Ok, first things first.

1: Disclaimer: I only own what I have made up. Star Fox and all of its stuff and characters are © Nintendo. I don't own them. I wish I did, but for now, I don't.

2: Haven't updated in a few days. My bad. Well, I'd best get to writing,

XIV

Sulfur. Yes… that's what it's called. It was in the air, whisking around him from the numerous volcanic vents in various places in the hall. He hardly smelt it anymore. It didn't matter, anyways. He had other things to worry about.

He stood up from the obsidian seat he sat in, brushing off dust that accumulated so fast down here. "Ugh, where is he? Always busy when I need him…" he said to himself. He yelled out into the hallway. "GET OVER HERE!" His other servants (slaves, if you wanted to be politically correct) knew who he was talking to, so they didn't bother him.

Down the hallway, a figure dressed in a black, hooded robe with red trimming and markings ran to meet his master. It wasn't hard to see him. The whole place was lit up by the lava that came out of the sides of the hallway, which made a path right to him. Very convenient if he wanted to dispose of a servant. Also good for letting them know who's boss around here.

The figure knelt at the bottom of the throne. "My lord, what is your bidding?" he asked, still looking down at his feet.

"Do get up," he said. "We have little time to talk. First, is the geomancer ready?" These magic types were so temperamental; it was hard to tell what they'd do next.

"Yes, lord. He is ready to fire at your command. But, if I may ask, why?" The servant looked up slightly, trying to register a glance from his master.

Anger erupted from him, and the servant looked away quickly. "Don't you learn anything! You've known about the ones who are coming to put a stop to us almost as long as I have! And we're all but unprepared!" He glared at the servant, then took a deep breath. Perhaps I'm the temperamental one, he thought with an internal chuckle. "But still, you are but a servant… Now go, and make sure he's ready." He pointed a clawed finger toward the exit. "Now!" The hooded servant got up, quickly bowed, mumbled a quick, "Yes, lord," and ran off.

He sat down. It was hard to trust lackeys, these days. If you did, they'd stab you in the back…

On the bridge of the Great Fox, Fox shifted in his seat, waiting for the ship to come out of warp. He looked at his team members one at a time. Slippy, carefully looking at the screens on his console. Falco, his feet up, hands behind his head, eyes closed. And Krystal, sitting quietly, staring out the view-port into the bright, swirling lights of warp space. She looked better than yesterday, but distant…

His gaze drew away from the vixen when an alarm sounded. He looked to Slippy for an answer. "Fox, we're coming out of warp in 10 seconds," Slippy told him, looking up briefly from the console. Fox nodded, and looked straight out of the view-port,

"Ok. Get ready," he told them. Falco got his feet off of the console, readying himself for warp-dropout. It was always best to be prepared.

The swirling lights outside dimmed, and became single points in space. A planet was straight in front of them. It was mainly covered in dark clouds, and the ground (well, what they could see of the ground, which wasn't much) was black and red. A ring of rock and ice surrounded the planet. That IS ice, I'm assuming, he told himself. Some of it glinted briefly in the system's dazzling orange sun. Fox sat forward in his chair.

"Krystal, scan the sector for any hostiles. Slippy, make sure what I'm seeing of that planet is correct." They both nodded.

A few minute later, Krystal said, "I'm not sensing any hostile life forms, Fox. But there's something out there…" She sat back in her chair and crossed her leg, thinking.

Slippy sounded next. "Fox, I'm picking up ships… but they're not moving." He ran off a strip of coordinates for Fox.

"Bring us to that heading," Fox told them. The ship moved quietly through space, and as they got closer, so did their sensor readings.

Fox looked out of the view-port in awe. Debris of ships lay scattered among the rocks, some almost resembling a ship, some just hunks of metal. The others had shocked looks on their faces. Krystal's eyes went wider, and then she blinked and turned to Fox.

"Fox, there are people on that ship! We've got to get them out of their!" she told him. She pointed at some wreckage that still had some structure to it. Fox nodded.

"Falco, pilot the shuttle over there and get them out. Hurry!" he told Falco. Falco nodded.

"Playing bus driver, am I? Well, they'll have the best bus driver in the system," he said as a last remark, and hurried out of the bridge.

