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Starfox: A Forgotten People	By : elegyenigma Category: +S through Z > Star Fox Adventures Views: 7375 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Fox Adventures, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
Alrighty,
chapter 8...here it is...after I sat there deliberating for hours on
how the hell to START it. Someone smack my brain, please, it needs
it...

To the people who have
awarded me the twelve reviews I have as of this writing, I now give
you all a shout-out for rocking as hard as you call do. And here it
is!

Anonymous: My first
reviewer: You get thirty awesome points. :D Thanks, and even
though the next chapter has come and long since gone, I appreciate
your dedication to reading this train wreck... XD

Tiger64: Aye, an
ACTUAL honest-to-fuck M/F story! O.O Even if it hasn't gotten to
the actual sex scene (first of...?), it'll be that way, and I
guarantee no yaoi! Or yuri. o.o ...Wait, that probably just lost
me a dozen fans. x.x

Mom: Yes. Gorillaz
are the r0x0rz of my b0x0rz. :D

Bamm: Thank you muchly
for your constant reading of this story. ^_^ Bear my children? :D
Just kiddin', of course... XD

Tiger64: Again! A
faithful reviewer! :D And yes...I like to build up on the wait. I
don't throw people a bone too quickly... XD

Ssschah: Thanks, I'm
glad I am of inspirational help. ^_^ And you may very well use the
idea of a big-ass war, hell knows I'm REALLY not the first to think
of it... *rofl* And, NO! Not the Pepsi! LG Mills Publishing Inc.
is sponsored by coca-cola! *Laughs* ...Nah, I'm kiddin', some
people like Pepsi over coke and vice-versa and who the HELL am I to
try and tell them otherwise?

Bright Shadow: ...Odd
name. o.o But unique. ^_^ Now, if you're floored by the current
level of detail, prepare to be able to shake hands with Satan soon.
:D If you've ever played Nexus, then you'll LOVE what's to come. :D

Tiger64: And again!
XD Yeah, you rock. Can't wait? Uh oh. o.o Considering this is me
we talk about, that might be a problem... (laughs)

Z.V.: It's also made
of sugar, spice, and occasionally I roll the dice... XD FOR GREAT
JUSTICE!!!

Sonicmusicfan: The
next chapter comes out...right now, actually. :3

RampagingEvangelion:
Oh if only I could update as often as I'd like to. x.x God-damn
writer's block. Writer's Blocks are made of 100% solid oak, and take
a long damn time to burn without any type of combustible gas poured
on it. x.x And indeed, thank you for the eleventh review. ^___^

Bright Shadow: Yeah,
jobs are pretty mean...but unemployment is a bitch with a penis. x_X
And I was hoping for detail. I like detail in a story, it gives it
depth. :3 And here's your patience rewarded. X3 Enjoy!

PuffNStuff: I'm
surprised it hasn't been done sooner, to be fully and wholly honest.
o.o

DemonicKnight: Thank
you. ^_^ And trust me, continuing is something I intend on doing.
...As you can read. XD

I hope I got everybody.
Now, onto the story.

Chapter 8

Krystal stopped. She
had left the shower after drying and pulling her underclothes and
flight suit back on, traversing through the ships many passageways,
when these four humans suddenly stopped her at a crossroad in the
passageways, one blocking each corridor. She reached out with her
telepathy, and felt no desire to cause or inflict harm. She probed
deeper...They had orders...for something. One of them moved
forwards. She felt no aggression, so she did not recoil.

“Yes?”
she asked, glancing side to side at two of the other humans before
looking to this man. These marines, for that's what they must be if
they were soldiers aboard a space-going vessel, wore standard
olive-drab green armor suits, not very thick, and carried the same
weapons as the rest of the armored humans she had seen so far. She
had yet to see the more heavily-armored and better-armed troops that
Fox had seen in the Security Station near the bridge of the ship.
These humans, like the rest, did not wear helmets that covered their
entire heads, but instead covered down the back to the midway point
of the neck, and up around to cover the entire forehead. The sides
covered the entire rear half of the sides, but left the cheeks
exposed, presumably for balance and so the soldiers could see out of
all fields and ranges of vision. Clear, glass-like visors extended
down just over the eyes of the soldiers, stopping just below the
bridge of the nose. These were step-down illumination visors,
designed to prevent soldiers from being blinded by the bright flashes
of laser and plasma fire that were fired in battle, while providing
unhindered visual access. They also had built-in HUD screens that
fed the marines tactical information across a streaming
battle-network. When the marines were not in combat, these visors
slid up into the helmet to protect them. As such, these marines, nor
any of the ones she had seen so far, had been seen with these visors
down.

