The Great Fox sat at the far edge of the asteroid belt. Though team Star Fox had managed to push through the enemy forces, it was not without cost. Despite the fact that they were now safely away from Andross' forces, a dark cloud hung over the two team members aboard the Great Fox. Slippy and Peppy sat in silence, waiting intently for word from Falco.
A minute passed. Peppy hailed Falco's arwing on a long-distance channel.
"This is Peppy hare, come in Falco, what's your status?"
"Falco here. Still chasing it. We're way out in open space by now; there's nothing anywhere near where we are. It's like this thing's just flying around randomly."
Once again, the ship was silent. Falco had been chasing the bird since it got Fox, hoping to find some shred of evidence as to what it had done to him. So far, nothing; any venomian ships he passed ignored the bird and attacked him, whilst the creature simply flew off aimlessly into space, propelled by some unknown force.
Peppy and Slippy went back to silence, waiting for the next minute mark. That was when they'd hail Falco again. It was a system they'd come up with on the spot, aiming to gather all the data they could in case, god forbid, Falco didn't make it either. Finally, Slippy broke the silence, speaking frantically.
"I don't think this is going anywhere, Peppy! What are we gonna do?"
"We need to stay calm, Slippy. That's all there is to it, we just need to stay calm."
"H-h-how can you say that!? Fox was our best pilot, an-and now he's gone and-"
"Slippy! Just... calm down! If there's anything we can do about it, we'll never be able to do it if we panic! Fox is still out there somewhere; if he's anything like his father, then there's nothing in the universe that can stop him, and one way or another, he's going to make it. And what we're going to do is find out what exactly happened to him, where he went, and we are going to get him back to us, you hear me?"
Slippy opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by Falco's voice cutting in over comms.
"This is Falco, I... I lost the bird."
"WHAT!?" Peppy shouted, and rushed to activate the microphone to reply to his teammate's message. "Falco, what happened? How did you lose the bird?"
"I don't know, it just vanished! One moment it's there, then there's a flash of light and it's just gone! I don't know where it went, or how, it just... It's gone."
Silence hung over the ship once again. Finally, Peppy once again pressed the talk button.
"Falco... We're gonna have to just continue with the mission. Where are you, right now?"
"No! I am going to track down that damned bird and I'll cut its big pale chest open if that's what it takes to find Fox! I am not going to just-"
"Falco, listen to me! Believe me, I know how hard it is to lose a team member and a friend, but we have to keep going. Andross is still laying waste to the star system, and the army is counting on us to break through the strongholds he's set up between here and Venom. If Andross was involved, we're going to figure out what he did and use that to get Fox back. Even if that doesn't work, we'll figure something out; he's still out there somewhere, I can feel it! But for now, we just need to keep pushing forward."
Once again, silence. Nobody dared speak a word. For a full minute, not a word came over Comms, and neither Slippy nor Peppy said a thing. Finally, Falco hailed the Great Fox, one last time.
"I'm about a quarter of the way to Fichina, I'll send you the coordinates. Pick me up before you head to your next stop on this adventure. And by the way... I'm holding you to that promise, old man."
True to his word, Falco sent the coordinates of his position to the Great Fox's computer. On command, ROB plotted a course and powered up the gravity drive. As the ship sailed through space towards Falco, the interior remained uneasily silent. The ship that usually held a somewhat relaxed atmosphere, saturated with the confidence of team Star Fox, now harbored only worry and unease; not only for Fox, but for the mission as a whole.
