-28 Days Later-

"Okay, so there we were. I'm half deaf from the explosion, my ankle's sprained and I can barely walk. Pigma's bleeding like a...well, he's bleeding a lot, and we've got maybe fifteen minutes before Stone's mass driver fires an asteroid the size of a mountain into Corneria City. James leads us into this big room, and up on a balcony there's Stone, just standing there waiting for us. James tries to blast him, but Stone's got a shield projected over the balcony, then all these guys with rifles come in and line up. Way more than any of us can handle," Peppy Hare elaborated, clearing his throat and taking a moment to smirk at his captive audience,

"Then Stone goes on about how he's finally got the great James McCloud cornered, and how he wants to see him beaten down like he deserves. So Stone offers to let Pigma and I live if James puts down his gun and agrees to fight his guards hand to hand. Jim throws his blaster to the ground and then the doors under the balcony open. Thirty guys come out. Thirty of them. Mostly canines but a few buff reptilians and a handful of equines. And they're not just barehanded. They've got knives. They've got riot shields. They've got shock batons, they've got regular batons, they've got just about everything but blasters, and they surround James. Now, I'm thinking this is it. I'm thinking, shit, we've just failed everyone and now we're going to die and Corneria's getting hit with a planet-killer. Jim? Cool as a cucumber. He looks up at Stone and asks him if this is the best he has. Stone tells his guys to tear James apart. And then James starts going at it. Doesn't stop. He's moving so fast it's hard to see him, he's ducking punches, he's grabbing batons out of guy's hands and breaking their faces with it, then breaking the damn batons so they can't use 'em again. He's jumping over people's shoulders, grabbing guys and throwing them into other guys, he's doing all this crazy shit and I can't believe it but it's working. Jim's outnumbered thirty to one and he's beating the shit out of 'em. I'm laughing my ass off. So is Pigma. Stone just keeps screaming what the fuck is wrong with you, he's one fucking guy!"

"That's funny," Falco Lombardi simpered, the soft corners of his beak turning upwards as he leaned back in his chair.

"It's not over," Peppy chuckles, "A few more guys come in. Two of them with rifles. Jim uses one guy as a shield, then throws him into one of them. Then he runs up, tears the gun out of the guy's hands, smashes him in the face with it, then breaks the gun over his knee. Then picks up the rifle from the other guy and mows down the rest of the guards with the blaster rifle. There's more than thirty guys lying on the ground and I'm still laughing my ass off. Stone can't believe it. He just looks down at James and whispers, you can't be real. Jim looks up and says, I'm as real as it gets."

"Bullshit," Falco banished with a shake of his head.

"Saw it with my own eyes," Peppy shrugged.

"People don't say shit like that in real life," Falco returned.

"Are you sure there were thirty of them, Peppy?" Krystal interjected, her pale muzzle wrinkling quizzically.

"I'm sure," Peppy nodded, "Ask Slippy or Fox. They were at school when it happened. Came home and told them the same story I just told you."

"Don't mean it's true," Falco muttered, getting up from the round table in the Great Fox's galley and moving towards the conservator.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Peppy demanded gruffly, brown eyes glaring behind circular eyeglasses.

"I'm sayin' you're an old codger that likes ta' stretch the truth and your memory ain't what it used ta' be," the avian sent back, opening the door to the conservator, "That's what I'm callin' ya. You want anything, princess?"

"Are any of those vitamin water beverages left?" Krystal inquired as Peppy threw him a derisive look.

"Vit-a-min water? Is that how ya just said it? Vit-a-min?" Falco muttered, grabbing a can of Slusho Soda, "Where'd ya learn this shit?"

"It's the proper pronunciation."

"Maybe on Bizarro World," Falco retorted, taking his seat and cracking open the soda, inserting a straw into the can. Krystal's aqua-colored eyes regarded Falco dubiously for a few moments, and he sent back a blank stare.

"Are there any left?" Krystal interrogated.

"Yeah, I think there's one. Grape. I think it's grape-flavored," he answered.

"Were you going to bring it to me?"

"I...already sat back down," Falco remarked helplessly, taking a sip of the soda. Krystal scoffed and got out of her chair, pulling her grey tee-shirt down to make sure that it covered her midriff as she made her way over to the conservator.

"So, who was threatening Corneria with a mass driver?" Krystal inquired, opening the conservator and retrieving a grape Aqua Vita.

"His name was Xander Stone," Peppy said, "Head of Stonesoft Cybernetics. He made war droids and AI hardware. Also a certifiable megalomaniac that sold battle droids and research to Andross before the war. He was the closest thing Fox's dad had to a recurring enemy."

"Really?" Krystal inquired, sipping from the drink as she returned to her seat, "That wasn't the last time they met?"

"No. He escaped. Came back almost a year later with a bomb he said would make Triton to go supernova and wipe out all life in the Lylat System."

"Somethin' tells me tha' bomb didn't live up to tha hype," Falco retorted.

"Beltino examined it after. Said that something bad would've happened, supernova or not. And who knows? Maybe Stone sold the designs to Andross too, and that's how he made a bomb that could generate a black hole," Peppy mused.

The mention of the singularity device and StarFox's close brush with annihilation two months ago cast a pall over the three of them, their faces darkening ever so slightly. None of them liked to dwell on just how close they'd come to losing everything, least of all Krystal. They were doing what they could to put it behind them.

"Did James kill him?" Krystal inquired.

