StarFox
Rise of The Crimson Blade
Prologue: Crimson Rising
It's been a year since the official end of the Anglar Blitz, however turmoil amongst Lylat and it's surrounding systems has grown significantly. With the amount of destruction caused over the past decade the the Lylat Federal Council has deemed necessary to greatly increase it's security within it's borders. This in turn has caused great distrust from the less populated Federation worlds. As the military expansion increased, tensions against the core worlds grew drastically. For the citizens of the fringe worlds, enough was enough, and the worlds of Kew, Paptoon, and Eledard officially succeeded from the Federation and formed their own independent governments. Within approximately two months Sauria and Venom followed suite as well. Although the separatist movement was less than thrilling to the Federal Council, war was out of the question, it wasn't needed nor wanted. All the council could do now was hope that the separatists would remain peaceful.
For awhile the citizens of the independent worlds prospered and lived freely. Their individual governments keep for the most part very loose law enforcement and small private defense forces. This would eventually come back to haunt them, being in the fringe worlds were most of sectors criminals reside. With in a matter of months crime increased drastically, starting from basic gang violets and piracy and eventually growing to warlordism and terrorism. In less than a year of the succession the entire fringe zone has erupted into civil war amongst the rival factions, with civilian casualties in the thousands. As the factions grew in strength the amount of corruption with in the fringe grew as well, leading to many of the leading factions to having a strong hand in the local politics.
Of these dissident factions, the most powerful and violent of them is The Crimson Blade. This bloodthirsty terrorist group was originally formed mainly by Venomain Army Remnants, Sargasso Space Pirates and Cornerian Rebels. It has now grown to a formidable fighting force with thousands of members and have seized control of almost a third of the fringe zone's trade routes and security forces.
With in the Federation all the it's citizens could do is watch as the fringe zone slowly destroys itself. The only course of action the council was willing to take was to increase fleet patrols near the DMZ to avert starting another major war. All was well with in Federation territory until a weapons factory on Macbeth exploded, killing two hundred people. The explosion shortly after was proven to be a terrorist attack, unfortunately the faction responsible and their reasons for the attack, remains unknown. As much as they wanted to blame The Crimson Blade for the attack, they had to evidence to show for. Two weeks later at the Corneria City Interplanetary Spaceport another bombing takes place, this time on a massive fuel freighter. The chain reaction destroys over a dozen other docked vessels and kills over four hundred. Much like first attack no evidence was found.
With nearly a thousand dead and the destruction of two major industrial facilities, all with in two weeks, the Federal Council knows it needs to take action. Knowing that a direct assault on the fringe worlds would only worsen the situation General Peppy Hare decides to "unofficially" deploy Special Forces and what few surviving veteran mercenaries to investigate. Despite the pubic views on mercenaries, especially after StarWolf's victory on Venom, Peppy personally recruits his old friend Fox McCloud to find the source of the terrorist activity.
Day to day life for hero of Lylat is becoming more difficult by the day since the end of the blitz, and has been drifting from world to world to make ends meat. After getting screwed out of his victory, Fox's reputation was virtually lost. With virtually no job offers, his team once again parted ways, this time for good. The GreatFox and it's remaining compliment of fighters and equipment have become upkeep and a logistical nightmare. But when his former mentor offers him this "unofficial" investigation, Fox knew he couldn't afford to turn this job down, not to mention being able to rebuild a name for himself again. Naturally Fox accepted the job.
The mission was to fly undetected to Kew's capital city Vega and capture Venomain arms dealer Rico Vanhorn for questioning. According to Federation Intel, Vanhorn is one of the main suppliers of weapons for virtually all the rival factions and has data regarding some of their key personnel and bases, and is supposed to be operating out of an abandoned warehouse on the cities outskirts. For Fox this should be an easy job, but little does he realize that the Federation isn't the only group out their looking for him...
Abandoned Kew Shipping Complex 23:17 hrs.
The night was pitch black and all was quiet, maybe even too quiet. Captain McCloud, clad in black urban camo with a 6.8mm Carbine Assault Rifle, pistol and night vision, slowly makes his way in and around large cargo containers watching for enemy contacts. After making his way the warehouse Fox notices that no guards are present at all, which brings some concern.
"No guards anywhere, somethings not right. Must be ambush awaiting me somewhere." Fox thought as he scanned the area more thoroughly. He then slowly enters old warehouse. As he slowly moved inside he notices that the building was as dark and empty with only old cargo containers inside.
"There should have been at least a full squad here, what the hell is going on here?" Fox thought. As he makes his way to the middle of the warehouse he hears what sounds like light footsteps up towards the catwalk, he quickly aims his carbine towards the direction of the sound.
"I've been waiting for Fox McCloud. I knew you'd come eventually." An unidentified female voice from behind says. Fox quickly turns around and scans the area.
"Who are you? Show yourself." Fox demanded, within seconds a single light turned on and revealed a mysterious cerulean vixen assailant while holding Rico Vanhorn tied up at gunpoint.
"Your too late McCloud. This is my bounty. You should go home while you still have the chance." the assailant replies and pull the hammer back on her decorative .357 magnum revolver.
"Look lady, I don't know who the hell you are or who hired you but I'm taking him in for questioning." Fox ordered. The vixen then gave Fox a very sinister grin.
"You know Fox a second thought, I think I will give him to you. Do you know why?" The bounty hunter taunts.
"Make it quick." Fox replies, not exactly trusting this bounty hunter.
"Because I was hired to kill him." She says and shoots Rico in the right side of his skull. "You can have the rest." She then kicks the bloody lifeless body off the catwalk and taking five shots at Fox, emptying the weapon and grazes Fox's left arm.
"AHH FUCK!" Fox cries out in pain and lays down suppressive fire with his carbine, and quickly takes cover.
"As much fun as I'm having, I'm afraid I have bounty to collect. We'll meet again, I promise. Oh and by the way here's going away present for you. HAHAHA." the vixen sadistically says and throws what looks like a small 12x6 cube towards the middle of the building, and turns around and jumps out of the nearest window. When the cube hits the ground Fox notices that it has a Crimson Blade insignia on it and LCD screen with a fifteen second countdown on it.
"Oh shit." Fox said and began to sprint out of the warehouse as fast as he could while counting down the seconds in his head. At the three second counter, Fox leapt behind the nearest cargo containers and took cover. The warehouse then made a massive explosion fallowed by several smaller ones. Debris from the blast flew hundreds of feet away.
Once the blast subsided Fox got up and brushed himself off and scanned the area for assassin. After finding no sign of her, he brings up his wrist comm.
"ROB, this mission is over. Prepare for my arrival, I'll be leaving shortly." Fox says.
"Affirmative Fox." ROB replies.
After taking once last look at the still blazing warehouse, Fox lights up a cigarette and mounts his motorcycle and drives off.
"Who was that bounty hunter? How does she know me? How the hell did she know I was coming? Why do I know this going to be on "those" missions." Fox thought as he continued driving.
Authors notes: This story I have been planning on writing for almost as long as my first fic. Just so know I still plan on continuing my other one, and like my profile says this story is going to be pretty dark, and is pretty much one big plot twist with an irregular ending. Please give me feedback, and thanks for reading.
