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Needin' Some Lovin' Ch 9

A few days passed since Fox proposed to Katt. They agreed they would wed after this battle and the threat of the Amphibian Empire was dealt with. Now, Fox sat in an Amphibian Imperial attack craft with his hands bound behind his back with wire. Beside him, piloting the craft, was Slippy, now dressed in an Amphibian Imperial military uniform slash armor. They were currently flying at FTL towards Abygos, the Amphibian Empire's home planet.

"We're approaching the planet," Slippy said suddenly. From his voice, Fox could tell he was nervous. "Taking us out of light speed."

Slippy pulled back on a lever on the ship's controls, and the ship slowed back into normal space. Through the canopy, they could see directly ahead of them was a green and blue planet. Surrounding the planet was an entire fleet of spherical and ovaloid shaped war ships. Fox mentally chuckled to himself as he thought they kind of looked like big metallic grapefruit and cucumbers. And also in orbit around the planet was a giant ring shaped mega-structure.

"That must be the Halo weapon," observed Fox.

"Look at the size of that thing!" said Slippy in amazement. "Approximately 10,000 kilometers in diameter."

"Who could build something that big?" Fox wondered out loud.

"It's believed it was some ancient advanced civilization, now long gone," said Slippy.

Fox could see Imperial ships around the giant ring performing what appeared to be construction on the giant structure. The Empire was apparently still putting the thing back together. But it didn't look like they had much more to do before it was fully reassembled.

"We're being hailed," said Slippy, bringing Fox back into the moment.

On the communications screen on the control panel, a green frog in a uniform similar to the one Slippy now had on appeared.

"Beetle Class fighter! Please identify yourself," said the frog.

Slippy responded. "This is toad trooper designation PK149. My ship was lost in enemy territory for two weeks. I managed to elude capture by the enemy, and I am returning home with a prisoner in custody." He gestured to Fox. "This is Fox McCloud of the Star Fox team. He is an ally of the enemy with valuable intel."

The frog officer looked pleased. "Very well. You are clear to land at home base. Welcome home, PK149."

The transmission ended, and Fox and Slippy continued their course toward the planet. As they flew, the ship suddenly began flying on its own.

"What's going on?" Fox asked.

"They've taken control of the ship with their network," said Slippy calmly. "Don't worry. This is probably just standard procedure. They are bringing us down to their military HQ."

The ship flew down into the atmosphere. Down below them they were heading towards a city surrounded my miles of swampland as far as the eye could see. They landed inside a ships' hanger filled with other ships like the one they were in. They saw several troops and an officer approaching their ship.

"Remember to act the part," Fox whispered to Slippy as the fighter canopy opened.

Slippy nodded, then he reached down and grabbed his blaster riffle he had with him and hit Fox hard in the head with the butt of it. "MOVE IT, MAMMAL SCUM!" Slippy ordered loudly, gesturing for Fox to climb out of the ship.

Fox was impressed. For a second, Fox himself was almost convinced Slippy was an enemy. And Slippy had held nothing back when hitting him. It had hurt!

Resisting the urge to grin at Slippy, Fox climbed out of the fighter craft as best he could with his hands tied behind his back. Of course, he could break out of them at any time he wanted for the sake of the mission.

Slippy followed him, and they turned to face the approaching solders. One of whom was the frog they had just talked to on the ship.

Slippy saluted them. "PK148 reporting!"

They saluted him back. "Welcome home, solder," the frog said. "I've scheduled you to be debriefed tomorrow morning. For now, why don't you get some R&R for the rest of this day. I'm sure you've been through quite an ordeal."

"Thank you sir," Slippy said. "But first I must inform you that there is going to be a impending attack in several days by the alliance fleet." He gestured to Fox. "This Fox knows all the details of their strategy."

"Don't worry. We'll interrogate them out of him," the frog officer said.

"Don't fall for his lies," said a gruff and disturbingly familiar voice behind them.

Fox and Slippy turned around and were shocked and horrified by who they saw. The three Star Wolf team members, Wolf, Leon, and Panther, were walking up to them.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Fox burst out.

The three war criminals smirked. "We are now humble servants of the Empire," Leon said.

Wolf then pointed at Slippy. "That toad is an imposter. He is Slippy Toad from the Lylat system, a member of the Star Fox team and that fox's friend."

The frog looked at Slippy, then at Wolf, and then back to Slippy. Then he snapped his fingers. "Seize them!" he said, pointing at Fox and Slippy.

Before they could react, Fox and Slippy were seized by the imperial solders. They were both held as their bodies were searched for any concealed weapons, and those that were found were taken off of them.

"Darn it!" Fox cursed to himself. He then glared at Wolf. "Why are you helping them?" he shouted angrily. "Don't you know what they're planning? They want to wipe out all other life in the universe so they can take it all for themselves, including the Lylat system!"

Wolf chuckled and got right in Fox's face. "Stupid pup. I don't give a shit about the Lylat system. You should know by now Team Star Wolf always sides with the highest bidder." He pointed at the frog officer. "They have a doomsday weapon! That makes them the highest bidder. As long as we serve them, we get to live."

"What about when you helped us save the Lylat system from the aparoids!" asked Fox.

"That was different. There was no way to side with the aparoids. Pigma tried, and look what happened to him. We knew our only way to save ourselves was to help you defeat them."

Wolf then turned back to the frog officer. "Don't kill them yet. I want the pleasure of doing that myself later. For now lets leave them alive so that they can witness the destruction of everything they know and love."

"Remember your place, mammal," the frog officer said to Wolf in a threatening tone. "The only reason your team is still alive is because we believe you can be useful to us. You serve us! Not the other way around."

