StarFox Fan Fiction ❯ Star Fox Recruits ❯ Gravity Grip ( Chapter 7 )

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

In his lair on Venom, Andross had received reports that his machines were in position and phase-one of conquering of the Lylat-System was completed. “Even as we speak master… I am prepared to lead a swat of soldiers to travel to the various destinations to enslave the populace.”

 

Andross nodded indicating he was pleased, “You may proceed, Tobor…” he said, “And remember… if the Star-Fox team should appear, you know what to do…”

 

Tobor bowed, and left the lair to join his robot army that took off from Venom and scattered across the system to begin preparations. “Now it… begins!” Andross grinned evilly.

 

…

 

The Great-Fox, the Arwings and all the other weapons, once fully upgraded and repaired, the Great-Fox was once again launched out into space to being patrolling the Lylat System. Donny, Erin and I were aboard, now well familiar with the controls and stuff… all that we needed now was to wait for the first move to be made.

 

Onboard the Great-Fox, you'd think nothing had changed at all as everything pretty well seemed the same as it was before, but it was not true. The hull of the ship was now stronger, and it's weapons a lot more powerful and faster to charge. The rockets were also re-modified and emergency thrusters were added to make dodging and evading enemy attacks a breeze…

 

For now, everyone was on the command-deck just enjoying the view and keeping watch over the systems. Slippy even cranked up the jukebox and kept in mind not to turn it up so high.

 

As Erin came up to the bridge, she nearly tripped over a discarded hammer on the floor. “Slippy… watch where you leave your tools!” she said.

 

“Sorry…” Slippy said, “I was up quite a lot last night helping with the final preparations before blast-off. I was even building this little translator for everyone.” He held up special upgraded-wrist-computers for everyone. This meant that all languages would be translated, and subtitles provided for those that couldn't speak English.

 

“Well… I guess it's impressive. Nice work Slippy.” Fox complimented.

 

Just then, General Pepper signed onto the image-communicator. “General Pepper here. I've located the ideal are for your first mission objective Star-Fox team.”

 

“Well about time too…” Falco muttered.

 

Donny elbowed him in the gut, “Lighten-up, will you?”

 

 

“Ahem…!” Pepper grunted to recapture everyone's attention; he showed us images of the planet Titania. The moment we all saw it, we gasped. “Hey, the ring around the planet is missing.” Peppy said.

 

“Exactly right, Peppy.” replied Pepper, “We've just received odd a signal of the gravity on the planet has suddenly become stronger, which would explain why the ring of dust is no longer around the planet. We also have determined that the gravity is slowly, yet effectively continuing to grow, but we can't why it's happening.”

 

“It will be your mission, Star-Fox team; to investigate the situation, and do anything you can to reverse it. If the gravity on Titania continues to grow, I fear it will reach an inevitable point where the planet itself shall be crushed into dust under its own pressure.”

 

“You have little time Star-Fox team. Pepper out.”

 

All of us were in deep thought, “How can a planet's gravity suddenly just start to maximize like that?” Erin wondered. “You'd have to add a powerful mineral into the planet's interior to make that even remotely possible.”

 

It was beginning to look as though Andross had made his first move, but we would be able to be sure until we got a closer look. “ROB, how far away are we from Titania?” Fox asked.

 

“All set with that check…” answered ROB. “At our present speed, with a single warp boost, we should have a visual of Titania within the hour.”

 

With that settled, we all strapped on our seatbelts and THRUSTED forward into space. “Whew…we cure sure use ships like this back home.” I said.

 

A while later, we could see Titania coming up ahead, it was agreed that Fox, Donny, Erin, and I would head to the planet's surface to instigate. “The Arwings are all set…” Peppy said, “Just remember, if the planet's gravity gets any stronger, you might not be able to life off of it again.”

 

“Gee… thanks for the load of confidence.” Erin said sarcastically, but nevertheless, were armed ourselves with blasters, and weapons, I of course just had to take a duplicate of Krystal's staff with me, and we headed for the Arwings and were off.

 

No sooner had we just gotten out of range from the great-Fox. “Uh-oh… looks like we've got company.” I said as I pointed out to a swarm of robot ships heading our way.

 

“Dude… you think someone down there was expecting us.” said Donny.

 

Fox decided, “We should take those guys out first. We can't have them going after the Great-Fox. Let's go guys!”

 

Erin cheered, “Yahoo! I'm so gonna enjoy this.”

 

The battle was on. There were fifteen ships in total, different sizes and shapes with their own weapons. Lasers, plasma-balls, and missiles… “Maximum shields.” Fox ordered, “Okay… let's party!” and he began to charge for a ship that was heading right at him from the front, he shot it down with ease.

