Chapter 4: Aftermath
(Cornerian Command Building)
"That should do it." Peppy announced, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead.
General Pepper had asked that any able-bodied person help clear the wreckage caused by the attack, and put out any remaining fires. After about an hour, the lobby looked somewhat reminiscent of its former glory, albeit with large burn marks in many areas, and a large gash now present in the floor, yet some parts of the lobby remained unscathed. Everyone that helped cleaned up were now exhausted, many of which now lay on the ground, panting. The Supply crew started passing around dust pans and brooms, to clear away the smaller debris. The StarFox team, already tired from their previous duties, not wanting to do anymore, hurried outside to where General Pepper was holding a press conference.
"General Pepper, Amy Sybak, Channel 7 news. Do you know who committed this crime and why?" one of the many reporters asked the General.
"We're not entirely sure, but we have reason to believe that the group's name is 'The Hands of Lylat'. They're a new terrorist group, and we should have reason to believe that this was an act of terrorism." the General stated.
"Henry Kwong, Channel 5, what exactly did the terrorist use to attack the building?" another avid reporter asked.
"It was a PBG, or Pulse-Blast Generator. It's a device that we in the military use, mainly as a means of deactivating mines. The device creates a field in which molecules split apart, causing a massive spread of energy. This energy wave then spreads outward, causing massive vibrations that form a large pulsing wave. This wave is strong enough to activate the mines in an area, thereby sparing soldiers that could be injured while trying to unearth mines. We usually drop this device in from the air, for the field in which molecules are separated can cause explosive rips with contact with certain molecules, so using this device in a populated area is unheard of. This terrorist group must have robbed one of our supply lines, for this device is only for use within distinct groups in the military." the General explained.
"General, what do you plan to do now?" a random voice asked in the back of the group. Team StarFox had just walked behind the General, catching his attention.
"I have decided to get Team StarFox on this mission. They will search out the whereabouts of these terrorists, and flush them out! Good luck, Team StarFox!" the General yelled for the crowd to hear. Everybody that heard the statement began cheering for their heroes. The team could only stand there as they received applause and cheers.
"Alright, good people. I have decided that this press conference is over, we now need to plan our next course of action." the General said, disbanding the group. "Come with me, if you would." the General asked the team, heading back into the building. The team followed.
"Ok, so now that Command is cleaned up, now what, sir?" Fox asked, looking around at the lobby.
"You're right Fox, it's about time we start you out on your mission. I know the perfect place to start. You're to go out to one of the planets we believe will become a target of one of these terrorist attacks. It's called Jatria. Our troops situated there have recorded strange activities in a couple of citizens. The people there are civilized, they had some technology before we made contact with them, a couple years ago. It has just recently been accepted under Cornerian protection. It has valuable resources there, and strategic location next to Sector X. We recently set up an outpost there, that should be your first stop. Go there and find out anything you can. That hole in your ship should be fixed by the time you get there. Now get going!" the General ordered.
"Yessir." Fox saluted.
(Cornerian Hangars)
The crew had left the Command building and rushed back to the Great Fox.
"It's about time we did something!" Falco said, ecstatic at the prospect of adventure.
"Let's go team." Fox said, running out of the elevator, taking seat in his captain's chair on the bridge.
He pressed a couple of buttons on his armrest.
"Engines ready?"
"Set to go." Slippy called out.
"G-Diffusor functioning?"
"Yes, get this heap up already." Falco complained.
"Ok, ROB, start it up." Fox commanded.
"Affirmative." Rob said, utilizing his virtual keyboard to activate the ship.
A screen pulled down next to Fox, showing two Cornerian soldiers standing behind a control console.
"Ok, guys, open up the hangar." Fox told the soldiers.
"Yessir, Mr. McCloud." the soldiers said, pushing buttons on the console.
In moments, hangar doors opened up, and the Great Fox pulled up. Animals upon the street stopped and looked up at the large mechanical beast as it tilted towards the heavens.
"Go!" Fox said.
The ship's engines roared, pushing it up towards the sky. In seconds, they were exiting the Cornerian atmosphere, entering the void of space. General Pepper's face appeared in a hologram as they reached space.
