WARNING: This story has been written and posted free of charge solely for entertainment purposes. Fox McCloud Jr, Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad, Venom, Corneria, Fara Phoenix, General Pepper, Andross, and all other principle characters and places created by Nintendo are copyright (C) 1993 Nintendo of America Inc. Used without permission. Star Fox is copyright (C) 1993 Nintendo of America Inc. Used without permission. All characters and places created by me, Theodore P. Perrotti, are copyright (C) 1995 Theodore P. Perrotti. (However, feel free to use all of this story's characters, events, and places as you wish as long as you abide by the conditions described in the next paragraph.) This story may be redistributed, stored, or archived in any way just so long as it is unaltered, this entire disclaimer remains with it, and such action is taken free of charge. In short: DON'T SELL OR ALTER THIS STORY! Also, please give me credit if you use any of my creations. Parts of this story were based on characters, places, and events in both the Star Fox video game and the Star Fox comic which appeared in Nintendo Power. You may also notice a "Star Trek" influence in this story. This is no coincidence. Specifically, this story has been influenced by the original series episode "Mirror-Mirror", the Next Generation two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds", and the Next Generation novel "Dark Mirror". I welcome your comments. Please e-mail them to me at author@galaxycorp.com. _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 3: Eye of the Storm All the known survivors that were well enough were helping to repair the station and clear away the debris, in hopes of finding other survivors. They had their work cut out for them. "What a mess!", Graves exclaimed as he surveyed the docking bay, or rather, what was left of it. Pieces of equipment and even of the structure itself were strewn about. He was actually relieved to see that pieces of a few of the arwings were in the rubble, as it meant that some of the pilots had been unable to take off as Fox had ordered, and so might still be alive. "This isn't the half of it," said Engineer Sloane, suddenly standing behind him. Graves jumped with fright. "Jeez, don't do that to a guy! I'm jumpy enough already!" "Sorry," Sloane replied, "Guess I've got things other than courtesy on my mind right now." "Forgiven," said Graves. "How many unaccounted for so far?" asked Moe. The two walked over to one of the destroyed ships as they talked. "Sigh! Over a hundred. Fifty dead, thirteen others seriously injured." "Three blasts did all that, and yet our shields were still strong enough afterwards to repel the ship." Moe said, clearly puzzled. "Or at least, that's how I heard it happened." "Yup, it did. The shields must've blocked the beams only partially. I've never before seen weaponry with that type of penetration." said Graves, hefting a section of wing as he spoke. "Whew! That's heavy, even for me!" he exclaimed, tossing the piece aside. "I thought you Venom lizards were supposed to be strong." teased Moe, trying to lighten the mood a little. It seemed to work. "We are. I'd like to see you lift an entire wing assembly without straining a little." "No problem, given the right equipment. I prefer brains to brawn." explained Moe, "By the way, Mac, I saw Tad in the infirmary on my way down here. Seems he got a nasty bump on the head. He said a piece of the ceiling fell on him while he was running to his ship. I guess he's lucky it did, or he'd probably be dead by now." Suddenly, Graves looked sick. "What's the matter?" Moe asked, confused, "I'd think you'd be happy he's alive. After all, he's your friend." "But so is Capt. McCloud, and, as we both know, those two don't exactly get along," Graves explained. "So?", asked Moe, unsure what he was driving at. "During the battle," Graves explained, "the Captain,...Fox, hit his head pretty hard. He stayed conscious but had a big gash in the back of his head. He was losing a lot of blood. For awhile, he seemed fine. But, after the battle had ended and the adrenaline had stopped flowing, he got so weak and dizzy he could barely stand. I had to help him down to the infirmary, the same one Tad's in. That ship didn't kill them, but I'm afraid they just might kill each other." "You worry too much, Mac," assured Moe, "They're both mature, intelligent adults." "So are most of the homicidal maniacs in the galaxy," Graves noted. "True. But I've heard of and even witnessed Fox trying to bury the hatchet several times. I wonder what Tad's problem is with him anyway? I like the guy. Sure, he's got a temper, but so do we all." asked Moe. "Tad told me his older brother used to serve under Fox, and that Fox and his brother were close friends. In fact, his brother was part of the famous Star Fox team. Tad said that his brother was killed while under Fox's leadership. I think he blames Fox for his brother's death," Graves finished, glumly. "How did he die? Tad's brother, I mean." asked Moe. "Gunshot wound, I think. As for the exact circumstances, I don't know. The SpaceForce has no official records of his brother's death." "What do you think about it, Mac? Could Fox have been at fault?" "How the heck should I know? At the time I was on Venom, and quite out of my mind, thanks to Andross' hypnotism!" snapped Graves. Moe, realizing that he had touched on a sensitive area, quickly said, "Sorry Mac, I should've known better." Calm again, Graves confessed, "No, I was to blame for that. It's just that the thought of how Andross controlled us, and made