Chapter XII
	The hulking robot lumbered through the fields of space dust and
trash. This really was a space graveyard. It continued receiving commands
from base, so it stopped to find the quickest path to the coordinates. The
robot rerouted its circuits to bypass the uncompleted areas in its central
computer. That was always causing the robot problems. Soon, the Creator
would come, and finish it. Then, it would be indestructable. The robot
stopped, moved slightly to the left, and continued, passing an abandoned
space station.
	It seemed the area was becoming more crowded, now. The robot
frequently had to stop and move out of the way of smaller defense robots,
who were just arriving. It looked like something was going to be happening
soon.
	Pepper was just coming out of his office, where another almost
sleepless night had been spent. Oh, how he hated having to worry about
wars. The cheetah was first to meet him, and handed Pepper some papers and
a cup of coffee in one swift move. Pepper nodded approval. "Thanks." The
cheetah headed to the communications area to answer a vidscreen.
	He sipped the coffee, and started scanning the papers. The cheetah
came back with news. "Sir, it's the Star Fox Team, and they want to talk
to you."
	Pepper walked over to the vidscreen blindly, still reading the
papers and sipping the coffee. Fox was at the screen. "Good morning,
General!"
	Pepper nodded. "It says here that you single-handedly destroyed a
secret weapon, a base, and a science facility of Andross'. We didn't even
know about any of this stuff. How do you continue to do it, Fox?"
	"Just lucky, I guess. Did you get to the part where Slippy, Falco,
and Bill were taken prisoner?"
	"What?!? I didn't even know you had lost them!"
	Bill quickly leaned in on the vidscreen. "I'm right here, General.
We're all safe, thanks to some quick thinking by my friends and I."
	Pepper sighed, visibly shaken. "Good. You had me worried for a
second. What's this about a large robot leaving the planet just before you
did?"
	Bill answered that one. "It flew out of the base when we did, sir.
It didn't seem to notice us, so I didn't want to bother it just yet."
	Pepper turned to the cheetah. "Is there any way you can find more
about this?"
	The cheetah looked up from his work. "Well, if I can hazard a
guess, I'll say that our friends had a run-in with the Spyborg. That's the
secret weapon mentioned by Andross as being stored on Solar, and, as far
as I know, we didn't pick up any other bases on the surface of Solar. We
really have no information on this weapon. It's quite a mystery."
	Fox looked at the cheetah. "He's probably right about the robot.
Apart from the Vulcain and some smaller dragons, Solar is completely
uninhabited."
	Bill checked his memory. "The robot you're talking about went off
in the direction of Sector X."
	Pepper glaced to Fox. "Fox, I think you know what your mission is,
this time. I need to you find the mystery of the space base."
	Bill was excited. "Can I help him out?"
	Pepper shook his head emphatically. "No. We need you to be at
Zoness. Most of the troops are already there, but you'll make it right on
time if you take the transport we're sending."
	Bill nodded resignedly. "Aww, man," he mumbled.
	Pepper went back to Fox. "Fox, we'll rendezvous with you in a few
hours to pick up Bill. Meanwhile, I would reccomend that you guys all get
some sleep."
	Sleep. It sounded so good right now. "Affirmative, General. Fox
out." The vidscreen fizzled out, and the crew were soon taking the
General's advice.
	"YYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" A mob of armed civilians charged
directly into the range of a regiment of soldiers. The quickly spun around
and stopped the group quickly with some shots into the air. At the sound
of the blasts, the crowd scattered, screaming and fleeing for their lives.
The soldiers continued their rounds through the streets of the new capitol
of Macbeth.
	From a window in the new capitol building, a large black bear
watched as the civil war raged between the remnants of the government, the
trained and armed military, and the citizens of Macbeth. The citizens, by
far the largest of the groups, was by no means winning. The soldiers had
ravaged their homes, and the few politicians that had been left from the
last battle on Macbeth had taken a partial tyrant status. The bear eased
away from the window, hoping that he had not been seen. It was nearing
time for him to make his appearance.
