Chapter Three: Kill Zone

The Great Fox came out of warp and did a slow, lazy circle a safe distance from the blockade, letting its crew study the Rekuva formation from a distance. They were well outside the danger zone, but the Rekuva knew the ship. Their willingness to go into battle, as well as their utter ferocity and refusal to give quarter, had earned the Star Fox team a reputation in the Galaxy already.

Fox sat back in his chair, looking out the front view ports, rubbing along the bottom of his muzzle. Falco leaned back from the radar station and looked at him as the others did. They knew how dangerous Rekuva cruisers could be, and these were defensive ships, specialized to fend off the most vicious attackers. Before, they had faced three light cruisers, now there were fifteen defensive cruisers looking at them warily.

“The chance of us getting through that is roughly zilch.” Fox finally announced. “Any other opinions?”

“Can’t agree more.” Peppy said, remembering ship designs with detail. “We’d need an army of aces to do so.”

Fara walked over to the window, holding Hope, who was asleep against her chest, tiny hands clutching her shirt. She had a soft spot for the Rekuva, they had rescued her from certain death by suffocation, brought her back to her team, to her fiancé. One had helped deliver her child. But that cold formation between them and the information on Talar’dan’i’ was a contradiction to everything she knew about the Rekuva. “They won’t even negotiate, will they?” She asked over her shoulder, making it more of a statement, slightly swaying as she snuggled her sleeping child.

“They’re ignoring our pages.” Slippy said, looking at the blinking radio. “I doubt they’ll talk to us unless we cross their perimeter, and then it’ll be just to bitch at us to get back behind the line.”

“This is ridiculous.” Falco spat, crossing his arms. “What the hell are they hiding?”

“Well, whatever it is, it must be a lot.” Fox said, fingertips pressed together, elbows propped on the armrests of his seat. “Which worries me.”

“What are you kidding, it worries all of us, Fox.” Katt said, leaning against Falco’s chair. He wrapped an arm around her, leaning his head against arm without thinking about it. She ruffled his feathers softly.

“We’ve got power signatures.” Jesse said, pushing a pair of VR glasses up to his forehead, frowning at the readout screens. “Their hyperdrives are warming up in unison. Something’s going on.”

“Page them again, Slip.” Fox said, bringing up different displays on the screens around his seat, looking at a 3D image of the ship, which indicated that Jesse was right, the Rekuva cruisers were preparing for warp. “Somehow I doubt they suddenly changed their minds.”

Even as he said that, the cruisers disappeared, the Great Fox rocking in the ethereal wake of their drives. Left in their place were defensive satellites, wrapping the planet in a pale orange shield, protecting the satellites as well.

“What the hell?” Wolf demanded, hands on his hips, staring at the screens. “Gone, a long way out of our range.”

“Heading for the Galaxy fringe, from what trails I caught.” ROB said, mapping them. “They’re moving away from the galaxy core.”

Which meant they weren’t going home, of course, because the Rekuva’s main systems were toward the base of the Galaxy arms. “Why the hell are they heading for the fringe?” Katt wanted to know.

“We’ll figure that out later. Is there any way through those?” Fara asked, gesturing at the shield satellites.

“Not that I’ve figured out.” Slippy said, typing madly, the satellite’s design in one window, furiously coding in another, running scenario after scenario. “A supernova…”

“Oy, that’ll help us, Slip.” Falco rolled his eyes.

“Map update from the Galaxy Fed.” ROB interrupted everyone, downing the lights and filling the bridge with the 3D holographic map. Fox went crosseyed, batting at the sun that hung between his eyes absently, then looked around at the color swaths.

New Lylat had been added, a small glowing spot of gold, which had been designated their territory color. Most of the map was the sea-green of the Galaxy Fed, with stripes and spots of red and blue—select territories of the Rekuva and Vun, respectively. The map spanned three and a half galaxies, three spirals and the starting of a map for a cluster galaxy, all of which was marked the orange used for colonization.

But as they watched, that orange section started pulsing violet.

“What’s that mean?” Peppy glanced at ROB, suddenly uneasy.

“It means…” ROB checked the database, and made a choking noise. “Oh. Oh no. Let this be wrong.”

