(A/N): sorry it's a bit late but, merry Christmas. Or if you don't celebrate Christmas let me instead extend an alternate holiday greeting by saying happy holidays. I may have gotten this done sooner, but a lot of stuff came up. But at any rate, here it is. I'd like to really quickly thank bryan mccloud for reviewing my story so far. And all of you for reading it. So thank you.
Chapter 4: the other survivors
Ten minutes later, Fox and Falco were nearing the bottom of the ship. They were both depressed, as every room they had found so far had been filled with dead bodies. Most of the hallways were also filled with large amounts of debris, and some of the rooms had collapsed in on themselves, not having the reinforced strength to hold up to such a massive crash.
"I'm board." Falco whined as they marched down the stairs to the cargo bays. "Can't we just say everyone's dead and call it a day?"
"No. Besides, we have to check on the cargo." Fox said, as they reached the bottom of the steps. They saw laying before them two more dead people, an all too common sight at this point. "Ok, we just find this, whatever it is we're moving, and make sure it's ok. Then we can go back" Fox informed Falco before pushing the button to open the door. The door stuttered open half way before stopping all together, letting out a shower of sparks as it did so. Fox grabbed the door and forced it open the rest of the way.
Inside the cargo bay, there were several boxes tossed about, mostly just various tools and supplies for the Arwings. What really caught ones eye and ear was the whimpering frog chained up to one of the support beams. Falco immediately pointed his blaster at the frog, who let out a yelp in surprise. Fox however, recognized the frog as mechanic Slippy Toad, one of the best aboard the Great Fox. "What are you doing down here?"
"W-well I w-was" Slippy tried to stutter out, but he was finding the barrel of Falco's gun to be fairly nerve wracking.
Fox realized this, and gently pushed Falco's gun away from the frog's face. "Ok, now tell me what happened."
"W-well," Slippy began "I was getting drinks for the chief of the hyperdrive engine, Donto, and his guys, when suddenly I noticed something wrong with the hum of the ship. Then the explosion hit, so I ran to see what was up, but the whole area was blocked off. That's when your message about bracing for impact came, so I ran down here and, well, braced for impact. And now I can't get out." Slippy put as much desperation behind the last sentence as he could, hoping they would let him out.
"A likely story," Falco began "but why would they send an Arwing mechanic to get drinks?" He finished, pointing to the id on Slippys badge.
"Maybe" Fox interjected "because he didn't actually work up there, but had permission to be there, so they used him as a food jockey" he said, pointing to Slippy's id again, to get Falco to actually read it. With that Fox undid the chain, allowing Slippy to get down. "Besides, if he was doing anything that would get him in the kind of trouble that warrants pointing a gun at someone, I doubt he would be chained to a post."
"Thanks, I was beginning to worry I was never getting off of that thing." Slippy said, rubbing his arms where the chains had been tied around him.
"One thing I don't get" Fox glanced around the room, noting all the standard stuff, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, save the fact it was all tossed about "is where the cargo is."
…
"Thank you. That feels much better." Peppy Hare sat in the captain's chair on what was once the bridge, his ankle now properly bandaged up, thanks to Katt, who moved behind the hare to his left, looking over his shoulder at the control panels. The old hare adjusted his glasses and set about seeing which systems were online and which were not. Not surprisingly, most of them were not. The comm. system was off line, most of the scanners were off line, ever the life support systems were off line. Thankfully the planet they had slammed into seemed to have a life supporting climate.
"Were back" Fox entered the room looking rather sad. "We found one person alive, a mechanic by the name of Slippy Toad." Just behind Fox, Slippy walked in and his jaw almost hit the floor. Falco pushed past the frog, leaning on the door frame in the bridge, trying to act totally indifferent about the whole thing. But his initial expression revealed he was clearly shocked about all the damages himself.
"Now this is some damage," the frog went about examining just about everything he could. In almost five minutes he had decided the Great Fox would never fly again. And all but one of the ROB units was totally fried. "Give me some time with ROB 64 however," he informed the others "and I might just be able to get him up and running again. Well, at least somewhat running. But he might be able to tell us where we are at least." Fox agreed, and Slippy started to tinker with the robot.
"Hey, how come you guys came in here instead of waiting in Peppy's office?" Katt questioned Falco as Fox looked over the damages himself.
"Simple, you two weren't there ether." Falco stated as if it were a no brainer.
"Fox" Peppy called out to obtain the fox's attention, and inadvertently obtained the cat's and bird's as well. "Did you check on the cargo like I asked?"
"Well, you see sir," Fox rubbed the back of his head, clearly embarrassed about what he was about to say, "We couldn't identify the cargo among all the usual supplies.
"That's because," Peppy had that I'm disappointed because you clearly didn't bother to listen to me sound in his voice, "the 'cargo' wasn't in the cargo bay. It was in the Prison hold."
"Hold up old man," Falco butted in "we checked the hold, only thing there was the usual stuff. And of course four dead guys."
"Did you check in the cell?"
"Oh, well…..Fox said we had to move on, so I shouldn't worry about it"
"Excuse me" Fox replied "I AM your superior officer you know. And you were the one in a hurry to get back up here."
"Enough." Peppy tapped the makeshift cane he had made out of a metal pole against the ground and cleared his through. This made even Slippy look up from what he was doing to listen. "Now, I'm about to let you four in on a secret that could change the tides of the war we are currently in, change the history of our system, even change the fate of the very galaxy itself. You must understand that this is of the highest secrecy and system security. You must promise to tell no one." Everyone nodded in agreement.
"All right, now…" Peppy cleared his throat "Andross is building a secret weapon. One that's rumored to be so powerful, it alone could win him the war. Now, I don't understand all the details, but I do understand this," the four now leaned in close to better here what the old hare would say, "the only person actively standing between him and the completion of that weapon, the only wrench currently in his entire plan, the only trump card we have right now, is secured in the prison cell of this ship."
…
All of the survivors except for Slippy stood in front of her cell door. The frog had stayed behind to fix one of the robots on the bridge. She knew the captain, Fox, would have lots of questions. She was given no more time to think on this however, and the door slid open. Peppy, despite his injury managed to hobble over and undo the straps around her head. Once they fell away, the other three stepped back in shock, if only for a moment. Her blue fur had been what had thrown them all off, but there was something else running through the captain's head, something she couldn't quite pick up on.
"Who are you?" He asked, trying to sound official, but instead sounding somewhat enchanted. He thought she was beautiful, her blue hair complementing her blue fur complementing her violet eyes. But she couldn't pick up on any of this. She was partially enchanted by him as well. His chestnut fur complementing his white streak complementing his green eyes. After a moment passed he collected himself and asked again "who are you?"
"Who am I?" her voice enchanted him more, a sweet melody that made his heart melt and his stomach turn into a butterfly garden. "Who am I?" She repeated again, having to pull herself out of trying to determine his first impression of her, but finding him strangely hard to read. "I…..am Krystal."