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 10: Midway Battle The door to the house opened, and Fara stepped in. She had just gotten off duty, and felt a desire to be alone. At last report, the Guilford and the Aries had found no sign of the "Alternates", as Capt. Reynolds had called them. Until new news was received, there was little she or any one could do. She didn't know what worried her more, the possibility that this new enemy may prove unstoppable, or the possibility that Fox may be dead. Right now she felt about as helpless and frustrated as one of those military wives who can only wait at home while their husband was away on a dangerous mission. She didn't want to show such doubt and fear in front of the others. She had to set an example, as a doubt or hesitation at the wrong moment could easily cost them all their lives. So she came here to let her feelings show. Before she knew it, she was in their bedroom. She stepped up to the closet and drew the door open. She had to do this, but she knew not why. Her eyes passed from one article of clothing to the next until they came upon a light-purple dress. It was the dress that used to belong to Fox's mother, and that Fox had given to her shortly before their marriage. At first, she had been loathe to wear it. She was afraid that Fox would forget that it was her in the dress, not his mother. It had seemed so full of ghosts. Happily, her fears were proven unfounded, and she now felt glad and even proud to wear it. Remembering the early days of their relationship, Fara took hold of the dress and held it close to her. Then, something else caught her eye: It was Fox's red cape. The cape was next to where the dress had been, draped over the closet rod. Fox had worn that cape often while he, Peppy, Falco, and Slippy were raiding Andross' ships. Now, it was worn and tattered, no doubt from the numerous scrapes he had gotten himself into. He seldom wore it anymore. She once asked him why he kept it. He replied simply that it kept him from getting a big head, by reminding him of his humble past. He then added that, it reminded him of their first meeting. She still wasn't quite sure how to take that, since that meeting had so closely coincided with Slippy's death. That their relationship had developed into love despite such a rocky start was utterly incredible. In a way, that made her feel relieved, because not even death could break up such a strong relationship. But still, there were times when she wondered if Fox didn't keep that cape because he actually missed his old life on Papetoon. The comradery, the danger, and the excitement were all very alluring. Her thoughts were interrupted by her hand-comm. "Captain, Guilford's just reported that the Gallant and the Aries have been spotted by the enemy. The ships are engaged in battle about thirty minutes from the base. Guilford's dispatched its battleships to help. Also, Chief Engineer MacCrary says he may know how to better protect our ships from enemy attack. He'd like to fill you in himself." Already halfway out the door, she replied, "Good. Have him meet me in the Command Center." The officers came to attention as Andross stormed onto the bridge. On the screen, the Gallant and the Aries were being pelted with laser fire. They were still intact, but just barely. The two ships were firing blindly into the zone. THEY STILL CAN'T SEE US!, Andross realized with pride. That, at least, was what he wanted. Fox looked at the instruments on his arwing. Either there was some highly unusual interference in this area, or the instruments may have been disconnected or tampered with by Andross' men. All he knew was that they were completely dead now. He did the only thing he could do: fly by the seat of his pants and hope he stumbled across one of his own side's battleships. Fara raced to the Command Center at such speed as to be out of breath on arrival. While she caught her breath, she saw MacCrary hurry over to her. "We haven't much time," MacCrary said, "so I'll make this quick. Being counterparts of ourselves, they may know which frequencies our shields are set to block. So, they've set their weapons to a different frequency, thus reducing our shields' effectiveness. A sensor analysis of two or three hits from their lasers should tell us what frequency they're using." "If our ships can survive those two or three hits," Fara noted. "Not our ships," MacCrary corrected. "Base Guilford. Only bases have the equipment necessary for such an analysis. And we still have no way of defending against those