“What?” Fox demanded.

“It’s a FAKK territory.” Jesse said, VR glasses slipping from his hand to dangle by the cord, inches from the ground. “A kill zone. Someone just commanded that everything in that area be wiped clean.”

“Plot a course for Alpha.” Fox snapped at ROB. “We’ll deal with Talar’dan’i’ later. This takes precedent.”

“They didn’t map all of the colonization territories, but it’s damn close. Of the dozen planets out there being colonized or terraformed, ten have been marked FAKK.” Pepper’s aide said, striding alongside him, looking at a clipboard as they walked.

Pepper sighed, rubbing his eyes. He was never going to get a break. He gets one day off, and Nancy shows back up during it. Then, early the next day, they get a map update that seems to be certifying a massacre on a multi-system scale. “Ok, clarify for me. Just what do they mean by FAKK?”

“Nuke the planet until it glows.” The aide replied sourly. “Let nothing survive, and mark the planet as dead and to be avoided for the rest of eternity.”

“Holy Mother of God.” Pepper said, entering the bridge, which was bustling. The 3D galaxy map hung in midair at the center, people ducking under it, passing coffee, talking. “All right, people, let’s get this thing rolling. Stack’em pack’em rack’em.”

They paused to listen to him, then took their stations, turned to look at him as he looked at the map, shaking his head wearily. The map wasn’t a mistake, they were sure of that.

“Star Fox hear about this yet?”

“They’re already on the return. They’ll be beside us in twenty minutes.” Reported one of the people jockeying radar.

“Any news from the Galaxy Fed?” He sat down, rubbing his chin, trying to think. No one in Lylat had the authority to order whole planets wiped clean without getting approval from someone. If anything, civilian protesters would have made the whole thing less then worth it.

“Not yet. Just to stay out of it because it’s too dangerous for an endangered species to bother with.” This came from Caiman, who sounded disgruntled about it.

“We’re an endangered species now?” Pepper lifted an eyebrow.

“Yep, one of the smallest percentages of the universe by far.” Andross said, coming onto the bridge, Ani riding his shoulder. “Guess that’ll give the most recent baby boom a good excuse, once we’re up and running fully.”

“Fine, so we’re endangered. Whatever.” Pepper rubbed his eyes. “News to me. Anything else you know?”

“I have my suspicions.” Andross walked over to the map. “But I’ll tell you what I do know.

The Rekuva, in spite of their recent slightly shady dealings, are humanitarians to an end in this day and age. The Vun love life, as do the other more minor races of the GalFed. Big wars just don’t happen anymore because no one wants people dead from it.” He looked at the marked colonies, sighing softly. “So for the GalFed to declare a kill zone without giving a reason, something must be going on, and it’s got to be serious.”

“Sounds logical.” Pepper said, nodding once. “But what would be that serious? A plague? That could be cured. A rebellion we haven’t heard about?”

“Not likely.” Said Caiman. “As Andross says, wars just don’t happen here, and there isn’t really anything to rebel against, especially on the fringe where control is fairly loose.”

“Great. So we have no idea what the hell is going on, in other words.”

“Sounds like it.” Said Ani, fiddling with one of her tails. “But there has to be a reason. Everything has a reason.”

Andross sighed, staring out the window, thinking of the mechanical spider in its glass case, still twitching, refusing to die. “Not everything, little one.”

The Great Fox popped out of warp, falling into a lazy co-orbit with the Genesis, the smaller cruiser looking like some sort of moon to the huge dreadnaught. The trip had been spent in discussion, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, anyways, most of it happening in the kitchen. Wolf had made snickerdoodles, so Falco was rollerblading on the ceiling again, sugar high. Slippy was close behind, trying to get his gravity suit back and not having any luck thus far. Eventually Fox got Falco off the ceiling once they had arrived, and the group gathered on the bridge, all eager for an explanation.

“Glad you’re back, Fox.” Pepper said, looking at them through the video feed. “I take it you heard about the most recent map update.”

“Been discussing it non-stop. What’s going on? Jirest and Wrin can’t think of any ideas why they would declare almost every colony a kill zone.” Fox said, frowning. Hope was curled up in his lap, making happy noises, fascinated by his rank badges.

