Star Fox Adventures and all its characters are property of Rare and Nintendo. They are used without their consent and well.. [shrugs]
Just read on.
Ok, lets clear some facts from previous chapters. First, yes, the dream Fox has in chapter 6, and that Krystal has as well even though you only realize so later on is indeed an adaptation of Yuna's dream of FFX-2. That dream, along with the future ones and what-not will have an actual impact on the story, they aren't there just for fun...
Two, Jamie Holgren and Chris O'Donnell will also bear future roles, can't say exactly the same about Cleo Habana or Sean Tavalo, we'll see later. Also, future characters introduced here will be of importance as well... So yeah, just wanted to clear out those few things.
The Fox and the Vixen - Chapter 10 - Another Beginning, Another Story.
"Come on, lets go!" A middle-aged-looking blue fox yelled as three more foxes, also in blue fur, stepped forward past him.
"Watch out!" The one on the right exclaimed as she stepped forward and quickly extended her paws to the front before she lifted a magical barrier in front of the group just as a fireball splattered against it. Both the fireball and the barrier vanished in a cloud of gray smoke almost instantly.
"Wow, close one. We almost ended like the rest of our comrades," the middle one said as he looked around. It was a completely open and barren field loitered with several bodies of blue-furred foxes and deep black-furred foxes, not necessarily a cross variant, and only the tip of the tail remained white, perhaps a small spot in the ears but that was about it. Most bodies presented strong burns since you could easily spot charred pieces of fur, not to mention most remained lifelessly in the floor. You could see one or two vixens of blue fur trying to heal any breathing blue fox as both were encased in a soft green light.
"Save the small talk for later. Here they come!" The last one, the one on the left, yelled before a fireball manifested in front of his paws and was sent flying towards a group of four approaching black foxes. Only one fell to the surprise attack as one managed to lift a barrier long enough to save the caster and the other two.
"Reinforcements..." The first fox started as he extended a finger from his right paw from where a bolt of electricity sprung forward in almost a straight line taking down one of the three remaining black foxes before it was able to react. "...Are coming."
"They've got their own support too!" The only vixen of the four yelled to the rest as she readied herself to lift a barrier any second now.
"Alright, just as we planned it. Proceed with the operation!" The first fox, which you could say was the leader, said as several vixens stepped forward and extended a barrier. All the males stayed in the back gathering all their power to create an enormous ball of energy.
"T-they are doing the same thing?!" A vixen questioned to no one in special and with a hint of disbelief in her voice.
"This can't be happening..." Another muttered just as both energy globes flew against each other. They made contact and exploded in a blinding flash of energy and everything went white...
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
"Ah!" A pair of figures yelped in unison in the dark. Both were breathing heavily.
A small source of light crawled into the room to reveal two foxes; a russet-gold-furred male and a cerulean-furred vixen standing upright in bed with the covers around their lower halves. Still clothed mind you...
They looked at each other and started to calm down considerably. "It's been three months and the dreams won't cease..." the female spoke.
"But nothing has happened... The only important news in these last months have been of Corneria establishing bonds with this other galaxy... Hmm, Shakray?" The fox tried as the female nodded.
"I guess there's no point in worrying too much about these dreams for now," the female sighed as she laid down in bed again. "At least they stopped being about us dying since the last one."
"Yeah," the male nodded as he laid down as well, pressing himself against the vixen, who did so as well, before both drew the covers over them. "Pepper was going to contact us tomorrow about a new mission, so we'll have something to be distracted about." The female hummed in response. "Have a nice sleep of what's left of the night, Krys."
"You too, Fox." Both snuggled closer and pressed the covers against them harder to avoid the winter breezes of Corneria that seeped through the window before they fell asleep again.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
A little more than three months had passed since the fight between Corneria and Scales' forces took place. It had left yet another scar in Corneria's history, but they moved on.
Fox and Krystal had gotten real close in all this time. If you wouldn't say so earlier, you now couldn't deny they were officially an 'item' so to speak. Though you could still think they had just met each other for they hadn't gone past all the fluffiness so far. They had gone so far as to just sleep together in bed, but just sleep, nothing intimate yet. They deemed it too soon.
Concerning Katt and Falco, no one really knew. Falco had apologizes to her, no one was sure of the exact reason and before they knew it they had closed communications with every other ship in the surrounding area after the fight was done; much to everyone's dismay. They didn't spoke about the matter to anyone else and soon after the whole situation had been cleared they both left...again...together.
