A/N; I do not own any of the characters. They are copyrighted to Nintendo.

Chapter 1

Fox McCloud had just walked into his quarters after getting back from a reconnaissance mission. They ran into a secluded squadron of Oikonny loyalists, it was supposed to be just a routine scanning of the area. Fox and Krystal went out together; Falco was out flying and screwing around with Katt. And Slippy went to Aquas again for god knows what.

ROB came in over Fox's intercom "First stage analysis of the Arwings is complete, electrical system sustained significant damage, G-diffuser system's extensive use caused core fractures...

Ah, nothing like the old days, Fox mused, as he was turning the hot water on in his shower,

… Fuselage damage significant, inner haul intact, weapons housing damaged beyond repair…

Fox was peeling off his flight suit as ROB continued in the background. He just let it get drowned out by the sound of the running shower, which sounded more inviting ever minute. As he was removing his arms, his right shoulder ligaments snapped back in response to his movement and the swelling, he winced as he drew a sharp breath, gritting his teeth. The rest of his outfit was easy enough to take off, they were loose fitting and all but fell off in comparison to the flight suit. "Ahhh, god this is going to feel so good", he thought out loud, Fox hated the "new" scout planes. They were late model Cornerian fighters, mainly designed for live fire training. They were more maneuverable but less armored, faster yes, but lacked the upgraded life support that their Arwings have, but Slippy upgraded the shielding modules for a little extra protection from enemy fire only, but they still needed the Contained Life Support (CLS) flight suit which was very uncomfortable…but it was better than the hot vacuum of absolute zero space. The new Arwings were bought after all the other expenses were dealt with, after getting a new Great Fox, Fox was grateful that the Cornerian government was pleased enough with the job they had done that they gave them a "discount", on their new mother ship, just another way of not having to pay them all the money in currency, and fixing all the damage their fighter Arwings sustained, and payment to the crew. They all decided to make an investment in more ships classed for different tasks. To keep from constantly being out of commission due to repairs. All in all, it was paying off, but he still didn't like them. Fox, having finished taking off his clothes, tossed the flight suit along with all his other garments in the direction of the hamper… miss, never was good at that, he spent the next 18 min scratching his sweaty matted fur, reaching all the places that his traumatized body would allow him to. When he reached the underside of his right shoulder blade Fox rolled his eyes, and let out a sustained low moan that kept rhythm with his scratching, not only did it help to dull some of the pain but it just felt so damn good.

Before he knew what happened Fox was picking himself up off the floor, his right leg had been kicking and threw him off balance, he painfully and with much whimpering got up and shook his head as he finally stepped in to the shower.

As Fox closed the door behind him, ROB chimed in "… stage two analysis initiated…" His body tensed up, due to the drastic change in temp. But the vulpine hung his head and just waited for his body to acclimate. As he let the heat sink in to his aching muscles he put his left hand and forearm on the wall and rested on it letting the shower rain down on him. Fox never did like using the ceiling shower because it took a large portion of his water ration down the drain but it did make relaxing easier. As Fox lifted his head and left the warm water run down his chest, he thought about the events of the day, it was a simple enough mission, easy money, small amount but it all added up in the end. They had picked up some non-astrological movement in the area, but on further probing they concluded that it was just space debris. But it wasn't charted so they decided to chart and plot it, and get a surveying commission. Just to keep track of them, ROB scanned the area a few time to make sure that the debris was still taking a safe course for their current heading. Nothing from any of the scans indicated that there were hostiles in the area.

"Fox, are you sure that we should be going out?" Krystal asked as they were heading down to the hanger to prep their ships.

"We have done… 8 scans of this sector over the past 3 day, nothing read out as being hostile, or even alive for that matter." "Why have you been getting any reading from here?"

"No it's not that, I just don't think that we should be doing this alone."

Krystal seemed to start to say something as they walked through the hanger doors. But ROB broke in

"…we have done 11 scans of the area over the last 74 hours and 28 min. and 8 point 7 sec …"

"…Thanks ROB…" Fox replied looking to his left where ROB was busy with charting the Arwings exit trajectory.

"So, it looked like you were going t…" Fox started to say as he turned to his right where Krystal was standing, only to finds that she had taken off to her ship at a moderately faster walk then she usual did. Cocking his head to the left, shrugging it off, he didn't think much of it because there was a mission to attend to.

Fox put his game face on as he was getting into his Arwing after doing the walk around, he was always serious when they were on a mission, no matter what kind of mission it was. Fox would occasionally look over to see if Krystal was doing okay. Secretly wanting her to ask for his help just so he could get to be close to her. Fox cleared his through, and redirected his attention back to his controls. Although they were new ships their controlled were pretty much the same, just some small changes here and there. Nothing major. So Fox went thought the motions and a few minutes later, Fox and Krystal were out.

"This is scout one, scout two report." Fox call over his headset.

"Scout two, everything checks out." Krystal responded

"Great Fox, this is scout one, how's everything looking ROB?"

