Chapter 8: Destination: Kymach, PART 1
The whole team cringed as they saw the badly injured echidna. They could see lifeless bodies lying in the sandy background and animals running past the large tent where the echidna was sending the transmission. He desperately continued, "The Kymachian tribes are attacking, they seem to be possessed by some greater power, I can't describe what happened...they just began to attack. We were just posted here to do some archeological digging, but we were attacked and now we're in great danger...we're losing too many men...the Kymachians...NO...no, stay away...AHHH!" Another echidna leaped on top of the speaker and began to mutilate his body. Fox yelled in horror, "ROB, end the transmission now! Hurry!" The image of the bloody echidna vanished from their vision as the holographic screen hummed to a sudden stop. There was an eerie silence that drifted across the bridge, no one knew what to say, they had just seen an innocent animal die in front them...and they couldn't do anything about it. This seemed to spark a flame in Fox's mind. He spurred on his team, "Come on, let's get down to that planet, we have to save those guys from the Kymachians!"
They all stood from their seats and ran out of the room, making sure they had their portable M.C.D. systems equipped. Krystal hesitated and Fox walked over next to her. "Let's go Krystal, we have to save those archeologists!" Krystal looked away and replied timidly, "Fox, that echidna...are there going to be more of those...more terrible deaths...It's just like Cerinia..." Fox looked over at Peppy, who was sitting with ROB, maintaining their orbit. "I can have Peppy go for you Krystal, if you really don't want to do this..." Peppy looked up at Fox and shook his head. He walked over towards Krystal, and told her, "This might all be shocking at first, but once you have as much experience as me...you just...get used to seeing things like that...I'm sure this must be hard for you, but you have to go in place of me. I'm too old to go on these missions anymore..." Krystal glanced over at him, not feeling any comfort in his words. Fox lifted Krystal's face so she looked him in the eyes. "I will make sure nothing like that happens, I'll protect everyone, there will be no more deaths like that, I promise...now...let's get going."
Krystal felt unsure about Fox's words, but she ran along side him down to the Arwings. Slippy and Katt had already left. Krystal climbed into her Arwing and activated the main thrusters. A brilliant blue flame shot from the back of the craft as she gently guided her Arwing out of the docking bay. Fox flew up beside her and gave her a thumbs up out of his cockpit window. Krystal still felt unsure about what she was about to witness and reluctantly flashed a weak smile at Fox. He smiled back and sped off ahead of her, while she carefully followed behind.
The once small looking planet of Kymach became much larger as they approached. It looked like the entire planet was a desert. There seemed to be no distinguishing geological features. Fox thought to himself, Why would the enemy using mind control want to take over a planet like this, it's a desert wasteland...maybe these Kymachians are good fighters...Krystal, I wonder if she really is ready for this...she seemed really worried after she saw that transmission...we all were...even me...I told her I would protect everyone, is that even possible, how big is the enemy force...I hope we can get out of this one ok...
Fox and the team landed on Kymach on the outskirts of the archeologist's gathering of tents and trailers. They exited their fighters and felt a wave of intense heat rush over them. There was no wind or sign of water, just an endless expanse of scorching desert. Katt exclaimed, "Oh, this is nice, let's save some pointless planet that's actually a huge, frickin' hot desert, that sounds like an important mission to me." Fox rolled his eyes and replied, "You didn't have to come along you know." Katt just shrugged as the team started their walk into the small camp.
The small outpost was filled with lots of digging equipment and small trucks that were filled with dirt and sand. Fox entered the camp and one of the echidnas ran up to him. "Are you Cornerians? The ones with the starship?" Fox replied, "Ya, that's us, we were sent here by General Pepper of the Cornerian Army Base to..." The echidna cut him off and desperately asked, "Please, you must take us with you...away from this planet, many have died...we have to leave now before we lose any more of our colleagues." Fox took a step back in surprise, "What, you want us to take all of you? I don't know if Pepper would..." Low growling was heard in front of them. Fox hesitated and looked past the echidna to see two of the archeologist echidnas attacking each other. As they fought, the echidna they had been talking to explained, "This is what happens...the Kymachians attack our team, and if one of our archeologists are beaten by a Kymachian, they can somehow turn the defeated echidna against us...and the cycle continues. I don't know how it happens...but I do know that we can't hold out much longer."