torpedoes of theirs. They're just too powerful." "Then we'll have to make sure they never get a chance to use them," Fara declared, "And what of their absorption fields? Can our weapons be re-tuned to penetrate it?" "We're looking into that possibility now, but, based on what data we've received from McNally and the present encounter with their ships, I'd say that field was designed to block a very wide range of frequencies. It could take weeks to find a frequency that will work." "And at the rate they're going, they're be on our doorstep in a matter of hours," Fara concurred, "How about the records that Fox, ah..., Capt. McCloud downloaded during his time there?" "The Defence Council's opened them to us," MacCrary replied, "But they only indicate a wide range of frequencies that the lasers and energy fields can be set to. Only direct exposure and analysis will tell us which frequencies they're using, for the time being. They can, of course, change those frequencies at any time. With our present technology, we won't be able to cover the entire range at once. So, we may have to adjust." "How long will it take to make the necessary adjustments to the shields once we receive the necessary data?" Fara asked. "Only a couple of minutes per ship," he replied. "And the weapons?" "We can change those frequencies on each ship in a matter of minutes," MacCrary said, "But without any way to analyze their energy fields, we'll have to use trial-and-error to find the correct frequencies." "All right. We'll tell the pilots to take two shots at each frequency in the range until they find one that works. Be ready to make the adjustments here, on both the base itself and the arwings if you can," Fara said, then turned to the comm officer. "Advise all the battleship Captains of the situation, as well as Guilford. Use a high-frequency transmission, and advise all others to do the same. If the Alternates intercept and decipher these messages, all this will have been for naught." "How long before we reach Guilford?!" Capt. Reynolds asked his tactical officer. "Thirty minutes!" "Shield status?" the Captain inquired. "Shields down on aft side! Heavy damage to port deck!" was the reply, "And the Aries' shields and weapons are down completely!" "Can you fix on their location?" the Captain asked. "No," the officer replied, "The interference is still hiding them!" But, then he added, "Captain, I can see another ship leaving the zone! It appears to be one of our arwings. Its left wing is damaged." "It's transponder identifies it as belonging to Capt. Fox McCloud," the tactical officer added. "What's its shield status?" the Captain inquired. "Functional," the first officer replied, "Good for one, maybe two laser hits at the most." "Captain, I'm picking up five more battleships on the sensors, coming from our port side. They're ours, Sir." "We've got to protect the Aries," the Captain decided, "Keep us within a hundred kilometers of them." Andross stormed onto the bridge of his ship, and went straight to the tactical officer. Seething, he shoved the lizard aside with his powerful arms. Staggering backward, he fell and struck his head on a railing. A small pool of blood formed behind his head. Paying no attention to his fallen officer, Andross feverishly worked the tactical controls. His second-in-command looked at him and started to ask him what he was doing, but one look at Andross' face told him that that would not be wise. No others dared do even that much. Fox looked ahead, and saw the Gallant heading toward the Aries. He understood why and approved. After all, the Aries was the ship being fired on, not his. He then saw the other incoming battleships, and was relieved. Then, it hit him. He checked his coordinates, heading, speed, and ship's chronometer, then activated his communicator. He suddenly felt another wave of dizziness hit, and everything started to become fuzzy. As that same moment, a shot appeared out of the blind-zone, and struck his ship aft-side dead center. The hit jolted him forward. Forward and back to full consciousness. He quickly regained his faculties, and jerked the joystick to his right as another shot sped over his one remaining wing. His shield indicator was blank. He tried his communicator, but that was out, too. Fox then realized that he had come dangerously close to passing out. The Gallant was rocked with laser fire as it came between the now crippled Aries and the snipers in the blind zone. "Captain, they've started firing on Capt. McCloud now, too!" the Gallant tactical officer said, "His shields