser onto half-power and fired his boosters, lifing the nose of the Arwing carefully to lift off the ground. The ground turned out to be bumpier than he thought, but it would do. He would meet Bill ahead, so he needn't worry about waiting for him. Fox passed through the cloud cover and left the gravitational pull of Macbeth. He felt a bit of weight on him as he came out, then became weightless. He looked around in case there were any enemy craft around to intercept them. Fortunately, there weren't any. They possibly thought that he and Bill couldn't escape in time before the base exploded. They didn't even consider scouting for any survivors. Lucky really. Then Fox spotted a ship coming from the surface. It was Bill, Fox just remembered. He had almost blasted him out of the air! 'You were lucky I didn't mistake you for an enemy ship!' Fox warned Bill on the radio. 'Thanks, Fox' Bill replied. 'You can't possibly head off to Titania. They'll do the same as me, only they might fire too late. You'll have to follow me to Corneria.' Bill's face nodded on the radio screen, then signed off. They boosted towards Corneria. As they flew along, Fox took time to look around. Fox remembered when he was just a child, and used to stare out to the starry sky at night. It was awe inspiring to think that our little collection of planets, which played an important part in their lives, was such a minutely minuscule thing compared to the rest of the universe. The whole galaxy. Now he was a member of the Starfox team, outer space didn't hold quite the same magic for him, as he jumps from planet to planet. He, like many others, had also wondered if there was more than just them in outer space. If there really was intelligent life beyond their system and even their galaxy. Now of course, his question had been answered. But it wasn't an answer he liked. For this intelligent alien life was planning to destroy all of our life, rather than trying to make peace. It would have turned out so much better. But, actually Fox thought some more. Were they really aliens? This had to be asked, since the computer data was written in Lylat. Or was there a good explanation for that? If there was, he couldn't think of it. 'Fox. You're swaying.' Oh. He hadn't been paying attention and wasn't really alert. He straightened his ship to be level again. They were now passing by Solar. This was the very center of the Lylat System, and supplied light to all of the other planets in turn. It wasn't a particularly huge star, but as they flew past, it radiated an immense heat. It took a while for the conditioning in the Arwing to kick in. He felt more comfortable. He looked into the star again, and saw the debris of distant starfighters floating in a big huddle. But then, the 'debris' started to move. It swirled around and aimed for Fox and Bill. It looked unnerving. Bill appeared on the radio screen 'Fox! This isn't debris, it's the fleet! I can see them clearly!!' 'Bill! Get out of here immediately!!' Bill briefly changed direction and boosted ahead. Fox barrel rolled to the side and followed Bill. They had to escape immediately, Fox frantically said to himself. If they caught on that they had survived the explosion and were heading to Corneria, they would try to hunt them down and destroy them. Or they would be re-captured, then destroyed. Either way, they must escape. Fox looked behind him to see if they were chasing. Only two fighters were chasing them, but these were the similar type to the group on Corneria. Evidently, they didn't see fit to bother with two little fighters. Nevertheless, this was still trouble for them. They must be gotten rid of. 'Bill, try to shake them off. There's no need to attack them yet, just lose them!' Fox kept his calm while preparing for them. He knew their attack strategies enough to understand their patterns. 'Split up!' Fox and Bill's ships split and followed an invisible T-junction in the air. A fighter followed each craft. Fox swerved, banked, raised and rolled into all directions, but the fighter followed him- he wouldn't let him escape. 'Dang, he's good!' Fox swore. Now he started shooting at him. Fox had to be more careful as he dodged him so as not to hit the laser beams. Fox prayed for good luck. It didn't deliver enough. A laser landed into his left wing and blasted it off. The whole Arwing shuddered with the force of the blow, and now it leaned to it's side. Great, now his flying would be crippled. This was bad. He had to get behind the fighter to stand a chance. He somersaulted, hoping to catch the fighter out. Luckily, it did. Fox had a clear chance to get even. He started to fire. The fighter began to shake after a couple of shots, but it held out better. He veered off to the left, and Fox followed suit. The fighter was heading into a different direction. Fox looked ahead, and saw Bill with the other pilot. He was unscratched. But the fighters were going to attack at the same time. They were going after Bill! Fox had to warn Bill. 'Bill! Watch out! A fighter is coming in after you!' Bill must have heard, but didn't reply. Fox chased in after the incoming fighter. He opened fire on him, but missed. He had to kill him quick! A couple of lucky shots on the fighter made him lean to the right. Fox shot the fighter more, and it eventually exploded in a cloud of fire, which them imploded on itself and disappeared. Thank goodness for that! But now he had to rescue Bill. 