Post Assault (Working Title | Mild language)

[Icy]

Hey, all. I started a new Star Fox fanfic. I plan to go very far with this. I have so many ideas and I hope I can make it as epic as it's building up to be. It takes place after Assault, ignoring Command ever happened/will happen. It deals with what happened after Assault. If you remember, a lot of things happened that didn't really get an explanation and left it up to the player, then promptly butchered it in Command. Pepper was almost killed. Peppy wasn't actively participating in their missions (in an Arwing) the Great Fox was destroyed, Star Wolf's fate, and on and on. I'm going to tie up some loose ends, explain some things, go into some psychological stuff as well. The "canon" I'm creating with it will tie-in to the prologue of my fan game(s) as well. But I'm not ready to show off anything on them yet. I have big plans, though. Not the typical "im making a sf fan game :DDD" *6 months later* "oh nvm its not going to work sorry lol" Just so you know. Not telling you to get your hopes up, either. More info will come later this year.

Anyway, so here you have the first two chapters. The first one, I know, is probably a little cliché and cheesy, but whatever. I'm not finished editing what I already have written, either. I'll probably touch up these two chapters eventually.

But anyway, for now, here you have it. I'd like some opinions. Thanks!

ACT 1

THE ASHES

1

Snap! I feel the pain in my neck. It's excruciating, but necessary. I really damaged it back in the Aparoid homeworld. Now I have to wear a neck brace for who knows how long. Any time I even so much as touch it, it does this. I don't think it's anything serious, but I don't even really care, honestly.

But of course, what we did back in their homeworld was worth any kind of neck pain. I would've given my life to see the Aparoid Queen and her disgraceful imitations gone forever. And that is what happened in the end. And, boy, am I glad it's over. It has been a rough couple of weeks for me and my team, not to mention the innocent residents of the Lylat System. They did nothing wrong, but they were punished. Why? Why punish them, torture them? I cannot help but feel like I could've done more. The war is over. Now. But what about the many innocent people who were hurt, even killed, all due to this “war�

My thoughts are interrupted by Krystal's voice. She's at the door, saying, “Are you okay, Fox?â€

I shrug and reply with a simple, “Yeah,†and then stand up and walk over to her, as she, in turn, comes closer to me as well.

“I… I really want you to know, Fox…â€

“Know what?†I ask in a very faint whisper. It's like my whole voice has disintegrated. This always happens when I'm this close to her.

“You know what,†She looks at me and sighs, looking down at her feet, continuing, “we just never say it.â€

“I know, but isn't that typical?â€

“Maybe, but we aren't typical!†She blurts out, as if she expects me to completely understand this.

“I know, I know. We're not typical at all. But does it matter? We both know what we… feel… for each, uhm, other.†I hesitate, hoping she will break the silence. She doesn't. “Right?â€

She looks back up at me, right at my eyes. I stare into hers. I want to hold her, tell her everything is okay. Everything is okay. Finally, everything is. Then why are we in here feeling so miserable? Krystal told me, back in the Aparoid Homeworld, that if I went down, she could never live with herself. Knowing she could've done more. She told me again and again, quietly, right before the countdown to enter their orbit. She said she would do everything possible to keep me alive, because as long as I was alive, no matter her fate, everything would always be okay. For everyone. I wanted to tell her the same, but would that have been the truth? In the end, the final fight with the Aparoid Queen, she was nearly killed right there. I was in a perfect position to interfere. Protect Krystal, sacrifice myself for her. But no, she made it out alive. We all did. There were no casualties in there. Only Aparoids. So why is this all going through my mind again? I didn't try to save Krystal, at that key moment, when I could—and should—have. She may have made it out alive, perfectly fine. Not even a scratch, but what if she hadn't? What if I were here, at this very moment, mourning over losing her? Realizing I could have saved her. She would probably be doing the same thing, though, if she were alive and I were dead…

All this goes back through my mind, in an endless loop, until, probably 5 minutes later, she speaks up.

