The Great Fox traveled through the vast emptiness of space, well it still was in the Lylat system. The ship had altered its original course of heading to Fichina and now it had to travel to the other side of the system to the largest industrial city in Lylat, Macbeth City.

"So where can we find this Bounty Hunter Falco?" asked Slippy.

Fox, Falco, and Slippy where in the bridge, each of them sat in their respective chairs, each chair having a computer console and screen with the main ship controls spread throughout the bridge.

"Near downtown Macbeth City, but I can only take Fox, it's not a very safe place Slip" said Falco as he peacefully rested in the reclining position of his chair.

"Why?" asked Fox, he sounded worried at the fact that this place was not safe, he already knew it would not be safe he wanted to know what exactly he was getting into.

"Let's just say that a lot of Macbeth's and Fortuna's scum roams that particular area of Macbeth" responded Falco. "We also need to take more 'natural' clothes and they should also disguise us" said Falco; he was now thinking seriously about the up-coming trip to Macbeth. He then got up and quickly walked out of the bridge just as Peppy was coming in.

"What's the matter with him?" asked Peppy who pointed at the exiting Falco.

"He is thinking" responded Fox

"Oh, that doesn't happen too often." Said Peppy, he then went and say in his chair.

"So Fox, where are we going to dock the ship?" asked Slippy.

"I still haven't figured that out, we can't just come to the regular ship dock, that place is full of bounty hunters. Looks like I also need too do some thinking." Said Fox, the Macbeth region was known to be full of all different sorts of people. The planet saw the most ground combat of the previous war, half of it had been controlled by Andros's forces and the other half by Cornerian forces. Macbeth was where most of the Cornerian Military's weapons and equipment was made and it was also where most of Corneria's vehicles were made (AN, think of Detroit but larger). Do to this, there was a strong military presence but they mostly helped as security for the more important industrial parks, in fact it was one of the regions with the strongest military presence, second only to the Naval Shipyards in Corneria. The profit made by the planet brought a lot of pirates to the region, and lots of pirates meant lots of bounty hunters, which was bad for the current situation of Star Fox.

"Well Fox, I know an old raccoon in the navy and I think he is in command of the naval base of Macbeth, we could ask Pepper to tell him if we can leave the Great Fox at the base" Peppy said, Fox thought this was a very good idea.

"That's a great idea Peppy, that way Falco and I could just take a transport down to Macbeth city instead of taking the Arwings, that way we'll go unspotted and the Great Fox won't be discovered by any bounty hunters". Fox turned his computer screen off, got up and headed out of the bridge.

"Hey where you going?" asked Peppy.

"To grab something to eat, you want something?"

"No thanks" said Peppy after giving the idea some thinking.

"How about you Slip?"

"I'll grab something later Fox".

"Alright, call the general and ask him about your friend Peppy "with this Fox walked out the bridge and headed to the Great Fox's kitchen which was two decks below.

He took the long steel stairs down to the main fuselage of the Great Fox. He walked pass the common room and by the rooms of his teammates, heard very loud music coming from Falco's room. Walked pass the armory, pass the food storage room, pass the fuel cell storage room, and finally reached the kitchen. He got himself some meat that he found on the freezer and cooked it; they had no spices since they had bought none so it was just a piece of meat without any taste whatsoever. He grabbed a chair and sat on the only table of the kitchen which was very small, just for a couple of persons.

Fox began to eat the piece of meat; he had nothing to do and slowly began to go back in time through his memories. His mind began to show a memory of a time when he was young…

Cornerian Armed Forces Academy, five years ago…

"I'm telling you Fox, she likes you, the only thing you need to do is ask her out!" A sixteen year old Bill Grey told his good friend Fox McCloud moments after a young female fennec walked by.

"I don't know Bill; you know I'm not very good at this."

They both sat with their backs to wall in one of the recreation yards of the academy. It was a Friday, just before the 2 week long vacation period after the end of the winter quarter. Lots of cadets were out, most of them leaving the academy to spend the vacations with their families.

"Whatever Fox, just remember, the opportunity won't always be there."

"I'll think about it Bill,"

"Are you going to spend the time with your dad and his team?" asked Bill

"Nah, they have an important job to do with some guy named Wolf, he told me that he was sorry but I had to stay here for the vacation, it sucks because you and Slippy won't be here"

"So, Fara is going to be here, maybe you two can finally tell each other that you are in love with one another" Bill said this in a sarcastic voice to Fox who gave him a light punch in the arm.

"Yeah right, hey I think your Mom is here" Fox pointed with one of his fingers at a figure on the other side of the yard.

