Escape from Corneria

Present Time - Corneria


A lonesome shuttle was dashing across the Cornerian country side, going about its business as quickly as it could, while trying to avoid to be seen. Once Fox had escaped the lava fields, he had put the shuttle down in a small clearing in a dense forest. While listening to the communications, which confirmed that at least for the moment the hunt had been called off and he had been declared MIA, he walked around the shuttle and smashed all the navigation lights. Then he had waited until just before sunset before setting off again. He was hoping that dusk would give him some cover, while still not having to fly for too long in darkness, although he still had several hundred kilometres to cover to Corneria City.

He searched his memory for every little piece of information he could find. He knew the lay of the land around Corneria well, and was seeking out every hill and every valley, anything he could hide behind to avoid detection, while at the same trying to avoid settlements. Darkness fell and it became treacherous flying. He wanted to avoid using the radar, or anything else that could send out a signal alerting about his whereabouts, but he did find that the shuttle was equipped with an infrared camera. It was pretty sketchy to fly guided only by the infrared, but it was better than nothing.

Since he was flying for a couple of hours, he had time to assess the situation, and he didn't like it. He had few friends left that he could turn to for help. Peppy and Slippy were under the Cerinian's control, and would not doubt be spreading the word about the traitor, him, and he expected to be stopped wherever he went. He needed Falco, but Falco had been as he always was, and had gone walkabout. A couple of weeks ago he had declared that he was going for 'a little trip' while not saying where too and for how long he'd be gone, and that was the last Fox had heard of him. Falco had a knack for not just turning up unexpectedly when the day needed saying, but also going awol at the worst time. Fox had no idea where that migratory bird might be.

The shuttle zoomed over a lake, low enough to whip up sprays of water, and sending waterfowl into a wing-flapping panic.

That left one option, the hardest one. There was one person that could see through Cerinian mind games, a person who were familiar with them, and could help him figure out how to launch a counterattack. The very same person who wanted to see him the least of all. A person who had been both one of us and one of them. Krystal!

It hurt so much just thinking about, but he had to try to find her, although he had no idea where to start looking, or what she'd say and do if he found her. And it wasn't as if he hadn't looked for her before. Things had gone so terribly wrong between them after ... no, he couldn't even make himself think about it.

She had joined Star Wolf, become hated on Corneria, and then just disappeared. She might be hiding on Sauria, but he had looked there before, crawling on his knees, begging and pleading with King Tricky. She could still be with Star Wolf of course, but he was sure they'd still be bragging and boasting about it, which they were not. There were rumours that she had taken off on a mission and gone missing in action. He didn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. She was way too stubborn for that. Maybe she had just gone away, just like she had turned up on Sauria seemingly out of nowhere. He liked to think that she simply had gone in search of Cerinia. He had been hoping as much, but now the Cerinians were here. What did that mean?

He needed something faster than this tortoise of a shuttle. The skyline of Corneria City was growing larger as he got close, but it looked different. It was hazy and all the lights were slightly dimmed, as the smoke from the volcanoes had started spreading as far as the city and wrapping it in their choking embrace. He had no choice but to turn on the navigation systems to find the best way to the airfield at Arspace Dynamics, where he hoped that his Arwing still would be. It was completely dark now, but he still kept his landing lights off to avoid being seen, trying to stay as low as he could guided by the infrared cameras. But there were more people out and about this close to town, so sooner or later someone would surely spot him and report an erratically flying shuttle. He flew under the sky-rail, over industrial areas, and followed major arterial roads at some distance.

Then suddenly there was a flash of colourful light, as he managed to fly right in front of the screens of the city's massive drive-in cinema. Smooth, Fox, real smooth! He cursed himself and he could hear the radio comms increasing in intensity, as people were calling in the odd sighting. He had to be prepared for anything.

Finally he reached the Arspace Dynamics complex and as he entered the airfield, he was met by a large blast of plasma shooting past him way too close. He banked hard and to his disbelief saw a Landmaster patrolling the grounds. His shuttle would be no match against that, and the parachute would be useless at this low altitude, so what could he do next? Where was the tank? The infrared showed that he was passing straight over it, as the tank stared turning around. Fox hit full reverse on the engines, pulled the nose up and used the landing thrusters too. The next shot went just under him, confirming that the tank had turned around. The Landmaster had gained speed, and passed under Fox, so he pushed the throttle forward again. The tank started turning, but still at full speed. An unexperienced driver, thought Fox and followed, while slamming his hand down on the remote control to the shuttle door. He put the vessel in a turn following the tank and went even closer to the ground. As the shuttle caught up with the tank, he ran to the door, judged the distance and jumped out into the darkness.