What!? They can take over the minds of other animals? This is worse than I thought...but how is that possible. What if that happens to one of us...This could be more than I'm gettin' paid for...Whoever's controlling these guys sure had a good plan...but all we have to do is clear a small area so we have enough time to receive the M.C.D. system and set it up. It can't be that hard...can it?
Fox replied to the echidna, "I don't know if we can take you with us, but we'll try and clear this area. We'll set up a defense against what's happening, and then we'll figure out what to do from there. Do you have any good...What the...!" Fox stopped as he saw the echidna lunge at him. He dodged the attack with a roll to the side and pulled his blaster. "Krystal, look away!" Krystal turned away just in time as Fox began blasting at the echidna. The body laid dead on the ground bleeding severely from a huge open wound in his chest. There was a temporary silence, until the feint sound of footsteps could be heard approaching from deeper in the camp. Fox looked up at his team and said, "All right, we have to clear this area so we can get the M.C.D. set up. Slippy, you go with Katt and approach the camp from the right flank. Don't try and gun down anything unless you have a clear shot, we don't want too much attention." Slippy and Katt began to walk slowly to the right. Katt shouted back to Fox before she disappeared among the tents and machinery, "Remember Fox, we're tryin' to save this planet, try to keep you're focus on that." Fox rolled his eyes; I bet she could let up on that just a little...
Fox looked over at Krystal. She was staring at the dead body of the echidna. He walked over and put his hand on her shoulder, "Krystal, it's never easy to see deaths like that...but if you think about what we're fighting for...it kinda makes it seem less shocking...I still hate seeing all these dead bodies...but...it can't be helped." Krystal slowly looked up at Fox and replied, "It's not just the fact that there are dead...its...what if...I don't want to lose you like that Fox, how do you know you won't die fighting...?" Fox hesitated and said, "Well, let's just say that if that scroll is the truth, I don't have anything to worry about." Krystal looked at him and smiled, "I guess your right...So what do we have to do?" "First we have to sneak down the left side of the camp, and slowly flush out as many of the enemies as we can, just keep a keen sense of your surroundings and we'll be fine."
They began to slowly walk around the left side of the camp. It was incredibly quiet for a long time, but Fox knew that even silence could conceal lurking danger. They reached the middle of the camp and they still had not heard or seen anything. They began to cautiously sneak into the camp, making sure there was nothing following them. Still nothing could be heard from anywhere, not even blaster fire from their teammates who should've been just across the camp. This could be a trap...I just hope we're not walking straight into...wait...something is coming...I can feel it... Fox stopped Krystal and said, "This is a trap, I can feel...a bunch of enemies coming, we gotta hide." Krystal agreed, "I feel it too, they are coming from...the northwest..." Fox nodded and they ran into one of the abandoned tents. They waited silently in the small tent and listened for any sign of approaching danger.
Fox knew that it would be hard for him to hear footsteps in the sand, so he slowly poked his head out of the small tent. He looked out to the left and saw nothing; he rotated his head to the right and saw some kind of large object sitting next to his head. He looked up the object, seeing as it was connected to something else. He continued raising his sight until he saw that the object was actually one of the echidnas, but luckily, it was looking away from the tent. Fox quickly withdrew his head and slowly crawled back into the tent. He whispered to Krystal, "Ok, one of the echidnas is standing just outside the tent, we need to get rid of him, if he alerts the others, we'll be trapped in here." Krystal quietly replied, "But won't the blaster fire reveal our location?" Fox thought for a second and noticed one of the tent pegs buried under the sand. "Krystal, can you reach that tent peg, we can use that to get rid of him." Krystal silently reached under the cover of the tent and pulled the tent peg from the dry sand. "Ok, you might want to back up, it's gonna be a little bloody." Krystal quickly and calmly crawled to the back of the tent and closed her eyes. Fox made a small noise in the sand and the echidna made a low grunting noise. Fox heard the echidna's footsteps as he turned to look into the tents opening. He hid to the side of the opening as the echidna stuck his head in. Without hesitating, Fox thrust the tent peg into the echidna's slender head. The peg penetrated the skull of the echidna, and he died instantly. The dead body lay just at the entrance of the tent; half of the body was still exposed to daylight. Fox dragged the lifeless corpse inside the tent and buried it under the sand. Fox and Krystal slowly crept from the tent and closed the opening. Fox could smell the blood on his hands and he thought, I've already killed two innocent echidnas...I didn't realize how unforgiving mind control could be...I hate seeing these innocent animals die...but I have to do it... Fox muttered quietly to himself, "Man...I hate this job."
