Disclaimer: READ THIS!!! I do not own any of the StarFox characters or any
other names that are Nintendo related or found in any of the StarFox games.
CHAPTER 2 Old Friends
The Great Fox flew up to the landing pad to the west of the hangers. They decided to land outside since all the indoor hangers were full. The massive ship flew over the landing pad hovered for a minute, and then slowly touched down, a perfect landing.
Everyone met at the end of the take off runway. Slippy flipped a switch a platform dropped from the ceiling. Everyone got onto the platform; it was about 12 meters by 12 meters with a terminal standing up in the middle. Slippy pressed his hand against the computer screen in the console, there was a humming and slight vibration beneath their feet but stopped as soon as the platform picked up six inches off the ground. A hologram about a foot high then flickered on over the monitor; it was orange and cylindrical looking with a pale green bar about two inches wide in the middle. Slippy stuck his webbed hand into the middle of the green area which turned a red color signifying it was tracking movements. He raised his hand a little and the platform picked up higher off the ground, as he tilted his had forward it began to move out of the Great Fox towards the light of the open runway. The platform touched down and Slippy deactivated the anti-gravity platform by pressing his hand against the monitor again. Everybody got off including Slippy who was smiling happily at his new invention.
"You definitely over pride yourself with this toy of yours," Falco said with a raised eyebrow.
You definitely over pride yourself with your kill record," Slippy retorted.
"Touché," Falco said arrogantly, he knew he was right about that.
Just then twelve an armed Cornerian guards approached the team in two single file lines. "Ah, good to see you again StarFox," the squad leader said and then quickly saluting the team along with the rest of his squad behind him. "General Pepper has been expecting you for quite a while."
"As you were gentlemen, keep this junky old bird safe for me will ya?" said Fox who was pleased to finally get some respect.
"Would you like us to escort you to the General's quarter's sir?" he then asked.
"No thanks guys, we know the way around."
"Very well then sir, we'll stay at our posts," the squad leader said.
And with that, they left the soldiers guarding the Great Fox, and started towards the entrance of head quarters. Falco and Slippy were bickering over something; Fox wasn't paying much attention to it. Krystal who was in back of the group ran up to Fox who was leading the pack.
"Are you like famous here or something?" she asked.
"Well I guess you might say that, eight years ago I defeated Andross for the first time and ended the first Lylat war, my team and were considered as heroes."
Krystal and Fox talked for the rest of the way up to Peppers office where everyone entered. Pepper's office was large; he had an oak desk with papers stacked up that seemed as if they had been there for days. Something important was definitely on his mind because it wasn't like him to leave stuff lying around. Pepper was staring out his window at the Great Fox smoking a cigar; he quickly turned around to greet the team. "StarFox, I've been expecting you! The press wants a report on what happened over there," Fox shook Pepper's hand.
"It's too bad I'm not going to talk to them, here is my report: There was a social struggle over power taking place on the planet. The original ruling tribe was restored to power and General Scales; the leader of the extremist group was killed."
"I'll have my secretary make a note of it, but for now enough of the work and lets get some breakfast," Pepper then turned to Krystal. "Who is this?"
"This is my friend Krystal; I kind of saved her life back on Dinosaur Planet. She and I will need your help; she is looking her planet which may be outside of this solar system."
"I'll do what I can when I get my other obligations out of the way." Pepper walked over to his door and opened it motioning everyone to follow him down to the mess hall.
The mess hall wasn't a mess hall at all it was actually quite nice, and decorated with banners of the Cornerian army. The food was actually good compared to what Fox had been eating since he was last here. Everyone ate hungrily especially Krystal who was dieing for food this morning but didn't want to be burden on anyone. Pepper stopped eating for a moment and dabbed his mouth with his napkin.
"I've been meaning to tell you guys what's been going on down here the past couple of months with our secret weapons division." Everyone abruptly stopped eating and looked up at Pepper, except for Krystal who was enjoying her second helping of tuna. "We have been working on a stealth equipped aircraft that we would like to primarily use for spying on Venom. It's been quiet there for years, almost too quiet; so we're sending your old friend Bill to try it out and do a little reconnaissance for us.
