FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

(~5~) Less You Succumb, Pt. 1

The region of space surrounding Corneria, colloquially referred to as Meteo, was just as bad now if not worse than it had been during the Lylat War. The haphazard madness of asteroids and meteors populating the region like a belt around Corneria was made worse by the addition of wreckage and shrapnel leftover from the prior conflict. As a debris field it was now more treacherous to traverse than it had ever been and the Cornerian military had to double down on its enforcement of proper routes of travel in and around the area. Anything larger than a fighter or shuttle was at risk of taking damage from the debris, or worse, the leftover munitions floating through space waiting for something to bump into it. No one wanted to keep the presses warm for a tragic explosion in space. For a large warship like the Great Fox this was more than a little bit problematic.

"I've never seen it this bad." Peppy commented from his console on the bridge. Fox looked out through the Great Fox's windshield and into the the depths of space only to see his view limited to the sight of cascading rock and metal. There would be no way for the Great Fox to penetrate any deeper into the field without suffered damage to the hull, and possibly worse. The sound of debris pelting the hull was already ringing clear through the bulkheads. They just didn't have the money to bankroll that level of repair anymore if they actually forced the ship in despite the danger.

"Hey, think of it like this. If we ever run out of work we can just pick up shit in Meteo and sell it off to the Belters! Call it recycling, right?" Falco said before returning to his work of flipping through a magazine. Slippy was in the hangar bay looking over the Arwings and Krystal was in the medical bay with R.O.B. Everyone had their own way to deal with pre-mission jitters.

Peppy was one to always survey the field and examine the possible outcomes that may come of this and that strategy. Falco escaped into fantasy with his magazines and games. Slippy would always dote and worry over the machines like a dutiful mother and Krystal liked to prep the medical bay and look over their emergency supplies. Something to give them all comfort or distraction just before launch. Fox liked to sit in his command chair and think. He didn't always think of the coming mission, though. He usually had all that mental work completed by the time they were near the ready mark. Right now, Fox was just absently thinking nothing in particular. He was calm, kind of like the old saying, before the storm.

"We have a hard lock!" Peppy spoke up suddenly and Fox saw him turn his chair toward him in the periphery of his vision. He locked eyes with the older hare.

"About time!" Falco joined in and threw his magazine over onto his own console. Fox nodded to Peppy.

"By Arwing, we can reach the target in about thirty minutes. If the Great Fox's sensors are correct then the signal is coming from a single massive meteor. It's the largest one in this part of Meteo and can't be easy to miss." Peppy reported his findings.

"Great, a big fish. Maybe we oughta call up ole General Pep, eh?" Falco added.

"No. We shouldn't attract attention and we don't yet know what kind of numbers we're going to see. It would piss off the military if we dragged them out here for 4 or 5 fighters and a tugboat." Fox shot down Falco's suggestion pretty quick. The bird shrugged and returned to his magazine.

"You the boss, Fox." Falco said.

"If that's the case then we should scout them out. The nearest Cornerian base is about three hours away from this position." Peppy added.

"Let's get the rest of the team here." Fox said. Peppy picked up his comm unit and started calling Slippy and Krystal back to the bridge. "We'll do a scout, but we should have a clear road to get there and a road to get back if things sour on us."

"I think there is enough survey data of Meteo to get us a general idea of what to expect, but most of that data is pre-war, so we have to assume things might have changed." Peppy replied, then checked his communicator. "Slippy and Krystal are coming up now."

"See what routes you can put together, Peppy. Falco, look it over with him and make sure he doesn't ask us to thread any needles." he said. Falco sighed and slapped his magazine back down and joined a chuckling Peppy. It was good to make the bird do a little leg work from time to time. Besides, Falco was a fine pilot and would know the limits of everyone's skills. He was a birdbrain, or feigned to be one, but when it came to flight he was talented. He'd make sure Peppy didn't ask anything too outrageous of the team.

In the meantime Fox checked the console on his command chair and saw that Slippy was making his way through the corridor running down the spine of the ship to the bridge. Krystal was still in the medical bay with R.O.B. so he knew she must be putting all the supplies back into the proper place. She organized it all when they first bought it but it never stopped her from reorganizing it later. The vixen probably got a little too involved with her checks and was now rushing to slap everything back into their places with R.O.B. cleaning up the crooked containers and storage units behind her.

Slippy arrived and looked a little dirty with oils stains on his hands and a smudge across his face. "You trying out war paint, Slip?" Fox asked.

"What? Oh, no!" Slippy replied and stepped up next to Fox. He tried to wipe the smear off his face but only made it worse and gave it up. "So what's the plan?"

"Peppy and Falco are laying out a flight plan for us. We have a lock on the position of the two fighters. About half an hour's flight away from our current position. We'll go there via Arwing." Fox explained the situation to the toad.

"I'd say I'd like the Great Fox to accompany us, but I'm guessing the asteroid belt has a different opinion?" Slippy asked. Fox nodded.

"Very likely. It's too dense out there for a ship this size." Fox told him. The toad shrugged. "Won't be that bad. They have the same disadvantage as we do. Nothing large can maneuver in this mess safely and still be threatening."

Even as Fox was saying it he knew he could have been wrong. A lot could happen, but he still felt confident about the next couple of hours. He learned to trust his gut when it gave him a good confidence boost. He and the team had been through too much for their instincts to dull. The downtime they'd been suffering through was just a little prolonged R&R is all and not anything that could knock the Star Fox Team down the ladder.

"Well, I went over the Arwings." Slippy said.

"Clearly." Fox interjected and Slippy dismissed his remark.

"All four are in top shape, but I went and worked a little on Falco's. If he," Slippy started speaking louder, "didn't fly like a crazy person I wouldn't have to keep poking at his Arwing to keep it in one piece."

Falco didn't even look in his direction. He kept his eyes down at the readout displaying on Peppy's console and simply lifted a feathered hand and made a talking gesture with his fingers.

"But his Arwing is fine? You put it back together?" Fox asked to be sure.

"It's in good order. Until after the mission when I have to put it back together again." He said. "Where's Krystal and R.O.B.?"

"They were in the medical bay, they should be coming up soon." He told him. Slippy added afterwards that she pokes her nose through the supplies about as often as he does the Arwings. Fox smiled. It was good she did that though. Before having her on board they were always out of something. Now they had everything they needed all the time or so help them she'd bring it up daily. You take the good in with the bad.

"Fox, I think we have a way in and out, for better or worse." Peppy said, and Falco stepped aside as the hare brought up on the main screen in the bridge what he and Falco had planned.

The screen on the far wall lit up green before flashing to proper life with a full map of the region. From his console Peppy zoomed in to where the Great Fox sat. They were inside the asteroid field but keeping safe distance from the more dense cluster where the fighter's were broadcasting their signal. It looked like real chaos.

"According to the logs we never passed through here ourselves during the course of the war, but there were several engagements between Androssian and Cornerian forces, which explains the debris. The region in question was used as an obstacle it looks like. Even before the war this area was so dense that no one touched it. Whoever was in command of the Androssian fleet used this whole area to control the flow of battle. It was just a prolonged battle of attrition. It got quiet after we stopped Andross at Katina." Peppy explained.

"So it's all blown to hell in there, is what he's saying." Falco added.

"We have a way in though, show me that." Fox told Peppy, ignoring Falco's outburst.

