The Great Fox II was nearly empty, so empty you could hear the ship settling (which should had been impossible). The metal walls had a faint stain from leaks of some sort and were practically crying for maintenance. The lights flickered every few minutes.
The ship's three members at the time, Fox McCloud, Krystal McCloud, and Slippy Toad, all were sitting in the bridge all glum. Fox was filing taxes and bills and it was clear that he could not keep the mercenary operation going in Lylat.
"Krystal…come take a look at this" fox said with a weak tone of voice that had hints of surrender polluting his words.
Krystal picked up the paper, luckily, she had just finished learning how to read Lylatian. "Oh Fox…I tried to tell you that this was coming." Krystal said in a sympathetic voice.
Then Slippy inserted his third wheel opinion in an attempt to help. "Maybe… I could sell some more parts?" He weakly suggested while looking up at fox.
Fox shot him down. "No, anymore salvaging and this ship will start to really crack apart…you should know that."
Slippy looked down in defeat as fox corrected him "I know." Slippy whimpered.
"How did the ship ever get this bad? I've tried my absolute best to keep everything new and clean looking."
Fox put his hand on Slippy's shoulder. "It's not your fault, it's all about the money. You know how it is. We haven't had a mission for two months now and that one was just dropping of a stupid package to some weirdos on sad moon I've never heard of. I can't even remember what planet it orbited."
"I believe it was a little asteroid moon orbiting Titania, it didn't even have a name. It was a privately-owned space rock." Slippy recalled.
"Ah yes! We were escorting a diamond encrusted doorknob to an eccentric jackass squid" Fox said to Slippy and himself in a salty and hurt manner.
Krystal suddenly remembered a fund that fox had been saving. "Fox!"
"What is it Krystal?" Fox replied quickly.
She informed him of her thought. "Maybe we should use that stash you had been saving for our wedding to fix the ship up some?"
"Out of the question, that's our money." Fox sternly opposed.
"But this is our ship." Krystal said as a quick counterpoint.
Fox corrected her swiftly "This is MY ship Krystal; I can't use OUR money on MY ship...not to sound mean or anything." He immediately regretted saying this, but Krystal was okay.
"I'm sorry for getting huffy" Fox apologized to her.
"It's okay, maybe we could relocate to a worse off system?" Krystal kindly inquired with her hand on fox's shoulder.
Fox paused and thought about it for a brief moment. "No. Sure there probably is money to be made elsewhere, but if something were to still happen while we were gone, I couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible." Fox said as he strongly inferred he wasn't going anywhere.
"There's only one option left then" Krystal handed a flyer to fox from the Cornerian Defense Force. "Corneria is still repairing it's military from the aparoid incident, maybe they'd let you be a captain or something after all you did for them. They'd pay you a constant stable salary and you'd even be able to retire when you get old and your fur starts to sag…"
Fox winced in pain as he felt Krystal's suggestion stab his free spirit. It started to bleed out and weaken. "Krystal, the CDF has already asked me to join them for the past 6 months. I've turned them down 17 times. I strongly prefer to do things my own way" Fox was being strong against the proposal at first, but he then looked down at the taxes again and they seemed to emit some sort of powerful negative invisible energy that was tugging at him. He could feel it grabbing his larynx and asking if he was sure about that. The numbers were filling his heart with anxiety. Fox almost teared up as he felt trapped in a corner, the walls felt like they were closing in. He took a deep sigh and cleared his face with his palms while shaking "but…I'll do it". Fox's confident and free spirit had just been brutally murdered by supply and demand.
Krystal gazed at fox awestruck as she watched him go to another room to be alone, he was clearly distressed by this situation. "Fox! I'm sorry!" She shouted following him.
The walls were no longer closing in on Fox, but now that he surrendered he almost felt like falling over and blacking out. He was very lightheaded.
Slippy twiddled his fingers and avoided further conversation. Star Fox as it had been known had been officially dissolved.
3 months later…
A large gray ship rested in the orbit of Fortuna. It was so new that it shined in the sunlight like a wet rock. The ship had a large cockpit and a decent amount of manpower and other staff. The words GREATER FOX were sprawled across the side of the ship in dark Green, and the front of the ship was adorned with both the symbol of Captain Fox McCloud and the Cornerian Defense Force.
The current mission was simple. He just had to sit there in space to protect the people down below on the ground. They were restoring the old Fortuna CDF base. He was there if something went wrong, which frankly he wanted to happen so he could get some action. He wanted to lead a squadron again, even if it was going to be a squadron of randoes he has no bond with. He was informed he was overseeing around twenty pilots, but he hadn't actually gotten the time to mingle with them much as most of them had just came in. He was going to meet them personally the next day, they were currently just getting settled in.
Today he was just sitting in the stupid room he had begun to hate; he would sit and watch the hours tick as he just stared at maps and occasionally had someone walk in asking how to do something. All he had to humor him was his radio, and an outdated solitaire program on his computer. Worst of all, his butt fit in his chair a little tighter than when he first sat in it three months ago. If he kept this up, he could end up fa…he could end up a little too… (he didn't even want to think about it). He started at the trash can which contained some papers and an empty bucket of Katina Fried Cucco from last night, before leaning back and sulking again.
He was moping with his crappy tap water coffee when the comm rang, he answered it with a groggy and long " ."
"This is Captain McCloud of the Greater Fox… if this is a prank or sales call, I should let you know that wasting my time is a federal offense now."