"No," Peppy smiled, "He broke every bone in Stone's body. Then he brought him in and collected a massive reward. He's still in the supermax wing at the Anvil as we speak."

"The Anvil?" she probed.

"Maximum security prison station orbiting Aquas," Peppy explained, "I guess Stone's the most infamous resident, or at least he will be until they move O'Don-"

"Hey, guys," Slippy's voice erupted from the intercom in the ceiling, prompting the three to look up, "You might want to come up to the bridge."

"What's goin' on, Slip?" Falco inquired.

"We've got a call," Slippy answered, "Big corporate guy wants to speak to Fox, sounds like a contract headed our way."

"About damn time," Peppy grunted, getting out of his seat, "Where is he?"

"He's in the gym room, sparring with the holodeck simulation," Krystal answered.

"Sheesh, does he sleep anymore?" Falco remarked, "Hasn't given the thing a rest since we got it."

"I'll get him," Krystal offered.

"Tell him training's over," Peppy said as they filed towards the door.


Fox McCloud stood on the balls of his feet, knees shoulder width apart as his forehead rippled with concentration. The occasional bead of sweat slithered through his fur like a shooting star. His green eyes were locked on the one-eyed wolf pacing a few meters in front of him, a cruel smirk on his muzzle. Wolf O'Donnell was clad in the narcium shoulder plate armor and blue blast-vest that he'd taken to wearing over the past few years; Fox wore his military green flightsuit, his Team StarFox jacket discarded to expose toned arms covered in red fur. The blue photoreceptor of Wolf's ocular implant glowed softly, almost obscuring the StarWolf mercenary's face in a halo.

"You think you can beat me?" Wolf sneered, "I'll be the one to take you down."

Fox ignored the cheesy taunts programmed into the simulator's projection of Wolf. The polished, arrogant and almost aristocratic voice sounded nothing like the genuine article. After repairing the damages done to the Great Fox in their last encounter with StarWolf, Fox had used the reward money from Wolf O'Donnell's capture to purchase a holodeck combat simulator for the gym room. The clever combination of holoprojectors and shield generators meant that the simulator could construct any combination of obstacles for the user, all of which were capable of being hit and hitting back to an extent. There were even pre-programmed enemies that the user could choose from, from generic space pirates to QuestForce pilot Justin Jackson or even Andross. Fox had sprung for a bonus package, specifically so that he could fight Wolf. Then he'd gotten Slippy to modify the program based on what they'd witness Wolf actually do in a fight, aiming for as realistic a simulation as possible.

"What's the matter, scared?" the simulated Wolf taunted.

That was something Fox could've sworn Wolf had said at least once.

Wolf leapt forward and lashed out with his claws, Fox ducking underneath to deliver a solid blow to the lupine's chest. Wolf's image flickered with orange light, then the hologram stabilized and tried to knee Fox in the face. He rolled to the side, dodging another swipe from Wolf's claws, then caught the lupine's arm and smashed an elbow into his armpit. Wolf flickered yet again, then kicked Fox in the stomach, driving him back. The impact from the simulator's shield generators was more like a hard shove than a kick, but it hurt just enough to motivate the user to avoid a strike. Fox moved back, lashing out with a kick that the Wolf-simulation dodged, then the simulation charged forward with a flurry of furious claw-swipes. Fox dodged them one after the other, waiting for an opening then finally grabbing Wolf's wrist and shoving his arm aside, leaving him wide open for a hard punch in the jaw. There was a crackle and a flash of orange light as the hologram flickered, then the Wolf-simulation vanished.

Fox exhaled hard. How many rounds had he fought Wolf for today? He'd lost count. It wasn't as if the simulation was perfect. It didn't quite know how to adapt like Wolf, and the simulation tended to de-rez after four or more good hits. The real Wolf, on the other hand, was capable of shrugging off beatdowns that might kill a lesser being. He'd have to ask Slippy to work on making the whole thing more challenging.

It was only after Fox had instructed the computer to re-load the Wolf simulation that he realized he was being watched. He glanced over his shoulder outside of the holodeck's borders, amongst the weights and exercise equipment of the Great Fox's gym room, to see an azure-furred vixen in a gray tee-shirt, vest and shorts, with a blue rhombus-shaped stone on a golden chain around her neck.

"Hey," Fox breathed.

"Hello," she returned.

"You think you can beat me?" Wolf repeated, "I'll be the one to take you down."

"Doing a bit of sparring?" she said with a soft smile, her hands held behind her back as she leaned into the ring.

"Yep," Fox grunted, facing the Wolf-simulation again.

"Expecting a death-match in the near future?" Krystal inquired, catching him just as he was about to make a move.

He paused, looking back at her. He still wasn't sure how to act. Krystal had made it clear that even though she was back with the team, their romance was over. They were teammates first, friends second, and there was no third layer. He'd thought it would be easy to put both their relationship and her time as Kursed behind him.

"Let's just say I'm tired of getting my ass kicked," Fox muttered.

"That doesn't happen often," Krystal remarked as he dodged a swing from the Wolf-simulation.

"That it happens at ALL is bad ENOUGH," Fox replied, blocking a blow and delivering a powerful kick to the Wolf-simulation's stomach.

"He's the only one to ever do it more than once," Krystal shrugged.

"Yeah? And remember what happened last time?" Fox growled, jabbing at the hologram, "We lost the contract. We lost the money. And we almost lost our lives, because I couldn't stop him."