"Right. Me and Falco think that if you fly this route here," he brought up new information to the display. A red line appeared from Great Fox's current position and threaded its way in a zig zag pattern until it curved around the blinking dot that was the fighters, then made a return journey that also zig zagged back to the Great Fox. It was like a crazy pair of cooking tongs. Fox shrugged and figured it could have been worse.

"Any ETA on this?" he asked.

"Probably more than thirty minutes just getting there, and same on the way back. If things go well. Over an hour round trip." Peppy replied. The door behind them all swished open. Eyes turned and saw Krystal and R.O.B. step onto the bridge. "Fashionably late, Krystal?"

"Hush, Peppy. I was trying to get the med bay in order." She fussed back at him. R.O.B. moved to take his standard position on the bridge.

"After you threw it into disorder?" Falco asked.

"Alright, Team, we have ourselves a plan." Fox cut in to step over the bird's feathers and save him from himself. Krystal was looking about to chew him out on her own but she quieted herself for Fox. "Krystal, we've got ourselves a flight plan and we're going to scout the asteroid field. I can brief you better on the way to the hangar bay."

"So we're a go? Now?" Peppy asked. Falco was already standing and making his way to the door while stretching his arms.

"Right. You and R.O.B. can upload the flight plan to our Arwings and keep tabs on us while we're out." Fox got up from his chair. "Try not to call in the cavalry unless I ask you to or if you can see we're clearly in deep trouble. Now let's head out, Team."

"Roger that, Fox." Peppy said and quickly began to work his console to transfer the flight plan to the four Arwings in the hangar.

"Roger." Slippy said.

"Roger, Fox." Krystal said and stepped next to Fox to walk next to him. He felt her hand grab his and he looked at her. They shared a glance and he felt almost uncomfortable with the amount of affection she was venting in his direction. Slippy had taken up a stride ahead of them and they weren't walking fast enough to overtake him despite his shorter legs and gait.

"You thinking one us of isn't coming back?" He asked her. Fox tried to make it seem lighthearted and not serious.

"No. You're not worried so I'm not worried. I'm just thinking about how nice it'll be to have a little victory party after we get back, and maybe a little bit more after we go back to our room." the blue vixen whispered to him.

"I can hear you both." Slippy spoke up from in front of them. He was several feet ahead but his near nonexistent amphibian ears had still been able to catch her whisper. She tried not to giggle, but Fox chose to say nothing. He felt a little red.

"So what is the plan, Fox. I missed the briefing." She asked him.

"It wasn't much of a briefing. We know the ships are located near a massive asteroid and we're going to do some reconnaissance in our Arwings. We know so little about what's out there that it'd be best to scout it out and play everything by ear. If it's bad enough we'll call in reinforcements. Otherwise, we'll swoop in and do what we do." Fox told her. She hugged herself close to him. Krystal was wearing her bodysuit. It was navy in color with silver trim. It matched her perfectly. It also fit her a little too perfectly. Enough for Falco to turn away and stifle a face of red feathers and laughter the first time he saw it.

Krystal came to hate how it was so form fitting on her that it left nothing to the imagination. She enjoyed dressing nice, but when she first selected that outfit from the Space & Flight Online Catalogue (around when she first joined the team) she had no idea what she was really buying. You can't try anything on when it's in a online magazine after all! After trying it on and getting bullied by her teammates she refused to wear it without throwing on a few extra items to keep it appropriate for work. Fox had seen her wear some racy outfits before, but that was always when she was planning on dressing to impress. Her bodysuit was for 'work', meaning it was her go-to outfit for when she was in her Arwing or on a mission. She had expectations of professionalism and a skin tight brothel suit was not what she'd been expecting.

Her preferred method of keeping the outfit proper for missions was to zip her tan jacket over it to hide her bust and wear a matching fabric skirt she'd handmade to wrap around her hips. Without those two items you'd have a very good idea of what Fox was getting every evening. Krystal had even mailed the manufacturer a surprisingly polite message explaining that their garment needed a better product description. Either way, she found a way to make it work and of course Fox liked it when she wore her bodysuit, and he was sure she could feel it every time with her empathic abilities. He wished he had a similar skill. How useful could it be to sense what a person is feeling? Krystal always made light of it, but he felt that was her being modest.

"Sounds easy enough. Too bad there's no wood to knock on in space." She said whilst poking him in the ribs. He smiled at her.

"You can save the innuendo for when you two are in private, you know?" Slippy spoke up and Fox laughed. He was sure she wasn't meaning to make a lewd comment, and judging by her flustered reaction she hadn't been trying to either.

"I wasn't!" She insisted, but Slippy didn't pay her any mind and continued on his way ahead of them.

The four Arwings in the hangar looked clean if a little battle worn. The pristine gloss of factory paint had long since faded and the whites and blues were now simply solid sheets of color with spots of grey and black where old damage had been repaired and painted over. They were rugged and well worn like a leather cushion having seen a lot of butts. Fox felt a familiar comfort settle over him as he slipped into the cockpit of his Arwing and sealed the hatch overhead. The pop that followed signalled that an airtight seal had been formed and he was now nestled safely in the pocket of atmosphere his Arwing was built to maintain.

He and the rest of the team were bringing their machines up to speed. The hum of his engines throbbed through the fuselage of his Arwing before settled into a gentle vibration that he'd learned to ignore. Fox found that the data from Peppy's console was now loaded into his Arwing's flight computer. He brought it up and set it as a series of waypoints for him and his team. A few button pressed on the console and he knew his team had each received the waypoints he'd assigned.

"Ok, I've given you all waypoints to follow. Peppy, we're ready to head out. You have a read on our position?" Fox started talking over the comm.

"Roger, Fox, I've got you in the belly of the beast. I'll keep you updated as the mission progresses." Peppy responded.

"R.O.B., I want you to monitor any and all radio traffic in the area. I'd like to know if there's anything talking out there that I should know about." Fox added.

"Roger, Fox." The android replied.

"Team, are we a go?" Fox asked his wingmen over the comm. He was greeted with a rapid series of confirmations. He hit a switch and disengaged his Arwing from its docking bay and began coasting out the bow of the Great Fox in zero G. His team followed gracefully behind him in single file.

One by one the arwings exited the hangar and into the awaiting debris field. Fox was followed closely behind by Krystal, then Slippy, and Falco in the rear. Between the four of them Fox and Falco were the best pilots and they tended to take the most forward and rear positions in the formation. Falco could be trusted to get out of a pinch if they were surprised from behind and Fox could trust himself to evade disaster when he saw it coming. Slippy and Krystal were capable pilots but they were more fit for support roles than aggressive front line combat. Krystal was growing into her new role as time passed, but for the time being she and Slippy were support units or would fly in tandem to assault targets. The two worked well together.

It hadn't taken as long to get used to having Krystal in Peppy's place. Fox had been surprised by that. Peppy didn't seem to mind being pushed back to the Great Fox either. His experience and wisdom served him well as he helped coordinate missions from the command seat on the bridge. It was well established that Fox and Falco were the team's ace pilots with Slippy as their confident air support and mechanical genius. Fox was curious to learn what role Krystal would find for herself in the team as she continued to grow in skill.

"I'm reading zip out there." Falco said over their comms. Fox checked his own console a second time and found his instruments were also reading nothing out of the ordinary so far.

"Our Arwings aren't going to be able to detect much in this mess until we're a lot closer. Our sensors aren't as good as the ones on the Great Fox." Slippy reminded them all.

"You heard him, let's keep our eyes open. Don't trust the sensors." Fox replied. He was met with silent agreement, except for the serious, but quiet, 'roger' from Krystal.

