Preface
This story intends to be a retelling of the story in Star Fox Adventures, with some elements of its original form, Dinosaur Planet, and a means of tying loose ends and missing elements from both variants of the story. There are elements of inspiration from similar reinterpretation fanfictions, but I try to write the story in as much of an original means as possible.
Special thanks to ninjafoxshadow, x-game, and Plague Doctor 2035 for inspiring me to start and continue writing up this story.
A medium-sized space shuttle approached the world that its crew of two recognized as "Sauria". Its two inhabitants had fled their homeworld, Cerinia, having escaped its tragic destruction. Despite this happening a year ago, the memories of losing their father, their home, and their people still burned deep into their minds. As far as the two were concerned, they were the only survivors, and they only had each other left. In terms of physical appearance, they would be best described as vulpine with blue fur and blue hair on their heads, both wearing only enough clothing to barely preserve their modesty. Being destitute since evacuating their doomed homeworld, they couldn't afford to wear anything else other than identical copies of their traditional Cerinian garbs they left the planet with.
The passenger in the shuttle's cockpit was a young female named Krystal. Krystal did not have much in the way of clothing, her attire consisting of a golden bra, a short loincloth, small shoulder guards on her shoulders, gold bracelets and anklets, and sandals, as well as a gold necklace bearing a single emerald and a gold collar wrapped around her neck and a small silver tiara that fit neatly around her short blue hair. Two cloth ribbons were tightly wrapped around her tail, which poked out of the top of her loincloth in the back. Her thin, nubile body sported a line of tattoos wrapping around her forearms and tattoos resembling the sun below her waist on each leg as well as a small tattoo located on her back above her tail, all of which were visible under the bright blue fur that covered her body.
Piloting the spacecraft was Krystal's older brother, whose name was Sabre. Like Krystal, Sabre's clothing, or lack thereof, left little to the imagination. Sabre only wore a larger loincloth that reached his knees in addition to small pauldrons on his shoulders, gold bracelets and anklets, and sandals, in addition to his own gold necklace and collar. The blue hair on his head pointed upward at the front. Sabre shared many of the same tattoo patterns as his sister, except for the sun tattoos, which were instead located on his pectorals. Thanks to his somewhat obsessive physical training, Sabre boasted a tall, muscular figure that would have had many women in the Lylat System and even some men gaze in wonder.
"Sauria, this is it," Sabre pointed to the diverse planet that was in front of them. After many long months of navigating across the vast ocean of space and doing what they could to keep their financial situation afloat, they had finally arrived at what was commonly known as the "Dinosaur Planet". Unfortunately, said planet had a few large craters inside its surface with giant floating masses hovering above them.
"This is where the distress call has been coming from," noted Krystal, "The very place where father told us to go."
"Is the planet breaking apart?" Sabre gazed at the planet, "No wonder they sent out a distress call…"
Krystal and Sabre remembered all too well what their father, Randorn, told them just before the two escaped with their lives.
Krystal and Sabre carried their father's limp body to one of the available transports on the spaceport that wasn't destroyed by the notorious death cult, the Obsidian Legion. Cerinia was in its death throes, chunks of the ground began to rise sporadically while the tectonic plates of the planet's continents shifted erratically. Fires and volcanic eruptions illuminated the land contrasting with the night sky. Despite the world being close to planetary annihilation, the fanatical heretics of the Obsidian Legion continued to fight and murder the planet's inhabitants. Why they would be so eager to slay their own kin and choose to perish along with their homeworld was something no ordinary person would understand, but it was just one more reason for Sabre to utterly loathe the Legion; he had committed much of his life to fighting them.
The spaceport, by some miracle, was devoid of any activity, whether it be from the Obsidian Legion or the citizens of Cerinia simply fleeing for their lives. The trio had no better opportunity; Krystal and Sabre placed Randorn inside the shuttle, still bleeding from the grievous wounds he took fighting off many of the blasphemous cultists. After loading whatever belongings the family had, Sabre wasted no time in starting the shuttle's launch sequence, carrying him and his family out of Cerinia's atmosphere.
