StarFox Fan Fiction ❯ Star Fox Recruits ❯ A Rocky Road ( Chapter 8 )

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

Another day on patrol meant another day to explore and discover the strange sights of the Lylat system. Our mission today was to explore Meteo, the field of Asteroids near Corneria that served as protection… however, something wasn't quite right.

 

We had received word from General Pepper that many of the asteroids were in fact merging together to form a giant meteor that was slowly making its way towards Corneria. This meteor was at least half Corneria's size meaning that if it successfully made it through and crashed, Corneria would blow up like a bomb. It was our mission to reach the meteor, find out what was causing it to grow so large, and stop it at all costs.

 

“We're approaching the asteroid field now Fox.” Peppy said. Fox nodded, and then signaled his crew to man their stations. He, I and my siblings of course were going, and so were Falco and Krsytal. It was necessary that for us to guard the great Fox as well as clear a path for it that would lead to the giant asteroid, in case we weren't able to stop it ourselves.

 

Krsytal was just glad to be going along for the ride. She hadn't been on an Arwing flight ever since I and my siblings first came. That and, she liked it when she got to go on missions with Fox… but now was no time to be soft and blushing.

 

“We're ready Slippy.” Fox signaled.

 

Slippy nodded, “Launching all Arwings…!” he said as he flipped the switch and we were off. “Okay, everyone stay in formation.” Fox said. “Follow me and don't toddle off.”

 

“Copy that…” I said.

 

“We're all with you Fox.” added Krystal.

 

“Whatever.” said Falco.

 

Fox flew his ship to the head of the team, and we all followed him into the field of asteroids. Keeping up with him we swerved and flew over, under and in-between. “Keep it tight people!” Fox said while trying to stay focused.

 

Suddenly, Erin zigged where she should've zagged, and her wing scraped against a rock. “Ah…!” she cried.

 

I looked up, “Erin, you okay…?” completely taking my eyes off where I was going. “Mykan, look out!” cried Donny.

 

I looked up just in time before my ship smacked face-first into a red asteroid, and I had just hit the lasers in time blowing it our of my path. “That was easy enough.” I said cockily.

 

Meanwhile…

 

Andross had been watching from his lair. “Hmm… very clever.” he hissed. Then he clicked on the computer, “Tobor… you have company. It appears our enemies are aware of our plot.”

 

“Yes, my lord…” answered Tobor, “Fear not! For if they should dare get anywhere near us… their fates shall be sealed, literally…”

 

Andross smiled sinisterly as he shut down the transmission, and then he clicked a switch which opened a panel in the floor and revealed what appeared to be a power generator, which was very low in capacity; less than fiver-percent to be exact. Andross didn't seem to mind that it was so low, “Soon… very soon.” he muttered.

 

Meanwhile…

 

We were all still evading our way through the asteroid, and Donny shook his head vigorously. “This place is making me dizzy.” he groaned.

 

“Whatever else you got, just keep it to yourself.” Falco said, and we all guessed at what he was hinting. Suddenly Krystal cried out, “Look…”

 

There it was, up ahead. “Whoa… check out the size of that thing!” cried Falco.

 

“Dude… is that an Asteroid or a moon?” Donny asked rhetorically.

 

We kept our ships in free float and did as many close-up calculations as we could. The Asteroid's exterior was completely comprised of iron. This meant that we wouldn't be able to destroy it simply by shooting at it.

 

“Hey, Fox… why don't we look around the other side?” I suggested.

 

Fox was up for that, and so were the others, although Falco hesitated slightly. “If you insist…” he sighed. “Well look at that thing…!” I snapped at him. “Where's your sense of exploration?”

 

“All wrapped in one basket, on how to stop it.”

 

Nevertheless, we all flew around to the other side, staying out of the way of the tail where we were liable to be hit debris. “It's just as solid over here too…” said Krystal.

 

Now that we were here, the question was what to do to stop the asteroid. We couldn't shoot it down. “Well maybe we can try nudging it out of its trajectory with our ships.” Erin suggested.

 

We recalculated the volume and the speed of the Asteroid, “The Asteroid's far too big and going to fast.” Krsytal said, “It would mean certain suicide to try that.”

 

Donny suggested we look around the face again, and so we maneuvered our ships once again. “Well I'm fresh out of ideas.” Fox said. “I've never faced anything this big in my life.”

