Chapter 1:
First Contact
"Alright, Krystal. Let's see whets out there," Fox's voice came over the com channel. She banked her Arwing, and passed right over Fox's cockpit.
"Gees, Krystal! What was that!" he exclaimed. Krystal smiled.
"Falco suggested that I surprise you," she said, looking over at Fox's fighter.
"Remind me to suggest that we have fricasseed bird sometime," Fox said. Something caught her attention.
"Hold up Fox," she said, "I'm picking something up."
The two Arwings banked, and discovered a large object.
"It looks almost like an orbital gate," Fox said after a few minutes.
"Must have some sort of stealth technology, otherwise we would have detected it sooner," Krystal said.
Suddenly the gate lit up, and a bolt of energy slammed into her Arwing. Energy started swirling around the inside of the giant ring, and a beam latched onto Krystal's ship.
"I'm losing power!" she said, fighting the controls.
"Hang on Krystal!" Fox said, banking his Arwing. He was too late. Krystal's Arwing disappeared as it passed through the energy field.
It was a beautiful day on Angel Island. Sonic was off and running, as usual, so Tails took the opportunity to work on the Tornado.
"Hey Tails!"
Tails banged his head on the engine cover. He backed away from the Tornado, rubbing his head with his hand. He saw a pink hedgehog smiling at him.
"Amy, could you please not do that while I'm working," he said.
"Any idea where Sonic went?" she asked, getting strait to the point. Tails sighed. Before he could say anything, he heard the sound of an aircraft crashing.
"What was that?" Amy asked.
"I don't know what that was, but I'm gonna check it out," he said, then bolted out the door.
"Hey! Wait up Tails!" Amy yelled as she followed the fox out the door.
Krystal climbed out of the cockpit, and landed hard on solid ground. She looked around, taking note of her surroundings. From the looks of this place, she had crash landed in the middle of some ruins. She sighed, grabbed some survival gear, a blaster, some rations, and her staff, then set out to explore the ruins.
The Mystic Ruins was the site of a great Echidna civilization centuries ago. Tails tried to imagine how it would have looked back then. Not all of the ruins have been explored, but he knew that the site was huge. Amy whistled. She was always amazed at the size of the structures, despite the fact that she lives in the city.
After several minutes of wandering around, the pair came across an unusual aircraft.
"What's that?" Amy asked. Tails shrugged, then crept closer. It looked like some sort of fighter, but it was not a G.U.N. design. The most important detail that Tails noticed were some markings on the side, in English.
"Star Fox?" he said to himself quietly. Not quiet enough, because Amy heard and came to look.
"Who's Star Fox?" she asked. Tails rolled his eyes.
Krystal crouched behind a low wall. She was on her way back to her Arwing when she saw two figures standing near it. She reached out with her mind to sense their intentions, and only got curiosity from them.
Suddenly, they were ambushed by several robots. Ignoring the blaster on her hip, she pulled out her staff and pushed a button. It extended to its full length. She took a deep breath, rolled out from behind the wall, and cut loose with a devastating energy barrage. Two of the robots broke off to deal with this new threat, only to be bashed by a massive red and yellow hammer.
The pink hedgehog had somehow pulled a large hammer and was swinging it all over the place. The yellow fox was equally as busy, kicking and jumping. Krystal jumped into the melee, swinging her staff.
After several minutes, the robots were reduced to little more than scrap metal. Krystal pushed a button on her staff, and it returned to its compact form.
"Thank you for helping us," the pink hedgehog said, surprisingly, in Cornerian. She got a good look at the yellow fox, and noticed that he had two tails.
"I'm Amy Rose," the pink hedgehog said.
"And I'm Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails," the fox said after a moment.
"My name's Krystal," she introduced herself.
There were storm clouds on the horizon, and the fox named "Tails" noticed them.
"Let's get to my workshop before it starts raining," he said, leading the way.
The trio got to Tails' workshop just as a rainstorm started.
"Make yourselves at home," Tails said, closing the door. Krystal looked around and smiled. Tails finally got a good look at their new friend. She had blue fur that sort of matched her custom flight suit. There were also a couple scrunchies on her tail. He wondered how good she was as a pilot.
"Yo Tails! What took ya?"
Tails turned towards the source of the voice, and saw a blue hedgehog leaning against the wall. Amy ran over to the blue hedgehog and wrapped her arms around him.
"Oh Sonic! Its good to see you again!" Amy said. Tails always liked watching Sonic get himself out of these things.
"Uh, Amy…can't breath…" Sonic gasped. Amy let him go. After a few minutes, Sonic noticed the blue vixen standing by the door.
"Who's our new friend?" he asked.
