Star Fox: Bloodlines
Written By: Jero Wolfe
Chapter 1: The Lone Wolf
A young Cornerian pilot was staring at space in the window, taking a deep breath as his day began. The wolf blinked as his focus shifted from the stars to his own reflection, still having the feeling of disbelief as well as excitement. Captain Fenris Yeager had his first off-world deployment since the Aparoid Invasion only a few months ago. He stood tall at 6'2" with his standard issue Cornerian flight uniform. He bore the beige jumpsuit with a silver buckled belt and dark gray combat vest with the Cornerian seal emblazoned on his shoulder. Two silver bars on his neck notated his rank, a Captain in the Cornerian Defense Force. His fur was dark navy blue with a white underbelly, a distinct bolt pattern on his cheeks with a stripe running down the top of his muzzle. His stark blue eyes stared at his reflection in the mirror of the officer's mess, his black hair hanging just over them.
He was onboard a Cornerian Walker Class Carrier, the CFS Vigilance. It had two flight decks on its port and starboard side, two main cannons at the fore, a point defense system, and a missile rack towards the aft. The Vigilance also had 25 decks, 5 of which were allocated for crew quarters, mess halls, and general habitats. It was structured similarly to most Cornerian Cruisers that had been made in the last two years, but was roughly twice the size, needing to accommodate it's large crew and compliment of fighters.
He held his hands behind his back, continuing to stare off before he noticed a new figure in the reflection. It was Colonel Bill Grey, giving a wide smile as he often did. The greyhound had walked into the officer's mess hall, his boots clanking against the polished steel floors as his features became more visible in the bright lighting. He wore the same uniform Fenris did, but with four pips instead of two.
"Hey, kid! How are the bars treatin' you?" asked the greyhound, referring to Fenris's rank pips.
Fenris reached up, fiddling with the unfamiliar extra pip before letting it go and focusing back on Bill with a smile.
"To be honest… I wasn't expecting a command position this soon. Guess I should have with you leading an entire air group now," responded Fenris.
"Yeah… Being CAG wasn't something I was planning on, but I like a challenge! And don't worry, you'll do fine! Blue Team will meet you in the briefing room. Just gonna be a routine convoy from Prospector Toad's planetoid back to Katina."
"You mean Grippia? That planetoid?"
"Eh… If he wants to call it that, he can. It's just a mineral rich space rock at the end of the day."
Bill began to walk over to the coffee bar, which was still looking clean enough to see your reflection in the stainless steel countertops as the carrier was only a month out of its shakedown cruise. Fenris would follow, holding his novelty Star Fox coffee mug with the team's logo printed on the side. He covered the logo with his hand, somewhat embarrassed to show it off, but kept it with him nonetheless, wanting to support the team he had been idolizing since sophomore year at the flight academy. Bill grabbed one of the beige plastic coffee mugs the ship had supplied before going to the dispenser and setting it down. He pressed the button just above the spout as the black steaming liquid poured in, filling it up three quarters before grabbing the carafe of half and half and pouring some in. Fenris was up next. placing his mug down and filling it nearly to the top. Bill would glance over, seeing the Star Fox team logo on it before looking up at Fenris.
"Still fanboying over McCloud?" he asked, teasing the new captain. Fenris gave a Bill a frustrated look as his brows furrowed while Bill started to laugh. "Relax, bud. You know I have nothing but love for Fox and his crew."
Fenris sighed before the two started making their way to one of the many unoccupied tables, moving the thin run-of-the-mill cafetiera tables back to sit in them. "I know I don't have a shot at joining the team, but you can't tell me that you wouldn't want to be with them too," he said.
"Actually, I can. Who else do you think Fox went to in the very beginning?" said Bill as he sat down.
Fenris sat down across from him, feeling his ears lower as the Major had a point. He looked down as he thought to himself, justifying his reasoning. "Yeah… I know… They're just-"
"Someone for you to look up to?"
Fenris looked Bill dead in the face before looking back down into his mug. Bill leaned in to try and get his attention again as the wolf zoned out.
"Hey, it's alright. I know why you hold them in such high regard. They remind you of your dad."
Fenris lightly nodded. "Yeah…"
Bill smiled as he tried to lighten the mood, putting a better spin on the topic. "Besides, everyone has their heroes. From what I see, you picked some pretty good ones!"
Fenris looked up and smiled a bit at Bill, appreciating the validation. "Thanks," was all he could really muster at that point.
Bill reached over and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Think about it this way… You could be starting a team just as good as Star Fox today! You never know!" Bill started to stand up from his seat, taking his coffee with him. He looked back at Fenris once more. "0800 hours, kid. See you at the briefing!"
Fenris watched as Bill left the officer's mess before taking a sip of his coffee. He stood back up and walked to the window once more, this time specifically looking for something. Out in the distance was a distinct blue sphere in the void of space. While Corneria wasn't his birthworld, it was his home, and if he wanted to be like Star Fox, he'd need to keep the safety of that small blue dot at the forefront of his thoughts.