(Over on the right flank)
Katt and Slippy were quickly running and taking cover behind the machinery and tents as a mass of hooded creatures followed them. Katt managed to say between breaths as they hid behind a large piece of machinery, "Slippy, how'd I get stuck with you anyway? I don't know how you could've thought that cactus was a Kymachian. Was it attacking you? Provoking you? Well, I guess there's nothing I can do now, but jeez, did you have to shoot at it...It's a cactus, not an Kymachian, or an echidna...they don't even look close to the same." Slippy replied, "Well...frogs aren't used to this heat, I guess we start seeing things...I'm sorry..." Katt just shrugged, "Whatever, just try and be a little less stupid." As she finished, a few of the hooded Kymachians began to climb over the piece of digging equipment. "Crap, let's get outta here Slippy!" Slippy was already running ahead of her when she said this. She rolled her eyes and chased after him. Katt ran up next to him and grabbed his arm. She looked back and made sure no one was watching. Katt then stopped abruptly and leaped into one of the empty tents and Slippy stumbled in after her. "Katt what are you...mphphmhpm" Katt covered Slippy's mouth and whispered, "Shut up you idiot, they'll hear us." They sat in silence as the group of Kymachians ran past the tent. Katt sighed and said, "Well, that was a close one...I gotta find Fox, Slippy's gonna end up killin' us if I don't." They exited the tent and were clear of any sign of Kymachians or echidnas.
They began to walk outside in the dry heat, Katt didn't seem to mind it that much, but Slippy started to turn a dark red and began breathing heavily. Katt noticed this and asked, "Hey Slippy...you ok? You look a little nauseous..." Slippy could only reply with some hard breathing and a guttural croak. "Katt...It's too hot, I need to get some water...Hey, what's that...Fox?" Katt looked around and didn't see anything. "Uh, Slippy there's nothing there...Slippy?" Slippy had passed out on the sand. "Well great, now what do I do...Oh man, I'm gonna have to haul his sorry butt back up to the Great Fox...This sucks...I hope Fox and his girlfriend will be ok on their own for a while...heh."
(Back to Fox and Krystal)
Before they continued looking for the remaining Kymachians and possessed echidnas, they stopped to make sure their portable M.C.D. systems were secured on the inside of their vests. This versatile adaptation of the much larger M.C.D. was about the size of a floppy disk, and it attached to a pocket on the inside of the vest. It was so small and flat, that it was able to fit comfortably under their vests without any irritation. Fox thought to himself as he studied the device, It looks like such a weak piece of equipment, and Pepper said it hadn't even been tested in action before, it better work...or this mission might get a little trickier.
They cautiously walked through the deserted camp, looking for any more of the mind controlled creatures. As they walked, Fox heard a familiar sound coming from the spot where they had landed upon arrival. He looked back and saw Katt's pink ship flying up into the sky. "What the heck! What's going on? What does Katt think she's doing? Krystal, let's get back to the Arwings." They hurried back to the landing area, forgetting about the fact that the enemies could be waiting for them around every corner. They shortly arrived back at the landing site to see that all the Arwings were still in contact and there appeared to be no mind controlled creatures lurking around. Fox climbed into his Arwing and sent a transmission to Katt's ship. The small plasma screen in his Arwings consol came to life and the image of Katt appeared.
Fox exclaimed, "Katt, what are you doing!? You can't just leave, we've gotta set up that M.C.D. system...We can't..." Katt cut him off, "I'm not leaving! Slippy was getting to be too much trouble, so I just decided to take him back to the Great Fox and get him out of my way." Fox gave her an annoyed look, "Just cause he can get in the way doesn't mean we don't need him!" Katt smirked and replied, "Just joking Fox, Slippy is actually in pretty bad shape, I'm taking him back to the Great Fox so he can whine about his little frog problems to someone else. Don't worry Foxboy, I'll be right back down." Katt ended the transmission and Fox stayed sitting in his Arwing, unsure exactly why he had even brought Slippy down in the first place.
