Chapter 1: Tragedy in Orbit
...78, 79, 80! Fox set the weight down. He had just completed his exercise routine for the day. He looked over at the door. Falco and Slippy had finished long ago and were waiting around the landing next to the towel bin. Falco was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, eyes closed. Slippy was completely covered in sweat and panting heavily. Fox chuckled under his breath at the sight of Slippy as he walked up the ramp towards them. He shook off a bit and began mopping his face with a towel.
It was a huge exercise room, complete with all the equipment a hundred member crew could ever need. The room was over 30 meters wide and 50 meters deep with a large viewport along the back of the room, overlooking the rear of the ship. Outside, Solar was rising over the shadow of Macbeth for the second time this hour. The window immediately began dimming itself.
"Kind of a waste for just four people," thought Fox, "but who could turn down such a generous offer?"
After the Great Fox had been destroyed, Star Fox needed a place to live and park their Arwings. General Pepper made it his last official order in military command to allow them the temporary use of a Cornerian Class R Cruiser. He called it a bonus for a job well done.
Fox looked down, deep in thought. The Aparoid invasion had taken its toll on everyone. General Pepper left military service shortly after his recovery. He had told Fox that they had forced him, kicking and screaming, into retirement. Fox knew him better than that, though. The emotional scars of having his mind taken from him were deep. Peppy finally did retire, as he had promised, but only to assume General Pepper's position.
"Being a former member of Star Fox carried a lot of weight in military circles," he had said.
Slippy got a girlfriend. Falco... well, he never changes. And Krystal, she was growing into a more competent pilot with every training mission.
Fox looked back at the end of the exercise room. Krystal was still going.
"You'd never think she was so athletic just looking at her," thought Fox.
Krystal's routine was always longer than anyone else's. Fox arrived at the landing and turned his head back towards the others to find that Falco had opened his left eye slightly.
"She does this every time, Fox. You think you could hurry her up a bit?" Asked Falco.
"You just want her to cook," replied Fox.
Falco tapped his foot, growing more impatient.
"Well, she's the only one on board who can, you know," Falco said as he closed his eyes.
Krystal had become the unofficial cook for the team. She enjoyed it; probably happy for all the attention after her long time alone before the Saurian Incident.
Krystal let the weights hit the housing on one of the larger machines, signaling unintentionally to the rest of the team that she was finished. The others looked up. Krystal got up and walked towards them. When she noticed all of the expectant faces looking at her, she giggled slightly. But then she realized that she had left her towel on the equipment. Slippy groaned as she turned around and walked back to the far end of the room. As she reached for it, she froze. For two seconds she stood there, bent down in an awkward position. Fox's ears perked up. Krystal whipped her head around towards the group, an expression of horror on her face.
"HOLD ON!" She screamed and began to make a dash towards the landing.
Then, the wall exploded.
The explosive decompression was deafening! The huge suction of the escaping atmosphere turned the equipment near the hole into oddly shaped missiles. The hole was getting bigger each moment. Fox fell forward and grabbed the railing. Falco had fallen over it, but was safely behind some equipment bolted to the floor. Slippy had dropped to the floor, using his natural suction pads for grip.
A series of loud bangs stopped the sound of rushing air. The emergency decompression panels fell from the ceiling and covered the hole. The relative silence of this new situation revealed that warning sirens were going crazy.
"WARNING: Decompression in Aft Recreation Chamber C! Crew, please confirm status!"
Falco looked up wide-eyed. His head whipped around to the doorway.
"FOX! We need to..." Falco trailed off.
He saw Fox sprinting down the hallway just as the doors slid shut. He had never seen Fox move that fast before.
Fox saw only one thing as he ran, an image burned onto his eyes, the image of Krystal violently rotating in zero-g, no longer holding her throat, going limp.
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Note To Readers:
You can critique it if you want, but keep in mind that I've never made one before. Not only that, but this is pretty much my first work of fiction period. I mostly write technical articles and papers for school.
8/15/06 Edit - Added additional spaces around changes in speech.
10/10/06 Edit - Fixed some badly designed sound effects and removed some footnotes that were "spoiling the story."