us,...made me do the things I did drives me crazy. And you reminded me of that. Also, I guess I never could really come to grips with the fact that some of us did, and still do, serve him willingly. I guess I disagree with Tad, after all Fox did for us. Fox didn't kill Tad's brother, Andross did." "I never said I thought he did, especially after what he did for my family on Papetoon. He and his team helped them to survive the Occupation," said Moe. Graves nodded. "Guess this means no accaret game this week." Moe sighed, "And I was really looking forward to it, too! YEAH, I'LL JUST BET YOU WERE! Graves smiled slightly and returned to work. Fox sat up in his bed in the infirmary, and, having regained much of his strength, started to get up. A paw clamped firmly onto his shoulder. "And just where do you think you're going in your condition?" Without even looking at her, he knew who it was. "Dr. Coles, I feel fine. There are others far worse off than me." He turned his head and saw Tad, who apparently was asleep a few beds down from his, and was filled with an even greater desire to leave. "Besides, I've got work to do. The base is a shambles and I'm its commanding officer. I have to know what they did with General Pepper!" "I can't let you go until those dizzy spells have stopped, you know that!" she said. "Now, get back in bed before I have you restrained!" "I have to meet with the senior staff about what happened," Fox protested. " Well, then, you'll definitely want to stay here, as most of the senior staff is in here for the duration." "You win." sighed Fox, climbing back into bed. "I'll need Dr.'s Greene and Samuels here in about ten minutes," he added. "I'll call them personally!" said Dr. Coles, and then she walked off to attend to another patient. AND THEY SAY WE DOCTORS MAKE BAD PATIENTS! Sure enough, ten minutes later Dr.'s Samuels and Greene approached Fox's bed, which was now virtually surrounded by most of the senior staff, many of them also in sick beds. Samuels noticed that some of the officers' beds had been moved to facilitate the discussion. It was that important. As they approached the meeting site, Dr. Greene said wryly, "A very unusual meeting place, if you don't mind my saying so." "Doctor's orders," Fox replied. He then shot a steely glance at Dr. Coles, who was across the room talking with one of her nurses. She didn't seem to notice, so Fox turned his attention back to the business at hand. "How goes the search?" Fox asked Graves somberly. Graves had been put in charge of the search for survivors. He shrugged, then sat in a chair to Fox's left and proceeded to relate the same news he had given Moe earlier. Fox simply nodded his head and turned to face Dr. Greene. "Well Doctor, what sense were you able to make out of the transmissions we intercepted?" Fox queried. "Well, the message was encoded using a variation of our own encryption code. What took so long was distinguishing the encoded message from the inordinate amount of background noise, which may have been caused by unintended passage through the wormhole," explained Dr. Greene, "We cannot decipher it any further until the computer system has been repaired, as much of our equipment was damaged. We need to..." "What did the message say, Doctor?" Fox prodded. "I'll play back what we've figured out so far," Dr. Greene said, pulling out a device Fox knew to be a portable data-storage unit, "Fortunately, we were saving our work to this as we went along, just in case something were to happen to the main computer. It's still a bit sketchy in parts." He then activated the device, set it on the foot of the bed, and stepped back as if he were afraid it would explode. Everyone listened intently as the device crackled, and then came, "estructor one... preparing...ase one...project.......wormhole...hours.... ....recon.......Pepper." "That's it," sighed Greene. "It seems whoever it was knew beforehand that Gen. Pepper would be here," guessed Graves, "I'd say they planned to take him." "Well, they did manage to access our personnel records, but not until after they had already taken the General," noted Samuels, "But, I can't imagine why they would want those records if not to find him." "To find other V.I.P.'s ripe for the picking, I suppose," offered Graves. "Right. And I think they found out about the General by intercepting our transmissions as we intercepted theirs. They must have known about his impending return to the station by intercepting the shuttle's message to us announcing his arrival," added Fox, grimly. "That message wasn't encoded, but they only would have had couple of minutes to comprehend it and act before the shuttle docked. Surely that message would have been at least as distorted as the one we received. And by Dr. Greene's own admission, separating the message from the noise takes time, certainly more than a few minutes," Graves noted. "If the message is encrypted," said Dr. Samuels, "then that is true. But a message in an easily recognizable form is much easier to separate. And if they have superior equipment..." "They do. Codes and intercepted transmissions are their way of life," said Fox, addressing the whole group, "Nothing is secret there." No one knew what he meant. "Nothing's secret where?" asked Graves, thinking that maybe Fox had hit his head harder than was first thought. "Listen, I know that you've been wondering who it was that attacked us," said Fox, addressing the group. "Well, I believe I might know." His voice took on the tone of someone recalling something very unpleasant. "About six months ago, I was, well..., transported to an Alternate