Some time later, Fenris found himself seated in the pilot's briefing room, where rows upon rows of lecture hall chairs sat, each row slightly elevated above the one before it so all of the pilots could see the speaker and the three large screens behind them. There were rows of amber lights on the side walls, reminding Fenris of the cinema in Corneria City. It even had safety lights on the steps leading from the lectern to the exits behind him.
Bill was standing patiently at the lectern, with a map of their projected flight path on the middle screen, freighter specifications on the left screen, and blurred images of what was assumed to be personal craft or drones on the right screen. Fenris had his attention directly focused on Bill, but the reptilian pilot next to him had his eyes focused right on the wolf. He grinned at him, waiting for Fenris to respond. He turned toward the gator, raising an eyebrow as he noticed his overexcited demeanor.
The reptile extended a scaly hand to him.
"Pleasure to meet you, Captain!" he said excitedly.
His voice sounded just about as coarse as his scales, almost as though his vocal chords were torn apart. Fenris reluctantly shook his hand, somewhat perturbed by the excitement.
"Um… Thank you, mister?"
"Flynt! I'm the Venom defector on Blue Team"
"Ah.." Fenris nodded slowly, finally understanding that it was one of his squadmates. A wave of guilt washed over him as he realized how rude he came off as.
"Pleased to meet you, Flynt. I hear you're a weapons expert?"
The alligator chuckled, "I prefer the term 'enthusiast'."
"I see.. Well, I'm happy to have you on the team, Flynt. I'm sure your expertise will be put to good use!"
The lights in the briefing room began to dim as Bill stood at the lectern, ready to start the briefing. All attention was focused on him as Flynt sat down straight in his seat and Fenris pulled out his tablet, getting ready to take notes for the mission.
"Good morning! Routine convoy mission today. We'll be escorting flight Bravo Three Niner from outer Planetoid Two-Seven through Sector Z for the first leg of the trip. Particle density is Ten Thousand PCC for our flightpath, so sensors will be obscured from 1000 to 1130 Zulu. Debris risk is minimal, but be on the lookout for rogue asteroids."
The star chart behind Bill illuminated as he spoke, showing their projected flight path through Sector Z to Katina. It had a number of twists and turns to keep the transport from being damaged by the micro-nebula. The star chart was then replaced by a technical readout of the transport as the two images swapped places.
"Bravo Three Niner is a McAuliffe class freighter, equipped with heavy shielding, but no weaponry for defenses. Long story short, she can take it but not dish it out. Her weak points are her thruster ports and sensor pods, otherwise, she's basically a tank."
Each weak point was visually pointed out to the crew, a green circle being placed over said weak point. The last image, the blurry one of what looked like a personal craft, took its place on the center screen as the transport was moved to the side.
"Unfortunately, this is where things get complicated. CDF Intelligence satellites have picked up some activity in Sector Z. We couldn't get a clear picture, but we have a decent enough feed to determine that there are artificial objects in the micro-nebula moving on their own. We don't know if they're pirates or not, but keep an eye out and don't be afraid to hail them. We've detected fifteen unique bogies, but there may be more."
Flynt started to get excited. The idea of having targets to shoot at immediately made him think of getting to load ordinance on his ship. He tried to contain his excitement, but quietly let some of it slip to Fenris. "We're gonna make things go booom!"
Bill would then proceed to dash the alligator's dreams. "The nebula will interfere with target tracking, so under no circumstances will ordinance be allowed.
Flynt seemed to deflate as he heard the bad news. "… No boom?"
Fenris placed his tablet pen to his lips, gently nipping at the end of it as he studied the unknown craft being displayed. The swept wing design almost seemed familiar to the lupine as he raised an eyebrow. He shrugged off the feeling, but kept in the back of his head as something to keep in mind. Bill began to wrap up the briefing.
"That's Ive all Ive got this morning. Report to your craft and standby for launch."
Fenris looked down at his notes before realizing he didn't write anything down. The briefing was that fast. There was, however, one thing he needed to address, and that was finding his squadron. He was assigned two pilots, Flynt, whom he just met, and Claire Burnham. Flynt also seemed eager to meet the rest of his team.
"So where's our third, boss?" Asked the gator.
"That's an excellent question. Let's find out, hm?"
He stood up and looked around as the lights in the room were turned up, trying to find anyone that might vaguely look like a "Claire" before opening her bio and checking again. She was short, only 4', and was a brown furred otter. He looked up again, wondering if she was just obscured by all of the taller pilots.
"I get the feeling you don't see her in the room. Maybe she already left for the hangar?"
The corner of his mouth stretched backward as he made a face somewhere between concerned and annoyed before patting Flynt on the shoulder and turning to face him. He gave a grin, before reassuring his wingman.
"Don't worry about it. I'll track her down. You run to the hangar do the pre-flight checks,"
"You got it, boss!" Said Flynt excitedly.
Fenris wasn't sure, but he thought Flynt was a little more excited about pre-flight checklists than most would be.