 

We all just stayed where we were in free float, but then suddenly it looked as though the Asteroid was getting closer and faster towards us. “Hey! It's moving in…!” cried Falco.

 

“No, it isn't…” I said, and I tired pulling on the controls along with all the others, “We're moving in. It's pulling us!”

 

“Dude, I can't break away…!” cried Donny.

 

“Neither can I.” added Erin.

 

Down, down, our ships went, it looked as though we were going to collide, “Everybody hang on!” cried Fox, but surprisingly a secret doorway opened on the asteroid's surface and our ships were pulled in by gravity-beam.

 

Down, down, through a tunnel with lights, until eventually we came into a hanger-bay and our ships touched down all on their own, and before we knew it, an army of robots marched out with their guns poised at us. We all saw no choice but to raise our hands over our heads and go with them.

 

…

 

Before we knew it we were all stripped of our weapons, and thrown into prison-cells in what was now revealed to be a super atomic-base within the core of the asteroid. The very source of what started this whole mess.

 

“Swell!” snorted Falco, “What next…?” He got his answer when the doors on the either side of the room opened and in marched a robot army, and among them was a larger robot, who was wielding a beam-sword. “So… the famous Star-Fox team… At last we meet. Though unexpectedly at that…”

 

“Who are you?” Fox asked.

 

“I… am Tobor. Lead General of the Robot-Army.” he answered, “I live to serve under the order of Emperor Andross of Venom, to conquer the Lylat System, and to replace all upright living beings with artificial creations.”

 

Falco looked confused, “Yeah… right…” he snorted.

 

Tobor's head gave a slight twitch. “You dare to mock at me?”

 

Falco didn't answer this time, but Fox did say, “You can't keep us here like this. We'll find a way out.”

 

Tobor chuckled, “Heh, heh, heh… you really fry my circuits. You'll never break out of here…” then he plucked a bolt from the floor and pitched it at the bars. ZAP! The bolt was vaporized indicating there was an invisible molecular vaporizing field surrounding the bars. If we tried to even touch them we'd be turned to ash.

 

“I think we get the idea…” Donny groaned.

 

Tobor nodded, “As much as I would enjoy sitting here and watching you suffer, I really must be going. The asteroid is still on its way to Corneria. Soon it will crash, and kill all life-forms on the planet. Lord Andross will be pleased.”

 

He ordered his men to follow him out of the dungeon, while two guards would remain outside the door. Once they were gone, “Well… what do we do now?” Erin asked.

 

We couldn't even try to touch the bars with the vaporizing field around it, and we had no weapons to try and help us. Worse than that, our cells were completely empty, with not even a bed to lie on.

 

There had to be a way to short out the controls to the vaporizing field, and opened the bars. Donny, Erin and I thought it over hard. We had been locked in cells many times before in video-games, and yet we always managed to find a way out somehow…

 

That's when I gazed over at Krystal in her cell, and the fur on her head was moving in a peculiar motion. “Krystal…” I called to her. “Is it breezy in there…?”

 

Krystal looked confused, “Now that you mention it, it does feel a little drafty. Why do you ask?”

 

I explained that if there was a draft in her cell, then it obviously meant there was a small opening somewhere in one of the tiles. Krystal felt around, and then she could feel a slight breeze coming from one of the tiles in the wall.

 

She pushed against it with her hand, and it was indeed loose. “Think I can get it…!” she groaned as she pushed and pounded on the tile trying to get at it. “Some time this year would be nice…” Falco called to her.

 

“Falco!” snapped Fox. “I don't see you trying to lend a hand.”

 

Falco crossed his arms.

 

Krystal finally managed to get the tile off the wall, and inside there were indeed wires and pipe lines. The wires weren't high-voltage so at least Krsytal would be able to pull on them, but the only question was, “Which one should I try…?”

 

There were four different wires, each a different color, “Red, Blue, Green, or Yellow…?”

 

“I say the yellow one…” Fox said.

 

“You're as color blind as you are dense.” Falco said, “The blue one…”

 

Krsytal actually thought of trying the green one, so she pulled it first, but nothing happened at all. She the reattached it, and tried the red one. Still nothing happened…! She then tried to pull out all the wires at once, but even that did nothing.