Fox opened the cockpit window of his Arwing and jumped out onto the sand. Krystal approached him from behind and asked, "What happened? Is everything ok?" Fox looked up to the sky and replied, "Ya, seems like Katt just got fed up with Slippy, no big deal." Krystal smiled and responded, "So what do we do now that we only..." Krystal suddenly stopped herself as a slowly approaching sound of yelling came from behind her. She turned around to see a large crowd of Kymachians and echidnas staring them down. Fox jumped in front of Krystal and asked eagerly, "This is it...you ready?" Krystal ran to his side drew her blaster from the holster wrapped around her leg, "I'll always be ready for anything as long as you're with me Fox." Fox smirked and drew his blaster, "Good, cause this isn't gonna be easy..."
(Meanwhile on the Great Fox)
"Hey guys, thought I'd drop Slippy off for a while, you got a problem with babysitting him for me?" Katt said as she entered the Great Fox's bridge. Peppy ran over to Slippy, who seemed barely able to breathe. Peppy looked up at Katt and asked, "What happened down there? Are Fox and Krystal still down there? Are they ok?" Katt smirked and replied, "Heh, there was no action down there, the only action we got was when Slippy managed to attract the Kymachians attention. We had to run for a while, but that was about all that happened before our little frog friend here decided to pass out on me." Peppy looked back at Slippy's red face. "I'll just get him some water and he should be fine, I've seen this before, he makes it look worse than it really is, he just tries to make you feel bad for him so he can get outta doing stuff." Katt turned and headed for the door, "Ya, well, he did a pretty good job of that..." ROB suddenly blared out across the bridge from behind his computer terminal, "Disturbance detected on planet Kymach, large group of mind controlled life forms are gathering near the landing area, possibility of Fox and Krystal's presence at landing area...94.759%." Katt looked back at ROB and said, "Beautiful! Looks like things are finally gettin' exciting around here..."
The whole team cringed as they saw the badly injured echidna. They could see lifeless bodies lying in the sandy background and animals running past the large tent where the echidna was sending the transmission. He desperately continued, "The Kymachian tribes are attacking, they seem to be possessed by some greater power, I can't describe what happened...they just began to attack. We were just posted here to do some archeological digging, but we were attacked and now we're in great danger...we're losing too many men...the Kymachians...NO...no, stay away...AHHH!" Another echidna leaped on top of the speaker and began to mutilate his body. Fox yelled in horror, "ROB, end the transmission now! Hurry!" The image of the bloody echidna vanished from their vision as the holographic screen hummed to a sudden stop. There was an eerie silence that drifted across the bridge, no one knew what to say, they had just seen an innocent animal die in front them...and they couldn't do anything about it. This seemed to spark a flame in Fox's mind. He spurred on his team, "Come on, let's get down to that planet, we have to save those guys from the Kymachians!"
They all stood from their seats and ran out of the room, making sure they had their portable M.C.D. systems equipped. Krystal hesitated and Fox walked over next to her. "Let's go Krystal, we have to save those archeologists!" Krystal looked away and replied timidly, "Fox, that echidna...are there going to be more of those...more terrible deaths...It's just like Cerinia..." Fox looked over at Peppy, who was sitting with ROB, maintaining their orbit. "I can have Peppy go for you Krystal, if you really don't want to do this..." Peppy looked up at Fox and shook his head. He walked over towards Krystal, and told her, "This might all be shocking at first, but once you have as much experience as me...you just...get used to seeing things like that...I'm sure this must be hard for you, but you have to go in place of me. I'm too old to go on these missions anymore..." Krystal glanced over at him, not feeling any comfort in his words. Fox lifted Krystal's face so she looked him in the eyes. "I will make sure nothing like that happens, I'll protect everyone, there will be no more deaths like that, I promise...now...let's get going."