universe. This universe was very similar to our own,..., on the surface, at least. There was an Alternate SpaceForce there, as well as an Andross, lizards, and other things and races found in our universe. In fact, it was so like our own universe that it took me a while to realize that I was, in fact, in another universe. However, everything and almost everyone there was slightly sinister, like distorted mirror images of our universe. The usual way of advancing one's career was assassinating one's superiors. As you might imagine, the SpaceForce of that universe was not the honorable organization we know; it was a monster that destroyed or enslaved all in its way. During the time I was there, I managed to access and download to disk some of their ship designs, hoping they'd help me figure out how I'd gotten there." "And you recognized the ship that attacked us? Was it one of theirs?" guessed Graves. "I believe so," returned Fox. "When I first saw it, I had only a vague feeling that I'd seen it somewhere before. While in here, I remembered - that ship's design was one I had downloaded. I believe it was listed as a scout ship." "Scout ship?" exclaimed Moe, standing at the foot of the bed, "That thing was more like a battleship, judging by the amount of damage it did!" " I agree," said Fox, "I just hope that we don't see any of what they call 'battleships'." "There is something else you all should know about the Alternate SpaceForce. It...". He paused, as if struggling to get the words out. "It allied itself with the Alternate Andross. So, we could find ourselves up against him as well." After he said that, the infirmary was so quiet one could have heard a feather drop, let alone a pin. Finally breaking the silence, Fox said, "Sgt. Sloane, I want you to work with Dr.'s Greene and Samuels to get our communications systems back on line. If the Alternate SpaceForce is using the wormhole as an entryway to our universe, we may need to coordinate with the rest of the SpaceForce and act as a sort of early warning system for them." "We'll get right on it," Moe answered. "But what about the possibility of our messages being intercepted? If they are, well...,us, then they may have guessed that we use the same frequencies for encoded messages that they do," observed Dr. Greene, concerned. "They are not us," insisted Fox, "But your point is well taken. We certainly don't want to tip our hand, which is why I want you, Lt. Graves, to advise the Defence Council of the full situation once the comm systems are working again and to advise them to encode on lower frequencies than normal. We'll then do the same." "All our outposts will have to use the same frequencies in order for this to work," Graves pointed out. "I know," said Fox, "And I believe the Defence Council will as well." "Also, the Defence Council has the design data I downloaded. Try to get access to it anyway you can, then program it into the sensors. Then, at least, we'll know what we're up against." "I'll do my best." Graves replied, with some relish. YOU JUST LOVE DOING THINGS, WELL..., UNOFFICIALLY, DON'T YOU LT. SO DO I, FOR THE RIGHT REASON. "Remember, go through proper channels if you can." Fox added, smiling ever so slightly. "Of course, sir. I wouldn't dream of doing it any other way," Graves replied, feigning hurt feelings. "And one more thing, Sgt. Sloane, we have to try to hold them here as long as we can. And before then, I want to evacuate all non-essential personnel to Venom. So, after the comm systems are up and running again, I want you and your staff to salvage and repair as many of the arwings and transport shuttles as you can. You have twelve hours to get all that done, as they will not stay quiet forever." "Why Venom?" asked Graves, "Titania is farther from the wormhole and of little military importance, so they may ignore it," noted Graves. "True, but Titania doesn't ally itself with anyone, the SpaceForce included. Also, Venom is a loyal member of the 'Force, now that Andross, our Andross, has been defeated and his followers banished from the system. Besides, you're forgetting that Titania's outside the range of both our shuttles and arwings." "You're right. So, we're preparing for an invasion, is that it?" inquired Graves, though he already knew the answer. "Yes we are," answered Fox, "We must be prepared for the worst." "I agree. I'll let the new Venom officials know what's going on. I think they should know everything that's going on here. We're facing an almost certain war, so now's not the time for keeping our own people in the dark," suggested Graves. Fox nodded his approval. "While serving as Security Chief on base Guilford, I once read the report you gave to the Defence Council concerning that incident," Graves recalled, "You mentioned a 'Project Crossover', but stated that you couldn't find out anything about what it was." He paused, then added, "Could this invasion be part of Project Crossover?" "It could," acknowledged Fox. Then, addressing the group as a whole, he said, "In the meantime, the rest of us will continue the search for survivors until all personnel have been accounted for. I'll join in that search myself as soon as I'm able. Is there anything else?" Nothing but silence followed. "Alright then, let's get to it! Dismissed!" Fox finished, and they filed out of the room, glad to now have something to do other than wait and, both figuratively and literally, pick up the pieces. Fox laid his head back against his pillow and wished there were something he could do now, besides wait. THERE'S AT LEAST ONE MAN I KNOW NONE OF US WILL FIND ON THIS STATION.