So, what happened to Fara? You'll have to read on to find out.


Chapter 32: One Pilot Down?

This whole thing is my fault. I shouldn't have ordered my friends to attack this unidentified hostile. Who knew this was such a dangerous craft? Please, Fara, live through this one. You just have to. – Fox

A short distance away, Fox spun his Arwing around to watch the explosion. His eyes were concentrated on Fara however, as he did not want to lose track of her. In doing so, he missed a rather impressive light show.

Unlike the prior uses of the Nova Bombs where they had struck the exterior of the craft in question, allowing the blast to envelop the hostile, this one was detonated internally, almost in the middle of the craft. As the blast quickly expanded outward, the stored energy violently detonated as well, sending chunks of the Gatherer shooting outwards at high velocity. While the mobile Arwings were more than far enough away to easily avoid anything incoming, the trapped craft was anything but.

Despite his best efforts, Fara vanished inside the bright flash of the Nova Bomb. As the effect subsided, nothing could be seen but hundreds of shards of debris hurtling in every direction. He scanned the area, his efforts made easier by the star that glowed from behind him. Try as he might though, he couldn't figure out where she had vanished. A short warning tone broke the silence as he stared into space, telling him that his computer had lost the signal coming from the transponder installed in her Arwing.

They all knew what that meant.

His teammates stayed quiet as he said to the space around him, "Fara, this is Fox. Report your status."

Silence.

He grew increasingly worried as the seconds passed. "Fara, please respond."

Still nothing but silence.

"Fara…please…"

Despite his desperate pleads for an answer, nothing was heard back.

Fox continued to look from a distance as he blinked back tears, hoping to catch a glimpse of his missing teammate. While he refused to give up, the others knew that there was a definite possibility that she wasn't going to respond. "Fox," said Peppy quietly, startling the pilot for just a moment, "the odds are—"

"No," refuted the vulpine. "We are not giving up that easily. We will find her." He fired up his engines and moved towards the debris field. "Come on."

Falco finally spoke up for the first time in as many minutes, not pleased with the task forming in front of him, even though it was to find their lost teammate. "Hey, bud, what if we don't—"

Fox stopped him before he could finish his line of thought. "Find. Her. Now. Understood?"

"Yes, boss."

The search was slow going. While the artificial boost in light helped search the area, the nearby star greatly interfered with sensors. It was taking far too long as far as Fox was concerned, as he was quickly growing more and more worried over Fara's fate, not knowing if he would ever see her again.

So to say that he was relieved when he heard Peppy's voice a few minutes later was an understatement. "Fox, Peppy here. I've found the missing Arwing."

"Thank the gods. How's Fara?"

The hare's response was slow in coming, static filling the communication in the meantime. "You really should take a look yourself."

Fox didn't like that answer in the slightest. "Peppy, that doesn't answer my question. What's wrong?"

"Just come over here." Peppy paused as he debated to say what he knew, finally choosing to do so as it would be better to hear about it first. "To put it simply – I don't see Fara anywhere in her craft."

That answer left Fox rather perplexed. Unable to think of a response, he pointed his craft in the general direction of his teammate, his computer having a difficult time locating him, and kicked in his boosters. He dodged around some debris in his way as he said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but there isn't exactly anywhere to go out here."

"My point exactly."

"I'm on my way. Keep your com channel open, as the sensors are having a hard time tracking you down. Falco, come over here as well." He got affirmatives from both pilots within seconds, leaving Fox to sit quietly in his Arwing and wondering what happened to Fara.

His wait wasn't long, as he came across the two craft a minute later. He was not prepared for what he saw, however.

Sitting there, floating dead in space, was the crippled Arwing. A few larger chunks of the Gatherer drifted nearby, part of the reason as to why it had taken so long to locate the missing craft.