The debris floating in between the asteroids wasn't impossible to avoid, but no one was daring to fly at the Arwing's maximum rated speed. They cruised along the flight path Peppy had created for them with a patient determination. All four of them were quiet as they inched further along their course with the target destination getting progressively closer. The feeling in his gut was still there, a positive sensation, but mixed with a growing pocket of tightening energy that preluded combat.

Fox noticed a particularly large meteor ahead of them. The flight path would take them around it. There were numerous scorch marks pocketing its surface with remains of metal slag jutting out from within it. A heavy cruiser or warship had to have bombarded that meteor good and hard to cause that much damage. He wondered what the engagements were like that had happened here over the course of the war.

As the team began their approach to the meteor Fox finally spotted a glint of steel. His grip tightened on the stick, but he quickly relaxed. Buried into the rock was a fragment of a ship, likely some kind of cruiser. Judging by the coloring he knew it was a Cornerian ship. There was little of the ship left except a piece of hull that had been fused to the rock by heavy laser fire. That was the reason for the scorching marks and slag. The cruiser had been trapped between the enemy and the meteor.

"You see that, Fox?" Krystal asked him on a direct channel to him.

"Yeah, I saw." He replied on the same channel. He wondered then if she could feel his emotions from her Arwing. He remembered that she had some range to her ability, but he didn't know how effective it was when they were piloting their Arwings. It wasn't something she brought up very often. "Be glad it's peace time."

"I am." She told him solemnly.

"I'm getting something." Slippy cut in through the open channel between the four of them.

"Details, Slip." Fox said. He slowed his Arwing by a hair and the rest of the followed suit with the same. Slippy was silent, but Fox was patient. They continued around the meteor until they were on the other side. Ahead of them was a sight familiar to him. Massive meteors were plentiful here and their flight plan was taking them between them like a thread through a needle.

"Peppy's course has us ten minutes away from destination, Fox. I think they are using the meteors here to help mask their communications. I'm getting contact, but its fractured every way you can think of. I can't get anything to come in clear." Slippy explained.

"Then how do we know the signal from the two fighters is good?" Falco asked. Fox guided the team along their flight path and reduced speed again. Everyone copied him. It'd give them more time to survey their surroundings as well as letting Slippy go over the signals he's reviewing.

"The transmitters we were tracking are simple. It's just a pattern. Think of it like old morse code. What I'm picking up is complex. Probably speech, but could be data transfers, scanning equipment. Might even be bleed off from engines and other equipment. I'm getting it all at once and it's melted together on top of there being interference from the environment." Slippy tried to explain. Fox didn't need to know the details just the basics.

"You're certain it's all from our target?" Fox asked.

"Yes. It's not mother nature playing tricks." The toad confirmed with confidence. Fox exhaled. He checked the flight plan again. A little more and they'd be there.

"Falco, me and you will plan to break off the formation and fly solo. Everyone, set your current orientation as default. From here I'll go right," Fox keyed in a quick plan onto his console display and forwarded it to the team. "And you go left, Falco. Slippy, you and Krystal will stay together and run topside to the target. Let's hold off on engaging the enemy until we are aware of their orientation."

"Roger." Fox heard three times in unison.

"How much of this is playing by ear?" Falco asked.

"Most of it, probably." Fox replied. He heard Falco grunt. Not everything was clean and orderly. It would suit the bird well though. He would flying on his own and doing his own thing. He usually did that anyway if not given direction.

The Arwings all split up and followed their new routes. Fox's sensors were giving him only the barest indication of something out there. The only member of the team that could make better sense of these readings was Slippy and Fox just had to trust that the toad was right. The cascading debris and massive meteors were all he could spot. Fox reduced speed and hugged close to a meteor for cover.

According to his flight computer he was getting close to what might be an 'opening' to the debris field. Their target meteor was massive and had a pocket of pseudo-empty space next to it where you might be able to float some ships. That was all assuming that their pre-war survey data was still good. Fox could skip away from the meteor his was presently skirting and then hop over to the next one. If he rounded it from 'topside' he could overlook the opening next to the target.

Falco and the rest of his team were barely registering on his console, but he could guess that Falco was about as close to getting some line of sight to the target as he was. Slippy would be leading Krystal through a bit thicker debris so he wasn't sure when they'd get their own line of sight of the target.

The space between meteors was empty, save the many rock fragments. Fox was studying the space around him visually rather than trying to trust his obscured sensors. His radar was mostly a sea of blips in all directions that did more to hurt his awareness than help it.

"Fo-. C-py?" Slippy's static broken voice came over the comm. The debris field was interfering with their communications severely now that they weren't in direct line of sight of each other. Their Arwings were sophisticated but even the best tech had a limit to the abuse it could sustain and still operate well. The debris field was as abuse to the sensors and communications as it was to the hull.

"What you got, Slip?" He replied and waited. He reduced speed to a slow crawl as soon as he hit within fifty meters of the next meteor's surface. He hugged closer still to let the meteor hide his presence with its raw mass. Hopefully if the enemy was deploying sensors they would mistake him for a floating piece of debris and be none the wiser. And at this proximity to the meteor he doubted any sensor array could detect him unless he happened to fly right into it, which was very well possible.

"Con--rmed. - Targ--s. B-g!" The toad replied, still broken with static. Fox understood the gist, but a gist wasn't enough in this instance. He'd need better.

"Repeat that, Slip. Falco, Krystal copy." He said on an open channel between them all. He waited again. He got some static in reply before Falco cut in.

"Copy. Tar-et co-nt, - en--y --ips." It was Falco this time but just as broken as Slippy was before. The meteor Fox was using for cover was probably breaking up his signal to the team more than he realized. So, there were enemy ships. More than one, seemed like. Not an issue yet. Fox increased speed and clung to the surface of the meteor. The opening beyond slowly revealed itself as he made his way around the circumference of the meteor. Ahead of him was nothing but debris both natural and manmade, but nothing that was a threat. Then he saw a flickering red light in the distance.

His entire windshield flashed fluorescent green as a blast of laser fire slammed into the meteor's surface directly ahead of him. The green sword of energy carved a trench in the rock and left it simmering like hot coals. The laser had hit about ten meters too far ahead and was gone before Fox could have ran into its trail. He banked a hard right and let his Arwing follow the contours of the meteor.

"Fox! C--y!" Broken messages hit his comms. One sounded like Krystal, another followed with Slippy's shouting.

"I'm good, copy! Missed! That looked like a main cannon!" Fox called out over the comm. With it behind him he had time to think. He was out of the line of sight of the red blip. He might have ran into a sensor array after all. All he could think of was how big that beam had been. It was some seriously upscaled firepower. It certainly didn't come from a tugboat!

"It's - -arshi-!" It was Slippy. Fox saw a flash of white light hit the exposed surfaces of debris and asteroids above him. Someone had launched a bomb into the opening. Fox lifted his Arwing up and caught a glimpse of what looked like a cruiser, but it couldn't have been what fired the laser at him. He did a rapid count or three gun turrets on the cruiser's spine then ducked his Arwing back down. Those turrets were for anti-air. What they had almost got him with was something you'd use to punch a hole in the Great Fox.

Fox saw a cluster of asteroids in easy reach. He clicked his trigger and held it firm. His forward lasers revved and build up a charge. In his head he had a faint idea of where the red blip he'd seen earlier would be. He banked up and boosted to the asteroid cluster. He was met with a rapid series of laser fire from the cruiser he'd seen, but the shots missed or connected with the asteroids Fox was using as shields.