are down and his ship has major system damage!" "Where are those damned backups?!" shouted Capt. Reynolds, "How many more hits can the shields take?!" "Maximum, three more. The backups will be here in fifty-two seconds!" "Strange that they should be concentrating so much of their fire on one small fighter!" commented an officer as the ship was once again rocked by a hit. Then, yet another hit came, this time striking directly beneath the bridge. The tactical station exploded in a sea of sparks and smoke. The tactical officer lay on the floor, dead. The Captain rushed over to what was left of the tactical station. "Weapons and sensors are out!" he said, "Has there been any word from the backups?!" "No, sir," the comm officer reported, "Our communications circuits have been damaged. We can only transmit, not receive!" Fox was dodging fire left and right. ANDROSS! WELL, I MAY BE BLOWN TO HELL, BUT AT LEAST I'M KEEPING HIS FIRE AWAY FROM THOSE OTHER SHIPS. THEY DON'T LOOK LIKE THEY'LL BE ABLE TO TAKE MUCH MORE! Fox shook his head as the sounds and images around him grew fuzzy once again. Fox turned and saw a large cylindrical object streak out of the zone and head for the two battleships. SUPERNOVA! Without thinking, he turned his ship to pursue the deadly SuperNova. It was the fastest torpedo he had ever seen, and his ship's engine had been damaged. Yet, he pressed on. Apparently his radio could still receive, because a voice now came over it. "Capt. McCloud, this is Capt. Gillespi of the Cambridge! Your engine is overheating! Slow down or you'll explode!" Fox glanced down at his sensor-scope. The Cambridge and the other backups were still too far off to take out the Supernova. "Torpedo incoming!" warned Capt. Reynolds, "Fifteen seconds to impact!" "We've got to get out of here!" cried the helmsman. "We can't do that," answered the Captain, "The torpedo's too fast!" Fox frantically tried to get a lock on the Supernova, but was hampered in his efforts by his ship's constant shuddering due to its present lack of a left stabilizer. He struggled to maintain consciousness and get a lock on the Supernova, but he was losing both fast. He knew that, even if he were to detonate it before it reached the Gallant, the battleship still might be destroyed by the explosion. 15 seconds- The cross-hairs danced around the Supernova. Fox scarcely noticed the shot across his bow and the wailing of the alarm warning him of the imminent overheat of his engine. Fox rapidly fired off several shots with the nose-laser, but missed. 10 seconds- The Supernova started to leave Fox's range. So, he fired the booster rockets. 5 seconds- This was it. Any closer, and it would be too late. Fox's eyes were glued to the targeting screen as he squeezed the trigger. A thin beam of yellow light shot out from his ship, in pursuit of the elusive Supernova. The two met about three-hundred kilometers from the Gallant and went up in a brilliant ball of white light. Not wanting to become part of that ball, Fox instinctively yanked back on the stick as hard as he could. Even as he did, he could feel excessive heat all around him. Images came and went in front of his eyes as the g's mounted. Before he knew it, the flash had subsided. And, much to his relief, he was still in one piece. He could not see the Gallant or the Aries, nor could he take the time to search for them. He was still being fired upon by Andross. "Capt. McCloud, this is Gillespi again! If you can hear me, dock your ship in Bay Three immediately! It's our largest and longest bay! Come in behind us for cover! We'll deactivate the shield area around the bay door for three seconds when you arrive. Holding it open longer will weaken the rest of the shield too greatly! Fire a shot if you can hear me!" They didn't have to ask him twice. He squeezed off another shot and turned toward the Cambridge, which by now looked like a large gray haze to him. "He's going to have to come in extremely fast to get through the shield hole," Gillespi communicated to the personnel of Docking Bay Three, "Execute emergency landing procedures." They wasted no time in carrying out his order. Within seconds, a strong fiber-reinforced arresting cable was stretched across the runway and large crash-pads were placed against the far wall. Fox saw the docking bay up ahead, and decelerated to 250 mph. He was painfully aware that the highest-speed landing ever attempted by a SpaceForce pilot was only 180 mph with a stable ship (and a completely conscious pilot), and that that attempt had resulted in the fiery