"And then you caught him," Krystal shrugged, "He's going to be in prison for the rest of his life. You won. Move on from the bad. You all taught me that, remember?"

"I'm TIRED. Of GETTING. My ASS kicked!" Fox snarled, headbutting the Wolf-simulation in the face, watching it disintegrate in a flash of orange light.

"Yes. You've said that," Krystal sighed.

Fox looked back at her, breathing raggedly.

"Something I can do for you?" he demanded in the most polite tone he could manage.

Krystal smiled.

"We have a call," she explained, "A prospective client wants to speak to you personally. I'd tidy myself up if I were you."

With that, the vixen turned and slipped out of the room, her bottlebrush tail twitching suggestively behind her. Fox shook his head to get his mind out of the gutter, then reached for a towel.


The doors to the bridge slid open for Fox and he entered the familiar bright room of workstations and flickering holographic display screens. Even with the cold, recycled air of the Great Fox pumped through the entire ship, he still hadn't put on his jacket, savoring the feeling as the sweat on his bare arms evaporated. He was in the process of tying one of his signature short red scarves around his neck to absorb any extra sweat as he entered the bridge, finding everyone else in their usual spots. Slippy grinned at him from the engineering console, Fox gave him a nod and looked over to the damage control console where Krystal sat, eyes locked on the stars visible through the bridge's panoramic viewport.

"So, anything about this guy?" Fox inquired, taking a seat at the worn leather captain's chair with the attached computer console in the center of the bridge.

"The transmission's from Corneria, the financial district of Anaxes," Peppy replied from his seat at the forward control console, "From the headquarters of Helix Biotechnology Corporation."

"Is Helix Biotech a good corporation or a bad corporation?" Fox prompted.

"What the hell is a 'good' corporation?" Peppy retorted, "ROB did a quick background check and found nothing super-evil."

"Helix Biotech is a leader in nanotechnology research, and rivals Hollowan-Biosyn Labs for a majority share in the biotechnology market," ROB-64 spoke from his USC station at the left forward control console, "They have multiple contracts with the Cornerian Commonwealth government, and their most successful product to date is a patented strain of provitate ointment, used by a majority of medcenters in Corneria, Aquas and Zoness. No outstanding charges of misconduct, corruption or negligence."

Peppy glanced over at Fox.

"Satisfied?" the old rabbit inquired with a crooked smile beneath bushy whiskers. StarFox's previous contract, working for Corneria's spy agency the Commonwealth Security Bureau, had been a disaster in large part because they had overestimated the trustworthiness of their client. Dealing with danger was part of StarFox's job, but not from the people that had hired them in the first place. Fox was determined to never again let a client manipulate them and put them at risk like the CSB had.

"Patch him through," Fox said with a wave of his hand, "Let's see what they have to say."

The holoprojector in the ceiling lit up and displayed the twisting blue logo of the Helix Biotech Corporation, then the logo disappeared and the ghostly image of a husky male canine sitting at a desk was projected in the empty space in front of Fox's chair. The dog was a malamute, wearing a navy blue suit with a lighter blue collared shirt and a black tie that had been loosened by several centimeters. Though his desk was a minimalist fusion of glass and metal, there were e-sheets and datapads strewn chaotically around the surface, to the point that the malamute's computer monitor just barely peeked above the clutter. The malamute's eyes were heavy as if he hadn't slept in days, and as he traded gazes with Fox it seemed like he didn't know whether to smile or frown.

"Commander McCloud," the malamute said tiredly, "I'm R.J. McMurdo. Vice President of Operations for Helix Biotech. Thank you for speaking with me."

"Team StarFox is always looking for work," Fox nodded, scanning the projection's face, "What can I do for you, Mr. McMurdo?"

McMurdo swallowed, looking down at his desk before returning his eyes to Fox.

"My company has a...situation that we're hoping you can help us resolve. Quietly," the projection grunted.

"I'm listening."

"Commander, our head of security recommended we contact you, but I'm about to reveal some very confidential information," McMurdo started, looking around at the other members of StarFox on the bridge, "If I could ask that your team be excused while I brief-"

"My team risks just as much as I do. We're all just as discreet," Fox interjected, "Whatever you share with me gets shared with them, so it'll save us some time to just include them in the conversation."

McMurdo shuffled in his seat uncomfortably, a grimace forming on his muzzle as Falco and Krystal smirked. The malamute fished a holodisc out of his breastpocket and loaded it into a slot on his desk. Another holoprojector in the ceiling lit up and drew in blue wire-frames a long starship, a squat slab of metal with a central island topped by a large communications array and a thick cylindrical formation on each end that gave the ship the vague appearance of a massive letter I.

"This is the Commercial Research Vessel Starghast, an Auriga-class scientific ship. For the past seven months, it's been in high-altitude geocentric orbit over Titania, with a crew of 390 and a team of sixty scientists researching Helix Biotech's most expensive and confidential projects," McMurdo informed them, "Twenty eight days ago, our headquarters office received a distress call from the Starghast, describing some sort of outbreak. In less than twelve hours, we lost all contact."

Fox's brow furrowed as he looked at the ship, then at McMurdo.

"An outbreak?" Fox inquired, "This sounds more like a job for the Army, or the Cornerian Ministry of Health. Our ship isn't big enough to fit four hundred and fifty people, let alone treat them for infection."

"It's a bit more...complicated than that, Commander McCloud," McMurdo grimaced.