"Wow I haven't seen Bill in ages!" Fox thought to himself
"So what's it called? Can we go check this thing out later?" Slippy piped up.
"I've decided to call it." Pepper paused for a moment to act more dramatic. "The Spectral Wraith, and yes, you can go see it. It's in hanger echo 7, I'll give you clearance when you get down there."
Falco shoved the rest of his breakfast into his beak and swallowed hard. "Well I'm done I'll see you guys down there," and immediately jumped out of his seat and ran out the door.
"Me too!" Slippy said shooting out of his chair.
"Speaking of ships I just remembered," Fox turned to Krystal, who had cleaned her plate.
"Do you still want that Sharp Claw transport? I don't like having that thing on my ship and anywhere you go with it don't expect a warm welcome."
"Well what will I have to fly around in if I have to leave for some reason?" she asked.
"Hey your birthday is coming up isn't it? I tend to be very generous to people I care about around their birthdays; so shall we?"
Krystal giggled at his courteousness, "We shall, and you can scrap the transport," she said looping her arm around Fox's.
Fox smiled back at her, "Thanks for the chow Pepper; I gotta go say hi to an old friend.
Slippy, Falco, Fox, and Krystal all exited leaving Peppy behind, "I swear they all have anxiety disorders," Peppy said shaking his head.
Pepper let out a roaring laugh, "Oh to be young again."
Falco and Slippy had gotten down to the hanger a lot quicker than Fox and Krystal had. The Spectral Wraith hovered elegantly in the middle of the hanger; it had the new and advanced G-diffuser systems which ran on themselves making landing gear unnecessary. The ship was slightly larger than an Arwing; it was painted all black except for some parts of the boosters and the two windows on the cockpit which were a dark red. "Probably for thermal scanning and advanced navigation," Fox thought to himself. The body of the ship was shaped like a large diamond with two wings protruding from the sides and arcing downwards. On the tip of each wing was one black and chrome Starlight Excel Plus engine. The engines were shaped almost like ovals with a lot of vents used for keeping the engines running silent.
The next thing Fox noticed was his old friend Bill Grey standing in front of the ship. Fox thought about how he should present himself to Bill who was bragging to other pilots.
Fox turned to the rest of his team, "Watch this," he said as he turned away and began to jog towards Bill. He slowly picked up speed until he was at a full run and about five feet from Bill. Bill turned suddenly to see what was charging him but it was too late. BAM! Fox made a perfect tackle and had Bill pinned to the ground.
"OW! WHAT THE? You son of a bitch." Bill said calmly as he threw Fox off of him and waved the other pilots away.
The other pilots Bill was just talking with earlier were staring dumb-faced at each other before shrugging and walking off. Fox laughed hysterically as he rolled off of Bill, "You should of seen the look on you face; the perfect way to greet your best friend since preschool!"
Bill was also laughing so hard he could have blacked out from lack of oxygen, but the two pals later able to control themselves and get back up on their feet. Bill threw his arm around Fox's shoulder as they walked to where everyone else was standing bewildered on why Fox had just speared Bill.
"You know I think I should be the one spearing you dude, what's it been like, a year and I get no word from ya, the hell ya been doin this whole time? Bill asked poking Fox in the chest.
"Oh just the usual mercenary stuff, helping one group and getting paid for getting rid of another," Fox responded.
"Bill! It's been a while," Slippy said shaking Bill's hand.
"Hey Slip, how's it going?" Bill responded to Slippy.
"Good to see you again Bill, still a slave for General Pepper?" Falco asked Bill with a smug look on his face.
"No actually, and I'll gladly kick your ass again in the simulators big guy, let's see if you learned anything before you seemed to have come crawling back to Fox.
Falco just leered at Bill who had just turned his attention to the lovely blue vixen who was standing beside Fox, "And uh.who might you be?"
"Oh, my name is Krystal; it's a pleasure to meet you," she said holding out her hand.
"No, the pleasure is all mine," Bill was shaking her hand for a prolonged amount of time and starring as if he had no brain.
Fox interrupted, "You're lucky I can't see through those shades, cause if your eyes aren't level with hers I'll knock your teeth out!"