The shuttle passed low and slow over the Landmaster, and as soon as the tank had a clear shot, it fired its cannon. The round hit the flying target in the bulls eye, and the shuttle went up in a big ball of flames which rose up towards the clouds, before the carcass crashed onto the tarmac. The tank stopped and the driver inspected the wreckage for a moment, before reporting a confirmed kill and started heading back towards the hangars, while a figure was hanging on to its back in the shadows.


Fox McCloud's Arwing stood by itself in a hangar at Arspace Dynamics, as it had done since Fox had parked his there on his last visit to Slippy's office. Guards were patrolling the hangars and the grounds, looking for anything and nothing. First there had been rumours that McCloud had literally gone up in smoke in the mountains after crashing into a volcano. But now there had been the incident with the shuttle. Was it possible that it was him? Most of the guards had heard the many stories and sometimes exaggerated legends of Star Fox, so they assumed anything could be possible. As the guards outside the hangar turned their attention towards the flames of the wreckage in the distance, deep in discussion about what the fox might be up to, a dark shadow slipped into the hangar behind them.

The shadow moved through the huge hangar, stealing from hiding spot to hiding spot. It stopped and loitered for a bit around three Arwings standing side by side alongside one wall. There were subtle differences between them and regular Arwings. It was nothing major, just small things like the shape of the wingtips and the engine exhausts, and most importantly the letter "X" just below the cockpits, which Arspace Dynamics used to identity experimental aircraft.

The shadow vanished as two guards walked through the hangar, but a few minutes later the canopy of Fox McCloud's Arwing opened, and there was the shadow again. It was doing something in the cockpit for a moment, then the canopy closed and the Arwing's engines started spooling up. Shouts echoed through the hangar as the guards came running back. They lifted their guns and fired as the Arwing started hovering over the floor, but their standard issue rifles were no match for its shields, and the plane took off through the open hangar door and started its ascent through the smoke covering the city.

Commotion erupted and in the middle of shouting guards, two pilots came running through the hangar followed by a third at some distance. The two pilots reached the experimental Arwings, climbed into one each and within a minute they were airborne. As they exited the hangar, the third pilot jump into the cockpit of Arwing number three, but struggled with the controls for a moment. An arm reached over the side of the cockpit and grabbed hold of the pilot's helmet.

"Command to Xray Flight. Report!" came a call over the pilots comms.

"Xray One. All systems go. Commencing ascent!"

"Xray Two. Looking good!"

"Xray Three. Xray Three? Come in Xray Three!"

There were a few seconds delay.

"Xray Three here. I had some slight G-diffusor issues, but all sorted now. Ready for takeoff."

"Xray Three, it is an experimental aircraft, so do be careful."

"Roger that!"

And with that the third Arwing II-X took flight and exited the hangar. The four Arwings rose through the atmosphere and bound by its drag they kept a constant distance, first the one belonging to Fox McCloud, then the pair of experimental, and finally the straggler. The flames around the nosecone of Fox McCloud's Arwing faded as it exited the stratosphere, its gravity diffusors were recalibrated, and then it hit full acceleration.

"Look at him go!" called Xray One as they started to lose sight of their target.

"In a minute we'll be free of the drag too, and then we'll really see what these birds can do," replied Xray Two. Moments later large blue flames of light erupted from the planes engines, and they were literally off like a flash in the night.

"Wow! These Cerinian enhancements are epic!" called Xray Two.

"Wait for me will you?" called Xray Three, which was still playing catch-up.

"He's heading straight for his Great Fox, but we should intercept him comfortably before he gets there," stated Xray One. And so they did. Soon they had him it their sights, engaged their weapons systems, locked on to their target and fired. Two pairs of missiles started closing the distance to their target.

Xray Three was now at full speed and catching up, as its pilot saw Fox McCloud's Arwing get hit and disintegrate high above the Cornerian skies.

"Xray One to Command. Target destroyed."

"Xray Two to Command. Returning to base."

"This is Command. Mission completed. Report status, Xray Three."

"I am having G-diffusor problems again. I need to recalibrate before reentry. You two go back and I'll join you later when I've sorted them out."