“That’s the thing, neither can we. We’re convinced that whatever it is, it must be serious, though.” He sighed. “The GalFed isn’t talking to us about it either, just that nothing’s been done yet and they instated it as a ‘big-ass warning,’ quote end quote from our translator. Apparently whatever is out there, they don’t want spreading any further then it has.”

“A disease?”

“Or something. We’ve done some creative brainstorming, and Andross noted that all marked planets are on an open trade-route that is currently redlined by the GalFed.” Pepper rubbed one of his temples meditatively. “Other then that, we don’t know anything, but we did note that that same trade route used to swing by Alpha every now and then.”

“Ouch.”

“Yes. Look, I know you’ve got a lot on your… lap, Fox, but I’d like your team to leave soon and see if you can pick up any information on the fringe. Not immediately, we’ve got some stuff to do first, but I think we should keep a keen eye on this.”

“We’ll be ready, General.”

“Andross wants a word, do you mind?”

“No, not at all.”

The camera feed switched to Andross, who smiled weakly. “Busy times, eh Fox?”

“Chaotic times. What’s up?”

“I need to borrow Jesse for a day. I’m not having any luck with the spider.”

“Sure Andross.” Jesse bounced over, leaning over Fox’s shoulder. “Be happy to help.”

“Thanks. Oh, and Wolf? We really ought to finish your mechanics up soon.”

“Just tell me when.”

“Thanks. I’m out.”

Jirest yawned, fighting the urge to scratch at his shortened antenna irritably. His vision was hazy still, but he was gradually compensating for it. He was able to read, which was good language practice. Bill hand loaned him some fantasy novels, so Jirest spent his idle time plowing through book after book, with an electric hand encyclopedia at hand to look up words or pictures.

“Entity. Something that exists as a particular and discrete unit, the fact of existence, being.” Jirest read out loud to himself, voice lazy, sleepy.

“You really must be bored.” Fara laughed, walking in and sitting beside Jirest, who smiled at her.

“Where’s Hope?”

“Taking a nap. Wolf volunteered to watch her as she does so; he’s got nothing to do without having Jesse to hang around with apparently.” She glanced at the book. “Ah. Polishing up on your Cornerian, eh?”

“Yes, indeed.” Jirest looked proud. “It’s actually pretty rare I can’t understand something, but I need to verify a lot. Oh well… comes from speaking too many languages I guess…”

She chuckled. “I’ve heard that from a lot of polyglots.”

He paused, fiddling with his remaining antenna. “I… used to have a crush on you, you know. Or at least I think I did.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Well, I, uh… You come from a beautiful race, that’s all. I got starstruck, and I guess that my race worships mothers doesn’t help too much.” He turned away, blushing.

She smiled after a moment. “I’m flattered, Jirest. You’re a great guy, but you’re not exactly my type.”

He laughed heartily, turning back. “Well, given this, I doubt I’m any Rekuva’s type anymore.” He gestured at the severed antenna.

“So?”

“It’s a flaw, Fara. I can’t see right. I can’t even communicate right.” His mood swung around, and he sighed, suddenly depressed. “What female wants a flawed male?”

She stared at him, then clobbered him with a pillow. “You close-minded lout.” She shook him by the shoulders. “Wrin is in love with you, stupid!”

Jirest squirmed helplessly. “She just feels sorry for me!” He protested weakly, struggling. “I’m lower rank, and relieved even of that!”

“Do you really think she’d leave her position of commander just to pity you, you twit?” Fara demanded, jabbing Jirest in the chest. The larger alien pouted, rubbing the spot. “Honestly, men. Some things just don’t change.” She stood, sighing. “Look, clear your head and think about it.” She wandered off, and he watched her go, then turned back to his book with a sigh, rubbing his damaged antenna.

Jesse examined the spider inside the glass case, which twitched, seeming to notice him. “So it never died?”

“Apparently not. I think it was unconscious when Wolf dropped it off for me. The legs aren’t in the best of shape, so it can’t move too much, but every time I come in its in a different spot in the tank.” Andross replied, watching Jesse and the spider both. “I haven’t figured out how to interface to it, so it’s just been trapped in here. I’ve heard from Beltino about your genius in robotics, so I figure you’d be the best person to give a chance.”

