Chapter Three: The Beast

Fox glanced around, looking at the small group of fighters that he was part of a formation of, and shook his head wearily, watching the counter on his display. The odds weren’t in their favor at all, but they weren’t going to run.

“They’re breaking warp… now.” Jesse’s voice echoed through the radio, and as he finished speaking, a dozen GalFed warships appeared, phasing into view, engines slowing down. They were standard mixed fare, built for fighting, most of them heavily influenced by Rekuva technology. The dozen ships were in a fanned-out formation, traveling in a half-circle so that the Great Fox and fighters were, effectively, halfway surrounded.

“Can we have some weak points please?” Fox asked Jesse over the radio.

“We only have estimated ones, but here.” Diagrams flashed up on all of the fighters’ displays, showing the cruisers and highlighting possible points of weakness.

“Lylatian Cruiser Great Fox.” A male Rekuva appeared on the radio screen, expression hard. “The GalFed orders that you turn over yourself and all crew to us immediately. If you resist, you will be fired upon.”

“We don’t take orders from the GalFed.” Fox replied in a cold voice. “Only from the Lylat High Command.”

“Ah. You must be the Commander McCloud we’ve heard so much about. I’ll tell you right now, I don’t buy into the talk of your little group being so scary in battle. I think you’re a fool. There is no way you can win with the current odds.”

“We’ll see about that.”

ROB saw the cruisers start to close on him as the arwings scattered, and engaged all boosters he could, sending the ship flying backwards, guns firing as fast as they could and inflicting no damage at all. The larger cruisers were slower, and the Great Fox easily slipped their grasp, those on board wincing when they felt the ship jump as one of the branches of an opposing ship drug across the hull, not able to inflict damage but rocking the ship just the same.

“The commanding ship of the convoy is the Rekuva vessel Burning Sunset.” Wolf reported, eyes half closed, arm plugged into one of the computer consoles on the bridge. All of his mechanics were connected, and in that way, the AI chip in his head could look up information faster then he could ever wish to do. “The commander is Ghandar, looks like he has a long list of honors and thus.”

“Nice to have a name to go with the face.” Fox gritted his teeth, dodging between two of the cruisers, weaving around fighters and branches. “Falco, what are you doing over there?”

“Nothing yet.” Falco replied, watching the display screen. “Trying to pick my shots… and with so many ships in close quarters, it’s like a maze…”

“Look at it this way, Fly Boy, at least you ain’t the one flying through it.” Katt said, growling as she dodged fighters.

“We’ve got to break this up.” Fara said, looking around at the tight quarters all of the cruisers were wedged in. “No wonder they aren’t firing guns, they’ll just fire on each other.”

“Fox, bait them.” Jesse said, frowning thoughtfully. “Let’s see if we can’t get some not-so-friendly-fire going.”

“Not a bad idea. You heard the kid genius guys. Let’s rock.”

“Falco, try for their engines.” Wolf remarked, watching Fara talk quietly to ROB. “I think this big ol’bird is going to kick it into gear.”

“Damn right!” Fara grinned. “Punch it, ROB!”

Fox craned his neck, watching as the Great Fox blasted forward, shields glowing green as it collided with one of the GalFed ships. Both ships jumped from the collision, but the improved shields held, and the Great Fox’s engines screamed as they went into high gear, slowly pushing the GalFed ship backwards, into one of the members of the convoy. Falco picked that moment to start firing, and the already messy fight dissolved into complete chaos.

Slippy’s scream cut through the radio, and the entire team came to him to help. His arwing was tangled in the branches of one of the Rekuva ships, and was crushing the smaller craft without mercy. Knowing lasers wouldn’t work, towhooks were fired, and the arwings used pure engine power to pull the branches apart, barely getting them far enough apart for the damaged ship to slip through. Slippy stammered his thanks, slowly limping back to the Great Fox’s bay, barely getting there before he would have been caught by a wave of fighters.

