Moving on
Chapter 1: A new life.
Fox McCloud, hero of lylat, brave leader of the mercenary team known as star fox, and someone who wasn't really needed anymore. Andross and those allied to him were defeated long ago by and his team. The aparoid engagement had been dealt with a recovery from the attacks on Corneria were nearly complete. Star Wolf hadn't been heard from in a few years now. This made the Fox almost useless to the system. Yes, they were grateful to him and almost all of Lylats inhabitants were in some way saved by and indebted to him. Yet he was no longer needed. His old wingman Falco has taken up most of the work available for mercenaries like himself. Fox was happy for Falco and wished him well however, this meant the system was no longer under Fox's protection. Now that he was no longer needed, Fox set out a new course for himself. Rumors spread of pirates and raiding in the recently colonized Kew region. Where ever help was needed, Fox made it his mission to be there and help.
This was not his only reason though. The fox been alone for the better part of the past two years. Peppy was promoted to general shortly after the aparoid war and Slippy became a lead researcher for the Arwing project. There was one more person that he tried to forget with all his might. No matter how hard he tried however, he couldn't go more than a few hours without thinking about her.
Krystal, someone he cared so much for that four years ago he pushed her out if his team. He couldn't imagine seeing her hurt in any way like so many of his friends and family. His need to keep her safe was what eventually drove her away and into the arms of his rival, Panther of Star Wolf. This was why he had to leave. He feared if he ever saw them again, he wouldn't be able to control himself and may put a few blaster rounds into the one who stole her away.
Fox had gone through a sort of rebranding of Star Fox. The Great Fox two had been sold to Falco and his team so Fox could use his money however he pleased. He in turn used that money and some of his personal savings to buy a new star cruiser named 'Dauntless'. This new ship was more suited for battle like the first Great Fox instead of a carrier like the Great Fox two. Really it had been a cruiser that the Cornerian Navy had cut finding to half way through construction. That's where Fox fronted the bill for the rest of its completion.
The ship was shaped almost like a dagger or short sword. It's hull widened at the rear but became shorter and to a point along the two hundred or so meters of its length. The part that resembled the swords cross guard was a pair of hangars that could carry four fighters and a transport ship on each side. Even though he only had need for one fighter, he liked the idea of having room for allies he may meet along the way. All the crew needs were being taken care of by an onboard AI except for any maintenance on the arwing or the main engines. This meant Fox could pilot this vessel solo only having to fix engine malfunctions as they arose.
One thing this ship couldn't do that the Great Fox could was go into the atmosphere of a planet. The Dauntless would always remain in space. An upgraded warp drive and orbital strike artillery cannons took the place where atmospheric would be on other ships. Laser turrets were placed in strategic areas around the ship.
Fox couldn't help but take a lap around the ship as he first came close to it. He brought his arwing around into hangar where motion lights sensed his craft moving in. As he landed, A system inside the hangar turned his arwing around towards space. Fox opened his canopy and stepped out to a dock that came around his arwing. He looked around for a door to the rest of the ship. He started walking toward the wall closest to the ship when a bluish white hue came from behind him.
"Welcome aboard Captain." A female voice said behind him. Fox turned around and saw a saber tooth cat hologram. "I am your ships Navigational Orienting Vessel Assistant. NOVA for short. Do you require any assistance at the moment?" Fox eyed over Nova who wore a black tunic going down to her knees. She held a pen and clipboard but figured it was only for aesthetic purposes. "If my appearance is a problem then I can change it."
"No, no it's fine. Could you show me to my quarters?" Fox asked.
"Yes Captain." She waved her hand and a green line formed on the floor running in a straight line. It bent ninety degrees left once it met the far wall near the midsection of the ship. Fox walked along the path where he could see a door labeled to main section. The next room Fox entered was a long hallway that seemed to go on for the entire length if the ship.
"Nova, tell me about these areas." Fox said. She waved her hand at a door right by Fox .
"This is the galley area. Able to accommodate the needs of up to forty sailors." The door opened as Nova waved her hand up. Fox stepped in to see four tables with benches and a kitchen full of stainless steel appliances. "There is a large freezer through a doorway in the kitchen that's capable of-." Fox looked past all of that and instead looked beyond the tables to see the the vast empty void of space. No matter how many times he looked out into It, he could always find himself lost in the sights. Looking out to see stars, nebulae, galaxies, the universe itself lay out there. "Captain, I have seem to have lost your attention." Nova said. Fox snapped out of trance the sight pit him in.
