Chapter 1: Silence and Darkness
Alarms blared, red lights flashed and everything went to hell. A bright flash followed by the loudest sound imaginable. Like a shotgun blast next to the ear. Then...silence. Silence and darkness.
Silence was all that was there, nothing else. The alarms stopped ringing, the controls stopped making sounds. No more noises from outside the ship, no more explosions and blaster fire.
Fox's eyes struggled to open. He tried and tried, but his eyes refused to open. The blast must have knocked him out, but for how long? When they finally did, what he saw made no sense. Outside his Arwing was complete darkness, no stars or anything to light up the space. Thankfully the monitors in his ship emitted some light. Fox moved the control stick, hoping his Arwing could move. But whatever that blast was, it disabled his ship.
That's when the searing pain hit Fox, and it hit hard. He felt blood dripping down the sides of his head. Fox groaned and moved his hand over to feel the side his head. He must have hit his head badly when that explosion occurred, or maybe before that. He remembered taking quite the beating just before the explosion. Fox's breaths became heavier, and he felt like he was going to pass out from blood loss. His Arwing was always equipped with an emergency medical kit, situated in a compartment near his seat. He opened up the compartment and grabbed the medical kit. He set it down in his lap and opened it up. It was hard to see the contents clearly, but he felt around until he grabbed what he was sure was a thing of gauze. Fox tore open the package and placed the gauze pad onto the side of his head and held it there. If he could not contain this blood loss, it might be the end of his life.
Speaking of lives...what happened to his team? Were they okay? He wanted to see if they were alive, but the pain in his head became unbearable. He rummaged through the medical box some more and found a small bottle of rubbing alcohol and some painkillers. He applied some of the rubbing alcohol onto a new pad of gauze and switched it with his current pad. The stinging made him wince, but it finally subsided after a few seconds. Fox used his hand and teeth to open the container of painkillers. The vulpine put two of them in his mouth and swallowed them dry. Fox waited for the painkillers to take effect, making sure to keep himself awake and alive.
"Where... where am I?" Fox questioned out loud. This was not like space. Space was supposed to be filled with planets and stars. But this place was filled with nothing. Like someone had taken all the stars away. Was he even in the Lylat System? Or was he somewhere completely different.
The memories started to appear within Fox slowly. He remembered being with his team. They were attacking something...a ship. Why?
Fox reached for the communications system and called for his teammates.
"Guys? You guys there?" Fox asked with pained breaths. "Falco? Peppy? Slip? Is anyone there?" His words fell on deaf ears, or no ears at all. Fox messed with the settings and began recording a message to be broadcasted rather than speaking through a private channel.
"Is anyone out there? This is Fox McCloud. Can anybody hear me? I'm currently stranded, and I need help. I don't know where I am. My team is not responding. Please...help!" Fox sent the message and made sure it would repeat. If anyone was nearby, they would hear it...hopefully. Fox set his communications to pick up any frequencies, so that if anyone else was speaking he would hear it.
While he waited, he tended to his wound some more. He changed to a new pad of gauze and held it to his head. It was very unfortunate that he could not see the wound. Being able to stitch it closed would be damn near impossible. He found a piece of fabric he could tie around his head to keep the gauze in place. Finally, with his second hand free of it's burden, he began to mess around some ore. He looked up the ship's diagnostics. What he saw made no sense. Everything was in critical failure. Critical to the point where he should be dead, his Arwing should have exploded long ago. How was he alive?
Was he alive? Was this afterlife? No, no that's not right. He would figure this out.
More memories flooded his brain. He was fighting StarWolf. They were defending this ship. But there were no other fighters out there, just his team against Wolf's. Fox remembered seeing the Androssian empire insignia on the ship. It belonged to Andross? What was the importance of this ship? And what was the blast? That was still something he had yet to determine. Whatever caused it either took out all the stars and planets in Lylat, or took him somewhere else. The latter making much more sense. Had his teammates and adversaries been taken too? Where they with here with him or somewhere else?
Fox looked at his navigation system, but it was completely screwed up. He checked the clock to get some sense of time. It read 18:39, exactly what it read when he woke up. He was stranded with no sense direction or time. His world was now just and endless abyss where time did not exist.
His father always taught him to never give up, but the situation he was in made him feel hopeless. Would he spend the rest of his life out here and slowly die from starvation or blood loss? No, there had to be a way out of here. He would find it. Or he would find someone to help him. Surely there were people out there looking for him. His team... or the Cornerians, somebody had to be searching.
He felt the side of his head. Although painful, the bleeding had stopped. That as good. As hopeless as his situation was, Fox always looked to the positives. He was alive and that was definitely a positive. Was it?
Fox shook his head, angry at all his doubts. Doubts would not help him now.
Fox went into the messages to see if anything would help him remember what exactly happened. He found one from General Pepper, explaining the mission he was taking. He remembered meeting with the general. Unfortunately the message left out some information. Information that was probably discussed beforehand. Information that he needed now.
"The carrier is currently en route to from Titania to Corneria through Sector X. You must stop it before it reaches it's destination. Good luck, Star Fox."
That was it. No other information to help. No warning of what could happen.
Fox read through earlier messages but they contained nothing.
As Fox's hope started to dwindle, an eerie glow shined through the windshield. Fox looked up from his monitors, his eyes widening at the sight. There was another ship flying around out there. Another Arwing.
Fox frantically reached for the controls of his communications system.
"Hello? Falco is that you? Peppy? Slippy? Please answer me?" Fox spoke.
No response.
The Arwing kept flying around, going in and out of Fox's field of view. Then it slowed down and turned towards him. It hovered in place. Fox squinted to see who was inside. At first he was unable to see, but the Arwing slo0wly moved towards him. As it approached, he could finally see who was inside. It was not Falco, Peppy or even Slippy. His eyes opened wide.
"Dad!?"
Inside the Arwing was his father, wearing his signature sunglasses. He looked directly into Fox's eyes and smiled.
"Dad? It's me! It's me Fox!" Fox spoke out, tears started to form in his eyes. "Dad, it's..."
And just like that, the Arwing disappeared into nothingness. Gone.
"NO! Dad come back!" Fox slammed his hand down on the dashboard and began crying. He was back to silence and darkness. He was alone again, just him and the empty, black void.
His eyes cried a thunderstorm that went unheard. Nobody was listening to his cries.
Why did he see his dead father? Why? Of all people for the mirage to choose, it chose him.
Where was he? What hell was he in?
Hours had passed, or so he felt like it did. The clock still read the same time. Fox's tears dried up and he looked out at the abyss again. Any hope Fox had disappeared with his father. There was nothing he could do except wait. Wait for someone to find him or until he died, whichever came first.
As he waited, the communications system began making static. Fox's ears perked up and he turned the volume of the radio up. It was just static. But could it be a sign that someone was reaching out to him? Could one of his teammates be trying to get in contact with him. Fox listened more closely. At one point he swore he heard something more than just static. He continued to listen.
"Bzzzrckkkrrrttttkkzz He- Bzzkttrrzzztkk Po- Brrrzzzzxxxtttkbzzzkt Ins- Bzzkrrt."
The it stopped. Fox was back to silence and darkness.
