Star Crossed [an old and terrible Star Fox fanfic]

C10 - Won't Know Until You Begin

The Cornerian authorities tried to make the day as soon as possible... the for what would certainly be the ultimate sendoff, the day that would truly christen the beginning of the Lylat Wars. It was both the day that the new defense satellite to guard Corneria would be put into place, and the day that the Great Fox would fly again.

The Great Fox was a mighty ship, built nearly forty years ago. Its hull was scarred and dulled, and the previously bright logo had certainly faded a little, but Fox McCloud insisted on one thing: The Great Fox would be kept in top shape for standby and support during outer-space and transatmospheric warfare, but look exactly how it did on its first flight. With Peppy being the only one on the team who remembered this, he and Slippy were put in charge of overseeing the renovations. Only a few software updates, polishes, and the installing of a new shield were priority, but... after those were done, Slippy went a little crazy. "Crazy" meaning to the point where Bill had to write a restrained cease and desist letter, stating how these new additions were cutting too far into the defense budget.

Besides... The Arwings needed sprucing up.

• • ● • •

Falco woke up in his new room, the one he'd been transferred to a week before this mission. He'd undergone rigorous training, exactly for a bird of his youth and confidence. His arms were sore, but strong. He knew this would be quite the fight. Miyu, who had a bed of her own, but snuck this night's sleep with her bird man, rustled and followed along in waking up. "Mornin', sugar," she casually said.

Falco turned away, and sighed. "Mornin', sweetheart."

Peppy chuckled. "Tryin' my accent on, you two? Reminds me of an old girlfriend I had," he sighed.

"You had a girlfriend?" Miyu cackled at the thought.

"Oh, mighty long time ago. Fay... quite the poodle," Peppy sighed. "She just disappeared one day, I swear."

"Miyu, don't let him bore you with THAT story," Falco rolled his eyes. "Especially today."

Those last two words brought on the dire mission. Then, the three members looked around.

"Where's Slippy?" Falco asked, turning his head.

"Five more minutes," the frog groggily ribbited, then lurched up. "Wait, no, never mind, it's the big day!"

"But— where's Fox?" Peppy now inquired, seeing the vulpine's empty bed.

A great search was soon conducted afterwards. Falco looked around in the dorm of sorts, while Miyu checked the bathrooms: Unoccupied. Peppy went outside.

It was a beautiful Cornerian sunrise, outside of the city. The flatlands made the sun especially more visible on the military liftoff base, where many of these launch pads lied ready. The ghostly figure of the new defense satellite hung pale in the far atmosphere, like a moon's shadow on a day's sky. It was a beautiful sight, and Peppy gasped with the realization that he hadn't been expecting to see a sight like this in a while... yet here he was, back again. It made him nostalgic... yet frightened beyond belief, as well. This kind of fright for your life, the kind before a mission like this, though, was just part of the job.

Slippy ran past Peppy, and into the resting Great Fox, containing within it all five of the fighter-wings. The answer as to where Fox lies was soon discovered. "Guys!" Slippy called putting. "Fox slept in his Arwing...!"

Indeed, Fox had taken this opportunity last night to enter the seat his father once held. It was much more than comfortable. It was symbolic. Most of all, though, it was nostalgic beyond belief. There was a passenger seat in the back of the small quarters, where the smaller and more comfortable McCloud would often sit and nap after gobbling down a half-pint of mint chocolate-chip ice cream. Now that he was an adult... it felt much less roomy. He had to turn the two seats together to sleep on them.

He indulged in terrible memory, swearing he could still hear his dad's voice talk to him.

"Fox..." James softly spoke. "Wake up."

"Ah, we're home?" Fox fluttered his eyes open.

"No," James replied, except— with more eye-opening— it was actually Falco, shaking his best friend's shoulder. "We gotta go soon. Get to the captain's quarters!"
Fox leapt up, and shook himself off, running to the main control room. He lowered his face, hiding his embarrassment.

This was what he fought for, though. It was finally the time in which he could finally accomplish his one true goal. He fought everyone who took that away, and wouldn't stop until he either died or knew they were dead.

Dead... just like James McCloud. Fox took the control stick, as the rest of his team flooded the consoles behind him. "This is Star Fox," he said in front of the camera set up to broadcast to the people, "reporting for duty."

Daytime fireworks erupted from the skyline to the west, and from the moonlike structure in the sky. The fox captain ignored all this fanfare, and finally set out, opening the launch program.

"Ignition initiated."

Falco reached down to hold Miyu's hand, tightly. Peppy laid back, trying to look on the bright side. Slippy didn't even know there was a dark side, and jumped for glee.

Then, in a flash, the ship was hurtling skyward, the tip of it glowing with the air's friction. Miyu yelped, her ears popping (but, of course, undamaged) as they broke the sound barrier.

"Good luck, Star Fox," Bill said from the newly-inaugurated defense station.

"Good luck," Pepper repeated, in a similar transmission.

"We won't let you down," Fox nodded as he promised, to both the military heads, as well as himself.

• • ● • •

Wolf climbed into his red-winged ship, strikingly similar to the Cornerian Arwing. Something Pigma worked on, based on plans for an updated Arwing so long ago... the Wolfen, mechanically and practically superior to the Star Fox team's ships. Their takeoff would be much more secret, and without a detectable mothership. Wolf, Andrew, Pigma, and Leon made their way down to the launching pad on the Venomian artificial moon base, Bolse.

"Why do we literally rip off everything Star Fox does?" Leon asked, seeming annoyed.

"They're not rip-offs. They're improved designs," Pigma explained shortly, his brows furrowing.

"We're gonna get sued or something," Leon hissed.

"We're literally the most wanted criminals in the system, and you're worried about patent infringement?" Pigma squoinked.

"Shut up, all of you," Wolf grunted. It was his team, but it was still made of a bunch of miscreants. "Just... be quieter when we're on this mission."

The mission... to take Star Fox down. Wolf tried to think of how he could do it without hurting Fox. Maybe he could swoop in once the vulpine pilot ejected from the exploding ship, and capture him alive? Unlikely. Maybe he could instruct his teammates to spare McCloud, for he's nothing without the rest of his team? Treasonous, potentially. Pigma would hate that. Wolf shook a little, and sighed.

He knew he had to do it. This was who he was. He was the man who would kill Fox McCloud, and he would live as a hero to the surrendering Cornerians. How he pictured that glorious awakening of the people, to their better, newer, more caring Emperor.

"Stay in formation, and follow command. For our Emperor," Wolf barked out, as he pressed the ignition button in his Wolfen.

"For the Emperor Andross," the other three replied, as they each lifted off in their respective Wolfens.

Wolf, after a while of gravity-resisting and atmosphere-exiting, looked behind him. Venom was a large ball of dark green, with Bolse being a significant dot on the shape. He smiled, happy to behold his new home. A much more squalid and physically woeful one...  but home to his revenge. Corneria's age of reckoning will come soon, he knew, as he sped forth, at four times the speed of the Great Fox.