"Twenty-eight days?" Falco whistled, "You boys like takin' your time, don't ya?"

"Standard company policy is to allow for two weeks of no-contact in the event of contamination before sending in rescue teams. The hope is that the outbreak is contained or it dulls over those two weeks in a sealed environment isolated from major population centers," McMurdo answered, "Fourteen days ago, a company rescue team reached the Starghast. They were on the ship for less than two hours before we lost contact. A week ago, we sent another team. No contact after twenty-nine minutes."

Troubled looks spread over the faces of Team StarFox.

"This still sounds like some kind of virus outbreak," Fox remarked slowly, "We're freelancers, not biologists. I'm not sure what you expect us to do."

"This would suggest a viral or bacterial outbreak, except for the signals that we received from the Starghast," McMurdo answered.

"I thought you said the ship went dark after twelve hours."

"That was twenty-eight days ago," McMurdo explained, "In the first eleven hours, it was a standard, pre-programmed distress call. In the last fifty-nine minutes, the signal changed. It appeared to be a warning to stay away from the ship. That signal disappeared, and the ship was quiet until seven days ago."

"What happened seven days ago?"

McMurdo breathed and shifted in his chair.

"After we lost contact with the second rescue team, the Starghast sent out another signal. It was a standard distress call that indicated its guidance system and warp drives were malfunctioning. It requests any nearby ships to dock with the Starghast and assist the repairs," McMurdo said, his mouth dry, "The Starghast has not moved from it's current position, it remains in orbit over Titania, broadcasting the same signal, requesting warp-capable ships to board. We've stationed a company ship nearby to stop any one from getting close, but we don't even know what's happening on the shipanymore. We're hoping that StarFox can resolve this before the Cornerian Army gets involved."

Fox's emerald eyes narrowed, examining McMurdo's weathered face. The malamute's eyes turned downward to avoid his gaze.

"What kind of projects was the Starghast working on?" Fox interrogated with a hard look.

"There were dozens of projects active on the ship, Commander McCloud, just about everything from new strains of provitate to botanical research and-"

"I'm talking about the source of the contamination," Fox cut off, "Whatever it is that could've infected the crew."

"I'm not a scientist, I can only guess."

"Then give me a guess," Fox said firmly, "There's something you're not telling me. That's not how we work. Full disclosure or you find someone else to solve your problem."

McMurdo sighed and licked his lips anxiously. His pointed canine ears flattened with discomfort.

"There was a...special project that the company was researching on the Starghast," the malamute conceded.

"Here we go," Falco muttered with a roll of his icy blue eyes.

"Helix Biotech won a contract from the Cornerian Army to study a mostly-intact core memory recovered from the remains of a large Aparoid," McMurdo answered, prompting expressions of astonishment from the StarFox Team, "We wanted to see the potential nanotechnology applications that we could learn from the Aparoid nanites."

"You were trying to study the most dangerous organisms ever encountered," Fox said hotly, "And now you're wondering why you've lost contact with that ship."

"Now hold on," McMurdo piped up defensively, "This isn't that simple. We were doing nothing illegal, the core memory was given over by the Army and our research was approved. With the Queen dead, the nanites in the core memory were rendered inactive. The study was going on for months before this happened, there was nothing to indicate it was dangerous."

"If it has anything to do with the Aparoids, it's dangerous," Fox hissed, "And now it sounds like you've brought them back to life."

"That's not fair," McMurdo shot back, "We don't even know what happened or what's going on. Bringing them back to life isn't anything close to what we're aiming for, if that's even possible. We came to you because we know exactly what this sounds like. We're in over our heads and if the worst has happened, we wanted help from the people that stopped the Aparoids before."

Fox gritted his teeth and hissed out through his nose.

"What do you want from us?"

"We want you to go to the Starghast," McMurdo said, "We want you to infiltrate it and find out what happened. Rescue any survivors and recover any research data that you can. Then evaluate the situation and recommend a further course of action to us. If we went to the Army, the first thing that they would do is destroy that ship with all the research and any survivors, then blame the company. We came to StarFox because we believe you can contain this, prove the company's innocence and save it some money."

"And what if I find proof that someone in the company was responsible? Helix Biotech would still be liable," Fox demanded.

"We don't believe that's the case. But we're hiring you to investigate the truth and recover what you can. That's it," McMurdo returned.

Fox exhaled out of his nose and looked around at his teammates. After their near-death encounter with StarWolf, the last thing he wanted to do was bring his team back into contact with the Aparoids. But there was something else in his head. A nagging voice that demanded to know who else there was that could do this other than them. If there was a chance that the Aparoids really were back from the dead, sending the wrong people to handle it was almost worse than doing nothing. Could he sleep knowing that the Aparoids were one mistake away from being unleashed on the Lylat System again?

Fox looked up at Krystal, locking with her cyan-colored eyes. Her jaw was tight as she gave the slightest of nods. He swallowed and looked back at the hologram.

"We'll take it," Fox said quietly, "Forward us the coordinates for the Starghast and any additional information you might have. We'll send you our contract. It'll include our fee. Expect to pay for expenses, damages, and a flat rate if we complete the assignment. Expect to pay more for non-disclosure statements and anything else you might want outside of the contract parameters."

"Of course, Commander. It's a relief to hear that you're handling this for us," McMurdo nodded.

"We'll be in touch," Fox replied, then motioned for ROB to terminate the transmission.

