Chp. 1
The Great Fox Carrier drifted through space, not really headed anywhere in particular, more like avoiding the crowd and press of Corneria and the other major population centers of Lylat. It wasn't that those worlds were overpopulated, per se, but wherever the current inhabitants of the ship went, they were often as not mobbed by crowds of adoring fans; and although celebrity had its perks, too much publicity made for very poor privacy. The carrier had become a sort of home away from home for its crew, a place where they could go for a while when the press of the crowd became too much to bear.
The ship's current owner-captain sat in the command chair, not doing much commanding at the moment but simply gazing out at the simply beauty of space. His name was Fox McCloud; he was currently in his early thirties, happily married to the love of his life and proud father of a two-year old boy. He wasn't quite alone on the bridge, although the silence in the room would suggest that he was. The only other person on the bridge at the moment was Fox's friend Falco Lombardi. The blue-feathered avian sat at the navigation console, pretending to check the ship's course but in actuality doing the same thing Fox was doing.
The vulpine's ear twitched as the sound of footsteps making their way down the hall heralded the approach of more of the ship's residents. There was one quiet and measured stride, and one that was a little faster and noticeably heavier. He smiled as the door slid open, and called back as the two others entered the bridge, "Hi Krystal, hi Slippy."
"How'd you know it was us?" Slippy asked as he trotted into the room. Krystal already knew, but she hid the answer behind a smile at Slippy's befuddlement.
"Being married to a telepath has begun to awaken my own latent abilities," Fox said in a deadpan voice. "I've been able to pick up thought patterns for a while, and Krystal has stated teaching me how to discern different people based on mental recognition alone."
"Really?" Slippy asked. "Hey… wait a second; you don't have any latent psychic abilities! Krystal already checked when you two first met!" The other individuals on the bridge started snickering, and Fox turned the chair around to face the new arrivals for the first time.
"Just kidding, Slip, I only heard your footsteps. The ship is so quite these days they were easy to pick up." Krystal covered her mouth with one hand to hide her smile, but Fox could tell she was still giggling over his impromptu prank. His eyes shifted a little lower, and his smile grew wider as he saw who Krystal's passenger was. "Hey, Marcus! C'mere and give your papa a hug!"
"Daddy!" called the tiny kit as he squirmed out of his mother's arms and scampered as fast as he could across the room to his father. His top speed wasn't that fast, all things considered, but today he
was able to make it unassisted without stumbling. Fox scooped the boy up into his arms as the kit threw his own arms around his father's neck.
"Marcus, how's my little boy today?" Fox asked, even though he didn't really expect a verbal answer. Marcus laughed as his father tickled his stomach, then Fox looked up again as Krystal approached. She smiled at him and put an arm around his shoulders while he leaned his head against her hip.
"What were you doing before we walked in?" she asked him.
He motioned towards the viewport. "Just looking out at the stars, thinking about how beautiful they look form here." There was a moment of silence, and then his wife cleared her throat meaningfully. Fox looked up at her with an abashed grin. "Of course, nothing is as beautiful as you are." Krystal chuckled at his quick recovery and rubbed his back along the level of his shoulders.
Falco snickered from where he was sitting. "She's got you trained good, Foxie."
"There's a lot to be said for this being married business, Falco," Fox replied. "You should try it sometime."
Falco made a face. "Being tied down? No thanks, not my thing."
"Oh?" Slippy said. "That's not what Katt told me." Falco shot the toad an incredulous stare, as though he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Everyone else erupted in laughter again; it wasn't often that Slippy managed to get the better of Falco in their frequent verbal exchanges. While they were laughing, the doors hissed open again and the last member of the group walked in, a pink frog with blond pigtails. Slippy saw her first as she walked in, and jumped up to greet her with unbridled enthusiasm. "Amanda!" he cried.
"Slippikins!" she responded with equal enthusiasm. Falco put a finger in the back of his throat and made a gagging sound, while Fox and Krystal, who were married as well, simply let the two amphibians enjoy each other's presence without making snide remarks or gestures. Despite the fact that he was at least a foot and a half shorter than she was and regarded by most as a consummate geek, Amanda held nothing but the utmost regard and affection for her husband.