“You are
requested to accompany us to the docking bay. You are being released
along with the other prisoners. Your compatriot is to give a message
to your government from our highest officer, along with a request.
Naturally, we bear no ill will, so we are releasing all prisoners to
show our intentions are not aggressive.”

Krystal blinked. She
was somewhat confused. This had been an extremely unusual
captivation situation...they had done little, if anything, to confine
them, had done very little to restrict their movements...and now they
were freeing her and Fox...and presumably the other prisoners, the
scouts who had been sent prior.

“Well...I see
no reason why not,” she said after a moment of reading their
intentions with her telepathy and discovering they were true as their
words. The marine who had spoken nodded.

“Thank you for
your cooperation, please follow us,” the marine said, before
turning. The other four moved up alongside and behind her, in an
escort formation, before leading her down one corridor, the one that
the lead marine had been standing in front of. They walked a half
minute or so, taking various turns, in silence, nothing but the sound
of the marines' boots clomping on the metal deck-plates in perfect
unison breaking it. Finally, they reached a metal door with a
glowing green control panel beside it. The lead marine touched a
control panel a couple times and the door slid open sideways. The
small formation of marines with Krystal still in the midst of them
proceeded through the door into the cavernous docking bay. Krystal
and Fox's Arwings were docked here, as were the lightly armed, nimble
scout ships the Cornerian scout team had used.

Fox looked up as the
entry door to the hangar slid open and in walked four of the armored
humans, escorting Krystal. He took a step forward towards her as she
looked over at him, a smile forming on her lips.

“Krystal. I
was worried about you, are you alright?” he asked in concern as
he placed both hands on her shoulders. Krystal nodded dismissively.

“I'm fine,
Fox,” she replied softly. Then, using her telepathy for a
brief moment, she added, “this makes no sense, they're letting
us go?”

Fox nodded, mouthing
the words “I'll explain later” to her before glancing
back at the ships. Aside from the familiar ones, there was only one
other ship, a black ship that looked like a forward-swept bat-wing
spacecraft. The wings, or foils, were swept and curved forwards,
with rear foils in a standard delta shape. Circling the middle
portion of the ship, only an inch away from all the outer surfaces,
was a ring that was spinning slowly. The size of it hinted at
perhaps a reconnaissance ship, and the ring was obviously to give the
ship gravity, presumably for the crew in case they had to move
around. To the side of the hangar, another door slid open, and into
the hangar strode Enigma, followed by a half dozen armed but
unarmored naval security personnel. And behind them strode the
Cornerian scouts, their hands bound in front of them with energy
bands. Enigma strode to the black ship, as three more naval
personnel walked in after him, following his lead to the ship. They
wore green jumpsuits. By now, Fox had correctly assumed that these
were the pilots of ships or were in some way directly related to ship
control tasks. They climbed aboard a ramp lowered underneath the
nose of the ship. Enigma did not climb in, not yet anyways. He
turned and walked over to Fox and Krystal, gesturing back at the
craft.

“My shuttle. I
depart now for my command ship...my only reasons for being on this
ship were to speak with you as well as the ship commander.”

Fox nodded slowly.
He understood why he was telling him this. He was putting the icing
on the cake, showing that indeed he'd only come here to desperately
try to convince Fox to see his point of view. Well, it had worked...

“In any event,”
Enigma continued, “whoever your leader is, I need them to
contact me ASAP. We will remain in-station keeping awaiting a
response. Good luck, Fox, our hopes are ridin' on your back.”

Fox snorted softly, a
smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“So no
pressure.”

“Absolutely
not.” Enigma turned and bowed slightly to Krystal. “I'm
sorry, both for not speaking with you directly, as I would've liked
to talk to the last survivor of our allies, but time did not
allow...and secondly for my race's incompetency.”

Before Krystal, who
was slightly puzzled by his final few words, could say anything in
reply, Enigma had nodded his head to the both of them, turned, and
walked over to the craft, climbing up the ramp and disappearing into
the hull of the ship. The ramp lifted up into the ship and shut, the
jump thrusters ignited, the ship raised off the deck, hovered, turned
and nosed to the huge, seemingly uncovered port into the endless
black beyond. As the ship passed beyond the opening, a shimmering
blue wave seemed to engulf the ship. Then, it closed behind the
ship. Fox shook his head slowly. Energy shielding, it seemed.
Krystal was silent for a few moments, then she turned to Fox.

“What did he
mean, sorry for his race's incompetence?”

Fox chuckled softly.
“We'll have a lot of time during the flight, I'll explain it
all then.”

