Chapter 22: Missing Pieces
(34 Jedrai Street)
"Hey, I'm leaving." A young blue avian called out.
"Already? What time is it?" a dark blue avian asked from a desk.
"7:15. You stayed up through the whole night, again." the first avian stated in response. "I might be out a little late tonight."
"Fine, as long as you don't do anything stupid." The dark avian said, brushing him off with a wave as he continued to stare down at the papers strewn before him.
"C'mon. You know me." The young avian said with a wide grin.
"That's exactly why I said it. Now, have fun at school." The blue avian said, keeping his head down towards the desk.
"You know that last sentence was unintelligible to me." the young avian said with another grin, closing the door with a soft thud.
When the dark avian was sure the young avian would not return for whatever reason, he picked up two separate sheets of paper with his hands, staring at the numbers scattered on their surface. Then, in one sweep, he shoved all the papers off the desk in a fit of rage. He let out a scream, clutching his arms to his head. He took a few deep breaths, then slung himself upon a nearby chair, staring at the ceiling fan as it made lazy circles above him.
"Have fun at school, because pretty soon, you might not have the chance to."
(The Living Area)
The team had returned to the Living Area after the meeting with General Pepper. They were greeted by the aromas of exotic foods as they drifted out of the kitchen. A smiling Peppy stood at the top of the stairs leading to the kitchen with his usual apron on.
"Alright gang. Time to eat after a job well done." Peppy said, continuing to set the table. Some of the food was already out, awakening the team's hunger.
"YAY! Thanks Peppy!" Slippy said, seating himself down at the table. He took a plate and started piling food on top of it as the rest of the team went to sit down.
Krystal and Fox went into the kitchen with Peppy to help him finish setting the table.
"Although, you can't really call it a success." Fox mused with a sullen tone. "We didn't do much, someone was murdered, and we lost an entire city."
"What's done is done. Can't do much about those events, can you? We didn't even receive orders to head to Quanzan until yesterday. There's no way we could've changed things unless we learn a way to time travel." Peppy said consolingly. He patted Fox on the shoulder, giving him a big grin. "Now come on, let's get the rest of this food out there before Slippy eats it all and Falco starts complaining."
After the meal, Fox stood up, already having formulated the speech he would give for their next plan of action.
"Alright, based off the data we got from Girinja, it looks like the Hands of Lylat are up to something sinister. They appeared to have kidnapped the entire city, and they could be possibly plotting to do something with the creatures shipped out from Girinja. So, our next course is to find the Leviathan carrier ship and find out what happened there. According to Dr. Menoway, the ship was found by the Solsen Outposts scout ships about three days ago. Though, the doctor neglected to mention where the ship was spotted, so it looks like we're going to have to do some guesswo-"
"It's still in the sector. It's should be floating somewhere on the fringes of the Quanzas sector now." Falco interjected. The rest of the team turned to look at him.
"How do you know that?" Katt asked.
"Yeah, Falco. You better not be joking around." Slippy said, poking him in the arm.
"You mean like you always do?" Falco shot back defensively. "No, I'm being serious. A soldier on the Defense Outpost told me what happened regarding the ship before he died."
"Ok, well, that makes things much easier. We can now narrow down our search to just the Quanzas sector. We'll have to account for things like drifting, but we should be able to find it soon." Fox said, happy that things were working out for once.
"Well, that'll have to wait until tomorrow. It's already 11:46. You guys have had a long day." Peppy said, standing up. "Besides, we'll all think a lot more clearly after a good night's rest."
"Sounds good to me." Slippy said with a huge yawn. He stood up and began to head for the door.
Krystal and Fox soon followed him.
"What do you suppose the Hands of Lylat want to do with those creatures, Fox?" Krystal asked as they approached the door.
"I don't know. Hopefully, we'll find that out tomorrow. But, I don't intend to let them get away with it. I'll protect you Krystal, and everyone. I swore I would never let anyone innocent come to harm, and I intend to uphold that oath." Fox said, determination flaring in his eyes.
"I know, Fox. You've always been like that. I trust you." Krystal said solemnly, finishing off with a reassuring smile. Fox smiled back and the two exited the Living Area.
"How's your chest, Falco?" Katt asked looking sorrowfully at his the bandage on his chest, heading towards the door with Falco.
Falco looked down at the bandage covering his chest. He poked it to test for pains, and when he found none, began to peel off the bandage.
"I think it's just about better now. Still a little itchy, but everything's healed up nicely." Falco reassured her with a grin.