	He jogged down the back stairs, and out of the door, jumping into
his car. He took off for a smaller town. This had to be handled carefully.
The bear looked at the wreckage around him and smiled. Andross' plan was
working beautifully. After the leader and most of the government was
killed in the first battle on Macbeth, a civil war soon followed as
enraged citizens were placed under the care of tyrants. The citizens
needed food and shelter, but had neither now, because of the ugly
situation. The car shot down the road, as fighting for family and life was
happening on either side of him. He really couldn't care less.
	Fox woke up slowly, for the first time in a while feeling rested.
He looked around his room. Bill wasn't here; oh, well, he must be in the
control room. Fox got up and got dressed, and then headed into the control
room, where Bill was staring out of the front window at the stars. Bill
looked up at his friend, and explained, "I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking
of how Andross just used the Vulcain, and then just got rid of it when the
fight wasn't going his way."
	"Andross has not been known to play fairly," Fox said as he sat
down. "If I could guess, I'd say that the Vulcain was just one of many."
	Bill nodded. He was obviously thinking. "Fox, how do you plan on
taking these people out with just your four-man crew?"
	"Just as we've been doing, I suppose. I never really stopped to
think about it."
	"Listen. If you guys ever need our help in battle, and that means
anytime, anywhere, just call me, and we'll be there as fast as possible."
	Fox smirked. "And you know that the same goes for you guys,
right?"
	"Yeah, sure." He paused. "I just don't trust Andross, I guess, to
fight you guys by himself. He's got something up his sleeve, and it isn't
just his arm."
	"You can be sure about that, but we'll try to stay on our guard.
Andross won't get the best of us."
	Bill sat back in the seat he was in and continued to look at the
stars. "I just wish I knew what his next move was."
	The bear pulled into a almost deserted town and put the car
somewhere that it couldn't be seen. He walked down the jogged down what
was left of the street, scanning the area for the things that would serve
his purpose. A small group of soldiers marched through the rubble, keeping
time with their leader. The bear stopped the leader, spoke a few words
with him, and the leader instantly ordered two soldiers to go with him. A
reddish dog and a badger were chosen to follow him, and they fell in step
with the bear as he walked toward a house. The bear stopped the two
soldiers, and spoke with them. "I know for a fact that there are
revolutionaries hiding in that house." Really, he had just picked that
house out of the blue. "Hurry, and you can catch them before they escape!" 
	The two soldiers charged at the door, ramming the door down and
startling a poor rabbit and his family while they were eating what little
food they had left. The dog began, "We have heard that there are
revolutionaries here! Where are they?" The two soldiers did not fail to
brandish their guns.
	The poor rabbit stood up slowly. "I don't know what you're talking
about, sir."
	The badger blasted a deep scar in the wall right next two the man,
causing his wife and daughters to scream. "Tell us where they are, now!!!"
	A sound behind the two soldiers startled them, and they spun
around. The bear was standing in the doorway, sleeves rolled up to show
large muscles, and claws brought forward. "What's going on here?!?" the
bear yelled.
	The dog was confused. "Um, we were just doing what you told us to
do, sir..."
	The bear became enraged. "How dare you attack a poor family on
false charges such as these! You government people have got to leave us
alone!!" He dashed into the dog using his shoulder, and sent him flying
into the wall, where he crashed down onto a bench, unconscious. The badger
thought that the bear had gone mad, and began to aim. The bear spun around
and met the badger with several blows to the head, knocking him against a
bookcase and causing it to fall on him. The bear stepped back into a
leaderlike pose. His plan was working perfectly.
	The rabbit's wife, a small white rabbit, put her hands over her
mouth as she looked at what the bear had done. "Sir! Thank you so much!
You've saved us!" she gasped.
	Yes. It was working perfectly.
	Fox watched as Bill's transport headed towards Zoness. Bill would
have quite a fight on his hands against the Venomians there. Fox leaned
back as it disappeared into the stars. "Good luck, friend." He got up and
started to call the other pilots, who were still snoring away, down to the
control room to get ready.