"The remote telemetric show no issues. Please detail, Xray Three."

"I've definitely got warnings about overheating and instability on screen here. Maybe it's just shonky wiring. I need to run some systems checks."

"Roger that, Xray Three. It is an experimental craft after all. Please report back once resolved."

"Ok, over and out."

Fox McCloud exhaled and wiped sweat from his forehead. Gee, was he grateful that Slippy had programmed that homing mode into all their Arwings, back when they were flying together. All that had been blown up was an empty ship, his own ship of course, but this experimental one seemed like a trade-up anyway. And he was so lucky that he had gotten away with the same trick not once or twice, but three times. Hopefully it bought him just enough time to get away, before they either got suspicious about his faked technical issues, or found the real pilot, who was nicely wrapped up in duct tape behind some equipment in the hangar. What would the world be like without duct tape?

He looked around the cockpit, and while there were some instruments he didn't recognise, but it was mostly familiar. He punched in some codes on a touch screen and opened up a secured channel.

"ROB. Come in! I'm a fox on the run, but don't wait for me. Break orbit immediately and accelerate at ten Gs. I can dock in flight."

"Negative!" answered ROB.

"What do you mean 'negative'? Just get a move on or we're toast."

"We are restricted from departure. Highest order from General O'Hare."

Dammit! Well, good thing Slippy had put that backdoor in place too.

"Override! Code Red Alpha," ordered Fox.

"Passphrase?" droned ROB.

Fox closed his eyes, clenched his hands around the controls and cursed himself. This was going to be hard.

"Passphrase?" repeated ROB.

"Krystal McCloud"


The clouds swirled around it as the Arwing broke through, and the streamers from its engines evaporated the falling water. It descended with the rain, and circled over the river, bridges and pyramids of the Walled City on Sauria. The unusual sight and sound brought out the Earth Walkers from their shelters to see what was going on. The plane lowered itself and touched down on the grassy field surrounded by a wall in the middle of the city. The canopy opened and out into the heavy rain jumped Fox McCloud. He started walking towards the main temple, but had to stop when several large Earth Walkers barred the way. Then they parted and down the middle walked their leader himself: King Tricky.

"You are not welcome here anymore, Fox McCloud, and you know it," he boomed.

Fox looked at his old friend, who had been such a playful youth when they had worked together to save Sauria, and Krystal of course, several years ago. Now Tricky was a fully grown Earth Walker, and while still a young adult, pretty much as large as they got. Tricky's had believed that Fox and Krystal belonged together, so when he learned that they'd split up, he put the blame squarely on Fox, full stop.

"I am sorry to disturb you," Fox started. "But for old friendship's sake, please just hear me out one last time."

The Earth Walker said nothing for a long moment, then he slowly nodded.

"I need to find Krystal," Fox continued.

"She does not wish to be found by you!"

"I know and I'm truly sorry about that. You may have heard about visitors to Corneria, and if not, they are from Cerinia, the very planet Krystal came from. But they are not here for the friendly reasons they claim, and they're not just mind readers like Krystal, they are mind controllers as well."

He pointed to the scar on his right temple where the implant had been. The blood which hadn't completely dried yet, and was slowly running down his cheek like red tears.

"I found that out the hard way, when I tried to take them on myself. Now I'm a hunted fox, and I can't stay long or they will track me down. Krystal is the only one left who can help, and if she doesn't want to help, well then maybe she wishes to see her own kind."

They stood and looked at each other for a long time, while Earth Walker said nothing, and Fox could feel the rain soaking through his clothes.

"If you don't want to tell me where she is, then please at least let her know," said Fox, turned around and walked back to his plane. As he climbed into the cockpit, Tricky finally spoke.

"She is not here!" he said. "I wish she was, but she isn't and I don't know where she is. Two years ago or more she gave me a message. You know, one of hers."

"In you thoughts?"

Tricky nodded.

"She said, Tricky my good friend, Corneria is no longer the place for me. I cannot come to Sauria, because I will be found there. So I need to go further away and don't know when and if I will be back. Take care of your people."

"Thank you, Tricky!" said Fox, even of it was thank you for nothing. He knew the Earth Walker well enough to know that he could trust him.

"Farewell, Fox."

He thought he could see tears in Tricky's eyes, although the downpour made it impossible to tell for sure. So he closed the canopy and took off through the driving rain, off to one more desperate destination, and his last hope of finding Krystal.