Chapter 17: Lovely Space Flight

(Wolf's P.O.V.)

Coming to a stop directly outside the bay doors, both Krystal and I were breathing heavily. That hallway wasn't only longer than it had originally looked, but while Krystal was helping move my weight around, I was doing my best to keep as much burden off of her shoulders. That meant attempting to lug myself around and also putting stress on my injured leg.

Looking through the glass port that showed into the hanger bay, I did my best to look for any kind of ship that could hold two or more people. The only thing I was seeing was what appeared to be single ship fighters. There was nothing larger than a single seated fighter throughout the entire bay. That was only one of the three obstacles we were going to face just to get off the station. The second and more prominent obstacle was also the worst threat that Krystal and I were going to face. All around the hanger bay firefights raged, along with the occasional jumbled wreckage of the ships that had been destroyed by explosions. The last obstacle was also a hindrance; myself. I was injured, I was slowing Krystal down, and most importantly, she was the only one that needed to survive.

Looking towards Krystal, I saw her also looking through the glass as her breathing began to level out. I couldn't help but truly look at her in all her glory. She truly was a beautiful person, and I didn't want her getting captured by these thugs, and I definitely didn't want her to get killed because I couldn't keep up with the mad dash we were most likely about to go through.

After a few minutes, she noticed my staring, and she looked over with a concerned expression. I felt my heart lurch from within my chest, and I reached out and pulled her into a tight hug. Taking in a deep breath, I relished in the fragrance that her fur held, and I weakly chuckled as it reminded me of the first time I laid eyes upon her. It was the time I had woken up to see her snuggled up to me in the forest.

"Krystal, you remember how you escaped last time? The last time I was on Cerinia?" I felt her nod into my shoulder as she too held me tightly, so I continued on, "Well, you're going to need to do that again. If any of those that want to catch you see you, I will do my best to distract them so you can get away."

"W-What? What makes you t-think I would want to leave you behind!?"

Letting out a tired sigh, I looked into her smoldering gaze, "Krystal, we are going at a horribly slow speed due to me getting shot in the leg..." raised one of my hands I gently cupped her chin as I did my best to make my best saying a statement, "Your life is so much more important than my own Krystal. I was only able to save you and your family last time because I was in the right place, at the right time. That isn't the case this time, so I will do anything to guarantee you at least get off this-"

I was silenced by a pair of lips pressing firmly against my own as her arms squeezed around my body tightly, her eyes just as tightly closed. Closing my eyes as I began to relish in the feeling of compassion, I pulled her to me just as tightly. I love you with all my heart; I only want to make sure you stay safe...

"You are not leaving my side Wolf. I am still going to marry you, and you are still going to become my mate after this is all over. I won't let you try to sacrifice yourself... I love you just as much..."

"Check this hallway, NOW!"

The echo of the voice reached us, and I flinched as this brief moment of respite was over. I flinched, but Krystal was already pulling me through the doors; an iron grip over my hand. We were soon racing across the massive hanger, looking for something that would hold us... but then a realization pounded into my head, Do you know how to fly one of these things?

Krystal looked back at me with confusion, before it soon morphed into a worried filled one. She shook her head, not that it mattered, there was shouting behind us, before a laser bolt shot over our heads. I chanced a glance back to see the offending rifle being held in the air by another, and his voice shouted at his underling, "Chase her, not shoot her! The boss wants her, alive!"

Krystal shuddered beside me, but I looked forward, and saw an intact an undamaged fighter coming up. Do you think we can both fit in a single fighter seat?

That was a question I already knew if we were talking about airplanes, but I wasn't too sure when it came to their ships. I don't think we have a choice!

Glancing back as well, I saw all of those that weren't fighting were giving chase. Swallowing thickly, I looked back forward, and saw the craft was much closer. Heh, I hope you don't mind sitting in my lap then...

Making my way into the crafts hatch, I noticed something that actually made this all the better. Two joysticks were on either end of the seat, and if this thing handled just like I expected it to, then it was going to be easier to fly than I had previously anticipated. But my musings were cut short when a certain blue fox lowered herself into the hatch and sat as close to me as she could. I felt her shift a bit, and after she settled down, her tail was now off to the left of my left leg. It was cramped, but with Krystal this close... I couldn't see myself complaining.