"What. Oh, sorry. Could we see the next part of the ship?" Fox said trying to piece together whatever she said. Probably some technical specs or some other unimportant information.
"Yes captain." She disappeared in front of him. "This way captain." She said from the doorway to the hall. Fox followed her as she moved into another door a few feet away from the last. Inside were couches surrounding a large television along with some random table games like pool and shuffleboard. Along the far wall was yet another door. "This," Nova waved to the area in front of him, "is the crew's lounge area. Beyond those doors is the fitness facility. That is all for this facility. Would you like to see the medical facility?" Nova did this for the rest of the ship. Taking him into the various rooms one by one as the they came up on the first room hallway. The medical facility was state of the art like the other rooms. An auto doctor feature was one that his old ship didn't have but needed so he was thankful for this. The auto dock could take care of almost every need such as from scrapes and cuts all the way up to gunshot wounds and plasma burns. It couldn't handle transplants or anything above that nature however.
The next room was labeled the briefing room. Inside was an oval table with a holographic projector in the middle. The projector could landscape every known inhabited planet within all systems down to the acre. The next room was solely for communications. Carrying nearly every radio and transmitter known to Fox inside of one room. Lastly for the first floor was the defensive control room weapons stations. While most were automated, one could take over a turret if a situation called for it. One weapon system was not on an automated system and that was the orbital strike cannons. Three bottom mounted guns that could shoot up to a fifteen inch metal projectile onto the battlefield. With such a weapon, explosives weren't even needed as something traveling at terminal velocity could destroy anything in its way.
In between each room was an elevator that lead up to the next floor. Upstairs were the various sleeping quarters. First was the enlisted crews quarters that at the request of Fox were not filled with beds but instead was left for storage. Near the bow laid the captain's quarters and to the stern were the officers quarters. Fox decided to look at the captains quarters first. He walked in and instantly noticed that his room was larger than his previous rooms on both of the Great Foxes. As it sat at the front of the ship the curvature of the glass went over his entire room creating an awe inspiring view. Fox looked over to a king sized bed that took up maybe a quarter of the room. A metal desk was placed in the corner with a holo computer projector. Next to the doorway was Fox's private bathroom complete with a walk in shower that could easily accommodate two people. His thoughts went straight to images of him together with Krystal. Fox shook his head as he tried rid any thought he had of her. That name was one that only reminded Fox of what could have been.
He walked out of his quarters and walked through the storage into the hall marked officers quarters. The eight rooms were nothing to behold with beds that took up half the them and a desk next to each bed. A bathroom was placed in between each room with a total of four to be shared with the non existent officers of the ship. One more elevator lay at the back of the hallway. A sign above it said 'bridge.' Fox stepped in the elevator and pressed the button to go up. A few seconds later and the doors opened to an almost familiar sight. The bridge reminded him very much of the one on the first Great Fox. All white control panels and bright, vibrant colored buttons. 'Nothing like the exact same thing to help me forget my past.' Fox thought. Nova appeared in front of Fox
"Captain, that is the Dauntless. What are your orders?" Fox looked at her for a minute.
"Set a course for the Kew system."
"Sir, your course is approximately eighteen light years away. This journey will take nine weeks and will use eighty percent of our fuel. Do you wish to proceed?" Fox hesitated for a second thinking one last time of what he was doing. He made up his quickly as he knew he only had one road left really.
"Yes go ahead as planned."
"Understood captain. We will commence our journey in three minutes."
"Thank you Nova." Fox walked over to a chair in the center of the bridge. He sat down and looked out at the endless void he would soon jump into. "Nova can you play music?"
"Yes captain."
Fox looked at his phone. "Play Nobody to blame by Chris Stapleton." The old Fox never to listened to country, nor could name a single artist who sang it. Recently though, it was all Fox listened too. Just so he could remind himself that all of this was his fault to begin with.
End chapter 1
A/N: This is a story I've been thinking on for a bit now. I'm going to try and get a chapter out a week for one of my stories from now on. Moving on was this week's and next week will be Heroes aren't born.
Btw I know I'm pretty bad at explaining what the ship looked like so I made one below this to help visualize what I had in mind.+ is a hangar, ● is an engine and ■ is the bridge.
_195 meters
-/\
-/ \ :Captains Quarters
-|| || : Defense management
-/| |\ :Briefing room/comms
-|| || : Medical
-/ | | \ :Galley/leisure
-/ /■\ \ :Galley/leisure
[ + ●● +]
It looked better in Google Docs.