The captain of the Venomian star cruiser grimaced distastefully at the line of figures standing up on the command bridge. He leaned down towards an officer and muttered into his ear, "Bounty hunters? What was Lord Cain thinking, bringing their scum aboard my ship?"
A low growl from above him made the captain look up. Staring down at him from the command deck was a tall, gray wolf with a bushy tail and a white stripe running from his forehead to the back of his skull.
Wolf O'Donnell flashed the captain a sharp-toothed grin, the electronic eye fused to the left side of his face glinting.
The captain gulped nervously.
Wolf jerked his shaggy head back up, becoming stiff as Cain stalked past him and the line of other bounty hunters, including Panther Corosa, Pigma Dengar, Andrew Oikonny, and a battle-scarred war android named RED.
"... The reward for the one who finds Falco Lombardi and the Eagle's Eye will be... substantial," continued Cain. But then he added, "So long as they are both brought back to me in one piece. No disintegrations." He stopped and turned his helmeted head towards Wolf, as if speaking to him specifically.
Wolf's mouth curled into a sneer. "As you wish," he said almost under his breath. The leader of Star Wolf had disbanded his team of mercenaries for this particular hunt, viewing it as good sport for the team.
"You may use any methods necessary for capture, however. I am putting my trust and faith in you. Do not make me believe I misplaced it," Cain warned. Once again, he seemed to be speaking to Wolf directly, knowing that he was the most fearsome and notorious of them all.
Cain dismissed the other bounty hunters, but Wolf lingered, feeling as though Cain still wanted him. When the others were gone, Cain approached O'Donnell.
"I called you here because of my own men's incompetence. If you prove to be just as useless, I will kill you," growled Cain to Wolf.
O'Donnell stared at him, undaunted. "Don't worry, sir. I'll get you Lombardi."
Cain nodded slowly. "You had better be a man of your word," he said.
***
A rumble. The ground shook. Falco had to grip the control board of the Eagle once again to keep from slipping out of the pilot's seat and crashing to the floor.
Krystal swivelled aimlessly in the copilot's seat, gazing at the eerie lighting in the cockpit from the flashing buttons on the control board. "So how much longer?" she asked Falco.
"Not much," the blue bird replied, resting his chin on one fist and propping his feet up on the control board.
They had been hiding in the darkened cave in the asteroid for hours now, waiting for the empire to give up their search and go away. But the imperials were persistent, and were certainly not stupid. They had sent squadrons of Venomian bombers out to drop smart bombs on asteroids surrounding the area where the Eagle had disappeared in an attempt to scare them out of hiding. Krystal wasn't worried, however. The cave gave them enough shelter to protect them from most, if not all, of the bombardments.
Krystal glanced at ROB, surprised to find that she wished he was actually on. Anyone's voice would be soothing to hear in a situation like this, even ROB's. But the android had plugged himself into the Eagle's extensive power supply for recharging, claiming that he had used up much of his battery power during their flee through the asteroid field. He wouldn't be doing anything until he completed his recharging or someone unplugged him.
Falco sighed and removed his feet from the control panel. "I think I'm going to go check on Slippy," he said, then got up and walked out of the cockpit.
Krystal nodded slowly and shifted into the pilot's seat, which was padded and more comfortable than the copilot's seat. Her thoughts strayed to Fox and the rest of the rebel fleet. Had they escaped safely? Where were they now? She closed her eyes, trying to reach out and call to Fox with her mind. They had developed a sort of mental connection over the years, where they could sense each other and often reflected each other's emotions.
She felt her mind pressing beyond the boundaries of the cave, probing past the asteroid field and into the Lylat System. But as hard as she tried, she couldn't reach Fox. She could feel him, of course– a warm, soothing presence that was almost always with her– but she couldn't reach him beyond that.
Well, at least I know that he's alive and alright, Krystal thought to herself.
Krystal's eyes shot open as a sound came from outside. She frowned, leaning towards the windshield. She could see something in the dim lights of the Eagle, something grayish-white and slithering around outside. She tried to psychically reach it, but nothing but a dull mental hum came back to her.
Then a long, pale, slimy thing crept across the windshield, tiny suction cups on its underside pressing against the glass. A bulbous, round, brown and black head stared down at her. Then the head split into four sections, revealing row after row of razor-sharp teeth.
Krystal screamed and leapt backwards, almost tripping over ROB. But when she looked back at the dark windshield, the wormlike creature had disappeared. Krystal stood there for a few moments, catching her breath, then turned and began hurrying in the direction Falco had gone. She rounded a corner and ran right into the bird, almost tripping both of them.
"What happened?" Falco asked, frowning. Slippy stood behind him, carrying a wrench and blinking nervously.