"Which button turns this thing on?"

Without waiting, she quickly pushed a button, and the ship hummed with energy as it rose up. When it did, a hatch immediately slid out of the paneling behind the seat and over our heads. It sealed shut with a nearly inaudible hissing sound, and I looked around. We appeared to be at least a dozen or so feet off the ground, and I tilted the right joystick to the left. That caused the craft to roll a bit, and I stopped almost immediately... yet we continued to hover in that direction. Alright... let's see if this fixes it...

Tilting the joystick to the right, I found us gently rolling to the right, and I stopped when I felt we were level. Pushing the right joystick forward caused us to accelerate forward at a more than decent pace. Pulling back however only caused our ship to begin to lower. I felt panic grip my gut as we approached the wall, so I rolled the craft a bit, and I pulled back as well with the same joystick. We pulled up in a sense, and we were soon flying towards another wall. On the bright side... I can fly, on the bad side, where to?

Looking around, I pulled up, and I saw what looked like a blue shield in the metal walls. It consisted of the entire wall, and if Star Wars taught me anything... those were the hanger bay doors to freedom.

"W-Wolf, look out!"

Directing my attention back forward, I saw a crane approaching, and I quickly averted my course with a quick rolling turn, but I kept with the entire roll, before pulling back to my last angle of approach and ceasing the roll.

"W-Whoa! S-Sorry Krystal..."

"Just get us out of here and I will be fine."

Nodding, I looked towards my destination and declared, "This may get a little bumpy..."

Accelerating the aircraft a bit more than I anticipated, we were soon zooming towards the far end of the hanger, and I could see everything blurring past as we quickly approached. The brief glimpses of faces looking up towards us were quickly dashed away as we burst through the energy shield, and before I knew it, we were in the middle of hell in outer space. Single ship fighters were flying everywhere, lasers seemed to be flying through inky blackness from everywhere, and the occasional blast of bright light from a heavy ship filled the cockpit.

If it wasn't for the danger we were in, I would've admired the beauty of all this chaos...

That is, until a light began to blink on the dash of the console, and I saw a red reticle appear over the front of the glass cockpit. I felt myself marvel at it, until red lasers began to fire past the canopy of our ship, and Krystal seemed to shake within my hold. I pulled back on both joysticks, and when I was halfway turned, I quickly pushed forward on the 'speed' joystick. We immediately zoomed past the other ships, which if I wasn't wrong, seemed to have blue fox heads on the side of their ships. Those were friendly fighters.

"Uh, Krystal... I can fly this, but I have no way of talking to those Cerinians... do you know which buttons are for what?" I asked, as I tried to get this fighter to go any faster... sadly it didn't work. I found myself being chased once more, but Krystal shook her head as she looked at the multitude of buttons. "Alright... well... time to start pushing buttons.

Bringing up a finger away from the acceleration joystick, as I couldn't speed up anymore, I began to quickly press buttons. I heard something hiss from underneath the fighter, something, most likely a missile, soared from under the wing and struck what looked to be another fighter just like our own, and then the last button brought up the head of what looked like a canine in a flight helmet. It looked holographic... almost like the pendant that Krystal had given me during my first visit to Cerinia.

His muzzle hung open a bit, before I mumbled, "Oops... wrong button..."

Pressing a few other buttons, I heard various things happening within the ship, and the third button I pressed cut the holo picture thing off. The red reticle that had been growing larger cut off, and instead the screen over the glass was painted with a green square like thing. Rolling and turning, I didn't want to get anywhere close to any ships, but I still needed to figure out how to slow this down, yet...

"Krystal, can you talk to those Cerinian pilots how you do me? Maybe we can tell them we aren't hostile like that."

Her eyes widened, and she smiled before kissing me on my cheek and saying, "Wonderful idea Wolf!"

I felt my heat warm up, before she closed her eyes and seemed to try and concentrate. I did my best to keep my movements fluid, but I had to move as a piece of metal debris floated in the way.