"…Scanners functioning properly and at full capacity… No indication of the debris that was shown in our earlier scans…"

"What?" Fox tapped his ear piece, can you say that again ROB, sounded like you said that you can't find any trace of the stuff?"

"…Affirmative…"

That can't be. It was there the whole time. "Krystal, turn on all your scanners, just the immediate area is fine. Report anything that you pick up." Fox ordered without waiting for a confirmation as he was doing the same thing.

"Copy, scout two out."

Fox tweaked his scanners for the widest possible spectrum, he knew he would lose precision but he didn't care he wanted to know where that stuff is, how it got there , and how it got there without them knowing it.

ROB, boost the signal and widen the field. Report any anomalies.

"…Affirmative…"

"Krystal I think that you should head back to the Great Fox until we figure this out."

"Only if… Contact! Bearing 18 degrees at 2, 5. 8 targets moving fast. I need help, Fox!"

"I'm on my way!" Fox pushed the throttle and headed for Krystal, not noticing that he had enemies on his tail.

"ROB locate and track all enemies in the sector and give feedback on their heading." Fox ordered.

"… No contacts in this sector…"

"WHAT! ROB we are being attacked by them right now, and your telling me that there are none here!"

"…Affirmative… we are receiving no readout that there are any crafts in this sector…"

"Damn it, engage enemies, ROB lock on to our position and wait for visual lock on targets, and take out what you can."

"Fox you have one behind you." Krystal broke in

"… Affirmative… weapons complement… 2 guided missiles…"

"Copy, Krystal." Fox pulled up on his stick and hit the boost got behind the enemy and took him out with just a few blasts.

The frustrated vulpine growled in to his head set. "Fine… ROB, take out only targets designated by us." Krystal, lead the enemies towards me, and try and stay out of the way."

"I can fight Fox, I know what to do." The blue vixen huffed; frustrated that Fox didn't trust her to take care of herself.

As Fox and Krystal made their way towards each other to get in to formation and take the fight to them. Cross fire was a real problem; Fox knew when to and not to fire from experience, but Krystal on the other hand, having almost shot Fox while trying to clear a path for herself She decided not to fire unless she had to. But there are always those time when you know you shouldn't but you just have to because the consequences of not would be greater than if you did. Having made yo here mind Krystal call over the comm.

"Fox role left now!" Krystal ordered not waiting for him to move or even respond she pulled the trigger and took out the target that she saw coming up on Fox in his blind spot Fox having no idea why did as he was told.

"Wait I mean right, roll right!" The worried vixen yelled.

"Whoa!" Fox yelped as he banked hard right after having angled himself to the left after doing so he saw Krystal's shots fly past his left G-diffuser.

She must have hit the power plant because the ship lit up like a star, and then the debris came. A few pieces here and there but nothing that Fox could handle. But the fighters that were behind him weren't so lucky one ship to a wing right through the center. Fox still moving out of the way of the space trash wasn't paying attention and flew right in to the path of bisected plain.

Fox's scout plane had taken a piece of shrapnel, well that was an understatement, it was half of an enemy's ship, it impacted in the right side - knocking Fox, and his ship, for a loop. Cracking his window, causing the life support to shut down the cabin pressure to keep the hatch from blowing out and pull in the backup systems, his CLS pressurized making it harder to move, the safety system that Slippy installed shot up a plate made of a carbon titanium alloy over the damaged window panel. After a few seconds Fox had regained control of his Arwing, and was making for a patch of open space so he could get his bearings. "Damn it, that hurt." Krystal Come in, over."

"Krystal here, what's the matter Fox."

"I have taken significant damage; I might not be able to stay engaged much longer. I suggest that we fall back to the Great Fox and regroup."

"Regroup? Fox there's just the two of us. If we don't finish then we will have lost."

"I don't care if we lose, I just…" want to keep you safe was what he was going to say, but Fox was cut off by a barrage of fire from his port side, his view was blocked by the safety shield which deployed to keep the window from breaking out. All he had was an image read out that was on the console, it was only in secondary readout because most of his hatch was intact.

"Fox, come in, you were cut off. Are you still there?" it was almost a scream, but Krystal held it back just enough. She checked her display and saw that Fox was just 1800 yards to her aft starboard so she angled her ship in the directions, pointed the nose down and shot off her twin lasers to clear the limping fighters that were in her way and went down to check on Fox, taking on any of the fighters that crossed her path. As she was approaching she could sense that Fox was alive, worried, but most of all he was… she paused, trying to think of the word they used … pissed… "that's it." Krystal wrinkled her nose in an attempt to try and think of why they would use such a work to describe how someone was feeling.

Shaking his head, then focusing on is display to find out where it was that had just been shot from. "son of a bitch." Fox said through his clinched teeth, having found his prey the enraged vulpine hit his thrusters and make a straight line of the fighter who was stupid enough to take him on.

Zeroing in on his main target, Fox was punching on his controls to max out his twin single charge single lock lasers to overdrive them just to the point of overload shutdown. He was going to make sure come hell or high water that Krystal and he made it home, and this guy didn't