"Fox!" It was Krystal, this startled fox "I'm calling because I really wanted to ask you about something!" she said. Fox only perked a little bit from her saying that.
"What is it then honey?" He said quickly.
"I was wondering if you could come meet me on Papetoon so I can tell you about it. There's a nice new restaurant in your home town… and it would be a great place to do it." Krystal's confidence decreased in saying that as she sensed fox's feelings from the comm.
"No…You know I'm on duty, and I can't just leave to come chat with you. When you insisted that I give in and join CDF I had to give away my powers to do as I please." Fox was getting irritated again.
"Fine." Krystal said disappointed. "I'll just tell you now, … I'm pregnant"
Fox froze for a second. "Wh-…I'm…GLAD TO HEAR THAT" Fox said as he got out of his seat for a second for momentary celebration, before his back suddenly ached and he sank back down. "I was worried you were infertile!" He said jokingly.
"Well, I'm glad you're at least happy about that." Krystal sighed.
"Sorry for snapping at you, things are not as flexible as they used to be you know." Fox said in a soft voice.
Krystal cradled her comm and understood "I know, I know, I can't help but feel that it's my fault."
"IT'S NOT…It's not your fault, you were right, there was no other option. At least without leaving Lylat, like Falco." Fox turned his chair around and stared out at Fortuna. Krystal felt like Fox was sharing is feelings accurately. "Peppy had to retire to get the treatment he needed, and Falco was always destined to leave, at least Slippy is on this ship with me but I rarely see him with how big this place is." Fox monologued plainly "It is what it is…. how long are you due?"
"The babies are coming in four months" Krystal replied after a brief pause.
Fox did a double take. "Did you say babies? With an s?" he said with disbelief and a little more energy.
"Yes, two babies, plural…a boy kit and a girl kit is what they're saying." She said rubbing her baby bump which fox couldn't see.
"Could I name the boy?" Fox said a little shaky…
"Sure" Krystal agreed…
"James McCloud II" He said with a tear in his eye.
Krystal nodded "The second? Looks like being high in the CDF is already making you all fancy" Krystal teased.
Fox whipped his tear "Stop…" and chuckled.
"But…what about his middle name?" Krystal inquired
"Umm…Mark…Marcus, his middle name will be Marcus." Fox stumbled before landing the middle name.
"I want to name the girl…Cerenia Hope McCloud…" Krystal added.
"That's beautiful" Fox replied as he no longer felt the morning grind as it had been washed away by sentiments.
"James II Marcus McCloud" Krystal reiterated to herself slightly amused. Then suddenly Fox's screen received a red pop up warning with a strange digitalized siren noise he had never heard before. He sighed as he knew he had to stop chatting with his wife and address whatever this was. "I'm sorry but something just popped up Krystal…I have to go"
"That's okay…I love you Fox."
"I love you too…bye" Fox hung up the comm with a bittersweet feeling, he then took a big swig of coffee to shake it off. Now let's see what this alert is.
The alert was just a small message that said "Corneria Offline".
"Corneria…Offline?" Fox questioned to himself and swiveled over to his pager. "This is your Captain Fox McCloud speaking, I need Slippy Toad up at the bridge with me as soon as possible!"
Slippy had been near the bottom of the ship dealing with an HVAC issue that had made a few rooms a little too chilly. He was actually up inside a vent with a flashlight when he heard fox's command echo from the intercom and into the vent. This startled him and made him hit his head on the top of the vent.
"AWF! Dang it…" He sat rubbing his head for a second to rub away the mild pain he just encountered. He awkwardly scooted backwards out from the vents. He came out covered in dust and took a minute to bat it all off coughing. Once he was presentable, he put down his tools and walked over to the elevator to get to the bridge at a moderate pace.
The elevator was half way to the bridge when it stopped to let someone else in, it was just the janitor jackal. Slippy sighed from the slight inconvenience but made sure he did it quietly enough to not be heard and offend the solemn chubby smelly jackal. The Jackal pressed his button which made them stop the floor before the bridge, then after that it finally reached the top with just Slippy in it. The door in fox's big boring office prison opened revealing the little slimy green toad.
"I'm glad to see you again Fox, what did you need me so urgently for?" Slippy said.
Fox rubbed the sleep out from his eyes. "I got an alert that I thought was strange, come take a look." He informed Slippy.
The toad walked over next to Fox at his desk to take said look "Corneria…Offline?" Slippy questioned to himself.
"That's what I said!" Fox replied. "What does it mean apart from the obvious?"
"Corneria itself hasn't lost communicative ability for centuries; you'd have to launch a massive attack from within to disable it." Slippy said with his hand on his chin
Fox jumped out of his seat "An attack!? Does this warrant a call for action!?" Fox said this with smile on his face.
Slippy ignored the fact that Fox was internally celebrating the thought of such a terrible huge attack and dismissed the idea. "You didn't let me finish…what's more likely is that something is wrong with our own ship's communication system."
Fox crumpled back into his seat with a small pout.
Slippy could tell that something was taking a toll on his mental health. Slippy kept ignoring Fox's outbursts and finished his explanation. "So, I'm going to go check out our communication system to see if it's range has been damaged to the point of excluding Corneria, it should be fine."
"Thanks, Slippy." Fox said in a defeated tone…
Slippy rushed off to tend to the communications room to see if his hypothesis was correct. The door slammed on the way out.
Fox was alone in the captain's office again, blankly staring…
'This job is slowly killing me.". He looked over to his picture of Krystal and him on Sauria "I'll be okay" He assured himself. "I'll be…fine."