Krystal's hands slowly wrapped over my own, and she shifted a bit more in my lap. I felt my face warm up as I actually felt her move a bit more this time, but she soon started to ease both her hands back at the same time. I felt the ship slowing down, and when we were near a halt, three bluish grey ships slowly came up to us. Two were on each wing, and I looked up to see a fifth hovering above us at an upside down angle. The pilot was also looking down at us... or maybe it was up in his case. Krystal's left hand let go of my own, and I saw her eyes open as she looked towards the console, and pressed a button, before tapping another.

"...Alright, can you both hear me?"

I felt my eyes widen a bit, but I looked towards Krystal, only to find her smiling towards me before she answered, "Yes, we can hear you."

"Alright good. It would have been better if you had made it onto a transportation shuttle, but this will need to do." Looking around, I noted that the majority of the space fighting was elsewhere... for now at least. "Krystal, Wolf, we will escort you to the nearest friendly cruiser, but you need to listen to everything I say, alright?"

We gave him our confirmations, but before anything else happened, I saw something changing on my screen, and I had to voice my concern. "Hey, uh, sir, there is a red rectangle on the screen... any idea what that mea-"

BOOM!

The fighter to our left exploded in a shower of plasma and fire, and I reached over and spun the ship in a tight barrel roll just as a piece of metal flew overhead. I heard something screech over the bottom of the ship as something zoomed past us.

"Dammit! Break off and engage! Wolf, since you are technically in the pilot's seat, I need you to fly straight for the nearest Cerinian cruiser, I will keep you covered as best as I can!"

"Alright, point me in the right direction then."

There was a sound of blaster fire, and I saw a sleek black ship fly by at a fast speed. Reorienting my ship, I saw the bluish grey one from before zoom in front of me, so I quickly pushed the accelerator back forward. "Wolf, Krystal, the ship directly in front of us is your target! I need to take care of these bogeys and I will return."

Pushing the accelerator as far forward as it would go, Krystal was quickly pressing against me, and I was pressing into the seat. Ships began to zip by at fast speeds, and I had to either spin or turn to get out of the way of some form of hazard. The entire time explosions ripped the space around me, lights threatened to blind me, and the occasional ship collision was averted at the last possible moment. As we flew, I saw something in the distance. It looked like a bulbous craft, and it too had the bluish grey decal of a fox head. It however, was flying haphazardly as three sleek purple craft chased after it, trying to shoot it with their weapons.

"Wolf, we need to help them!"

"Ok... let me find... never mind."

I had flipped something off the top of one of the control joysticks, and I was now able to shoot. Angling our fighter towards the ship that was under fire, I depressed the button, and watched as lasers began to shoot from our fighters wings. I couldn't tell where the reticle was, so I simply adjusted the aim of the ship either by rolling or doing small turns...

(Tyler's P.O.V.)

Holding onto the harness that was secured over my chest, I felt my heart threatening to burst from my chest as I prayed to every god I knew of, regardless of my religion. We were under fire, our ship was slow and fat, and we had already taken a few hits. I wasn't sweating from just the fear...

Add insult to it all, what I could see from the viewport, was debris bigger than us coming up, and I looked over at Samantha and saw the concentrated if somewhat stressed expression over her muzzle. "Sam, if you get us out of this alive, I will give you the biggest kiss of your life!"

Her eyes jerked over to my own in minute surprise, before the concentration returned, along with a big smile as well. I returned my gaze back to the frightful view in front of our stubby ship in time to see Sam do a half barrel roll as she suddenly had us zooming down. I felt my stomach lurch as I saw her nearly hit a big piece of metal that was spiraling in zero G, along with seeing the blaster fire from behind zipping by once more.

Then there was a rumbling sensation, and I looked at Samantha as I asked, "Where we hit?"

"N-No... one of the contacts just... died." She looked back up from the screen by the handle as she dodged some more debris, before another rumble shook the ship. Before anything else happened, a ship raced past our viewport, its lasers still firing...

(Wolf's P.O.V.)

