'In the cold expanse of space, there's trillions of stars, as well as planets, but just how many had or have life?'
That's the question Jack asked himself as his ship, The Enduring, drifted in orbit around a planet that was devoid of intelligent life, before marking it as explored in his charts with a yellow dot, before looking for another system to check. While doing so, he looked out of the helm's window, looking at the planet. He shook his head, before looking to the ship's AI, Silas "No sentient life, plenty of oxygen and foliage for life though."
"What exactly would you do if we did find sentient life?" That made him think for a minute before shrugging "I rightfully don't know, what would you suggest?" He looked out the window again, this time to the endless abyss "Perhaps try talking to them, but there's no guarantee they're not hostile, or can't understand us."
"I didn't even consider the language barrier, but anyways, let's get going." He said as he made his way to the Nav Table, and putting coordinates for a nearby system, before sitting at the helm, taking control of the ship, and making the jump.
ON CORNERIA
General Pepper sat at his desk, looking through reports. Andross's forces had been giving his hell for a while, not to mention the fact that they reached Corneria faster than anticipated, so he was understandably upset when he got a new report some time later, but as he looked through it, he slowly begin to worry, a war with an enemy hellbent on their destruction, and losing a lot of ground to said enemy, now an unidentified ship appears on the outskirts of the system, he was spread thin as it was, so he made the decision to get Star Fox to investigate, so without a moment's hesitation, he contacted them, and he was relieved when they responded quickly "General, what do you need?"
"we have a strange report of an unidentified ship at the edge of Lylat, near Aquas. We're worried the Venomians have made an experimental vessel, but the CDF is spread thin already, so I need you to investigate it, the payout will be doubled if it's a first contact scenario." Fox had to do a double take to make sure he was reading the payout correct before regaining his composure "We'll get it done." and just like that, they were on their way.
AT THE ENDURING
They dropped out of slip space above a planet that looked to be mostly, if not all water, which immediately made both Jack and Silas doubt they'd find anything, but something caught Jack's eye, a glint, almost unnoticeable "Silas, can you scan for any vessels? I thought I saw something just now." he made his way to the hangar, and while his ship was capable of flying in atmosphere, it was also heavily armored, meaning the only times he wanted to go in was for repairs or if he had no choice, which is why he had a personal space fighter, which he called The Hunter, and left the ship in it as Silas contacted him "I have confirmed a 5 flight formation closing on us, I am attempting to hail them, but I am not getting any response." That made both curious, but that only lasted mere seconds as the flight started firing on them, prompting Jack to engage "bring Enduring's shields and weapons online, update my IFF so I can lock them." it took about 5 seconds before they updated to valid targets, to which it was fair game. While 3 of the unknowns went after the main ship, 2 went after what they thought was the escort. As they approached, Jack loosed a missile at one, before swapping his target to the other, and letting that one have a missile too. while one was blown to ashes, the other evaded, only to be met with guns, which took it out of the fight as it went towards the planet on fire, after which, Jack went to assist the main ship, which was holding it's own, even destroying one. Silas contacted Jack again "These must be like UAV's, they attack with coordinated attacks, but don't show many evasive maneuvers."
"It wouldn't surprise me, as it works with why they didn't respond, but wouldn't that mean reinforcements are approaching?"
"It is possible" they managed to destroy the last 2 with little effort, and with that, Jack took a position to fly escort "Silas, get the ship moving away, I don't like being a sitting duck." Soon, they were moving, but more fighters made their way to their position, and it wasn't long they engaged in combat again. For 5 minutes, they held against the enemy while attempting a retreat, until a new contact appeared on the radar, with 4 more coming from it, but Silas noticed something immediately "Jack, more contacts, but their signatures are different attempting to hail them" he then switched channels "Unidentified fighters, identify yourselves immediately" it took seconds, which felt like an eternity, if they were hostile, they'd be surrounded, and The Enduring, while built to take a beating, was starting to feel the pressure from the constant assault, but then the response came "This is Fox McCloud of the mercenary group Star fox, we were sent to identify a new contact, I'm assuming you're that contact."
"I can confirm, but we're under attack by unknowns, the captain, Jack O'Driscoll, is currently fighting them head-on with fire support from this ship, The Enduring, and is in need of help. I will contact him." he switched channels again "Jack, contacts identified as friendly, I will direct them to this channel." he switched again "Star Fox, I need you to switch frequency to 1597.4 to communicate with the captain." after they did, Fox spoke up first "Captain Jack, this is Fox, leader of Star Fox, we're here to help"
"This is Jack, many thanks, it's starting to look bad here, so don't wait for me to give the word" He was immensely relieved when he saw his new allies take to the fray, and while it took a while, they finally emerged victorious. Jack pulled his fighter alongside one of his allies "That was gonna be my end if you 4 hadn't come along" Fox almost immediately responded "Your friend said you guys are new here basically, would you mind landing on the Great Fox?" Jack was a little confused, but when he looked at the cockpit of his ally, he expected to see a human, not a frog, and he pulled away to another, only to see a falcon "I guess, but this is first contact, you're the first sentient race we've- sorry, races, we've encountered, plus, I gotta make sure everything's alright on The Enduring first." Silas almost immediately interjected "We're still alright, we need repairs to the right front facing thrusters though." Jack sighed at that, but it was far from the worst problem, his fighter was barely holding up "Alright, Fox, take the lead, I need to fix my ships later though." And with that, they made their way to the Great Fox's hangar, and after landing, while the crew was looking on after they got out, the Hunter's cockpit opened and Jack stepped out and took his helmet off, putting it in the seat that would've been his resting place if this crew of sentient animals hadn't come when they did. "That was harrowing, I'm Jack O'Driscoll, captaain of The Enduring, pleasure to meet the lads and lassies that saved me." he held his hand out to Fox, who approached him "Pleasures mine."
"I gotta say, that was the most heated welcome I've gotten back there" he said while chuckling, which got most to chuckle and laugh as well "I can imagine, welcome to Lylat, properly now, we'll head to Corneria to introduce you to the rest" Jack held his hands up "Woah, wait, when I mentioned damage, Silas said one of the thrusters was damaged, and I ain't leaving him and the ship behind."
"Well, this is an issue, how long would it take to fix it?"
"I wouldn't know until I got a look on the inside." At that, the frog lit up "Maybe I could help!" Jack looked at him "My technology could different, I'm not sure you could help, but if you want, I'll let you have a go lad, whatever your name is" The crew introduced themselves, Slippy, the mechanic, Falco, one of the pilots, though he boasts to much for Jack's liking, there's also Fara, who while a pilot, was without a fighter, he made a mental note to talk to her later, Peppy, another pilot, which surprised Jack because of his age, and Krystal, another pilot, what a surprise, but he couldn't really talk, as he was a pilot himself, but with that, Slippy and Jack went and boarded The Enduring, and while Slippy, with instructions from Silas made his way to the engineering area, Jack went into space to check for external damage. They quickly repaired it, faster than Jack's PB to his surprise, and after reboarding the Great Fox, made their way to Corneria.