Banking left he saw the red blip. Now he could see the metal surrounding it. It was a small satellite. He hovered his reticule over it, got a lock, then let go of the trigger. He flew passed the ruined satellite with intense laser fire trailing behind him. He could now see right into the opening surrounding their destination meteor. Three cruisers, jerry rigged with modifications by the looks of it, and one warship of great size.

"Fox, watch yourself! Falco tried hitting the warship with a bomb, but they shot it down." It was Krystal. Fox panned his eyes across the his windshield and saw laser fire going off in a dozen directions. He could tell that the rest of his team had made inadvertent contact with the enemy, and probably a lot like how he'd done. Tiny satellite drones floating amongst the debris wasn't a half bad idea.

"Right! What's everyone's status? Copy!" Fox ducked his Arwing behind another moderately sized asteroid, then veered down to alter his trajectory. Sure enough, as he shot down and out from behind the asteroid all the enemy weapons fire was blitzing where he would have been had he continued straight. Fox saw ahead and above him the glint of an Arwing's engine and recognized the flight pattern as Falco's. He was engaging what looked like a pair of space fighters with some anti-air fire coming at him from one of the cruisers.

"A little busy!" Falco replied hastily.

"Fox, we're a little tied up!" Krystal's voice rang out over the come and Fox could see now that she can Slippy were entangled in heavy weapons fire from the two remaining cruisers and the warship they were flanking.

"Just keep their guns busy without getting tagged, team!" Fox replied and swung his Arwing around to one of the two cruisers laying down gunfire on Slippy and Krystal. The gunfire being levied at Fox was coming primarily from the warship. Judging from its design there was a main cannon nestled down the middle of the ship. Fox could see the tiny jets of light flickering off and on across the ship's hull as it attempted to adjust its trajectory. No doubt trying to line up another shot with its main weapon. There were about eight visible weapon mounts dotting the exterior of the ship. It was a vaguely familiar Androssian design, but he'd seen so many different variants of ships that he couldn't tac a name to this particular one.

"Easy for you to say!" Slippy shot back.

"Slippy! You said they shot down one of Falco's bombs?" He asked. Laser fire was getting more intense. Fox narrowly avoided a red beam as it flew just over the nose of his Arwing. A quick spin with his G-Diffuser took care of two other stray beams. The impact still knocked his teeth together.

"Yeah! Some kind of spinning shrapnel device! Why?" Slippy asked. Fox banked back toward the warship. The two cruisers were tilting up their bows to maintain their weapons fire. He flicked the knob on the centre stick and pressed. He could hear the click from the port opening on the underside of the fuselage. He let the targeting computer get a solid lock on what looked like the bridge of the warship and let a bomb fly. The payload shot forward like a comet and like Slippy had said a flash shot out from the warship and started spraying shrapnel as it spun like a drill bit.

The shrapnel connected with the bomb and it detonated. The flash of light was spectacular. At that range Fox had a few moments to accelerate and hit his booster.

"Fox, bombs ain't gonna work on that thing!" Falco called out from his side of the battlefield.

The explosion from the bomb was fading rapidly and Fox chased it to zip through its ground zero. Having taken advantage of the flash Fox was many hundreds of meters closer to the warship and well out of the way of its misdirected main gun. The turret mounts were all adjusting and locking in, but with his new range and their slow movements Fox was able to zig and zag around the laser fire and deflect the rest with his G-Diffuser.

Someone on board the warship was smart, though. As Fox let his own lasers rip through three of the ship's gun turrets they launched a pair of the shrapnel devices. Shrapnel peppered his left wing and side of the fuselage. A few red lights appeared, but nothing too bad.

"Fox!" It was Krystal. He wanted to reply, but he was a bit busy. He came in close and found himself too deep inside the warship's proximity for them to fire at him. The turrets were trying to track him despite his closeness, but those guns weren't meant to follow a target that was that close. Fox cleared the stern and pulled a U turn. Tracking onto the remaining turret on that side he he let several lasers sink into its armor plating and watched it go up.

"All guns on port side of the warship are down!" Fox reported over their open channel.

"Woo! Now get out of there, Fox! One of the cruisers is tracking on you! And there are now fighters exiting the warship!" Slippy replied. Fox looked out over his wing and saw that three, no four, fighters were now launching from the underside of the warship. So far every fighter looked like it was of an Androssian make.

Fox turned and took advantage of the lack of guns aimed at him from the warship's port side. Boosting hard he let himself fly under the pair of cruisers. The one tracking him was desperate to drop its bow and begin a descent that would bring its guns to bear on him, but it was too slow. Like a tugboat it lacked the ability of a real military vessel and by time it tracked him he was already skirting past it at close range and leaving it behind.

"How's everybody doing?" Fox asked.

"I'm alright, but I wish you wouldn't fly into warships like that!" Krystal said. He could hear the worry in her voice and knew she'd butt heads with him about it later.

"I think we're both ok. You've gotten them in a panic, Fox! That warship is pulling around to cover its port side!" Slippy added. "But now we have those fighters coming at us, too!"

"You doing ok, Falco!" Fox asked after not getting a reply.

"Could use a hand! I bagged one of them, but his buddy is getting awfully clingy!" Falco shot back. The exertion was clear in his voice. Fox tilted up and boosted again until he heard his engine whine from somewhere deep in the fuselage. He let the booster kick off and he spotted a new collection of asteroids and debris near the edge of opening.

"Slippy, Krystal, follow me. Falco keep to the debris field. We'll come around to you and together we can deal with these fighters!" He said. He heard the mixture of replies from his team and saw the fuzzy indicators on his console showing that two objects were now trailing behind him and gaining. Somewhere beyond them he knew there would be a cluster of enemy fighters. He hoped they'd chase them into the debris field. It would be difficult to deal with all that heavy weapons fire AND enemy fighters at the same time. Fox aimed to make them regret not fielding their fighters right from the start.

Back into the debris field they went and just like before he saw his sensors going back to being little more than useless. "Slippy, can you figure out if they are chasing us?"

"Roger, F-x. Everything is a lit-le fuzzy, but it loo-s like we have one or m-re bogey's in pursuit." Slippy replied. Fox banked left and began his approach to the massive meteor that had been their original destination. They were now well out of the line of sight of the cruisers and the warship, but the debris on this side of the meteor was the main threat. Asteroids ranging in size from a basketball to an Arwing were everywhere and Fox had to carefully thread his way between them. A laser zipped through space and pegged a stray asteroid off to his right.

"They're c-asing us!" Slippy said too little too late.

"I've noticed." He replied. "You two go break off and go solo. Let's get them to split up."

Both Slippy and Krystal complied and he saw their flickering signals on his console veer to the left and right of his position. A new blip was fading into his radar and just like that another laser fire flew past him. Fox played cat and mouse with his pursuer until he was close enough to the meteor to bring himself in close with just a few meters of space between him and and the rocky surface. The brown and black rock was a blur underneath him as he sped forward at near maximum velocity. The sporadic laser fire chasing him was his only indicator of how far away his target was. Very close and very nimble.

Fox spotted a cluster of debris that hung near to the meteor's surface like a floating blanket of gravel and dirt. He banked hard toward it and feathered his booster. The sound of grit and debris peppering his hull grew louder, but there was nothing large enough to make him worry. Laser fire continue to fly after him and he watched as the floating sand and gravel flash red hot and melt as the laser cut through it.