deaths of two bay workers as well as the pilot. The hole opened, and Fox took a deep breath as he entered it. He could see only blurred images as the Docking Bay rushed forward at him with blinding speed. Unbeknownst to him, a flame shot out the side of his engine as the housing burst from the overheat. He felt around for the landing gear control, and brought the landing gear down as the ship sailed out of the hole and into the docking bay. Instantly, the hole closed behind him. Fox touched down and fired the retros at full power to slow himself. He was still going at 100 mph when he hit the arresting cable. Fox barely felt his head being jerked forward as the line decelerated him. The far wall still rushed at him, but all he could think about was Fara. With their careers, they had not had much time to spend alone together. Fox heard a loud tear, and the floor of the cockpit tipped forward. There was a loud "BOOM!" as the already damaged engine was ripped in half. He could tell that the ship was tumbling along on the floor and braced himself against the sides of the cockpit. Workers ran and dove from the ship's path as it screeched along the floor. The entire underside had been torn completely off and was now sliding behind the top side! Fox felt yet another jolt as the top hit the crash pads and then again as the underside, still burning from the explosion, crashed into the top. He was upside-down as he undid his shoulder harness and tried to smash through the canopy with his flight helmet. Then, he began to smell smoke. THIS SHIP'S CARRYING FIVE NOVA BOMBS! IF ANY OF THEM HAS BEEN DAMAGED, A FIRE MIGHT SET THEM OFF! IF EVEN ONE OF THEM GOES OFF, KISS THIS ENTIRE SHIP GOODBYE! Then, he thought no more. He barely heard the metal ram finally smash through the canopy, as a lizard-hand reached in. It took hold of Fox and yanked him out of the arwing. Barely conscious, Fox was lifted to his feet and quickly helped across the room by the lizard. As he was sit down on the floor to be examined by the ship's doctor, he looked up at the lizard. THANKS. "Urgent...speak to Captain," was all Fox had the strength to utter before losing consciousness completely. "Can you bring him around again?" the lizard asked, "Whatever he has to say must be important." The Doctor nodded, then reached into his bag as a volley of fire struck the ship. He produced a syringe-like instrument, which he then pressed against Fox's right arm. "This ought to wake him for about an hour, perhaps ninety minutes," the Doctor advised the lizard. Fox's eyes slowly opened, and he looked from the lizard to the Doctor. The Doctor, Fox realized, was also from Venom. Then he realized that he and everyone else in the room was soaking wet. He looked at the remains of his ship, and saw no flames. And it hit him: the battleship's fire suppression systems had put out the blaze, and apparently had done so before the fire reached the nova bombs. A volley of fire hit the battleship. Fox turned back to the lizard. "I must speak to your captain right away. I may know how to find at least one of the enemy ships." Banar activated his comm-unit and tried to contact the bridge. All he got was static. "The comm systems must've been hit! The message'll have to be given in person." They both looked to the Doctor, who had just finished putting a tourniquet on Fox's head wound. "All right," he said, "But only briefly. And I want you down in Sick Bay immediately afterwards." "Deal," Fox replied. He felt pain from even the slightest movements, and so would welcome the chance to rest. "I'll show him the way personally," promised the lizard. He then turned to face Fox and asked, "Can you walk?" Fox nodded his head, feeling stronger now due to the medication. "I'll manage." He then slowly got to his feet. "Let's go." The two men exited the docking bay and quickly headed down the corridor toward the nearest lift. "By the way, Capt. McCloud, I'm Lt. Banar. You may not remember, but we met about two years back. I was in my junior year at the Academy, and you were on temporary assignment as a flight instructor." "Really?" Fox replied, "What happened to make you remember it?" Fox had been a flight instructor at the Academy many times since his return. Flight instruction was a regular part of the duty cycle of all active SpaceForce pilots. "Nothing much," Banar replied, "You just said 'Good Flying' to me after I'd beaten you in a training flight. Coming from you, that really meant a lot to me. Especially since you're known to be the best pilot, as well as the toughest