Okay so real quick sorry for the delay but I had some computer problems that are fixed now which is why I am late in updating this month, my sincerest apologies.
Chapter 8- Operation Rabbit Hole
It had been a week since Reaper's meeting with the Phoenixes and a lot had been accomplished in the short amount of time. Firstly with Fara's families support all of the aircraft Reaper had ordered had arrived just arrived and where now being looked over by Wraith to make sure everything was ready and operational. Speaking of Fara's family, Phoenix Arms had benefitted greatly from examining the blueprints Reaper had sent them and had to the date filed 18 technology patents. Their latest two prototype fighters called the "Inferno" and "Rebirth" although still in the testing phase was still years ahead of any current fighter out their except for the craft Reaper had ordered and where highly praised by test pilots who quickly realized that the arms company had made generation six aircraft while everyone else was still making gen fours. As a result of all the positive publicity Phoenix arms stock had rose exponentially in a very short span of time.
The second thing that had been accomplished over the week was that Nightmare wasn't arrested for stealing the police car. Despite causing twenty traffic accidents, fifty-thousand credits in damages, and crashing the vehicle into the police station Nightmare had somehow not been caught and was not even seen by police or pedestrians. Not to say however that he wasn't punished by Reaper later as he was locked in a small all white room while suffering from a wicked hangover and blasted with extremely high volume rock music on a continuous loop for five hours. Suffice to say Nightmare had promised to never steal another vehicle while intoxicated again.
The Advanced Aerial Combat Class or AAC class had finally adjusted to the fact that Reaper was their instructor as when the actual instructor finally showed up the class discovered that Mr. Willis was a middle age German Shepard that preferred to drink or read Playdog magazines during class. He left Reaper to actually instruct the class and never seemed all that interested in teaching or talking to the students except for Nightmare as the both where apparently drinking buddies.
The Star Fox team along with Bill, Miyu, Fay, Lucy, and Katt who had been planning to attempt and get Reaper fired where talked down by Fox who explained how Reaper had confronted him after class and helped him stop doubting himself. However Krystal still didn't like the human who didn't seem to acknowledge or care about the team and its past accomplishments, although her dislike was passive and she didn't act on it.
Reaper had also noticed that Fara was flirting with him to a point where he doubted that it was just to tease him and Fate seemed to want to be around him more and more although never really talking to him as she was still too shy to strike up a conversation. He wasn't the only one with possible relationship building either as Pual and Annabelle had been talking to each other frequently as well as Stella and Wraith who were often found talking tech that no one else understood. However Reaper had also noticed that Isme kept glancing over at Wolf from time to time for unknown reasons and Reaper couldn't help but think Isme wanted to talk to the classes' aloft and notorious member. Despite this however Reaper had noticed that there was one relationship in the class that was rapidly falling apart, Katt was obviously in love with Falco but the avian never seemed to return her feeling or acknowledge them in anyway. Reaper believed that Falco did indeed have feelings for the feline but was so focused on being the best pilot as possible that he was hurting Katt who was starting to get desperate.
The only thing that still pissed Reaper off was that the general populace and media still saw him as basically the anti-Christ as everything related to him was bad and rumors about him where made up, exaggerated, and all negative. He also still had to deal with Edmond who seemed hell bent on speaking down to everyone in the class especially Isme and walking around like he owned the place. Also something Reaper didn't like was that the class had divided itself into cliques consisting of the Star Fox team and friends (Miyu, Fay, Lucy, and Bill), the Techies (Jasmine, Stella, Lily, and Annabelle), the Edmond show (Edmond, Ilia, Isme) which was Edmond bragging to other students while Isme was bullied into doing anything Edmond said while Ilia tried to be with Isme so she wouldn't be left with Edmond, and the last clique was the group consisting of Fara, Fate, Ashley, Bryan, Lucas, and Nick. The last group was actually friendly with Reaper and often sat with him at lunch along with the rest of Shadow Team. Wolf was… well Wolf he sat in the corner and didn't associate with anyone.
As Reaper sat in the classroom waiting for the class to show up he had his mind occupied with two important developments. One was that today he was planning to show the class their aircraft today which admittedly he was excited about as getting a new craft was always exciting for a pilot. The second thing was something related to what Krystal had mentioned about the destruction of her home planet of Cerinia. Suffice to say that Venom forces had more information on the matter and Reaper had been talking to both General Hare and Lord Bowman of Venom about the incident and a combat sortie was likely going to happen in the future pending the findings of Rook and Preacher who had left to test a theory of Rooks about the incident in collaboration with the Corneria military and the VDF.
"Speaking of which that little operation should be underway right about now." Thought Reaper as his mind drifted to the two members of his team currently in orbit.
(In orbit over Corneria)
(Danial's POV)
Danial Farren, or "Rook" to his teammates, looked out at the Beltino Orbital Gate from his seat at the command chair of the Cornerian Argo class Heavy Cruiser "Vigilant" a large battle vessel that was currently functioning as a recon and transportation vessel that he and the Venom Defense Force had rigged as a research/rescue ship. The 6'2, 24 year old of Puerto Rican American looked rather rugged with a lean build, light tan skin, and short shaggy black hair that complemented his dark blue eyes. The man wore a gray hooded jacket over a black thermal T-shirt and baggy green and brown camouflage pants with brown hiking boots. Although the man didn't look it he was an elite strategist and had an IQ of 200, probably the reason he was Shadow teams tactician. Shadow team's number 3 looked down at his comrade in front of him.
