* In the closing cut scene, when Slippy yells that the Star Fox team is back, you can see a part of Krystal's staff on Fox's back. I just don't know if that was a goof in the animation or not, I just thought that it was kind of strange.

Chapter 4 – Red Skies at Dawn

“Red sky at morning, sailor take warning;” - Ancient rhyme

It was afternoon on Corneria, when the sun was at its highest point in the sky and the shadows where at their shortest, for now onward the sun would begin its decent into night and the shadows would grow until everything was completely engulf in the blackness of night. It was a beautiful blue day today and Fox knew it.

He looked out of the window of his temporality office on a Cornerian military base and wanted to get out there and enjoy the fresh air for a while. It was one of the few simple things that he enjoyed in life and it also was free. While he did enjoy flying his Arwing in space, he also enjoy walking on solid ground and feeling the wind hit his fur, something that could only happen on planets that had atmospheres. No, he wasn't talking about, fans that would blow hot air around, no he was talking about wind, a simple gust of wind, that could blow one down or throw dust at one that would end up in one's eyes and caused them to blink quickly and tear up. That was the type of wind that he wanted. It was the something that no ship yet could copy despite their technology, they couldn't copy something that everybody enjoyed once in their lifetime.

While, yes, he could do that on the base, but there was to much noise from the fighters that were either taking off or landing that wouldn't allow him to enjoy it. So he could go off base into the tiny town that was a couple of minutes down the road from here and do something there. But, there was no doubt that he would find a spot where there was no noise, there was nobody to bugged him in that small town. But, while here at the base, the people here would leave him alone, the citizens in the town wouldn't, they would bug him all the time asking him to do various different stuff, like attend fundraisers for charities that he didn't mind, there were still some people that didn't seem to fit in or just had plain stupid luck with life, even with all of their tech, there were still some people that seem to fall through the cracks. There were other times when people asked for some really bizarre things, that made him do a double take, like somebody asking for pieces of his fur. When that happen, he was like what the hell when he heard that request and turned it down. So he was forced to stay inside watching everybody enjoying life.

Fox heard a noise and the mercenary's skills and his sensitive ears, being homed after years of fighting, kicked in, he look up. He looked up and saw that it was Krystal that had caused the noise.

“Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you,” she said with her accented voice.

It may have been two years that the two of them had meet face to face on top of the Krazoa palace back on Sauria, but her beauty never seek to amaze him. He also thought that he would get used to her reading his mind like that, but it was still a sock to his system to have somebody come into a room where one was all by themselves, having no clue what they were doing there and why, suddenly make a random comment.

“W-WHAT?!” He stammered, socked that she said that. In that moment she could see the boyish nature that he had despite being twenty-nine years old and she assumed it was because he had lost mother and his father at such a young age.

“Hey, Krystal, stop doing that,” he said, quickly regaining his composure and replacing that boyish look on his face to the stoic face of a leader. That was something that she had notice, gone was the childish voice that would be hard to think that come from somebody that was at that time 27 years old to a more mature sounding voice that seem to fit his age. She wasn't the only one that had notice that as well, the rest of the team notice that as well and while he was always a professional when he was flying, he had slacked off on other duties as well. But that seemed to change, he seem to take a much more active role in his team and the daily grind of maintenance of the various difference type of motor vehicles that they had, in fact he had learn how to perform the routine maintenance of the Arwings, do simple quick fixes.

He also started to teach Krystal these things as well, to help her out, because she might find herself separated from the rest of the team for a period of time she would be able to know what to do just in case a problem like his might come across. Just like how he had taught Krystal how to fly an Arwing, he kept all of the terms simple, for almost everything, but once in a while he would have to use a correct term, because he knew no other term to use. But while learning how to fly an Arwing was something that she had picked up real fast, learning how to maintain it was another story entirely. And she didn't know why she couldn't picked it up like she did with flying the craft. It surely wasn't the lack of wanting on her part, she really did want to know about this stuff and put less pressure on Slippy.

“Can't help it,” she said. “so what's on your mind.”

Fox just closed his eyes at that and just shook his head at this. She must being joking. “Is that a lame attempt at a joke? You already know what's on my mind.”