The malamute executive disappeared with a ghostly flicker, leaving an uneasy quiet over the bridge.

Fox cupped his chin in his palm and looked around, finding a tentative and wary expression on the faces of each team member. Falco was the first to break the silence.

"Well...ain't that a bitch."

"I can't be the Aparoids," Slippy whispered, his enormous mouth in a frown, "It just can't."

"It's somethin' all up in that ship," Falco retorted, "What else could it be? Tha' Krumpus?"

"It can't be the Krumpus. It's not Giftmas yet," Peppy quipped.

"What's a Krumpus?" Krystal inquired.

"I'll tell you later," the rabbit smirked.

"Glad you guys can joke about this," Fox said loudly, "The teams that disappeared before us probably can't."

The bridge was penetrated with another pause.

"It...it's not the Aparoids, Fox," Slippy told him with a shake of his head, "The apoptosis program infected the Queen and wiped them out. You saw what happened, they're dead."

"And we thought the program would destroy them down to their cells. If a core memory survived, that didn't happen," Fox argued.

"One inanimate trace out of an entire race of organisms," Slippy replied, "That's not enough to bring them back to life."

"Then what is it?"

Slippy sighed, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the glowpanels.

"Space pirates," he shrugged, "Maybe a pathogen they were researching mutated and became airborne. A rogue AI program on the ship. There's dozens of things more likely than something coming back from the dead."

"Tell that to Andross," Fox growled.

Slippy didn't have a reply. Neither did anyone else. Fox exhaled.

"Okay," Fox breathed, "Here's how its going to work. This is a corporate science vessel, and we're being paid to salvage any research we can. Slippy, that means you're going in."

"Oh, come on Fox-"

"Do we have any other technical geniuses in the room?" Fox called out, as if he was serious. No one said anything, and Fox stared harshly at Slippy until he rolled his bulbous blue eyes in concession.

"Two of us will escort him on the ship. We'll wear biohazard gear until we can determine what kind of contamination we're dealing with," Fox continued, "Peppy and ROB will stay on the Great Fox with one more left as backup."

"Dibs," Falco piped up, raising his hand. Fox gave him a look.

"What?" the avian shrugged, "I had your back tha' whole time last job. Even followed ya' onto a starship just like this. Ya' know what happened? It got sucked into a black hole. Nah-uh. I'm workin' backup on this dance."

Fox swiveled in his chair to face the azure furred vixen sitting at the damage control console.

"How about it, Krystal?" Fox probed, "You, me, and Slip?"

"Just like Sauria," she equated pleasantly, then her face dropped awkwardly, "Well, sort of."

Fox turned in his chair to avoid the trip down memory lane, glancing out through the bridge's viewport and then over to ROB-64.

"What's our fastest route to Titania?"

"Establishing an uplink with the Beltino Orbital Gate or the Triton Orbital Gate over Aquas, gating out to one of those points, then relaying into orbit over Titania," the android replied, "Using StarFox's priority clearance codes, the journey will last two hours, allowing for traffic. Estimate an additional half hour to achieve an orbit parallel with the Starghast."

"Slip, is that enough time to gather the equipment you'll need?"

"Sure thing."

"Make sure to bring a copy of the Self-Destruct Program you and Beltino made to kill the Queen," Fox said quietly, "ROB, make the jump. Everyone else is dismissed."

Krystal, Falco and Slippy exited the bridge as ROB went to work.

"Engines primed for maximum warp. Coordinates entered for Corneria. Awaiting jump clearance from Beltino Orbital Gate."

Fox breathed and looked at the floor, ignoring Peppy's gaze.

"Are you alright?" Peppy mumbled warmly, "You've been training yourself to the limit since we brought O'Donnell in. I thought getting Krystal back and having everyone together again might brighten you up a bit. At least I was hoping."

"She almost died. It didn't matter what I did, everyone almost died," Fox whispered.

"But we didn't. We survived. You got better. Don't beat yourself up over it," Peppy consoled, shaking his head.

"We still lost."

"It happens. You're not perfect. Your father wasn't either, so don't treat yourself like a disappointment," the rabbit reprimanded with a shake of his head, his ears swaying left and right.

"Jump clearance received," ROB announced, oblivious to their conversation, "Receiving warp gate broadcast."

"How many close calls are we going to have before we lose someone?" Fox wondered in a bewildered tone.

"Stop," Peppy growled firmly, "Just stop thinking like that, you'll never sleep again. We're all adults, Fox, and we know the risks. We still do it. And hey!"

Fox looked into Peppy's brown eyes as the rabbit spread his arms, gesturing towards himself.

"I've been doing this shit longer than anyone. Probably had more close calls, too. And I'm still here," Peppy grinned.

Fox forced a smile, and felt a very authentic chuckle escape his jaws.

Through the panoramic viewport, the endless black field of stars ahead appeared to warp in on itself, forming a widening tunnel in space with a bright light at the end.

"Warp gate broadcast received," ROB said in his synthetic voice, "Gate fully formed and stable. All systems are go. Attention all hands, Great Fox commencing gated jump to maximum warp in T-minus five, four, three, two, one. Commence jump."

An energized hum rumbled from the depths of the Great Fox, and the fur on the back of Fox's neck prickled, a tingling sensation caressing his fingertips. The ship quaked ever so slightly, then the tunnel of spacetime enveloped them, and the viewport was awash in a sea of rainbow haze over bright white as the Great Fox blasted into the wormhole.