“Yeah. Right, Fox.†She, once again, looks down at the floor, and continues, “I just came here to let you know that what I said earlier… I meant every word of it.â€

My turn. Is it the truth, though? “I know. I love you, Krystal. I would do anything for you. You don't ever have to question that. Ever.â€

She stays quiet, as expected. I mean, how do you respond to that?

“Look, we all made it out. It's all good. No worries,†I'm not sure what to say next. Why am I even saying this? Half of what I've said to her tonight didn't really have anything to do with, well, anything. Nevertheless, I find myself continuing, “Everything's fine. Just put it all out of your mind, try to forget. It's not easy, but you have to try. Promise me you'll try.â€

Another moment of silence, then, “I promise. But only if you do too.â€

“I promise… of course I do.†There's nothing left to say. So we just sit across from each other, motionless. It's dark in the room. We're in a bunker down on Corneria. The Great Fox is gone, of course. A terrible shame, but again, a necessary one. Even that static, inanimate object made a sacrifice for the good of the Lylat System. I think of R.O.B., Slippy, General Pepper, and Peppy, all huddled together in some command room, coming up with various ideas for a new one.

The lights flicker. I'm not sure why that happened, but I doubt it's anything serious. The power has been off-and-on ever since the Aparoid attack on Corneria. The one that nearly killed General Pepper. Damn, what would I do without him? He's been like an uncle. Giving me my missions, money, funding for all our ships, repairs, everything we needed. I was faced with a terrible dilemma here, aboveground, just mere weeks ago. I should have been ready to kill him. He was out of control, but I could not bring myself to ever fire , knowing there was a good chance of injuring him. Not even the Aparoids could corrupt that mindset. I shot at his ship anyway. It finally crashed down in the middle of the city. Peppy was ready to sacrifice himself for Pepper.

He took matters into his own hands, jumping into his own Arwing and flying down to catch Pepper's corrupted, crashing ship.

So technically, I really did kill Pepper. If not for Peppy he would be dead, and it would have been because of me.

No, not because of me. Because of the Aparoids. They infected him, his ship. It wasn't me. But I very nearly killed him. That is no joke. It's as serious as it gets. Ugh, why is it so hard to understand these things? I know no one blames me for anything, but I almost want them to. I need someone to blame me. I need someone to share my guilt. I feel guilty, constantly. I know I have made bad decisions over the years. But every mission has always been successful. That's something even my father could not claim.

Everyone says he would be proud of me, and surprisingly, that is one thing I actually agree with. I know he would be as proud of me as anyone could be of anyone. I've exceeded everyone's expectations of what I would do as the team leader. I've taken risks, done things that seemed crazy at the time. I only do these things when they are necessary.

I've found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything for too long, ever since my mission on Sauria. The planet where I met Krystal. Everything just becomes too foggy and overwhelming for me. I can't concentrate on all my guilt, on all that's happened anymore. I return back to the present. Krystal is still looking at me, probably trying to read my thoughts. And who knows, maybe she can? She is somewhat of a telepath… I think. As much as I love her, as much as I did for her on Sauria, I barely know anything about her. I really only know where she's from, I have a basic idea of what happened to her homeworld. I know Andross needed her for something back on Sauria. I went to insane lengths to save her. I could've walked away from that Krazoa spirit, when it asked me to save her. At the time I had no idea how important she actually was to the mission, but me being the stupid teenager I was at the time, was mesmerized by her beauty. I did everything it took to save her. In the end, I did save her. I foiled General Scales's plans and “killed†Andross yet again. I haven't seen him or heard anything of either of them since. And I am very glad for that.

I find myself gradually leaning my head closer to hers. She's doing the same. I know it's coming, but even so, it surprises me. The warmth spreads over my entire body. I never want this to end, but it does, too quickly. I want more, she does too. More than just a kiss. And a short, sweet, one at that. But no, not now. It would figure. My neck practically detaches itself from my head. Damn. Now? There's no emergency, no briefing to attend, no one to go see, talk to, no suspicious incident to investigate. No. It's my neck. We have all the time in the world to do whatever we want, learn about each other, and I can hardly move a muscle. Great. What did I even do to it back there?! It's no use trying to fight the pain. It stings terribly. I can't help but cry out in pain multiple times, as the spasms come and go.