	Later, after the team had gotten assembled and launched out of the
Great Fox, they began to discuss the mission. Peppy didn't exactly know
what to make of the situation. "So, what does this thing look like,
anyway?"
	Slippy tried to describe it. "Large arms, big head, you know, your
basic secret weapon robot," he joked.
	Falco looked over to Peppy. "Believe me, Pep. You'll know it when
you see it."
	Fox nodded. "Before we left, Pepper gave me a layout of what was
in the area. It seems as if this place is a space junkyard. Not many
people travel this way, so it makes a good place to store things."
	Peppy smirked. "Like high-tech secret weapons?"
	"Exactly. Now, Pepper told me that they had seen a large building
on their readings, but from the look of it, it was deserted. I'm expecting
otherwise."
	Falco looked ahead. "Hold on, guys! Here we go!!" He started to
blast at the small ships that were approaching. "Man! Those things are
fast!"
	Peppy watched the tiny ships speed around, shooting at them as
well. "We'll do better if we stay a little farther apart. Break up enough
so that they don't have one target." The four ships moved into a large
horizontal line, widening the gaps between them. Peppy charged forward,
and took out several ships using charged laser blasts, but they simply
filled in the gaps between them.
	Slippy was trying the same thing from a distance. He was getting
panicked. "There's just too many of them!!"
	Fox armed a bomb. "I can take care of that. Clear, everyone!" The
bomb hummed as it flew towards the myriad ships. Suddenly, there was a
bright light, an explosion, and a much smaller amount of ships around. The
team charged forward, seeing their opportunity.
	Slippy saw small dots in the space around them as they approached
some aging pieces of metal floating in space. He suddenly realized what
the dots were. "Space mines ahead, everyone! Make them explode early or
they'll take us down!" He began shooting at the small machines, which then
overloaded and detonated early into a small pink cloud.
	Peppy joined in and took a few down, followed by Fox and Falco,
who took out the rest, making a mist of pink clouds. The mist swirled as
the ships went through them into a large area of deserted junk.
	The bear looked at his group of civilians that had rallied with
him. Ever since he had "saved" the family of rabbits, he had been popular
with the people, and it wasn't too hard to get some citizens to do his
bidding. They were mere citizens, but with the right training, they could
be deadly. He called a number on his phone, contacting his backup crew,
and they arrived shortly after. The group was small, but that was what he
was counting on. "All right, troops! The enemy has taken a town here in
the valley! We are going to take it back! Follow my orders, and let's
go!!" The small group of troops was oblivious to the army that was
marching behind them, mimicking their every move. The troops reached the
edge of the town, which was already lined with soldiers. Stealth was
obviously not this militia's strongest area. The bear raised his arm,
pointing towards the soldiers. "Charge!!!!!" The militia ran forward,
yelling wildly and trying to aim. The soldiers were not taking the whole
idea seriouly. These were untrained men from the towns around this one.
What did they have to worry about? 
	A soldier was hiding in the bushes behind the small group, armed
with a long-range gun. He took aim at the soldiers standing guard. As he
shot, he uncovered the Venomian symbol that had been printed on his
sleeve. The soldiers at the town were easily guarding against the
militia's shots, but suddenly, one of the guards dropped over, shot. The
guard next to him looked over. "What?! How in the world...," but he soon
joined his friend. The other soldiers were astonished, and began guarding
all the harder against the militia's shots. But, try as they might, as
soon as they stepped from behind their shields to take a shot, they were
taken down by a long-range bullet.
	The militia was ecstatic. They thought that they were doing all of
this. No one suspected them of being capable of taking back a town, but
that was exactly what was happening. That's right, thought the bear, as he
watched his troops in training, think that you're the ones winning this
battle. He looked back to the soldier with the long-range gun. The soldier
saluted him.
	"Whoa!" Fox pulled hard upwards on the control stick as he was
caught by surprise by a large piece of metal flying his way. After it had
passed, he tried to calm down as his ship rejoined the others. "What in
the world? How did that thing just suddenly fly at me? Wasn't it just
sitting there a second ago?"