"Great Fox has achieved maximum warp stability. ETA at Beltino Orbital Gate is fifty-one minutes," ROB informed them.

"What do you think this is?" Fox said.

"I don't know," Peppy submitted, "That's all the more reason to be careful and stay sharp when you're in there."

"Whatever happened to the easy contracts?" Fox tried to joke.

"They never existed. That's why it's called work."

Fox smiled and swallowed, but it didn't dislodge the tight anxiety gripping his chest.

"Do you think it's possible, Peppy?" Fox prompted quietly, "That the Aparoids are back?"

The rabbit grimaced, crossing his arms over his chest. A pair of incisors peeked out from under his whiskers.

"Not according to Slippy and Beltino. It's pretty unusual for them to be wrong about something like this," Peppy grunted, "It'd be the first time that both of them were wrong."

The rabbit's jaw tightened and he frowned, gazing at the lights display through the viewport.

"But I guess there's a first time for everything," he murmured.


ROB was incorrect. The whole trip to Titania, in the Kragg Sub-System of Lylat, took maybe an hour and a half. Fox had been doing push-ups off the floor of his cabin, his feet propped up on his bunk when the ship shuddered quietly and the swirl of colors through the viewport was replaced by starry black. He breathed and came down in his one hundred and ninth push up, then his feet sprang forward and touched down on the plush green rug covering the durasteel floor. Gulping down his sweaty fatigue, Fox rose and caught his athletic, shirtless profile in the transparisteel viewport that took up the rear wall of his cabin from knee-level up. He looked past the emerald eyes staring back at him and beheld the scene outside: Dominating the view was the massive planet of Titania, an enormous ball of sand and ruins and empty desolation, ringed with a vast band of ice, rock and dust thousands of kilometers wide. The red dwarf Solar was just visible as a scarlet dot in the abyss, while the star Kragg shone as a whitish-yellow marble, cold and distant. Even Titania's circular moon, Oberon, peeking just over the northeastern hemisphere, seemed pitiful compared to the planet framing his window. The ring was a cold, steely gray, Titania itself a dark, uneven brownish red. The color of drying blood.

Fox sat on his rug, crossed his legs and began to meditate. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing, in-and-out, in-and-out, slowly with his diaphragm. He almost felt the gravitational pull of the planet, a tentacle that reached across the blackness toward him, beckoning his approach. Next to no one lived on Titania, aside from a small Macbeth-owned settlement with a G-Zero racing course, and research bases studying the ruins of the strange insectoid civilization that had lived there in a different time when the world had a different face. The only remnants of the civilization were the Goras, elusive and apparently immortal plant-insect behemoths that the ancient Titanians worshiped as gods. The last time StarFox had been to the planet had to be five (or was it six?) years ago, when they'd teamed up with Katt Monroe to stop a rogue Cornerian Army captain from resurrecting Andross.

The dead had a tendency to rise when the ringed planet was involved.

Fox exhaled and opened his eyes, and Titania was still there, edging closer, alien and unwelcoming. He got up from the floor, entered the lavatory and ran the water for the shower, waiting for it to heat up before stripping out of his trousers and his briefs. It was useless to meditate when the universe out his window regarded him with malevolent eyes. He rinsed off the sweat and tried to scrub away some of the ominous foreboding, the origins of which Fox couldn't quite place. Twisting the water off, he pressed a red button on the wall outside and the thermal dryer in the ceiling glowed to life, evaporating the moisture in his fur as he smoothed it down composed and casually conservative. He put on a fresh pair of briefs and a spare forest green flight suit, buckling the belt with the winged fox buckle and the attached holster over his waist. Slipping into his boots, fingerless gloves and white jacket, Fox tied a new red scarf around his neck and slid his Cornerian ArmsCor EE-40 blaster into the holster. His pilot's headset was still resting on his desk when he left the cabin and wandered into the crisply white hall of C Deck.

Looking down the corridor towards the viewport filled with the black field of stars, Fox turned on his heel and passed door after door until he reached the last of the six living quarters. The room had only been occupied recently, and Fox could just hear muffled voices crooning, "Once upon a time we were on the same side, once upon a time on the same side in the same game..." Mulling it over for a few moments, Fox raised his fist and rapped his knuckles a few times on the door. There were sounds of movement and the door slid open, revealing a blue-furred vixen with strong cyan eyes, an electronic rock rhythm thumping out of a sound system mounted on a shelf on the cabin wall.

"Oh," Krystal smiled sheepishly, "One moment."

The vixen turned and walked toward the sound system as the duet of pop stars Candice Compton and Brian Valiant crooned, "I could've been a princess, you'd be a king; I could've had a castle and worn a ring, but nooo-oh-ooo, you let me gooo-oh-ohhh; You stole my star, lalalala la la la-"

The song suddenly halted as Krystal turned the sound system off and the room went quiet.

"Sorry about that," she said, her bottlebrush tail twitching behind her.

"Never would've pegged you for a pop music fan," Fox smirked.

"I haven't been exposed to much, I only know what I've heard on the wireless," Krystal shrugged, coming back to the doorway.