'How are ya doing?' Fox radioed to him. 'I'm holding out' Bill replied 'But I need help!' 'I'm coming!' Fox headed to the ship with lasers ablazing. It dazzled the pilot of the fighter, who carried on flying in the same direction. Bill quickly escaped before any lasers hit him. 'I'm gonna have to use a Nova Bomb' Fox yelled. Bill flew out of the way, knowing the trouble those bombs bring. The fighter was flying into the distance, readying for a charge. Fox launched the bomb, and it exploded. The fighter was too far away. It took damage, but wasn't destroyed. It turned around completely and homed in on Fox. Now he was in for it. Those ships are still lethal. His Arwing would be sliced into pieces unless he stopped him. But the fighter was gathering speed. It accelerated towards the Arwing. Fox couldn't stop him. He saw the pilot in the ship. And then the ship exploded. He caught a glimpse of shock in the pilots face. The pieces of the fighter flew straight past the Arwing, turning to dust behind him. Bill flew past him. 'You should learn to pay attention Fox' Bill stated. 'Thanks, Bill' Fox replied with guilt. Bill's been saving him too many times on this adventure for him to be comfortable with. He had a sense of inferiority. 'Let's head to Corneria, and quick!' Fox decided. They boosted ahead before any more trouble arrived. Slippy was getting anxious. It had been two days since Fox had gone. But nobody seemed to care. He walked out of the hangar and stared out into the sky. It was a light lilac color, with a band of clouds reaching up from the horizon. The waves of the river lapped up to the shore, where people were busy shipping crates of supplies onto the ships, ready to transport to another part of Corneria. Stars were appearing in the sky. He checked around with his lenses again, but couldn't spot anything. It seemed to be getting hopeless for their leader, probably crash landed on a distant planet, or marooned without any fuel in uncharted space. He tried to change the subject to something more cheerful, but he couldn't just ignore the matter. Peppy came outside. 'Any sign of him yet?' he asked. 'No.' Slippy sighed a heavy sigh. 'Look, I know he's still alive somewhere. He must be. He had his father's initiative, so he couldn't be that easily beaten.' Slippy kept silent. 'Come on, let's get inside. It's getting cold.' Peppy walked away and into the hangar. Slippy took a final glance into the sky. The brighter stars were twinkling in the sky, but no sign of Fox. He turned and followed Peppy. Then, before he opened the door, he heard something. 'Crrk..... fzzzzzzzzz.....' Slippy cocked an earhole. It was the radio. He listened again. 'Crrk... ffffzzzzzz-orneria.' It sounded like someone radioing in. He walked to the radio. He turned on the radio screen, but it was all fuzzy. There was another message; 'Crrk.....ffzzzz to Corneria. Come in Corneria. Crrk.' It sounded like Fox! He listened again, just to make sure. 'Crrk... Fox to Corneria. Come in Corneria.Crrk' It was Fox! Slippy's hands were shaking. 'Fox? Is that you?' 'Slippy?' 'It's Fox! I'll be right back!' Then he ran into the hangar door and ran down the corridor to the restroom. Peppy and Falco were there. Slippy was panting as he got to the door. 'What now?' Falco inquired with a harsh tone. 'It's Fox. He's alive!' Slippy gasped. 'I heard him on the radio.' Peppy got up off his chair and sprung to Slippy. 'Are you sure? Ya heard him?' 'Yes! He's on the radio now. Come quickly!' Slippy ran back down the corridor. Falco and Peppy followed. They arrived at the hangar, and Fox's face now appeared on the radio screen. The team gathered around the screen, and Pepper arrived now too. 'Fox, this is Slippy. Welcome home!' 'I'm glad to be back!' Then Pepper moved to the radio and nudged Slippy out of the way. 'Congratulations Fox, you did well. I hope you have something to report back to me, to make my time worthwhile.' 'I most certainly do' Fox assured him. 'And so has Bill Gray, member of the Katinian defense group. He's in a different craft from his regular- it's a long story, but do not shoot him. I repeat, do not shoot him.' 'Try to keep close together to be safe' Pepper warned him. 'I'll be waiting for that report in my office' With that, Pepper walked out through the door. Slippy looked up into the sky. He could now spot two craft shining from the evening light. There was another ship next to him, like he had said. It was similar to the Arwing, but black and stouter. Just as well he had warned them. The guns would have had him for sure! The two ships, in turn flew into the hangar. Jet brakes slowed them down as they closed onto the wall, then clamps came from the floor to hold the ship in place. The engines died down and finally cut out. Slippy's face turned from joy to shock- horror. Fox jumped out of the plane and strolled to the Starfox team. Peppy rushed up to him with anger on his face. 'Fox' Slippy said angrily 'Do you realize what you've done?!?' 'Huh?' Fox queried. 'The wing! It's gone! Do you have any idea how hard it is to repair a wing? And I thought I could trust you with them!!' Slippy stormed off out of the hangar. Falco and Peppy glanced to Fox. He shrugged. 