Krystal looks at me sympathetically, she whispers to me that she will go get some things to help me. In the meantime, she tells me to just lie down on one of the bunks and keep still. I obey, because, really, what else am I going to do at the moment? I just want to be with her. We're in the recovery period. There shouldn't be any big threat to the Lylat System anytime soon. Of course, these things can happen anytime. Needless to say, we're in no position to move out on a second's notice. Corneria barely has enough defenses to maybe, (and this is a big maybe) possibly counter a random attack. I guess we will all just hope nothing happens until we all have a chance to recover some.

Krystal comes back into the room, holding a bowl of steaming soup, a first-aid kit, and some napkins.

She sets the bowl on a small night stand by the bed. I hold it up to my lips and take a few sips, without a spoon. What's funny, is that it actually helps ease the pain, both mentally and physically.

She sits down on the side of the bed. She gently strokes my hair. I gradually finish the soup, one sip at a time. I then inhale all the various noodles, chew and swallow them, and put the bowl back on the night stand. I then, whether I like it or not, let my head fall to the pillow. I'm so tired. I've had a very long, exhausting day. Earlier I was mostly in and out of the hospital, everyone was. Taking various tests to make sure of this, that, and if this worked with that, and that hopefully that was not really this, and this, that, this, that.

Krystal gently lies down beside me. She looks me in the eyes once again. It's just so amazing to have her by my side. Life literally is not worth living without her. I want to tell her this, but I'm just too tired. The last thing I see before I drift into a deep, pleasant, sleep, are her beautiful blue eyes, looking intently, right at me. I don't know exactly what she's thinking, but, well, I don't know. I know I love her, and that as long as she is here with me, I'll never need anything but her.

2

When I wake up, I'm not sure what time it is. There's no clock in the room, but I know I must've been asleep for a while, because Krystal is nowhere to be seen, the bowl is gone, and the room looks perfectly clean, even though last night it was pretty… untidy. The first aid kit is also gone, and I notice some new bandages on my head.

My neck isn't really feeling terrible at the moment, so I decide to go up to the bunker's command center. I'm not sure why I go, but it's probably the only thing to do besides wander around the many halls. I want to go aboveground, outside, but I'm not sure if we're allowed to yet. So going to command is probably a good idea.

I walk out of my room and down the halls until I arrive at the main elevator. I press a button to make it come down, wait a few minutes, and then step in. I hit the button marked “Command Center†and stand inside motionless as it rides up the many floors to the large, triangular room.

Finally, the elevator stops, the doors open, and I step out into a small secretary's office. Normally there would be someone in here, but I guess things are too busy, or there just aren't enough people left around to take the job right now. The door leading to the main command center is wide open. I hear voices talking inside. I make my way over to the door and stand to the side, listening to them. Even though the door is open and I could just walk right in.

General Pepper and a CDF Lieutenant are conversing inside.

I focus in on their words in time to hear, “…but mainly things are okay for most of the population.†Okay. So?

“What about the CDF? How many men are we talking here, General? The Lieutenant asks.

I hear the General reply, “We're not sure, exactly, but we do have a rough figure. So, roughly? About 13 million.â€

This apparently astonishes the Lieutenant. He immediately shouts, “What?! And how many were we supposed to have in the entire CDF before the attacks? Wasn't it, like, 15 million?â€

“17.3 million men were enlisted in the Cornerian Defense Force. It took a terrible blow and we are not entirely sure what to do.â€

“My God… suppose someone attempts even a relatively small-scale attack on Corneria right now? We don't have enough men and we definitely don't have time to order reinforcementsâ€

Yeah, suppose that does happen. What would we do? Go down with a fight, but honestly, there is no way Corneria could survive through even a small attack, assuming the weapons the attackers would use were powerful enough. Even Star Wolf could completely wipe out Corneria right now. The CDF has never been in a worse situation, if these figures are correct.