Fox and Jamie were still in contact. Mostly because of Krystal since she often forced Fox to come along with her when she went to pay a visit to her in the Academy, not that Fox minded going with her of course. They often met Chris while in the Academy as well, which as far as Fox knew, was still being helped by his uncle. Fox still wanted to see him one day and clear all those unfinished issues... And possibly to find out what led him to leave the Academy and join Andross, though Fox doubted he'll ever speak about that.
Jamie was still the leader of the Lupus squad of course. They had done a very good job on the first fight and Pepper personally complimented them on such task, for most of the time a new squad was called into battle they often had a lot of problems or what not.
Chris, even though he was done with the Academy, pertaining his studies at least, still could be seen there, he often helped freshmen students or sophomores through a subject or two. Both Fox and Krystal had met Chris' fiancée, whom they knew was called Farah, though they never really asked for the second name; not that it mattered. They still didn't had a set date.
Slippy and Peppy were at the Star Fox 'HQ' as usual. Slippy making sure everything was holding together and Peppy just being that fatherly figure he usually was. Right... Back to Corneria.
Solar was creeping up again, signaling the beginning of yet another day in the peaceful Corneria. Though if you are unlucky enough to have Solar's rays smash right into your face then you can be in for a rough morning...
"I always..." a russet-gold fox yawned, "Forget to close the damn blind of the window."
A second figure, a blue vixen currently in an embrace of the male fox stirred a little with a small yawn. "At least you cover me from the light all those times," she giggled.
"C'mon, we have to get ready. I have this feeling Pepper will want us to go to the Cornerian Army Base to meet him," the fox let go of the vixen and stepped out of the covers. He shivered just slightly before he somewhat got used to the bitter-cold climate that had befallen on Corneria in the winter season. Sure, the room had internal heating system but we know the feeling, right?
"Why didn't you tell me earlier that Corneria could be this cold in the winter..." Krystal somewhat whined as she drew the covers closer to her.
Fox turned around to see her and shrugged. "I'll see you in a few downstairs," he said before he got up and left for the bathroom of the room. A few seconds after he closed the door Krystal sighed before she reluctantly left bed. She still had the covers wrapped around herself to avoid any shivers as she left the room and headed to her old bedroom to take a shower as well.
About half an hour later, Fox was already heading down the stairs, sporting a pair of blue baggy winter pants and a green shirt. "Morning," he said to the hare in the table going through the holographic newspapers.
"Good morning," the hare absently-minded chorused as he kept his sight on the news.
Fox noticed that, "Where's Slip?" he asked as he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee, which was ready. He also prepared a cup of tea for Krystal.
Peppy snapped back to reality, "Slippy? Still asleep I suppose, he was up pretty late yesterday apparently." He resumed his reading.
Fox walked back to the table holding both drinks. He sat down and after placing Krystal's drink down he took a sip from his coffee, he forgot to cool off a little the coffee and burned his tongue slightly, making him take quick breaths for air. Once he had calmed down he sighed in relief, "Has Pepper called yet by any chance?"
Peppy lifted a finger in wait. After a few seconds he nodded to himself before turning off the holographic image and looked up at Fox. "Actually, yes. About fifty minutes ago. He wants to meet the whole group in his office at ten o'clock sharp." Fox turned around to look at the clock in the wall which read 8.42 AM. At about the same time Krystal started walking down the stairs wearing a pair of teal-bone colored pants with a light sweatshirt in the same color.
"Here you go," Fox said as he handed Krystal her mug filled with tea. She had nothing against coffee, and drank it on rare occasions, but she preferred tea in the morning. She kissed Fox in the cheek as she grabbed her mug and sat down next to Fox as she took a sip. "Pepper wants to meet us at ten sharp by the way." Krystal hummed in response since she couldn't answer.
"Any idea as to what this is going to be about?" Krystal asked as she wrapped her tail around Fox's and playfully tagged it.
"Not really," Fox shook his head, "But I can say it will have something to do with the Shakray Galaxy," Fox answered as he tugged Krystal's tail this time; he turned to look at Peppy. "Anything interesting in the news today?"