The other reason was the extensive damage it had taken in the final seconds of battle. Looking like it had spent time near the sun instead of the frozen blackness of space that surrounded them, the nosecone had turned to slag and looked nothing like the silver sleekness it once was. Instead it lay twisted and charred, any components installed underneath obviously ruined. The wingtips had melted as well, now a complete hindrance to atmospheric flight instead of being useful. Scorch marks abounded across the rest of the hull, although the armor plating looked like it held together after the shields failed.

Fox gasped as he looked upon the damage, fearful for the pilot that should be inside. But as Peppy said earlier, Fara was simply not visible through the cockpit window. As he approached, swerving out of the way of a piece of debris that decided to occupy his flight path, he asked, "Peppy, did you make a close pass and look inside?"

"Sorry, no." Pausing, the hare turned in place, targeting the debris that Fox had passed. With a quick spread of shots, the junk dissolved into something far less of a threat. "As you can see, I've been a bit busy."

"Point taken." Flipping upside down, Fox fired his retro rockets and lined himself up to come to a stop right above the powered down Arwing. "If you'll provide me some cover then, I'll go take a look."

"Understood."

Ignoring the feeling of dread that was quickly building as he stared at the seemingly dead craft, Fox tried one last time to contact the occupant. "Fara, this is Fox. If you can hear me, I'm right above your Arwing. I just need a sign that you're there."

Just like in his prior attempts however, he got nothing but silence in response.

With no fanfare, the vulpine found himself directly above the other Arwing. A larger chunk of the Gatherer spun in place slowly nearby, blocking out most of the light emanated by the star nearby, making it difficult to see inside the craft. What he saw didn't please him in the slightest, as not only the usual lights and switches that were normally lit were anything but, but he couldn't see the expected occupant at all. As he looked closer, he thought he saw a brief shine of light from inside. Not sure what it was, he asked his teammate, "Peppy, is there a flashlight in our emergency kit?"

"I think…" He paused and fired at another piece of debris. It exploded after a few hits, the remaining pieces too small to cause any kind of damage to the Arwings. He remembered his little incident a few days earlier as he continued. "Yes, there is one. What do you see in there?"

"I'm not sure yet." Unstrapping himself from his seat for a moment, Fox reached around and unhooked the duffle bag sitting right behind his seat. He dug through it, making sure that he didn't lose anything, as he didn't want loose objects floating around during travel. Finding what he was looking for, he gave the flashlight a quick test to make sure it worked and then replaced the bag, buckling himself back in. Looking into the other Arwing, he was about to shine his light inside when he saw another flash of light from the interior. That definitely got his hopes up. "I think Fara might be in there."

"But where…" Left momentarily confused by the rather positive statement, it took Peppy a moment to say something else that brought a serious chance at seeing their fellow pilot alive again. "You know, now that I think about it, there is quite a bit of room underneath the monitor and computer in front of you. It's so you can attempt repairs and such during travel. Fara just might be able to fit completely under there."

Not wasting any additional time, Fox shone his light into the cockpit. What he saw stunned him, as his first glance earlier was anything but correct. The side panels, the ones allowing easy access to the main controls, weren't off like he thought before, but instead looked like they had shorted out or exploded on the unfortunate pilot. Panning the light around, he saw that the main monitor seemed to be intact, but if it worked or not was another question entirely. Underneath that looked to be something that made his heart skip a beat – Fara's boots, trailing underneath the monitor. "I see her!" he exclaimed happily.

"Thank goodness," said Peppy as he breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that his earlier decision had been the incorrect one, killing off their teammate and friend. "How is she?"

"I can't tell yet, as she's underneath the monitor like you said. Looks like she's working on something." Attempting to get her attention, Fox waved his flashlight back and forth and tried to shine the light into an area she could see from whatever position she was in.

"At least she's still alive," said Falco, his communication littered with static thanks to the distance between them. It started to clear up as he approached. "If that nameless piece of crap had taken her out like that, I would've been pissed."

"You and me both, Falco, you and me both." As it was, Fox had no idea what he would have done if he had lost Fara. He pushed the depressing thought out of his mind as he continued to try to get her attention. He turned on and off the light in a repeating pattern and held the beam in one place.