"There's something out there! It crawled over the windshield– some kind of worm thing!" Krystal cried. The fact that she couldn't reach its mind deeply disturbed her. Most creatures had slight thoughts or emotions, or anything.
Falco looked grim. "We'd better check it out, if we can," he muttered. He lead Krystal and Slippy into the cockpit of the Eagle and glanced out the windshield, looking for any sign of the creature Krystal had seen.
"I don't see anything," said Slippy slowly.
Falco glanced at the control panel. "Sensors show that it's actually warm enough out there for us to go outside the ship. That's good," he said. He reached under the control panel and opened a small slot, pulling out three compact oxygen masks and tossing one each to Krystal and Slippy.
"You're not actually suggesting going out there, are you?" asked Krystal, bewildered.
Falco shrugged and situated his oxygen mask over his face. "How else are we going to find out what you saw? Come on, you'll need your blaster," he said. He pulled his blaster out of its holster and headed out of the cockpit of the ship. After Krystal and Slippy had each situated their masks over their faces and retrieved their blasters, Falco extended the entry ramp of the Eagle and they all filed out into the darkness.
"Stars, the air is so moist out here!" gasped Krystal in shock. Their ankles were wreathed in something that appeared to be steam, and she thought she felt a slight, warm breeze blowing through the cave.
"Stay on guard," warned Falco, holding his blaster out in front of him. He took a step forward, then blinked down at the floor of the tunnel. "What the hell...?"
"What's wrong?" asked Slippy, gripping his blaster.
"The floor, check it out! It doesn't feel like any kind of rock," Falco muttered. He stamped his foot against the ground again, and a soft squelching sound echoed through the darkness.
As they talked, Krystal closed her eyes and tried to reach out to the creatures again to discover how many there were. At length she opened her eyes. "There are at least six of them," she said nervously.
No sooner had she said that, one of the pale, wormlike things shot out of the darkness, slithering past Slippy and up onto the hull of the Eagle. Slippy shrieked and aimed at it, but before he could fire Falco blasted the worm off of his ship. The worm squealed in pain and dropped to the misty floor, its body shriveling and curling up.
"What is it?" Krystal cried.
Falco stepped forward and toed the giant worm softly. "Yep. Just what I thought. Rynids," he said grimly.
"What are Rynids?" asked Slippy, inching away from the darkness and back towards the freighter.
"Parasites. They must have sensed the electricity in the Eagle and decided it'd make a good snack," Falco said. He glanced around, frowning. "Weird that they're in a cave on an asteroid..."
A sharp hiss came from the darkness and two more Rynids lurched into the light, one lunging for Slippy and another scuttling up the entry ramp of the Eagle.
Krystal whirled around and instinctively brought her blaster up, sinking two sizzling bolts of energy into the Rynid that was attempting to climb into the ship.
Slippy shot wildly at the worm that leapt at him, blasting its head apart with one bolt while the other shot zipped into the far wall and blew away some of the rock.
The ground trembled, and a deep rumble shook the walls of the tunnel.
"What was that? Another bomb dropping?" Krystal asked.
Falco looked around at the cave curiously. "Wait a minute," he muttered, looking at the misty floor one more time. He took a few steps forward, then aimed his blaster at the floor and fired.
Another rumble, louder this time. The tunnel began to shake and vibrate, nearly throwing Krystal off her feet. "What is that?" she cried.
Falco stumbled towards the entry hatch of the Eagle, holstering his blaster as he went. "We have to get out of here," he cried, hurrying into the ship. Krystal and Slippy staggered into the freighter after him, shutting the exit behind them.
"What's going on? What is this?" asked Slippy, his bulbous eyes wide with fear as Falco pushed ROB out of the way and sat down in the pilot's seat, powering up the ship.
"No time to talk, we have to get moving," Falco said quickly, thumbing the ignition button. The Eagle roared to life and quickly lifted off of the floor, its landing gear retracting. Falco slammed the control yoke forward and the freighter shot towards the yawning exit of the cave. At least it was yawning at first. As they approached, the space became smaller and smaller.
"The cave is collapsing!" cried Krystal, pointing to the wall of stalagmites and stalactites that was beginning to close off the exit.
"This isn't a cave," Falco muttered. He twisted the Eagle to the side as the freighter neared the tiny gaps between the stalactites and stalagmites, barely squeezing through. The Eagle zipped out into space, followed quickly by a monstrous space slug, desperate to reclaim its lost meal. The slug's jaws snapped shut just behind the thrusters of the Eagle, and the ship shot off into the asteroid field again. The slug glared at it with its beady little eyes before grudgingly retracting back into its hiding spot.