'Starfox, come to the debriefing room No. 6' They stood up and walked down the corridor and into Debriefing room 6. This room was the largest briefing room the Cornerian Army had. It was a generous size, and was already filled with pilots, many from the Cornerian Army, but others from different planetary defense groups. There could be heard a general murmuring from the crowd. Bill was in among them. 'Bill.' Fox whispered as he sat down besides him. Falco, Peppy and Slippy sat down too. 'You don't have to take part. You can go home.' 'No I can't' Bill murmured back. 'I've become a part in this. I can't just turn around and leave it to you guys. I have a part in saving the system too.' Fox left it to that. He sat up in his seat and looked ahead, waiting for Pepper to arrive with the instructions. Tenseness was felt in the room's atmosphere as people waited to find out about the enemy, who they're fighting. Fox already knew the answers to these questions. Pepper marched onto the stage for everyone to see. He strided to the center, and turned to the audience. 'Fellow Cornerians, Kitanians, Fortunians, Titanias,' He turned to Fox's direction 'Starfox team. We have a priority one crisis in our galaxy. An evil commander by the name of Thraktor, is hell-bent on exterminating us all.' He paused and moved to the side. An image of an artists impression appeared on the wall. They made the nostrils too flared, and it's eyeballs were bulging, but otherwise was an accurate reconstruction of him. Pepper continued. 'He has been in conjunction with Andross for many years. Now he commands a uniquely advanced fleet of alien fighters and technology beyond our imagination. Among this, he has hatched a secret project, codenamed 'Medusa', which is our primary target. Our brave spies have captured information which is linked to this project, although due to troubles, is as yet incomplete. It does however pinpoint the location where this project is to be carried out, on the east side of Solar' Solar. Of course! That's why Fox and Bill ran into trouble there when they passed by. It must have been their entire fleet waiting there in patience. How lucky then that only two of them bothered to fight them! 'It also shows the weakness for one of their larger fighters.' This time, a hologram appeared of the ship. It showed all the inside of the ship as well as the outer casing. 'As you can see, it is heavily guarded with surface-to-air weaponry and powerful mounted plasma guns.' These now appeared in red on the hologram. 'However, there is a weakness to the ship. Unfortunately, it is on the missing part of the project- our sources say that this will be a heavily guarded ship, termed 'K'. It will be obvious to spot the weak spot, apparently. If you concentrate your firepower onto this spot, it will set a chain reaction throughout the entire ship, which will in turn self- destruct.' Pepper took a pause to survey the entire audience. 'If you have any questions about this mission, please ask so now' A Titanian raised his hand on the right of the room. 'Speak' Pepper insisted. It was a rather skinny chameleon, who's eyes twitched around nervously. 'Their armor is so strong! How can we possibly survive?' He had a good point. Slippy stood up and addressed the audience 'If I am permitted to speak, I have been working on a new plasma reforming system for the ships laser beam, which increases energy intake and transfer. The new laser beams transfer much more explosive impact, acting with a miniature explosive effect. This means that, while the firing frequency is reduced, there should be a greater chance of us surviving.' Slippy heaved a big smile in his own confidence. The chameleon was satisfied. Pepper asked a question 'Slippy. Have these new upgrades of yours been thoroughly tested and approved?' 'With assuirity, Pepper. I have been permitted to use the captured alien craft as a demonstration, and it worked perfectly.' Pepper was a bit sour that the alien craft was used without him asking, but then settled to hear they worked 'Good. You may sit down now' Slippy got back into his seat again. 'Now, has anyone got any further questions?' The room was silent. 'It is settled. We will attack at dawn, after a quick mission recap. For now, get some rest' Everyone got up and gathered items of clothing before they walked out. Fox was enthusiastic to get up there and fight them now. He had a score to settle with Thraktor, and he didn't have the patience to wait until the morning to attack him. Fox, Peppy, Falco, Slippy and Bill separated and went to their own quarters. Fox got his security keycard and inserted it into the receiver. His door slid open, and Fox stepped into the room. His bed was on the left side of the room, and a desk was on the right. The floor was covered with assorted items of clothing and machinery. He spotted his gun in the mess, and picked it up and attached it to his pants. There was a large window on the opposite side of the room, showing the great mountain range in the distance. Skyscrapers and lookout towers were dotted around the scenery, with long winding tracks of byways meandering between them. Over to the right was some repair droids picking up a fallen tower, and some cornerians clearing up the place. He pressed a button to block out the view. He switched on his quarters light and sat on his bed. He gazed onto