General Pepper stood
studying a large holographic force-deployment screen in his briefing
room with a number of his most senior and trusted officers. For the
past month and a half, a number of attacks had taken place against
merchants, outposts, and patrols. Now, General Pepper and his
officers were going over confrontation possibilities with a force
reportedly several times greater than theirs. He looked over as an
aide poked his snout into the room. “Sir. We've established
contact with the scout ships sent to investigate the strange fleet.
They've just been debriefed, and the debriefing officers say it's
urgent you speak with them immediately.”

“Are we in
danger of attack from that fleet, and was it a fleet?” Pepper
asked crisply, his many-aged voice as strong as it had ever been.

“No, sir, and
yes, sir. We're in danger of being attacked by THAT fleet's
enemies...who outnumber the fleet our scouts discovered by a
hundredfold or more.”

General Pepper was
silent for all of a heartbeat.

“And...how many
ships does the fleet we found have?”

“A little over
250 or so starships, sir, but the number is unconfirmed. As for the
fleet that is supposedly the actual threat to us...well, apparently
they number well over one thousand starships.”

General Pepper's
entire body went still as a statue. The recovering Cornerian fleet
had only six hundred starships with which to defend itself, many of
which were in the frigate-range of tonnage. The heavier destroyer
and cruiser tonnages were few and far in-between, as many had been
destroyed during the Aparoid War. And they had exactly three
carriers for the entire fleet. One carrier carried a full complement
of exactly one hundred-fifty starfighters, each cruiser carried an
additional ten interceptors, destroyers carried five, and frigates
carried two. Corvettes, which were like large starfighters, carried
none. They had approximately fifteen-hundred starfighters and six
hundred starships.

General Pepper took a
moment to take a slow breath, closing his eyes a moment.

“Very
well...I'll debrief them myself as soon as I'm finished.”
Turning, he nodded at two of his officers, one a huskie, the other a
Doberman. “Max, Perry, you'll join me.” “Yes,
sir.” “Yes, sir.” Pepper turned back to the aide.

“Dismissed.”

The aide
straightened, saluted, turning on his heel and marched out of the
room, the door hissing shut behind him.

Krystal and Fox
dropped out of hyperspace nearly simultaneously. Ahead of them the
Great Fox II, the replacement to the original, remained as it had
when they had left it. The new version had three gun batteries, all
controlled by Rob. One fired forwards only and had four cannons
instead of the original two. The other two were mounted on the
ventral and dorsal parts of the ship...or the lower and upper
portions of the ship. The original had had five stabilizing fins;
four on the sides in an X shape, and the dorsal fin. The new version
had seven stabilizing fins, making the ship far more maneuverable
both in space and in orbit. The fins, like before, were forward
swept, but at a slightly higher degree, again also helping the ship's
maneuverability rating. The original three engines now numbered
five, three primary drive thrusters, and two secondary driver
thrusters located over and under the middle primary thruster nozzle,
completely balancing the ship's drive and thrust to a perfect degree
and angle.

Overall, it'd been a
four and a half billion well-spent.

Fox's radio crackled,
and Falco's voice came in over the comm system.

“Where the hell
you been, Foxy? Rob's sitting here telling me you up and left
without us on some secret little mission! What's wrong, feelin' like
you don't deserve us anymore?” came Falco's voice, mixed with
mild indignation and amusement. Fox rolled his eyes, chuckling.
“Good to hear from you too, Falco.” “What're you
talkin' about? You were only gone a day. Hurry up and get your
ships docked, so I can beat the crap out of you for not tellin' me
where you were.” “Yeah, good luck with that, Falco.
Hey, me and Krystal found something out.” “Obviously.
Isn't that what you left to do in the first place?” “Played
back the communique, hm?” “You know I can't help
snooping.” Fox chuckled. That was certainly true... “In
any event, yeah, tell Rob to get the ship ready to move out.”
“Alright. Where to?” “Corneria. And send General
Pepper a message telling him to expect us. Tell him it's about the
fleet.” Falco was silent a moment, probably typing it into the
communications computer. “Alright, done. You gonna tell me
what this is all about, though?” “It's a story. Wait
'til we're aboard.” An explosive, over-theatrical sigh.
“Alright. You two hurry your foxy butts up.” “Out.”
Krystal laughed softly over the comm as Falco clicked off.
“Impatient as ever.” Fox nodded in agreement.

“He'll be
doubly so when he hears what we have to tell him.”

“So you mean to
tell me...we may have another fight getting ready to break out?”
Falco was sitting in his seat on the bridge, eyes at their 'calm and
cool' half-open position, as ever, arms folded over his chest, one
leg crossed over the other. Even by posture, he gave off an aura of
cockiness. Fox was leaning against the bulkhead nearby, and Krystal
was seated close by.