 

“Hey… I think I've seen something like this before.” Donny said. He referred to a time when he, Erin and I played a game called Spy-Fortress, and we got locked in a dungeon exactly like the one we were in now. There was a secret panel in the wall that leads to four colored wires, “You have to pull them in a certain order…”

 

“Well… which order should I try?” Krsytal asked.

 

“I don't know… just pick one.”

 

Krsytal tried one code. “Red, blue, yellow, green.” Nothing happened.

 

“Red, yellow, green, blue…” Nothing…

 

“Red, green, blue, yellow…” Not a thing…

 

Falco was growing impatient again, but I informed him that with four different wires, finding the right code was one in twenty-eight. Falco began to wonder “How do we even know we haven't already passed the right code yet?”

 

“Don't worry. When we hit the right code, we'll know…” I said.

 

We continued to wait as Krystal tried more codes, and then finally she decided to try the colors in alphabetical order by name. “Blue, green, red, and yellow.” This time we heard a low pitched humming sound and gazed at the bars that were no longer glowing, and the cells opened wide. “It worked.” cried Krystal.

 

“Hey, get thinking guys.” Fox said, but the celebration was cut short when the alarm sounded and a computerized-voice called out, “Danger! Prison-cell breech.”

 

“Danger…! Prison-cell breech.”

 

We all dashed out of our cells knowing the robots would be after us now, but when the guards rushed in, Falco and I tackled them to the ground, shorted them out, and stole their blasters.

 

“Let's get out of here!” Falco said, and we all dashed out of the dungeon and through the corridors, blasting all the robots that charged at us. Eventually we found the chamber where our weapons were being held, and re-armed ourselves.

 

“All right… now lets find a way to shut this place down.” said Fox.

 

We all agreed, and wasn't it convenient that the corridors were marked with guide-signs that told us where to go in case we got lost. We followed the sign that read, “Main-Reactor.”

 

Dashing across the corridors, we made it to exactly where we needed to be; a room with a large reactor core at the very heart of the asteroid. Unfortunately, there was a whole army of robots waiting for us as well, and in no time a fierce battle began. “Scatter!” cried Fox.

 

We all dashed out of the way of the ray-guns that fired upon us, and began to fight back. Blasting the robots, and shorting out their systems. “Why can't they ever do this the easy way?” Falco complained as he dodged a blast, and fired back at the robot.

 

Erin and Donny were doing great too, and as Donny lay on the floor, “Hey, Erin… Wheel-of-Fortune… Give me a spin!”

 

Erin did just that and spun Donny around on the floor. His smooth jacket let him spin round and around like a wheel and he fired his blaster endlessly until he stopped, not a single shot missed its target. “I guess their not game show fans…” Erin joked.

 

“And I though everybody had a good run.”

 

While Fox was still dealing with more of the robots, he could see Krsytal and I battling our other robots with our staffs, and we even shot a wink at each other. Fox felt slightly jealous, but knew it would be silly to even think that… “Mykan and Krsytal…? No way…”

 

Meanwhile …

 

Peppy and Slippy had been out of contact with the Arwings for a while now. “You don't think maybe they were--?” Slippy gulped hard, but Peppy knew for sure that wasn't the case. “If they had been shot down, we'd be able to see bits and pieces of the Arwings flying past us by now.”

 

ROB scanned the radar again, “Database confirms location of the Arwings, and crew, presently unknown.” he reported.

 

They flew through the asteroid field a little further and could see the giant asteroid just up ahead and there was still no sign of the Arwings anywhere.

 

“Let's try and get in closer…” Peppy said, “They've got to be around here somewhere.”

 

…

 

The battle was still going on, and it was as if the robots just wouldn't stop coming at us. “That's it… now I'm mad!” I said. “TAKE THIS…!”

 

“Mykan, what are you doing…?” Krsytal wondered. She soon got her answer as she saw me hold my staff over my head and spin it round and around, faster, and faster like a helicopter…

 

Then, I activate the fire element, and the staff began to wave flames, (Like Red Dragon thunderzord's finishing move)

 

I began to move towards the robots and then STRIKE them hard with my burning staff, causing them to spark, flare up and explode. Some of them even fell off the walkway and down below, and one of them crashed right into the reactor, badly damaging it and cause it to malfunction. “Uh-oh…!”

