3:09 AM CT, Great Fox

Lylat date: December 21st, 2469. 0309 Hours. I've decided to start keeping a journal since things have been getting interesting. It's been about a year and a half since first contact with Earth. Noting some things that have happened, A signal was detected, a probe was sent to the fourth planet of the alien system, Mars. the probe crossed the nine and a half light year gap in around one and a half months, the probe was used as a link between our systems for communication, and here we are. Anyway, We're just getting home from a trip to Earth. Brought back a few souvenirs too. Something... Unnerving, happened on highwa [eraser marks]

Fox snapped back to reality when a monotone voice came over the Great Fox's loudspeakers. "Attention all personnel, Great Fox approaching Corneria, ETA two hours. This message will repeat three times at one-minute intervals." Stated ROB, the team's robot.

Fox closed his journal and placed it in the drawer on his desk, looking behind him to see Krystal still sound asleep in his bed. He stood up and walked into his quarters' bathroom to shower.

Meanwhile

Slippy sat in the ship's lounge at the coffee table tinkering with an old Venomian laser sword. In the dining area sat Falco eating some human cereal, fruit rings or something. The room was connected to the lounge, which was connected to a small kitchen, the walls were wooden, and the tiles were a grey stony color since the toad got a random wild hair to make the two connected rooms look as rustic as possible but judging by the generic wooden table and standard counter tops it clearly wasn't finished.

"I wonder when Fox is gonna' decide to roll outta' bed." Slippy wondered aloud.

"He's in the shower." Stated a voice from the doorway, the two looked up at the door to see Krystal. "Oh, hey Krystal." Slippy said while Falco paid little to no attention and continued eating. "I'm almost done with this laser sword you wanted." He spoke, the laser sword was the result of him losing a bet on poker. With two nine and a half month trips to and from Earth, you have a lot of free time to waste in between.

"I'm so ready to be back. Do you know if Katt's up?" Falco asked. The team let Katt tag along on the trip since there was an extra room.

"Only one way to find out." Krystal turned on the intercom "You up, Kathrine?"

The feline responded. "Yeah, I'm up, I'll be out there in a bit."

Fox walked in soon after, wearing a fuzzy gray robe and black pants. "Good morning." He said, receiving a friendly "Good morning, Fox." from Slippy, and Falco just gave a small wave in response, picking up his bowl and taking it to the sink. Krystal closed the fridge. "Good morning, love." She telepathically spoke to him, smiling at him.

"Morning, Krys." Fox responded, sitting down on a recliner and he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

The morning continued normally, Katt eventually came in, and an hour and a half later, ROB announced over

the loudspeakers. "Great Fox has arrived at Corneria, holding orbit."

Fox, Falco, and Slippy entered the bridge, Krystal simply stood leaning in the doorway.

Fox walked over to the communications console, opening a channel to Corneria City Shipyard. "Great Fox to Corneria City Shipyard, requesting permission to land."

A couple seconds of silence followed before an answer came from a man at Corneria City air traffic control. "Permission granted, welcome home."

"Thank you, sir." Fox said. "Initiate the landing sequence." Fox instructed, causing ROB to press some buttons and take the ship down through the atmosphere. "Landing at Corneria City Shipyard."

The Great Fox landed in a starship hangar soon after, the huge hangar doors on the roof closing afterwards.

5:14 AM CT, Corneria City Shipyard.

The team was walking in the shipyard, now clad in cold weather gear, exiting the hangar and making their way towards the parking lot. Multiple other hangars could be seen on the property, all of them connected by roads.

"It's good to be home." Falco said, taking a deep breath

"I agree. I just hope something doesn't happen like us getting a mission and inadvertently end up being sent on some kind of crazy adven-"

"Don't jinx it!" Everyone said with voices raised, that or some variation of the phase "Shut Up".

In response, Slippy immediately went quiet.

A few minutes of quiet walking later, the team reached the parking lot, where a sleek blue hover-van adapted into a sort of redneck bus was parked.