the wall which was adjacent to his bed. A single photograph was pinned up on there of him when he was younger. He was sat on his father's shoulders, and his father had his flying gear on. Fox stared solemnly at the photograph for a while, then flicked the light off. He laid down on his bed and slowly closed his eyes. Bill woke up suddenly in the night. He heard a scraping noise from outside his door. He waited for a while to hear it again, then shut his eyes. He heard it again, even louder and closer than before. Bill grabbed for his blaster on the table close by, and loaded it. He awaited in the darkness to see if it came in. Whatever 'it' might be. There was another, louder still scraping noise, and a different noise along with it. Bill tried to make it out, but couldn't quite. Then that noise appeared again. Bill could recognize it this time. It was a metallic rasping noise. Bill was sweating nervously. It's an alien! In the base! But how? Surely the guards would have noticed if anything unusual was happening. He sat bolt upright on his bed, with the gun ready by his side. This was the first time he looked in the general direction of the door. Then he noticed the floor by the door. Large marks had appeared on the floor, but weren't there yesterday. These were created recently. In fact.... Bill was forced back onto the wall with a thump, his mouth was covered by a cool, sweaty palm. He was breathing in fumes which were making him dizzy. Chloroform! But he couldn't see it. He reached for the hand with his, but something else grabbed for both at the same time. In the last few minutes of consciousness, he wriggled a hand out and launched a fist in a random direction. He heard something frazzle, and then a dark figure had appeared from nowhere. He had his hand over Bill's mouth and another grabbing his fist. Before Bill went unconscious, he saw a huge snout with eyes staring at him. It seemed to be cackling silently. 'Pokknx....' It hissed.... 'It is time.' Everyone woke up and headed towards the mess hall. They were serving a messy slop of food, which actually tasted lovely, although it reminded people of sick. There was also a cup of Vita, which left a foul aftertaste. After their feast, they all moved into the briefing room again and ran through the mission. Fox couldn't find Bill. Perhaps he had gone back to Katina after all. 'This is of utmost importance' Pepper warned everyone. 'Our fate rests in your hands. If we lose, we will be annihilated. But you are our best men, and we will triumph. Good luck!' With that, everyone cheered and threw assorted hats into the air. It was an atmosphere of determination created by every pilot in that room. One of the greatest battles ever fought will begin. Soon. All the pilots ran to their assorted craft, with some still being worked on by droids, and jumped in. Fox and his crew didn't need to get ready just yet, but boarded the Great Fox and took off. It lead the way up ahead, with fighters flying out one by one and grouping in formation. There mass was made smaller by the battle a few days ago, but had recovered remarkably. 'Preparing to turbo mode!' ROB's voice echoed around the Great Fox. Boosters in the back were charging up with energy particle being gathered. Then it boosted into the sky and out of Corneria's atmosphere. All the other craft followed. As they reached into space, other craft were heading into them. Fox was on the alert, until Falco pointed out their markings. These were ships of the Alliance. From Titania, from Katina, from Fortuna, even a couple from Zoness. If they had to rely on other planetary defenses, this was going to be one huge battle. Looking out of the window, Fox could see the enormous battle fleet of every kind of ship imaginable. There were small nippy ships darting around between the heavily- armed cruisers which loomed over them all. There were also mecha-droids hovering in little clusters which were apt at accurate shooting. The Cornerians and the Great Fox were added to the entire fleet. This was certainly one impressive fleet. They certainly stood a chance. 'We're passing by Katina' Slippy called on the radio. Katina was ahead of them all. It looked peaceful and tranquil in outer space. They were approaching the dark side of it, as Solar was on the other side. The enemy was there too. 'Enemy fleet, dead ahead!' Slippy called. 'Get ready' There it was. Their ships were as numerous, if not more so, than the Alliance. There were the tiny kamikaze- ships and the one giant craft Fox saw in the hangar, but there were others too. There was huge ball- shaped fighters, armed with guns, and snake- like robots, and larger versions of the little fighters, and more besides. They were all decorated with protruding spikes and looked organic in their own way. Alien even. It was a scary sight. 'Alright, Starfox team, launch the Arwings!' Fox yelled to them. They jumped out of their seats and charged down the corridors to their individual ships. Their cockpit doors closed and the latches sealed, then the hangar door swung open. Their engines charged up and shot each one individually out of the Great Fox into space. 