Wings of Night
Author's Note: This is a simple oneshot that sprang from an element of Defiant. While on an unnamed mission for General Pepper, the Great Fox slips past the event horizon of a class four black hole, a spatial monster that is a simple disk, but allows no escape whatsoever of anything, from light to communication beams. Class four black holes are trans-dimensional, and appear in multiple universes at the same relative location, hence, some of the sights seen. This is Star Fox's final moments. This is some time before the Aparoid War on the original Great Fox with Mark III Arwings (as per Black Skies). MY first oneshot.
Oneshot...Wings of Night
It had been late at night, Cornerian time when it had happened. It hadn't even been noticeable. The Great Fox had quietly slipped into the spatial basin around a class four black hole, being pulled from its flight plan until it had then passed into the destructive radius. The event horizon had been passed, and the team would never have known had Slippy not tried to raise Corneria.
"Comm's out." remarked the toad in puzzlement. "Hey, Fox, would you come over here for a moment?"
"Yeah, Slip? What's going on?" replied the vulpine, ambling up. Slippy jerked his head at the comm screen.
"No one's out there. Whole screen went blank." Fox scratched his ears thoughtfully.
"A mechanical breakdown?" he suggested. Slippy shook his head, his eyes bulging slightly.
"I've already checked. Someone must be jamming us- but why?"
"I'll check the radar," offered Fox, and he was about to say that there were no enemies when he paused. "Huh? This thing is blank too! All the stars and planets- heck, the whole Lylat System just dropped off our radar! What gives?"
Little by little, the gravity of the situation became clear. All the instruments that sent anything out were blank- all the external scanners were out as well. The visual viewscreen was completely black, though Fox flipped the power switch several times just to make sure. Then it dawned on Slippy.
"Nothing could jam every system on the Great Fox. I've read about this. We're caught."
"In what?" asked Fox nonchalantly. "Nothing we can't warp or blast out of, I hope?"
"You can't blast a class four black hole." replied the toad pointedly. Fox gagged as the toad went on. "We can't get out of this thing. Last guy who tried didn't make it either. Thought he could tether himself to a place outside the event horizon. No dice."
Fox's face went ashen as the impact of Slippy's words hit him. "This is it?" he croaked. "The Great Fox can't-"
"No, Fox." said Slippy quietly. "This is the end of us."
Fox's lethargy was pierced by anger every so often when the vulpine slammed his fist into something, but other than that, the entire crew was gripped by that- an extreme sense of listlessness. Everything was so pointless, so inconsequential. Slippy went about slowly, muttering to himself about engine couplings and trans-warp drives, but no one paid attention.
Falco sat in the cockpit of his Arwing, moping morosely. He glanced occasionally at a picture of Katt Monroe, crudely taped to the right viewpane before turning away and propping his head upon one wing. All this technology, and it was of no help. Something snapped within him. Opening the cockpit, the avian leapt from his ship and found an electric pad to write on, and he languidly scrawled a note to Fox before climbing back into his Arwing and starting it up. A few minutes later, an Arwing shot from the Great Fox's forward hangar, and fired away into the void. Falco was gone.
Falco glanced back briefly as the Great Fox faded behind him. He could still turn around, he could still get back. But that was not in his nature. He settled into his seat as his ship sped forwards. Falco Lombardi was now in control of his own destiny.
As the Great Fox spiraled on into the hole, Fox paced restlessly in front of a holotable, punching keys and running simulations. There had to be a way out of this mess. He worked at a furious pace as Krystal and Slippy watched on. Slippy cleared his throat.
"Falco's left. Fox, you need rest. I'll take over."
"You know there's no way out, you said it yourself!" growled Fox in reply as another icon flashed up red. Then the other half of the toad's statement dawned on him. Krystal winced as a pained look crossed the vulpine's face before he dashed from the room.