At the helm of the ship, waiting for the go ahead to enter the orbital gate, was Shadow teams number 4 Raphael Bowerstone call sign "Preacher". As far as Danial was concerned the mission he and his comrade along with the crew of the vessel where about to take on was highly risky with too many "ifs". He and his team were going to attempt to enter the black hole Andross had created to attempt a rescue of James McCloud if they survived the warp, if the distress signal was indeed his, if they could find him, if he wasn't dead, and if they could find a way out again… like he said a lot of ifs.
Wraith had explained earlier to General Hare and Lord Bowman that Lord Bowmans science team had detected a distress signal coming from the black whole although weak, and that Andross had found a way to remove the star from the inside of a black hole while keeping the intense gravity. He also deduced that Andross must have wanted to keep James McCloud and possibly Cerinia for use in later experiments and thus created a wormhole at the edge of the black hole that sucked McCloud and Cerinia into the now hollow center virtually imprisoning them in a hollowed out black hole. Wraith and Reaper believed that there was a chance that Andross had used this same black hole that he used to capture James McCloud on Cerinia as well. After all before its 'destruction' Cerinia was a major military power with tech equal to Corneria and its people where both telepaths and warriors. Andross had likely seen them as a threat to his revenge upon Corneria and decided to remove them without weakening his military and thus the black hole.
Since they had no way to duplicate the worm hole technology Andross had used to allow things to pass through they instead planned to use the warp gate from Sector X by flinging it thru the Beltino Orbital Gate into the black hole. The on board AI program would then establish a connection with the Beltino Orbital Gate allowing the Vigilance to both enter and exit the black hole.
As the three as the crew sat and waited a voice came over the comm system. "Vigilance this isGeneral Hare in the Beltino orbital gate control room we have received the signal from the gate and you are green light for operation Rabbit Hole. Remember your primary mission is the recovery of the VIP call sign "Old Boy" you are also instructed to verify the possible presence and condition of the planetary body call sign "Blue Moon" and confirm the existence of survivors, code word for confirmed presence of inhabitants is "Magic Fox" this mission for the moment is considered classified keep off radio comms until objective completion. General Hare out."
Preacher, upon hearing the green light being given started the warp and the space outside their view port became white. The crew members in the bridge waited breathing quietly for a good 15 minutes before sighing in relief as the white suddenly vanished and was replaced by the darkest black any of the three had seen before; they were now inside the black hole.
Rook looked out the view port in front of him and gasped, there its surface covered in layers of Ice, was Cerinia. The lack of a heat source had caused the planet surface to freeze over and possibly covering most of if not all its inhabitants in below zero temperatures. As the Vigilance quickly began scanning for the location of the distress signal Rook opened up comms. "This is Vigilance, presence of "Blue Moon" confirmed. Beginning scans." Rook announced through the comm.
Suddenly the signals expert at the scanners, a squirrel by the name of Tommy, spoke up from his instruments. "Detecting repetitive distress signal coming from the surface coordinates 22 N, 56 W. Also detecting high levels of an unknown energy recommend closer inspection."
Preacher, upon hearing this, brought the ship in orbit over the coordinates Tommy had given them. "Activate optical camera and bring it up on the front display." Rook ordered.
The front display came up showing what many had been praying for since the beginning of the mission. Surrounded by ice and incased in a strange purple energy, was a large city. The city itself was enormous in size extending out in rings of buildings. In the center of the city was a large castle-like structure complete with battlements, towers, and a blue crystal roof.
"Life signatures?" Rook asked as a smile came to across his face seeing the possibility of survivors just skyrocketed.
Tommy looked at his instruments before responding with a happy laugh. "Confirmed! Presence of life signatures confirmed estimating at about over 380,000. All of which in the vicinity of the city, narrowing distress signal location… bringing it up on the camera."
The display swiveled to reveal a balcony on the castle where a device sat that Rook assumed was the distress signal. However standing next to it where a pair foxes both of them looking up at the craft that now dominated the sky, one of them a male and the other a female whose fur color was distinctly blue and dressed in blue royal attire. However next to her staring up at the Cornerian vessel that likely dominated the sky was a face that Rook had seen countless times on old Lylat war vids, James McCloud had been found.
Rook wasted no time and tapped the communications terminal "This is Vigilance; we have found 'Old Boy' I repeat 'Old Boy' has been found. Existence of 'Magic Fox' also confirmed beginning recover operations. Vigilance out." Rook ended the communications link before standing and addressing the numerous bridge crew who were cheering.
"Settle down people we still have work to do! Flight ops prepare all rescue shuttles for immediate launch, alert all crew to prepare for refuge arrival and alert the mess hall and medical teams that we have a lot of potentially hungry or sick individuals coming aboard. It's about to get really cramped in here." Rook stated as the bridge personnel quickly begin their work.
"I wonder who gets to tell Krystal about this?" Rook thought as he watched two figures on the monitor smile up at the ship that had finally come to rescue them.
Aaaandddd that concludes chapter 8! Well hope you all enjoyed the chapter and are eagerly awaiting the next one so until then, stay frosty and don't forget to review!