To the vulpine's amazement, the boots vanished out of view, only to be replaced by the head and shoulders of Fara. Her dismayed expression turned to one of pure joy as she recognized the nearby Arwing and its pilot. As she climbed fully into view however, grabbing onto the seat straps so she wouldn't float around, Fox had to suppress a gasp at her condition.

The shorted out control consoles told a story as to what happened when the Nova Bomb exploded right in front of her, and after taking one glance at her condition, that story became obvious. Scorch marks could be clearly seen at this distance up and down her arms and chest, leaving her shirt and jacket a tattered mess. It left Fox wondering just how badly she was injured and how deep the burns went. There was only one way to find out. "Fara, are you okay in there?"

The vixen shook her head as she watched Fox talk, pointing at her computer and then her helmet, saying something on her end that couldn't be heard in response. He had a guess at what he needed to do, but he had to make a few adjustments to do so. "Peppy, Fara's com system, as well as the rest of her craft I'm guessing, is offline, but I think she's trying to tell me that she can contact me via her headset on her helmet. So if you don't hear anything from me—"

"Don't worry about it," interrupted Peppy. He knew what Fox was getting at. "Falco, whenever he arrives, and I will keep you covered."

"Thanks." Changing a setting on a panel nearby, so he could at least hear any external conversations, he pulled off his helmet and modified the frequency settings before replacing it. He looked up at Fara again and asked, "Can you hear me now?" She shook her head a few seconds later, pointing at her helmet again.

Trying another setting, he asked again. This time he had a bit more success.

Fara's eyes closed as she breathed a sigh of relief, just pleased to hear Fox's voice once more. With her Arwing disabled, all he had heard in the last few minutes was her attempts to repair her craft, and she absolutely hated the silence. "I hear you, Fox. Am I getting through I hope?"

Fox was delighted to hear her voice as well, thankful that she was still alive. In how good of a condition was another matter entirely. "You're coming through loud and clear."

"Thank goodness. At least something's working in here." With communications reestablished, she spun around, wincing in pain as she did so, and went underneath the monitor again. "Now to see if I can get this thing working again."

He watched for a moment as she disappeared once more. "How are you, Fara?" asked Fox, concerned over her well-being. "How's the Arwing?"

"The Arwing's pretty much trashed unfortunately," said Fara with dismay, "but I think it can be repaired. I just need—"

Suddenly Fox heard the sound of an electrical short over his headset, followed by Fara yelping in pain. "Fara?" he asked nervously, knowing that there was very little he could do if something happened to her. "Are you okay?"

It took a few seconds before he heard any sort of a response, a few seconds that felt far longer. "Ow," she finally groaned, her words slurred as she tried her best to ignore the pain. "I'm not okay." She groaned again and crawled back out. "That's gonna leave a mark."

Fox watched as she came into view once more, this time with a new injury on her right shoulder, one that she was covering with her left paw. When she moved it away to strap herself into her seat, he got a much clearer view of the damage – it looked like whatever repair attempt she was last working on had gone awry, sparks shooting against her unprotected self, burning through her clothing and into her fur. She looked like a disheveled mess, her light brown fur now pocketed with darker burned areas, but he tried his best to ignore it as he asked, "Any luck, Fara?"

"Only one way to find out. Damn computer shorted out not too long after I got into position here with what little power I still had, so I hope this works." Closing her eyes, and covering them with one arm for safety, she reached over and inputted the sequence to start her craft. To her surprise, it restarted exactly like it should, the rest of her craft powering up shortly thereafter. She smiled as she uncovered her eyes, feeling the cool air swirl around her from the life-support systems. "About time I got this thing up and running again."

"How's the Arwing then?" asked Fox as he looked at his own readouts. "Your transponder still isn't operational it seems, that much I can tell."

"One second." While she knew that it was highly doubtful she'd be able to get home under her own power, she was curious as to how much damage she had sustained. Running the diagnostic program, she grimaced as she saw that there were more damaged or destroyed systems than there were working ones. "The easiest way to put it is for me to tell you what's still working."

