Chapter Three

Dashing onto the bridge of the Great Fox, the leader looked immediately to Rob 64 then to Peppy. In seconds he noticed Falco and Slippy entered the room, both with a curios look on their faces. Panting slightly from the run and worry, Fox made his way to the captain chair in the middle of the room and sat down. "What's the situation Rob?" he asked looking away form the robot to look at the large viewing screen that dropped down in front of the crew.

"We have reached the coordinates of Corneria," as Rob's monotone voice rang out in the silent room filled with control panels and charts, the viewing screen displayed only a picture of open space. Puzzled and confused, Fox glanced at Peppy as if to get a better explanation from the man who usually had all the answers but the look Peppy gave back told Fox that even the old hare didn't have a clue in what was going on. Annoyed now at Rob for calling a false emergency, he glared at the beat up old Robot and started to ponder if he should ask Slippy to take a look at it. Giving a slight sigh of relief, followed by a sarcastic chuckle Fox then folded his arms behind his head and used it to prop up his head as he then slouched in the captain's chair.

"Okay so we reached Corneria, how about we set the Great Fox down somewhere and get on with it. Didn't know I needed to command you to do that, but okay let's do that." Fox ordered but Rob stood still, it's cold, creepy eyes pointed and locked to Fox. Although he wasn't against technology or robots, the star captain always found looking into the eyes of one was disturbing. It was so inhuman and it was impossible to know what it felt, that is if it felt anything at all.

Rob finally replied shaking its steel head side to side in a perfectly straight way, "Error, command not possible please give another order."

When Fox heard that he sat up to get a better look at the robot, baffled he couldn't help but just raise a brow and probe deeper into the reason. His mind was racing in what it could be, was the ship in dire repair and unable to land? Maybe Corneria is in a rough storm that is impossible to fly though. Both of those seemed possible to Fox but for some reason deep down he felt neither were right, with fear starting to grow he then asked, "not possible? Explain?"

"Planet Corneria no longer exists," shocked couldn't explain what Fox felt as his eyes darted to look once more at the viewing screen, sitting at the edge of his chair for a better look. Now he understood, the open space that was displayed on the viewing screen was where Corneria should be. As he looked harder he could even see a few pieces of debris from the planet, floating in it's place. That was it and as a sickening feeling grew in his stomach, he sat back in the chair still in shock.

Speechless he couldn't fully believe that the entire planet was gone and pondered immediately after on what could have caused such destruction, along with thousands of other questions racing though his head. Did an asteroid do this? Maybe it was self inflicted or possibly it could have been another foe, Fox wasn't sure but the sorrowful moment in the bridge was soon broken by the near whisper of Peppy's voice.

"What are we going to do Fox?" Glancing over at the old hare he noticed how his old friend just sat in his chair by the jukebox, looking back with a face that was trying to be strong but Fox could see that his eyes were stricken with grief. He knew that most of the old hare's friends were on that planet and even though it is possible everyone was evacuated, seeing the planet destroyed gave off a sense of mass death. Total destruction and annotation.

Lost for ideas, Fox could only sit there fighting back a few of the emotions he had towards the destroyed rubble. Even though he hasn't lived there in decades, many of his best memories of his father was on that planet and now it was gone, along with millions of innocent creatures. Humming in order to reassure the others that he was pondering, Fox's mind was empty and soon only one thought surfaced on his mind. They must find out what happened here, they need a place that they could go for help. As he thought of the near by planets, one stood out in his mind.

"Rob set a course for Katina, hopefully Bill is still assigned there and he'll be able to shed some light on what happened here," trying to put as much confidence into his voice, Fox didn't want the rest of the crew to feel disorganized with the situation. A strong leader shows a strong team, he thought and as they passed the wreckage he stood up form his chair as the crew gave a minute of silence to the destruction of Corneria.

Bill and Fox went way back, they both met when they were boys in the space academy at Corneria. A gray mouse who wasn't as skillful in flying as Fox but because of his cool head under pressure, he was always promoted before Fox was until Fox left the academy. Last time they saw each other Bill Gray was commander of the Katina base and after helping defend the base from the attacking forces of Andross, they both once again parted ways.

Fox would have been looking forward to seeing the old friend again but because of the circumstances, there was no spark of joy as the Great Fox plotted a course to Katina. A few seconds later though, the fox's mind started to wonder if this was an attack and the Katina base was destroyed? Fox was unsure if he could handle that kind of devastation and a new sense of fear found itself into his stomach.

Glancing around, he noticed that the others have taken seats around the consoles on the ship's large bridge. Everyone was silent, Fox could see that they were probably lost in their own thoughts, memories and fears. With a faint sigh, he glanced over at Rob 64. The metal expression hasn't changed and that didn't really surprise the brown fox one bit as really how could Rob feel the death surrounding this topic or the pain that others felt? It is after all only a robot, cold and insensitive of any emotion. Knowing that they would arrive at Katina shortly, as it wasn't too far away from where Corneria was, Fox glanced once more at his solemn crew. Words would only ruin the atmosphere, as this was truly beyond words.

"Approaching planet Katina, land on surface?" Rob's voice felt so crisp in the silence that Fox found it hard to ignore, so nodding his head slightly Fox continued his stare at the viewing screen. I hope General Pepper is here, I hope they evacuated the planet safely, I just hope my worst fears aren't true.

As the ship moved closer to the surface of the planet, the viewing screen displayed what was truly Fox's fear. Woozy by the site, he glanced at Peppy first then Falco and finally Slippy noticing that it looked like he wasn't the only one who felt ill at the sight. Desert, the entire planet was just a vast wasteland with only a few stone rubble stood in stead of the base that was suppose to be there. The captain could only mutter to himself as the idea to do anything else was lost, he couldn't even gather enough thought to blink.

"It's gone," With that said there was once again an eerie silence on the bridge, broken only by the sound of a few beeping control panels in what seems now to be such an empty ship. Fox was lost now, with a deep sigh he looked hopelessly to Peppy. He needed guidance badly but the advice didn't come from Peppy, nor Falco or Slippy as it oddly came from the emotionless Rob that stood in the background.

"Air quality is safe, Gravity is average, temperature is twenty degrees. Sensors detect no life on surface but there is electromagnetic activity occurring underground. Suggestion is that it should be checked out for the possibility of supporting life." So mechanical but rational at the same time. Turning his head to fully look at Rob he knew the machine was right and in a slight way felt glad it was there to be rational at such a disturbing discovery. Although it couldn't feel or think, Rob could react and at the moment that's all the situation needed.

Slowly standing, hunched over and depressed, Fox looked to his crew for their reaction to this. Peppy was tearful, Slippy was in shock and Falco had a look of disbelief on his face. Knowing that the sooner they get to work, the sooner they'll find out more and the easier it was to grieve, Fox moved towards the door he finally looked back to them again, "Time to suit up boys, let's go check it out."