Fox shrugged.
“Something like that. It's not something that is GUARENTEED to
happen...but how do I know? If Corneria denies them their request,
what's going to happen? Are these humans going to rush in, full
charge, and attack Corneria and force them to give them a planet to
stay on or are they going to just turn around and leave for some
place else? And IF they're granted permission to stay on Titania,
there's the problem of the fleet of humans that THESE humans are
fighting coming around and attacking either us or them. Or both.”

“If that second
scenario is the case, it'd be better to have allies on our side...”

“Yeah. And the
guy did say that these other humans are wiping out everything in
their path.”

Falco shrugged. “I
ain't seein' a reason to deny them a place to stay, if that's the
case.”

Fox rubbed a hand
over his forehead wearily.

“I do. What if
that was just a hoax? How do we know they were telling the truth? I
mean, sure, they didn't mistreat us, but maybe they're trying to
trick us into something. One group of humans trying to kill the
other? The technology they have is superior to anything Corneria
currently has, which dictates they've been a sentient, civilized race
far longer than we Cornerians have, yet Corneria is fully united.
Apparently, these humans are not. It makes no sense...”

Krystal spoke up at
this point. “Honestly, I don't think they were lying to you
when they told you this, Fox. From what I can remember of the humans
that used to trade with us, they seemed to be a very straightforward
and honest race, even if their motives and intentions were somewhat
difficult to understand.”

Fox and Falco looked
at each other. Falco shrugged. “She's got more experience
with them than either me or you do, Foxy. Might as well go with the
voice of reason and experience rather than the voice of doubt...”

Fox chuckled. “Never
knew you had a wise side to you, Falco. Wise-ASS, maybe,” he
said, grinning as he looked at Krystal, then nodded.

Peppy, an aging hare
who had many years of experience in space flight, navigation, and
warfare, had been calmly listening off to the side, and now he spoke
up, his voice filled with the decades of age, but strong as it had
always been nevertheless. “I think we should go to Corneria,
contact General Pepper directly. By now, the scouts you spoke of who
had been captured and released will have made their reports. If
their story is the same as yours, as it should be if these humans
were telling the truth about everything, and we share our opinion on
what these humans should be allowed to do, we can potentially avoid
any hostile confrontation.”

Fox nodded.
“So...what did we just decide here?”

Falco grinned. “Let
'em stay! I for one want to see some these ships of theirs,
anyways.”

Slippy wandered in at
that moment. A stout frog with green skin and who constantly was
unable to be determined as a boy or girl by voice alone, he was the
team's mechanical mastermind, as well as perhaps the most skilled
engineer in the Lylat System.

“Hey, everyone,
what'd I miss?” he chirped, brushing his coveralls clean of
some dust. Everyone looked at each other, then laughed. Fox turned
back to him.

“Here, I'll
explain it for ya. Rob, get the ship underway, we're headin' to
Corneria.”

Rob nodded his
robotic head, typing in coordinates and commands into the ship's main
control computer. “Affirmative. Corneria coordinates locked
in and set, engines now at 100%. We are under way.”

“Good. Ok,
Slippy, it's something like this...”

General Pepper looked up from his
command station. Him and his staff of advisors were aboard the CSS
United Justice, Pepper's
personal flagship. It had a crew of two-hundred sixteen and fourteen
forward-volleying laser cannons that were powerful enough to punch
well into many meters of the mightiest armor known to Cornerian
scientists and into the reactor core of an enemy ship. Four Avian-5
missile launchers gave the flagship defense against space torpedoes
and starfighters. The most sophisticated and advanced computerized
systems available to the Cornerian military, coupled with eight
Vulpus-Nautilus engines, made the ship extremely responsive, agile,
and fast. Like most other Cornerian ships, it was heavily armored
over the frontal surfaces and shaped slightly like a jagged-edged
cone, leaving the rear of the ship the most exposed. However, due to
the combat styles used universally, it was thought to be highly
unlikely that being flanked or spiked from the back would be a
scenario to be worried about.

“Gate
transmission in sector thirty-four completing,” said one of the
lieutenants in charge of the ship's navigational and command systems.
Pepper stared out of the view port of the ship's bridge. Like all
Cornerian ships, its bridge was located in its 'nose,' with an
armored view port providing an excellent view of the space in front
of the ship. From beyond the armored view ports, the General could
see a perfect circle of green warp energy shimmering. From within
its emerald-green depths, the nose of a formidable ship poked out.
The rest of the ship followed, until the Great Fox II was entirely in
view. The green field behind it narrowed and disappeared.

“Pepper,
you there?” came a recognizable voice. Pepper's lips twitched
upwards in a tired, always tired, smile.

“Good
to hear from you Peppy,” Pepper replied.

“Likewise.
You mind if we come aboard? We have some things we need to talk to
you about...”

Pepper
looked over at his flight control officer and nodded. The officer
saluted and turned to his computer station.