Letting go of the firing stud, I pulled a tight sideways turn and came back at the last enemy ship, before pushing the button again, and watching as the last ship erupted in a ball of fire after taking a hit to its own wing.

Before anything else happened, something beeped on the console, and I felt a bit of surprise spike through my body as Samantha's voice filtered through the speakers, "Thanks for the assist unknown aircraft. I hope you won't mind escorting us to the nearest Cerinian ship, because we won't make it on our own."

I felt a chuckle leave my throat as I shook my head, before I put us in a gentle loop around their ship, "Well, sorry, but I can't help you with that... I'm still learning the controls."

There was a pause, before Tyler's voice came through, "Wolf... is that you?"

"The one and only."

There was more silence, before Samantha asked in an uneasy tone, "Wolf... where is Krystal...?"

"I am here... are our parents there?"

There was a cough, before Tyler's voice came through, "Holy hell Wolf! How are you both inside that fighter?"

"Er... it's cramped to say the least." But not uncomfortably so...

I received a small kiss for that as Krystal's muzzle flared with a bit of color, and Tyler's voice came through once more, "Well, to answer your question Krystal, they are in the passenger compartment. But we still have a problem, where do we go?"

"Oh, right... sorry. There is a big Cerinian ship off to your left, that is where we were going." I looked over and saw that it was still there, and the amount of space combat seemed to have decreased a tad. "I say we get going while we still can."

The only confirmation I got this time was their ship angling sharply towards it, and it put on a bout of speed than was now a third slower than Krystal's and my ship. While we flew after it, I heard the speaker system click, so I took it that it was turned off from their side. Yet, just as I was starting to relaxed, I was surprised when Krystal turned around a bit and firmly pressed her lips against my own. I felt myself practically melt into it as I took my hands off the joysticks and wrapped my hands around her and pulled her closer to me, even if it was at an awkward angle.

When she pulled away, I felt a goofy smile spanning my lips as I continued to look at her. "You always knew how to take my breath away..."

She giggled lightly, before she tried to curl into a more comfortable position. This resulted in an unprecedented roll that I had to quickly correct so we would collide with anything.

After leveling the craft back so that we were somewhat in the previous 'up' position, I looked out the viewport and saw the transport shuttle was beginning to lag a bit. Looking to the side as I began to turn the ship, I found that the space around us was quickly beginning to fill up with more stars than single ship fighters.

There was a click from the console as I drew closer to the shuttle, and soon enough, a voice came through the speakers, "Wolf, please hold this distance from the Cerinian cruiser until I draw closer. I will mark you as a friendly with an IFF tagger, but we need to do so before you begin to approach. Good job on rescuing that shuttle by the way."

"Thanks."

Banking slightly to the left, I felt the force exacted upon us forcing me a bit to the left, and then I saw a bluish grey ship with black scorch marks come into view. I couldn't help but eye a few of the sparking conduits that ran alongside the cockpit of his fighter, or the blackened glass that even had a metal pole or something similar sticking out of it. "Hey... are you alright in that thing?"

There was a brief chuckle, before he asked, "Why, how bad does it look?"

"It looks like there shouldn't be air inside your cockpit..."

There was more chuckling before I received an answer, "Very insightful. It is true, there is no longer breathable air in here, but I have my suit on, so it doesn't matter."

Shaking my head, I glanced over at Krystal to see her eyes scanning his fighter still, "Well, I may not be a genius, but your ship looks more like scrap metal than what it did before. And just a heads-up if you don't know, but it looks like you're going to need a new paint job."

There was silence, before full blown laughter filtered into the speaker. His fighter zoomed on past and was soon flying beside Sam's and Tyler's shuttle.

Following them as soon as there was a fair distance between us, I made sure to stay directly behind them, yet slightly elevated so that I could see everything that we were going towards.

The closer we got, the larger the Cerinian cruiser appeared, and the more guns and weapon systems I could see. There were two rows of what looked like oversized flak guns with a Cerinian kick to design on the top and bottom of the ship. Then there were two larger, cannons if they could be called, along the top side of the Cerinian ship. One was facing directly in front of it, and the other was facing its opposite side... which revealed a new sight.