 

At once the whole base began quaking, and the reactor began to spark. Finally the walls began to cave in around us. “Everybody out!” shouted Fox, and we all dashed out of the room and down the corridors towards the hanger-bay where the Arwings were.

 

The problem was some of the robots that were left were chasing us, and we barely made it into the bay and locked the emergency door behind them. “That takes care of them…” Donny said, “But how the heck do we get out of here?” he pointed out that the bay doors were still closed.

 

“Only one way…” I said as I hopped into my ship and started her up. “We're going to have to blast our way out of here.”

 

As I began to fire my lasers at the doors, I could see the others still standing outside. “Well, don't just stand there! Get in your ships!”

 

They finally realized, and climbed into their ships. Fox even helped me with the door, but the robots managed open up the emergency doors first and began to march into the hanger-bay.

 

“Quick… hold them off.” cried Erin, and she and Falco began to blast the robots away. Allowing Fox and me to continue with the hatch-doors…

 

By this point, the reactor was malfunctioning so badly that the base was starting to blow up form the inside. “Okay, guys! Anytime now!” cried Falco.

 

Finally the doors were destroyed. “That's it! Let's move!” I cried, and I started my ship, flying through the tunnel with everyone else behind me, finally we could see outer-space, and the asteroid field. “We're out!” cried Krystal.

 

“No, not yet we aren't.” Donny pointed out that we were still to near the asteroid itself. “Hey… look up ahead.” said Falco. “It's the Great-Fox.”

 

The ship was flying closer and closer to our position; Fox quickly activated his transmitter, “Great-Fox from Fox McCloud! Calling Great Fox, from Fox McCloud…”

 

Peppy and Slippy heard the radio. “Peppy look…! It's Fox and the gang.” Slippy cried with joy.

 

Peppy spoke into the radio, “Come in Fox! We'll be right over in a moment.”

 

“No, Peppy…!” Fox practically shouted. “Get out of here! Turn the ship around and keep away from the asteroid! It's going up any second.”

 

“But, Fox… are you guys okay?”

 

“Don't ask questions, Peppy! Just do as I say… AND BEAT IT!”

 

The Great-Fox hung a U-turn and fired its super-thrusters speeding away from the asteroid with the rest of us following it at full speed. That's when the asteroid began to flare up with explosions that grew bigger, and bigger…

 

And then…

 

KAPOW…!

 

A massive force blew the asteroid into dust, nothing was left of it. We all smiled with pride. “All ships check in!” Fox called.

 

“I'm with you, Fox.” said Falco.

 

“So am I…” added Krystal.

 

“X-Team, brining up the rear…” I called.

 

“Copy that…” Erin responded.

 

“I'm with you, bro…” added Donny.

 

All of us, safe and sound, headed back to the Great-Fox for a well deserved rest. Another mission successfully completed…

 

Meanwhile…

 

“I'm surrounded by fools!” Andross growled.

 

“Never fear, master…” Tobor called over his transmission. “Someday we shall make Fox and his companions pay!”

 

“Silence…!” Andross shouted, “If this is anyone's fault, it is yours, Tobor. You should have taken them out while you had the chance, but you didn't!”

 

Tobor knew he was in big trouble, but was thankful that he was thousand of miles away from Venom.

 

Meanwhile…

 

We all sat down to relax in the game room, and helped ourselves to some refreshments. “Thanks you guys…” Fox said to me and my team.

 

“For what…?” I asked.

 

“For helping us get out of the cells.” answered Krystal, “That was very clever thinking.”

 

We just tried to brush them of saying that it was nothing. “For us… that was less than a piece of cake.” Donny said.

 

“Did someone say cake…?” Slippy said, as he walked in with a cake fresh-from the oven. “Oh, uh… gee… it looks good Slippy, but I think those chocolate-chips are moving.” Erin said.

 

“Oh, these aren't Chocolate-chips.” Slippy pointed which led to realize they were really… “Ugh…!” cried Donny.

 

“Ew, gross…” added Erin.

 

Krsytal and Fox laughed softly at our expressions. “I guess a toad by any nature is still a toad.” I said as I held my stomach feeling grossed out.

 

Still, another mission complete, the Lylat system was out of danger. At least for now…