“Regroup!” Peppy yelled, and Fox agreed, the fighters returning to the Great Fox, which had just wiggled out of the fight. “How long we been doing this, Fara?”

“22 minutes by my watch.” Drax remarked into a radio headset he had picked up. “Listen, you’ve got two of their ships pretty much crippled, mostly hull integrity issues because they were forced into each other, with some engine trouble thrown in for spice. They left the fight and are on the outskirts, but haven’t tried anything recently.”

“So we’ve got ten pissy cruisers against us still eh?” Falco asked dryly.

“Could be a lot more real quick here. We’ve been monitoring high-frequency radio signals bouncing back and forth from them to what we assume is their commanding station. We haven’t got any other warp signatures yet, but we know they’re doing something.”

“Joy.” Fox sighed. “Any damage to the Great Fox, ROB?”

“Minor armor damage. Shield batteries are running low.”

“… Slippy, when something is running on a battery, tell me.”

“It just means he’ll have to take energy away from the engines to sustain them, Fox.” Slippy hastily said. “The current shield output is higher then normal and not generally expected to run for large amounts of time.”

“Work on fixing that, will ya please?”

“They’re doing something, Fox.” Katt remarked.

They all watched as the GalFed cruisers slowly changed formation, keeping their distance from the small Lylatian cruiser. It seemed they weren’t interested in attacking, just waiting for some signal from their commanders. Whatever the reason, it made the Lylatians uneasy, knowing something was in store for them, and in that respect, they were right.

“Politically speaking, this is a very bad idea indeed, Chancellor Pejim.” The AI remarked, watching the Vun tap his fingers impatiently, waiting for the response from the convoy. “It’s true that they have angered us, but we do not understand their culture fully. Perhaps we just do not know how to handle such a volatile species yet.”

“Regardless, the decision was made, Giyg.” Pejim replied. “We found a way to beat the Entity without the massacres last time, but never implemented it. Now at last it’s been perfected, and we can see our own work come to life.”

“But sir, it’s never been tested…”

“Yes, it has been. Said tests were wiped out to eradicate evidence. We never did do field tests though.” The Vun smiled slowly. “You have to admit that this kind of field test won’t be available to us again in a long time, plus it will give us a chance to study this new race fully, as well as their technology.”

“What about the civilian reports? We know there is a child on board. Politically speaking, it is a bad move sir.”

He wove a hand. “The news crews won’t find out about the kid. Its chance of surviving the test is fairly low anyways; we don’t think children can survive the shock. Stop worrying, Giyg. Everything is going according to plan.”

“I don’t like this at all.” Wrin said worriedly, twitching an antenna. She and Jirest had hopped into Wolf’s old Wolfen III fighter, which had been retired until the team had realized that Rekuva could fit nicely into the two-seater gunboat. Jirest had learned to aim a turret one-eyed, so the pair evened out nicely. “This doesn’t fit any strategy that I know of. If they were just getting orders, they should have continued attacking.”

“So is this a good thing or a bad thing?” Peppy asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“They’re changing formation again.” Drax remarked. “Looks like they’re surrounding their commanding ship…”

“Incoming transmission.” Fara said. “Looks like it’s our good friend Ghandar.”

“Accept it.” Fox said. “So what’s taking so long, Commander? Waiting for orders from above?”

“We’ve got our orders, McCloud. I want to speak to the contaminated individual you have aboard your ship.”

“I have a name, you know.” Jesse snapped. “What do you want?”

“Why did you allow yourself to be contaminated by the Entity?”

“It wanted my help, and I was curious. Why the hell do you want to know?” He settled his hands on his hips, frowning. “You look worried. What, you throwing a kill switch over there?”

“Not hardly.” Ghandar smiled very weakly. He was a bit worried. He wasn’t sure what he was about to turn loose. He had been told what it was, but he knew his government had lied before. “So. What’s your purpose?”

“Mine or the Entity?”

“The Entity, of course.”

“Peace. Knowledge. Contentment.”