Peppy shook his head and half-shrugged, "Just about the usual. You know Corneria, as quiet as ever." Fox chuckled to that and Peppy raised his head in thought, "Just where were you two last night anyway? You seem quite tired this morning."
Krystal took the last of her mug, "Well, after the movie and the dinner we walked again to the cliff nearby here and time just kinda flew by." Over the course of the three last months that summit had become a very special place for the young couple, especially at night since it gave quite a romantic charm to it.
Fox brought his mug down, "And the dreams keep going." Peppy looked at him with concern, and with a frown, "We just had the fifth dream this last night."
"What was it about this time?" Peppy inquired. Not long after the third dream showed up, which was about three weeks after the war had ended, both foxes started to talk about it sometimes, up to a certain level though and mainly to Peppy in the hopes of finding anything, or even the slightest connection with any event at all.
"A war," Krystal started as she let go of Fox's tail. "A scene from a war actually. It was just magic, and I'm sure one of the sides were Cerinians, since they were blue-furred foxes and they were fighting against black-furred foxes. They don't really mention much..." She rested her head in her paws and swayed her tail with anguish. "It all ended in a giant explosion and a blinding flash of light."
"Any ideas?" Fox cocked his head at Peppy's question.
Krystal quickly shook her head. "As you know, I was only four when my planet exploded, and I had barely started my early studies by the time," she sighed. "Unfortunately, I know as much as you do about Cerinia when it comes to its history."
"There's just no sense to these dreams," Fox shook his his head with dismay. "Anyway, we've got a little more than half an hour before we have to head out. Any ideas as to what to do, Krys?" He looked at the vixen as he grabbed her right paw and squeezed it affectionately.
"Quick walk through the morning?" She suggested. The fox nodded and they stepped out after clearing their mugs and saying goodbye to the hare for now.
The door closed, "Young furs these days..."
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
An hour later what was left of the Star Fox crew: Fox, Krystal, Peppy and Slippy were in the reception area outside Pepper's office. Fox was pacing around back and forth behind a single couch, where Krystal was sitting on one of the armrests swaying her tail lazily. Slippy was at the far end of the room gazing through the big windows and Peppy reading through the latest issue of "Cornerian Geographic" he had found in a magazine rack in the same room.
Fox approached Krystal from behind and placed his right paw on her shoulder, to which she slightly jumped. "You startled me!"
Fox frowned as she looked at him, "Why so nervous?"
Krystal slightly shook her head, "I don't know." She brought her right paw to Fox's and held it. "I was always like this when it comes to important furs. Even my father got me nervous, and he was very caring to everyone." Fox remembered Krystal was basically a princess back in her planet. During the last months with the help of Fox she had been able to finally move on and forget somewhat of her cruel past. It still hurt her to talk about the events, but not as much as before.
"Lack of social contact I suppose," Peppy commented from his seat.
"Nah, I was just like this the first time Pepper called me here while I was at the Academy..." Peppy turned his head away from the magazine to look at Fox, who smiled sheepishly. "Then again, I had every reason to be like that that day," he chuckled to himself but no one pressed the matter.
The elevator ringed a few meters behind them and the doors opened to reveal Cleo Habana, the arctic wolf, and Sean Tavalo, the black wolf. They were talking to each other as they stepped out of the elevator when Cleo noticed the Star Fox crew. "Oh, the Star Fox is here too."
Just before Fox could answer back a set of double doors opened on the other side of the room and a female hedgehog clad in a red uniform appeared. "Sorry for the delay," she apologized with a small bow, "Pepper is ready to see you all. Please proceed through." She opened the door completely and stepped to the side as everyone walked by. She closed the doors afterwards and walked away.
Pepper, who was currently looking away from the door and down into Corneria city from his window, turned around when the door clicked as it closed. "Ah, Star Fox, Habana, Tavalo. Please, take a seat," he extended his right paw motioning to the table in front of him and in the middle of the room. Fox, Krystal and Cleo sat on the right whereas Peppy, Slippy and Sean sat on the left. Pepper took the only seat in the north side of the table.
He raised his paw to his mouth and coughed in an attempt to clear his throat before he laid both arms on the table. "As you should know, we've been establishing bonds with the Shakray Galaxy," a couple of furs nodded. "We don't know their situation, but we recently got several distress calls from one of their squads, which was reduced to one almost instantly; they still don't know how the whole squad was reduced to almost nothing almost instantly, considering the Phantoms, the standard military model of the galaxy are quite nimble from what I've seen, and a flagship was destroyed as well. But as I previously said, only one unit remained," he paused somewhat at the frowns from some of the furs there. "Now, the galaxy consists only of four planets; three of which are inhabited, the fourth is extremely cold which doesn't allows any vegetation to grow normally, and that's where this only survivor landed."