Yo, Foxie,
All this waiting ain't something I can stand. Sorry, but I've got to fly- my own way. No one but a Lombardi chooses a Lombardi's path. I'll miss ya.
-Falco
Fox held the pad, reading it wordlessly. He looked at Krystal, who could sense the pain in her friend's eyes. Then he turned and hurled the electronic pad from him, the device whirling until it struck an Arwing and exploded into a shower of sparks. The vulpine turned on Slippy.
"You and your scanners! Why didn't you find this thing- stop it from grabbing us? Why?!"
"You know the answer to that," snapped Slippy. "There's no way. Nothing I can do!"
"Because of your "nothing I can do," my best friend is out there, charting a course to kill himself!"
"Well, if that's how you see it, then maybe I shouldn't be here either!" screamed Slippy Toad, eyes bulging from his head. Krystal made as if to stop him, but with a strength belying his stature, the toad jumped up into his cockpit and pulled it shut, manually firing the Arwing into space.
It was some hours later when Slippy's anger began to ebb. Why had he lashed out at Fox like that? There was an apology he needed to make. Glancing back over his shoulder, he surveyed the expanse of black, searching for the silver dot that could possibly be the Great Fox. His eyes sought it out, straining. Sweat streaked down his face as he continued to search. Then, with a flare of blue, he found it. There was the Great Fox, behind him and to starboard. The toad began to pull his control rod for a banking turn. He was halfway through the maneuver before he saw something else. A tiny trace of purple, surrounded by green.
Falco.
Torn between meeting two of his friends, Slippy thought back on his days of science. He could only choose one. If he went to find Falco, his Arwing wouldn't make it back. By the time he got to the Great Fox, Falco might be gone. He was still steeling himself for the choice when Falco's Arwing flared brightly and vanished. Unable to see it, the toad made his choice, and banked towards the Great Fox.
He hated the sound of straining engines behind and beneath him.
It was a tearful Slippy who was reunited with Fox in the hangar. Krystal sensed the stress evaporating in the room. They hadn't been themselves- no one had been.
"I...I saw Falco." Slippy choked out, some time later. Fox's eyes grew distant as he looked out the hangar, then he shook his head.
"Nothing we can do for him. That was his way."
Falco thought back on his life as he viewed the swirling traces of grey before him. The final plunge was before him. He thought back on his academy days, passing his flight tests, joining Star Fox. His romance with Katt Monroe. The hard days after Sauria. The Aparoids. They'd been through so much together. Now it was going to end.
Two azure feathers pressed on the booster ignition, and the Arwing tumbled into the void. It faded slowly into nothingness.
The Great Fox's engines burned on to the rhythm of taps as Slippy and Krystal played chess. Fox looked out the viewpanes at the blackness beyond, and started suddenly as something loomed off their port side. He was about to speak when it faded out of existence The next phase-in came seconds later. A whitish hull built over a black, triangular wing. The tiny spacecraft had three rocket engines mounted behind it. Columbia was proudly splashed across its hull, just behind three viewpanes. The mystery ship wavered, then began to stream fire before breaking into nothingness.
Then came a circular ship, roughly the size of the Great Fox. The ship had two prongs in front of it and a strange cockpit mounted on one side. It too sailed on and disappeared.
A ship with an ovular main hull and a smaller secondary hull, two brightly-lit nacelles attached to it. An azure-glowing disc mounted below the ovular section lit the darkness briefly. Slippy looked up in time to see the words USS Voyager before that ship disappeared as well.
"Trans-dimensional rift." he said calmly, but he too watched in fascination as a number of other ships went by. Another hour passed. The visions faded. Krystal suddenly gasped as Falco's Arwing suddenly appeared beside the ship, a grey tendril latched upon it. The Great Fox turned, seeming to follow the Arwing. It shuddered. The lights dimmed. Krystal embraced Fox as the vulpine turned his attention to her, before looking out before him. Slippy closed his eyes slowly.
And then they were gone.