I decide it's time to quit eavesdropping. I walk directly into the large room, and I say, loudly, “Then we better hope no one attacks us.â€

Pepper and the Lieutenant are both taken aback, that I am here and that I overheard them. But they seem to realize they were being careless if they expected to keep this conversation a secret, what with no secretary, the door wide open. Pepper recovers first and replies to me with, “Yes, I suppose so. We don't know exactly what we'll do yet, but we have been getting a lot of volunteers ever since you took out the Aparoids, and there isn't any real threat to Corneria that we know of right now.†He looks at me, “We'll get through this, just as we have recovered from every other crisis Corneria has faced.â€

I nod my head, then say, “I sure hope so, General. I'll do anything I can to help, you know.†He nods to me as well. “Thank you, Fox. We may just need you. We'll let you know.â€

“By the way, where's Peppy, Slippy, Falco, do you know where they are?â€

“They're aboveground, assessing the damage to the Arwings, and repairing them.†He pauses for a moment, then continues, “We came up with some designs for a new mothership last night. You should look at them with the rest of the team later.â€

“Okay, thanks. I will.†Is my reply. “So is it safe up there now?†I say, referring to the surface of Corneria.

“Yes, pretty much. It's spotty. Some places are safe, some aren't.â€

I start to say something, but he cuts me off, continuing again, “But yes, you can go right up to the main building and outside. Everyone from your team is out there looking at the Arwings, as I said before.â€

“Alright, thanks a lot, Pepper. Just tell me if you need anything. I'll be out there with everybody else.â€

I linger in the command center for a few minutes, looking around at the various gadgets, papers, reports. The damage to Corneria is, indeed, very bad and extensive.

I finally make my way back to the elevator, and as I do, I hear them continuing their conversation. This time I tell it to go up to the main building on the surface.

When it arrives, I step out and walk through the building I'm in until I come to the main doors to go outside. I open one and immediately, it's like I'm in another world. It's such a beautiful place. So much different from the dark reaches of space, where all there is to see are bright little stars contrasted by pitch black space. It's a nice feeling too, but this. This, you just can't beat. The wonderful green leaves on the amazingly healthy brown trees. All the wonderful green grass. The beautiful dirt, even. The colorful sky with the clouds slowly, constantly, moving, on a journey they will never truly complete. I could stay on the surface of Corneria forever. I envy the innocent citizens who get to live here all their life.

I finally take a few steps out into the open world before me. I can see what General Pepper was talking about. Some parts of the sky have smoke slowly rising into oblivion. Fires off in the distance. Some of the smoke looks different. Possibly pollution. I did read a little about that in the many reports back in the command center. Directly in front of me is the beautiful Corneria I know and love, but off to either side there is death, destruction. This base was not even touched in the attacks. It was protected by an experimental technology they never had a reason to use until the attacks. But everywhere else? Or rather, everywhere the Aparoids decided to attack… they didn't fare so well.

I follow the path that probably leads to the repairs building. I look left and right, at all the terrible things that surround me. I know I want to help repair all the damage. Help the loyal and innocent people who lived here get back to their homes. These are certainly trying times for them. Corneria has nearly arrived at the breaking point. A lot of people probably already are broken. Nothing to live for, you know how it goes. I want—and need—to show them that all is not lost. Life can and will return to normal, eventually. It's just so hard to get through. You know things will work out eventually, but how long is eventually? How hard is it to make it to eventually? Usually very long, years. And it's almost always extremely hard to make it through these times. I know some will, after a while, break down. I only wish I could help them see. But whether I help with the cleanup or not, it will still happen.