"That's good." Katt said with a sigh. Her eyes dropped to the floor, shame washing over her as she looked at the bandage in his hand.
"Yeah, I thought I might've died back there." Falco said, continuing to grin. "Good thing you were there, otherwise I might not be here."
"Yeah, right." Katt said, almost whispering.
I'm the reason you could've died in the first place…
The two walked out the door into the hallway.
Peppy, the last one to leave, went to the door and turned out the lights. Before he closed the door, he looked out at the red glow of Quanzan's surface, then to the space beyond in the Quanzas sector.
So that ship is somewhere out there, huh? Hmm, I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something…ahh well. Must not be too important.
Peppy closed the door, then proceeded to his room. The Great Fox was deathly quiet as it drifted through the abyss of space.
(Cornerian Command Building – Floor 56)
General Pepper paced back and forth insides the confines of his office. Throughout the day, he had been receiving varied reports of situations involving the Hands of Lylat.
Macbeth supply line raided outside station. Zoness research department missing. Sector Y scouting ships never returning. Attacks on civilians passing near the Asteroid Field. When will it end!
The General furrowed his brow in thought, took a moment to stare outside the large window behind his chair, then continued pacing.
After another several minutes of pacing, a knock sounded from the door.
"Come in." the General allowed, continuing to pace as if nothing happened.
"Afternoon, General. Here's some coffee." A dog said, coming into the office bearing a cardboard coffee carrier. She removed a cup and placed it on the desk. "Hazelnut is good, right?"
"Yes, thank you, Amy." The General said, seating himself behind the desk. He began to tap his foot underneath the desk, frustration lining his face as he picked up his coffee. Slowly, the lines began to melt off his face as he allowed the effects of the coffee to sink in.
"Alright, I'll leave you to your work, General." Amy said, flashing a brilliantly white smile before closing the door behind her.
The General had just finished his coffee when he received a transmission. His frustration regarding the Hands of Lylat soon returned to him when he saw the Emblem of the Star Fox Team sitting on his screen.
Hopefully, they have good news.
The General pressed a button, and Fox's face appeared on the screen, with the rest of the team standing off to the distance behind him. They had a degree of seriousness imprinted upon their faces, leading the General to believe things weren't as good as he'd like them to be.
"Ah, Fox. What have you found out about Girinja?" the General asked, somewhat hesitant to hear the answer. Fox looked down for a second, then faced back up to respond.
"It was the Hands of Lylat, sir. They abducted the entire town, and killed General Howton." Fox explained.
The General's thoughts turned to Howton as he heard those words. He remembered seeing him when he was still in training. One of his fellow soldiers had been incapacitated during a mock battle, and Howton had turned around, propped him up on his shoulder, and continued the fight. It was characteristics like those that had led him to become a General.
"Howton! Damn it all, he was a good man." The General exclaimed. Then his thoughts turned to the second half of Fox's debriefing. "And what is this about abduction?"
One of the figures in the back then shifted, coming closer to the screen. A blue vixen then became invisible.
"The entire town is missing, sir. There wasn't a soul there. They all left relatively recently, according to shipping information. We assumed they left with the Hands of Lylat." Krystal explained.
The General then breathed out a heavy sigh. More instances of strange activity involving the Hands of Lylat. The General had encountered acts of terrorism before, the threat of alien invasion and even the tyranny of outright dictators, but nothing he had seen before was quite like this. The potency of the Hands of Lylat was made all the more real solely by the way they operated. The fact that they were terrorists only added to the initial shock.
"Alright. Thank you, Team Star Fox. I will update you as soon as possible. General Pepper, over and out." The General finished, disconnecting the link. As soon as the screen blinked out, the General reclined in his chair, taking another deep sigh. "This has to end. Terrorism like this can't be allowed to exist in this system."
As soon as the General said that, another message appeared on his screen. A town in Fortuna had just experienced a bombing. Forces at Fortuna had already started to clean up the mess.
Taking one last sip out of the nearly empty coffee cup, the General began to furiously type away, a renewed fervor igniting from deep within him.
(The Great Fox – Living Area)
The team awoke feeling refreshed. They quickly went into the Living Area, ready to begin the mission for the day. Slippy and Falco went into the kitchen with Peppy to get breakfast ready, leaving Fox, Krystal, and Katt outside.
"How do you suppose we'll find the ship, Fox?" Krystal inquired.