Krystal and Sabre peered through the shuttle bay's window. Cerinia was engulfed in flames in many continents, hurricanes of smoke rotating in multiple areas. There would be no recovering from this; Cerinia was all but gone.
Randorn continued to cough up blood, the blood dripping down his bare chest and onto his wrap-around skirt. Krystal and Sabre quickly rushed to his aid.
"Sabre, Krystal, you want to survive? You've been studying your share of Lylat Basic, right?" he wheezed.
"Yes, father," Sabre and Krystal acknowledged in unison.
"Cerinia's destruction may only be the beginning. You must find refuge in the Lylat System; there exists an alliance from Corneria that will protect you. The closest world in the Lylat System from here is a world named Sauria. It is a planet full of dinosaurs that mostly keep to themselves; start from there."
Randorn's children remembered that he went on an expedition to this foreign system before they were born. He would tell them stories of his exploits on many nights.
"What about you, father?" Sabre's concern for his father heightened after dissecting the exact implications of his words.
"It's…too late for me," Randorn hacked as he held his hand to his wound, the blood continued to leak from his body, "The Krazoa spirits are they key to all of this. Cerinia was slowly dying since they disappeared."
"Father! Please, don't go!" Krystal shook Randorn by the shoulders, begging her father to cling to life.
"Sabre, Krystal, promise me one thing: Don't let what happened to Cerinia happen to anywhere else…" These were Randorn's last words before his eyelids slowly closed as his body went limp. He was no more. Krystal looked to her brother, whose expression was as despondent as hers. Sabre clenched his teeth and fists before he unleashed a deafening howl. Sabre could barely hold himself together as he collapsed to his knees. He had lost so much despite everything he had done to protect those he loved.
"Solkit Village…Cerinia, all of it is gone…" he wept, "Mum, dad, I failed them both…" Sabre began to pound the floor on the shuttle. "I trained as hard as I could. I tried to protect everyone. But I'm still as weak as I've always been!" Sabre's knuckles began to bleed as he punched again and again. Tears flooded his eyes, though Krystal could tell it was all emotional pain that consumed her brother.
"Sabre, stop!" Krystal pleaded to Sabre, "You're just hurting yourself!"
The voice of his sister was enough to get Sabre wake from his self-destructive rampage. He stood up and turned around. "Krystal…" Sabre walked up to his sister and held her tightly in his arms, "Nothing's going to stop me from keeping you from harm. Nothing. I promise."
Krystal hugged him back. They only had each other now…
Was it a coincidence that the very world that their father instructed them to visit first on their pilgrimage to the Lylat System was also emitting a distress call? It was no ordinary distress call either, for it was of a psionic nature, one that, for various reasons, only Cerinians such as Krystal and Sabre could recognize.
The Cerinian spacecraft entered the atmosphere of Sauria, right in the middle of a torrential downpour. Visibility was extremely limited in the hurricane, and the spacecraft arrived on the side of the planet that wasn't currently illuminated by Lylat's sun. As the spacecraft flew aimlessly in the storm, a couple of other flying objects approached on its flanks; these were clearly not meant for space travel, emitting fumes of smoke from their engines, the insides of these craft were exposed to the elements as the rain poured onto their crews. The crew of these flying machines were clearly reptilian, best described as bipedal miniature t-rexes wearing leather uniforms. The scaly riders jumped onto the wings of the spacecraft.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Sabre grumbled as he set the auto pilot and left his seat. He and Krystal grabbed their Cerinian weapons within the shuttle bay. Krystal grabbed a small golden rod while Sabre took hold of two sword hilts. Most outside Cerinia would underestimate these weapons in favor of more modern arms such as blasters, but Cerinian weapons had many magical powers up their sleeves that could put blasters to shame, not to mention that they would sheathe and expand at will, proving themselves to be quite portable. The shaft on Krystal's staff and the blades on Sabre's sword hilts expanded, ready for their users to use them in combat.
The shuttle door was forced open by the reptilian pirates before they entered the bay, all three of whom brandished the maces and axes they carried. Krystal and Sabre took an immediate fighting stance, bracing themselves for the worst possible scenario.
"Nxuk xulo no wek xoho?" one of the intruders tilted his head with a smirk, "0ei ted'k ceeb Saurian ke mo!"