They had narrowly escaped being eaten alive by a monstrous space creature, but now Falco, Krystal, and Slippy had even bigger problems to deal with. Namely, the gargantuan Venomian cruiser that caught sight of them almost immediately.
No sooner had the pursuit began again did ROB awaken from his recharging slumber, his eyes flickering alight again. As soon as the android caught sight of the giant asteroids wheeling about outside the cockpit, he screamed. "Ah! Where are we? How are we back in the asteroid field?" he shouted.
"We had a little problem with our hiding spot," muttered Falco, dodging a laser blast from the Venomian cruiser.
"Captain, the odds of our escaping are at least one million seven hundred thousand–"
"Shut him up or shut him down!" Falco shouted, banking left to avoid a large asteroid as it came hurtling towards them. It spun towards the vast Venomian star cruiser, glancing off its hull harmlessly.
They spun and dove through the sea of floating rocks and metal, at times trying to trick the enemy star cruiser into crashing into some of the larger asteroids and at other times simply shooting forward as fast as the Eagle could manage when they were in an open area. Flak peppered the windshield of the freighter as the star cruiser behind them blasted a nearby asteroid into dozens of tiny particles.
Suddenly ROB cried out, excited. "My sensors indicate that the asteroids are thinning. I believe we have made it through!" he blared.
Slippy and Krystal let out relieved sighs, but Falco just grimaced.
"That'll make it harder to escape," the bird said slowly. Another laser blast rocked the ship, and Falco fought to correct its angle.
Slippy glanced at a flashing light on the control board. "Falco, we've lost out rear deflector shields! One more direct hit on the back and we're through!" he cried.
Falco sat there for a moment, and then, making a spur-of-the-moment decision, said, "I'm turning her around."
"What?" Slippy and Krystal shouted simultaneously.
"Captain, the odds of surviving an assault on a Venomian star cruiser are–"
"Shut up!" Falco roared at ROB, flipping the Eagle around agilely and flying straight towards the massive enemy ship. The freighter bobbed and weaved through the air, avoiding numerous laser blasts and flak bursts.
Onboard the Venomian cruiser, the captain and his mate could scarcely believe their eyes.
"They're moving into attack position! Shields up!" cried the captain, watching in amazement as the tiny freighter sped across the hull, flying right for the bridge. Alarms went off all throughout the command deck.
The Eagle shot forward, its shadow overtaking the captain's view of space. Everyone in the command deck cried out in horror and ducked to the ground, anticipating instant death–
But it never came. All was silent and calm. Everyone slowly rose to their feet.
"Where are they?" asked the captain in confusion.
"Checking radar now, sir. They... they seem to have disappeared," blinked one of the men monitoring the radar screens.
The captain was bewildered. "Impossible, a ship that small couldn't have a cloaking device! Check the screens again, everyone!" he bellowed, panicking at the thought of Lord Cain's wrath when he discovered that they had lost the Eagle.
The tracking monitor checked the radar screens again. "Nothing, captain. I'm sorry," he said slowly.
The captain was hardly able to keep his composure. "Very well," he said slowly, clearing his throat. "I will... inform Lord Cain that the ship has disappeared. I take all responsibility for our failure." And with that he turned and exited the command deck, sweating profusely.
Outside, latched to the hull of the Venomian star cruiser, was a small, blue and red dot– none other than the Eagle's Eye.
"So what now?" asked Krystal, still nervous that they would be discovered.
"Well, they've come out of the asteroid field, and I'm guessing they've just realized that we're gone. If I'm right, they'll dump their excess cargo to reduce the strain on the hyperspeed jets, then make the jump into slipspace to get back to their buddies. We detatch and float away with the junk before they fly off, then head out on our way when they're gone," explained Falco. He leaned forward as the back of the shuttle began to creak. "And here we go," he said slowly, watching as innumerable chunks of twisted metal and waste were ejected from a back hatch on the star cruiser. He pulled a lever on the control board, and the Eagle quickly detached from the enemy ship and floated away with the junk.
The Venomian star cruiser rumbled, then shot away in a streak of indigo light, leaving the Eagle to fly away.
Krystal grinned and put a hand on Falco's shoulder as he guided the freighter out of the ejected waste, flying away towards the distant orb of Corneria.
"You have your moments," the blue vixen admitted. "Not many, but you have them."
But as the Eagle's Eye soared away, its passengers failed to notice a tiny dot of light following it. The dot slowly crept out of the floating space debris, revealing itself to be a black and red starfighter with a dark, tinted cockpit windshield.
Wolf O'Donnell guided the Wolfen after his prey, scanning the distant ship with his electronic eye.
Name: Eagle's EyeWolf smiled to himself. "I've got you, Lombardi," he whispered softly, following the Eagle to its destination.
Classification: Star Freighter
Captain: Lombardi, Falco