 

Erin was surrounded by two ships, one in front, and one on her tail. “It's not nice to creep up on a girl.” She hissed, and right at the last moment she pulled up fast casing the ships to accidentally shoot down each other. “Told you so…”

 

“Yo'… I could use some help here!” cried Donny who was being pursued by two other ships and their homing-missiles. “I'm coming bro…” I called to him, and I shot down the ships, and the missile while completely missing Donny's Arwing. “Am I bad…? Oh yes.”

 

I could see Donny give me a thumb-up, and then he carried on to where five ships were coming for him. “Let's hear the element of surprise!” and he fired a nova-bomb. “ST-RIKE…!”

 

“Don't get too cocky now…” Fox said, “We still got to head down to the planet where the real danger lies.”

 

“Party-Pooper...”

 

The rest of the ships began to retreat allowing us to safely make it through the planet's atmosphere and land on the surface. We managed to land the Arwings safely, but Peppy was right… we all felt a little heavy upon stepping outside.

 

“Whoa… I only fell like this when I have to get out of bed.” Erin said as she felt her head. At least we are still able to move about normally. “Come on…” Fox said, “We got to find the source of the disturbance before the gravity gets any worse.”

 

Agreeing to that, we all began to head towards the ancient ruins near our landing site. This was a whole new experience for me and the X-Team. The only thing closest to ancient ruins we ever were in were fun-houses and mazes at theme-parks on Earth.

 

It was pretty dark inside the temple; I used my staff to generate a little light for us. “Ouch… watch your foot, Fox.” snapped Erin.

 

“Sorry…”

 

We continued on our way deeper into the ruins and before we knew it, we could see light at the end of the tunnel. “Hey… you guys hear something?” Donny. We all listened carefully and could hear the sounds of voices in the distance. Monotone voices, and robot sounds…

 

We passed by a small alcove, “Hey guys…” Erin whispered, “Come here…” We all stepped over and looked through the alcove which served as a window into a lower level of the ruins, whereas according from the data we observed on the Great-Fox, was near the main sector of the force-point of the Tatiana…

 

There were many robot soldiers down there, and they all seemed to be working around a huge powerful device that was placed in the center and just as Erin had predicted, was forcing minerals into the planet which was the source of what was disrupting the gravity.

 

“We've got to find some way to shut that thing down…” I said.

 

“Not just that one…” Fox pointed out. “There are a couple of other temples nearby, and they all have connections to the force points. I'm guessing they each have a generator like that.”

 

What he was trying to put it as, was that if we tried to destroy just one the gravity would probably spin more out of control and destroy the planet. “This means… if they each have generators, then that means we have to find a way to destroy all of them at once.” Donny said.

 

We decided to check out the other ruins, as I offered to stay behind and keep an eye on things in the current ruins to investigate further information, under the circumstances that if things were to get ugly I would get out immediately.

 

Fox checked his wrist computer, “The gravity's increasing all the time. I'd estimate that we only have an hour before it becomes too much to handle. So we make an agreement to get out of here ten minutes before then, no matter what.”

 

With that, the others headed off, but no sooner had they gone outside did they run into an army of robots. Their alarms went off at once and they armed their laser guns. “Look out!” cried Donny, and they scattered about just in time. “Get behind the rocks!”

 

They whipped out their own blasters, and joined in the battle, leaping up form behind the rocks every chance they got to fire at the robots, and short them out. “Run for it…!” shouted Fox, and they all made a break for the other temples, only to be interrupted by more robots. “You guy's run on ahead.” cried Erin “I'll cover you…!”

 

Donny and Fox agreed and made a break for the other two temples… while I on the other hand was still in the first temple, and I noticed the robots began to march out from their posts and head up the way. “Uh-oh…!” and I ducked behind the darkness where they wouldn't be able to see me as they marched by. Soon there wasn't a single robot left and the device down below was left un-guarded, allowing me to investigate more closely as I leapt into the chamber.

 

“What is this thing?” I kept asking. Whatever it was, it certainly was set up perfectly so that one false move would defiantly put the planet in greater danger. I activate my communicator. “Fox… come in! Have you checked out the other temples?”

 

Fox reported that he was right, “I've found another generator here.”

 

“Copy and paste that on my end too.” added Donny. “So what do we do now to shut down these things?”

 

The only clear option we had was to use the timed-detonators we bought. With all the robots busy outside, it was the best and only chance we had. Fox instructed us to set the timers for a five-minute delay. “Mark…!”

 

We each set out timers and set them off perfectly. “Okay… let's clear out.” Fox said, “Erin may still need our help...”

 

Outside, Erin was indeed starting to lose her cool, as the robots just didn't know when to quit. For each one she shot down, two more popped up. “I could use some help here!” she cried.

 

“You called…” I called to her as I leapt up and over the rocks to her aid with my staff at the ready. Krystal and Fox had trained me well on what types of elements, and effects the staff could use, like ice! “Let's see how you like my deep freeze…!” I mocked as I froze the robots in the tracks.

