Arrival

Present Time - Lylat System


McCloud sat in his seat on the bridge of the Great Fox nursing a severe case of hangover. Why didn't he learn to stay away from whiskey? He had sulked in his room for a while, opening another bottle of cheaper stuff, then slunk back out to the others in the common room with his tail between his legs. As many a time before he had tried to drown his sorrows in the drink, and as many times before it hadn't worked, and he was paying for it today.

Falco strolled onto the bridge.

"Nice whiskey that one, thank you very much. Best thing out of Papetoon I'd say."

"Shut up!"

Falco just chuckled at the state Fox was in.

"And thanks for the lift," he continued. "Beats travelling in a single-seater."

"No problem! Was heading that way anyway."

"So what's awaiting in Corneria."

"Some much needed repairs," said Fox rubbing his head. "And I've got to get Faye back to the Academy."

"Nice girl?"

"She's very smart," said Fox and then he caught on. "No, Falco, not that way! She's a lot younger than me."

"Have you caught up with your old friend Fara?"

"What are you getting at, Falco?" Fox asked and turned to Falco with a glare.

"Just thought that, you know, going steady with someone might be good for you. Didn't mean to be so hard on you yesterday."

Fox was confused. Was that actual concern and a kind of apology from Falco? That would be so out of character.

"Says the expert on relationships," Fox continued. "Anyway, where have you been the past couple of years?"

"Oh, you know, here and there..."

"Not here in Lylat! I've heard that much."

"There are plenty of systems out there. You know those odd vortexes around the black hole Andross created?"

Where his father James McCloud had disappeared? Yes, Fox knew well.

"They might just lead to all sorts of places."

What substances have you been messing up your birdbrain with? Fox wondered.

"Increased activity on the Corneria's secured channels," announced ROB. Could this be something interesting?

"Well, you can unscramble, can't you ROB?" replied Fox.

"Affirmative. Processing."

"Put it thought the speakers, please."

After a few moments the voices came through on the bridge.

"There's a large anomaly developing in Sector Y."

"It's at least several miles in size."

"Any visuals?"

"Negative?"

"Could it be a stray asteroid?"

"It's disturbing the magnetic fields too much, as if it contains a lot of metal."

"What does the long distance radar show?"

"It's inconclusive. There's always too much disturbance in Sector Y. But it could be a ship."

Falco and Fox looked at each other with puzzled expressions.

"Feel like a detour?" asked Fox.

"Always!"


When they got close to the Y-shaped nebula, a large portion of the Cornerian Army's ships were already there with everything from their smallest bottlenose fighters to their larges carriers. General O'Hare was amongst them somewhere on his flagship too, but the fleet were keeping a safe distance to the nebula.

Slippy and Faye had joined Fox, Falco and ROB on the bridge, all of them gazing out at the luminous gas cloud. A spot in the middle was swirling ominously, darkening and revealing an opening through which an enormous starship sailed through. They had never seen anything like it. Unlike the angular and utilitarian looking Cornerian ships, it had streamlined curves and a hull dotted with various towers and outcrops, like a giant, barnacle clad space whale. And it shone like gold.

"That's definitely not from Lylat!" exclaimed Fox.

"What are Peppy's tin soldiers hanging back for?" Falco wondered. "Someone needs to have a closer look."

"That would be very dangerous," said Slippy. "We have no idea what weapons and defence systems it might have."

"That's something you and Faye can try to scan for," said Fox. "Ready to fly, Falco?"

"Ready when you are, wingman?"

Fox and Falco raced to the flight deck, climbed up into the cockpits of their fighters and commenced the startup sequence.

"Not So Great Fox really needs to have a launch bay," said Falco while powering up his engines.

"Enough already!" growled Fox, but he too missed the old Great Fox, where ROB would have prepared the ships while they ran to the launch bay, so all they had to do was to literally jump into their Arwings and be catapulted into battle.

They took off, eased out of the plasma gate and then finally hit the gas.

As they got closer, Fox could really marvel at the sight. The foreign ship dwarfed the Cornerian vessels. On it there appeared myriad of small lights, which might be windows. There could be thousands and thousands of people living on that ship. He could make out various patterns on it too and that didn't make sense. It didn't look like structures or weapons or anything like that, but more like ornaments.

"Should we have a closer look, Falco?"

"Sure! I want to see some faces."

"Cornerian Forces to Star Fox, you are not authorised!" came the call over the comms channel.

"With all due respect disregarded," answered Fox. "We need to find out their intentions."

"This is General O'Hare. Fall back! Even you can't be that lunatic, McCloud."

"Thank you for your confidence in me," sniggered Fox. "We're going in."

The two Arwings put themselves in an orbit around the starship, scanning for anything that might look like weapons. Other smaller golden ships appeared, following them at a short distance. Here we go, thought Fox. Let's see what their next move is. Then suddenly another voice came through on their comms.

"This is the First of The Protectors."

How the heck could they do that, wondered Fox? The voice wasn't just on one channel, and not just on the open ones either, but all over the encrypted channels too.

"We come in peace. We mean no harm."

Now that just sounded like something out of a bad movie.

"We've got bogies on our tail," announced Fox. "We've caught their interest. Preparing to return fire if needed."

"We are interstellar travellers who only wish to trade," continued the foreign voice. Then how come they knew Lylatian? "Food for knowledge, water for medicine, and resources for technology."

Fox didn't like how one of the smaller ships was following him, so he did a quick loop-the-loop, came up behind it and engaged his targeting systems.