"I'm Krystal, and I am a member of the Star Fox team," she introduced herself, "And you are…"
"What you see is what you get. Just a guy who loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."
Fox McCloud was pacing. It had been two hours since Krystal's Arwing disappeared through the gate. He looked out through the window at the large ring. The newly commissioned Great Fox II had taken position near the gate shortly after it happened. Blue energy continued to swirl around the inside like a whirlpool.
"Fox!"
He turned to see Slippy bounding in.
"You got something Slippy?" he asked.
Slippy held up a disk.
"I did a little digging, and found this," he said, inserting the disk into a nearby console. The screen lit up, revealing a Cornerian Explorer-class ship and the gate.
"I wasn't able to get a lot, but what I was able to get is interesting," Slippy explained. Fox looked over at his old friend Peppy, who was still asleep in a chair.
"How old is this?" he asked, turning back to the screen.
"At least fifty years old," Slippy told him, "And from what I read, they called it a 'hypergate'."
"Any idea who built it?"
"I cross-referenced the markings on the gate, and found a match."
"Well, spit it out."
"The markings on the gate match those that you found in Krazoa Palace."
Fox's eyes went wide. The Krazoa, an ancient race and guardian spirits of Sauria, built the hypergate.
"ROB, get me everything you've got on Krazoan technology," he said, turning to the robot.
"Affirmative," ROB said, getting busy following the order. Just as ROB started working a console, a very dirty Avian walked through the door.
"Next time you want someone to chase down a hitch hiking tribble, get the robot to do it," Falco grumbled, holding up a specimen container. Inside was a small puffball purring contently to itself.
"Be sure not to feed that thing, otherwise we'll be knee deep in tribbles in no time," Fox said. Falco just glared at the vulpine. Fox turned his attention back to Slippy.
"You said a Cornerian ship found it fifty years ago. What happened?"
Slippy turned back to his console and brought up a report.
"It says that the Endar Spire, the Explorer-class ship that found the gate, disappeared several hours after…" his voice trailed off.
"Several hours after what, getting a wax job!?" Falco exclaimed sarcastically. Slippy ignored him and turned to face Fox.
"What is it Slippy?" Fox asked.
"Several hours after activating the gate. There was no trace of the Spire. It was as if she just vanished," Slippy said slowly.
"Who was the captain of the Spire? Fox asked.
Slippy scanned through the crew manifest of the Endar Spire, then brought up an image of a beautiful young vixen.
"Captain Alexa Prower."
Krystal couldn't sleep. She decided to get some fresh air after about an hour of just lying on the couch. The sky was clear. She looked up at the countless stars and thought of home. One of the few memories of Cerenia she had was looking up into the night sky and just watching the stars.
"Couldn't sleep huh."
Krystal turned to see Sonic come out the door. She nodded and motioned for him to join her.
"At least its not raining anymore, but I still couldn't get any sleep," Sonic said.
She could tell that there was more to the blue hedgehog than meets the eye.
"So, I hear you're a hero," Krystal said, looking down at the shorter hedgehog.
"Yea, well, what can I say?" Sonic said playfully. He then told her the whole story. Of how he first met Tails, his battles with Dr. Eggman, and the battle to save the Earth on Space Colony ARK.
After he finished, Krystal told him about the battle on Sauria, how she first met Fox McCloud, and the war with the Aparoids.
"There is one thing that's been bothering me," Sonic finally said after several minutes.
"How I came to be here?" Krystal asked, smiling. Sonic nodded, then looked up at the stars. Before she could try to explain, she sensed something in the workshop. Without saying anything, she turned and ran for the door.
Tails was dreaming. He found himself on the bridge of a large spaceship. The strange thing was that it was as if he was an observer. Crewmembers scrambled around.
"Captain, main power's failing!"
Tails couldn't see who spoke. His attention was fixed on a beautiful female fox wearing a uniform. He tried to say something, but no sound came from his mouth. She turned, and he looked into her eyes.
"Reroute auxiliary power!" she ordered.
"No effect, Captain!"
Tails ran over to a view port. Outside, he saw a large, round object with swirling energy on the inside. He turned to face the captain.
"We're being pulled in!"
The captain ran over to a console. Tails ran over to join her. He saw her trying to use a communications system.
"This is Captain Alexa Prower to all hands, abandon ship! Repeat, abandon ship!"
Suddenly, a console exploded nearby, sending crewmembers flying. She turned, then yelled for the officers to get out. It was too late. The ship was already being sucked into the swirling vortex, and she knew it. She turned back to the console.
"This is the Endar Spire to any Cornerian ship, we're losing power and need immediate help!"
The console exploded, throwing both Tails and the captain backwards. He screamed. His eyes flew open, and looked straight into Krystal's eyes.