instructor." "Well, now it's my turn to be flattered," Fox replied, smiling, "Thanks for the compliment, especially since I just trashed my ship!" They then reached the lift and stepped inside. "Our Captain's on the bridge," said Banar, feeling slightly more at ease now than he had earlier. The lift started moving at the mention of the word "bridge" and hummed toward its destination. "You know," Banar said, "I think one of our officers was one of your classmates." "Really," said Fox, genuinely interested, "Who?" "Cmdr. Kyle, our first officer. He's off duty right now, but with this battle going on, I'd be very surprised if he wasn't keeping in touch." "I remember him," Fox recalled, "Met him during my freshman year, then saw him a few times after that. Word about him was that he would go far. I guess they were right, though I am a bit surprised to hear that he's no longer a pilot." "I guess he realized that command was his true love. He's good at it, too. He's one of the best officers I've ever served under. One of the best people I've served under, too," Banar commented. Finally, the doors opened, revealing the bridge. Fox panned the room, and spotted the man with the Captain's emblem on his uniform. The man turned to face him as he and Lt. Banar approached. On the viewscreen, Fox could see the continuing assault. This conversation was much more businesslike than the one with Banar. "Captain," Fox started, "I escaped from one of the battleships you seek. From there, I stayed on heading 338 at 890 mph for five minutes. I came out at coordinates 295. From that, we should be able to calculate the battleship's location, assuming that they haven't moved much since I left." Capt. Gillespi nodded to his Ops officer, who then proceeded to punch the numbers into the ship's computer. The result was barely a second in coming. "There it is, Captain, err Captains," reported the officer, "Coordinates 459." Captain Gillespi turned to his comm officer. "Are the comm systems back on-line?" "They seem to be going on- and off-line." "Try to notify the other ships of this new information. And remember, high frequency transmissions only. We don't want them getting wind of this!" He then turned to his tactical officer. "Fire all lasers at that area, Sergeant." Nearly simultaneously, a barrage of lasers was unleashed from each of the five ships. But, due to the properties of the blind zone, Fox and the others could only guess as to their effectiveness. The bridge rocked around Andross, causing crewmen to fall and slide to and fro. Only Andross stood firm. He was steady at the controls, rooted in place by pure hatred. The Ops officer scrambled back to his controls. "Damage?" Andross barked. "Some minor damage to the aft section," Ops reported, "How did they find us?" MCCLOUD! Andross turned to his comm officer. "Tell all ships to hold their fire until further orders. Do it!" The comm officer quickly went about the task. "Fire again!" Gillespi ordered, "Damn! I just wish we could tell if we're doing any damage." Fox nodded in agreement, then turned to tactical. "Any sign of activity from them?" he asked. "No, sir," the officer replied evenly. Twenty more minutes passed, and still nothing happened. "They can see us, and they know we can't see them," Gillespi wondered, "So why aren't they trying to finish us off?" "They may be trying to slip by us by way of the blind zone," the tactical officer offered, "So that they can reach base Guilford without further delay." Fox shook his head. "Then why would they have attacked in the first place? Had they just held their fire, we probably still wouldn't know they were here." Then his expression darkened. "Do you have the specs on the Destructor, the ones I downloaded?" Fox asked Tactical. "Yes," he replied, "The Defence Council has made them available to all ships for the duration." "Bring them up," Fox said, approaching him, "Concentrate on the weapons." "There," Fox said, pointing at the display, "The lasers have a maximum range of 30000 Km. There's no mention of the Supernovas, but I'm guessing that they have a range of about 21000 Km, based on what happened at McNally." "What's the closest the blind zone comes to Guilford?" Fox asked the Ops officer. "45000 Km, Sir," reported the man, after punching keys on his console. "They'd have to leave the zone," Fox concluded. "The Council guessed as much," Capt. Gillespi recalled, "And informed the base to expect them to do so." "Scan the area immediately around Guilford!" Fox ordered the tactical officer. "No cont... Wait... Reading