Author's Note:
Wow ain't you guys lucky to get another chapter in such a short period but to be fair, this chapter was like 90% written but saved it for later after I decided to write the prevois chapter. Well I'll shut myself up and let you guys read and until next time. Bye.
The briefing room aboard the Great Fox was bustling with activity as Fox briefed his team on the upcoming mission and each member's role. The team quickly split up into two groups. Fox with Krystal, and Falco with Slippy. Peppy stayed behind to coordinate the mission from the Great Fox. Peppy wanted to go with the team, but Fox objected due to his concerns about Peppy's health.
As the team dispersed to prepare for the mission, Fox couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. He gazed out of the window, watching the planet come into view for a few seconds before heading to the hangar. The pit in his stomach grew deeper as he approached his Arwing, he couldn't put his finger on it, Fox took a deep breath and prepared himself for what lay ahead. As they flew over the planet's lush forests, everyone realized that finding anything on the ground would be a daunting task, as the trees were densely packed.
"How are we going to find anything Fox?" Krystal questioned.
"I did install radar detectors with a radius range of 100 miles into our Arwings." Slippy interrupted with excitement in his voice.
"Why didn't you say anything until now, Slip?" Said Falco.
"Because I-I forgot."
"You're always forgetting." Falco uttered back, raising his voice.
"Cut it off, you two!" Fox shouted, already becoming irritated at the Falco's childish behavior. "Now let's split." As Fox commanded, the team split up into their two teams, heading in a different direction to cover more ground.
Three hours passed with no findings. As Fox was about to press the talk button to order the team to withdraw back to the Great Fox.
""Fox I got something, North East from here." Krystal called out afterward Fox noticed a dot popped up on his radar, the two then redirected their arwings.
Finding a spot to land their arwing within the dense forest, they activated the cloaking mode on their Arwings to avoid detection. Fox hopped out, laser rifle in hand, while Krystal grabbed her Staff. As they walked deep into the forest looking for anything that could be sending the signal, Krystal suddenly froze. Her psychic senses tingled, warning her of danger. Just as she was about to warn Fox, a projectile whizzed past her, barely missing her head.
Fox and Krystal immediately took cover and returned fire. They soon realized that their communications were jammed, and couldn't contact Falco and Slippy for support. Just as they were about to be overwhelmed by a group of Venomian soldiers, a mysterious third party started shooting at the attackers. The sound of the air cracking echoed, and with each cracked heard, a soldier collapsed. Fox and Krystal took advantage of the chaos and eliminated the remaining soldiers.
As they reloaded their weapons, using the eyepiece built onto his headset for a telescopic view, Fox's eyes widened as he spotted the sniper perched high up on a nearby tree, rifle aimed towards them. A quick flash appeared, Fox narrowly avoiding a bullet that whizzed past his head.
"Fox!"
"I'm alright. The sniper is up on a tree at one o'clock," Fox replied.
Suddenly, an idea struck Krystal. She gripped her staff tightly, and as it began to vibrate violently, a bright orb formed at its tip.
"On my signal, Fox. Cover me," Krystal commanded.
"Got it," Fox replied, positioning himself to provide cover for Krystal on her command.
"Now!" In perfect sync, they leaped out, Fox sprayed the area with suppressive fire as Krystal launched the orb of energy towards the sniper's location. It struck the tree with a blinding flash, and the sniper fell to the ground with a thud. Fox breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the enemy fall, grateful for Krystal's quick thinking.
As the dust settled, Fox and Krystal approached slowly to investigate. They found the sniper laying unconscious, kicking the weapon away before turning its body over. Fox checked its pulse, it's still alive. Krystal realizing that the sniper doesn't have a tail or any fur where clothing doesn't cover.
Kneeling down, she unveiled the mask covering its face. Letting out a slight gasp of shock upon sight, Krystal couldn't believe what she was seeing. Fox's shock mirrored her own, and the two of them shared a long, silent moment staring at whatever this sniper is.
"What do we do with him?" Krystal finally asked, breaking the silence only to continute as Fox tried to think what to do with it.
Fox's sharp ears twitched, picking up a faint static sound coming from the unconscious body lying before him. With a swift movement, he turned the body over and discovered a pouch on its back. Without hesitation, he unzipped it and pulled out a strange, electronic device that was still emitting the static noise. As Fox examined it, he inadvertently twisted something, and the device suddenly went silent.
"FOX, GODDAMMIT, DO YOU COPY?"
Fox winced at the sudden noise and quickly lowered the volume.
"Yes, Peppy, I'm here," he replied.
"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO RESPOND?" Peppy barked, his voice cracking with irritation.
"Our commucation were jammed Peppy but we got a bigger problem." Krystal interjected softly for trying to ease Peppy's anger.
"Peppy I'll explain everything. Get the hangers ready for landing and let the other two know to meet back at the Great Fox." Fox paused to stare at the alien. "And prepare the medical bay, Fox out."
With the communication link cut, Fox turned to Krystal, a sense of unease gnawing at his gut. He quickly snapped handcuffs on the alien and hoisted it over his shoulder. While Krystal picked up the weapon that the sniper beared.
"Let's move," he said, his voice low and urgent. Throwing the alien in his arwing behind the cockpit seat before hoping in himself.