Krystal was token by his snappiest, it was rare for Fox to snap at stuff, she had only seen him do it twice, first when she took her staff away from him that had mysteriously disappeared from her and found its way back to Fox*, after he had used it to save her from falling down the hole at the palace. The second time was when Falco was about to tell Fox that his father was dead after the Aparoid Queen tried to used his image and voice to convince Fox to stop the fight.

It was a little unnerving seeing him like this and so she scanned the surface of his thoughts to fine about what was bugging him. It didn't take long for her to fine out what it was, it was the anniversary of his father's assumed death and how it was fast approaching. Krystal know how that felt and thought that her insight into this would help him out.

“I'm...” she started, but she was cutoff by Fox pointing a finger at her.

“Don't even say it, I will dell with this on my own on my own time in my own way,” he said and after that he stormed off.

Who is the telepath now? She asked to herself.

Even with that she tried to follow Fox to see where he went.

Falco was walking down the halls looking for Fox, he was boarded and wanted to do something to pass the time rather then pacing the halls like a caged horse. He was going to tell Fox that he was going to go off base to have a good time at the local town and while he could do that, unlike Fox, that would get mobbed by woman. He was happy about that, let the little fur ball get it all, he was happy to stay out of the limelight at this moment.

He was so focus on telling Fox what he had planned on doing that he didn't even paid attention and of course he didn't see that Fox was heading in the opposite side of the hallway. The two of them hit each other and most of the time it wouldn't matter, but this wasn't a normal time for the two of them, because both of them were angry at something. Anything could tick them off.

“Hey, fur ball, watch it!” Scoffed Falco.

Fox looked at him. “Stuff it!” Then he started to walked off in the same direction that he was heading in.

“Hey, Fox, I'm going out for a while,” said Falco.

Fox just put his arms up in the air. “Whatever.”

That puzzled Falco, Fox had always fought with him to stay no matter what and now he was letting him do it, that wasn't normal for him. It worry him a bit, but not enough for him to take advantage of how Fox was acting right now. “And I won't be back to late.”

“WHATEVER! Do what you want, you do anyway,” said Fox.

A sly smile went across Falco's face, Fox had just given in a loaded gun to do whatever he wanted and considering his past, that wasn't a good thing to do.

He was about to head off to have some fun and then he spotted Krystal come around the condor.

Oh boy thought Falco. Seeing Krystal and knowing that she was a telepath, it didn't take a genius to figure out what had just ticked Fox off. She had a real knack of doing that to him and then he thought that this might be the pay back for the joke that he had played on Fox early today. He wasn't going to fall for that one.

“No, it's not for the joke that you play on Fox,” said Krystal. “It is about him.”

The feeling of joy that he had about Fox letting him do anything that he wanted changed from a little worry about him. As much as the two of them got under each other skins, the two of them were still friends and the two of then wouldn't have it any other way.

“What's the date?” He asked.

“The eight,” answered Krystal.

Falco nodded his head at that, he knew what was going on with Fox.

“Have you hear about the Lylat Wars?” Asked Falco.

Krystal did hear about that war in passing. “Barely, I didn't have the time to check this history of this system,” answered Krystal.

“You should of token the time, and if you did, you might have a better understanding of Fox. But, anyhow, I'll tell you what I know about it,” said Falco.

And so Falco told her, or to the best of his knowledge, the history of the war, there were a few things about the war that he didn't understand or had no clue about. Then he told her the key event that had lead Fox to take command of this group and their involvement with the war, Fox's father's death or presumed death.

“He never told me that,” said Krystal. “When I ask about his parents, he told me that his mother die in a car bomb and that his father was shot down over Venom, but he never really got into the details about it.”

“That's strange, considering that you are a telepath, I would think you would be able to pick that all up,” mocked Falco.

“I would say the same as well, because when I try to more details about it, it seems he throws up a metal wall up to block me,” said Krystal.

That caught Falco's attention. “But, that is beside the point, don't tell Fox that I told you this, he trusts me, and I hate to admit it, I trust him as well.”