Falco was distracted from the mushy scene in front of him by a beep from the communications console. Happy for any sort of diversion, he keyed the "Accept" button, and the ship's main holographic projector hummed to life, displaying the image of an older, gray furred hare in a natty red dress uniform. "Hey guys, Peppy's on the comm," he called out.
Fox used one foot to spin himself around in his chair to face the hologram of his father's closest friend. "Afternoon, General, what can we do for you?"
Peppy winced a bit at the address used. "Fox, no need to be so formal between us. I haven't changed just because I put on this uniform."
The vulpine grinned abashedly. "Sorry, it just seems that recently whenever I open my mouth to say 'Peppy', 'General' comes out instead."
"How's Lucy dong?" Krystal asked. The blue vixen was very good friends with Peppy's only daughter.
"She's fine," the hare replied. "Still teaching at the Academy on Fichina, still dreaming of being a full-time fighter pilot." He cleared his throat and said, in a somewhat more somber tone, "Fox, I know you're semi-retired right now, but there's something I need you to do, something only you and your team can handle."
"All right," Fox agreed. "Um, not to argue, but why can't Star Wolf handle it?" Ever since they had helped the Cornerian government defeat the Anglar invasion almost three years ago, the three-man team that had been Star Fox's greatest rivals had become a bit more mainstream, abandoning the illegal businesses that had gotten them in trouble with the law before in favor of serving as a second group of commandos-for-hire. While Fox doubted that they had gone completely legit, there was no denying that they were trying to reform.
Peppy sighed a little. "This mission requires a group that can be discreet and diplomatic, and-"
"Star Wolf is neither," Krystal and Fox said at the same time. They looked at each other for a moment, surprised at the stereo reply, but then Fox shrugged and returned his gaze to the hologram. "So, what do you need us to do?"
"If you could set your course to these coordinates, I'll try to explain along the way," Peppy said. He quoted a string of alphanumerics, and Fox looked over to Falco, who was already entering the coordinates into the navicomputer. The massive ship began to turn, coming about to the new destination and accelerating to two-thirds top speed. Krystal slid into an empty seat in front of a computer console, while little Marcus remained where he was, sitting in his father's lap.
"First off, let me ask if you've heard of a world called Nibiru?" Peppy began.
"No, can't say that I have," Fox answered. He looked over to his wife, who was tapping away on the keyboard to bring up any information the ship's computer had on the planet in question.
"Nibiru is a world on the far edge of the Lylat system," Peppy began. "There are indications that it's a gravitic capture, a world whose own sun fizzled out and set it loose to drift through space until it was caught by Solar's gravitational pull."
"You know, Gen- er, I mean, Peppy, this is starting to sound a little bit like General Pepper's briefing just before our first mission to Sauria."
Peppy chuckled a little bit at that remark, and replied, "At first, yes, but I don't think you'll be picking up any exotic vixens from Nibiru. For one thing, the one you already have might take great exception to it."
"You better believe it," Krystal's voice came from where she was sitting. "Um, on a more business-related note, there's nothing in the ship's computer about this Nibiru. Looks like you'll have to give us all the data you can, Peppy."
"Ah, well, get comfortable, then, because this may take a little while," Peppy said. He waited while everyone found places to sit, and then continued. "To our knowledge, Nibiru is a cold, dead world. Its atmosphere is a super-cold soup made up mostly of methane and ammonia, with traces of a few other gasses mixed in."
"Ick," Falco said. "Sounds pretty rough on the lungs."
"It is indeed," Peppy replied evenly. If he was annoyed by the interruption, he gave no sign. "There are indications that there was life on the planet once, long ago, but there doesn't appear to have been anything there for many, many years. The planet is a bit on the small side, but much denser than Corneria, so its gravity is actually significantly higher than any of you are probably used to. There is enough tectonic activity that the atmosphere is kept a few degrees above its freezing point, but it also makes for some rather unstable geology at times."