I finally make it to the building holding our Arwings and whatever little pieces we recovered from the wreckage of the Great Fox. Just for the memories, I guess. R.O.B., Falco, Slippy, Peppy, and Krystal are all there. I find myself wondering what happened to Star Wolf. Did they really make it all the way back out of the Aparoid homeworld? I somehow hope they did. As much trouble as they've given us over the years, they're still almost like friends. Well, Wolf is… to me, almost. I remember what he told me weeks ago, here on Corneria.

“Don't hesitate. When the time comes, just act.â€

It proved to be good advice. The Aparoid Queen started imitating my various friends. Alive or dead. It didn't matter. I hesitated when she impersonated my father, James. That was when I understood Wolf's advice. I couldn't hesitate, I had to act. So I did. We destroyed their entire homeworld. I thought things would go back to normal as they usually do after a mission, but that wasn't going to happen. No, things aren't normal. The Great Fox is gone. Peppy is getting older, Pepper was nearly killed. Corneria is in ruins. Is there any hope? Yes, there is hope, but it's taking its sweet time to show itself.

[thunderflare]

This is great, sorry I'm at a lose for words.

I can't weight for the rest.

[sroberson]

Awsome man, just got into StarFox fanfiction myself. Keep up the writing! I haven't been able to find many stories that finish through and through and your story has a bit more a bitter 'humanity' to it that relates better than the other stories with perfect situations.

Just don't botch the ending, too many stories out there end with Fox and Krystal not together >=/

[Icy]

Thanks, thunderflare.

Awsome man, just got into StarFox fanfiction myself. Keep up the writing! I haven't been able to find many stories that finish through and through and your story has a bit more a bitter 'humanity' to it that relates better than the other stories with perfect situations.

Just don't botch the ending, too many stories out there end with Fox and Krystal not together >=/

Thanks! I agree. I like to see a little more gritty reality in books, and of course fanfiction. I'm going for what you're anticipating, and I do intend to finish this thing sooner or later. I write fast, too. A lot of stories on FF.net that are "completed", I notice were started like 2 years before the completion date. I expect to have this done in a couple of months, and there should be three "Acts" translating to about 30 chapters.

I'll post a couple more chapters tomorrow. Need to finish up a little editing and overall just finish the next two.

[sroberson]

Hey, take your time! If you can get something out that's relatively long and good than you get some internet points from me at least.

I feel like its a crying shame that Nintendo hasn't followed through with more real Star Fox games and franchise so i've been filling that void with fanfiction. Some good, some bad, some bizarre, but I enjoy them none the less. The problem I have found though is that several of the good ones that I enjoy cut out in the middle of a story (or at least I feel that way) and I keep getting this feeling to petition the authors of those stories until I realize they last posted the stories in 2008 or so.

[Peter]

This is great! I am writing one of my own (about halfway done), and I like how you used first person in this. I could never really grasp the technique of writing in first person, but you captured it perfectly. Good job!

[thunderflare]

I forgot to add this, this is alot better then anything SF command gave use,(I thought SF command was the worst in the series) also I do agree with sroberson Fox and Krystal need to be together at the end.

[sroberson]

Peter, I started skimming over the fanfiction you have (I am assuming you wrote it), I love the shout out you made in chapter 5 about the Star Fox/Wolf team wildly refuting the accuracy of Star Fox Command. I had a good chuckle reading over that. :)

[Peter]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I didn't really like Command, because of how somber and depressing almost all of the endings were. Besides, you can salvage a new game from only 2 of them. Anyways, I'm aiming to do little things like that throughout the story (eg. Peppy telling someone to "USE THE BRAKES!" as a refrence to Star Fox 64) to just add an appropriate amount of humor to it. Did you catch the "I AM THE GREAT LEON!" refrence? It's in there, close to the part you are talking about.

[sroberson]

Yeah I took note of a few references to the old SF64 ...I just found the part I mentioned earlier to be especially worth a good chuckle.

Actually, after the skimming I did it gave me some other ideas about a new story, post-Assault and replacing Command, but very slight possibility of replacing Command. The idea of bringing back certain characters had me thinking of the world of possibilities...I would attempt to write my own fanfiction but I will be frank, I am not a writer...and have seriously neglected the artistic side of my brain for several years now.