“Very altruistic. Now wonder it was stomped out of existence before…”

“Well, you can go to hell then!” Jesse snarled, eyes blazing. “So much for the generous, humanitarian GalFed!”

“Better then you, forcing people to join a cult which is useless. It’s time the medicine was used against you.” And with that, the transmission was cut.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Falco said after a sustained break in radio chatter. “Because whatever he does is going to hit all of us…”

“Think they’re making an example of us?” Peppy asked after thinking for a moment. “Trying out a new weapon?”

“Looks like we’re about to find out.” Fox said, staring at the command ship.

The Burning Sunset was shaking in place, then suddenly jolted as the hull cracked, what seemed like a new kind of armor wrapping over the ship in fleshy ropes as beams of crackling light lanced out and hit the cruisers, triggering the same process in the rest of the convoy. The formation listed and shifted as the cruisers dealt with their transformation, the Lylatian team backing up even more as the beams of light lanced out toward them but fell short.

Wolf tore his eyes away from the strange sight, looking at Jesse, who stood frozen, eyes wide, whole body trembling in what seemed like catatonic terror, staring at the Burning Sunset. Even as he watched, the vines suddenly retracted from Jesse’s arms, and he saw fabric shift, apparently the vines were moving to wrap around Jesse’s ribcage and shoulders. He reached out and touched Jesse lightly, fingers brushing his friend’s arm. “Jesse?”

“K-ktu wenr ichl…” Jesse stammered out, voice slurring and slipping.

“LYLATIAN, Jesse! Please!”

“Not natural… dangerous, not natural…” He whimpered, shivering.

More beams shot out at the fighters, and at Fox’s shouted command all of the smaller ships docked, the Great Fox backing away from the convoy, which was closing on the smaller cruiser again. None of the GalFed cruisers were answering radio pages, either under radio silence or simply ignoring the Great Fox, no one knew.

“Whatever the Burning Sunset did to the convoy, it’s trying to do to us. We’ve got to get out of here.” Fara said as the others arrived on the Bridge, manning stations as the Great Fox blasted backwards, barely dodging another beam.

“Yeah, but what the hell IS that?” Katt demanded, arms crossed and tail lashing.

“Incoming!” ROB remarked, and the Great Fox rocked as one of the beams finally hit, clipping the edge of the wing. “Minor hull damage. It went right through the shields like they weren’t even there…” The robot stammered, blinking. “I’m loosing some sensors in that area. Hull integrity dropping quickly over the entire wing.”

“Oh, my Lord.” Slippy whispered, looking out one of the windows. The organic armor was spreading over the wing like wildfire, popping up plates and taking the wing down to the frame to make room. “Release all coolant! Slow it down!” Slippy demanded. ROB obeyed, and the others watched the fine mist plume surround the wing. It didn’t even phase the thing, which continued its destruction.

“Jettison it!” Jesse suddenly said, lunging at ROB’s controls. “Disconnect the entire wing right now!”

“Are you crazy?! That’s a stabilizer! Do you have any idea how much speed we’ll loose?” Falco blurted.

“Speed isn’t going to do us any good if the body of the cruiser gets contaminated! DO IT ROB!” Seeing the robot hesitate, Jesse snapped something in code, and ROB obeyed immediately. “PUNCH IT!”

The Great Fox rocked with a stomach-retching impact, then shot away, sliding past the cruisers and getting some distance before it stopped to see what happened. The contamination spread across the entire wing and stopped there, unable to do anything else. The convoy, seeing the hit was thwarted, immediately started their attack again.

“Go into warp. Now.” Jesse said, snapping some coordinates and not giving Fox time to argue. “Don’t bother with calculations.”

“Jesse, if…” Drax started.

“Not now. Just do it ROB.”

The Great Fox jolted as the engines screamed into warp, leaving one of its wings behind.

There was a long silence, then Fox looked at Jesse. “What did you say that made ROB obey you without question?” He asked, voice calm and strange. ROB was supposed to defer to him, and no one else when it all came down to it.