From the shadow of the cruiser drifted another large ship, this one had a dark color scheme that was interrupted by fires that were spread all along its hull. There were gaping holes in its hull that had smooth looking edges, and I could even see its own weapons were facing the Cerinian ship, as if they had just been in battle.

The Cerinian ships engines flared to life and it began to accelerate towards us at an angle that showed what appeared to be docking bays for ships of some sort. Then the other pilot's voice filtered in through the speakers, "Wolf, the shuttle will dock first, and then you will afterwards. I will fly directly in front of you towards the angle you need to approach from. Once inside, you will land closest to the back wall. If you need any help, well... I will do my best to instruct you."

Looking towards Krystal, she soon did the same, and as I looked into her eyes, I couldn't help but say, "They always say climbing a mountain is easier than coming down. Well... I think it is safe to say landing is harder than taking off..."

"There isn't anything to it Wolf. Just you will need to decelerate once you pass through the barrier and pull back on the speed throttle to land. If anything goes wrong, try to cause as little damage as possible."

Looking towards the ship, I saw the Samantha or Tyler expertly guide the shuttle through the blue energy field. Through the field I watched as they landed, and I looked back forward as a fighter began to fly towards the ship. Angling behind it, I made sure to keep both hands at the ready for anything that may happen. When the fighter banked away from the blue field, the other pilot's voice filtered in, "Alright Wolf, you will hit the field in ten seconds. Begin slowing down."

Gently, I began to pull both joysticks back... but nothing happened.

"Hey... it's not working..."

"Er, Krystal, since you already did it, please give it a go."

Krystal's hands wrapped over my own, and I felt her do what I had just did, but then her voice sounded distressed, "It isn't working..."

"Abort landing."

Rolling the craft, I pulled back on a single joystick, yet the craft kept going. Pushing it forward, I felt it still do nothing. Rolling the craft in the other direction I tried again, but it still didn't work.

"Abort landing now!"

Twisting the joysticks in every way, I could only roll or lower the fighter, and I felt an icy chill run through my spine, "I c-can't! Nothings working!" Looking at the shield that was now less than thirty feet away, I felt fear clench my heart, and I said, "Krystal, face me!"

I quickly laid my plan in my head moments before we raced through the shield, and I flinched as I saw the wall racing up to meet us. I quickly slammed the fighter down against the hanger bay floors as Krystal faced me. Pushing my feet out in front of me and against the interior, I brought my hands up and placed my right arm over Krystal's back and used my left hand to hold Krystal's head so she wouldn't hit the glass during the inevitable crash.

The air was filled with the screaming of metal sliding over metal, there were many smaller crashes or bumps, and I felt the fighter spinning sideways. Before any real speed was lost, I felt the ship lurch to a halt, and my head whipped to the side and slammed into metal...

...Then blackness consumed everything...

A.N.: Here we go, a nice little cliff hanger... though I doubt any of you don't already know what will surely happen next chapter. Heh... I might write things differently, but a few things are going to stay the same no matter what.

Maturedeath: yes, I too wanted it to be differently, but in the end, I made that happen instead. I was trying to stay canon as much as one could when playing with Cerinia, but hey, now that I am a more experienced writer, I'm not afraid to break a few walls on the storyline here and there. And instead of Krystal getting sent away to meet Fox on Sauria, well... Cerinia shall live! Also, which story is it you are following on Fim? Or maybe it is all of them... ;D

- - -I got my own stalker... hehe... you know what they say, when a stalker finds the wrong person, sometimes they regret stalking in the first place...

King Spoot: got it, I will try to pay more attention to that the further on this story goes... maybe add a bonus scenes to give it a better focus like you suggested.

GrimlockX4: heh, not only is the posted chapter hopefully good, but I decided to throw in some length as well.

Bryan mccloud: lol, are you trying to get me to rewrite an entire trilogy storyline? That is like asking me to write 200k words! And it took me 6 months to write Hero's return... and if I'm not wrong, I updated like every 1-2 weeks...