Krystal felt unsure about Fox's words, but she ran along side him down to the Arwings. Slippy and Katt had already left. Krystal climbed into her Arwing and activated the main thrusters. A brilliant blue flame shot from the back of the craft as she gently guided her Arwing out of the docking bay. Fox flew up beside her and gave her a thumbs up out of his cockpit window. Krystal still felt unsure about what she was about to witness and reluctantly flashed a weak smile at Fox. He smiled back and sped off ahead of her, while she carefully followed behind.
The once small looking planet of Kymach became much larger as they approached. It looked like the entire planet was a desert. There seemed to be no distinguishing geological features. Fox thought to himself, Why would the enemy using mind control want to take over a planet like this, it's a desert wasteland...maybe these Kymachians are good fighters...Krystal, I wonder if she really is ready for this...she seemed really worried after she saw that transmission...we all were...even me...I told her I would protect everyone, is that even possible, how big is the enemy force...I hope we can get out of this one ok...
Fox and the team landed on Kymach on the outskirts of the archeologist's gathering of tents and trailers. They exited their fighters and felt a wave of intense heat rush over them. There was no wind or sign of water, just an endless expanse of scorching desert. Katt exclaimed, "Oh, this is nice, let's save some pointless planet that's actually a huge, frickin' hot desert, that sounds like an important mission to me." Fox rolled his eyes and replied, "You didn't have to come along you know." Katt just shrugged as the team started their walk into the small camp.
The small outpost was filled with lots of digging equipment and small trucks that were filled with dirt and sand. Fox entered the camp and one of the echidnas ran up to him. "Are you Cornerians? The ones with the starship?" Fox replied, "Ya, that's us, we were sent here by General Pepper of the Cornerian Army Base to..." The echidna cut him off and desperately asked, "Please, you must take us with you...away from this planet, many have died...we have to leave now before we lose any more of our colleagues." Fox took a step back in surprise, "What, you want us to take all of you? I don't know if Pepper would..." Low growling was heard in front of them. Fox hesitated and looked past the echidna to see two of the archeologist echidnas attacking each other. As they fought, the echidna they had been talking to explained, "This is what happens...the Kymachians attack our team, and if one of our archeologists are beaten by a Kymachian, they can somehow turn the defeated echidna against us...and the cycle continues. I don't know how it happens...but I do know that we can't hold out much longer."
What!? They can take over the minds of other animals? This is worse than I thought...but how is that possible. What if that happens to one of us...This could be more than I'm gettin' paid for...Whoever's controlling these guys sure had a good plan...but all we have to do is clear a small area so we have enough time to receive the M.C.D. system and set it up. It can't be that hard...can it?
Fox replied to the echidna, "I don't know if we can take you with us, but we'll try and clear this area. We'll set up a defense against what's happening, and then we'll figure out what to do from there. Do you have any good...What the...!" Fox stopped as he saw the echidna lunge at him. He dodged the attack with a roll to the side and pulled his blaster. "Krystal, look away!" Krystal turned away just in time as Fox began blasting at the echidna. The body laid dead on the ground bleeding severely from a huge open wound in his chest. There was a temporary silence, until the feint sound of footsteps could be heard approaching from deeper in the camp. Fox looked up at his team and said, "All right, we have to clear this area so we can get the M.C.D. set up. Slippy, you go with Katt and approach the camp from the right flank. Don't try and gun down anything unless you have a clear shot, we don't want too much attention." Slippy and Katt began to walk slowly to the right. Katt shouted back to Fox before she disappeared among the tents and machinery, "Remember Fox, we're tryin' to save this planet, try to keep you're focus on that." Fox rolled his eyes; I bet she could let up on that just a little...
Fox looked over at Krystal. She was staring at the dead body of the echidna. He walked over and put his hand on her shoulder, "Krystal, it's never easy to see deaths like that...but if you think about what we're fighting for...it kinda makes it seem less shocking...I still hate seeing all these dead bodies...but...it can't be helped." Krystal slowly looked up at Fox and replied, "It's not just the fact that there are dead...its...what if...I don't want to lose you like that Fox, how do you know you won't die fighting...?" Fox hesitated and said, "Well, let's just say that if that scroll is the truth, I don't have anything to worry about." Krystal looked at him and smiled, "I guess your right...So what do we have to do?" "First we have to sneak down the left side of the camp, and slowly flush out as many of the enemies as we can, just keep a keen sense of your surroundings and we'll be fine."