“The
door's always open, make yourselves at home,” Pepper replied
with a raspy chuckle.

Peppy
leaned back in his seat, looking over at Fox, eyebrows raised
inquisitively. “Don't suppose you'll be wanting me to join,”
he said. Fox grinned.

“Of
course I do. Pepper listens to you the best.”

“Oh
all right, all right...if not to be one old fogy talking to another,”
he muttered, standing up slowly with a soft groan. The years were
becoming increasingly hostile to him and his back. “Maybe we
can sit in rocking chairs and discuss the weather,” he joked
further, smiling as he followed after Fox and Krystal, Krystal
giggling a bit.

“Oh
don't be so hard on yourself, Peppy. You've still got quite a few
years left in you.”

“Yeah,
right. ...I'd like to know exactly where they are so I can
surgically remove them...”

Falco
laughed and shook his head, clicking his beak absently as he stared
out the view port. The planet Corneria dominated much of the view.
Silhouetted against its endless blue-and-green expanse were hundreds
of shimmery chrome-colored ships in a constant orbital patrol of the
planet. Four large artificial satellites also slowly slid across the
view in perfect geosynchronous orbit over the planet; space docks
with twin anti-ship laser cannons and three one kilometer-wide decks
that could service four ships all at once. These also served as
orbital defense platforms against large bombardment craft, but were
vulnerable to boarding craft. Therefore, each station had its own
complement of 30 medium starfighters to defend against boarding
parties. The Cornerian Military Administration had, immediately
after the Aparoid War, decided that to rely solely on fleets of
starships as a planetary defense was just not working. Three wars
had proven that without fortified fixed positions backing it up, a
fleet was just cannon fodder for an aggressor that attacked en mass.
This was largely due to the fact that a fleet fighting in the gravity
well of the planet it was defending was largely like fighting with
your back to the wall. The gravity field prevented any real
maneuvering for the larger ships, and prevented them from
accelerating at any effective speed.

The
view was beautiful, but for some reason, Falco couldn't help but get
this unusual feeling that it was all about to come apart. Again. He
watched as the shuttle departed from the launch bay of the Great Fox
II and swooped off towards the United Justice.
Slippy waddled up next to him, smiling.

“I
hope these humans will be willing to let me do a little reverse
engineering on some of their stuff,” he croaked happily. Falco
just laughed.

“General, it's
good to see you again!” Peppy exclaimed...or rather, did
something that resembled an exclamation...as close as he could get in
his old age. He hugged his old friend, then shook him a bit. “You
should've resigned like I told you to, so that you wouldn't look so
much older than me,” he said, grinning. Pepper chuckled and
raised a brow at his friend of many years. “Please, Peppy,
you're the one with the snow on the peak,” he replied, to
Peppy's mirth, turning to shake Fox's hand before they exchange
salutes.

“Well, General,
it looks like you're definitely recovered.”

“Hmph, it'll
take more'n a few robotic bugs to take me out of commission. But,
I'm afraid that idle banter must wait...we have much more pressing
things to talk about...” he said in his reedy voice, turning
and seating himself in his chair at the head of the massive Oval
Desk, the desk used by the commanding officers of all the ships
during pre-battle brain sessions, gesturing that they should all sit
down as well. Krystal, Peppy, and Fox all sat near the head of the
table, just as about fifty other fleet commanders all marched in and
seated themselves as if they'd done this many times before, which
most of them truly had. The lights darkened, and a hologram
appeared, hovering over the table. It took the shape of a globe, and
then formed into radar screen. Pepper coughed, then stood.

“Gentlemen and
ladies, you've all been told of the recent events. But I figure we
ought to go over it one more time, just so we're all clear on what is
going on. Over the course of the past six weeks, there have been
reports of various attacks all across the Lylat system against
civilian and military vessels and outposts. We thought at first it
was the remnants of Andross's fleet, waging a guerrilla battle to try
and whittle us down while we try and recover after the Aparoid
assault. But it turns out this not the case.”

A few whispers were
heard after this last statement, but they silenced almost immediately
as Pepper continued.

“Our elite
scout team was sent to where a large fleet of warships was reportedly
massing. We believed it was the rebel fleet, preparing for a major
offensive. This was not the case. What the scout ships found
moments before being disabled and captured was this.” He
pressed a button on a remote control, and on the holographic radar
display appeared hundreds of various sizes of blips and dots. The
holographic display then fuzzed out and turned to a camera recording
of many hundreds of ships of different shapes and sizes. In the
middle of the view, a colossal ship that resembled a thick black
javelin, complete with a tapered front end that seemed to end in a
point. All across it were various compartments, turrets, and other
protrusions that all seemed to serve some kind of purpose. Fox
recognized it instantly. The Final Enigma. After
a few more moments, in which all the officers were stunned into
silence at the size of the ship and the various starships that
surrounded it, a bar graph and a line graph appeared on the screen
side-by-side, showing different material makeups of the ships.