"Ouch."

"Yeah." She looked through the data, her eyes opening wide when she came to one set of yellow and red lights. She ignored it and chalked it up as a glitch, as there was no way that system could be down. It was too well protected. "Oddly enough, I'm still combat capable for the most part. The nose blaster is still working, as are the shields and the G-Diffuser system. The radar's trashed though, so I couldn't see to shoot."

Fox rolled his eyes, wondering what the odds were of that happening again. "You just can't maneuver though."

She snickered. "One booster and the retro-rockets aren't going to get me very far. And communications are down. Although…" She stopped suddenly, her display alerting her to multiple critical problems that it had detected as it continued with the diagnostic. "Oh no," she said quietly, realizing that the earlier warning was true.

Any happiness he had in finding Fara still alive was drained away by those two words. "What's wrong?" he asked fearfully.

"By the Creator, no…"

He was more insistent this time as he tried to get an answer. "Fara, what's wrong?"

It took her a moment to respond, but when she finally did, it invoked a paralyzing level of dread in the vulpine. "The problem is twofold – the system has detected that the hull of the escape pod has been damaged, so I couldn't eject if I wanted to right now." She paused, stunned at what she was about to say – her own death warrant. "Also…the life-support system has been critically damaged in the explosion. I…I'm living on borrowed time right now."

Without life-support, she was going to die very shortly in the cold, dark void of space.

The realization that Fox was going to lose his fellow teammate shocked him back into action. Wasting no time, he switched his communications back to the waiting Arwings. "New orders – just do them, don't ask why. Falco, contact the General. See if there is any kind of transport craft or anything in the area that can pick up Fara's Arwing. And get Slippy on the line as well."

Falco knew that this sudden order from his commander, especially sent this way, was a bad sign. He did as he was told though without a second thought. "Yes, boss."

"Peppy, find me the closest planet or station – I don't care if it's hostile or not, I just need somewhere to land."

The hare had a good idea from those two requests what had happened with the crippled Arwing, but based on Fox's order, he wasn't going to pry. "I'll get you the answer shortly."

Switching back to Fara's frequency via his headset, he heard her quietly say to herself, "It's true… I'm really going to suffocate out here."

"No you're not," interrupted Fox. He was not going to let her die. Not like this. "Now listen to me, that's an order. Is there a way to attach the Arwings together somehow, allowing me to provide the power to get both of us home?"

Her mind was still a jumbled mess, unable to comprehend that she was staring death in the face. She expected her last moments to be sudden, not drawn out like this. "I...I have no idea."

"Don't lie to me, Fara," berated Fox as he tried to snap her back into action. He needed every advantage he could get right now, and thanks to her experience she had most of them. "You've been around the Arwings far longer than the rest of us. If there's an answer, you know it. Please, for your own sake, think."

His plan worked, at least for the moment, her mind jumpstarting into action. "There might be," she said as she thought the possibilities. "Give me a minute."

"Don't think too long. I'm willing to try whatever ideas pop into your head though." His other two teammates tried to contact him at this point, letting him know of their answers. "I'll get right back to you, Fara. The guys need me for something. Don't go anywhere."

She chuckled at the joke, as bad as it was. "Funny."

Now knowing the exact combination on his helmet to change frequencies, he no longer needed to take it off to make the modification. "Peppy, you first. What did you find out?"

The hare sounded concerned as he came on. "No good answers. Corneria is still the closest planet in the area, about 45 minutes away after factoring in the FTL drive. There's nothing out here that can be used as a hospitable landing zone that's closer. What's wrong, Fox?"

He had no reason to delay the answer any longer. "Fara's life-support system took a hit during the explosion and is currently inoperable."

Peppy's eyes opened wide in shock. "Oh no."

"Aw, fuck," muttered Falco.

"Yeah. Peppy, see if you can figure out how much time she has." He sighed, hoping his other teammate had better news. "Falco, what about you?"