“It’s a back door called Asimov’s Escape Loop.” Jesse replied in a dry voice. “All robots have it, so programmers can force a robot to obey them without question.”

“Nice.” Slippy quirked an eyebrow. “I’ve heard of it, but didn’t know it was real.”

“It’s real, and also very dangerous.” ROB said dryly. “Because as the name implies, it lets the orders violate all normal procedure, up to and including the three laws of robotics.”

Fox looked at Jesse, and sighed. “Guess it’s good that I trust you then. So, new subject. What the hell was that thing that we just ran from?”

“I don’t know.” Jesse admitted.

“I can give you a hint.” Drax said. “When that thing hit the convoy, a sonic pulse hit us right after, a frequency burst.”

“Noise?”

“Right, except you can’t hear in a vacuum. I only knew because I saw the radio system register it. Any chance you saved it, ROB?”

“One moment.” ROB stopped moving for about a second and a half, then came back to life. “I’ve found it. There’s a lot of static and interference..” He played the file, and everyone covered their ears as the speakers were assaulted by a harsh, few-second burst of noise. “But if you filter all of that out… this is what you get.”

There speakers came back to life, and after some static-filled silence a low, snarling, distorted voice was heard, strange and multi-pitched, as if spoken from a thousand mouths, saying only three broken words.

“We are alive.”

Falco sighed, leaning on the fridge door and staring at the contents moodily, poking around until he unearthed his most recent two-liter of soda. The Great Fox had retreated, and now was moving on to a rendezvous with a colony that had agreed to repair them. They had already put out the message on every channel and bandwidth they could, sending messages to the colonies and to their allies. As far as Fox was concerned, GalFed ships were now the enemy, and Falco was fairly sure his commander was right.

He sat heavily, opening the bottle one-handed and taking a drink wearily. Everyone was exhausted. Slippy was asleep in the den, worn out by nerves. His arwing was totaled, the frame had been bent so heavily it would have to be scrapped. The rest of the fighters were in ok condition, as was the shuttle, but a blow of a different kind had been struck. Everyone was kind of scared. No one wanted to think about what would have happened if the wing hadn’t been jettisoned on time, but the worst part is that no one really knew what the consequences would have been.

“FAWKO!”

He jumped, and smiled tiredly when Fox walked in, carrying a wide-awake Hope, who was beaming happily. “Hey Fox. Hey, kid. Couldn’t sleep either?”

“Hope woke us up, and it was my turn.” Fox sat down, yawning widely. “Everyone else seems to be down for the count. Peppy found Jesse asleep on the bridge a few hours ago, according to ROB, and managed to wake him up and drag him to his bedroom.”

“What was he doing up?”

“Listening to the noise clip, trying to figure out what we’re facing. Seems his nerves wore him out. He’s honest-to-god terrified.” Seeing Hope was trying to chew on his dog tags, he substituted a pacifier. She sucked on it contentedly and nestled into him, tail twitching.

“Think he knows something that we don’t?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, I’d like to think he’d tell us, but I know that’s up for toss.” Fox ruffled the fur between his ears absently, thinking. “I can’t believe they actually build in a way around the laws of robotics.”

“Ha, yeah, no kidding. I didn’t think anything was supposed to go around those. I mean, I don’t know much about them myself, only that it means that robots aren’t supposed to kill people.” He blinked. “And to that end, Fox, those laws are broken all over the place. War robots, assassin droids…”

“Yes, true. There is an alteration now that allows for allies and enemies during the time of war. Besides, War Bots are basically dummies controlled by one central AI, and assassin droids are illegal.” ROB’s voice said through the intercom speaker. “The Laws are still followed.”

“Anything from Alpha, ROB?” Fox asked.

“Ba?” Hope asked, peering at the speaker in confusion, staying nestled into Fox.

“ROB.” He corrected.

“BA!”

“No, nothing new from Alpha. I got a report an hour and a half ago that they were trying to set up some sort of defense net, but I doubt they’ll get much going. The Hub can’t be broken apart, so it’s pretty much a sitting target for whatever that thing is.”