He tapped his brake and dropped speed for just a moment. A laser scoured a line of black over his right wing. Fox lined up his laser and did something stupid. He shot several rounds directly ahead of him into the rocky surface below and slammed his booster to zip over just barely in time to avoid the resulting plume of shattered rock. He tried to look behind him, but to no avail. Then he spotted a flash of light reflect in his windowpane that was too bright to be just laser fire. He banked right and followed the clearest route until he could see the wreckage of the fighter that had trailed him. Spotting a gap in the cloud of debris he lifted up off the surface and back out into the field beyond. Laser fire was visible to his right and directly ahead of him.

"Copy, team." He said into the open channel.

"R-ger!" It was Krystal.

"L-ttl- -elp!" Slippy. Fox turned his Arwing to the source of the heaviest weapons fire and tracked onto it. With a boost he made way until he could discern that the action he was chasing was two fighters ganging up on one Arwing, likely Slippy. Fox used the field to his advantage and snuck up on one fighter that had lagged behind its companion. Fox took it out with a few shots to its engine. The fighter, without any means to control itself anymore, simply flew head on into an asteroid.

Fox figured their enemy was as lost as they were when it came to their sensors. Everything was being done on line of sight what with the radar being mostly useless for everyone. That was good though as Fox was good with his eyes.

"Gl-d -- see yo-, F-x!" Slippy replied through the haze of static. The fighter Fox was chasing, who was in turn chasing Slippy, must have figured out he was down one friend and was banking smartly from side to side and using the field to his own advantage. He wasn't letting up on Slippy in the least and Fox was having trouble gaining on him. The debris that had helped Fox moments before was now proving to be an obstacle.

The fighter was lashing out with burst after rabid burst from his lasers. The triple round strings of shots were hitting everything but Slippy's Arwing thanks to the toad's erratic flight pattern, which was likely due to panic and not any kind of skill on toad's part. The shots were getting closer and closer to hitting home though and Fox needed to hurry. This pilot was skilled and maybe even a veteran of the war judging by the ease shown in navigating the tight environment.

Suddenly, three laser flew in from below and Fox banked right on instinct. None of them came close to hitting him, but one did peg the enemy fighter in its right wing. Fox reacted and lead his reticule where the fighter was now forced to bank with its damaged wing and he fired off several additional rounds. The first missed but the rest hit home and the fighter spiraled off into the debris field before detonating from the damage.

An Arwing floated up from the field below him and settled itself to his left. Fox saw a blue face behind the Arwing's windshield and she waved. He waved back.

"You're safe and sound, Slip!" He said on the channel. "Let's check on Falco! Form up on me!"

Fox let Slippy catch up and he and his two wingmen made a beeline to where Falco should have been engaging the enemy. It took a few stressful minutes to get around the meteor, but when they got there they found one slightly damaged Arwing and a slightly more agitated falcon.

"T-ok yo- l-ng en-ugh!" Falco's broken rant came over the comm. "Los- ha-f m- -ail -eathers!"

"Easy Falco, we had to contend with four guys! You only had one to deal with. Should have been easy!" Fox chided him. Falco tried saying something in return but it was too broken to make much sense of.

"Ok, team. Group on me. Again, group on me." Fox said and he cruised at reduced speed until the whole was formed on him before he increased his speed back to full throttle. That was six fighters down. Fox knew he'd damaged the warship, but the three cruisers were still in good repair. He took his Arwing low until he was near the surface of the meteor, which he was now becoming a little too familiar with.

The two cruisers that had been tangling with Slippy and Krystal were probably still sitting to the port side of the warship to protect its flank. The third was likely patrolling on the starboard side. They were likely prepared to fire in any direction.

They were now fast approaching the other side of the meteor. Fox didn't see signs of any more satellites, but he knew they had to be out there somewhere. A laser fired from his right side and traced its destination back to Falco's Arwing.

"Tag-ed one Sa-ellite!" The falcon said on comm. Speak of the devil, then. One less eye to worry about.

Together they flew over a ridge in the meteor's surface and were met with a cascade of laser fire. As a unit they each banked away from each other and in turn fired their lasers in unison. The lone cruiser that was firing at them had let itself drift too far away from its parent ship and was left to take the brunt of the team's weapons fire without assistance. The ship lost its ability to shoot back after several seconds of sustained fire, then lost its ability to even maintain its pitch after that. The cruiser began to roll without guidance and Fox flew over it while the rest of the team found their own way around its corpse.

The warship sat in front of them by a good distance with its starboard guns aimed at them. All four guns pivoted and began to fire with the two cruisers on the other side rolling themselves to offer their guns free range of movement. With laser fire coming at them in mass the team took to using everything in the area as cover.

Fox saw Falco and Slippy move to the meteor's surface while Krystal banked hard and retreated to the edge of the debris field. Fox copied her and did the same. They were so spread out that the three remaining ships were pivoting there guns in four directions. This left them with very little chance of actually hitting any of their targets.

Fox reduced speed and played the throttle gently to let laser fire track him just close enough to fool the gunner into thinking he could get the hit. Before the laser fire got too close he shot ahead at full speed and shielded himself with a large asteroid. Once behind the asteroid he pulled back the stick and banked hard and executed a U turn away from the asteroid. He kept the asteroid between him and the enemy ships and snuck through the debris field. To the gunners tracking him it would have looked like he'd flown behind the asteroid and vanished.

He tried coming back around from where they'd originally emerged from the other side of the meteor. Fox could hear the crackling of broken communication between the rest of his team, but it didn't sound like anyone was in danger yet. He brought himself rapidly around through the debris field and emerged to find himself on the other side of the now dead cruiser. The cruiser was adrift and he cut his speed and let himself drift along with it.

"Team! Where are the enemy ships shooting?" Fox asked. Now that he was inside the opening the comms should work better. From his hiding place he couldn't make much sense of where the three ships were firing their guns.

"Uh, at us?!" Falco cried out. "Where are you, Fox?"

"I'm hiding behind the cruiser we shot down. Can I make a run for the warship if I tried?" Fox asked.

"Ah, no? Maybe, I can't see I'm a little busy here at the moment!" Falco shot back.

"Fox! Their lead ship has all of its starboard guns aimed up at Falco. That's 90 degrees from where you're at. The two cruisers are shooting at me and Krystal!" Slippy came through for him.

"Do you need us to do anything, Fox?" Krystal came over the comm and asked.

"See if you can make them think we're going to make a run for them from your direction. Fool them." Fox told them both.

"Roger, Fox! We're going to come around and punch their noses!" Slippy replied excitedly. Now Fox had to wait. With a quick push of the throttle he could reach max speed and then hit his booster. The warship's guns would notice him and be forced to track down, but they wouldn't be able to hit him. He could use the warship's bulk to protect him from the two cruisers if they tried to shoot him down.

"Fox! Do whatever you're going to do! We're drawing a lot of fire!" Slippy called out and Fox gunned the throttle hard. He shot out from behind the ruined cruiser and hit the booster. He could feel the sudden G forces yanking him backwards into his seat. Sure enough the warship was now pivoting its gun turrets down at him, but Fox was already laying siege on them with laser fire. Above him Krystal and Slippy's attack on the remaining cruisers was proving ineffectual. They both banked away and split the two ship's weapons fire in opposing directions.

Fox saw the warship fire off another shrapnel device and he rapidly pegged it with a laser before it could release its payload. He returned fire to the turrets and hoped they didn't have any more of those devices to launch. After destroying the second gun turret he felt confident that they'd used up all their ammo on that defense.