"Nothing good. Pepper said that there is nothing in the area that is capable of taking aboard an Arwing. The closest craft is the Horizon, and that's a good two, two and a half hours away."

"Shit," cursed Fox, holding his head in dismay. "Do you have Slippy on the line?"

"That I do. Let me patch him through. One sec."

The toad's vibrant and helpful voice came through over the com a few seconds later, not knowing the circumstances the team was in right now. "What's up, Fox?" he asked, his communication delayed a few seconds due to the distance.

"I need your technical expertise right now," he replied, desperately hoping that Slippy could come through for him, like he had many a time before. "Is there any way to connect two Arwings together, allowing just one to provide the thrust for both of them?"

"What?" he asked, shocked at the strangeness of the question. "What's going on out there?"

"I don't have any time to explain, Slippy, I just need an answer. Hurry." He looked up at Fara, who only shook her head as she noticed the attention, deep in thought.

Peppy contacted him privately, interrupting the conversation for just a moment, his voice extremely grim. "Fox, my best guess is 30 to 45 minutes, depending on when the system gave out and if the remaining air in the tanks went into the Arwing or out into space. Afterwards…" He trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.

"Thanks." He happened to glance upwards again, worrying over his teammate, this time seeing Fara trying to get his attention. "Slippy, I'll get back to you in a minute. I'll need that answer then." The toad always worked best under pressure, so he hoped he would pull through once more. He tapped out the sequence to change channels again. "Fara, any luck?"

She nodded. "It's not a very good answer, and it's quite risky, but it's the best I could come up with."

"I don't really care what it is, as long as it involves you getting home safely." That much was the honest truth, but he was worried at what plan she had in mind. "What's your idea?"

"Well, to put it simply, the G-Diffuser's power can be extended slightly to affect things other than just the Arwing." She paused, thinking through her plan again. "My idea is to connect the two craft together via those wings, sorta like a magnet, one ship underneath the other."

Fox thought through what she'd said. It sounded like it would work, but then again this wasn't exactly his forte like it was with Fara. He knew one thing though. "What about the shields?"

"The shields should intermingle with each longer as long as they're set properly." She sounded unsure though as she continued. "In theory anyway."

Noticing that Slippy was trying to contact him, Fox said, "Sounds like a plan then. Figure out what you need to do, as I want to check one last thing. Be right back."

"Make it quick as this won't take long."

Once again he changed his helmet settings, talking to his team. "Guys, I have one possible solution. Slippy, what did you figure out?"

Fox could hear the sound of tapping in the background as he responded. "Looking at the specs and schematics available, I've come up with an idea. Boosting the power to the G-Diffusers can cause them to turn into a limited range tractor beam of sorts, allowing—"

The vulpine cut him off at this point, having already heard this. He did have some questions though. "No offense, Slippy, but this is the answer I've gotten from over here. How well will the shields hold up during execution of your idea, and is FTL travel possible?"

"Uh…" He paused as his mind switched gears to the new topic at hand. The clicking of a keyboard was heard in the background for a moment before he continued. "This will take a moment, so let me ask real quick – who's the disabled Arwing? I'm guessing it's not Falco or you, so that only leaves the other two."

"It's Fara. And it's far worse than you think out here – she's lost life-support."

"Oh no…" To the toad's credit, the keyboard noises paused for only a second before he redoubled his efforts.

"Yeah." Fara waved to him again, letting him know that she was done. "I need that answer, Slip, as we're going to try it with or without your findings in a moment."

"Almost… There. The numbers say that they'll hold in normal flight, and in FTL mode, as long as you don't hit anything out there. A collision would overload the G-Diffuser system, ripping off one or more of the secondary wings easily, causing a rather unstable chain reaction."

"Great." Fox, knowing the first step in Fara's plan, spun his Arwing right side up and slowly moved it towards the disabled craft. "Anything else?"