“Spectroscopic
analysis shows a heavy presence of materials on these ships that
we've never even discovered, let alone utilized. It can assumed that
a number of these materials are used in energy uses, both for
offensive and defensive purposes, and that others are used as armor
alloys.”

Pepper
sighed, and clicked the remote again, and the display changed back to
the radar display.

“This
is what we believe we're up against.”

The
radar display changed. Over four times the radar blips previously
there covered the screen, looking almost like one giant green blob on
the holographic radar screen. The room was stunned into silence.
For three seconds, no one spoke, and then finally someone spoke a
single word.

“Ffffuck...”

General
Pepper nodded.

“That...was
my thought as well.”

Fox
looked at Krystal and Peppy, who both nodded encouragingly. Fox
turned and leaned forwards on the table.

“There
is something I feel I ought to mention at this point, if I may,
General.”

General
Pepper looked up, then nodded.

“Of
course, Fox, you too were held by the humans, your opinions and
knowledge are invaluable here.”

“Alright...while
Krystal and I were being held aboard one of their ships, I met with
the man whom I believe is the...well, I dunno what their term for it
would be, but I believe he was their leader.”

Suddenly, Fox had the
undivided attention of everyone in the room. He could feel fifty
pairs of eyes on him. He cleared his throat and continued.

“I don't
understand quite what his intentions are...not wholly, anyways. But
he wanted to offer not peace, but something of an alliance.”

Pepper's thick
eyebrows rose.

“An alliance?”

“Yes. In
exchange for permission to inhabit Titania, they wish to propose an
alliance.”

There was no
physically possible way for Pepper's eyebrows to raise higher after
this statement was made. He paused and leaned back.

“Inhabit?”
was all he could ask.

“Their home
world was destroyed. Here, I'll start from the beginning, from what
their leader told me...”

And for the next
thirty minutes he told them everything he had been told. The early
contact in the Lylat system with the humans, their part and efforts
during the Lylat Wars when they tried to hold off Andross's forces
from Cerinia, how there had been a faction of humanity that had
literally attempted to destroy its entire race, and how it nearly
succeeded, with a superweapon that obliterated a sun, and how the
'good' humans, the ones that wanted to settle so as to have a new
planet to call home, were the ones that were the lesser numbered, the
the 'evil' humans, the ones that had been attacking anything and
everything that came into their view, were the ones that outnumbered
them all by such a great amount.

When he was finally
done, he simply leaned back, watching everyone in the room digesting
this information. One of the officers, a vice admiral, spoke first.

“I say we just
accept the offer. We've no room to have more enemies. Especially
not if we've got another force of over a thousand starships baying
for blood and charging towards us. Our defenses are just not strong
enough to handle such an assault.”

Another officer, a
captain, spoke up. “Sir, with all due respect, what if this is
a trick? What if they want to set up a base there, and then both of
them are actually not at war and this is all some elaborate hoax, in
which they launch an attack en mass at the same time?”

General Pepper shook
his head. “I don't think they would do that. The larger of
the two fleets could wipe us out as it is, let alone BOTH fleets at
the same time. There'd be no point to them trying to pull a
virus-scheme. But it does just seem odd. A fleet of strange people
that only one of us in this room and probably this planet has ever
encountered in any way drops into our system while this OTHER fleet
comes and starts harassing our merchants and outposts, the smaller
fleet captures our scouts, our mercenary team, tells them all this
and then releases them all. It could be an elaborate hoax after all.
Or it could be genuine.”

The officers all
began to murmur amongst themselves, all debating and exchanging
ideas. Fox and Peppy exchanged glances. This wasn't going very
quickly.

“For what it's
worth,” Peppy said in his quiet but firm voice, catching the
attention of everyone now, “I believe that they're genuine in
what they're saying...they wish for a mutual benefit agreement,
nothing more. Astronomers WERE saying, after all, that recently a
sun had flared out of existence before they had charted it to. Maybe
that was their sun, and now they've been displaced. If your
civilization was lost in space, with nowhere to go and an entire
fleet of your own race hunting you to try and kill every last one of
you, and you found a civilization that could potentially be of
assistance, wouldn't you want their help?”

Pepper considered
this for a brief moment. “So...we have the upper hand in the
diplomatic side of things but militarily we're at their mercy.”

Peppy paused. “If
you wish to look at it that way, General,” he said, refraining
from using his name in this environment. If Pepper appreciated this,
he didn't let it show, as was expected. Instead he sighed and leaned
his head back.