"Well, we can easily access the Solsen Defense Outpost's route from Cornerian data banks. After we get those, we'll search in the general area where it orbited near the Quanzas sector. I don't know how far those carrier ships went, or how far the Girinjian ship has drifted, so it may take a little bit before we find it." Fox elaborated. As soon as he finished saying that, Slippy came out with the first course of breakfast balanced delicately in his hands, as well as on his arms and his head.
"Hey guys. Could use a little help…" Slippy said as he slowly began climbing down the steps. The rest of the team went up to help him. Before long, the food was set and the team began to eat.
"So, we got a game plan?" Falco asked right before swallowing a mouthful of food.
"Yeah, I was just explaining it to Katt and Krystal before. Fox confirmed.
"Oh, good. At least we got more of a handle on this, unlike that last time with the Jatrian ship fiasco." Falco said, rubbing his left arm. He still remembered the injuries he and Slippy had received after the van exploded.
As soon as Falco finished his sentence, Peppy's eyes widened in realization.
OF COURSE! JATRIA! How could I have forgotten!
Peppy immediately stood up, starting to head for the door.
"C'mon gang! We need to check something, now!" Peppy said, alarm evident in his voice.
"What is it, Peppy?" Slippy asked for the team.
"Something urgent, now c'mon!"
(The Bridge)
Peppy led the team all the way to the bridge. He quickly ran into the room and began typing hurriedly on one of the nearby terminals.
"ROB, bring up the videos from the battle near Jatria!" Peppy commanded, continuing to type in commands.
"Affirmative." The robot complied. Within seconds, the footage was brought up again.
"What's going on, Peppy?" Fox asked.
"Look here, this is what we picked up from when we were outside Jatria." Peppy exclaimed.
"The team watched the video of the dogfight Peppy had with the Jatrian armada."
"Ok…so what are we looking for, Peppy?" Katt asked, staring at the video of the dogfight.
"Look here." Peppy said, indicating the light he had found before. "ROB, zoom in on this light again."
"Affirmative."
The picture focused in on the light, losing visibility just as the ship shook when it was struck by the missile.
"So…it's a light…" Falco said unenthusiastically. "What does this have to do anything?"
"Hang on a sec, let me see if I can improve on the picture quality." Slippy said, extending the wire out of his communicator. He pulled the paused image onto his communicator, and began tinkering, in a few seconds, another image appeared on the monitor before everyone, much clearer and sharper than the previous one had been.
"There, see, it's a ship! That's what I was getting at." Peppy said with excitement.
"Yeah, so?" Falco continued, still being unable to figure out what Peppy was trying to get across.
"Well, wasn't most of Jatria under mind-control for awhile? Wouldn't that mean whoever was piloting that ship most likely be under mind-control as well?" Peppy expatiated.
Fox's eyes widened as he realized the gravity of Peppy's discovery.
"SLIPPY! ZOOM IN ON THAT SHIP AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!" Fox commanded.
"AAAGHH! Alright! I got it." Slippy said, fumbling with his technology again, this time, words could be seen adorning the side of the ship, though it wasn't entirely legible.
"Wait, I've seen that logo before…" Krystal said, staring at the image.
"Wait, isn't that the logo of the Jatria Shipping company?" Katt asked, thinking back.
"Yeah, so isn't that the ship we took out before?" Slippy asked.
"How could it be? Remember, we just came from Corneria, so that would be directly behind us. The ship would have to travel directly next to us if it were heading for Corneria." Peppy explained.
"So, that ship is heading for a different planet."
Fox put the pieces together before anyone else did.
"WE HAVE TO FIND THAT SHIP!" he yelled.
As soon as he yelled, the Cornerian Emblem appeared behind him. Fox quickly rushed over to his chair and pressed a button. He was soon greeted by General Pepper's face.
"Fox! This is an emergency! We need you to mobilize right away!"
Author's notes: Hooray. Excitement is now returning to the story. With another famous cliffhanger ending! I'm getting back into the groove with my writing style, and I have to tell you, it feels good. I remember why writing this was so much fun back when I started three years ago. It fun to create a story where anything is possible and you just get to have your ideas come alive. Though, school work doesn't make it quite as much fun. :P So yeah. Another hooray for constant updates! :D I don't know if I'll be able to update constantly like this all the time, but I'll try my best. So here's to another chapter. Now for reviews, of which, there are none. :3
Reviews:
There aren't any. I assume this is because I published the last chapter at like 5 a.m. In fact, I am writing this, as of right now, at 4:12 a.m. So yeah, I guess no one saw it get updated. I'll be sure to publish at a time when more people can see it. So, here's to another chapter.