“Has the GalFed fessed up anything?”

“And I quote. ‘No comment.’”

Falco moaned, lurching to his feet and putting his two-liter away. “I’m going to attempt to go to bed, Fox.”

“Ok. Hug Katt for me.”

“I’ll try to fit yours into the schedule…”

“One of my friends sent me a news release this morning.” Wrin said, stirring sugar into her coffee absently. Wrin had become a dedicated coffee nut. “Apparently, what with the fact that we’re blasting warnings all over this sector, the news crews got wind of it and have had all sorts of broadcasts playing. So, naturally, the GalFed had to make an official declaration to straighten everything out.”

“The news crews were painting the GalFed as insane murderers, mind you. They took what they heard and ran with it.” Jirest shook his head. “Of course, we’ve been broadcasting basically that, so what else could they think?”

“So what did they say?” Peppy asked, peeling an orange.

“Oh, they denied the entire thing. Versyi is too minor to be a huge impact except on the Rinaldi, who are rabid with anger, let me tell you. They’re out of the GalFed and have closed their planet to any visitors except emissaries from Lylat.”

“Solid allies then?”

“They’re praising everyone on this ship as a hero, especially Wolf.”

Wolf snorted. “That’s ok, the rest of the galaxy thinks I’m a mass murderer, so I guess it kind of evens out.”

“What about the, well, thing? Did they say anything about that?” Slippy asked. “I know we’ve been broadcasting warnings about their ships having some sort of armor-targeting virus.”

“They laughed that off.” Jirest said angrily. “I’d love to know what that was. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve been a soldier most of my life.”

“I think we’re missing the most important part.” Fox rattled his fingers on the table. “What happens to the people on the ship when it’s taken over?”

“Good question.” Falco said. “But if they weren’t answering the radio, I guess we can assume that whatever that thing is, it takes over machines and living creatures alike.”

“The thing is, they meant to release it.” Slippy suddenly said. “It came from the command ship and targeted the rest of the convoy. They actually meant to release it, so I guess that means that they’re somehow controlling it.”

“Ok, everyone, let’s at least try to take this step by step here.” Fara said, holding Hope. “I agree with Slippy, the GalFed released that thing, and given how the formation was working, we can assume they’re controlling it. But they fired that… infection ray at us as well. Can we assume that anything they hit with that thing, they control?”

“Oh, hell, that’s bad. That would mean that they control whatever they hit in battle.” Falco said, eyes wide. “Guys, that was almost us.”

“But it wasn’t, so let’s keep it that way and find a way to beat it.” Katt said. “If the thing broke through their armor, that means they have to have more weak points right? If it’s alive, wouldn’t it be more open to attacks?”

“Theoretically, but it’s surviving in a vacuum.” Slippy sighed, tapping his chin. “Which might imply some sort of natural armor or resistance to attack.”

Jesse, who had been listening to all of this absently, glanced at the table, listening to the rush of whispers that was getting louder in his head, hackles slowly rising. Danger was seeping into the network. “The convoy just reached one of the colonization planets.” He said, making everyone look at him. “They’ve already taken down the minor orbiting defense lasers and have it surrounded.”

There was a long silence, and Fox moaned, rubbing his eyes. “God… there isn’t anything we can do, is there?”

“We’re too far away now. I jumped us to someplace safe. Someplace the GalFed hasn’t mapped…” Jesse said, voice distant and trailing off. After a moment he held up a finger and sat back, pressing his fingertips together, and lost himself the Entity’s network.

It was like diving into ice water, the impact, then the rush hit him as the network sorted rapidly through his mind. He was almost done, a little more tweaking and the Entity would be streamlined in its processes. It didn’t take long to find the voices on the endangered planet, to reach out to them and touch the minds.

A mixed colonization planet, mostly Vun, the hyper-fast thoughts streaking past him in a mix of florescence. He shook off and sorted it into focused thoughts. {I want information!} That cry went out, and the members on the planet glanced at him, noticing him, then seeming to bow. The Entity didn’t have rank, but it had favorites, people with more power over the network, and that’s what Jesse had.