	Peppy was busy watching out for metal pieces of his own. "Sorry,
Fox, wasn't watching." Suddenly Peppy saw a huge fist flying at his ship.
"What is that thing?!?" He pulled out of the way a few seconds before the
whole arm went flying into a large slab of metal, sending it flying, and
then kept going into space. Peppy looked forward again. "Where did that
come from?"
	Slippy watched the arm hit another metal piece. "I think we may
have found part of our secret weapon. It can't be far now. Let's hurry!"
	Some of the debris was clearing up, and it was getting easier to
see the huge nebulae that this area in space was named after. Directly
after the pieces stopped coming, they came to the corner of a base. "This
is probably that base that Pepper told me about. We might want to bypass
this thing altogether so that we can avoid confrontation while trying to
destroy the Spyborg." Fox was looking at the looming building, trying to
find any cameras. "They shouldn't see us. Let's go!"
	Peppy was thinking. "It'll be harder for them to go after just two
of us at a time than if the whole group goes one way. I'll take the
inside." He and Falco split off to go the other way around the base,
hitting their boosters the whole way.
	Fox and Slippy continued on the right side of the base. Suddenly,
panels shot from the side of the base, revealing mounted turrets, already
shooting at the group. Slippy was surprised. "What?! How did they know we
were here?"
	Fox looked around, trying to find the cameras. His eyes caught
onto a small, rotating machine, hovering a short distance away. "They have
spy satelites out here! We've been had! They've probably been watching
everything we do!" He locked onto the satelite and blasted it angrily.
"Hurry! We've got to get out of here before they start sending troops!!"
	Another panel on the side of the building opened, and a line of
fighters flew out. Slippy locked onto the one in the lead. "Here's a trick
shot for you, Fox!" He blasted the one in the lead of the group, and the
explosion caught onto the fighter behind it, and in a chain reaction, the
entire line went up in one shot.
	"Nice work, Slip! Whoa! Peppy! What are you doing on this side?"
Peppy's ship had shot up and over the base, with another line of fighters
on his tail.
	"Trying to lose these guys. I'm going in. Cover me, Fox!" Peppy
boosted forward, leaving Fox to shoot the enemies behind him. Fox slowed
down, and took out each one with the laser. "Thanks, Fox. Now we can focus
our attention on these guys!" He hit the brakes as well, and shot out the
turrets as quickly as he could.
	Falco came flying over the top of the base to follow Peppy. "Man,
Peppy, you just ran off on me there! I could've used your help, you know?"
	Peppy looked back to Falco. "Sorry about that, but when you have a
line of fighters behind you, the first thing on your mind is not usually
staying with your group."
	Slippy broke into the conversation. "Guys! Keep your heads up!
We're getting close to the secret weapon! I can feel it!"
	The bear looked out over the podium. To the people, he was
becoming a friend, trainer, and leader. He had been asked to be the mayor
of the town they had just "saved" from the soldiers, and who was he not to
accept? With a little more influence, the plan would be almost complete.
He looked back at the townspeoples. Fools. In his acceptance speech, he
talked about being a group, working together, and such. He had read the
speech somewhere before, he thought.
	Within a week, the bear had taken four major cities back from the
government as well as two smaller ones and had gained a large portion of
new militia in each city. His army was growing, and so was his sphere of
influence. The politicians who were ruling in the capital city were
beginning to fear him. He was a threat to their wealthy living and a
favorite with the people. Surely no good could come of him. 
	Finally, the day came. The bear and his troops were now well
trained, and they looked with disgust upon the capital city, where the
soldiers were randomly foraying for goods from the people's homes. Today
would be the day when there was no turning back. The plan was going to go
through, no matter what. The leading officer, a lizard, looked to the bear
with a questioning expression. The bear nodded. The lizard spun around,
stomped his foot to get the troops attention, and yelled a war call. The
whole crowd of people ran and yelled along with their leader. The bear
watched as his faithful servants ran into the city, taking down on sight
any soldier from the goverment's army. He smiled. He had certainly trained
them well. He turned as the bushes behind him moved. "It's time," he said.