"Huh, I know man I know; c'mon lets get let's get the hell out of here; I want to enjoy my last six hours here before the mission."
"Wait," Fox stopped him, "you're leaving for the mission today?"
"Yeah Pepper didn't tell you the details?" Bill said looking over his shoulder, Fox shook his head no. "Alright let's just go to one of my favorite hang out spots and I'll fill you in."
Fox, Bill, Krystal, Slippy, and Falco all left the hanger and the hovering wonder. For a while Fox and Bill just lead the group around and taking frequent glimpses at the shades of each-others past. Bill wanted to take his mind off of his work for awhile and decided he would tell Fox what he would be doing with the Spectral Wraith later. Stopping from place to place saying things like, "Hey remember when we were last here?" also, "Oh man this is the place where we." and other such things. They felt like they were reliving the past all over again taking Krystal for the ride and leaving Falco and Slippy bored out of their skulls. Krystal was having fun for just walking around and talking with all of them she was very interested in what this planet had to offer. This went on for hours at a time, until about two o'clock and nobody had eaten anything. Bill decided it would be appropriate for him and the rest of the gang to go to his favorite bar and grill before he had to leave. The place was called The Next Nirvana, it was a nice place, and they had good music and good food what more could you want? It was a well-known hang out place for most canines, but it wasn't uncommon to see others besides canines there. Pepper and Peppy where sitting in a large booth in the corner of the restaurant half smoking their cigars.
"Mind if we join you, old timers?" Fox said, even though he was always calling Peppy an old timer and a geezer he still had a lot of respect for him.
"Sure the more the merrier, take a load off!" General Pepper said making room for his guests and extinguishing his cigar.
Krystal took a seat next to Fox, Bill sat across from him and Slippy and Falco filled in wherever there was room. Bill exchanged pleasantries with Peppy because he hadn't seen him down in the hanger, a waitress came around and took orders minutes later and left.
"So do you feel like talking yet?" Fox asked Bill.
Bill let out a tired sigh, "Well, what I'll be doing is just going into Venom's atmosphere and just flying around using advanced scanning and imaging just too see if they are plotting anything. I'll be looking for hangers, weapon caches, bunkers, and other military type installations. If you've taken out Andross like Pepper was telling me earlier we should have no problem with him except for a few 'neo-nazi' types which will be disposed of at a later date."
Everyone had an impressed look on their face, especially Fox, Falco chuckled at him. "Sounds like you got your work cut out for you," Fox said.
"Yea well it'll be fun using all of this new state-of-the-art equipment, especially the ship. I told you about all the spying gizmos on it which is pretty cool but it has no warp drive, weapon system, or transmitters. All of which could easily tip off the Venomians and then it wouldn't be much of a stealth craft now would it? The twin engines are really a piece of work, I'll be able to hit mach three in almost three seconds if I wanted to but hopefully there won't be any need for such a fast escape."
"Wait a minute," Slippy said, "You said there's no warp drive, how long is it going to take for you to get there?"
Bill thought for a minute trying to recall what his mission dossier had said about the time and trip distance. "Well.I think it will be an eight day trip there and back, and two days of wet work."
"Sounds uhh.." Fox began, "Boring!" Falco had finished for him, Fox shot him a glare.
Bill shrugged, when suddenly and idea popped into his head. "Hey, I just remembered she's been made to seat two, wanna go for a ride?" he asked Fox.
"Sorry man, I got things I need to take care of down here," Fox said.
The waitress had returned with the food that they had ordered. Bill was known well there being his favorite restaurant so he got a large helping of food. Fox and Krystal had both ordered the same thing; Fox's mouth watered savoring the smell of smoked salmon. Fox looked over his left shoulder and took his plate almost dropping it when he did a double take of what he saw. He squinted, almost certain that his eyes had deceived him; there was a girl, a cat, sitting all alone at the bar with a look of sorrow upon her face.
Falco was looking down at his plate when Fox spoke to him, "Falco look over my left shoulder and look hard."
"What is it that I'm looking for?" he replied.
"No my left, your right."
Falco leaned to the other side; Falco almost knew what Fox was talking about when he saw it. His eyes widened with disbelief, he looked almost like someone gave him a swift kick in the chest, "Katt." he said silently to himself.