"They must speak their own language if they're an isolated society," Sabre whispered to Krystal. In times like this, the two knew what to do. While the Cerinian siblings did indeed study Lylat Basic during their school years, having the advantage of telepathy helped them master that dialect in record time. Sabre and Krystal focused on reading the raider's thought patterns. Among the adamant intentions of pillaging their ship, Sabre and Krystal analyzed the pirate's native tongue.
"So, you intend to kill us and steal our belongings, is that it?" Sabre sarcastically asked the reptilian in this new, strange language.
"That's the gist of it," the bipedal lizard gave off a sharp grin, patting his weapon on his palm, "Now hand it all over."
"Can't we negotiate?" Krystal attempted a more diplomatic solution, "We have no quarrel with your people."
The band of raiders laughed with malice. "You clearly aren't from around here, are you? Nobody messes with the SharpClaw clan!" The lizard, or rather, the SharpClaw, in front, swung his mace at Sabre. The Cerinian tod, seeing this coming a mile away, dodged handily and riposted with his own sword strikes. These SharpClaws were too predictable; Sabre's counterattack was an instant kill.
Enraged, the other two the hijackers rushed against the Cerinian duo. Krystal and Sabre were well-versed in melee combat as per their peoples' traditions. Dodging the swing of an axe, Krystal swept her staff at the legs of her attacker, knocking him to the floor. Pressing the advantage, Krystal swung her staff on the SharpClaw's skull, putting him out of commission. Sabre parried the strikes of his opponent with his two swords with ease, the golden hue of one of its blades contrasting the shine from its silver counterpart. After forcibly separating the SharpClaw from his mace, the SharpClaw reached to his side. Sabre noticed immediately that he was about to draw from a flintlock-looking blaster. Just as the SharpClaw pulled the trigger, Sabre threw off his aim with a pommel strike, the blaster's shot missing its target, then thrust both of his blades into his foe's chest.
Krystal and Sabre felt the spacecraft shake. The Cerinian siblings looked outside; the primitive aircraft of the SharpClaw raiders were firing upon the shuttle with their mounted gatling cannons! One of the exhaust engines of the shuttle exploded. Peering outside, Krystal readied her staff and aimed at one of the SharpClaw flying machines with the intent of using her staff's fire blaster, an effective ranged attack that was indispensable for any Cerinian weapon. Just as she was about to metaphorically pull the trigger, however, a larger creature mounted himself onto the SharpClaw aircraft.
Said creature would be best described like that of the paleontological pteranodons with red skin. The red-skinned flyer pecked at the machine's pilot mercilessly, causing the SharpClaw to fall out of the cockpit to a fatal demise. Krystal and Sabre then watched the avian attack the other flying machine, its pilot also forcibly ejected as a result. The two placed their weapons on their backs, compressing and floating without the need of a strap, such was the convenience of Cerinian weapons. The damage that the SharpClaw inflicted on the Cerinian transport was substantial enough for its systems to go critical. The flyer looked towards Krystal and Sabre with concern.
"Do you need help?" the flyer asked them, "It seems that your metal bird isn't going to be flying for much longer! Hurry and hop on!"
Loathe as they were to abandon another precious Cerinian item behind, Krystal and Sabre understood that they had no other choice but to trust this mysterious ally. Sabre scanned his mind; this large avian was being sincere. Krystal packed everything that wasn't nailed down in the shuttle into the siblings' trusted satchel; it was fortunate that thanks to Cerinian magic, its small size could carry many large things all at once. Wrapping the satchel from her shoulder to her waist, she joined her brother on the wing and the pair jumped onto the flyer's back. Riding on the relative safety of the red avian, Krystal and Sabre watched as the back of their shuttle exploded one more time, its precious fuel cells dropping from its reserve into the abyss below. Krystal and Sabre closed their eyes and looked away; it seemed that they would need to make Sauria their new home for the time being.
"I feel like I should introduce myself," the flyer spoke to his new passengers, "My name is Zeon, a proud captain in the CloudRunner tribe. Who might the two of you be?"