'Wait for it' Fox said sternly on the radio. It echoed in every other vehicle on their side. Now they could see movement in the other fleet. All the ships were slowly maneuvering to face them. Now Fox could see another ship. This one was very familiar to him. He had seen it before, but couldn't think where, so ignored it. He focused on the rest of the fleet to make sure they didn't attack. They had now turned completely around and faced the Alliance. Now he could see them all charging towards them. A signal came in on Fox's radio. Thraktor's face appeared. 'You're time has come to DIE, worms!!' He had been souped up with extra machinery and was even more frightening than when they had met. Fox called 'Fighters coming in!'. A wave of little ships skimmed through them all, firing their lasers in loco. 'Split up. Don't create a big target!' Fox cried. Every ship flew off into different directions. The little scouting ships charged in first, followed by the robots. They fired off a couple of rounds. Many of the enemy craft dodged out of the way, but some lasers found their target on some of the alien craft. They were destroyed instantly. 'Slippy, it worked!' Fox remarked. 'I knew it would work.' Slippy remarked. 'Watch out!' Fox stared ahead- and saw a snake-vehicle head straight towards them. The Arwings split up and flew to different directions. The snake missed entirely. Thank goodness for that! Now the battle field was hectic. Every one was out for themselves, and all were being chased. A robot had it's shield arm blown off, which flew into another alien craft, then it blew. The alien craft which had destroyed it was destroyed by an Alliance ship. Three craft smashed straight through it. Peppy was being chased by a snake. 'Take care of the guy behind me, Fox!' Peppy yelled. Fox chased after the snake, and aimed a shot into it's tail. That set a chain reaction of explosion which finally destructed the head. 'Good job, Fox!' Peppy called. Fox was about to remark, when a group of craft flew right past him. He narrowly missed being smashed. Falco followed after them. 'Watch out, dumbo!' Falco yelled angrily. A couple of Alliance fighters were heading towards a ball ship. It spun around, firing lasers everywhere. Most of the fighters in the group were destroyed, along with some enemy craft close by. They must be suicidal! 'Concentrate all firepower on the death balls!' Fox cried on the radio. With that all little ships, and some of the larger fighters, headed towards the death balls. A flurry of shots were fired at the balls, which took a lot of hits before exploding. Shrapnel was released from the explosion of every ball. 'Watch out!' Fox called. A few were too late, and got caught, but most were prepared. Those hit spun wildly out of control, or here hit directly and blew up. There were more of them scattered around in the fleet. Now the big fighters were charging in from the enemy fleet. 'I'm gonna try a Nova Bomb. Clear from the enemy!' Everyone backed off, and Fox fired a Nova Bomb. It was his last one, so he had better use it efficiently. It exploded in a wide arc, but all the fighters flew out of the way. He had wasted his only bomb. 'Fighters, charge!' Fox crowed. Every ship now headed for the enemies. The large cruisers attacked the enemy ships with gusto, firing in the direction and scoring some lucky shots. Luckily, more of the enemy cruisers were destroyed than Alliance cruisers. The little fighters were getting more confident, and more enemy fighters were being shot. They were getting the upper hand. Just then, Thraktor radioed in 'Giving up, Thraktor?' Rage filled his face. He let out a tremendous roar of anger. 'Don't think I am THAT easy to defeat, Fox! I haven't shown you MY little, surprise!' Fox didn't like the sound of this. Then he saw a light hover between the fighting ships. It came to a relatively clear space, and dimmed. Then, all of a sudden, a huge round craft appeared, which wobbled a bit, then became still. This was the ship Fox saw earlier, the one he didn't recognize, but now he knew. Andross had a ship like this before, head of Venom defense in Area 6. It was... 'THE GORGON!' Fox yelled. 'I see you recognize it' Thraktor smirked. 'I gave an inferior model of it to Andross for use. It was more powerful than anything else he had, but you destroyed it. This is Mk. 2, codenamed 'Medusa'' 'So, this is the final part of the project!' Fox told himself. Then he radioed to every other ship. 'Everyone! The Gorgon is the final part of the project! It must be destroyed!!' 'Er, which one's the Gorgon?' A pilot queeringly asked. 'The one that's just appeared here! DESTROY IT!!!'. Now little ships were homing in towards the Gorgon. Three tentacles appeared from it's back, and sweeped towards some fighters. They were killed instantly. Some fighters, lead by Peppy, managed to penetrate it and opened fire on it. It did no harm at all. Then Thraktor appeared on Fox's radio. 'Oh, and one last thing...' What was he up to? Thraktor reached off the screen, and pulled something back. It was Bill. 'Bill!!' He was gagged and bruised, but still alive. Thraktor pushed him away again. 'He's on the large mothership. If you destroy it, your friend will go down with it!' Fox was filling up with anger. He had lost his father to this maniac; he wouldn't lose his lifetime friend to him as well. 'Hold them off, guys, I'm docking the mothership!' Falco radioed in. 'Fox, are you crazy? They'll roast you!' 