"It's the atmospheric flight that I'm worried about personally. The increased mass and drag far above and beyond normal fare will cause a lot of heat buildup against the shields. Don't lose them, whatever you do. You'll drastically increase the odds of the G-Diffusers failing."

"Thanks." He was now in position, ready to try this plan. "I need to go, as we're all ready here. Wish us luck." Quickly switching to his team, he gave one last bit of instructions. "Guys, follow me out, as you're my only backup incase something goes wrong." Finally, he contacted Fara. "I'm ready here. Tell me power levels, settings, and anything else I need, as you're the one with the plan."

"Okay." She quickly rattled off what he needed to know, her voice surprisingly calm even though she had very limited time left. She had to know that her oxygen wasn't going to last, or else she had pushed that out of her mind for the time being. "You ready?"

"Let's do this."

Maneuvering only by what his computer told him, as there was no way to visually line himself up, Fox cut his shields and moved into position. His collision alarms blared as he slowly bumped against the top of Fara's canopy. He was in position however, the G-Diffuser wings touching, about a foot of each wing overlapping. "Do I look good, guys?" he nervously asked his other two teammates who were watching nearby.

"Perfect," said Peppy calmly. He couldn't believe he was watching this. Then again, they had no other options.

"Good." Back to Fara he went via his headset, tired of constantly reaching up to make the changes. At least he could do it almost instantly now. "Firing up the G-Diffusers." Ignoring the alarms that blared, as the system had no idea what the pair were doing, other than something that was never supposed to happen, the blue wings powered up fully, attaching the two craft to each other. Killing the alarm as he quickly grew tired of hearing it, Fox asked, "Are we locked together, Fara?"

"Only one way to find out," she responded.

Touching the throttle control, the Arwing moved forward, the crippled craft following as it had nowhere else to go. He turned, firing up the engine again, feeling what effects having the craft attached was going to have on his travel. While the differences wouldn't be too much in space, although he did have twice as much mass to push around, this was going to greatly affect atmospheric flight. "Controls are lagging just a bit, but it's nothing I can't compensate for."

"Let's get the shields up then. Powering them up in three…two…one…"

Hitting the button simultaneously to activate the shields, as Fara figured that would be the only way to get them to intermingle without shearing the Arwings apart, the defenses came online, another alarm blaring as the computer had no idea why they weren't working like they should. Yet another alarm that was quickly muted with a touch of a button, as Fox was already tired of the noise. The data told both of them what they needed to know however – they were properly shielded, for now at least. "It looks good."

"Thankfully." She heard a muted click from the air vent behind her during the brief silence. That sound worried her greatly, as it could be only one of a few things. "Lead on, Fox. Let's get home."

"Roger." He touched the throttle and quickly accelerated to maximum speed once he got clear of the debris. His computer was already computing the information needed for a FTL jump, the system not quite knowing what to do with the extra size and mass. He eventually overrode the program, telling it to ignore the second Arwing, and to compute for only a single craft, as long as the G-Diffusers continued to receive power. "I'm going to lightspeed in 25, guys," he told the others briefly as he looked at the data. "Peppy, talk to the base for me as soon as you can."

"Understood."

Fara meanwhile took a brief sniff of the air as the team said their affirmatives, realizing what the noise was. The last of the oxygen in the life-support systems had drained out, sealing up the connection as it did so. The only air she had left now was what was in her cockpit, growing more and more stale with each passing breath. She chose not to tell Fox this though, as she didn't want to worry him further. There wasn't anything he could do about it anyway, and he would find out soon enough himself if he checked.

"Going to lightspeed," he told her, trying to keep his worried voice calm, seconds before the system engaged. "Don't worry, Fara, you'll make it home."

She didn't say anything in response, concentrating only on slowing her heart rate, trying to use as little air as possible. She knew that she would make it home, that much was for certain.

Fara was just worried if she would make it home alive.

The once sleek Arwing, now looking like a bloated animal with the crippled one attached underneath it, shot forward as the FTL drive kicked in, disappearing with a flash of light into the distance.