"It's not like you to accept this kind of requests, Pepper," Peppy interjected.
Pepper nodded, "True, but this should help in future relationships. Not to mention they can't really spare any units to retrieve the lone survivor due to this unknown threat that attacked the squad."
"I can see where this is going. You want us to go and check the distress call, right?" Fox asked.
Cleo coughed politely to get attention, "Excuse me, General. Is there a reason in this as to why Tavalo and I were called here as well?"
Pepper nodded at her, "Yes, but we shall discuss those matters after this. So Star Fox," he turned his attention to Fox, "Your answer?"
Fox cocked his head somewhat, "You know the drill, Pepper," he smirked after that returning his head to a normal position. "But we'll take it I guess..." He looked at Peppy, who nodded. Slippy did the same and Krystal as well. "Alright, we'll be on it as soon as possible and when we get the data on this planet." The whole Star Fox crew got up from their seats.
"Contact me when you are ready to leave, I'll send you all the necessary data then. Of course, you'll be credited when you successfully complete the assignment. As to the fur who sent the distress call, the job also includes taking him or her back to his planet." The Star Fox all nodded and walked outside.
The doors clicked as they closed, "Slippy, everything ready for takeoff?" Fox asked as they stepped into the elevator.
Slippy nodded, "Everything should be ready. I'll do a last minute check up when we get there." The elevator doors closed.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
"Such my luck," an arctic fox - white furred with gray strikes to be precise - pacing near a ship snarled to no one in particular. He was wearing green baggy pants strapped to his angles and a blue buttoned vest with a pair of black thermal boots. He only regretted wearing his vest this day, but he never knew he was going to end on a freezing planet. He still thanked his luck that a blizzard hadn't started in the area, still... You could only see white all around.
"Damn it!" He grunted as he sent his right leg into a kick against the metal hull of his ship. He grimaced right away after the loud hollow sound of the hit. "Ok, bad idea..." He stretched his right leg and started to flex it a little to make the pain go away as he cursed softly under his breath. He sighed, "Lets give it another shot then," he muttered.
Raising his right arm he brought a small wrist-comp that rested on his arm to his mouth, and using his left paw he pressed a few buttons on the panel before he spoke up, "This is lieutenant Halbred. Libertador IV, do you read me?" He let go of one of the buttons and waited. After thirty seconds had passed he gave up again. "They must have gotten them too... Whatever 'they' are."
He paced for a little more before he heaved a heavy, long sigh. Approaching his ship's cockpit he pressed another button on his wrist-comp to open it before he started to rummage through the back of his seat before he pulled out a red, small metal box of about 30 centimeters long, twenty wide and about 15 tall. He opened it to reveal it was a tool box indeed before he started to go through the inside, he smiled as he closed it before he sniffled slightly. "Now I'm catching a cold... Perfect..."
The only fur in the area walked to the other side of the ship. Below the right wing actually. He spotted a hole in the metallic hull surrounded by scorched metal, which came from the hit he had taken up in space, which made him end up here. He sat down in the snow, next to the impact zone on the ship. He sighed once again, but just remained there, sitting.
After at least a minute he finally snapped back to reality. Lowering part of the zipper on his vest he pulled the left side away slightly to take out a picture from a pocket resting near his heart. "Angela... You were aboard the Libertador IV at the time... Please, make it home safely, I'll come back to you soon," he said looking at the picture.
It was taken in what looked to be a park. On the sides where a couple of big old trees and in the back you could see the sea, but no shore. In the middle he stood with a wide smile and somewhat blushing, wearing the same clothing he had on right now, he loved that get up. Right behind him, and pretty much clinging to him was a female lynx, she was off ground, supporting herself on the fox with both arms around him. Her fur was a mix between light brown and tan, with dark brown stripes here and there. With long pointy ears tilted slightly to the back and the sides. She had a white t-shirt with a red vest on top, unbuttoned; blue baggy pants and what would pass as the strap of a set of goggles on the top of her head. She was also smiling and her cheeks slightly tainted red as well.