 

This made it easier for me to jump in and fight them in hand to hand combat. Dodging their laser blasts and attacking them right back. Soon, Fox and Donny joined in with their own blasters, and the robots were defeated.

 

“And about time too…” Erin groaned as she found it harder to keep her balance. “Aren't those charges ready to blow yet?”

 

Fox checked his timer, “Ten more seconds.” He told us. “Five, four, three, two, one…!”

 

The charges went off, all three at the same time destroying the gravity generators and stopping their pulsating-beams. The good news was the gravity was no longer increasing. The bad news was… “What's going on?” asked Donny, “Why isn't the gravity returning to normal?”

 

Neither of us had a clue, but suddenly we felt the ground quivering and shaking in usual rhythm. “Uh, guys…” Erin said nervously, “Anybody get the feeling that something nasty's about to happen?”

 

The quakes became louder, initiating that something was getting closer. In almost no time, there it was. A giant battle-droid in the shape of a large elephant-like creature was approaching us with its huge feet stomping on the ground. “A guys… I think the zoo is missing an animal.” cried Donny.

 

The machine pounded the ground, and it actually trumpeted loudly at us as we identified its file…

 

Name: Gravitphant

 

Weapon: Gravity-Beam.

 

I looked at Gravitphants's see-through hull that served as his body. “That energy…” I said, “Its anti-gravity.”

 

That's when the machine raised its huge trunk and began sucking us towards it with such force. “Whoa… that's some force!” cried Erin.

 

“Quick!” added Fox. “Break for the Arwings!”

 

We were barely able to make it to our ships in time, yet we had to use a lot of power just to take off. “The gravity on the planet suddenly got stronger again…” I calculated. “It's going to pull us down if this keeps up.”

 

That's when we all realized that it was obviously Gravitphant that was responsible. Being able to absorb the gravity of Titania, and use it as a weapon, leaving the planet's gravity completely unstable. Our only option now was to destroy that ugly thing and fast.

 

We tried our lasers, but the beams just bounced right off his hull. Then Gravitphant began to counter with his own attack, using its gravity beam from his trunk to try and suck up our ships, though it never succeeded, it did also absorb the many boulders lying around and fire them back out at us.

 

“Look out!” cried Fox, and we all began to swerve and roll our ships around, anything to dodge those boulders. What made things worse, was the gravity of the planet got even worse, and it was getting hard for our ships to maintain altitude.

 

“Come on guys… we gotta' hang tight!” I growled.

 

The suddenly, Donny had an idea. “You guys cover me, I may have a plan.”

 

We all went along with him, and when Gravitphant began to suck up rocks again Donny fired a nova-bomb from his ship that got sucked into the hull and exploded, which caused the machine to fall over temporarily stunned, and it's armor was glowing red now. “Star shooting!” Donny shouted, and that's just what we did. Firing our lasers which finally did some damage…

 

Eventually, Gravitphant got back on its feet, and resumed its battle-mode. It also however began to use another form of attack. It leapt up high in the air, and stomped down on the ground sending a huge shockwave towards our ships.

 

“SWERVE!” screamed Erin. We all did our best to dodge those shockwaves; Donny even got hit a little. “Whoa! Easy, easy…!”

 

“You alright…?” Fox asked.

 

“Me? I laugh at danger!”

 

Gravitphant stopped pounding the ground, and resumed its normal battle function, and began to use its gravity-beam again. “Fire in the hole…” Erin called as she launched her nova-bomb which caused it to topple over again.

 

“Get it…!” Fox shouted, and we all fired our lasers at it again. This time, the machine began to spark. Fox and I did the only best thing and both fired our nova-bombs at it. “Get back!” I called. “That thing's going to blow!”

 

We all hung U-turns and speeded away just as the explosions got larger. Then in one huge KAPOW, Gravitphnat was completely destroyed, which released all of its anti-gravity back into the planet. The gravity was restored to normal levels… and way up in orbit, the crew on the Great-Fox watched as the ring of dust around Titania began to reform.

 

“They did it! They did it!” cried Slippy.

 

“Nice going Fox.” Peppy said into the radio. “You okay…?”

 

“We're all present and accounted for, old-timer.” Fox answered, “Mission completed. We're coming back.”

 

Krystal smiled warmly. “I knew they could do it.”

 

“Yeah… well don't get too excited.” Falco said rudely. “This is only the first step.”

 

Meanwhile…

 

You can bet your boots that when Andross had heard about his forces on Titania being demolished, he was angry. “I cannot tolerate this incompetence…!” he growled at his machines, “Your mediocrity exceeds even my lowest expectations of you all!”

 

He clenched his fists up tightly. “Star-Fox shall pay for this! I will win the war!”

 

Author's notes

 

I guess you can already tell that the chps are now much bigger than before. So I may not be able to update as fast anymore, but I'm not giving up…