Fox looked around the room, a bare gray space for the most part with a recessed bunk in the further wall, overlooking a viewport out into space and sandwiched between a pair of shelves. Krystal never had very many possessions, and fewer still since rejoining the team. On one of the shelves, below the sound system was a potted Cornerian primrose, alongside books with such titles as A Traveler's Guide to Zoness and One King to Rule Them All: The Rise of Cornerus the Great. Collapsed and mounted on a plaque on the wall, Fox recognized Krystal's original Cerinian staff, the gem in the center of the golden, almond-shaped head glowing blue. Below the staff, propped up against the wall was an easel supporting a canvas, decorated with lines of oddly curving symbols.

Fox's brow furrowed and he scrutinized the canvas, looking over Krystal's shoulder.

"What is that?" he remarked, his bushy tail flicking behind him.

"Oh, its...just a poem," Krystal muttered.

"You're a poet now?"

"I didn't write it," she said, looking over her shoulder at the canvas, "It's something that my father recited for me. I'm trying to reconstruct it from memory."

"What's it say?"

"It doesn't translate very well," Krystal said, brushing a lock of azure hair out of her face and glancing off to the side. She shifted her feet and in the awkward silence Fox felt something crawl up his back that told him he'd touched a sensitive subject. He scratched the back of his head as he blurted out an apology.

"I'm...I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, no, it's fine," Krystal mitigated, "It's just...nothing, never mind. I can tell you what I've remembered so far."

Fox smiled.

"Please," the StarFox leader said.

Krystal cleared her throat, glancing over at the canvas and looking into Fox's chest as she recited, "Day is done and the sun has set, so hold me close, my love; take my hand and feel my heart, as I take yours in mine...for the nights are black and full of horror."

Fox's tail went limp and he tried to hide his reaction. Krystal didn't need to read his mind this time to know what he was thinking.

"It's...much prettier in the original language," she whispered, "I told you it doesn't translate well."

Fox nodded slowly, trying to think of something to say as Krystal's eyes met his.

"Do you feel it, too?" she asked.

"Feel what?"

"Something wrong," the vixen swallowed.

"You'll have to be more specific than that," Fox said.

Krystal shook her head, her shoulders rising up and down with her breaths.

"It's something I've never felt before," she whispered, "And it's getting close."

Fox wanted to put a hand on her shoulder and tell her it would be okay, but he stopped himself. There was a look in Krystal's eyes at the very thought of it that confirmed it wasn't the best idea.

"We're all here for each other," he said, reasoning that it was better than saying nothing, "We won't let anything bad happen."

Krystal nodded slowly, her eyes looking past Fox into the wall. She held herself as if she was cold.

"I'll meet you on the bridge," he told her.

The vixen breathed out and tried to force a smile, but whatever it was that she sensed seemed to make it more difficult to lie.

She closed herself back in her room and Fox journeyed down the hallway, pressing the call button for the turbolift, hearing it arrive with a bright chirping noise. He stepped into the lift and pressed the button for B Deck, traveling upwards and walking down the hall to the bridge.

The doors slid open and Fox beheld the massive brown-red orb of Titania dominating the viewport, much closer than it had been through the view in Fox's quarters, a section of the ring just visible as a scattered field of brown and white rocky fragments, like the Meteo asteroid field. Peppy and ROB were at their forward control consoles as Falco operated the radar station.

"Equatorial reference acquired," ROB said, "Entering target orbit trajectory."

Holographic peripherals in front of Peppy's station were copied by the projectors in the ceiling, drawing the ringed globe of Titania in the air before the captain's seat. A yellow circle around Titania appeared with a blinking dot slowly progressing over the curvature of the planet, and a green circle with a blinking winged fox icon was drawn beside it as a smaller model of the planet was shown, as if drawn from the point of view of the Great Fox itself with a course of squares marking out the orbital course it should take.

"RCS controls active, decrease thrust by forty percent and prepare for orbit insertion," Peppy muttered, "Falco, how's our surroundings?"

"Nothin'," Falco replied flatly, "Are we there yet?"

"Don't be an ass. What about fragments from the ring structure? They can be as small as an octagon ball and get through the shields."

"I know old man, I said we're clear," Falco sighed, "Sheesh."

"Roll ninety two degrees, port yaw," Peppy instructed.

"Affirmative."

Titania began to shift through the viewport as the Great Fox slowly rolled along its axis, the corresponding icons on the holodisplay moving in turn.

"Great Fox has achieved stable geosynchronous orbit parallel to target. Target Starghast is 643 kilometers bearing 82 mark 76," ROB announced.

"Good work, ROB," Peppy nodded, looking over his shoulder to Falco, "You picking it up yet?"

"Just now," the avian replied, "Tha' ship and a smaller one nearby."

"Must be the company ship McMurdo posted to keep an eye on it," Fox remarked, taking a seat in his captain's chair.

"You should just be able to see it soon. Decrease thrust by another thirty percent," Peppy announced, and Fox gazed out over the reddish-brown globe to see a vague, jagged shape in the distance. In a matter of moments, the shape grew bigger and bigger until Fox could make out a profile matching the ship that McMurdo had shown them.

"Incoming transmission," ROB said.

"Is it from the Starghast?" Fox inquired.

"Negative. Registry data identifies the source as a Roylott Drive Yards Pulsar-class light courier transport, commissioned Ripley IV. Craft matches the model described in client correspondence."

"Put them through."

The sound system clicked briefly, then a heavy voice came over the comm.

"Freelancer vessel, you are approaching a quarantined ship," the voice informed, "State your intentions immediately."

"Ripley IV, this is Great Fox," Fox replied, "We've been hired by R. J. McMurdo to investigate the situation on the Starghast."