one Destructor-class vessel at coordinates three-three-five, and a squadron of arwing fighters!" "The base has sustained heavy damage," Tactical reported, "I'm also showing two SpaceForce battleships in the area. They appear to be adrift." "When the call for help came, they stayed behind to protect the base," Gillespi explained to Fox. "All long-range communications are being jammed!" the Comm officer reported, "There's no way to contact the station!" "Can we still communicate ship-to-ship?" Capt. Gillespi asked, trying to sound calm, but failing miserably. "I believe so, sir," the comm officer replied, "Close-range transmissions are much more difficult to jam." "Advise the Galvin to follow us to Guilford at maximum velocity!" Gillespi ordered, "The other three ships are to continue scanning the zone until the other enemy ships are once again found, and, if they are found, try to contact Corneria directly." His order was carried out. "They were letting us send those long-distance messages before because they wanted to intercept them and see how we would react to their invasion," Fox explained to no one in particular, "They knew we might still find them in the zone, so they had one ship hang behind the others. Then the two front ships attacked us, forcing us to concentrate our sensor sweeps on one small area, allowing the third to leave the zone, slip behind us, and attack the base without warning. The third ship then blocked our long-range transmissions to prevent us from hearing Guilford's calls for help." "They gave us a target to focus our attention on one area, then slipped out another," Gillespi paraphrased, then added, "Then they ceased fire to confuse us." "But they know we can't stop them anyway," Ops asked, "So why bother with all this cloak-and-dagger trickery? Why not just attack us head-on?" This time, it was Tactical that had the answer, "They may be trying to hide some weakness from us by minimizing contact with us." "That would explain why they destroyed McNally," Fox offered, "We saw and scanned their scout ship and battleships." "Then it's unlikely that they'll stray into our sensor range until they reach Corneria," Gillespi concluded, "They'll have to leave the zone there no matter how good their technology is, or they'll be as out of range of that base as they would have been of Guilford. But if they do stray, we'll be there, waiting to take advantage of this weakness of theirs, whatever it may be." "And they'll save time this way," Fox added, "Instead of all three ships stopping to attack Guilford head-on, one ship ambushed it while the other two continued on to Corneria." "Even so, our battleships have omni-directional sensors, as well as the direction-specific ones," Ops noted, "How did they know that those omni-directional sensors couldn't be used in nightview mode? How did they know our ships couldn't handle that large a power-drain?" "Or one of our bases, for that matter," Gillespi added. "They probably didn't know," Fox countered, "It must have been a gamble they felt they had to take." Time slowly passed as the two ships sped toward Guilford. The attacker had vanished, presumably having rejoined its sister ships in the zone. "Are our long-range communications still being jammed?" Capt. Gillespi asked his comm officer. "Yes, Sir," the man replied flatly, "They must have deposited a jamming device in orbit around the planet before they left." "To keep us from warning Corneria, no doubt" Fox added. "Can you find it?" Capt. Gillespi asked. He didn't like the answer. "No, Sir," said Tactical, "It must be underneath the planet's outer shell. The sensors can't penetrate it." Fox then felt someone looking at him from behind, and turned to see the Doctor silently standing in the doorway with an impatient look on his face. Fox had been so absorbed in the goings-on that he had forgotten all about seeing him. I'LL BE RIGHT THERE. "Captain Gillespi! Capt. McCloud! We're now within viewscreen range of the base," the Tactical officer announced. "Well, let's have a look, then," said Capt. Gillespi. All eyes turned toward the front of the room as the viewscreen switched to show the base. Unconsciously, they all moved a step or two closer together as they witnessed the charred and battered remains of the area that once was the location of the powerful base. "There are no signs of life, ...or of debris from the base or its transmitter on the outer surface. Also, more than half of that outer surface has been blown away, including that which covered the base," the Tactical officer reported.