"General, we made it out." Fox told the General.
"Good. I hate to ask this Fox, but I'm going to need you to head to Jatria without using the Orbital Gate." the General informed the team. "We only just finished reparations to the gate, we haven't had time to test run it yet."
"YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO FLY ALL THE WAY PAST SECTOR X!?" Falco exclaimed.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Don't worry General, we don't mind." Fox said, holding back a laugh at Falco's frustration.
"Good, report back when you reach Jatria. Good Luck Team StarFox." the General said, his head disappearing once again.
"He can't be serious." Falco said, frustrated at the thought of having to fly all the way to the distant planet.
"Oh come on, Falco. It'll be just like the good ol' days." Fox reassured.
"You mean the days when a crazed scientist was trying to take over the entire System, and we were lucky just to make it from one planet to the next?"
"Exactly."
"Oh joy." Falco sighed sarcastically.
(The Living Area)
"I don't see what's Falco's problem, I always enjoy flying." Krystal said, sitting upon the couch. "I always enjoy watching the stars float by like little fireflies."
"Eh, Falco's just impatient, he always wants to do things quickly. I think he likes the rush of doing things fast." Fox explained, sitting upon the couch with Krystal
"I think he does some things too fast." Krystal said to Fox, letting her head rest upon his lap.
Fox started getting a little nervous, Krystal still didn't know everything about boundaries, not to mention when she would cross the norm. But he didn't mind. He enjoyed it.
"Yeah, he was always like that. When we were fighting Andross, he'd take out a large number of fighters, but then he'd have the rest chasing after him, with him calling for help. Then, after I saved him, he'd say something like 'That stupid G-Diffusor bugged up!' or something like that." Fox told Krystal, remembering the "good ol' days".
"Sounds dangerous…" Krystal said.
"Nah, unlike those goons working for Andross, our ships were more stable, and we know when we were beaten. If our shields got too low, we retreated back to the Great Fox."
"Oh, good. It's nice to know we have somewhere to go back to." Krystal said, remembering Cerinia.
"Hey, you're not alone anymore. You have us. You have me. Ok?" Fox reassured her.
"That's right. And I'll be here to help you, too, Fox." Krystal said, cheering up.
(The Kitchen)
"Those two make a good couple, dontcha think, Peppy?" Slippy asked, looking out at the two vulpines from the Kitchen.
"Yep, if only James could see this. He'd be so proud, his son growing up." Peppy sighed.
"Aw, come on, Peppy. You should be proud, too. You practically raised Fox! You even brought him to school everyday, remember?" Slippy said.
"Yes, Slippy, I remember. I'm just saying, I'm not Fox's father. If only I had done more, maybe James would have made it out." Peppy sighed again.
"Peppy, don't worry yourself. I'm sure whatever you did was sufficient enough. It's really Pigma's fault, anyway." Slippy reassured Peppy.
"I know, but I should have seen it coming!" Peppy detracted. "But enough about that, let's get dinner started."
"Oh, yeah, I just realized, I'm starving! We only had breakfast today, ohh." Slippy said, grasping his stomach.
(Falco's room)
Well, here we are, leaving Corneria again. And after I saw you, too. But I can't even really be sure if it was you. You just keep getting away, don't you? You pop in, say 'Hey Falco' and leave. It's been how many years? Nine? But, I guess that's what I did to you. It's only fair, I suppose.
Falco fell backwards onto his bed and sighed.
"I hate what I did, but I did it for you." Falco said to the ceiling.
Suddenly, the comm. link next to his door sparked up. Fox's face in the living area showed up.
"Hey, Falco, time to eat." Fox said, the link disconnecting.
Falco sighed and got up.
(The Living Area)
"Food is served." Peppy said, bringing out plates of food.
Falco just walked in the door, returning to his usual demeanor, so as to not alarm his teammates.
"Hey, it's not burned." Falco said. "What, you trip and fall unconscious, Froggy?"
"Hey, Falco, I cook better than you." Slippy shot back defensively.
"Yeah, but you also burn things better than I do, too."