CHAPTER 2 Old Friends
The Great Fox flew up to the landing pad to the west of the hangers. They decided to land outside since all the indoor hangers were full. The massive ship flew over the landing pad hovered for a minute, and then slowly touched down, a perfect landing.
Everyone met at the end of the take off runway. Slippy flipped a switch a platform dropped from the ceiling. Everyone got onto the platform; it was about 12 meters by 12 meters with a terminal standing up in the middle. Slippy pressed his hand against the computer screen in the console, there was a humming and slight vibration beneath their feet but stopped as soon as the platform picked up six inches off the ground. A hologram about a foot high then flickered on over the monitor; it was orange and cylindrical looking with a pale green bar about two inches wide in the middle. Slippy stuck his webbed hand into the middle of the green area which turned a red color signifying it was tracking movements. He raised his hand a little and the platform picked up higher off the ground, as he tilted his had forward it began to move out of the Great Fox towards the light of the open runway. The platform touched down and Slippy deactivated the anti-gravity platform by pressing his hand against the monitor again. Everybody got off including Slippy who was smiling happily at his new invention.
"You definitely over pride yourself with this toy of yours," Falco said with a raised eyebrow.
You definitely over pride yourself with your kill record," Slippy retorted.
"Touché," Falco said arrogantly, he knew he was right about that.
Just then twelve an armed Cornerian guards approached the team in two single file lines. "Ah, good to see you again StarFox," the squad leader said and then quickly saluting the team along with the rest of his squad behind him. "General Pepper has been expecting you for quite a while."
"As you were gentlemen, keep this junky old bird safe for me will ya?" said Fox who was pleased to finally get some respect.
"Would you like us to escort you to the General's quarter's sir?" he then asked.
"No thanks guys, we know the way around."
"Very well then sir, we'll stay at our posts," the squad leader said.
And with that, they left the soldiers guarding the Great Fox, and started towards the entrance of head quarters. Falco and Slippy were bickering over something; Fox wasn't paying much attention to it. Krystal who was in back of the group ran up to Fox who was leading the pack.
"Are you like famous here or something?" she asked.
"Well I guess you might say that, eight years ago I defeated Andross for the first time and ended the first Lylat war, my team and were considered as heroes."
Krystal and Fox talked for the rest of the way up to Peppers office where everyone entered. Pepper's office was large; he had an oak desk with papers stacked up that seemed as if they had been there for days. Something important was definitely on his mind because it wasn't like him to leave stuff lying around. Pepper was staring out his window at the Great Fox smoking a cigar; he quickly turned around to greet the team. "StarFox, I've been expecting you! The press wants a report on what happened over there," Fox shook Pepper's hand.
"It's too bad I'm not going to talk to them, here is my report: There was a social struggle over power taking place on the planet. The original ruling tribe was restored to power and General Scales; the leader of the extremist group was killed."
"I'll have my secretary make a note of it, but for now enough of the work and lets get some breakfast," Pepper then turned to Krystal. "Who is this?"
"This is my friend Krystal; I kind of saved her life back on Dinosaur Planet. She and I will need your help; she is looking her planet which may be outside of this solar system."
"I'll do what I can when I get my other obligations out of the way." Pepper walked over to his door and opened it motioning everyone to follow him down to the mess hall.
The mess hall wasn't a mess hall at all it was actually quite nice, and decorated with banners of the Cornerian army. The food was actually good compared to what Fox had been eating since he was last here. Everyone ate hungrily especially Krystal who was dieing for food this morning but didn't want to be burden on anyone. Pepper stopped eating for a moment and dabbed his mouth with his napkin.
"I've been meaning to tell you guys what's been going on down here the past couple of months with our secret weapons division." Everyone abruptly stopped eating and looked up at Pepper, except for Krystal who was enjoying her second helping of tuna. "We have been working on a stealth equipped aircraft that we would like to primarily use for spying on Venom. It's been quiet there for years, almost too quiet; so we're sending your old friend Bill to try it out and do a little reconnaissance for us.
"Wow I haven't seen Bill in ages!" Fox thought to himself
"So what's it called? Can we go check this thing out later?" Slippy piped up.