“Well...I
guess-”

He was interrupted as
a young lieutenant burst into the room.

“General
Pepper, sir, we're under attack!”

In orbit, Falco had
yet to move from his place on the bridge. It had been two hours
since Fox, Krystal, and Peppy had left for the surface of Corneria,
but he had no desire to wander around. For some reason, he just felt
on edge. Just as he was finally about to dismiss this uneasiness for
paranoia after hearing what Fox had said about these new...CREATURES,
something in the distance of space beyond the view port caught his
eye. A flash. Just one at first, but it was followed by
another...then another...and then hundreds upon hundreds of bright
white flashes winked into and out of existence within a mere second.
Where the flashes appeared and disappeared, odd brown, red, green,
gray, black, and white ships that had a strangely menacing and alien
appearance floated in their place. And they did not hold their
position either.

At the backs of each
of these ships came a bright silver-white glow, as the ships began to
race forwards. Still more flashes followed. From this range, all
these ships looked like they were nothing more than just small
satellites with engines, but they were getting closer, and their true
size was becoming all too clear, and very rapidly, too. Each ship
was on average a mile long, though they varied from only 500 feet in
length, all the way up to several ships that were at LEAST five miles
in length. Falco stared, almost not believing his eyes. It then
suddenly hit him that this fleet was blazing straight for the
defensive armada...and all over the various surfaces of these new
ships, the tell-tale glow of energy weapons charging illuminated
their surfaces. He clenched his teeth.

“Rob, warn the
Corneri-”

He was cut off, not
by any physical impediment, but by a mental one, as suddenly the
foremost of the starships fired upon the nearest 30 Cornerian
vessels, which included the carrier Fortuna's Fury,
one of only three the Cornerians had left. The flash of energy
projection weapons blinded Falco temporarily, and he threw a hand in
front of his face as the bridge was filled with a bright yellow
flash. When he finally looked out into open space again, the ships
that had been fired upon were gone. Even with the thickest armor
that Cornerian vessels were equipped with, they had been totally
vaporized. All that remained were meter-long pieces of armor,
conduits, and deck plates. Fortuna's Fury,
and 28 other vessels had been completely fried out of existence. The
only surviving ship, the destroyer Battle Maestro,
was disabled, four gaping holes showing open space clean through it.
Fires flickered through its gutted hull, and its engines flickered
once, twice, then went entirely silent. One of the aggressors fired
once more, and finished the Battle Maestro
with a yellow-white laser beam that pierced the ship's nose, melted
away all three meters of super-hardened armor battleplate, punched
into the very core of the ship, pierced its already damaged reactor,
and ignited it, detonating the ship in a hellish blue ball of flames.
Three escape pods that had managed to launch began to accelerate
away, until three needle-thin green-blue laser beams cut them to
shreds, leaving no survivors.

Immediately, the rest of the Cornerian fleet turned to this new
threat, and the remaining two carriers, the Silver Panda and
Black Titan began to scramble all of their fighters. Falco
turned.

“Rob, power up the engines and weapons systems and send a
message to Fox, tell him-”

Rob cut him off with his monotone voice. “Fox already knows,
Krystal, Peppy, and he are all on their way back.”

“Good. Then in that case, get my fighter ready for launch.
Like hell I'm gonna sit up here and watch this slaughter from a
distance,” he said, spinning on his heel and racing out into
the main corridor towards the main hangar bay.

Ship Captain Harris Ericson growled as he stared out the view screen
at his command station. He had just watched 30 of the finest ships
in this system be vaporized by these strange new attackers. One of
them had been captained by an old battle-school buddy of his.
Captain Ericson's ship was of destroyer tonnage, a fact that he had
been proud of. He'd rubbed it into his friend's face a bit too much.
It was the last thing his friend had probably remembered of him
before he'd been snuffed out of existence in shorter time than it
took to spit. His face twisted into a scowl.

“Weapons status!”

“Sir, all weapons are ready to fire, but we should-”

“Select the nearest target and fire!”

“Bu- yes sir.”

He scowled darker. His emotions were getting the best of him, he
knew it, and it was putting him and his crew in danger already, and
this battle had only just begun. Fat lot of good he would do
dead...but he wasn't going to just sit and let these new bastards get
away with this. His scowl was replaced by a smirk of satisfaction as
a bright blue glow filled the view screen, and 12 lances of
blue-white energy projections seared forwards, six from each side of
his vessel, impacting into the side of one of the aggressors. His
smirk grew...then melted in an expression of bewilderment, confusion,
disbelief, and even horror. He'd seen that nothing could stand up to
the main cannons of a Vexer-class Destroyer...but in front of him,
the dozen energy beams were suddenly stopped two meters from the
enemy vessel, dispersing over a gold-colored bubble that surrounded
the enemy vessel. The beams narrowed and faded out of existence over
the energy shield, as the enemy vessel turned, its bow facing his
ship. It was shaped like a six-angled narrow pyramid with two
different-sized rings circling its front-most and middle sections,
held by six tube-like beams each to the main fuselage. It was
roughly a mile and a half in length and at its widest, was a mile
around.