[Icy]

Okay, guys. This isn't about Peter's fanfics, this is one of mine, lol.

But I did have a look at the one in his signature and it looks good. Haven't had time to read much, though.

I will post the next few chapters very soon. It'll work better for me to post more than two for the next parts so that is the reason for the delay.

[sroberson]

Okay, guys. This isn't about Peter's fanfics, this is one of mine, lol.

But I did have a look at the one in his signature and it looks good. Haven't had time to read much, though.

I will post the next few chapters very soon. It'll work better for me to post more than two for the next parts so that is the reason for the delay.

Lol, sorry dude. My forum etiquette is atrocious. Looking forward to reading your next chapters!

[CrypticQuery]

[As Icy said, stay on topic please. ]

While I haven't got the chance to read through the full thing yet, the little I've skimmed tells me that this story will shape up to be something special. Congrats for summing up the courage to start this in the first place, and I hope to see more and read what is there when I get the chance. :D

[Icy]

I know, I'm terrible with deadlines/time estimates, etc. Things have been busy for me and I really haven't had a chance to write much.

I am back, though, and have the whole story thought out, as well as a new chapter written. I'll keep writing and edit the 3rd chapter and post some more this week.

I promise I'll have it finished in a couple of months. :P

[Thu'um]

dang icy.... i didn' know you were a writer.......

i'm looking forward to more of this, its excelent :)

[sroberson]

Ah! I figured you had abandoned this fanfic of yours. Good to see you are working on it again Icy!

[Icy]

Alright, so I didn't get it here in a week, but hey, whatever. I have the whole story in my head and am continuing writing it, but I don't have the next few chapters ready yet, but I'll get them done soon enough. (By July 1st, definitely).

Chapter 5 will start Act II, then Chapter 10 will start Act III and the story will end with 15 chapters. The last chapter will essentially be a prologue to the fan game I mentioned in the first post. More about that at a later date, though, as I already said.

The stuff about Cerinia is made up of course. I'm not going to do any "omg people are still alive from Cerinia!1 starfox adventures 2!!! ON CERINIA" so don't worry. I'll go a bit further into Krysal/Cerinia's background, but not much. I'll be using my universe for any SF fanfiction I write, so I want people to fill in some holes, first.

Didn't have too much time to make this chapter really neat or anything, so it might have a few errors or things that don't quite look right, but eh. I'll edit the entire story once it's finished and repost it, hopefully. I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to writing.

But I did promise this chapter last week, so here it is finally. Next few chapters will clear up some stuff from these last three.

Enjoy. And of course… comments!

………… and I know it's way too short. I'm sorry!!

3

I'm finally discovered, standing just outside of the building, by the large doors that are presently wide open.

“Hey, Fox! Come on over here. I haven't been able to see any of you since we arrived here, thanks to the stupid guards. We've got some catching up to do.†I suppose it's time I really do go inside, so I walk into the building, the smell of rusty metal, oil, lots of metal tools, metal, metal, metal. It smells just like a mechanic's shop, and I guess it's supposed to.

“Hey, Falco. Yeah, they have been a bit strict since we arrived. I'll have to tell them to lay off.†I wink at him and he smiles. I then say, “So what's going on here? Anything interesting?â€

The Arwings are all laid out here and there, some are supported by various metal parts, some are cut up with parts laying all around. They're works in progress, I guess.

The Great Fox had a huge repair shop with everything you could need to repair them on the fly. With that gone, it's going to take a while to get these back in working order. That just makes us even more vulnerable to an attack. Great.

Now, of course, the CDF does have all kinds of various ships and pretty much anything you could need, but they're in short supply. The CDF really took a hit, I guess. The Arwings are special fighter ships, originally designed by my father before Star Fox was around. Over the years we have upgraded them, completely rebuilt them. But the original design is still pretty much there.