"I've decided to call it." Pepper paused for a moment to act more dramatic. "The Spectral Wraith, and yes, you can go see it. It's in hanger echo 7, I'll give you clearance when you get down there."
Falco shoved the rest of his breakfast into his beak and swallowed hard. "Well I'm done I'll see you guys down there," and immediately jumped out of his seat and ran out the door.
"Me too!" Slippy said shooting out of his chair.
"Speaking of ships I just remembered," Fox turned to Krystal, who had cleaned her plate.
"Do you still want that Sharp Claw transport? I don't like having that thing on my ship and anywhere you go with it don't expect a warm welcome."
"Well what will I have to fly around in if I have to leave for some reason?" she asked.
"Hey your birthday is coming up isn't it? I tend to be very generous to people I care about around their birthdays; so shall we?"
Krystal giggled at his courteousness, "We shall, and you can scrap the transport," she said looping her arm around Fox's.
Fox smiled back at her, "Thanks for the chow Pepper; I gotta go say hi to an old friend.
Slippy, Falco, Fox, and Krystal all exited leaving Peppy behind, "I swear they all have anxiety disorders," Peppy said shaking his head.
Pepper let out a roaring laugh, "Oh to be young again."
Falco and Slippy had gotten down to the hanger a lot quicker than Fox and Krystal had. The Spectral Wraith hovered elegantly in the middle of the hanger; it had the new and advanced G-diffuser systems which ran on themselves making landing gear unnecessary. The ship was slightly larger than an Arwing; it was painted all black except for some parts of the boosters and the two windows on the cockpit which were a dark red. "Probably for thermal scanning and advanced navigation," Fox thought to himself. The body of the ship was shaped like a large diamond with two wings protruding from the sides and arcing downwards. On the tip of each wing was one black and chrome Starlight Excel Plus engine. The engines were shaped almost like ovals with a lot of vents used for keeping the engines running silent.
The next thing Fox noticed was his old friend Bill Grey standing in front of the ship. Fox thought about how he should present himself to Bill who was bragging to other pilots.
Fox turned to the rest of his team, "Watch this," he said as he turned away and began to jog towards Bill. He slowly picked up speed until he was at a full run and about five feet from Bill. Bill turned suddenly to see what was charging him but it was too late. BAM! Fox made a perfect tackle and had Bill pinned to the ground.
"OW! WHAT THE? You son of a bitch." Bill said calmly as he threw Fox off of him and waved the other pilots away.
The other pilots Bill was just talking with earlier were staring dumb-faced at each other before shrugging and walking off. Fox laughed hysterically as he rolled off of Bill, "You should of seen the look on you face; the perfect way to greet your best friend since preschool!"
Bill was also laughing so hard he could have blacked out from lack of oxygen, but the two pals later able to control themselves and get back up on their feet. Bill threw his arm around Fox's shoulder as they walked to where everyone else was standing bewildered on why Fox had just speared Bill.
"You know I think I should be the one spearing you dude, what's it been like, a year and I get no word from ya, the hell ya been doin this whole time? Bill asked poking Fox in the chest.
"Oh just the usual mercenary stuff, helping one group and getting paid for getting rid of another," Fox responded.
"Bill! It's been a while," Slippy said shaking Bill's hand.
"Hey Slip, how's it going?" Bill responded to Slippy.
"Good to see you again Bill, still a slave for General Pepper?" Falco asked Bill with a smug look on his face.
"No actually, and I'll gladly kick your ass again in the simulators big guy, let's see if you learned anything before you seemed to have come crawling back to Fox.
Falco just leered at Bill who had just turned his attention to the lovely blue vixen who was standing beside Fox, "And uh.who might you be?"
"Oh, my name is Krystal; it's a pleasure to meet you," she said holding out her hand.
"No, the pleasure is all mine," Bill was shaking her hand for a prolonged amount of time and starring as if he had no brain.
Fox interrupted, "You're lucky I can't see through those shades, cause if your eyes aren't level with hers I'll knock your teeth out!"
"Huh, I know man I know; c'mon lets get let's get the hell out of here; I want to enjoy my last six hours here before the mission."