“I’m flattered.” Jesse opened the glass case and lifted the spider out, setting it on a table and opening a tool kit. “Stay. Still.” He ordered very precisely in the Rekuva’s language, and started to work.

Two hours later Andross was still sitting where he was, watching the work of a true genius unfold in front of him. Jesse had never seen anything like this, but he understood it somehow, and within an hour the spider was standing on four of its legs, passively holding out the other ones to be fixed, letting its main CPUs be exposed without protest.

“Um… Doctor Andross, sir?”

Jesse jumped, scattering a selection of tools across the table, and looked at the door. A slender male white mouse stood there, hands nervously fidgeting with a notepad computer, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt and looking oddly awkward in the outfit. Jesse sat back, welcoming the break in his concentration, murmuring in Rekuva code, soothing the nervous spider. “May we help you?”

“I’m Drax Jantosh. The reporter?”

Andross blinked, then sighed, looking embarrassed. “God, I’m sorry, I completely forgot. Jesse, this is Drax. He’s a reporter originally from Corneria City, he’s been writing a very nice piece about Lylat’s exodus. He asked me for an interview.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Jesse Patterson. I work for Arspace, in robotics.” Jesse grinned, assessing the obviously nervous mouse, noticing everything, the posture, the hold of the hands.

“Sorry to interrupt. What exactly are you doing?”

“Putting this thing back together.” Jesse gestured at the spider, which had moved close to him, crouching, looking suspicious. “So we can talk to it.”

“Isn’t that one of the spiders that attacked the StarFox team on Talar’dan’i’?” Drax crouched on his heels, studying the spider curiously, looking at the crystal eyes.

“You’re well informed. Yes, it is.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m the right person for you to talk to. I did assist Arspace, but the real people at the core of the exodus are the High Command and Star Fox.” Andross remarked to Drax after several moments, who was watching as Jesse went back to work on the spider.

“The High Command don’t exactly give interviews, and I’ve heard true stories of Star Fox personnel striking reporters.” Drax replied, shuffling a foot and looking at the ground. “Besides, as far as I’ve been told, Star Fox is shipping out in a few days.”

“So tag along.” Jesse said, connecting a few last wires, and watching in satisfaction as the spider flexed all eight legs. “There!”

“I somehow doubt they’d let me.”

“Sure they would. Hell, I’m part of the team now, I should now.” Jesse grunted, hefting the spider over to the computer consoles and hunting for the connector on the spider’s back. Finding none, he prodded the stomach. “Dammit, it won’t tickle, help me out here.” He bitched at the spider. “And what with Bill helping out on Beta, we’ve got room now.”

“I’ll consider it.” Drax turned to Andross, but Jesse ignored their conversation for the most part as he worked with the spider. It wasn’t stuff he was interested in, he knew most of it. Something he had figured out was while the spiders understood Rekuva (mostly, since the dialect had changed over the years it was like translating old English to modern English), but they couldn’t speak it, so he had to wire the spider into a computer so it could broadcast text to be translated. He grinned triumphantly when the cords finally patched, and the Rekuva writing started scrolling down the screen, the curvy writing which was the religious dialect he’d heard of.

Andross started a translator automatically, and three watched the message translate, letters one by one swapping to Cornerian, words swapping places to fit grammatically.

Time’s cycle is never broken. History repeats itself, because it has no choice. It will again. We could not stop it last time. We are all in great danger.

The spider looked at the three living people, middle section perked up, as if begging them to understand what it was trying to tell them.

“In danger from what?” Drax wanted to know, and Jesse translated quickly to the spider.

The beast, the thing, the shadow that consumes all. The entity that ruins perfection to add to its hive.

“The borg?” Jesse lifted an eyebrow, making Andross and Drax both smile just a bit. “It has to be something the GalFed knows about, right?” He looked at Andross.

“Maybe, maybe not. How long of a time period are we talking here?”