'I must get Bill out from there!' He flew towards the mothership. Falco took charge and ordered everyone to defend for themselves. A swirling robot missed his ship and exploded nearby. 'I'll take care of the Gorgon.' He cried to Peppy and Slippy. They flew beside him and defended him from any enemies. A group flew in from the left, but Peppy loosed some lasers at them. One of it's wings detached, and it flew into the other ship, destroying them both. The last craft quickly flew somewhere else. Fox was flying up to the ship, looking for a way in. For some reason, their defenses were ignoring him. He flew up to the landing bay with no trouble at all. He landed on a clean surface in the hangar. Creatures were running around, panicking every time the ship rumbled. He ran to the door out of the hangar, and quietly sneaked behind a pillar. Four guards ran past, then he quietly walked down the corridor. The Gorgon's shell had opened. The lens in the center was glowing brightly. 'Break away from it! Hurry!' Falco warned everyone of the impending danger 'As soon as it shoots that laser, we're done for!' It was circling slowly around to locate a target. It spotted one of the large cruisers. One of the enemy fighters had been shot down and crashed into the inner part of the shell, but didn't harm it. It had finished charging. It unleashed a massive multicolored beam straight at the cruiser. Allies and enemies which were in the way turned to ash, and the cruiser was destroyed in a huge explosion. It's shell closed up again. 'All cruisers, keep away from the Gorgon! Go for the other ships! Hurry!' A snake had passed by Falco. He averted his path and followed the snake. In an attempt to stop it's pursuer, it fired plasma balls from it's tail at Falco. He dodged the first two narrowly 'Ha! It'll take more than that to stop me!' The snake ducked down quickly. In front was another one, heading right for him. Falco quickly fired at it, and it flinched out of the way and exploded in segments. 'That was close!' He quickly jumped out and looked into the room. 'No-one here.' Fox said to himself. It had a couple of chemical flasks with liquid that kept changing, but Bill wasn't anywhere to be seen. He ran up the corridor and opened the door to the next room. This one was the largest room yet. It had a platform running along the right, with assorted paths branching off from it. From the center hung long green cylinders from the ceiling. This must be some sort of control room, or the engine itself. 'Help!' Someone cried. It echoed around the assorted cylinders. It was Bill's voice! Fox hurried along the platform and ran down the first branch-off he reached. Walking over the path, Fox stared up into the cylinders. They reached up for possibly miles. 'Help!' Bill's voice echoed around again. It came from the right, where a path branched off to. Fox headed down this path and reached to a turn in the path to the right. The path went on in a straight line, ending at a path circling a green cylinder. Tied up at the end was Bill. 'Bill! I'll save you!' Fox cried. He ran up the path. 'Fox! No! It's another trap!' Fox stopped in his tracks. He couldn't see anyone on the platform with him. He looked up. And got kicked back by Thraktor, who had been hanging from there in wait. Fox was thrown a few feet onto his back. Thraktor walked calmly up to him, staring at him. 'So, I've found your weakness' Thraktor rasped. 'You're a sentimental person, and can't bare to see his friends in trouble.' He smiled, showing off his serrated teeth. 'I knew this from the start. In fact, I knew everything. You are all doomed.' Fox looked at him with shock. 'You didn't think I left those plans of my project on the database by chance did you? Or the fact that I translated them with patience into your language? Or that you wouldn't have been able to find the last part of it, even if you had enough time?' 'We are winning against you, Thraktor. I know the weakness for Medusa. You can't possibly win!' Thraktor laughed an insane and hissing laugh. 'You haven't seen the best part, yet!' Then he presses a clawed finger onto his radio com. 'Thrrwwww Ptre Medusa cht bvvng, jkkkk lww Macbeth!' He returned to Fox. 'This ship isn't yet fully whole yet. When it is, it will strike TERROR into you all!' He smiled again. 'Hey Falco' Slippy inquired. 'What's the Gorgon doing?' All it's tentacles were out, but weren't attacking. The Gorgon flew towards the mothership, which was aiming it's jets towards Solar. The three antennae on the flares were sparking up, then flashed. A ball of electricity was created between all three antennae. It was spinning and sending out bolts, but still wasn't attacking anything. Falco was still staring when a craft opened fire on him. It hit him, but didn't destroy his ship. A robot intercepted the ship and destroyed it. 'Back off, fella' Falco warned the pilot on the radio. Now Falco noticed something coming from Solar. It was like a huge, long bolt of lightening, aiming for the mothership. Instead of destroying it, it attached itself to the ball of energy on the back. As it poured energy into it, the ship glowed healthily. Now the Gorgon flew to the front of the ship. A transformation in the mothership pulled the cockpit into it's fuselage, making the front of the ship flat. The Gorgon attached itself on the front, and inserted it's three tentacles into the parts of the jets that reached to the front. Falco worked it out almost instantly. The mothership is nothing more than a giant battery. It's powering up the Gorgon! It has become the Medusa! 