"Falco, you got a clear shot of the warship?" Fox called out.

"Yeah, I can come around now and go for a run at them!" Falco replied quickly.

"Don't, just get in close enough to launch a bomb. I think they are out of the missile defense!" Fox shot back. He banked right and away from the two remaining gun turrets and flew right over the bow of the enemy ship. The two cruisers were still tracking on Krystal and Slippy who were now too far away and diving into the debris field for cover once again.

"Roger, that." Falco replied. "There she goes!"

Fox couldn't hear the explosion, but he did see the light illuminate the hull of both cruisers as he flew beneath them. "Falco, report on that!"

"Direct hit this time, but I'm out of bombs, Fox." He replied. "She's not sunk yet, but I think I got all her guns!"

Fox banked again and came around. Laser fire arched over and under him and he was forced to pull a somersault. He broke from the somersault and pulled a hard 90 away. The cruiser tracking him struggled to keep up with him at such a close range.

"Krystal, Slippy, swing back and target the cruiser targeting me, I'm doing a fly by." Fox issued the order and let his Arwing sweep past the first cruiser with barely a meter of space between their two hulls. He thumbed a button on the centre stick again and launched his last bomb at the starboard side of the second cruiser before immediately banking right to use the cruiser as a shield to the resulting explosion.

Pieces of hull and shrapnel flew out in multiple directions as the right side of the cruiser collapsed from the the explosion over its hull. Only one of its turrets was firing now and the ship was likely sunk. Fox saw on his right side that Krystal and Slippy were making their sweep. The remaining cruiser was taking heavy fire from the two of them.

Fox pulled a U turn and left the sinking cruiser alone. He joined Krystal's and Slippy's laser fire with his own. With the combined laser fire of three Arwing's the cruiser's hull began to buckle underneath its turrets before it expanded outward from an internal explosion ripping through the ship's interior. From bow to stern the cruiser was going through its death throes.

"I just blew the last turret on that other cruiser Fox." It was Falco. Fox banked back toward the warship and saw that all three turrets were dead on the cruiser. The entire starboard side looked caved in. They wouldn't need to worry about that threat anymore.

"Right, let's regroup and deal with that warship! It still has that main cannon, so watch out." Fox said. His team replied and began to fall into formation around him. The warship was backpedalling and bringing itself closer to the meteor. It couldn't pitch its bow fast enough to aim its main cannon. "Slippy, are your and Krystal's Arwings loaded with bombs?"

"Roger that, Fox, two a piece!" Slippy shot back quickly.

"I want each of you to disable that gun with a bomb, one from each of you. Get her right in the barrel!" Fox told them and they hollered back an affirmative. He saw two white flashes rocket out from the fuselage of both his companion's Arwings and home their way to their target. Fox watched at the nose of the warship began to glow from within the barrel of its main gun, but it was too late. Both bombs detonated just inside the opening and blew out the barrel in all directions like a cartoon popgun. The cannon fired, but with the bore of the gun blown out the laser exited the weapon as a split beam and the entire nose of the ship was carved up by its own fragmented laser.

Fox surveyed the warship and opened up a new channel on his comm.

"This is Fox McCloud of the Star Fox Team. You're ship is disabled and your forces have been defeated. I am ordering you to surrender." Fox said over the channel. He left the comm open to hear a reply if there was one.

"You sure we're done with them?" Krystal asked over the team's channel. "I don't feel... defeat from them."

"We'll find out soon enough since we just kicked their boss' ass." Falco interjected. He was right. They'd wiped out three cruisers, disabled a warship, and destroyed at least six space fighters. If they had additional resources to field they would have launched them by now, Fox thought to himself.

The open channel was quiet. "Are you able to feel anything else from them, Krystal?" Fox asked.

"The distance is making it a little difficult, but I sense anger. Hot anger, I'd say, from multiple persons." Krystal replied. Fox didn't fault them for being angry if they were. He figured he'd be angry, too, if he'd been in their shoes. Fox reopened his line and issued another message.

"I repeat, surrender yourselves. This is Fox McCl-"

"Go to hell, McCloud!" Another voice cut over the channel and Fox stopped. He didn't recognise the voice, but he also didn't expect to. Anyone that served in the war would have known who he was without the knowledge being mutual.

"Fox, my Arwing is picking up some growing energy patterns in their ship! Uh, we might want to retreat!" Slippy piped up quickly with panic clear in his tone.

"Are you serious, Slip?" Falco asked. Fox saw on his radar that Slippy was already breaking off from the formation to pull away. "Are they being that sore of a loser!"

Without issuing the order all four Arwings put distance between themselves and the warship. Slippy continued to monitor the ship with his Arwing's sensors.

"And there it goes." Slippy said. Fox watched and the warship, now very far away with their Arwings nestled inside the debris field for safety, started to glow bright and hot before its port and starboard sides bowed out from an internal explosion. The ship's outer hull buckles and began to break away from the ship to reveal internal explosions echoing through its interior. Then the reactor blew and all four Arwings were momentarily blinded. When the four of them had their vision back they didn't see much left of the warship except a partially burned out husk. The two cruisers closest to the ship had visible heat damaged and scoring on the sides that had been facing the warship.

"I'm picking up radiation now. You all should be, too. Good thing were in Arwings and not standard make Cornerian fighters." Slippy added.

"Yeah." Fox agreed.

"Did they really have to do that?" Krystal asked. Fox could tell she was trying to deal with the reality of what she'd seen. As he thought about it he realized she'd only ever dealt with this kind of death when an enemy was fighting her in combat. Death was expected to come up in times like that. You or them, you know. But she'd never seen an enemy suicide themselves before.

"They didn't, but they did." Fox replied. She was quiet after that.

Six hours and a lot of recon later the Star Fox Team was nestled back inside the Great Fox to give a formal debriefing to the Cornerian military.

The working relationship that the Star Fox Team had with the Cornerian military was a good one. Most of the time when they dealt with the military it was positive to a fault. Smaller units or any unit with a lot of new recruits and rookies were sometimes awestruck just from seeing the Great Fox. Out of habit the team was always on its best, most dignified, behavior when they dealt with the military.

"McCloud, my recon teams are in agreement with your own assessment. It doesn't look like there's much left out there. They did find a stockpile of supplies embedded in the meteor they were holding up around, however." Commander Rothchild, the senior officer overseeing the group sent to assist the Great Fox, had boarded the Great Fox and was now meeting with the team in the ship's mess. The mess had been vigorously cleaned beforehand in anticipation.

"During the engagement we never did see any activity coming from any of the asteroids or meteors, but we also don't have the manpower to run searches like the Cornerian military can." Fox replied.

"Good thing our base was in the neighborhood then. I have to say, I accompanied the second recon team when they did their initial sweep. For four fighters you sure did a number on a superior force." The Commander added. Fox smiled and tried to shrug it off.

"We didn't do it painlessly. Our ships took some damage and we're now out a large chunk of our highest yield munition. This was neither a cheap nor easy mission to accomplish." Fox said. Krystal arrived from the kitchen with a cup of coffee for the Commander, who took it graciously.

"Thank you." the Commander nodded to Krystal. The canine blew on his cup before sipping at it. "May I ask who gave you the mission? You generally run sorties like this on Corneria's behalf, am I correct?"

"Usually, but not this time." Fox admitted. He was not about to describe the exact rhyme and reason for the Star Fox Team knowing where to go and what to expect, but he knew he couldn't get away without giving up some information. He could leave the Lokas out of the details and still make a believable story with genuine truths, even if they are half-truths.