…
Fenris was searching the halls of the Vigilance for at least an hour before growing frustrated and reporting the absence to Major Gray through an intranet message. He stormed down the dimly lit hallways, his footsteps echoing against the titanium floor panels with only 30 minutes before dustoff, passing a corridor before feeling something run straight into his abdomen. He felt the wind get knocked out of him briefly before regaining his composure to see what, or rather who, hit him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" said Fenris angrily.
Fenris would find not only were they short and in a hurry, she was a small 4' otter, the one he had been looking for this whole time.
"Very sorry, sir! Won't happen again! I promise!" said the otter in a panic.
Fenris started to calm down as he regained control of his temper. He tapped a few commands on his tablet as the otter tried to walk away. Without looking up from the tablet, he gave an order to the otter.
"Don't go anywhere just yet, Lieutenant," he said, sternly.
The otter seemed nervous, wondering if she was going to get written up. Fenris lowered the tablet and then made direct eye contact with her.
"I'm assuming you're Claire Burnham?" asked Fenris.
"I am, sir," she said quietly.
"I'm your squadron commander, Captain Yeager. You can call me Fenris," he said, trying to relieve the tension. "You weren't at the briefing today, and Ive been trying to find you for an hour. Is something wrong, Lieutenant?" he asked.
"Yes sir. I mean- N- no sir. I just-" The otter stammered, not able to collect her thoughts. "I slept through my alarm, sir."
Fenris blinked, bringing his tablet back up and looking down at it. "You're from Zoness?"
The otter nodded sheepishly. "Yes sir. Specifically the southern continent."
"You're jetlagged then… Don't worry. You'll get used to the shift in due time. However, you're needed on the hanger. Dustoff is in twenty-seven minutes. Flynt is working on our pre-flight checks right now. I won't report this to Major Grey as long as it doesn't become a habit. Do you get me, Lieutenant?"
"I get you, sir. I mean uh… Fenris."
Claire became less nervous as he smiled, trying to break the tension and be more relatable after a rocky introduction.
"Let's get going, then. These images were taken in Sector Z, which we'll be passing through on our flight path. Command says they might be hostile, but we don't know yet," said Fenris as he handed the tablet to Claire.
Claire took the tablet, flipping through the series of images and trying to commit them to memory. Fenris would once again see the swept wing design spotted and couldn't help but recognize it, though he didn't know from where. Claire handed back the tablet as they were walking to the hangar bay.
"A few of those look like old fighters from the Second Lylat War."
"I was thinking the same thing," Fenris said in response before pointing out the design he was thinking of.
"This one in particular caught my attention. I'm not sure where it's from, but I believe it might be one of the bigger threats we could come across."
Claire slowly nodded along as she listened to his suggestions. The two reached the hangar bay finally, heading over to their fighters. They were the Cornerian V-Wing, a fork of the Arwing developed by Space Dynamics. It was significantly different, featuring a swept vertical wing design that could fold forward in order to conserve space on-board carriers and other military vessels. However, the V-Wing significantly lacked both fuel reserves and heavy attack power, only being equipped with Twin Laser Cannons and a lidar based missile system. It was an interceptor first, and the design elements showed. It was also the first mass produced military craft to be equipped with a G-Diffuser system, using the older hydrogen fueled model with a module on each side of the craft. Flynt was walking around Fenris's V-Wing before turning to the two with an excited look on his face.
"I was just finishing pre-flight! We're fueled up, armed to the teeth, and ready to go!"
Fenris grinned at the gator before accepting his briefing tablet from Claire and logged out of it, setting it on a nearby tool bench before turning to his wingmen.
"Alright, team. Saddle up, lock and load!"
…
The gray furred canid starred up at a large stone arch with words emblazoned with gold. It said "Ad Astra per Aspera," roughly translated to "Starside through challenge." Below the arch was a glass wall with a series of doors leading into the Cornerian Flight Academy.
"Nervous?" asked a voice from behind him.
It was another canid, a vulpine to be precise, with dark red fur and a lighter red underbelly and aviator shades. He wore the standard issue uniform of a Cornerian pilot, a green jumpsuit with a yellow scarf and a gray jacket. The jacket had padding on its shoulders and the Cornerian seal embroidered on one shoulder, while a red fox with wings was embroidered on the other.
The lupine smiled back at him. "I've been in enough street scuffs, Jim! I can handle a few prissy rich kids."
"Remember, that's gonna be Lieutenant as soon as you pass through those doors." James grinned at the younger man, peeking from under his shades before walking up and grabbing his shoulder. "You worked all your life for this. I know you can do it. See you on the other side, yeah?"
"Just promise me you'll leave some bad guys for me to bring down, would you James?"
James smiled at the lupine, giving his shoulder one more pat before taking a step back and saluting. "Go get 'em, kid!"
The lupine saluted back, waiting for James to return to at ease before turning back to the doors. He walked forward, reaching his hand out to push the door open and begin his career.