The bushes erupted with Venomian soldiers, quietly following their
comrades as backup. The bear went to a well camoflaged jeep in the bushes,
and got in with his guard troops. "Let's go." They took off, heading for
the capital building.
	A small bird scurried to one of the three head politicians, who
were sitting in their throne room, enjoying more of the taxpayer's money.
The bird whispered something in the politician's ear, and his face turned
white. "Friends! Our lives are at stake as well as our fortunes! That
confounded leader of the peasants, that bear, has stormed the capital
city! We must leave here at once!!"
	"Don't bother," said a voice behind them. "Stay a while." The bear
was standing in the doorway of the room, with his troops on either side of
him. "It's time we faced the truth. You have plundered the taxpayer's
money for too long, and ignored the plea of the common person. Now is when
you pay. I am taking your place." The politicians were speechless. "My
reasons for overthrowing you are higher up than you'd ever dream. Take
your things and go, and you will be spared that much. Do anything to try
to threaten us, and you're done for."
	The politicians cowered in front of the bear, and ran out of the
room. The bear walked across the room, looking at the middle of the three
thrones. He lowered himself into it, and let out a long sigh. "I don't
know which is better: being a general in Andross' army or being the
Macbethian World Leader!" He looked over at the small bird which had
delivered the message to the politicians and decided to have some fun.
"Down on your face in front of your master!"
	The bird instantly went face-down on the floor, quaking in fear.
"Yes, sir!"
	The bear let out a long, terrible, menacing laugh.
	Bill swung his ship around a dragon, aiming at the Venomian ship
that was tailing his wingman. He took the ship down, and pulled alongside
the wingman. "That's the third time I've had to save you in this fight!"
	The husky inside pulled away from Bill in a tight circle, and shot
down a Venomian following another one of the wingmen. "Don't get too cocky
about it, Bill! We still need to take out this base! It feels like we've
been fighting all day, and we haven't had time to touch that base!"
	Bill blasted off the left wing of a Venomian, causing it to swing
right, into the waiting mouth of a large dragon. Bill shuddered as he
skimmed across the polluted water's surface, broken here and there by
dragons and trashed ships. "Well, it's a good thing Fox got in here early
and took down all of the security equipment. That's what let us sneak in
here like that, you know?"
	The bulldog pulled up as a Venomian was chasing him, making it
slam into the side of the base that they were attacking. "Hey! We hit the
base!!"
	The husky followed up the attack since, for the time being, he was
not being tailed. "Cornerian units, clear!" He shot a bomb into the side
of the base, and a large portion of the wall of the base was gone, but the
fight was far from over.
	Bill slid up beside his wingman. "Good work! Just keep up with the
Venomians! They're coming in faster!" He spun around to combat yet another
onslaught of Venomians.
	"Fox! I'm picking something up ahead of us!" Slippy started moving
faster.
	"Let's go!" Fox slammed on his booster. He saw something moving in
the shadows ahead. "I think we've found it."
	The Spyborg seemed to know that it had been seen, and so it slowly
lumbered in front of the team. "You are an enemy," it said in a
high-pitched metallic whine. "I must destroy all enemies." The robot
checked its systems before it began to fight. "I must destroy all
enemies," it repeated. It began to turn its head around in a circle,
revealing the mounted lasers. Blue blasts of energy rocketed toward the
group, which they easily dodged. The robot raised its right arm, locking
the lead ship in its sights.
	The arm slashed down, and Fox ripped at his controls to get out of
the way. "Watch out, guys! That thing is fast!"
	Falco pulled up beside Fox as the left arm shot past them. "It
can't hit what it can't see! Take out the eyes!" Falco brought his ship
even with the robot's head, and let loose with several blasts at the eyes.