They began to slowly walk around the left side of the camp. It was incredibly quiet for a long time, but Fox knew that even silence could conceal lurking danger. They reached the middle of the camp and they still had not heard or seen anything. They began to cautiously sneak into the camp, making sure there was nothing following them. Still nothing could be heard from anywhere, not even blaster fire from their teammates who should've been just across the camp. This could be a trap...I just hope we're not walking straight into...wait...something is coming...I can feel it... Fox stopped Krystal and said, "This is a trap, I can feel...a bunch of enemies coming, we gotta hide." Krystal agreed, "I feel it too, they are coming from...the northwest..." Fox nodded and they ran into one of the abandoned tents. They waited silently in the small tent and listened for any sign of approaching danger.
Fox knew that it would be hard for him to hear footsteps in the sand, so he slowly poked his head out of the small tent. He looked out to the left and saw nothing; he rotated his head to the right and saw some kind of large object sitting next to his head. He looked up the object, seeing as it was connected to something else. He continued raising his sight until he saw that the object was actually one of the echidnas, but luckily, it was looking away from the tent. Fox quickly withdrew his head and slowly crawled back into the tent. He whispered to Krystal, "Ok, one of the echidnas is standing just outside the tent, we need to get rid of him, if he alerts the others, we'll be trapped in here." Krystal quietly replied, "But won't the blaster fire reveal our location?" Fox thought for a second and noticed one of the tent pegs buried under the sand. "Krystal, can you reach that tent peg, we can use that to get rid of him." Krystal silently reached under the cover of the tent and pulled the tent peg from the dry sand. "Ok, you might want to back up, it's gonna be a little bloody." Krystal quickly and calmly crawled to the back of the tent and closed her eyes. Fox made a small noise in the sand and the echidna made a low grunting noise. Fox heard the echidna's footsteps as he turned to look into the tents opening. He hid to the side of the opening as the echidna stuck his head in. Without hesitating, Fox thrust the tent peg into the echidna's slender head. The peg penetrated the skull of the echidna, and he died instantly. The dead body lay just at the entrance of the tent; half of the body was still exposed to daylight. Fox dragged the lifeless corpse inside the tent and buried it under the sand. Fox and Krystal slowly crept from the tent and closed the opening. Fox could smell the blood on his hands and he thought, I've already killed two innocent echidnas...I didn't realize how unforgiving mind control could be...I hate seeing these innocent animals die...but I have to do it... Fox muttered quietly to himself, "Man...I hate this job."
(Over on the right flank)
Katt and Slippy were quickly running and taking cover behind the machinery and tents as a mass of hooded creatures followed them. Katt managed to say between breaths as they hid behind a large piece of machinery, "Slippy, how'd I get stuck with you anyway? I don't know how you could've thought that cactus was a Kymachian. Was it attacking you? Provoking you? Well, I guess there's nothing I can do now, but jeez, did you have to shoot at it...It's a cactus, not an Kymachian, or an echidna...they don't even look close to the same." Slippy replied, "Well...frogs aren't used to this heat, I guess we start seeing things...I'm sorry..." Katt just shrugged, "Whatever, just try and be a little less stupid." As she finished, a few of the hooded Kymachians began to climb over the piece of digging equipment. "Crap, let's get outta here Slippy!" Slippy was already running ahead of her when she said this. She rolled her eyes and chased after him. Katt ran up next to him and grabbed his arm. She looked back and made sure no one was watching. Katt then stopped abruptly and leaped into one of the empty tents and Slippy stumbled in after her. "Katt what are you...mphphmhpm" Katt covered Slippy's mouth and whispered, "Shut up you idiot, they'll hear us." They sat in silence as the group of Kymachians ran past the tent. Katt sighed and said, "Well, that was a close one...I gotta find Fox, Slippy's gonna end up killin' us if I don't." They exited the tent and were clear of any sign of Kymachians or echidnas.