"Come on guys, use your mouths for eating. I'd rather not hear your bickering right now." Fox said to the two, taking in a mouthful of food.
"Fine." the two said.
ROB had just walked into the room, performing maintenance checks on the various parts of the ship.
"Oh, good. Hey ROB, what's the estimated time to Jatria?" Fox asked past his mouthful.
ROB turned towards Fox. "Estimated time to Jatria: 14 hours, 32 minutes."
"Wow, that close already? Those guys did a pretty nice job on this new ship." Falco said, impressed.
"See, now do you realize how pointless your complaining was?" Fox asked.
"Hey, it wasn't pointless! Remember how much it sucked just to reach Katina before?" Falco retorted.
"Yeah, yeah, just hurry up and finish eating." Fox told Falco. Krystal and Slippy smiled at Falco's defeat.
(The Bridge)
After everyone finished dinner, Fox went up to the bridge to check out the features upon the new ship. It was still so new to him, it would take a while for him to get accustomed to this ship. He was checking the communications link when he saw it's signal meter start wavering. It steadily headed down, this concerned Fox. He turned on his wrist comm., which had an internal radio-wave generator, to call ROB.
"Hey, ROB, what's wrong with the communications signal?" Fox asked the robot.
"Great Fox has just entered static field, communications will be down until Great Fox exits field." the robot explained to Fox.
"How long until we pass the field?"
"Estimated time: 2 hours, 7 minutes."
"Great." Fox said to himself. He continued to familiarize himself with the new controls.
(The Arwing Hangars)
Falco decided to head down to the Arwing hangars after dinner. He didn't quite feel like interacting with the rest of the crew just yet. He inspected the interior of the new ship, noting all the subtle designs.
"Larger than our old home…" Falco said, looking at the size of the hangar. It easily trebled the size of the last one. Besides the port for each member's Arwing, plus the spare Arwing, there were four extra ports, easily able to take in other ships for docking. Falco went up to his own Arwing, inspecting it. It was dinged and dirty, showing the many battles it had survived throughout the years.
"At least you're still here with me." Falco said. "You've been with me for a long time."
He remembered the time when he left the StarFox team, six years after the defeat of Andross. He delved into his memory, remembering the scenes of his departure, a spectator to the events.
"Falco, don't go. Come on." Fox said to him.
"I don't want to hear it McCloud." Falco said back.
"What else can you expect during a time of peace?" Peppy asked.
"I don't know, but I know there's better stuff out in the universe right now. Who knows? I might go save some kid's pet that got stuck in a tree! I betcha it'd be more exciting than this! Open the docking bay port, ROB." Falco said, entering the Arwing hangar.
"Affirmative." the robot said, typing in the commands.
"See ya guys in the universe, maybe." Falco said, climbing into the Arwing.
"You're seriously leaving?" Fox asked.
"Yeah. I'm leaving." Falco answered.
"Then, take this, you forgot it on your desk." Fox said, tossing a shiny object up to the open cockpit.
Falco caught it and looked at it. It was his StarFox emblem.
"I didn't forget it. I don't need it anymore. I'm no longer part of Team StarFox. You keep it." Falco said, tossing it back down.
Fox tossed it back up. "No, you keep it. It might help you one day. And besides, you're going to need it again one day. We don't make new ones." Fox told Falco, a forceful look in his eye. "See ya soon, Falco."
"Meh." Falco said, as he flew off into space.
Falco returned back to the docking bay. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the emblem.
"Damn, he was right." Falco said, and sighed.
He looked out towards the expanse of space beyond the docking bay. The forcefield kept the vacuum of space from sucking out the air, as well as anyone inside. It also kept anyone clumsy enough to fall down from going into the void, albeit it was incredibly hard to get them back up. Falco looked out to the stars, trying to count them as the ship roared through space. He then noticed something strange. It stood out whenever it passed in front of one of the stars. It was getting closer. Falco was soon able to focus upon it when it was closer: it was a lone ship.
"That doesn't look too good." Falco said. He turned on his wrist communicator and tried connecting to the ship.