	The robot's computers acted with an emergency reading. Several
computers blanked out at the first sign of trouble, but a good deal of
them held on, and returned to the attack format. The unfinished portion of
the computers caused a temporary shutdown, and the robot's computers
panicked. When was the Master going to arrive and complete it? The Spyborg
fired its arms out, ignoring the attackers for a second. "Where is the
Creator?"
	"What's it saying?" Fox watched as the arms harmlessly flew to the
right and left of the team, searching the nearby area.
	The arms returned and locked into place. The robot reinforced
itself and began the same attack sequence as before. It had to rid itself
of these attackers before it was in danger. "You are an enemy!" It sped up
its attacks in order to scare them off, but the group only matched the
speed and continued attacking. About half of the computers had shut down
by now, and the unfinished computer area was shutting down the other
computers and forcing the robot to forget its attacks.
	"Keep aiming for its eyes!" Peppy yelled as he dodged the arm,
screaming by him.
	Now the Spyborg realized that it was running out of strength.
These ships, these troublemakers, they would not let up on its eyes. The
head portion of its robotic body was becoming weak. It couldn't take much
more.
	Slippy was trying to pull inside and get a shot off to help his
friends, but he was continually blocked by something.
	The robot's computers realized that the head area of the robot was
not responding anymore. With a sudden blast, the entire head of the robot
completely exploded, leaving a small stub on the shoulder area. Some
computers followed the example and burst into flames, while the others all
shut down for a few seconds. The Spyborg hung limp in space.
	Slippy pulled a small somersault. "Yeah! You did it!"
	A computer suddenly switched on again, as did the computers around
it. The basic system tests were run, and the robot sprang into action.
	Peppy jumped back as the robot once again pulled itself upright.
"What in the..."
	The Spyborg ran the last visual tests with the backup optics. "The
view is clear." The computers remembered how quickly the enemy had
attacked, and panicked. One of the hands reached back to look for a larger
weapon, and its hand locked on a piece of floating metal. "You are an
enemy!" The metal flew from the hand and at the team.
	"Watch out! Get out of the way!" Peppy dove downwards to miss the
projectile, and slid to the side as he almost rammed into Falco.
	Falco pulled to the right to get out of Peppy's way, and Slippy
saw his chance to get into the action. He hit his booster and pulled up to
Fox. "Let me help you out!" Slippy flew in closer to the robot to get a
better shot at what was left of the eye.
	Fox looked up in time to see the huge hand bearing down on Slippy.
"Slippy, watch out!!!"
	Slippy didn't even see what hit him. The hand smashed into
Slippy's ship, sending him flying. "Fox!!! Help me!!!" 
	Fox watched in horror as Slippy's ship spun off into space toward
a huge, red planet. "Slippy!!!!" He turned back to the robot, his eyes
blazing with revenge. "Boy, did you pick the wrong team to mess with,
buddy!! Clear!!" Falco and Peppy, recognizing Fox's anger, got out of the
way as quickly as possible. Fox let loose a bomb and then a barrage of
laser with such a fury that the Spyborg couldn't tell which hit it first.
	The Spyborg's computers reeled with the bomb's explosion, and
instantly crashed. The Spyborg's main computer tried to comprehend the
situation and  pull out of it, but that unfinished area in the programming
left it lame. It was useless. The Spyborg righted itself one last time,
and looked directly at the face of its enemy. "I must be complete!!!!" The
explosion that followed shoved the three team members away in a shock
wave.
	Fox was not one to waste time. "ROB! Is there any sign of Slippy?"
he spoke into the headset as he flew near the robot's wreckage.
	ROB responded almost instantly. "There are distress signals coming
from Titania."
	Fox looked to his friends. "Then it's to Titania that we go! All
aircraft report!
	Peppy came in first. "Well, here we go again."
	Falco was angry. "Slippy's always getting into trouble."
	Fox rounded the group. "We don't have any choice. Slippy's in
trouble! Let's go!" Fox led the three ships towards the red planet,
blasting the wreckage of the Spyborg one more time as he went past it.