Jesse repeated this to the spider, rubbing his chin, thinking fast. For an immortal robot, the carrier of an ages-old Rekuva, to be frightened of something, it had to be serious. It took a lot to destroy the spiders, point-blank shots with a shotgun or hundreds of rounds from the suit’s chain guns. He had picked shot out of the spider’s legs from Fara’s shotgun, in fact. What was so serious the spider feared it?

Thousands of years, hundreds, we never found out. There is no cure. Those infected must die.

Andross blinked, the pieces falling together. “Jesse. It’s talking about the FAKK zones.”

“What?”

“Whatever it’s talking about is what’s driving the GalFed to declare the FAKK zones.” Andross paced, rubbing his chin. “And the High Command wants to send Star Fox right into the lion’s den, without permission from GalFed.”

“Well, then.” Drax looked at Jesse. “I suppose I would like to come along.”

Jesse smiled sourly. “That said, maybe we should get going. Need help with anything else, Andross?”

“Nope.”

“Good. You two play nice, now.” He patted the spider and left, leading Drax, who only had to stop for a few moments to get a duffel bag from his room.

Jesse was troubled, unable to help it. He wasn’t sure he liked the fact that StarFox was going to be going right into the fire, so to speak, but at the same time, what little information the spider had given him intrigued him. A biological borg? He’d have to see about getting more information, he decided.

In the mean time, Drax would probably keep him busy. He’d already decided that he’d have to teach the young mouse to relax. Hell, maybe he could even coax the others to help him with that.

Fox and Falco were waiting for him when the shuttle touched down. “So, Andross’ problem wasn’t too intense eh?” Falco asked when he walked down the ramp.

“Nah, not at all. Found out some interesting information, though. Seems we may be in more danger then we think.” Jesse replied.

Drax walked down the ramp, smiling nervously at Fox and Falco, glancing around. The docking bay was clean, at least for the most part, and the pair in front of him both radiated auras of relaxed authority. He had to wonder what in the world had possessed him to go through with this. He wanted to see everything up close, but being in close quarters with a group of people he didn’t know was sure to drive him up the wall.

“Look what I found.” Jesse suddenly added, pointing at Drax. “He followed me home! Can I keep him?!”

Drax jumped, watching the pair laugh, wincing when Falco slapped him on the back, the strong hand gripping his shoulder briefly, feathers brushing his neck. While Fox almost casually was in uniform, Falco wasn’t bothering, wearing a red tank-top and tight black jeans, subtle cologne rising off his feathers. Drax winced away from Falco, suddenly even more nervous then before.

“So you’re the reporter Andross just radioed us about, eh?” Falco said. “Welcome aboard.”

“T-thank you.” Drax managed to say, shivering. “I was told, uh, er, you had a room open now…”

“Of sorts, yes. I assume you’ll show him around Jesse?” Fox looked at Jesse, who just grinned mischievously. “Now, now. Do be nice to him, we’re not going to let you keep him if you’re mean.” Drax squeaked, and Fox laughed. “I’m kidding. God, lighten up. Jesse will show you around, and relax, he doesn’t bite.”

“How do you know that?” Falco asked.

“Ok, correction, he only bites Wolf. That said, let’s go find out what’s for lunch.”

Jesse led Drax to the personnel quarters, where Legs was waiting in the hallway, thumping down the hall at top speed (that is to say, about two miles an hour) to hug Jesse’s legs with his front pair, butting is main body against his knees and knocking Jesse on his rear, the mongoose laughing the whole time. Drax stepped back and watched this with mild amusement, the robot was kicking a foot as Jesse scratched one of its joints.

“Ok, well, the one on the left at the end is on yours.” Jesse pointed. “All of the bedrooms have bathrooms connected, so don’t worry about that. There’s a computer terminal in there too, so if you need anything, just ask and ROB will hook up to it so he can talk to you.” He stood slowly, one hand still patting his robot. “The level above us has the kitchen, dining hall, and den, the weight room and sick bay are around the corner. Any questions?”

“Yes, what do people smoke to relax so much?”

Jesse laughed, kissed Drax on the forehead, and skipped off, Legs trotting after.

Drax stood there blankly, and rubbed his forehead. “Well. He’s intuitive.” That said, he turned and went to the door indicated, wondering how long he’d last before these people drove him nuts.