"If this place is so nasty, why is anyone even interested in it?" Slippy asked.
"I was just about to get to that," Peppy told him. "Nibiru was first surveyed just before the start of the Anglar War, but the findings could not be exploited right away due to the hostilities that arose immediately afterwards. Those findings, however, indicated the presence of a kind of metal never before seen in Lylat. Once we were finally able to send a follow-up team, they were able to confirm the findings. This metal, which they dubbed Mallidium, is something special indeed; you can make practically anything with it. Obviously, given the amount of destruction the Anglars caused before they were finally stopped, the existence of a universal building material is a very attractive commodity. Several companies have acquired permits to mine and process this ore and the products are shipped out across Lylat and are being used in the reconstruction efforts that are still going on."
"Sounds like wonderful stuff," Fox said. "So what's the problem that we need to solve?"
Peppy sighed. "We don't really know for sure. The only thing we have to go on is a cryptic message sent anonymously to Cornerian High Command. All it said was, 'The Legion is awakening'. What the Legion is, and why its awakening is so bad it didn't say, but there's something going on there that those present don't seem inclined to reveal."
"Who could have sent the message?" Fox asked. "I know, it's anonymous, so we can't really tell for sure who did, but is there any way we could narrow down the possibilities?"
"There are three companies that are actually on the planet in significant strength," Peppy told him. "The most conservative is MineCo, they control most of the southern ranges on the planet. They're a fairly well-balanced group, not a very big corporation but they handle what they do have very well. Next is StarTech Industries, a very big corporation that seems to have made the mistake of trying to be everywhere at once. They've spread themselves too thin, and are facing bankruptcy in the wake of the Anglar invasion. Lastly is Industrial Solar Resources or ISR for short. They are aggressive and competitive in the worst way, frequently resorting to violence to get what they want. Of those three, I would say the most likely prospect is that the message came from someone in MineCo."
"All right, then," Fox mused. "We'll start asking around there. Even if no one will actually own up to sending that message, perhaps someone will tell us what's going on."
"I think MineCo might be the only company that is forthcoming," Krystal said. "StarTech stands to lose biog if this venture fails, and it seems to me that the people running ISR have a lot that they would want to hide."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Fox agreed. "So, it looks like we'll be paying the hardworking people of MineCo a visit when we arrive. Falco, what's out ETA?"
"We're still a day and a half out," the blue avian replied. "We've got lots of time to kill before we arrive."
"We'll contact you again when we arrive, Gen- sorry, Peppy," Fox said. "Take care until then."
"I will," the hare replied. "And I'll call you sooner if something changes in the meantime. All of you; take care." The hologram wavered and then vanished, leaving the bridge almost as dim and quiet as it was before.
"Looks like we have a day and a half until things get interesting," Fox said into the silence. "Let's get everything checked out, and make sure it's in good working order. I don't know what might be waiting for us down on Nibiru's surface, but we'll be better able to handle it with intact gear." As everyone got up tro check on their respective areas of responsibility, he caught Krystal staring out at the stars with an odd look on her face. "Krys?" he called softly. "Is something wrong?"
"I…don't really know," she replied. "It's nothing specific, just a vague sensation."
"We have a day and a half to work on it," Fox reassured her. "Let's see if we can find anything that will help allay your worries."
She gave him a quick kiss on the side of his muzzle. "You're sweet, Fox."
Even after being married to her for nearly three years, little things like that had the power to make him feel giddy and a little lightheaded. The two of them walked off the bridge hand in hand, headed for the equipment stores to check on all the gear stored there. Krystal felt better, but wasn't sure she wanted to voice the reason behind her unease; she had the feeling that this mission to Nibiru would be anything but simple or easy.
A/N: First chapter of Dark Orbit. This story is loosely based on an old game published by WildTangent studios that I used to enjoy, until they stopped carrying the game and my computer crashed. I hope all readers enjoy the story!