"We ran a mission some weeks ago and we walked away with two disabled space fighters. They were Androssian fighters some mercs had stolen and started using. We were going to sell them for spare parts, but we found out there were some people looking for intact space fighters, and they were very very specific about what they were looking for." Fox started off by saying.

"Specific as in?" The Commander asked over his coffee.

"They were insistent about the fighters being of Venomian make." Fox said. The rest of the team of polite in their silence as they were letting Fox give the story. Fox knew that they would go along with whatever story he told the Commander. He'd had to lie before, sometimes it was critically essential to a mercenary.

"Really. Doesn't seem awfully bright." The Commander replied. Everyone, of course, agreed with the Commander.

Fox had to do his best to explain in plain language the basics of how they managed to pull off the mission, minus the sordid details of working with the Lokas to do it. It was easy to work the transmitter into the details. Between the wreckages of the six fighters that were recovered there was no way to tell which two were the ones that had been sold to the Lokas. Likely they'd never know, but now it didn't matter.

The Commander had been impressed by their work and made it a point to mention that he would include a copy of Fox's report with his own when the operation was concluded. The brought Fox a lot of relief. The Commander had been very gracious and grateful that a band of Andross' loyalists had been eliminated. The fact they'd been so close to their base of operations in the area seemed to unsettle him.

"Fox, we've been given the all clear from Commander Rothchild. We're good to go as soon as his crew has finished loading the salvage into the Great Fox." Peppy told him. Fox had retreated to the bridge and his command chair after their meeting with the Commander. He'd looked over his report again to commit it better to memory, then he start sifting through the supplies they'd used for the mission and would need to use just to patch themselves up now that it was all said and done.

They were down six bombs from the Armory. They had enough replacements to give both his own and Falco's Arwings a single bomb. Each Arwing could carry a bigger payload than the two they'd had originally, but times were leaner and they couldn't rely on the Cornerian military to throw them whatever munitions they needed. High yield warheads did not grow on trees, unfortunately.

His Arwing had taken some serious damage after Slippy and R.O.B. had a chance to look it over. The shrapnel damage had been more severe than he first thought. The Arwing was still running fine, but only because most of the major system had avoided being peppered with the shrapnel. In order to fix the damage Slippy was going to have to put in a lot of hours and maybe even recruit R.O.B. to help. Slippy hadn't figured out the full extent of the damage, but he was sure he'd have to compile a list of parts to replace that they didn't already have on hand.

Falco's and Slippy's Arwings had taken some damage, but not as bad as Fox's. Krystal Arwing had mercifully taken almost no beating whatsoever. She'd come out as clean as she had entered. Luck like that seemed to rotate through the team with each of them having their turn to walk away spotless.

"Do we know what they are loading us up with?" Fox asked. "I've not seen any kind of report."

"Well, I think they are trying to avoid dealing with it themselves. I guess they haven't the room to pile up a bunch of blown up ships. You didn't leave a whole lot intact out there." Peppy replied. From his seat at the bridge he looked over a document on his tablet. "I don't think they are even trying to do a proper list, Fox. I see a list of generic items being given to us. Damaged goods, misc. Damaged supplies, non-essential. Wreckage, non-regulated."

"So they are using us as a garbage truck?" Fox laughed.

"Maybe. Slippy sent me a message that they are shoving the Great Fox full of what looked like wrecked fighters and probably pieces of some of those cruisers. I think the only thing the military is really pouring over is that warship. Don't know why since the self-destruct pretty much left it as junk." the hare said.

"I won't ask too many questions if they don't. Whatever they give us is just money in our pocket." Fox replied back. Peppy just nodded and turned his attention back to his own reports. Fox would look over their supplies on his own, but he always left it to Peppy to do an actually tally of what was used and what was needed. He was good at it and didn't mind putting in the work and brainpower.

"Pep, I'm going to go grab a small drink and try to rest some. You think you have things covered?" Fox asked. He was giving up on working. The only thing he really wanted was a little time to unwind.

"Sure thing, Fox. I'll let you know if anything comes up." the hare replied. "We all did good work today."

Fox nodded and agreed. He felt his back pop several times when he stretched. He really needed to relax. The corridor leading to the mess was empty and quiet with everyone off doing their own thing. Peppy was of course on the bridge and Slippy had recruited Falco to help in the hangar bay as the Cornerians loaded the Great Fox up with everything they didn't want to deal with. He didn't know where Krystal was, but he was likely to find out eventually since they shared the same quarters.

One shot of whisky later and walk to his quarters he was laying in bed shirtless and feeling a lot more comfortable. Somewhat more comfortable. There was no way for him to escape his work as his mind was now going over what was next on the agenda. They'd have to set out to return to Belter Sol. They have more salvage and maybe cargo to offload and they needed a resupply. Might even need time to sit in the docking bay just to let finish Slippy go over the Arwings.

He ran his hand over his face a few times. There was a lot of work to do, he figured. If the Cornerians weren't bothering to keep any kind of real tally on what they were giving the Star Fox Team then that meant that they would have to. He hated that part of the job so much, but he doubted Slippy and Peppy could do it alone and it wouldn't really be fair to make them.

The door slid open and he almost jumped from his spot. "Did I spook you?"

"Never." Fox replied to the vixen entering the room with the door swishing shut behind her. Her presence relaxed him back into the bedding.

He watched her unzip and shrug off her jacket. She was careful to hang it up in their closet along with the skirt she had been wearing. He whistled at her once she was left in only her bodysuit. She smiled and stuck her tongue out at him.

"You feeling ok?" She asked him and sat down next to him on the edge of the bed.

"Tired, you?" He asked back.

"Maybe a little. Optimistic, too." She said.

"About?" He was curious. She looked thoughtful for a moment before turned and laying back onto the bed so her head came to rest on his chest.

"Everything seems to be going so well. We're going to have to go back to Belter Sol and sell all this stuff the army is giving us. Then maybe we can get more work and keep everything going right along." She explained herself.

"Military. They like being called the military out here. The Army is ground troops stationed on Corneria." He corrected her. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm just feeling good, better now, than I was." She ignored his correction and continued on. "How do you feel, Fox?"

How did he feel? He'd not been letting himself think too much on it, really. He'd absorbed himself in other tasks and responsibilities. It was easy to let your thoughts wander away from something when you could keep yourself well occupied. They talk about idle hands, but an idle mind can be much worse.

"I guess I'm ok. Things might turn out good." He said, but that wasn't a very satisfactory answer to the vixen. She sat up to pull her legs up onto the mattress. Krystal made sure she was facing him.

"Let's talk." She said.

"I thought we were?" he said, confused.

"We're going to have to go back to Belter Sol." She repeated herself. He looked at her, then nodded. "You ok with that?"

He tried to smile, but the mission, the knowledge of the work he'd be doing soon, everything, just made him feel too tired to muster up an authentic expression.

"You're catching me at my worst for serious conversations, you know?" He said. Krystal reached back behind her and stretched her back. Fox could hear her spine pop. They both had a bad habit about that.

"And I'm at my worst, too. We were flying the same mission, after all." She reminded him. He did remember.

"A mission you flew back from with almost no damage! You ought to be feeling ready for another mission." He told her. She smiled back at him with a narrowing gaze. The vixen turned and let herself fall backwards onto the bed so she lay beside him. Her legs stretched out and she dangled her feet off the edge of the mattress to keep her boots off the bedding.