"My name is Sabre," Sabre greeted Zeon as he rode in front of Krystal, "This is my sister, Krystal. We had only just arrived on your planet."
"We were informed about a garbled distress signal from your world," Krystal added, "Whoever they are, they sound like they are in great danger!"
"What are you doing here, flying around in this storm?" Sabre pressed Zeon.
"Our crown princess has been captured," Zeon explained glumly, "Our latest reports indicate that the prison ship keeping her captive has been sighted in this region. I was sent here to rescue the princess."
"If we help you rescue your princess, will you fly us to where the distress signal came from?" Krystal negotiated.
"You have my word," nodded Zeon as he soared through the monsoon.
"Who kidnapped your peoples' princess?" asked Sabre.
"She was abducted by the SharpClaw tribe," Zeon began. Krystal and Sabre knew those SharpClaw raiders were bad news, "They're led by General Scales, a ruthless tyrant and dictator who aims to become the new ruler of Sauria by subjugation and cruelty. Until recently, the SharpClaw have been nothing more than petty bandits, but under Scales' rule, he's managed to take the rest of Sauria's tribes by storm. Not only is he holding our beloved princess hostage, but he has also done the same to the prince of the EarthWalker tribe. No one would otherwise dare to antagonize the two most powerful tribes simultaneously on Sauria like that."
"Then it would be wise to save your princess and deny this General Scales leverage over your people," Krystal proposed.
"I wish it were that simple," Zeon sighed, "but General Scales has led a warpath throughout the entire planet. It will take more than saving the royal sovereigns of the dinosaur tribes to stop him, as he managed to breach the Force Point Temples that contain our planet's sacred spellstones! That is how he managed to break apart the planet itself!"
Not even a few minutes passed before a fiery projectile flew over Krystal's and Sabre's heads. Zeon instinctively dipped down to avoid being set alight. More fireballs quickly approached the CloudRunner and his comrades. Sabre responded by raising his gold sword to return fire via a fire blast. Unfortunately, Sabre acted too late, and the sheer force of the impact caused his grip to falter, sending his sword into the abyss below.
"No!" Sabre shouted in his native tongue.
"Sabre, your sword…!" Krystal cried behind him.
Sabre knew there wasn't anything he could do for his golden weapon. He turned to Krystal and said as he held onto his silver sword, "It's okay. I'll just have to do with using a single sword for now."
The two of them looked backwards to see the source of the fireballs. A giant flying galleon was on their tail, its draconic figurehead roaring as if it had sentience. Zeon ducked below to avoid colliding with the fearsome vessel, ascending back at the rear. The rear of the galleon had a pair of decorated cannons ready to fire upon them!
Not wanting to risk losing any more of their weapons, Sabre turned to Zeon and asked in Saurian, "Think you can handle this, Zeon?"
"Leave it to me!" Zeon boasted as he readied himself for a dogfight in the stormy skies. The cannons on the galleon unleashed a volley of flaming death towards Zeon, but Zeon was too experienced to find himself getting caught off guard again. Dodging the molten projectiles, Zeon concentrated on the cannons and spat out a surge of thunderbolts against the guns, making some of them explode and others get knocked off the ship from the sheer force of the explosions.
The galleon sped away, only to turn around, its demonic figurehead now facing Zeon. The face the galleon opened its maw and unleashed a fiery meteor towards Zeon. The brave CloudRunner dodged out of harm's way and returned fire. In a matter of seconds, the galleon's figurehead was no more, the ship unable to pose a threat to the CloudRunner soaring through the skies.
Zeon approached the flying warship's main deck. The crew below angrily took notice. Zeon cleared a path with his electric breath, causing the SharpClaw crew to scatter around as Krystal and Sabre landed on the ship's quarter deck next to the steering wheel, weapons drawn.