So that's the reason why even R.O.B. is having a lot of trouble repairing the Arwings. The CDF just doesn't have the proper tools needed. In fact, they may not even look, or function, the same way after he's through with them. I guess it's the start of yet another change to Star Fox.

For the next few hours, I stay there and help out with the repairs as much as I can. There's chit chat here and there about various things, but mostly we stay quiet, probably all wondering the same thing… What happens now?

***

It's eight-o-clock when we finally decide to call it a night for repairs. We all walk back to the main doors in silence. We pause there for a moment to observe the sky, the trees, the terrible reality of what happened to Corneria.

After a few minutes of this, I go ahead and push open the doors, hoping everyone will follow me, but they don't. They all keep staring out at the destruction, the burning sky.

Falco, surprisingly, speaks up. “How are we going to get through this, Fox?â€

I reply, “Same way we always do,†I pause for a second to carefully choose my words. “We work together. We survive. We help everyone survive.â€

Krystal looks at me with a sad smile. Corneria isn't her home, but I guess she has grown to feel for it as we (Falco, Slippy, Peppy, and I) do. I can't help but wonder if she's thinking about her own planet, Cerinia. It was destroyed many years ago, taking her parents as well as 98% of the population. And considering it was a relatively small planet, well, that 2% wasn't many. They escaped in emergency transport ships, heading for the nearest planet, Sauria. Most of them crashed and blew up upon landing. No one knew why. Krystal managed to survive one of the crashes. How? Even she says she doesn't know. There could be other survivors, but it's unlikely. After the destruction of her homeworld, the CDF dispatched twelve squadrons to search for survivors in and around Cerinia, as well as near Sauria, but the search was futile.

When we rescued Krystal from Sauria, the CDF was amazed that there was a survivor. They questioned her for days, to be sure they knew everything about the disaster and the escape. Nothing came out of it, again. They even sent out more search parties to look in places they previously had not. Again, the search revealed nothing.

We then gave up all hope on ever finding any other Cerinian survivors.

I only hope that whatever happened to Cerinia… never happens to Corneria. That would be like taking away all the evidence of my father ever even existing. Corneria was his home, and it is mine as well. I lost my father to Andross years ago. The Great Fox was his home as well as Corneria. And we lost the Great Fox in the Aparoid Invasion… Corneria is all I have left of him, and I will not lose it.

“Come on, you guys, let's go get something to eat, then look at those new Great Fox designs.†I wink and gesture for everyone to go inside, still holding the door open.

This time everyone follows me. We walk inside, down the halls, and to the elevator. There, we go down to the main command center and talk to General Pepper and get the new Great Fox designs from him. We then call what is essentially the bunker's “room service†and order pizza to the lounge room on the bottom floor, where we finally all sit down and dig in, going over the blueprints and filling ourselves up.

After we finish eating, we continue to argue between different designs. Finally, Peppy speaks up.

“Alright, everyone. We all just can't agree on one of these,†He pauses and looks at me, continuing, “but then, why do we need to pick just one? Why don't we all try to come up with a design that fits in each thing we all like, and—“

I interrupt Peppy and speak up myself. “Honestly, I don't see any reason why we don't just rebuild it the same way it used to be…â€

Everyone seems to like this idea, but they're still hestitating.

“I mean, with a few adjustments here and there, of course.†Slippy looks anxious now. I'm sure he's ready to go start building something this instant…

I finish with one more thing. “Really, why should we completely overhaul it? Doesn't make sense to me.â€

“Same here, Fox.†Falco says in agreement, “I say we make it just like it used to be. And if General Pepper has a problem, well, it's our ship, after all.â€

With that, along with a few more minutes of chatter, Falco, Peppy, Krystal, Slippy, and I all say good night and head to our rooms.

Once I am in my own room, I let out a sigh. I never got a chance to talk to Krystal today. I really should have.

Oh well.

I turn off my lamp and try to go to sleep, thinking about the Great Fox… I did like some of the new ideas, but it just wouldn't be the same without the old look. I find myself thinking about flying an Arwing again… but I don't even really want to anymore. Not after all this…

I'm sure General Pepper will have a need for us to go up there soon anyway, though.