He pocketed the picture where it first was and opened the box, moving a few tools aside he picked up a small blowtorch like device. Though instead of fuel it ran on energy cells, which allowed it to created a small-like high-precision cutting laser, which worked better than a normal blowtorch, even to solder things up. He clicked it on and melted the surrounding area of the burnt metal in a square figure, he removed the piece afterwards and looked inside.
It wasn't that bad looking he thought; then again, mechanics had never been his strong area. The beam that got him had only burned some wiring actually and the G-Diffuser had a small scorch, but it nothing serious. He sighed in relief before he took a roll of wire from the box.
He extended a small piece of wire before he took a pair of tweezers and cut it, then soldered a wire together using the laser blowtorch in a low energy output. He repeated the same procedure for the rest of the burnt wires before he got the duct tape to cover the exposed wire. "Lets just hope this actually works and I don't end up blowing up..."
He grabbed the metal he had cut off and soldered it back, just to cover the exposure somewhat before he closed the tool box and opened the cockpit again, placed the box in the back and jumped in. He closed the cockpit and started hitting a few switches before he started the main engines. "So far so good..." He started to lift his ship before a small explosion ignited where he had just been working on the ship and smoke started to pour out. HE quickly lowered his ship, which hadn't lifted very high to begin with, and turned off the engines. "Damn it!" He scram as he sent both fists against the panels. They flashed somewhat and showed the report of the ship, Halbred noted that life support was almost down. The collision with land must have done something to it. "If it had worked I might had suffocated up there..." He muttered.
He sighed and left his ship with another sniffle caused by the cold environment. "I hope that at least the distress signal I sent got someone..."
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Fox was in his seat aboard the Great Fox typing something into his computer at his side. An empty holographic display appeared in the center of the bridge and after a few seconds Pepper's face appeared with a patient look on his face.
"Ready to leave I presume." Fox nodded to the statement. "Alright, the planet's name is Antaria, and it's pretty much, if not all covered in snow. I'll send a stellar map of the galaxy and the planet's coordinates in a moments."
"We'll call you when we are done, General." The mainframe by Slippy's side beeped as the data transfer concluded. After some more words Pepper closed the communication. "Alright, take your seats. We are heading out!"
Everyone jumped to their seats with the exception of Slippy as he finished typing something before he sat down. Krystal had taken Falco's old seat as well. Everyone put on their seatbelts before Fox gave ROB the signal to lift off. ROB complied as the ship started to lift a few seconds afterwards and left the Cornerian atmosphere after about twenty seconds.
"ROB, are the warp engines ready?" Fox asked as he typed something on his laptop.
"Warp engines, ready. Awaiting for confirmation to initiate warp jump to introduced coordinates," he answered in his robotic, monotonous voice.
"What's the estimated time to reach Antaria?"
"ETA to Antaria is of four hours, seven minutes and twenty-two seconds if we initiate warp jump at this moment."
"Initiate warp jump."
"Activating warp engines," ROB beeped. A few seconds later the Great Fox lurched forward sending everyone against their seats; ROB was hooked to the ground in a special platform however, so he was unaffected. The ship was moving like a blur and so every star passed by at an incredible speed, surrounding the space in a strange game of lights and colors. Krystal, even though this was her second time in a warp jump, hadn't paid much attention the first one and was now mesmerized at the sight that was presented to her. About five seconds must have passed by before the ship completely stabilized back to how it would normally be even though it remained in warp mode.
Fox unbuckled his belt and stood up. "Slippy, need help in anything around the bridge?" Fox asked.
Slippy also jumped down from his seat and shook his head at Fox, "I double-checked everything before take off, nothing seems wrong. If something comes up I'll let you know."
Fox nodded, "Right, well, feel free to take the time off. I guess we won't be doing any maintenance today."
Peppy started to head out, "I'm taking a nap. Wake me up once we get there please." The metal doors of the bridge opened.
"Will do, Peppy." Fox complied as the doors closed automatically. Krystal jumped from her seat and approached Fox, she whispered something to him and both walked away, leaving Slippy alone for a moment before he also walked out.
Fox and Krystal walked together through the Great Fox. The russet-gold fox with his right paw around Krystal's backside and ending on her right shoulder, whereas Krystal's left paw was around the left side of Fox's waist. They entered Fox's room. The small ray of light from the corridor pierced through the darkness before the whole room was lit as Fox pressed the light switch. Both sat on the bed.