The SharpClaw pirates brandished their own weapons. One of them recklessly charged towards Sabre, who parried the reptile's attacks and broke his guard. Before the hapless soldier could react, Sabre impaled him chest with his silver sword, killing him instantly. The rest of the sailors went after Sabre in a brazen rage, but Krystal intercepted their strike with a well-timed parry via her staff. Knocking one of them away, Krystal pointed her staff at his head and fired an energy projectile. The beam pierced through the SharpClaw's forehead, resulting in a clean kill. Krystal sensed a hostile presence behind her. Without looking back, she rolled forward, dodging the SharpClaw's deadly swing. Turning towards her attacker, she noticed Zeon approaching from behind in the sky above. The SharpClaw hesitated, hearing Zeon swooping in, but it was too late for her to react. Zeon had the hapless SharpClaw in his talons, flying away from the galleon and dropping the SharpClaw to her demise.
The final SharpClaw guard remained defiant despite witnessing the deaths of his mates. Attempting to make one final charge at Sabre, the SharpClaw swung his mace with great vigor. Sabre stepped away, evading every attempted strike. To the SharpClaw's surprise, he sheathed his weapon. Instead, he had focused his attention on a nearby rope and hook. Sabre swung the rope in his hand and tossed it at the SharpClaw's feet, toppling his balance. Krystal followed up by rotating her staff upwards on the SharpClaw, launching him into the air. Sabre brought out his sword once more and struck a deadly blow: Swinging his sword at the SharpClaw in mid-air downward, smashing him onto the deck. With such an impact, the SharpClaw's neck was crushed beyond repair.
Putting their weapons away, Krystal and Sabre scanned the galleon for any more potential threats. There wasn't any activity aside from various crates scattered on the main deck sliding back and forth as well as various lanterns mounted on the ship swinging around due to the turbulence and a small cage containing a small avian-shaped being hanging near the forecastle. Could this have been the CloudRunner Princess?
Krystal turned towards Sabre and Zeon. "Thanks for helping me," she told them, "I can take it from here."
"Can you figure out a means of saving the princess?" Sabre asked.
Krystal nodded. "I'm sure there's a means to do so somewhere on this galleon."
"Zeon and I will keep a look out for any potential escorts," Sabre said to her sister as he boarded Zeon, "Promise me you'll stay safe."
Krystal smiled as she waved. "You worry too much, brother!" Zeon took to the skies with his rider, leaving Krystal to explore the galleon on her own.
Alone on the deck, Krystal approached the small cage. Her predictions were correct; this was the CloudRunner child they were looking for. The CloudRunner was different from most, even for a child, as she wore a green coat.
"Are you here to rescue me?" asked the child.
"Yes, one of your kind told us you were taken captive, and that your captors would be around here," Krystal responded.
"My name is Kyte," the child introduced herself, "I heard that those SharpClaw ruffians hid the key to this cage down below deck. Help me get out of this cage at once!"
"I promise you'll be out of that cage in no time," Krystal reassured Kyte. She passed through a door on the deck, the stairs going downwards. At the bottom of the stairs Krystal found herself in the galleon's cargo compartment. The crates inside were adorned with a distinct logo: a ring surrounded by cutlass blades and smaller circles. Krystal was convinced that this was the SharpClaw emblem. After prying open several crates in the compartment, Krystal located a rather ornate key. Having found no other such items in the compartment, Krystal deduced that this key would be the one to open Kyte's cage and placed the key into her satchel.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Krystal's fur stood on end as she retraced her steps up the stairs. She could sense someone still on the ship nearby.
As Krystal ascended back up to the main deck, the door to the forecastle opened before she could have a chance to get close to Kyte's prison. As if surrounded by demonic flames, a large SharpClaw figure emerged from the forecastle, leaping onto the main deck. Fitting the archetype of a truly devilish character, the SharpClaw boasted bright green scales, a blood red tunic, steel anklets, and a helmet with two tall black horns protruding upwards on each side. In the place of a left hand the SharpClaw wielded a dark prosthetic steel hand, with two distinctive digits that could easily be mistaken for meat hooks. There was no doubt in Krystal's mind that this was the captain of the SharpClaw galleon, if not the head honcho behind the entire SharpClaw army.
The SharpClaw officer jumped onto the deck, as if to make a dramatic entrance. "General Scales, the only one fit to rule Sauria!" he boasted, "What brings you to my flagship, little girl? You don't seem the least bit like our kind."
"My name is Krystal, and I've come for the princess!" shouted Krystal. So this was the infamous General Scales that Zeon talked about.