Captain Ericson shook his head clear of his surprise.

“Get us out of here!”

The control station officer nodded and began to maneuver the ship.
But too slowly. Two long cannons that started the back of the enemy
ship and ended a few meters in front of the nose of the ship began to
glow golden-yellow.

“OVERCHARGE THE REACTOR, EMERGENCY THRUS-”

The last thing Captain Ericson saw was the brightest flash of yellow
he had ever seen in his life, a brilliant wave of searing heat
burning him, and then he was snuffed out of existence. A quarter of
a second later, everyone on his ship and his ship itself followed him
into the Great Beyond when the reactors were ignited by the
superheated laser blasts, detonating violently and sending debris
flying miles away in the vacuum of space.

Krystal stared out the side panel of the shuttle at the carnage. The
battle was already well under way, and so far, the Cornerian fleet
was struggling to defend themselves. A line of ten frigates fired
simultaneously upon a pair of the attacking ships. The shields of
one ship flared brightly, before suddenly boiling away. Seven lances
of blue-white energy pierced into the ship, and burning atmosphere
vented into the vacuum. The ship jerked to the side and slightly
downwards, burning. Three more frigates and a destroyer swooped in
and fired all at once. 24 bolts of energy cut through the ship, and
secondary explosions chained throughout its hull, before it detonated
in the middle of its odd rounded-diamond shape, cutting the ship in
half, the two halves drifting through space, dead. Its sister,
however, was still alive and unharmed, though its shields burned an
agitated yellow from the overcharge. They began to cool, until two
of the frigates fired upon it again. The bolts were dispersed, but
the shield popped and faded out of existence. The ship suddenly
leaped forwards, and scores of blue-green spots of energy along its
hull sparkled for a split second before they all flashed into long
spears of light of the same color repeatedly, stabbing both of the
frigates hundreds of times within three seconds. The two frigates
burned and drifted out of control, dead in space, their life support,
energy, propulsion, and energy systems destroyed.

The ship spun rapidly to face the Cornerian destroyer as its cannons
charged to fire again. The frigates alongside it did the same. The
ship fired its engines and rocketed towards the trio of ships. Its
four main cannons moved slightly to target the frigates, two for each
of them, before the cannons flashed, gutting both of the frigates
from stem to stern, flash-frying the crew and destroying the ships'
systems and power supplies. The destroyer fired a volley of vengeful
fire upon the vulnerable ship, and at the same time, the ten-frigate
line fired as well. Almost 100 bolts of energy impacted, ripping
through the ship and effectively destroying it. However, the burning
hulk of the ship continued forwards at full velocity, its momentum
not killed nor dulled by the energy impacts. The slow and heavy
destroyer tried to turn and get out of the way, but the enemy ship
took its final kill in its death throes, impacting the comparatively
smaller Cornerian ship and crushing it like a soda can. The two
ships' superstructures, locked a fiery embrace of death, drifted
through space, both devoid of life.

Krystal turned and sat, clutching her head in her hands. Jabs of
pain pounded through her skull as she literally felt hundreds of
people dying all at once through her telekinesis. Fox sat next to
her, draping an arm around her shoulders comfortingly, putting a hand
on her head. He said nothing, just let her know he was there.

“How much longer until we dock
with the Great Fox II?” he asked the pilot. The pilot held up
one finger, indicating only one minute. Fox nodded, licking his
lips. He felt too vulnerable in this shuttle. He preferred to be in
his Arwing, where he could actually have a fighting chance. However,
he had a strange feeling that even he wasn't going to have much of a
chance in this one.

Ok, so it's
been...shit, HOW long since I made an update? o_O Sorry, everyone.
I was just waiting for that little burst of inspiration to finish
this chapter and it finally hit me in the form of Sonata Arctica.
So, we've got a big ass battle starting up. It won't be the last,
that's for sure. Less than 600 Cornerian ships versus 1500 of these
strange new aggressors who seem to have far more effective offensive
and defensive capabilities? Sticky situation, neh? But, 'ey,
they've got Starfox. :P

Next chapter will be
sooner than this one was. I just needed to break the stalemate,
that's all. Thank you for reading, leave your thoughts so I can feel
inspired to keep writing! Feed your author, yo!
- 7
- 8
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Starfox: A Forgotten People