"Hey, StarFox huh?" The voice came back, "They told me to expect someone. God, am I glad to see you guys. Now we can get the hell out of here."

"Have you heard anything from the ship?" Fox questioned.

"You mean besides the same stuff it's been saying for the past week? We need your help. Come on in. We have candy. That's about it."

"I think I like this guy," Falco muttered.

"Anything else you can tell us that might help, Ripley IV?" Fox said.

"Yeah. The last people to board that ship screamed for a good five minutes before their comms cut out. That thing creeps the shit out of us. Good luck, fellas. Ripley IV out."

Fox could see the bright flash of light as a small ship in the distance jumped to warp, winking out far away into the blackness of space before they were even close enough to see it.

He tried to act like that last statement didn't wash over his body like a cloud of freezing rain.

"And with that, we are alone," Peppy respired, "Just us and the ship."

By now, the Great Fox had drawn close enough to the Starghast that Fox finally began to appreciate its size. While it wasn't as large as an Ajax-class battlecarrier or the VNS Xerxes, the last ship StarFox had been hired to find, it was at least three if not four times the length of the Great Fox. He could make out minute details of the brown-gray ship: The various ridges and outcroppings along the length of the surface, the raised tubes that appeared to be transparisteel-covered walkways over the dorsal surface of the hull, and the tall, antiquated communications tower atop the mound formation towards the stern that Fox assumed housed the ship's bridge. Printed on the side in slightly faded, uniform font, he could see the name STARGHAST. Other than the glowing sublight engines, Fox saw no signs of life or movement from the vast ship.

"Preliminary scans, Peppy?" Fox inquired, shifting his position in the hopes that if he sat the right way, he could overcome the uneasy chill working its way up his tail.

"Nothing unusual. Looks like the reactor's fine. No traces of radiation leakage. The engines are keeping it stable on the same orbit the ship's had for months. Power distribution looks normal...a bit more concentrated around the control tower than I'd expect."

"What about life signs?"

"The ship's hull is a bit dense to get anything specific..." Peppy trailed off, "But it looks like there's something alive in there."

"So everything checks out, or at least it looks like it does," Fox said, regarding the ship, "Just for the sake of science, let's see what happens when we establish contact. ROB, try to find whatever frequency it's broadcasting out of."

"One comm frequency found," the robot replied, "Establishing transmission."

The sound system crackled with static, and a long, palpable silence followed as the speakers hummed with white noise. A few moments of quiet passed with Fox, Falco and Peppy looking up at the speakers, waiting for something other than bland hissing. Fox wasn't sure, but it almost sounded like there could be something, just under his ability to hear. No words, no frequency or signal, but something other than just dead air. He closed his eyes and tilted his ears towards the speakers, listening for whatever it could be. There were moments when he thought he might've heard it, only to disregard, then as the seconds went by he slowly grasped it. A very light, very slow rhythm hidden in the white noise, rising up and falling down, rising up and falling down. With his eyes closed and such a gentle up and down rhythm, Fox was reminded of his earlier attempts at meditation, and then he realized why:

It sounded like breathing.

Just as he was about to say something, the sound system erupted with a digital tone that startled Fox in his seat, and a banal, clinical voice said, "This is a prerecorded distress signal, ICC correspondence code LV-4262 from Commercial Research Vessel, Starghast. Our ship navicomputer and warp drive engine are experiencing technical difficulties beyond the capabilities of on-board staff to repair. Requesting all nearby ships capable of warp to provide assistance at earliest possible convenience. Helix Biotechnology Corporation will compensate you for any expense."

There was another tone, then the transmission went silent again, and Fox called out calmly, "This is the freelancer dreadnaught Great Fox, calling CRV Starghast, do you read me? Over."

His green eyes locked on the silent ship through the viewport, Fox repeated his hail and he could almost hear his voice echoing out into the stars, unanswered by the cold abyss and the dead world below. He waited for a response, listening to the white noise and trying to decide if he was imagining the sounds of breathing on the other end. The only response was a tone, exactly five minutes after the last one, then the same bland voice announced, "This is a prerecorded distress signal, ICC correspondence code LV-4262 from Commercial Research Vessel, Starghast. Our ship navicomputer and warp drive engine are experiencing technical difficulties beyond the capabilities of on-board staff to repair. Requesting all nearby ships capable of warp to provide assistance at the earliest possible convenience. Helix Biotechnology Corporation will compensate you for any expense."

Fox sat back as the tone played again and the transmission went quiet. He tried to listen for the breathing.

"Well, it's not like we actually expected them to say something," Peppy grunted.

"What's tha' next move, Foxie?" Falco inquired.

Fox rested his elbows on his knees and folded his hands together.

"There's only one move left," the vulpine said, "We board the ship. Get Krystal on the intercom and tell her to meet Slippy and I in the Pleiades. Download all the data from McMurdo onto the shuttle's computer."

"You got it, boss," the avian replied with a cool smile.

Fox got out of his chair and walked towards the bridge doors, watching them slide open with a hiss. As he was about to walk out, he could just hear the white noise sound still being transmitted to the speakers. It definitely sounded like breathing. He looked over his shoulder, through the viewport at the silent gray-brown ship, listening to the sounds coming from it, as if the Starghast itself was breathing, watching, waiting for them to do exactly what Fox said they would do.

Fox swallowed and ignored the tightness in his gut, then turned around and left the bridge.