After that Falco left Krystal alone to think about what he just told her about their leader, that he is for more complex person that she first thought.

Fox closed the door behind him and lock it, he didn't want anybody to know that he was here.

The screen turned on and he could that his life long friend, father figure, and mentor came on the screen. It made Fox smile at the sight of a familiar face.

“Fox what up?” Asked Peppy in his southern style draw voice.

“I just wanted to talk to you,” started Fox. “Umh...” He started to itch the back of his neck.

Seeing this, Peppy knew in a second what this meant, that he was dealing with something that he was uncomfortable with. “Fox,” he started with. “Is there something bothering you.”

Realizing what he did, he quickly stop doing it. “No,” he lied.

“Then why did you just call me?” Asked Peppy.

“I just wanted to know the status of the new Great Fox,” he answered, trying to use business to cover his tracks. Hopping that it would be good enough to convince Peppy that this was the reason behind the call, but deep inside he knew that he would be able to see right through it.

Peppy cocked his head at this and Fox knew that his ruse had fail. Now, he knew that it was time for him to tell the real reason behind his call.

“Fox you know better,” he said as if he was scorning him.

Fox gulped at this. “I was calling you because the anniversary of my father's death and it is the first time since his death that I will be on Corneria for it.”

Peppy faced drop at the news of this and in his daily routine that he had almost forgot about it. He could also see that despite the face that so many years had passed since that day, it still hurt Fox and that he still hasn't gotten over it. Peppy knew the feeling all two well with the sudden lost of a loved one, in the name of his wife. While he had compassion for Fox, he couldn't image the pain that he had felt loosing somebody so close, like that. Because of that, Peppy didn't know what to say to this, it had hit him like a ton of bricks.

“I wanted to call you about it and it has been gnawing at me all this week,” said Fox.

For rarely did this and when he did it, it was small, almost like a wisp of air that if one wasn't paying attention to would miss it. But now he was doing it and showing doing it, he was showing that he was growing up, his father would be proud of him right now.

“You have to deal with this sooner or later, if you don't it going to continue to gnaw at you and affect your job. I know that you take a great deal of pride of your flying skills,” said Peppy.

Fox did a little smile on his face. He knew that he was right about that, it was something that he had to do. “Thank you old friend.”

“When you are ready to do this tell me about and I will be there for you, Fox. Peppy out,” said Peppy.

That made Fox feel better, at least he got that off of his chest and now he just realized that he just acted like a jerk to two members of his team, it was time for him to say that he was sorry to them about the way that he acted.

It was pass two o'clock AM an Nick Viper was bombed, he had told one two many stories about his fight against the Bacterian assault force that had attack the space station. If it wasn't for his blue furred buddy James he might of not made it to a hotel room that the two of had booked. The only was that James had escape the bar being sober was the fact that he was drinking water instead of drinking vodka like Nick was doing. He did this so that he could enjoy the night of drinking but still kept his wits with him.

The two of them made it to the lobby and everybody looked at the two of them. They could see that one of them was clearly drunk and if it wasn't for the help of his friend, he wouldn't been able to get this far.

“He had a real good time.” said James with a big grin on his face.

The few people in the lobby just nodded their heads at this and just went back to whatever they were doing.

Both Nick and James made it to the elevator, inside the elevator, James hit the button to floor where they had their room. James let Nick lay out on the floor of the elevator, so that his back wouldn't get throw out. He might be strong, but there was a limit to how much his body could take.

The elevator hi their floor.

“Time to get up,” he said.

After that James used all of his strength to lift up Nick that all account was now just dead weight. Luckily for him foxes were stronger than humans, because if they won't be able to get him up from the floor which he did. Then the two of headed into their room.

In there James gently put Nick on the bed. He quickly check him out to make sure that he had nothing blocking his mouth to make sure that he wouldn't choke while he was sleeping and that would be an embarrassment not just for him to die shortly after he defeated an entire fleet, but for the planet as well.

After checking his mouth, he could see that his mouth was clear and he processed to tuck him in bed. After that James took his own bed without bothering to take a shower, he was just so tried and the only thing that he wanted to do right now was to get some sleep.