They began to walk outside in the dry heat, Katt didn't seem to mind it that much, but Slippy started to turn a dark red and began breathing heavily. Katt noticed this and asked, "Hey Slippy...you ok? You look a little nauseous..." Slippy could only reply with some hard breathing and a guttural croak. "Katt...It's too hot, I need to get some water...Hey, what's that...Fox?" Katt looked around and didn't see anything. "Uh, Slippy there's nothing there...Slippy?" Slippy had passed out on the sand. "Well great, now what do I do...Oh man, I'm gonna have to haul his sorry butt back up to the Great Fox...This sucks...I hope Fox and his girlfriend will be ok on their own for a while...heh."
(Back to Fox and Krystal)
Before they continued looking for the remaining Kymachians and possessed echidnas, they stopped to make sure their portable M.C.D. systems were secured on the inside of their vests. This versatile adaptation of the much larger M.C.D. was about the size of a floppy disk, and it attached to a pocket on the inside of the vest. It was so small and flat, that it was able to fit comfortably under their vests without any irritation. Fox thought to himself as he studied the device, It looks like such a weak piece of equipment, and Pepper said it hadn't even been tested in action before, it better work...or this mission might get a little trickier.
They cautiously walked through the deserted camp, looking for any more of the mind controlled creatures. As they walked, Fox heard a familiar sound coming from the spot where they had landed upon arrival. He looked back and saw Katt's pink ship flying up into the sky. "What the heck! What's going on? What does Katt think she's doing? Krystal, let's get back to the Arwings." They hurried back to the landing area, forgetting about the fact that the enemies could be waiting for them around every corner. They shortly arrived back at the landing site to see that all the Arwings were still in contact and there appeared to be no mind controlled creatures lurking around. Fox climbed into his Arwing and sent a transmission to Katt's ship. The small plasma screen in his Arwings consol came to life and the image of Katt appeared.
Fox exclaimed, "Katt, what are you doing!? You can't just leave, we've gotta set up that M.C.D. system...We can't..." Katt cut him off, "I'm not leaving! Slippy was getting to be too much trouble, so I just decided to take him back to the Great Fox and get him out of my way." Fox gave her an annoyed look, "Just cause he can get in the way doesn't mean we don't need him!" Katt smirked and replied, "Just joking Fox, Slippy is actually in pretty bad shape, I'm taking him back to the Great Fox so he can whine about his little frog problems to someone else. Don't worry Foxboy, I'll be right back down." Katt ended the transmission and Fox stayed sitting in his Arwing, unsure exactly why he had even brought Slippy down in the first place.
Fox opened the cockpit window of his Arwing and jumped out onto the sand. Krystal approached him from behind and asked, "What happened? Is everything ok?" Fox looked up to the sky and replied, "Ya, seems like Katt just got fed up with Slippy, no big deal." Krystal smiled and responded, "So what do we do now that we only..." Krystal suddenly stopped herself as a slowly approaching sound of yelling came from behind her. She turned around to see a large crowd of Kymachians and echidnas staring them down. Fox jumped in front of Krystal and asked eagerly, "This is it...you ready?" Krystal ran to his side drew her blaster from the holster wrapped around her leg, "I'll always be ready for anything as long as you're with me Fox." Fox smirked and drew his blaster, "Good, cause this isn't gonna be easy..."
(Meanwhile on the Great Fox)
"Hey guys, thought I'd drop Slippy off for a while, you got a problem with babysitting him for me?" Katt said as she entered the Great Fox's bridge. Peppy ran over to Slippy, who seemed barely able to breathe. Peppy looked up at Katt and asked, "What happened down there? Are Fox and Krystal still down there? Are they ok?" Katt smirked and replied, "Heh, there was no action down there, the only action we got was when Slippy managed to attract the Kymachians attention. We had to run for a while, but that was about all that happened before our little frog friend here decided to pass out on me." Peppy looked back at Slippy's red face. "I'll just get him some water and he should be fine, I've seen this before, he makes it look worse than it really is, he just tries to make you feel bad for him so he can get outta doing stuff." Katt turned and headed for the door, "Ya, well, he did a pretty good job of that..." ROB suddenly blared out across the bridge from behind his computer terminal, "Disturbance detected on planet Kymach, large group of mind controlled life forms are gathering near the landing area, possibility of Fox and Krystal's presence at landing area...94.759%." Katt looked back at ROB and said, "Beautiful! Looks like things are finally gettin' exciting around here..."