'Stop that machine! Who knows what that thing can do now?' Falco yelled on his radio. Now the Medusa was turning around to face Macbeth. The shell opened quickly. Little sparks of electricity were coming off it into the lens. Ships that were passing at this moment had their controls short- circuited, and some of them flew into each other and were gone in a ball of flame. Now it's laser was charging up again, but it's energy produced was of immense power. Falco's ship was shaking with it. 'Everyone, out of the way!' They flew away again from the Medusa. It had finished charging, and fired it's beam. The entire ship was shaking violently from the energy. The beam had touched Macbeth. Nothing much happened at first, then huge cracks appeared on it's surface. The planet glowed increasingly more, then, the entire planet exploded. A tremorwave was sent out in a wide ripple, shaking everything that it touched. Shards of rock were flying out towards the fighting ships. Some struck the large cruisers, and they slowly fell in a flame, before exploding. There was an immense blanket of light that covered everything. Then, when Falco looked again, Macbeth was gone. Nothing of it was left. His mouth had dropped wide open. Thraktor sneered when the vision had returned and showed nothing of Macbeth left. 'Corneria will be next!' Thraktor told Fox 'So you see, you stand no chance.' Fox was filling with anger. He jumped up and charged towards him. Thraktor grabbed him by the throat. Fox was gagging. 'So, you want to fight, you miserable little maggot!' He threw Fox to the side, where the platform was much wider. He drew out his barbed sword and wavered it in front of him. 'There will be no more of this inconvenience when I'm finally through with you! I'll have your backbone for a trophy, whatever of it you have!' Fox got up and faced him. He snarled at Fox, then leaped towards him. Fox quickly dodged to the side. The sword cut clean through the rail on the side of the platform. Fox loaded his gun, and aimed it in his back. He fired at point blank range. Thraktor winced, but didn't look pained. He stared at his back. The armor had been dented with the laser beam, but it grew back to normal. He laughed. 'Is that the best you can do? No I'll show you mine'. A target appeared on the lens of his right eye. A small beam fired, missing Fox slightly. The part where it hit the floor melted, although it only left a little hole. What should Fox do now? His gun couldn't harm him. He needed a proper weapon! 'Go for the tentacles' Peppy suggested. 'If they're damaged, it won't be able to take the energy.' Good idea, Falco thought. 'Everyone shoot the tentacle!'. All fighters flew to the top tentacle, and concentrated their firepower there. After a while, the connection between the claw and the tentacle snapped with a little explosion. 'Good, now it's disabled' Peppy stated. The Medusa's flailing arm was trying to insert itself into the hole with the claw in it. But Falco saw something. The tentacle seemed to be getting longer. The supports were stretching out of the rest of it, and growing towards the claw. It was repairing itself! There seems to be no hope of destroying it if it can regrow that quickly! 'Hold off the rest of the fleet! Stop them before the Gorgon readies for another shot!' But as he was distracted, another little craft managed to reach behind him. He somersaulted and destroyed the ship. The Great Fox was holding out surprisingly well. All the large cruisers had been damaged severely by now, but there was hardly a scratch on it. A death ball rolled towards it, but was disposed of briefly by it's gun turret. Falco wanted to make sure just in case. 'ROB, is the Great Fox okay?' ROB replied; 'Great Fox has sustained damage to the engine. All other systems okay.' Then, Falco had an idea. Their large ships were impenetrable, even to their new lasers. What about their jets? Falco flew towards an enemy cruiser. A snake flew by, on fire. Five alliance ships chased it, but the last one got blasted. He fired some shots directly into the heart of the jet engine. That side of the cruiser exploded, and was completely blown off. The rest of it hovered out of control, then also blew. He had done it! 'Aim for the very center of the cruiser's engine. Set lasers to highest magnitude!' Falco radioed to everyone else. Fox's nose was bleeding. He had been punched in the face a few times, and Thraktor had hardly been scratched. He was armored too well! There was hardly anywhere exposed that was vulnerable. Thraktor was walking after him, slashing his sword when he arrived to Fox. Bits of the rail were being lopped off, and falling down the deep black depths below. He was striding with pride, his tail swishing. Then he noticed. Hi tail was completely uncovered. Maybe, if not kill him, he could at least wound him. He loaded his gun again, and planted a shot in his tail. It sizzled through, and the very end of it disintegrated. But Thraktor was unnerved. It didn't harm him. What was the weak spot of these aliens? If they could have any part of their body burnt, then they must be invincible. But they couldn't be. They must have some weakness. Then Fox remembered; in the base, the guards, the scientists, how they died. They were all head shots. Or more appropriately, the eyes. He had to shoot him in the eyes. Fox readied his gun again, but Thraktor knocked it out of his hands. It clattered on the path, then slid off the side into the lagoon. Fox dived for it, but didn't catch it. But as he fell down, he fell on something. It was a bit of rail that Thraktor cut off accidentally. 