"Hey, unidentified ship. Identify yourself." Falco said in a clumsy manner, never good at ship-to-ship protocol. He waited a minute, nothing happening. He tried switching frequencies and asked again. Nothing. The ship continued to get closer.
"That's it, it's got to be an enemy." Falco concluded. "The ship's alarm didn't go off, it must be using a stealth device."
Falco jumped into the cockpit of his Arwing, opened the docking bay doors, and flew out. He fired a warning laser, barely missing the ship. The ship then turned around and started flying off.
"It's gotta be a scout." Falco said, giving pursuit.
Fox then appeared on Falco's wrist comm.
"Falco! What're you doing!?" Fox asked.
"There's an enemy scout out here!" Falco answered.
"What?"
"Yeah, I think it's using a stealth device. It wouldn't respond when I called out to it."
"Falco, we're in a static field right now. It couldn't answer you if it wanted to." Fox said.
Suddenly, the ship turned around and fired off a shot. Falco, however, was too busy talking to Fox to notice. The shot clipped the side of Falco's Arwing.
"Its firing at me now! I'm pretty sure it's an enemy!" Falco said.
"Falco wa-" Fox yelled, but Falco disconnected the link and boosted after the ship. The ship turned around again and started flying off. It never left the radius of the Great Fox.
"So you're after the Great Fox, huh?" Falco asked, shooting at the ship. It deftly dodged back and forth, doing a barrel roll to throw off the shots it couldn't dodge. The pilot was obviously trained.
"So you're no rookie, huh? I can still get ya, though." Falco said, boosting after the ship again.
(The Bridge)
Fox watched on the radar the little blue arrow fly back and forth. He'd then look out the bridge window to see what was going on.
He just doesn't listen, does he?
Fox worried that Falco was acting too rash again. He continued to watch the arrow as it flew back and forth on the radar.
"ROB! How long until we get communications back online!?" Fox demanded.
"Estimated time: 10 minutes." the robot said.
"Come on, Falco, don't be stupid."
(Outside the Great Fox)
Falco continued to pursue the ship. He shot laser after laser at it. Some of them connected. The other ship, however, didn't shoot back at all. He guessed that the ship was starting to experience system's failure.
"Just a little more." Falco said.
The ship then boosted towards the Great Fox.
"Oh no you don't!" Falco yelled after the ship, boosting after it.
The ship gradually pulled up, towards the top of the Great Fox. Then, in a swift movement, it flipped upside down, and boosted downwards, on the other side of the Great Fox.
"WAIT! THAT'S MY MOVE!!!" Falco yelled, pulling up as hard as he could, barely missing the newly patched part of the Great Fox's hull.
"That move is what made that hole last time!" Falco yelled.
Suddenly, he started receiving a transmission on his Arwing's comm.
"STOP SHOOTING AT ME, YOU IDIOT!!! I'M HERE TO HELP YOU!!!!" a female voice yelled.
"Katt!?" Falco responded, recognizing the voice.
"FALCO!? What the hell are you shooting at me for!?" Katt yelled.
"You shot me!" Falco yelled back.
"I thought you were a better pilot than to get hit by a warning shot!" Katt yelled. "Now can I come aboard? The General sent me out here. I'm getting low on fuel cells too."
"Uh, sure." Falco said, the two ships boosting towards the Great Fox.
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Author's Notes: The adventure starts!!! BARREL ROLLS!!!! YAY!!!! To those that may have realized, this adventure is a little Falco oriented. I know. I kinda like Falco. I think it has something to do with the fact that he was my sister's favorite character when we played StarFox 64. Don't worry, there's a little of everyone in here. I don't play favorites (yes I do). I also put up a new poll on my page. I just want to know which version of Katt you people prefer. It's not affecting the story, I'm telling you now. I, personally, like the Command Katt more than the 64 Katt. So the Command version is the one I'll be using for this story. You can go ahead and imagine the other one if you want. I don't mind. I'm just telling you that, when I write this story, the Command version is the one I'll have in mind. But enough about that. I'll probably chug out several more chapters starting Wednesday. I have the whole week off starting Wednesday. So look forward to more adventure in Paths of Contempt!
No reviews this time. You guys are getting lazy!