"They're in great pain…" Krystal said, looking down at the deck. She made no further comment, so Fox said, "Let's get down to the Med Lab." Krystal looked up and nodded. "We'd best hurry," she said.

"Slippy, hold the fort here," Fox said. Slippy sketched a salute and turned back to his console. The other two rushed to get to the Med Lab.

"ROB, can you give me a life-form reading?" asked Falco over the com unit. He was closing in on the wreckage, piloting around the smaller bits and pieces of metal that floated around. ROB answered back in his metallic voice.

"Sensors indicate twenty-five life-forms aboard wrecked Oasis – Class ship." Falco frowned. Oasis – Class? Falco hadn't seen one of those transport ships until before the war with Andross…

"Uh, ROB, where's the docking bay?" Falco asked. ROB responded with a string of numbers for coordinates. Falco coaxed his shuttle into the docking bay, and got out with a breath mask on. "ROB, where are the life-forms on the ship?"

"Go through the corridor to your left and follow it. Then, take a right at the end of the corridor. You will find the life-forms there."

Falco walked down the corridor. He thought it had to be the main one, because the ship wasn't that big, and the hallway was pretty big. It was cold, probably from an atmosphere leak. The place was stark grey, the walls shining a bit.

When Falco got to the end, he turned right, and went througha sliding door.

Twenty-five faces looked up at him, and Falco took a second to analyze what he was seeing. Ok, twenty-five people… they should all fit in the cargo bay of the shuttle. But, what happened to these guys? Many were crying, some seemed to be hurt. A few of the younger people had been tending to the wounded before he came in.

"You guys gonna sit here or what? I've got a shuttle in the docking bay! Let's go!" he told them quickly. They all got up and rushed to the door, one notch away from panic. A few picked up the wounded carefully, and they all rushed into the shuttle.

Falco took a glance at one of the wounded that had been picked up. The feline girl had burn marks on the left side of her body, and she had cut wounds, as if from shrapnel. I wonder how that happened…

She seemed to be out cold, probably from an anesthetic. Falco hated being doped up like that, because, though it took the pain away and numbed him, sometimes he stayed conscious, but he couldn't move. He hated it.

"Here, let me help you with her..."

Back on board the Great Fox, Krystal sat in the Med Lab, worried about the people on that ship. How did this happen? she wondered. Seemingly reading her mind, Fox said, "Don't worry, we'll get some answers." She looked at him for a moment, and could see the pain in his eyes. He felt it, too, but not as vividly as she could. I hope he's not worried about me… she thought.

She stood up when the shuttle had come back into the main hangar. Over the com unit, Falco spoke. "Well, some are hurt pretty badly, so I'm bringing them straight to the Med Lab. Get ready for them," he told them.

"What, exactly?" she asked.

"Uh, from the looks of things, burns and puncture wounds of some sort. I'm not sure what." The com unit switched to ROB's voice. "I am proceeding to the Med Lab in the event that surgery is needed," he told them. Krystal acknowledged, and turned to Fox.

"They're here," he told her, and sure enough, the door slid open, and she saw Falco, carrying a wounded feline gingerly. What could have happened to these people, she asked herself. She focused on one individual, an avian. On the outer layers of his brain, shock and surprise was quite apparent. But underneath that, a deep fear of something…

"Krystal."

"Oh, yes?" she said, Fox's voice drawing her out of her concentration.

"Can you get bandages? They're in the top left cabinet." He pointed at a bright white cabinet, and she nodded in acknowledgement. He turned away to help someone else wounded, and she got to work too.

In all, there had been 11 people wounded out of the 25 that had come on board. Most of the people injured were suffering from burns or shrapnel wounds. Fox got a little information out of the survivors, that they were attacked from the planet, that they had evacuated, but no solid information. After the injured had been treated, Fox asked for a conference in the briefing room. A group of three people from the wreckage joined them to explain what happened…

That's the end of chapter XIV. Review, please. PLEASE!

Anyways, since summer is almost here, and with the annoyance of the educational system out of the way, I'll be able to add more chapters. I stop because I know what's gonna happen next, 'cause when you stop when you're stuck, it's harder to get back to it.

Black Swordsman342

PS: Next chapter will be up soon! (I hope…)