"Yeah that's Mom" Bill got up and grabbed his a small bag that carried his things "Later Fox, see you in two weeks" Fox gave him a goodbye with his right hand and Bill ran to join his mother.

Fox sat in the yard for more time and watched as the academy slowly became emptier, very few cadets actually stayed here during a vacation period and a lot of the faculty members left. He noticed that it was getting dark and he was getting hungry. He got up and walked through the academy heading to the only open mess hall. When he arrived, he noticed that it was mostly empty; there were a couple of cadets on the far side of the mess hall, just talking. Fox grabbed a plate and served himself some food. The food in the academy was ok, it sure wasn't great food but it did the job if you were hungry. He ate it all and then left the lonely mess hall.

Fox decided to go around the academy for a walk; it was a very large institution which housed around some 36,000 thousand cadets and had some 300 classrooms. He saw a female falcon with brown feathers approaching him.

"Hi Fox!"

"Hi Shelly!"

After saying this both of them continued walking to wherever they were going. Fox felt the urge of going to the bathroom so he went and did his business. He came out and decided to finally go to his dorm; it was going to be two very long weeks. He walked through a long hallway, took the lift up to the dorms, and walked across another long hallway and turned left. There she was the young fennec who Fox had known for the last three years. He knew that he liked her and he also knew that she liked him but he didn't know how to express these feelings he had to her.

"Oh, hi Fox!"

"Hi Fara."

"Are you staying here for the vacations?"

"Yeah, my father has a job to do and he can't take me in"

They walked around the lonely hallways, just talking and talking. They were talking about very random things and nothing serious. Fara asked Fox if he would walk with her to her dorm, Fox agreed, and they just continued walking and talking. They reached the dorm and Fara opened the door. Fara wasn't facing Fox.

"Well, goodnight Fara."

She turned around and gave Fox a quick kiss on the left side of his muzzle, he turned red. She had never done this before.

"Goodnight Fox"

She turned back to her room and closed the door.

Back to the present

"I really screwed my relationship with her didn't I" Fox thought to himself. He had already finished the piece of meat with no taste.

He sat there for a couple more minutes thinking about that memory he had just remembered. He got up and put the plate on the dishwasher and then left the kitchen. He went back up to the room sections, he decided to get some sleep until they were near Macbeth but he was interrupted by Falco calling him.

"Hey Fox, come over I need to talk with you" screamed Falco from the inside of his room.

Fox headed over to Falco's room, just his sixth time ever to go inside there since Falco lived in the Great Fox. Falco's room was not to messy, just some clothes here and there, his room was similar to all the rooms on the Great Fox, one bed, one closet, and one bathroom. Falco had a couple of photographs hanging on the wall, the most noticeable showed a younger Falco, Katt, a Lizard who Fox thought might be Leon and a dog fox didn't recognize. Fox again began to look for Falco when he was hit in the face by some sort or leather jacket.

"What's this?" asked Fox.

"It's my old leather jacket, I told you, where we are going we need to fit in, not look like some sort of air force pilot" Falco used his usual sarcastic tone.

Fox tried the jacket and sure enough it fit him.

"You look better like that McCloud"

"Not a big fan of leather Falco".

Fox received an incoming message from Peppy via his wrist communicator.

"Fox I called Pepper, he said that we got access to the naval base, we just need to watch out for ourselves on our way there."

"That's good to hear Peppy, how long till we get there?" Fox asked.

"Around seven or nine more hours"

"Alright, Fox out" Fox turn to see Falco looking for something under his bed. He stayed there until he saw that Falco found what he was looking for.

"Finally, I knew I didn't lose it."

"Lose what Falco?"

Falco turned to Fox and showed him a knife.

"My old shank, don't worry I've never killed anyone with it but it has gotten me out of trouble a lot of times"

"Why do you need a Shank for"

"Protection, you should take your blaster, there's a pocket inside the jacket where you can hide it".

Fox was surprised about how much he knew about his friend, because he sure knew a little about his past. He just knew that Falco had been involved in some sort of space gang were he became a very good fighter pilot, even avoiding persecution by Cornerian forces until the outburst of the war.

"Do I keep the jacket?"

"Yeah, just make sure not to ruin it alright…" Fox began to go to his room

"And get your old black boots!"

Fox went into his room, threw the jacket into the only chair in the room and then threw himself into the bed, it had been a long day, meeting some guy who was over a thousand years old, fighting Star Wolf, finding out someone wanted to get him and his friends, and eating some piece of meat.

What else could possibly go wrong?


Just showing off my soft side a little on this chapter but expect nothing like that on the next. Remember, review please I need to know what else I can improve on.