"You appear to be a long way from home, Krystal" Scales sneered, "I can't believe the CloudRunners sent someone of your stature to do her dirty work."
"You coward Scales!" cried Kyte, "My mother will send an army against you for this crime!"
"Ah yes, your mother…" Scales smiled as he grabbed the cage with his metallic hand and shook it to terrify his hostage, "Such a task may prove difficult with CloudRunner Fortress stuck in the depths of space and your mother in a cage of her own! But once I've dealt with this…animal…we can pay your mother a visit!"
Krystal charged at Scales with a war cry, staff in hand, and attempted a swift strike, but Scales parried it with his hook hand. "You're nothing but pure evil!" Krystal growled.
"Evil?" laughed Scales, "I am the only leader fit to rule over all the dinosaur tribes. You see, the only way to a united Sauria is to rule the planet with fear. Otherwise, the tribes will find it in their best interests to fight against me!"
"Is that why you felt it necessary to break the planet apart?!" Krystal retorted.
"Divide and conquer," Scales explained, "What's the harm in taking that strategy literally? Should the other tribes continue to defy my demands, the entire planet's wellbeing is determined by my permission alone." Scales then went on the offensive, using only his metallic hand to trade blows with Krystal's staff. On a mistaken whim, Krystal's grip on her staff was lost to a heavy strike from Scales' amputee accessory, the staff sliding across the deck. Scales used this opportunity to grab Krystal by the neck.
"Let me go!" Krystal choked.
"You dare challenge me?!" Scales scoffed as she dragged Krystal's body across the galleon's deck, "Nobody can defeat General Scales!" Just as Scales was ready to toss Krystal off the galleon, his sense of danger kicked in. Scales instinctively turned around to see Sabre swing a broadsword at his head. Scales blocked this potentially deadly strike with his steel claw, dropping Krystal in the process. This male vulpine was far stronger than his female counterpart.
"Now, Krystal!" Sabre shouted. With Scales' attention diverted, Krystal sprinted across the deck, grabbed her staff, and smashed the link carrying Kyte's cage. There was no time to use the key in the heat of the moment, but there wasn't anything stopping her from stealing the whole cage! With staff and cage in hand, Krystal leaped back towards Zeon, flying close to the deck. Sabre punched Scales in the chest, sending him backwards, and disengaged from the fight, joining her sister on Zeon's back. "Bad luck, General Scales!" Sabre taunted the SharpClaw tyrant in Saurian, "Maybe you'll prevail next time!"
"This is not over, vermin!" Scales shouted furiously, shaking his hand in anger at the escaping trio at the edge of the galleon.
"We've saved the princess," Sabre said to Krystal and Zeon, "Now let's find the source of that distress signal."
Author's Note: With the backstory of Krystal being limited to a mere mention in the Star Fox Adventures manual and a text paragraph at the start of the game proper, it's been a popular fanfic concept to expand upon this mysterious background of hers. Cross-referencing with the original plot of Dinosaur Planet (the game that would become Star Fox Adventures), I've re-introduced the characters of Sabre and Randorn, who would get cut from the final product (and in Sabre's case, be outright replaced by Fox). Kyte, the CloudRunner, would also be limited to a mere cameo at the start of the game, whereas she was originally designed to be Krystal's version of Prince Tricky.
In addition, I've added a fight scene upon boarding the galleon (as Krystal has her staff at this point in this version of the story, and Sabre can still fight despite missing one of his swords), as well as merging the two versions in which Krystal confronts General Scales on the galleon into a single cohesive scene.
The original draft of this fanfiction began where the game would begin, with Krystal (and Sabre) flying on top of the CloudRunner. After a lot of thinking, I decided to start over, introducing the first action-heavy prologue and the Cerinian flashback. The latter was originally told as a whole-chapter flashback told in pieces during the adventurers' breaks, but then I decided it was too much of a pace-breaker to narrate these events in such detail. Originally, Cerinia wasn't meant to have access to space travel, and Krystal and Sabre would arrive on Sauria via a magic portal, making the Dinosaur Planet their home for a year, but this would be scrapped.