"Krys, about the last dream..."
"What about it?" She laid her head in Fox's shoulder and started to affectionately nuzzle his neck ever so slightly.
Fox, although a little distracted by her actions pressed on. "Do Cerinians have any kind of magical powers or the like?"
Krystal slowed down with a frown as she looked at him. "I can't really say for sure. If we could use magic, I don't think Scales would have been able to... kill my family that easy. You saw it on the fourth dream," she sighed. The fourth dream had consisted on a strange rerun on the fate that had befallen Cerinia its last night. Showing pieces on Scales' actions, in which Fox saw how the whole thing had happened and some black foxes were shown, the same kind as the ones in the fifth dream, though they only showed up once or twice.
"Well I suppose but, Cerinia was inhabited by blue foxes, according to dream anyway; and you can corroborate that as well, so that means the blue foxes that we saw on this last dream were indeed Cerinians. Or at least no records of any other civilization composed of blue foxes has been made so far..." Fox paused, "You think they lost their magical abilities over time?"
Krystal hummed in thought, "Hmm. Perhaps that might have been the case," she lifted her head from Fox's shoulder. "I don't think I have any of those abilities actually," she stared blankly into the shimmering sea of flowing stars through the window. "I had only started my education in Cerinia at that time, and while I learned a lot from the time I was in the orphanage of Karenia; it's not like they could teach us the history of Cerinia." She laid back in bed as Fox held her left paw, squeezing it lightly.
"Maybe we'll know in the future."
"Perhaps, but you still remember the third dream, right?"
"How to forget that one. If you ask me, the first one was the worst, the third one comes next for me, but what about it?" The third dream, which was also the last one directly involving Fox and Krystal had happened in a ship as well. In fact, it looked just like the same place where the previous two dreams had happened. This time however, both foxes were running frantically at top speed through a corridor as the whole place was exploding. In the far end of the corridor you could see a docking bay, as two Arwings were waiting there, but before they could get to them a metal door started to close from the top and bottom of the corridor right in front of them. They started to hit the door desperately in an attempt to open it up but to no avail. They turned around to see the explosions coming in closer before they embraced together for the inevitable as the whole place ended in a giant explosion...
"Right before the end, as we look to the Arwings... Did you noticed anything peculiar, like someone moving?" Krystal returned the squeeze.
"Hmm..." Fox started to relive the dream in his head. "Now that you mention, I do think something looks out of place in the background. What are you getting at?"
"You think it was one of those black foxes?"
Fox shook his head, "No clue. You can barely see the shadow moving." He laid down next to Krystal and snuggled to her.
Krystal purred lightly, "Why is this happening to us, Fox?"
"You mean the dreams? Honestly, I want to know as much as you do. But they can't keep going on forever. I guess we'll just have to endure them together." Krystal nodded to Fox's answer before her stomach groaned slightly. She blushed under her fur.
"Can we eat something? All I've had since we woke up was the cup of tea and it's been almost four hours since then."
Fox got up and helped her up as well, "Now that you mention it, I could use some food as well. Come on, I've been meaning to try a new dish." Everyone in the Star Fox knew how to cook, and they each had their own specialty, not to mention picking up a new recipe every now and then. Krystal was still learning, but she had been improving quite fast lately. They left Fox's room after turning the lights off and headed to the cabin.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
An arctic fox paced by in the snow. A small blizzard had blown by, but it only lasted several minutes. "Amazing how even the life support system of my Ripper was blown off after I tried lifting her up... I just had to try fixing it..." He kicked some snow as he sneezed.
He looked and a snow flake flew into his eye. With a soft curse he blinked it off. He looked up again, "I just want to know what happened... It's been almost twelve hours since I crash-landed here..." He sat on the hull of his Ripper. "I wonder what shot us down anyway; there was nothing there and the next second my whole squad had disappeared and I went down." Another sneeze. "I guess the Libertador IV met the same fate, but my Angela..." He took the picture out of his vest again, watched it for a second, smiled softly and tucked it back in.
His wrist-comp beeped, snapping him back to reality. He frowned before looking at the screen as his face lit up with a wide smile as he jumped down from the ship and looked up waiting. "Looks like my distress signal got someone... Took them a while though."