The journey back to the Great Fox was long and tense, only sound the soft hum of the engines and the occasional beep from the arwing's computer. Fox kept a close eye on their captive, sidearm at arms reach safety off but It remained unconscious throughout the journey. Once they landed back at the Great Fox, Peppy was waiting for them, a mixture of concern and anger etched on his face. He had prepared a mobile medical bed, which Fox quickly accepted, gently lowering the unconscious alien onto it. Krystal placed the weapon onto a table softey. But as Peppy took a closer look at the creature, his eyes widened with shock and fear.
"WHAT ON CORNERIA IS THAT?" he exclaimed, taking a step back.
"We don't know, Peppy," Fox replied calmly, trying to hide his own unease.
"YOU BROUGHT SOMETHING YOU DON'T KNOW ONTO THE GREAT FOX?" Peppy yelled, his voice echoing through the hanger bay.
Krystal stepped forward, holding her paws out in a calming gesture. "Listen, Peppy. I know it might seem crazy, but we need to question it. It might have answers about the signals we've been tracking," she said, her voice steady and reassuring.
As Falco and Slippy landed their arwing in the hanger, getting out to rally with the rest.
"Hello Fox- WOAH WHAT IS THAT," Slippy exclaimed with excitement, pointing towards the alien.
Everyone else shouted in unison, "SLIPPY DON'T!"
Despite the warnings, Slippy ignored them and jumped onto the medical bed to get a better view of the alien.
"I've never seen anything like this before. What is it, Fox?" Slippy asked with curiosity.
Fox replied, "We have no idea but whatever it is. It saved but also attacked us."
Everyone's attenction went to Fox on what he just said.
"This ugly thing?" Said Falco.
Peppy cocked an eyebrow at Fox. "What do you mean it saved but also attacked you?"
"Me and Krystal were attacked by Venomians-"
"Venomians?!" Peppy and Slippy said in unison, their eyes widening in surprise. Falco just crossed his arms, unphased.
"Th-they're here?" Slippy not believing what he just heard.
"Yes Slippy. We were ambused, our commucations were jammed but it took most of them out for us." Fox eyed the alien during his sentense.
"After we dealt with the Vemonians, it attacked us." Fox than walked over to where Krystal placed the alien's weapon, picking it up.
Examining it closely. "Whatever this is, it can't be any type of energy weapon since I didn't see a projectile when it shot at us."
Slippy responded, "Ballistic weaponry? I haven't seen anyone use them in like 300 years. These aliens must be far behind our level of tech."
"Well we did found these."
Fox put the weapon back down before reaching into his arwing and pulled out several electrical devices, which he handed over to Slippy.
Slippy grabbed the devices and bounced in excitement, eager to reverse engineer the alien tech. He quickly left the hanger, leaving the rest of the team alone. Once the doors closed, the rest of the team looked at each other, unsure of what to say. They had faced many missions together, but this was something new.
Afterwards they brought it to the medical bay where they got medical assistance from ROB, who had access to the latest medical data that Lylat had to offer. ROB also gathered some data about the alien by taking DNA samples and ran them through the an analysis system. The results were surprising, the DNA of the alien was found to be very close to that of apes. As the team observed the alien, they noticed that it bore a striking resemblance to apes, with few exceptions like less hair.
Meanwhile, Slippy was working on the alien technology that had been given to him. As he examined the various devices, he discovered that one of them was a translator module. Slippy's excitement grew when he uncovered thousands of languages on the device. He extracted the memory chip and inserted it into a language decipherer with an AI programmed entity designed for this specific purpose. The AI revealed that deciphering the language spoken by the aliens would be a relatively easy task as it had similar grammar to those spoken within Lylat. Slippy was amazed to find out that the task, which he thought would take days or even weeks, would only take mere hours.
While the AI did the deciphering, Slippy moved on to the next device, which he quickly identified as some sort of camera. When he pressed one of the buttons, a screen lit up, displaying a picture of the alien posing with others in combat gear.
Knock Knock
"Who is it?"
"It's me." Replied Fox
Slippy bounced off his chair and ran to open the door. Fox towering over him, but he gave Slippy a warm smile. Asking if he had found anything interesting, and Slippy replied with a wide smile, showing Fox his work like a child with a new toy. Showing Fox how he had identified one of the devices as a translator and the other as a camera, and proceeded to display the pictures captured on it.
Slippy handed over the camera to Fox as he eagerly explained the details of his latest discovery. Fox took the camera from him and started to scroll through the gallery of pictures. He was barely listening to Slippy's rambling when he stumbled upon a picture that caught his attention. It was a photograph of a destroyed landmaster with a Venomonian symbol on it. As he continued scrolling through the pictures, he saw more images of similar events, some even including dead vemonian soldiers. Fox had seen enough and turned off the camera, placing it back down on the table. Slippy was still talking, unaware that Fox wasn't paying attention.
"Slippy?" Fox said, interrupting him mid-sentence. "How long until the translator is done?"
Slippy paused, momentarily caught off guard by the question. "Well...uh, a few hours," he responded. "But once it's done, I'll send it out to everyone."
Fox nodded in response before leaving Slippy's workspace. As he walked down the hallway, his thoughts were consumed by the pictures he had seen. Whatever or whoever these aliens are, if they can take down a landmaster only equipped with ballistic weaponry. What else were they capable of? Would our armor even stop ballistic projectiles.
How would all of Lylat react when the news spreads. With all this in mind, Fox continued walking down the dimmly lit hallway. Making his way into his bedroom, going under the blankets where a blue Vixen already asleep. Wrapping his arm around her before closing his eyes.