I wonder how long it will take for things to actually return to normal… Where will these latest events lead me? I wonder about Star Wolf. Did they survive? A part of me wants to go search for them, but I don't know why. I'm sure Wolf can take care of himself and his team, but I still wish I could do something… After all, if not for them, no one would even be here right now. The Aparoids would still be around, killing everything in their path. Wolf was ready to sacrifice his entire team to ensure we would get through to the Queen back on the Aparoid Homeworld. I can only hope—and I don't know why—that they didn't have to go that far.

[sroberson]

Just a few things caught my attention that could be fixed up a bit.

- The line where it describes Krystal coming to accept Corneria as her home "Krystal looks at me with a sad smile. Corneria isn't her home, but I guess she has grown to feel for it as we (Falco, Slippy, Peppy, and I) do." I feel like the parentheses might not be needed. For some reason when reading stories that are given a first person perspective parentheses just look a bit odd. It's as if, Fox in this case, is unaware of the way that his team members have come to accept Corneria as their home.

-I noticed you use the phrase "I guess" a lot in the story. Only one case it really stuck out to me (the part about how the CDF had been hit pretty hard). I am guessing you are wishing to create a setting where Fox is confused and not sure about how he feels or what to do next, which leads me to...

-Use of ellipses. I can see it a lot more in this section than in the previous one - which I again recognize as you trying to create a feeling of tension and internal conflict. I am actually guilty of using it too in what I was/am writing but it wasn't until someone else pointed out that I needed to scale it back a bit.

I have to laugh a bit about the backstory for Cernia that you created. One of my RP characters is based on the idea that there was another survivor who landed on Sauria so that was kind of cool. The exact details on the backstory seemed a little out of place giving exact percentages of the population that escaped. My thoughts were "How did they get those numbers of the original inhabitants of the planet? Did they find the ones that died on Sauria?"

I'm interested to see what you do with Star Wolf and how Star Fox comes to building their new Great Fox - that is, if you take the ship from Command anyways. It would be interesting to see how they change their minds from rebuilding the Great Fox to getting the Great Fox II. I can see some interesting emotional turmoil leading up to a splitting up that occurs in Command. But I guess you said you are completely disregarding Command....so disregard all that I said >_>

[Icy]

Thanks for all that, man. As I said, I didn't get to edit it as much as the previous two. I'll take your advice and edit it up a bit later on.

Yeah, I'm trying to put you into Fox's head, basically. I need to think a bit more about what exactly he can say without going away from the type of first person perspective I'm going for.

And alright, I will cut down on using ellipses. I noticed I was using them too much in this last chapter. So yeah, I agree.

Regarding Cerinia… In my universe, Cerinia isn't that far away from the rest of the Lylat System, and Sauria is fairly close to it. That may not line up perfectly with the canon, but meh. So Cerinia was in contact with Corneria often. Corneria is the biggest (population-wise) planet in the Lylat System, and most planets get their supplies from them, as well as reinforcements for their own armies, rescue, etc. So Corneria knew about the disaster on Cerinia and tried to help, but as Cerinia is very far away, even though it's "not that far away from the Lylat System" (as I said above) the CDF couldn't get there fast enough and so all the survivors (the 2% I mentioned in the story) were evacuated to Sauria, since it was so close. There, they would await further evacuation from the CDF, and be taken to Corneria. Buuut as we all know, Sauria was occupied by the Sharpclaw/General Scales/etc, and things didn't go as planned.

I have things planned for that for the fan game. You won't see any survivors or learn much more about Cerinia in this story, but in the story for the game you'll go to Sauria once more and learn a bit more about it all. But as I already said, no living survivors will ever be found because, well, Krystal is the only one and I think it should stay that way.

Lastly… Yep, I have some cool stuff planned for Star Wolf and the Great Fox within this story. Next couple of chapters will deal with Star Wolf, but that won't be the last you hear of them in this fanfic either.