{Give me information! What planet are you on? What is going on?}

A rush of whispers, data streaming to him, different minds saying different things, a wild mix he somehow understood.

[Cordun. We are on Cordun…]

[One dozen GalFed ships…]

[… no communication? Afraid!]

[Where are you?]

[Help us?]

[HELP US?]

Jesse’s heart fell, and he swallowed. {We cannot. We are at least three hours of travel away… we cannot fight what they have… our ship is damaged and outgunned. We are sorry, we are so sorry…}

They were angry, for a few seconds, but then they saw the ship in his mind, the small crew with so much to live for, so great odds against them, and suddenly there was no anger, only fear, sadness. Jesse said nothing else, unsure of what to do.

He saw an image flash, blinding beams of light coming from the skies, striking the colonies… the thing, the virus? The GalFed ships were firing on the colonies with the ‘infection beams’?

{What have we done wrong?}

The rest of the Star Fox team had just blinked when they saw Jesse apparently go deep into thought, and had after a few seconds of talk figured out he had fallen deep into the Entity, for what reason they didn’t know. Information, they guessed, and continued the conversation, glancing at the mongoose, who was shivering slightly, from fear or cold, they didn’t know.

Then Jesse suddenly screamed, tumbling out of his chair and struggling on the floor, clawing at his temples and crying, screaming in agony. Chaos burst out in the galley as everyone fought to see what was going on, Wolf already at Jesse’s side, trying to stop Jesse from hurting himself more. The mongoose had already clawed thin bloody tracks down the sides of his face and down his lower arms, and struggled blindly against Wolf, not seeming to know where he really was.

“Jesse! JESSE!” Wolf begged. “Please! What’s happening to you?”

“Dying… killing us? Taking us…” Jesse thrashed again, eyes rolled back. “BEAST! Rabid beast…” This was an angry screech, as if in denial. “Consumed… taken apart…” One last struggle and he suddenly went limp with a whimper, panting weakly, eyes closed. Wolf held Jesse to his chest and rocked him, whimpering also, looking at everyone with confused, hurting eyes.

“What the HELL was that?” Falco asked, speaking for everyone.

“Something happened to the Entity.” Drax said very slowly. “My only guess is that he was on the Entity’s network, and something happened. I’ll put money that it was the GalFed ships that did it, too…”

“Yeah, agreed. He was speaking in plural.” Fox said. “Wolf, get him to sick bay. Those scratches are deep.”

Wolf nodded and stood, cradling Jesse to his chest, feeling helpless. Jesse was a member of his pack, someone he loved very much and desperately wanted to protect. But here was Jesse, hurt, in shock, by something Wolf couldn’t protect him from. Wolf sighed, grooming some of the blood away from the cuts on Jesse’s temple automatically as he walked into Sick Bay.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that.” Fussed the robot there, watching as Jesse was laid down on the table, unresponsive, barely conscious. “Instinct or not, it’s a wonderful way to pass disease.”

“If we have a disease it’s your fault in the first place, Dr. ROB.” Wolf set his hands on his hips.

“Very funny.” The robot made a grumbling noise, turning Jesse’s head to look at the cuts. “The cuts won’t need stitching, but he won’t be so pretty for a while.”

“Jesse? Can you hear us?” Wolf asked, moving a finger back and forth in front of Jesse’s barely-open eyes, not getting a response.

The robot paused. “His brain activity’s a bit erratic. Whatever hit him was a doozy. He might have the effects of a concussion.”

“Jesus. Jesse? Can you talk?”

“Hurt…” Jesse finally said, voice barely above a whisper.

“What happened to you?”

“The… the beast…” Jesse’s voice trailed off, and he sighed, eyes fluttering closed.

Wolf shivered at the way Jesse had said that, lacing the fingers of one of his hands with one of Jesse’s as he shared a glance with the med robot. “Well… at least it has a name, now.”