"Well maybe I do, Fox McCloud." The vixen replied. He watched her reach up and unclip the fastener around her neck. The glossy material of her bodysuit relaxed around her neck and collarbone. Krystal traced her hands down her chest until she was rubbing her thumbs around the circumference of her nipples. She was looking at him silently but with a hint of mischief in her eyes.

"Seems like you are." He told her. Fox kicked off his own boots one after the other as he watched Krystal relax next to him with her hands now massaging her breasts. He sat up tossed his jacket to the floor, then stood. She watched him pulled off his vest, but by the time he'd gotten down to his belt buckle she had sat up and beckoned him to step closer.

She crawled to him and sat with her legs under her at the edge of the bed. They shared a kiss as he let her undo his belt and pants. He felt her hand insert itself through his opened fly and she was exploring his soft cock with delicate fingers. She hummed into their kiss before breaking away.

"Think you're ready for another mission, Fox?" She asked him huskily. He grinned at her in reply.

"Always." He said. Fox grabbed her by the shoulders and ran his hands down to where the narrow zipper rested over her sternum. She let him unzip her all the way down to the base of her ribcage before stopping him. Holding onto his shoulders she pulled herself up to her knees and tugged his head into her exposed tits. Fox pulled the material off her shoulders and the top of her bodysuit fell to her waist. "Your boots are on the bed."

"Since when do you care?" she pointed out. He chuckled between her tits in reply. He rubbed his face deeper into her fur and wrapped his arms around her. Fox felt her fingernails run and dance up and down the center of his back, then up until she could ruffle the fur on his head.

Fox kissed her again and finished pulling her zipper down to her crotch. A muffled gasp escaped her lips when his hand reached in to cup itself over her mound. A finger slipped in and her hands gripped his head tighter as she intensified their kiss. A second finger and she giggled.

He couldn't resist and slipped his other hand around and let it trace down her hand until the base of her fluffy tail was resting between his fingers. He struggled with the fastener that locked her tail in the bodysuit before finally popping it free just as he was finished sticking a third finger into her cunt. Krystal was passionately tonguing his mouth.

Krystal yipped briefly when the hand at her tail nestled its way between her asscheeks to find her pucker. Every since that last visit with the Lokas Fox had... learned to take advantage of her backside. It had started as an act of jealousy, but she'd taken to it so eagerly that it became a normal part of their sexplay. He shoved two fingers in her and tugged up. His vixen made more noise, feminine and eager, as her asshole was pulled open by his digits.

He broke the kiss and look her in the eyes. Her eyes were locked onto his and were hungry for him. He pulled his hands free, which made her eyes widen from the suddenness of it, then he shoved her backwards with both hands on her hips. Krystal fell back, said nothing, and he watched her as she slid her legs toward him so she was laid out in front of him on the bed.

He grabbed her right foot and pulled the boot off and tossed it aside, then moved over to the other foot to do the same. Leaning over her he grabbed ahold of the flexible but sturdy material of her suit and tugged it down her legs with the torso squirming and wriggling to help him. Her form was so serpentine as she rocked her hips back and forth to let the tight material inched down her legs.

Krystal kicked her legs out of the suit and let her thighs fall to the side. With her left spreadeagle for him, Fox knelt down and tugged her across the bedding until her butt was at the edge. He kissed her above her mound then tip toed his lips down until he found her petals. He saw her legs lift in his periphery vision then felt her thighs settle themselves over his shoulders. She wrapped her legs behind him just as he got started dining.

Fox groped his hands over her stomach. Her hands found his own and pulled them up to her tits. The squishy soft orbs compressed under his hands as her squeezed and kneaded them. He could hear her breathing up above him as her fingers and toes stretched and splayed out in a pleasured response.

He loved this so much. Having her at his mercy, making her pant and moan for him. It was a much needed ego boost for her to let him take her. Too many times he'd had to see get taken, truly taken, by someone else. Here in the Great Fox, however, she belonged to him and she squirmed for him on command.

The hand that found the top of his head let him know she wanted more. He looked up to see her biting her lower lip. Fox pushed her thighs aside to the the bed. He tugged himself free of his pants and spared no time for foreplay. His blue vixen yipped for him at his sudden entry. Her folds encased him from tip to base. Her body was warm and soft, but lacking in the tightness he was used to, but he was coming to grips with that. His thrusts came quickly and easily in her.

Her pussy clenched and he felt the walls of her cunt grip him tight with the action. He grunted for her, and her whined for him, and her pussy clenched again in a steady rhythm she'd clearly been practicing just for him.

Krystal, his vixen, had no choice but to practice it. She'd been hollowed out by the Lokas on Belter Sol so much she wasn't tight for him anymore. He leaned over her and fucked her harder. He nosed at the fur of her neck and her hands traced around behind him to find his rear. She clawed and groped him as her cunt worked at milking his cock. She was slick and slippery with his shaft adding his pre to her own body's lubricant. With every flex of her pussy he felt that heavenly sensation of delicious friction rub up and down his pistoning stick.

He growled possessively into her neck and she purred back in response. Her hand grabbed him at the base of his tail and started tugging. Her pulling at him was like a message to go deeper, to go harder. He knew he wasn't fucking her as hard as she'd become used to. He held her tight around the waist and thrust harder. He wanted to cum already, but he let his teeth clench tight. His rapid breathing wasn't helping, he felt so close but he wanted to last!

Fox felt her jerk under him. She, too, had clenched teeth and pursed lips. Her heard her whine from behind her teeth until she finally opened her mouth and grabbed him by the back of the head. His heart was racing right along with her climax and he fought to hold on a little longer. He was going to fuck his vixen through her climax. He could still do that! She was going to cum for him, and she did! Her pussy clenched and held down on his dick, a steady constant vice grip that finally forced him over the edge.

He pumped her full and Krystal giggled and panted hard in reply. She didn't stop clenching either. Fox felt her cunt remain tight right up until he finally went soft inside her.

"I needed that." She whispered. They both relaxed against each other. With a little effort Fox lifted up off his vixen and they shared a glance, then a kiss. The look in her eyes was priceless, a little dreamy. It made him feel good, and he was sure she could feel it, too.

"Me, too." He told her. They spent a few minutes together before Fox finally pulled himself free. He couldn't help but look down at his handy work. Sure enough a small amount of his seed was leaking from her lips. It felt good to see her cunt leaking something that was his. It wasn't as much as he now wished it was, but Fox didn't think he would ever find a way to compete with the Loka's output. Biology had given him a low score on the card, but it was funny. He'd never worried about his performance, his produce, or anything like that before. Krystal cupped his face then with both hands.

"Don't forget us ladies like to go more than once." she whispered to him. His vixen spread her legs out like she was doing the splits. Her long legs lay straight out in line with the edge of their shared bed. Spread like that, drooling his cum, Fox felt good. They'd done a damn fine job today out in the field. Admirable work, honestly. He was Fox McCloud, so why would he have expected less.

Her hands slid to his ears and he felt the gentle pull of her arms. Fox could perform just as well here as he could out there. The centre stick of his Arwing wasn't the only thing he know how to wield. Krystal brought his lips down to her cunt and without pause he ate her. He looked up and watched her eyes close whilst she began to nibble at her lip once more. Let's see how many times his vixen could go for, he thought to himself.

AUTHOR's Request! - Please do comment on how you thought my attempt at space combat turned out. I'd greatly appreciate some critique there.