A brown shinny sky had dropped its brown color among the sky and the ground in the same color as well. The earthly color thrown up a mood of foreboding for him and then his fight training kick in, allowing him to control his feelings to the point that he was about to focus on the mission at hand. Nick knew that was the most important part, he had to accomplished the mission, not just compete it.

He looked around to see this time he wasn't alone like the last time, he had a wingman along with him for the ride and that brought a small amount of joy on his face. He thought who was on the fighter, his friend and wingman, James, or somebody else that was apart of the group.

He did a check of his weapon array on his fighter and he saw that his weapon choices that he used in the fight was still the same one which was, two way missiles, tail-gun, Laser, and two multiples this time because of bug in the way the pods worked only allowed two per Vic Viper rather than the four that he was used to. He check his shield and the armor of his fighter, he saw that the armor was fully loaded up and the shield was fully charged up as well. He was ready for the battle and he knew that the other pilot was doing the same thing.

Nick gently feathered the Vic Viper ahead and the fighter reacted by to his command by speeding up. The other one did the same, but keep a safe distance from the lead one. Both of them headed to an unowned destination as they were heading to that place, they saw that they were heading toward a group of what look like to be fighter that were flying in precision as well, telling Nick that these people that was behind the controls of these fighters were either military or had military style training.

He didn't know if these fighter were friendly or foe, so he put his finger on the trigger just in case they won't. He waited until his onboard computer told him, and it told him that these fighters were friendlies. He didn't understand why, he had never seen any type of ship like this before, they were feather-like and they appeared that they look like that there were made out some type of glass.

No way these things could be fighters he thought at seeing them. They look like that they were would fly apart even with the simplest of moves.

While the look of the alien fighters was strange enough, it was who was at the controls of the lead fighter, that took the cake of being strange, it was a human looking fox, almost on pare with his best friend, James, with one exception, this one was orange in color, his friend James was blue. He also could tell by the look on his face, a stoic look determination, that this individual was the leader and he didn't know if this individual was either a male or a female.

The individual look in his direction and this individual had the same look on their face as he did when looking at his Vic Viper, Nick wonder what the person was thinking, Nick even wonder if he could call this person, a person, at seeing his fighter, it must have been quite a sock see something like his fighter.

But, his thoughts of wonder were stop when he hear an alert on his RADAR and he saw what was causing the alert, the Bacterion had sent its first wave of attackers to them. Nick saw them and they didn't look like the regular Bacterion fighters that had seen. They look like that they were blue and fused with organic and non organic parts, which was something that the Bacterion never did before. They were lucky that it hasn't don that before, but it seem that their luck had ran out today. Seeing that, Nick knew that the battle was join...

Nick woke up from his dream in a cold sweat and it seem that all trace of being drunk was gone, strange. He had enough Vodka that should of put him of commission for a least for a day, but now it was gone just like that and he knew how to repeat this, he might be able to sell this as the ultimate hangover cure.

“What the hell was that?” He asked to himself.

He got no answer from it and now it was time for him to think about the dream that he had. It was a dream that was about him coming across a feather like fighter that seem by the look of the ship would violate the rules of physics if it didn't fall apart, being piloted by an anthropomorphic orange fox. A human looking orange color fox that was flying a feather-like ship, it sounded like something that was out of James's people creation stories that he had heard from the elders as a child and one of the reason why he wanted to get into space to see if James's people stories were true or not.

He went to see where James was, he saw that James was still in bed sleeping. Nick knew that James was heavy sleeper and it would be morning until he woke up, so there was no point in trying to wake him up it would be hopeless. Looking at him and see him snoozing so loud that Nick thought that the walls in this room were vibrating, with the noise that it might be in fact true. So he might want to talk to him about the dream.

So he went back to his room and think about what he just saw in his dream. He still couldn't fully understand what he was there and all of his military training told him to just forget about it, but something told him that there was something about this, that this had importance to it. If not, why was the dream was so real to him and why was full with so much bizarre imagery to it and he was still hung up on the individual that was in the lead fighter that had the look of a red fox, the very same red foxes that he would see in the fields in both suburban and urban areas on Gradius.