The team got into the van, Slippy getting in the driver's seat.

"Alright is everybody in?" The toad asked.

"Yep." Fox replied, getting in the front passenger seat.

Slippy put the key in the ignition and started the van, driving out of the parking lot and onto the road in the direction of Star Fox's main base on Corneria, an abandoned military base given by the team's former mission advisor, Peppy Hare who was now general of the Cornerian military. About 20 minutes later they reached the base.

5:41 AM CT, Star Fox Main Base.

After about 20 minutes of driving and talking amongst themselves, the team arrived at the base gate where a dark blue robot stood, sealed inside a small security booth on the right side. Fox rolled down his window

"Facial patterns recognized, opening main gate." The robot said before pressing a red button on the control panel. The gate opened and closed after the van had entered. Past the fence surrounding the base was a medium sized fighter hangar, the main complex consisted of a concrete building with keycard locked doors. The surrounding area was lit up with a warm shade of light from multiple lamp posts with sphere shaped globes on top of them. The base's appearance was pretty bland, but it worked. Force field generators lined the inner fence, making an invisible dome over the building and hangar, allowing air conditioning and removing the issue of having to shovel snow and deal with rain.

Slippy parked in front of the entrance to the building. Out funneled the three people in the back, Fox and Slippy getting out of the front.

6:11 AM CT, Inside The Base.

Fox went into a room that had been modified into a living room and plopped into the reclining chair facing the TV, grabbed the remote, and turned on the large plasma flat screen TV mounted on the wall. "News time." He said to himself, pointing the remote to the TV and switching to channel 4, causing the morning news to switch on conveniently just as it started, Showing a white bulldog. "Hello everyone, I'm News 4 Chief Meteorologist, Daniel Williamson giving you the weather forecast in the Corneria City Area." Not paying much attention to the weather, Fox pulled out his cellphone. Within the next minute, Krystal and Slippy walked in, now clad in matching blue pajamas.

"It turns out I accidentally bought the exact same unisex PJs as toots over here." Slippy said in a mock 1920's New York accent. "What- did you just call me 'toots'?" Krystal looked down at the toad confused, causing him to snicker.

"You guys want me to brew up some coffee?" he asked, receiving two nods of approval in return and then walked into the adjacent room to make coffee.

Krystal sat down on the chair next to Fox's. "Fox. The news is coming on." Fox immediately put his phone down in response.

A brown furred feline woman was shown on the news set with a holographic globe of Corneria with a red ring around it with the letters "CNN" at the top of the screen,

Good morning, my name is Cathy Bryant and I'll be filling in for Mike Warner this morning. Our top story concerns the subterranean city of Tritari, at about 4:30 AM in the region a boring team uncovered a large cave system, two people fell in and discovered a doorway. Stay tuned for more information. In other news, the engineering crew aboard OPF Station Gamma are relieved that a malfunction with the low-atmosphere pump hose proved easy to fix."

"Coffee's done." Slippy croaked from the kitchen before walking in with some coffee mugs, coffee creamer, and the coffee pot, setting it on the coffee table before plopping down on the sofa ungracefully.

"Anything interesting on the news?" He asked, pouring straight black coffee into his mug and setting it on the table.

"Something about a fixed malfunction on OPF Station Gamma and someone fell down a hole in Tritari." Krystal picked up a mug and the pot, pouring a cup.

"We've just received orders not to release information on the aforementioned doorway by the Cornerian Defense Force. That's all for now, this has been Corneria News Network" The news switched to commercials.

"That ended fast. What about a doorway?" Slippy asked.

"I don't know. Maybe I should call Peppy and ask what's up." Fox picked up his phone and dialed Peppy. While the phone dialed Krystal went over to the intercom next to the door. "Falco. You're needed in the lounge. Something interesting has happened at Tritari."

Falco responded. "Never heard of the place but I'm on my way." Falco began jogging through the hallway to the converted living room.