Then there was a flash of light, a noice like a crack of thunder and a pain like an electric shock. The engine cut out, the control panels and displays went black, and his Arwing started tumbling helplessly through space.


When Fox came to, he was spinning out of control through empty space, but the ominous Y-shaped nebula was getting larger, so he suspected he was heading straight for it. He was fighting with the controls, pressing buttons, trying to make the systems reboot, but there wasn't enough power. He hoped the G-diffusor wouldn't self-ignite on him. They were dangerous things. His head was getting dizzy.

Once every turn he could see Falco in his Arwing out there next to him, mouth moving, but there was no use. Fox' comms were dead too. Next turn Falco was doing thumbs up with both hands. Heck, no it was not all good. Falco slapped his forehead with a hand, then punch his canopy with a fist. He wished Krystal was here. She would have read his mind, which however always had freaked him out. Krystal...

Finally there was something to work with. He managed to get an auxiliary battery going, but it wasn't enough to restart the engines or get flight systems up and running.

"Eject you stubborn idiot!" came Falco's voice. So the comms were back.

"Can't afford to lose any ships," said Fox.

"Rather lose your life, moron?"

He found that the landing thrusters were working and gently used them to ease the spin. That just confirmed that he was heading straight for the nebula and all its treacherous radiation.

"Remember when Monroe used a tractor beam on you, Falco? That'd be handy now."

"Slippy and Faye might have come up with something. Check your six!"

Fox turned around and saw the Great Fox coming up behind him, its plasma gates slowly getting larger and larger. Great work, thought Fox, but I hope you're not too late. He kept nudging the thrusters to keep his Arwing straight, while the Great Fox slowly closed the distance, like a big fish swallowing a bait. The Arwing crashed to the flight deck floor as soon as it passed through the plasma gate and the artificial gravity kicked in. The Great Fox banked hard as it tried to avoid the nebula, yet soon they were engulfed in swirling gasses and alarms started going off. But it only lasted a few minutes, as the ship skimmed the outskirts of the nebula, and the space around them cleared again. Phew, that was a bit too close!


"We come in peace. We mean no harm."

Fox and Falco were listening to a recoding that ROB had made and patched through to Fox' wrist comms, while Slippy and Faye was going over the broken Arwing.

"This is General O'Hare of the Cornerian Forces. Please state who you are and your intentions."

"My name is Kamuy and I am the First of The Protectors and the captain of our ship. We are interstellar travellers who only wish to trade."

"You know our language."

"We have been receiving your transmissions for quite some time. Our sensors show that your planet is rich in resources. We have advanced knowledge, medicine and technology that we are willing to share."

"And advanced weapons too, I presume," continued the general.

"Oh, no, only defences! We are The Protectors, sole survivors keeping our people and culture alive on this ship."

"So, interstellar traders you say."

"Yes, and as a sign of our good will, I am willing to meet you on a neutral place of your choice. We will come without weapons."

"Very well!" said the general and it sounded like his voice had softened. "May I suggest the Orbital Gate? The coordinates are on their way. And our apologies about the fighter that got a bit too close. The pilot is an independent and somewhat rouge operator."

"Do you know what happened? Is the pilot unharmed?"

"Thank you for your concern. There appears to have been a malfunction but he is quite OK."

"That is good new. I am looking forward to meeting you, General O'Hare."

McCloud was nearly bouncing on the floor.

"Easy Fox!" said Falco. "I thought I was the hothead here."

"Malfunction? Malfunction? That was no malfunction. That was a weapon! What can you find?"

"Not much," said Slippy popping out from under a panel. "Not much at all! Some fried wires and chips. Drained energy cells."

"And most systems are booting up after replacing the batteries," added Faye from up in the cockpit. "But some memories are erased."

"So what do you think? Malfunction?"

"It kind of looks like a short circuit," said Slippy.

"Taking out all of the systems at once," continued Faye.

"Unless it was an EMP," concluded Slippy.

"EMP?" said Fox.

"EMP!"

"As in Electro Magnetic Pulse?"

"Yes!"

"As in the EMPs that are so great for frying electronics, so that all Arspace Dynamics' ships including the Arwings are heavily protected against them?" summarised Fox with more than a slight hint of sarcasm.

"Err ... Yes ... Those ones."

"Know of anything in Lylat with an EPM that can take out an Arwing without melting the hull and the pilot at the same time?"

"Nope!"

"Ok, so they've got weapons that we're only dreaming of, and they're keeping that to themselves."

"The visitors are approaching the Orbital Gate," interrupted ROB. "There is a live video broadcast."

"Let's head to the living quarters," said Fox. "I don't want to miss this."


They sauntered into the common room, Fox making a detour for the coffee machine and grabbing himself a cup. ROB was projecting the video stream using a hologram. It showed the Orbital Gate hanging in its equilibrium high over the planet Corneria, and approaching it was a small shuttle, which looked more like a golden sculpture.

The feed changed to a camera from inside the Orbital Gate. The shuttle glided in through the opening to the flight deck and majestically settled down on the floor. General O'Hare was standing in the middle of the flight deck with a group of soldiers and they were watching as the door of the shuttle opened and a ramp extended. Down the ramp walked first a woman in decorated robes, carrying a long staff in one hand, and behind her two men in similar clothes and slightly smaller staffs. The camera zoomed in on the woman and the coffee cup fell out of Fox's hand, smashing on the floor and spilling its contents.