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
"Exiting warp drive mode and preparing to enter Antaria's atmosphere," ROB announced. Everyone took their seats and put on their safety belts as the ship lurched once again making the blurring sea of stars come to a halt and providing them with a full look of Antaria: A planet completely covered in snow. After a minute or so the ship sped up considerably as it went through the atmosphere.
Fox noted the small blizzard raging in their surrounding area. "Pepper did mention it was cold, but not completely covered in snow... Oh well, Corneria is going through winter too, so clothing won't be an issue at least..." He rolled his eyes as everyone chuckled slightly. "ROB, can you trace the distress call?"
"Affirmative. Distress call originated at eighteen point three kilometers away at two-hundred-fifty-four degrees."
"Alright, set course in that direction."
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
The ship is getting closer... Halbred thought to himself before he opened the cockpit of his Ripper and went through the back of the seat again. He took out a sniper rifle. I'm not taking any chances this time... Just remember, don't shoot unless they mean harm... Halbred was the trigger-happy guy type, so it often got him in problems... That, and breaking almost any rifle that touched his hands.
The Great Fox landed about 200 meters away from the fox's position. He lifted his rifle and spotted two figures approaching through the lens: a russet-gold fox or so he thought, and a cerulean vixen. He saw both of them were carrying small blasters but didn't looked like an actual threat, in a harmful way anyway. He lowered his rifle and started to walk closer.
When the difference between both parties was about of 20 meters, the arctic fox stopped and raised his rifle. "Stay where you are and state who you are... please..." He muttered the please.
"He's holding a rifle at us and he says please? That's a new one..." Fox muttered to himself. "We are the Star Fox, a mercenary group from Corneria hired upon request of your planet to trace the source of the distress call that was sent from this planet and rescue you."
Halbred held his rifle in position but moved his head to the side, losing his close-up look provided to him by the lens. "And my planet is?"
Both foxes blinked in surprise. They hadn't gotten that information at all. Krystal spoke, "Our... 'employer' didn't mention that to us." She emphasized employer somewhat.
Wesley doubted them a little. He did knew Corneria was the main planet of the Lylat System, still... "Give me a reason why I should believe you."
Fox shook his head, "We've got none. We'll be leaving now then," he turned around and tugged Krystal to follow. She was about to protest but Fox whispered before she could, "Play along." Krystal frowned but decided to comply as she followed.
"W-wait!" Halbred lowered his rifle completely and extended his right arm to his front with a step. Both Fox and Krystal turned around and Halbred hung his head, "Alright, I'll go with you. I believe you," and he did, but not exactly 100%. He dashed to them.
"Works like a charm," Fox smirked before he approached the arctic fox with Krystal behind him.
"I'm sorry about that," the lone fox said as he scratched behind his head using his right paw. "I'm Wesley Halbred," he extended his right paw.
Fox took it. "I'm Fox McCloud; and this is Krystal." The vixen topped it off with her trademark smile.
She sneezed lightly afterwards, "Finish the presentations later, I'm freezing my tail off here!" She shivered. The dog foxes broke the handshake. Fox held Krystal protectively and Wesley guessed they were a couple, but he dismissed the thought as they hurried back to the Great Fox.
So far, the first half of their new mission was over, but if only they knew...
Alan: What a way to end a chapter.
Krystal: You said it.
Alan: Anyway, I wasn't really expecting to break my old record. Heck, I wasn't even expecting to reach the equivalent of chapter 8, and I was right, I didn't. I could have prolonged this chapter, but then the next entry would've been fuzzy, plus - Oh! Why am I explaining myself to all of you.
Krystal: Nobody asked you to. Smirk
Alan: Stare 'nuff said. Until next time.
So lets see... Jamie Holgren is from Jamie Bunyi. Wesley Halbred is from Wesley... Wesley... I forgot your last name, pal, sorry. Angela, well, she is a weird spin off from a game character I don't remember, but it was Wesley's suggestion too, so.
No beta-reading this time. But anyway.
Final thanks again to all my readers and reviewers. If you notice something off, typos, strange errors or have any constructive (read people, read: constructive) criticism, feel free to drop a line by all means. Flames, well, if you must, my mail is there, use it instead.
I'll see you all next time!
Signed as usual,
Alan "Gray Fox" Quirino
Until next time!
Chapter 11: Mission Extension...?