Wolf glared at him, clearly not liking being spoken too that way, but then he nodded. "Of course, sir."

The frog officer looked at his solders that were holding Fox and Slippy. "Lock these two up with that other one in the detention level."

"Yes, sir," said one of the solders.

As Fox and Slippy were being dragged away, they heard Wolf shouting after them. "When we get our hands on that blue bitch friend of yours who betrayed us, we're gonna have ourselves a little party with her."

"One I'm sure she isn't going to enjoy," Leon added with a chuckle.

"But we definitely will," Panther purred evilly.

Fox gritted his teeth in rage as the Star Wolf team laughed behind him while he and Slippy were dragged away by their captors.

Fox and Slippy were roughly taken down a series of corridors in the building until they came to a long corridor with prison cells on both sides. They were taken to one of the cells, the guards opened it up, and pushed Fox and Slippy inside. The guards closed the cell door and walked away.

"Great," Fox sighed in dismay, looking at Slippy. "Now what do we do?"

"Fox? Slippy? Is that you guys?"

Fox and Slippy turned at the sudden voice behind them, unaware that there was someone else in the cell with them. At the back of the cell, sitting on a bench in the shadows, a figure stood up and began walking towards them. They were shocked to see who it was.

"Falco?!" They both said at the same time.

"Yo! You two are a sight for sore eyes! What are you guys doing here?" asked their avian friend, who now that he was standing in the light coming from the slits in the cell door, they could see he had a black eye, cuts and bruises all over his body, and ruffled, unkempt feathers.

"We could ask you the same question," said Fox.

Falco shrugged. "Well, after I left you guys, I needed to do something to make money. So when I heard there was some action going on over in this system, I decided to come here to see what I could get into. Then one thing led to another, I got captured by these Amphibian Empire guys, who are really racist against non-amphibians, let me tell you, and now I've been here ever since."

Fox and Slippy explained everything that had been going on and their current situation to Falco. After Falco was completely filled in, he responded with, "Dang! That's not good."

Fox turned to Slippy, "Slippy, you still have the virus, don't you?"

"Yeah," Slippy responded, reaching into his uniform and pulling out the portable data drive that contained the computer virus on it. "Luckily they didn't find it when they searched us."

Fox nodded. "Then we have to find a way out of this cell so we can upload the virus somehow, or else the alliance fleet is doomed when they get here." His thoughts immediately turned to Katt, and he felt a wave of dread wash over him. He prayed she would be okay, as well as the rest of his friends.

---

About an hour later, up in space above the planet, the alliance fleet exited out of light speed.

Katt was in her Catspaw fighter. Flying along side her was Krystal in her Cloud Runner, Amanda in her Tadpole, and Lucy in her Sky Bunny. Behind them was the Great Fox, being piloted by ROB. And all around them were a combination of Cornerian Army ships and Gutaka Alliance ships.

Ahead of them, surrounding both the planet and the Halo weapon, was an enormous cloud of ships. The imperial fleet!

General North's voice chimed in on the fleet communications. "All squadrons report in!"

"Star Fox team, standing by!" Katt responded.

One by one all the ships quickly reported in. Outside Katt could see the ships in the enemy fleet were turning towards them. They had detected their presence.

General North spoke again. "Alright, Star Fox team, what's the word on the computer virus? Are the enemy ships disabled?"

They waited for ROB to respond, as he was assigned to detect the upload of Beltino Toad's computer virus.

ROB finally responded. "Negative. The virus has not been uploaded. The Imperial ships are still online."

Katt's heart sank and she became worried. 'Fox, what happened?' she thought to herself, wondering what could have happened to Fox and Slippy that the virus hadn't been uploaded on time. 'Please be okay.'

"Drat!" Katt heard Lucy shout. "Fox and Slippy must have botched this up!"

"No!" Amanda said with a gasp.

"What do we do now?" asked Krystal.

"We may have to abort the mission," General North informed them with a disheartened tone.

"No!" Katt shouted. She couldn't allow that. Whatever had happened down on the planet with Fox and Slippy, she knew in her heart that as long as they were still alive, they would find a way. And she refused to believe Fox was dead. "I know Fox and Slippy won't fail! They may have just been delayed! We have to give them a chance."

"The enemy fleet is attacking!" ROB suddenly spoke again.

Ahead of them the Imperial ships were indeed moving towards them at increasing speed. Small beetle shaped fighter sized craft, identical to the kind Fox and Slippy had been in, were being launched from the enemy carriers.

General North finally spoke again. "Very well, Star Fox team. I'll give them fifteen minutes. If the virus isn't uploaded by then, we retreat. ALL SHIPS, ENGAGE THE ENEMY! FIRE AT WILL!"

Both fleets opened fire on the other as the distance between them closed.

Katt opened fire on a swarm of enemy fighters directly ahead of her, taking them all out in a row with her lasers. She performed a quick barrel roll to deflect a few of their shots that had been fired at her.

Beside her, Krystal, Amanda, and Lucy also fired on enemy ships ahead of them. More and more kept coming.

"Dang, there sure is a lot of them!" Lucy grunted as they shot at the enemy fighters swarming all around them.

"We've been through worse!" Krystal commented.

Katt took notice of an enemy carrier that was directly ahead of them.

"Target that enemy carrier dead ahead," she said to the others.

The four of them opened fire on the carrier with both lasers and bombs. After a few seconds, the carrier exploded. The four of them swerved their ships to avoid the blast.

Once they cleared the explosion, they noticed the entire long line of other enemy carriers ahead of them.

"One down," Lucy remarked. "A crap-load more to go."

Katt sighed. 'Come on, Fox,' she thought to herself.