'Ha haa haaa!' Thraktor hissed metallicaly 'You're harmless. Now prepare to die!' He raised his sword and brought it down. Fox rolled to the side, grabbing the pole. The sword stuck into the path. Thraktor heaved, but it wouldn't move. Fox stood up, pole in hand, and thrusted the pole into Thraktor's left eye. It sank right in, cracking his skull. Thraktor lashed his head backwards. He screamed a metallic scream, ten times worse than the scream the guard leashed before, and sounded like a million iron bars bending. It was horrific. Thraktor fell to the floor, wriggling. His reactions were getting smaller by the second, until he laid still, breathing heavily. Fox walked away to Bill, and untied him. 'Fox, I'm so glad to see you!' 'Same to you. Now let's get out of here' Then something grabbed his foot. He looked down and saw Thraktor on the floor. He had his foot grasped firmly in his hand. 'Not so fassssst, maggot!' he hissed- wheezed. 'It's over, Thraktor. You've lost. You don't stand a chance.' Thraktor pulled the pole out of his eye with his free hand. He leaned over and pointed to a little gadget on his chest. He pressed a couple of buttons on it, and up cane a little LCD circle. Like the one he saw in the base. It's a bomb! 'If I don't survive....' He pressed another button, and it started a beeping. 'Nobody will!' Oh no. It doesn't have a proper timer on it, and Thraktor wouldn't be generous with time. They had to escape- quick! 'Bill! Run! I'll catch up with you!' 'But...' 'Just do it!' Bill did so, and ran out down the corridor. Thraktor was laughing evilly. Fox pulled out his gun and aimed it for his hand. 'Falco, it's repaired!' Slippy called to Falco. The tentacle had finished repairing itself now. It was fully equipped, and now started turning towards Corneria. 'Shoot! It's aiming for Corneria! We've got to stop it!' Then Falco saw someone fly out of the mothership. He flew in to intercept it, but saw it was Bill. 'Falco! Evacuate immediately!' 'Where's Fox?' Peppy asked. 'He's right behind me! Get out of here now! The ship's gonna blow!' Falco didn't like Fox too much, but he couldn't leave his leader in there. But there was nothing he could do. 'All craft, everyone, BREAK AWAY! NOW!' Every aircraft, robot and giant cruiser changed direction and headed away from the Medusa. Even some enemy craft flew away, ignoring the other ships. Most of them were still defending the Medusa. Now it had lined up with Corneria. Another bolt of energy jumped off Solar, and the laser charged up again for another shot. This time it gathered more energy than the last one. It had finished charging up, and started to fire. When suddenly, it exploded. A huge tremorwave flew from the Medusa, and forced every ship away. All those that surrounded the Medusa would have turned to dust. Shrapnel flew out and hit a lot of the trailing ships. The enemy ships were too slow, and were caught by the explosion. Anyone who looked into that direction would have been blinded. Nobody could have survived a blast like that. The alliance was damaged. The great fox had lost a wing, and there were only two large cruisers left. The army had been whittled down to a tenth of its size. There were no robots left, the people from Zoness had been wiped out, and most of the Katinans were destroyed. All the rest of the ships didn't escape with at least a wing missing. And, Fox is gone. But they won. It was a sad thought for the Starfox crew, to think of their great leader, who had guided them through the Lylat war and this war, had finally rested in peace. Bill had tears in his eyes. He had lost a life-long friend. Peppy and Slippy were starting to cry. Falco kept his head down. He had suddenly regretted being mean to him, after the trouble he had went through for them, for Corneria, for everyone. He had been a great friend, after all. They would never meet, or find, anyone that brave, strong, courageous and, most of all, determined. He would bee forever remembered in the minds, and the hearts, of everyone throughout the entire galaxy. Their trusted friend, Fox McCloud. Then, he saw something. A ship. Could it be? No. There was no way. Then a message appeared on his radio. Fox's face appeared! 'Guys, congratulations' He smiled. 'Fox, you're alive!' Bill cried. 'Yeah! That's our leader!' Slippy called. 'Good job, Fox!' Peppy called. 'Of all the nerve!' Falco shouted. 'What on corneria were you thinking of, pulling a stunt like that!' Fox just laughed at that remark as he flew up with the Starfox team. 'Let's get back to Corneria' They all boosted towards the Great Fox, and docked. Good old Falco, fox thought to himself, he would never change. The End by Sovan Jedi. Or is it? 'You haven't seen the last of meeeee, Fox!' Thraktor hissed, badly bruised, but still alive as his escape pod jetted towards the distant stars. 'I will return!'