Chapter 5: Landing on Cerinia

"Is everyone ready?" Fox asked his team, finally climbing back into his ship with Slippy and getting ready for takeoff. After seeing what was on the base, he couldn't wait to get to Cerinia and find answers. Fox sat down, started up the ship, and flew back out into the open area surrounding the base, closely followed by Falco.

"Not too much further until we get there, I think" answered Katt. "Fox, any news from Krystal?"

"Yeah, actually," replied Fox, "she's awake and wants to come with us as soon as possible. I told her she should get some rest and wait until at least tomorrow to go through the asteroid belt."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea considering her piloting skills usually suck to begin with", said Falco loudly. Although Falco didn't know it, it was these types of comments that caused Katt to break up with him.

Fox began to pilot through the asteroid field while the others followed him. No one spoke for the rest of the journey. Most of them didn't have anything to say to each other; they just wanted to get to the planet as soon as possible. After ten or fifteen minutes of flying, Fox finally broke out of the asteroid belt and saw, although very far away, the planet they had been searching for: Cerinia. The planet looked more like a very large asteroid than anything, except it was the color of sand and was covered with many large craters.

"Not the most beautiful planet…" remarked Falco. "Who would want to live there?"

"Maybe they were forced to live there…" replied Katt. "But we won't know until we get there, so let's get moving!"

It took another few minutes to reach the planet, and after breaking through the atmosphere, the team flew above the planet, looking for a place to land.

"There's a clearing a kilometer ahead", said Bill. "I think we should land there."

"I see it", replied Fox, "Everyone get out your landing gear."

The team landed quickly and within a few seconds jumped out of the arwings. Fox pulled out his communicator and contacted Peppy. Within a few seconds, Peppy answered.

"Fox, have you landed on Cerinia yet?"

"Yeah, we're here", replied Fox. The climate is just as Beltino said it was." Fox looked around at the rocky planet, and then shivered because of how cold it was. He also noticed that there really was absolutely no life on the surface of the planet. "Where is the distress signal coming from?"

"You actually landed in a great location Fox," answered Peppy, "The location of the distress signal is only about three kilometers north of your current position. Be careful Fox; we still know almost nothing about what this planet holds."

"Well, I could probably guess that this planet holds absolutely nothing", replied Falco. "Let's get a move on, team."

And so the five of them started to walk. The scenery didn't change at all; the planet was completely dead. Fox began to wonder how Krystal or anyone could ever live here. Something terrible must have happened, Fox said to himself. After a few minutes of silence, Slippy tapped on Fox's shoulder excitedly.

"Fox, Fox, look over there!" Slippy said, pointing to his right. Fox and the others looked in the direction he was pointing and saw something in the distance; it looked like a small village, or at least what used to be a village. The houses looked like small abandoned shacks, and there didn't seem to be any sign of movement at all.

"Should we go take a look?" asked Katt, still looking at the town. "Maybe there's somebody over there."

Fox agreed, but didn't think they should waste the time. "Look, we don't know what's over there or even if there's anything there at all. What we do know is that there's somebody close that needs our help; I think that's the direction in which we should be heading. Right?"

Everyone agreed, and they continued their journey northward. Fox, leading the group, stopped suddenly when they reached an obstacle. They were close to the signal, but the path they were on stopped at a large crater. Fox looked down to see this was one of the deepest craters he had seen so far; there were also large holes at the bottom of this crater, holes that none of the other craters had.

"Well," said Falco, "It looks like we're going down."

Krystal was tired of waiting; she had forced ROB to get her an arwing and instructed him to fly her to the planet. Although ROB told her that she should stay on the ship for a few more days and that he wasn't programmed to be a pilot, Krystal insisted that she be taken there immediately.

"I need answers, ROB" she told him, "Now take me there now!"

"As you wish, Krystal", replied ROB.

They got into an arwing and ROB started it up. Just then, Peppy appeared on the arwing's screen.

"ROB, what are you doing in an arwing?" Peppy asked angrily. He then saw Krystal behind her and looked absolutely furious. "Krystal, I thought I told you to stay in the Great Fox until you recovered! You're in no condition to be going on a mission."

Krystal smiled and the replied "Sorry Peppy, but the team needs my help. I may not remember anything about the planet, but I did live there for more than half of my life. I think…"

Peppy frowned, but knew that he couldn't change her mind. "Fine, go help Fox and the others. But be careful! That asteroid belt is still a mystery to us."

"Got it", replied Krystal. "ROB, let's get a move on."

ROB flew the arwing out of the Great Fox and into the asteroid belt. Krystal was surprised at how great ROB was at flying. Well, he is a robot, she thought. She was about to call Fox from her communicator when an alarm went off in the arwing. The buzzing sound and red lights annoyed Krystal greatly. "ROB, what the hell is going on?" she asked.

ROB looked at the screen and replied "Apparently we are being tracked by another ship. They're right on our tails. You better hold on."

"Oh god…" Krystal said, sounding scared. Can we outrun them?"

"We can try", answered ROB. He began to fly much faster and swerved through the asteroids, trying to avoid the ship behind them. Krystal tried to buckle herself in, but just then she felt something hit the ship, and when it began to shake, Krystal fell and hit her head. Everything went black by the time she hit the floor.