"Wait," Fox stopped him, "you're leaving for the mission today?"
"Yeah Pepper didn't tell you the details?" Bill said looking over his shoulder, Fox shook his head no. "Alright let's just go to one of my favorite hang out spots and I'll fill you in."
Fox, Bill, Krystal, Slippy, and Falco all left the hanger and the hovering wonder. For a while Fox and Bill just lead the group around and taking frequent glimpses at the shades of each-others past. Bill wanted to take his mind off of his work for awhile and decided he would tell Fox what he would be doing with the Spectral Wraith later. Stopping from place to place saying things like, "Hey remember when we were last here?" also, "Oh man this is the place where we." and other such things. They felt like they were reliving the past all over again taking Krystal for the ride and leaving Falco and Slippy bored out of their skulls. Krystal was having fun for just walking around and talking with all of them she was very interested in what this planet had to offer. This went on for hours at a time, until about two o'clock and nobody had eaten anything. Bill decided it would be appropriate for him and the rest of the gang to go to his favorite bar and grill before he had to leave. The place was called The Next Nirvana, it was a nice place, and they had good music and good food what more could you want? It was a well-known hang out place for most canines, but it wasn't uncommon to see others besides canines there. Pepper and Peppy where sitting in a large booth in the corner of the restaurant half smoking their cigars.
"Mind if we join you, old timers?" Fox said, even though he was always calling Peppy an old timer and a geezer he still had a lot of respect for him.
"Sure the more the merrier, take a load off!" General Pepper said making room for his guests and extinguishing his cigar.
Krystal took a seat next to Fox, Bill sat across from him and Slippy and Falco filled in wherever there was room. Bill exchanged pleasantries with Peppy because he hadn't seen him down in the hanger, a waitress came around and took orders minutes later and left.
"So do you feel like talking yet?" Fox asked Bill.
Bill let out a tired sigh, "Well, what I'll be doing is just going into Venom's atmosphere and just flying around using advanced scanning and imaging just too see if they are plotting anything. I'll be looking for hangers, weapon caches, bunkers, and other military type installations. If you've taken out Andross like Pepper was telling me earlier we should have no problem with him except for a few 'neo-nazi' types which will be disposed of at a later date."
Everyone had an impressed look on their face, especially Fox, Falco chuckled at him. "Sounds like you got your work cut out for you," Fox said.
"Yea well it'll be fun using all of this new state-of-the-art equipment, especially the ship. I told you about all the spying gizmos on it which is pretty cool but it has no warp drive, weapon system, or transmitters. All of which could easily tip off the Venomians and then it wouldn't be much of a stealth craft now would it? The twin engines are really a piece of work, I'll be able to hit mach three in almost three seconds if I wanted to but hopefully there won't be any need for such a fast escape."
"Wait a minute," Slippy said, "You said there's no warp drive, how long is it going to take for you to get there?"
Bill thought for a minute trying to recall what his mission dossier had said about the time and trip distance. "Well.I think it will be an eight day trip there and back, and two days of wet work."
"Sounds uhh.." Fox began, "Boring!" Falco had finished for him, Fox shot him a glare.
Bill shrugged, when suddenly and idea popped into his head. "Hey, I just remembered she's been made to seat two, wanna go for a ride?" he asked Fox.
"Sorry man, I got things I need to take care of down here," Fox said.
The waitress had returned with the food that they had ordered. Bill was known well there being his favorite restaurant so he got a large helping of food. Fox and Krystal had both ordered the same thing; Fox's mouth watered savoring the smell of smoked salmon. Fox looked over his left shoulder and took his plate almost dropping it when he did a double take of what he saw. He squinted, almost certain that his eyes had deceived him; there was a girl, a cat, sitting all alone at the bar with a look of sorrow upon her face.
Falco was looking down at his plate when Fox spoke to him, "Falco look over my left shoulder and look hard."
"What is it that I'm looking for?" he replied.
"No my left, your right."
Falco leaned to the other side; Falco almost knew what Fox was talking about when he saw it. His eyes widened with disbelief, he looked almost like someone gave him a swift kick in the chest, "Katt." he said silently to himself.