Thinking about that he wondered if he was looking at a fox sprit, which like the kitsumes, the kumihoes, or/and the Hul jings and that got him thinking about the time when James's people first arrived here, some of the population did think that they in fact were fox sprits or even demons. It didn't help the some of them did have what at that time seem to be magical powers, but it was later explained in the fact it was some type of technology that allowed them to express their feelings through different type of energies. Over the course many of the higher ups in the government wanted to acquire this technology and through a series of raids a good chuck or their technology was taken away from them, leaving a few select individuals with it. It the course of studying it, they found to much of their embarrassment they couldn't use it, and they didn't know why, but they still didn't give it back to James's people, even denying that they had it the first place, blaming the lost on them.

But James's people weren't easy defeated, in a series of legal battle they sued the government for damages and the lost of their heritage, all of them were either throw out of court for lack of proof or ended up with the charges being dropped. Then in the most recent and most dramatic case, a descent of one of the first tribe whom didn't have their technology stolen, use their staff in court to call another staff that was used as decoration. The staff had broken through the glass case and right to the staff holder. With this dramatic display in front of a creditable wittiness the government ha to admit that they did in fact steel some of their stuff from then and promise to return it all to them, but there were still some pieces that won't return,for the government claimed that they had lost them in transporting them from place to place. Of course, many didn't believe the government's line and believe that they still had some of the pieces of the technology stored away somewhere at some top secret military base.

Nick didn't know what to say about that, but he did notice that this generation of Vic Viper had a DNA lock on all of the systems that was specially gear to one person and if that person wasn't there to active the lock, it wouldn't allow them to fly the fighter. This wasn't something new, he had seen it before in the name of eye scan and hand print scan, but this could be overridden, cut out a person's eye or hand and one would be able to unlock stuff. No this was different, this DNA had to be from a living person to work. For DNA had a signature to it and as soon as it was cut away from a living source the signal went away. So it did make him wonder did they finally crack the secret that was behind it all and now they were applying it to their technology as well.

This was stuff was getting to heavy for him now, he needed to get some sleep an after getting a drink of water from the rest room area, he went back to bed.

Mainia had quickly dodged the huge ship fire and some how manage to lose the ship. She didn't know if it was her skills at the scout of the ship had lost interest in her. Now, she was face with a choice, headed back to where her wingman was at, but she tried to raise him and the only thing she got was static, so she assumed that either he was shot out of the sky or he had lost his COM system. Or she could head back to either Katina or Corneria, she had enough fuel to head back to either of these places if she didn't run into any trouble on the way, but with that ship out there still looking for her, she knew that she would have trouble. She also knew that her military training taught her to stay where she was at, for when she failed to check in, they would go out looking for her, but that would be in another four hours. She also knew that in four hours, that ship could do anything before anybody knew what had happen to the two of them.

So she made the choice, she would head to Katina and tell them what she had just wittiness. So she fired up her Arwing scout and headed off in that direction, with the thoughts of what happen to her wingman, was he out there floating all alone in the night of space or was he vaporized when his ship was hit by the powerful energy beams. She didn't know and it gnaw at her, but she knew that she had to do this for the good of everybody.

As she headed toward Katina, she was being watch by two individuals in an unknown location.

“Let her go,” said a male and female voice. “She dose that matter.”

“I hope that you are right,” said another voice.

“Yes, I am right,” said the gender bending voice. “But you seem worry.”

“Yes, I am, I am worry about the Star Fox team,” said the second voice.

The first voice knew about the team via the person's memories and the memories that it got from the Aparoid shard. It know about the mythical feats that this group of fighters has performed in the past and how they defeated the Aparoid Queen. It also knew that the leader of the group was a fox, an orange colored one, but still a fox. Once again seeing the image of a fox full the Bacterion size of this fused being with fear in regards to foxes, but it was still no closer to why it didn't like this creature.

“Don't worry about then, we'll deal with then.” the first voice said.

Hey look, I got my DSL back again, sorry about the crappy details about the Big Core Battleship, I not to good a describing machine style bosses as I am with organic ones.